Dt. 32: The Ballad of Moses

Deuteronomy 32:31 "For their rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede."

Deuteronomy 32 is an epic song. It is God's Stairway to Heaven. It's got it all really...imagery, metaphor...curses, challenges. There's a lot going on.

Moses begins by acknowledging how just God is. Which would be hard for me if I all I did was screw up and hit the rock, while Israel parties like it's 1999 BC. Nevertheless, Moses says that the LORD is "a faithful God who does no wrong." Not "who can do no wrong." Does no wrong. Big difference.

How does Israel repay? Corruption. Foolishness.

Then Moses gives a musical history lesson about how God guided Israel through the desert, shielding them, guarding them, feeding them.

Through Leviticus and Numbers I've read about how the Levites don't inherit land. Instead, their portion is God. Very interesting here in verse 9, where it states "For the LORD's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance." It's a ponderous verse to me with a lot of meaning. I thought it would be lame for Levites to watch all these other nations receive land and amass wealth, and their lot is ... a whole lot of responsibility. Their lot is to be a mediator between God and men. I never thought about God having an inheritance. And it is Israel. Who treats Him as a non-entity. Hard to believe that men, God's children are His inheritance. Do you see yourself as an inheritance to God? What kind of inheritance are you? And it makes me wonder...

Verses 15-18 appear to be a description of how Israel, fat on the blessings of God, grow lazy in their faith. Is that possible? Can God bless someone too much? O, that God would bless me too much indeed. Then, presumably, the choice is up to me if I grow in my own self-satisfaction and self-confidence, and turn away, and to "gods that recently appeared" (v. 17).

Then up until around verse 35, its more curses. The calamaties that God will "heap upon them." Too much? Would God withhold the ultimate judgment, blotting their name out from the memory of mankind? Yes. As God says in verse 27, "I dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest the adversary misunderstand and say, 'Our hand has triumphed; the LORD has not done all this.'" Basically, their enemies would proclaim themselves the victor over God. God would not be strong enough to preserve His own people. Nothing tries the omnipotent's patience like the free will of his underlings. This would serve to legitimize false gods.

In reading through the song of Moses, you get the idea that you definitely want to be on God's side.

Then God tells Moses to go up a hill and die. Pshhh...read it, he does!