Deu 32:16-43 | KingComments | STEP | The answer to so much goodness is shocking – if we don’t know ourselves at all. Despite all God’s cares, provisions, and blessings, the people reject Him. They sink deeper and deeper into their revolt against God. After kicking to Him there is talk of forsake, scorn, neglect, and finally forget. Rebellion against God eventually leads to a state in which He no longer exists. Any bond with Him, the Rock Who has begotten them, is meaningless to them. Even the thought of the God who brought them forth is gone. Moses here compares God to a father (“begot you”) and a mother (“gave you birth”). This free fall of God’s people begins with enjoying the blessings without thanking God for it. The blessings are enjoyed, but the Giver is not involved. Complacency arises. It is the language of the church in Laodicéa: “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing” ( ). But the Lord had to withdraw Himself and to stand outside: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” ( ). Moses calls the people “Jeshurun” which means “sincere” or “upright”. God has given His people His own attributes. But instead of being a reflection of God, the people began to boast on their own righteousness. They have drawn all honor to themselves. Because man cannot do without an object of worship, they have fallen prey to idolatry. Instead of remaining faithful to Him Who has shown such faithfulness to them, they have turned to strange gods. That is extraordinarily offensive for Him. The sacrifices they bring to those gods are received by demons. An idol of wood or stone is nothing, but behind these dead materials truly living evil spirits are hidden ( ; ).

‏ Deuteronomy 32:16-43

The Ingratitude of Israel

The answer to so much goodness is shocking – if we don’t know ourselves at all. Despite all God’s cares, provisions, and blessings, the people reject Him. They sink deeper and deeper into their revolt against God. After kicking to Him there is talk of forsake, scorn, neglect, and finally forget. Rebellion against God eventually leads to a state in which He no longer exists. Any bond with Him, the Rock Who has begotten them, is meaningless to them. Even the thought of the God who brought them forth is gone. Moses here compares God to a father (“begot you”) and a mother (“gave you birth”).

This free fall of God’s people begins with enjoying the blessings without thanking God for it. The blessings are enjoyed, but the Giver is not involved. Complacency arises. It is the language of the church in Laodicéa: “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing” (Rev 3:17). But the Lord had to withdraw Himself and to stand outside: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (Rev 3:20).

Moses calls the people “Jeshurun” which means “sincere” or “upright”. God has given His people His own attributes. But instead of being a reflection of God, the people began to boast on their own righteousness. They have drawn all honor to themselves.

Because man cannot do without an object of worship, they have fallen prey to idolatry. Instead of remaining faithful to Him Who has shown such faithfulness to them, they have turned to strange gods. That is extraordinarily offensive for Him. The sacrifices they bring to those gods are received by demons. An idol of wood or stone is nothing, but behind these dead materials truly living evil spirits are hidden (1Cor 10:19-20; Psa 106:36-37).

The Judgment Announced

If God’s people forget God, He must spurn them. That is what this report is about. He is faithful to Himself and must therefore judge them. He says such harsh words precisely because they are His beloved children. He rejects His people, because His people rejected Him first.

In Deu 32:5 He denied that they are His sons. There the LORD sees them as unrepentant and unattainable. Here is spoken of “His sons and His daughters”, not as a recognition from His side that they are this, but because they themselves claim to be this. But He cannot recognize them as such. He hides His face from them, that is, He looks not upon them in favor. He looks down upon them in anger and wants to see how things are going with them.

When He made the connection with His people, He called them children who will not act unfaithfully (Isa 63:8). However, this has not remained the case. They have turned to the idols, which has provoked God to jealousy. God’s answer is that He will also make His people jealous. God uses surrounding peoples to discipline them and bring them back, but He also uses them to make His people jealous. Therefore God sends out salvation to the nations. Not the judgment He brings upon them through the nations, but the grace He has for the nations is intended to bring His people to repentance (Rom 10:19).

Moses also mentions how consuming fire as a symbol of God’s judgment will do its consuming work. It will consume the yield of the land that made them fat and thick. Natural disasters will do their devastating work. With His arrows He will find and strike those who try to escape. Hunger, fever and disease will make their victims. The wild animals also have their share in the performance of God’s wrath. There will be no place that offers safety and there will be no feelings of pity for anyone.

The LORD Is the Rock of His People

If there were no divine intervention, no one would escape. This intervention by God, which causes a reversal, is indicated in Deu 32:27 with the words “had I not”. Two motifs lie at the root of this reversal:

1. the Name of God in this world, the testimony thereof among the nations (Deu 32:27; Jos 7:9) and

2. the greatness of God Himself (Deu 32:39).

If God were to destroy His people, their enemies would boast on their own strength, and would consider the LORD unable to protect His people. In their boldness they have no regard for the true condition of God’s people, nor for their own condition. Unbelief is always presumptuous and blind.

Unfortunately, this also applies to God’s people. They do not understand that they were able to defeat their enemies only by God’s power. They lack the insight that a few people have had a great force majeure on the flight because their Rock has worked that out. The strength of God’s people does not lie in self-confidence, but in trust in God (Isa 30:15). By their self-confidence the roles will be reversed (Isa 30:17a).

