Joshua and Judges: Push to the Promised Land: Moses' departing song, part 3: Deu 32:1-43.

Title: Joshua and Judges: Push to the Promised Land: Moses' departing song, part 3: DEU 32:1-43.  

 

Announcements/opening prayer:

 

 

The folly of rebellion is proven by the purpose of God in punishing the rebellious generation, verses 19-33.

 

DEU 32:19 "And the Lord saw this, and spurned them Because of the provocation of His sons and daughters.

 

God rejected the children who practiced idolatry.

 

DEU 32:20 "Then He said, 'I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation, Sons in whom is no faithfulness.

 

To hide His face and then see the result implies a temporary period of time when God's protection will be lifted. During this time it is up to the false gods to do what Jehovah has been doing all along.

 

If we persist in pursing something other than God for happiness and fulfillment He will eventually allow us to overtake what we've pursued so as to discover that it doesn't.

 

DEU 32:21 'They have made Me jealous with what is not God; They have provoked Me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation,

 

The no-people and the no or foolish nation are the people not chosen by God and the nations who did not enjoy laws given directly from God and so they refer to the Gentiles.

 

It is easier to think this refers to the Gentile nations that would punish Israel for her apostasy, the Assyrians, Babylonians, and finally the Romans. And although this is undoubtedly connected they would not be a people provoking Israel to jealousy.

 

Paul directly interprets this passage as the calling of the Gentiles. It is not a rejection of every Jew, Paul is a Jew, but of the nation for a time.

 

ROM 10:19

But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? [sarcasm - they did know] At the first Moses says, "I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation, By a nation without understanding will I anger you."

 

ROM 11:11

I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.

 

So then we could say that this passage is a buried hint, like a tiny treasure, buried in the book of Deuteronomy and only known fully in the light of NT revelation.

 

EPH 2:12

remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

 

Paul states that the no-people and the no-nation were the Gentiles who, after Israel had completely rejected Christ, were called near.

 

DEU 32:21 'They have made Me jealous with what is not God; They have provoked Me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation,

 

The return of the seventy year captivity would find them turning towards severe legalism rather than returning to idol worship. Yet it is still a rejection of God. In legalistic Judaism the Jew turned from worshipping the graven image to worshipping his own ability and so-called righteousness. This would culminate in the rejection of Christ and the final destruction of the nation and the city. However, that does not mean, as Paul articulates so well in Rom 11 that they are rejected. The fulfillment of the covenant promises will be realized at the second coming of Christ and His Millennial reign.

 

The retribution against Israel moves into the foreground while the adoption of the Gentile world moves into the background.

 

DEU 32:22 For a fire is kindled in My anger, And burns to the lowest part of Sheol, And consumes the earth with its yield, And sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

 

Down to the lowest part of Sheol refers to judgment upon all who oppose Him and none will escape. There is nowhere to hide. This refers to all unbelievers and all evil people and groups and nations who actively seek to pervert truth and justice and along with Satan, destroy the things of God.

 

The words are not intended to foretell one particular penal judgment, but refer to judgment in its totality and universality, as realized in the course of centuries in different judgments upon the nations.

 

DEU 32:23 'I will heap misfortunes on them; I will use My arrows on them.

 

Arrows depict Jehovah as a warrior.

 

The focus in this song is always against those who are unbelieving Israel.

 

DEU 32:24 'They shall be wasted by famine, and consumed by plague And bitter destruction; And the teeth of beasts I will send upon them, With the venom of crawling things of the dust.

 

DEU 32:25 'Outside the sword shall bereave, And inside terror —  Both young man and virgin, The nursling with the man of gray hair.

 

The evils mentioned are hunger, pestilence, plague, wild beasts, poisonous serpents, and war.

 

Ezekiel, explaining to the captives in Babylon that yes, such destruction can come upon the chosen nation of God when they fall into such severe apostasy, took these four judgments and applied them to Jerusalem.

 

EZE 14:1 Then some elders of Israel came to me and sat down before me.

 

EZE 14:2 And the word of the Lord came to me saying,

 

EZE 14:3 "Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity. Should I be consulted by them at all?

 

EZE 14:4 "Therefore speak to them and tell them, 'Thus says the Lord God," Any man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the Lord will be brought to give him an answer in the matter in view of the multitude of his idols,

 

EZE 14:5 in order to lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel who are estranged from Me through all their idols."'

 

EZE 14:6 "Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord God," Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations.

 

EZE 14:7 "For anyone of the house of Israel or of the immigrants [foreigners] who stay in Israel who separates himself from Me, sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet to inquire of Me for himself, I the Lord will be brought to answer him in My own person.

 

EZE 14:8 "And I shall set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb, and I shall cut him off from among My people. So you will know that I am the Lord.

 

EZE 14:21 For thus says the Lord God, "How much more when I send My four severe judgments against Jerusalem: sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague to cut off man and beast from it!

 

EZE 14:22 "Yet, behold, survivors will be left in it who will be brought out, both sons and daughters. Behold, they are going to come forth to you and you will see their conduct and actions; then you will be comforted for the calamity which I have brought against Jerusalem for everything which I have brought upon it.

 

Ezekiel was exiled to Babylon in the first wave of three. These would come later and their conduct and actions would be in wicked evil works, showing Ezekiel that His judgment was not in vain.

 

EZE 14:23 "Then they will comfort you when you see their conduct and actions, for you will know that I have not done in vain whatever I did to it," declares the Lord God.

 

The comfort to Ezekiel is the revelation that God exiled and destroyed those of Israel who thoroughly rejected Him and accepted demons as lords and threw themselves into their immoral and cruel ways.

 

DEU 32:24 'They shall be wasted by famine, and consumed by plague And bitter destruction; And the teeth of beasts I will send upon them, With the venom of crawling things of the dust.

 

DEU 32:25 'Outside the sword shall bereave, And inside terror —  Both young man and virgin, The nursling with the man of gray hair.

 

DEU 32:26 'I would have said, "I will cut them to pieces, I will remove the memory of them from men,"

 

DEU 32:27 Had I not feared the provocation by the enemy, Lest their adversaries should misjudge, Lest they should say, "Our hand is triumphant, And the Lord has not done all this."'

 

God certainly didn't fear the wrath or provocation of the enemy, but He uses such a strong word here to depict how opposed He is to the enemy in any way being able to even indicate or hint that God's people couldn't see His covenant through to the end.

 

The meaning is, that the people would have deserved to be utterly destroyed, and it was only for His own name's sake that God abstained from utter destruction.

 

Yet the nation clearly does not deserve it as is stated in verse 28.

 

DEU 32:28 "For they are a nation lacking in counsel, And there is no understanding in them.

 

DEU 32:29 "Would that they were wise, that they understood this, That they would discern their future!

 

Apostasy is the result of lacking wisdom.

 

DEU 32:30 "How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their Rock had sold them, And the Lord had given them up?

 

If Israel were wise, it could easily conquer all its foes in the power of its God.

 

LEV 26:6

five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.