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Moses is not the only one who invokes God as a witness against the people. Samuel will do the same thing when he gives his last discourse.
“For I proclaim the name of the LORD; Ascribe greatness to our God!”
Deuteronomy 32:3 NASB
Moses is elevating God’s status above himself and the people.
“The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.”
Deuteronomy 32:4 NASB
In Hebrew, the word perfect implies complete. It does not mean without flaw. There are a lot of things that God made that aren’t so good. I am not saying this to upset you but to make you think about something.
God put one tree in the Garden of Eden that we don’t like. We call it the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad. God’s work was complete and He is without iniquity, yet we see here that God made Bad. God made evil. He said that Himself. I am not putting words in God’s mouth; He tells us so:
“I am the one who has prepared light and made darkness, who makes peace and creates evils; I am the Lord who does all these things.”
Isaiah 45:7 New English Translation of the Septuagint
Nothing happens to us without His permission. Nothing. He has many tools at his disposal to shepherd us, including tools that hurt us.
When we read Deuteronomy 32, remember this is the God Moses is teaching about. Moses is warning the children of Israel that they will follow foreign gods and God will come down on them harshly for their sin. He gives us great blessings but if we rebel, God can also bring great discipline on us.
Moses wants them to memorize this song so they can remember who God is when they walk in righteousness and who God can be if they rebel against Him and walk in iniquity.
When the children of Israel chose to be vile and foolhardy, God will inflict armies from other nations who are vile and foolhardy to attack them.
When Moses warns that God will destroy them for their iniquity until there’s none left, that is when God will relent.
We don’t just need to remember to worship Him but to fear Him as well. We never want to be at the point where God says, “I am finished with you.”
When God “hides His face” He then shows us what will happen when He does that. He is showing them what will happen to them as a direct result of their refusal to memorize the truths of this song.
Affluence destroys people and nations. It produces lazy, self-absorbed, arrogant people, who don’t respond to sound teaching. The nature of struggle forces us to work for something and maintain it. Struggle encourages hard work, selflessness and humility.
“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?
“Indeed their rock is not like our Rock, Even our enemies themselves judge this.”
Deuteronomy 32:30–31 NASB
Israel realizes that their God should be better then their “gods” but they are weaker. The people of Israel should be able to discern their own failure and what actually caused it.
How does God respond when they realize this? God is watching this like a theater, like Elijah was mocking the prophets of Ba’al when they were calling on him. God is the only one who can rescue us. No one can rescue us from God’s hand except God Himself. There is no one who can take us out of God’s hand. If we are living in righteousness, that is a good thing. If we are living in iniquity, being in God’s hand doesn’t feel so good.
Enemies are those who provoke us to anger and God tells us that anyone who chooses to be His enemy, whether they are part of Israel or not, will face consequences.
“‘Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you, Let them be your hiding place!
‘See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.” (Deuteronomy 32:38–39 NASB)
Moses goes on to tell the children of Israel how important this song is. It is literally life or death for them. The entire song is important, not just a few verses that make us feel good.
(Moses) said to them, “Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law. For it is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life. And by this word you will prolong your days in the land, which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.”
Deuteronomy 32:46–47 NASB
This song is a complete unit.
“Be my witnesses; I too am a witness,” says the Lord God, and the servant whom I have chosen so that you may know and believe and understand that I am. Before me there was no other god, nor shall there be any after me.
“I am God, and besides me there is none who saves.
“I declared and saved; I reproached, and there was no stranger among you. You are my witnesses; I too am a witness, says the Lord God.
“Even from the beginning there is also no one who rescues from my hands; I will do it, and who will turn it back?:
Thus says the Lord God, the one who redeems you, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I will send to Babylon and stir up all who are fleeing, and the Chaldeans will be bound in ships.
“I am the Lord God, your Holy One, the one who exhibited Israel as your king.”
Isaiah 43:10–15 New English Translation of the Septuagint
There is only one God, not 10, 20, 30 gods. There is only one God who made both Israel and the gentile nations. All the people have a responsibility to not allow themselves to get “fat” and reject God.
Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers eat the sour grapes, But the children’s teeth are set on edge’? As I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore. Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.”
Ezekiel 18:1–4 NASB
If we don’t want to provoke or offend God, Ezekiel shows us how. Ezekiel quotes a proverb that the father commits a sin and the sons pay the penalty. Consequences of sin and penalty for sin are not the same thing.
Ezekiel 18 is one of the few chapters that corrects the philosophy that David made, not only with Uriah and Bathsheba but also how David dealt with Saul’s descendants (2Sam. 21).
David thought that offering up Saul’s grandsons to death to appease the Gibeonites was an appropriate punishment on Saul’s family for Saul’s ethnic cleansing of the Gibeonites, but after reading this text in Ezekiel, I now understand that God was so disgusted by what David had done, He simply backed away.
We also see a similar pattern in another story. When Israel, Judah and Edom had come together to fight Moab and the King Moab decided to sacrifice and burn his own crown prince on top of their city wall, in full view of everyone in the valley below. Wee read that the armies of Israel and Edom had backed away. They backed away, not because of fear or cowardice but because they were so disgusted by this grievous sin by the king of Moab, they didn’t want anything to do with them.
“But if a man is righteous and practices justice and righteousness, and does not eat at the mountain shrines or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, or defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman during her menstrual period — if a man does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, does not commit robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing, if he does not lend money on interest or take increase, if he keeps his hand from iniquity and executes true justice between man and man, if he walks in My statutes and My ordinances so as to deal faithfully — he is righteous and will surely live,” declares the Lord GOD.” (Ezekiel 18:5–9 NASB)
In this Torah portion, we see that God is fair and fully trustworthy. He doesn’t make mistakes. That is the faith that a righteous man relies upon for life. There are generations, as well as family line that go through periods of righteousness and evil. The evil generations are punished and wiped out but the next generations, when they repent, God brings back and restores.
Which generation do you want to join, either as a family or a nation? We all have to make that decision, on a continuous basis.
God gave our spiritual ancestors in Israel great, impossible gifts, and yet they rebelled and turn away from Him. When we realize that our false gods will not save us, that only He can save us, then God is ready to restore us and save us.
Banner Photo: Restoration of the icon of Tsarevich Dmitry, 2009. (Photo by Shakko via Wikimedia Commons)
Summary: Tammy