“For their vine is from the vine of Sodom” (Deu 32:32) seems to refer to Israel’s enemies who are ripe for destruction. The measure of their iniquity is full (Gen 15:16). God therefore surrenders them to the sword of Israel, which overcomes them easily. The rock of the enemy are their gods. There is no power in it. The vine indicates its origin. It lies in the sinfulness of Sodom and Gomorrah. The fruit is in accordance with it.

These verses can also refer to Israel itself (Psa 80:8). They are planted like a noble vine, a wholly faithful seed, but through sin they turned into corrupted branches of a strange vine (Jer 2:21). They have taken over and even surpassed the sin and iniquity of Sodom (Jer 23:14; Eze 16:48). God has called them His vineyard, a plant of His delight. He has expected good fruit, but His vineyard has produced stinking fruit (Isa 5:1-7).

They will drink the fruit of it and die. How this happens, God keeps hidden in Himself. He forgets nothing of all the sins that are committed (Psa 90:8), whether they are the sins of the nations or those of His own, unrepentant people. He keeps a register that will be opened at the time appointed by Him (Rev 20:12).

Because God does not judge directly, people continue to sin (Ecc 8:11). But His vengeance will come, both over the enemies of His people (Isa 59:18) and over His own apostate people (Heb 10:30). The slipping of the foot is the picture of a starting fall or crash (Psa 38:17 ; Psa 94:18).

At the same time as doing justice to His people He will take care of His servants (Deu 32:36), who are the faithful among His faithless people as a whole. These faithful suffer double: from the enmity of the peoples around them and from their godless peers.

Once again He points out the end of all the wicked. There is no power left in them. Mockingly God calls them to turn to their rock, their idols, for salvation and protection (Deu 32:37-38): “Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress” (Jdg 10:14). With this way of speaking, the LORD wants to convince His people of the futility of idols and the folly of idolatry, and to bring them to the recognition that He alone is the true God (Deu 32:39).

The LORD Delivers His People

In the song, the moment has now come when God presents Himself to His people in His glory and power. The contrast with the previous verses is enormous. Here we see that God is the Eternal One, the Being One, without origin, always present at every conceivable time in eternity. He is also the Only One at all, besides Him no one is God, with Him no one can be compared (Isa 43:10b-11).

Just as He cannot be equaled in His Person, so is He in His deeds. He acts in complete freedom, without being accountable to anyone (Isa 45:7; Lam 3:37-38). By the way, who would be so audacious to call Him to account (Rom 9:20)? With undisputed authority He disposes of all His creatures. But He never does it at will. His actions always have a perfectly just basis and are aimed at blessing. He puts to death, but He gives life to everyone who acknowledges His judgment. So shall it be with the people (1Sam 2:6; Isa 26:19 Hos 5:15 ; Hos 6:1-2). He who believes, “has passed out of death into life” (Jn 5:24).

He swears by Himself that He will judge all His adversaries, all who go on to resist Him (Psa 7:13-14). This judgment will be terrible, sparing nothing and nobody. The blood will flow in large quantities (Rev 14:20). The long-haired leaders speak of leaders with a hair dress that expresses a fullness of strength and overconfidence in the enemy (cf. Psa 68:21). Their overconfidence will not last in God’s judgment. God is merciful and patient, but there comes a moment when to be patient any longer would be to compromise His righteousness. There is an end to His forbearance. That is when man has proven to have a hardened and unrepentant heart (Rom 2:5).

After the execution of the judgment, the nations are called to rejoice with His people. His people are delivered. The enemies have been defeated. The time of peace has come. The people can dwell in peace and enjoy all the promised blessings. Peace is great and endless. The Messiah rules. This means blessing not only for Israel, but also for the nations. Therefore Paul cites Deu 32:43a in the letter to the Romans (Rom 15:1). He shows that God has already spoken in the Old Testament about mercy for the nations.

This mercy is not something new, something that has only been revealed in the New Testament. It is not about the church. In the Old Testament the church is indeed something hidden. What is at stake here is to make it clear that God’s heart in the Old Testament also goes out to the nations outside of Israel. To prove this, Paul quotes, among other things, this verse from the song of Moses, in which the nations are called to rejoice with God’s people.

The great peace in which Israel enters and in which the nations may share is the result of the atonement that God has brought about. Atonement is only possible through satisfaction. God’s holy demands regarding sin and sins are satisfied through Christ on the cross. He has reconciled sinners guilty of death to God by pouring His blood. The land and the creation, on which there is blood guilt (Num 35:33), will be atoned on the basis of the same work (Col 1:19-20).

For sinners there is only reconciliation if they repent from their evil way with faith and confession of their evil deeds, their sins. For Israel, this will happen under the action of God’s Spirit, through which they will see on Him, “whom they have pierced” (Zec 12:10). About atonement of land and people we read in Daniel 9 (Dan 9:24-27).