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God’s Words Are Our Life
God’s Words Are Our Life Deuteronomy 32:1-47 Key Verse: 32:47 “They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” In last week’s passage God commanded Moses to write down a song that would be a witness for God against the Israelites when they entered the Promised Land, enjoyed all the blessings the land provided and then turned away from God to follow other gods that were no gods at all. We learned that God knows the hearts of mankind better than we know our own hearts. God knew what the Israelites were going to do, yet God remained faithful to His promises because He is a true and faithful God. In today’s passage, we are given the words of the song Moses wrote. The song can be broken down into four main parts: 1) who God is, 2) who the Israelites are (a short history), 3) what the Israelites would do when they entered the Promised Land and enjoyed the blessings of that land, and 4) God’s response to Israel’s rebellion. The song is followed by Moses and Joshua teaching the people this song. Then Moses strongly encourages the people to teach this song to their children for the generations to come and to take the words to heart because they weren’t just empty or idol words, they are the words of life itself. May God bless our study of this passage and help us to clearly understand who He is and who we are as sinners before Him. First, who God is and why He alone deserves to be worshipped and who sinful people are (1-6). Look at verses 1&2. “Listen, you heavens, and I will speak; hear, you earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.” Moses begins the song by calling all heaven and earth to listen and pay attention to the words he is about to speak. The main audience for this song is the people of Israel, but God doesn’t want Moses to stop there. The song should be proclaimed to all creation so that it might stand as a witness against God’s chosen people when they reject Him and seek other gods. Jesus commanded His disciples to do the same thing with the gospel when He said to them in Mark 16:15&16, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” This song of Moses and the gospel are to be proclaimed to all creation so that no one is without an excuse – we will all be held accountable before the judgement seat of God. Notice in verse two that Moses calls the words of this song teachings and that these teachings are meant to have a good effect among the people of God. Moses asks that these teachings “fall like rain and descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.” This is a beautiful description of how God uses rain to produce abundant fruit. These words are intended to do just that, even though it may not seem that way as we read through them. Remember the words of this song were to be handed down through the generations as a warning for the Israelites not to do what the words of the song said that they would do. Now let’s look at verses 3&4. “I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.” These verses tell us who God is. First of all, He is a God whose name should be proclaimed in all the earth. He is a God who deserves praise for His greatness. This was demonstrated to the Israelite and to the world when God delivered them from their bondage in Egypt. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart specifically so that He could multiply his great power and that His name would be proclaimed among the nations and they would know who He was. Verse 4 begins by saying that God is our Rock, with a capital “R”. This term for God is repeated 4 times in this song and numerous times through the scriptures. In contrast to this, there are two references to other gods as rocks, with a small “r”, meaning that these are not really gods at all. But what is our God, “the Rock” like? Verse 4 says all His works are perfect and all of His ways are just. Furthermore, He is a faithful God who keeps all His promises. You cannot find anything that is not upright or just about God. Moses wanted the people to acknowledge that this was the God that they worshipped. If you worship such a great, powerful, perfectly just and faithful God who is perfect in all His ways, why would you want to turn to any other God? Moses begins the song by establishing who God is, and now he turns to who God’s chosen people are. Look at verses 5&6. “They are corrupt and not his children; to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation. Is this the way you repay the Lord, you foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?” Moses words are very harsh. It must have been very difficult for the Israelites to listen to this, but they, like all sinners need to hear this. It is so easy to fall away from God and become corrupt in His sight. The Israelites had all witnessed God’s great power in Egypt, His protection through the 40 years of wandering in the desert and His deliverance in the two wars they had fought with Sihon and Og. Yet how many times had they fallen into sin by grumbling against God and Moses, saying that God brought them out of Egypt just to kill them off in the desert. They had even rejected God twice in order to follow other gods – first at Mt. Sinai when Moses was taking longer than expected to come down from the mountain and again at Peor when the Moabites seduced the Israelites into worshipping their Baal. Sinful human hearts are truly foolish and unwise. Even if one sees all the great things that God has done for them, it seems that man wants to turn from God and seek something else other than God. As we will see this was going to be a huge problem for the people of Israel. Second, a short history lesson for the Israelites (7-14). Beginning in verse 7 Moses urges the Israelites to remember what God had done in the past. Moses encourages the younger people to ask their fathers and the elders of the community about these things, because it should be the older people of the community that pass these things down to the younger generations. Look at verse 8. “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.” This verse goes all the way back to just after the time of Noah and the flood. If you go back to Genesis 10, you will see the “Table of Nations.” This was the time that the descendants of Noah’s three sons spread out across the earth and began to settle down. In verse 8, it is interesting to note that Moses said that when the Most High gave the nations their inheritance and set the boundaries for their lands, He did it “according to the number of the sons of Israel.” Who did God give the land of Canaan to at that time? He gave it to the sons of Canaan, a son of Ham who had come under a curse because he had disrespected his father. If you look at Genesis 10:15-18, you will notice that Canaan had 11 tribes come from him and if you include his own line, that would make twelve – the number of the sons of Israel, whom God was ultimately going to give this land. In verse 10, Moses skips ahead to the time of the Exodus. God found Israel in the desert and God shielded them, cared for them, and guarded them as the “apple of his eye.” The King James version says it like this, “He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.” God led them around in the wilderness and instructed them. He showed them that He could protect them from their enemies, provide for all their needs and He gave them the law. In this way God instructed His people as He led them around the wilderness. Then Moses gives them the image of a mother eagle taking care of her young and teaching them to fly. This image is used in Exodus 19:4 “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” Now let’s look at verse 12 carefully. “The Lord alone led him; no foreign god was with him.” It was all done by the Lord himself. He didn’t have any help and He didn’t need any help. This is very important, because later on, when the Israelites began to fall into idolatry, many of them would acknowledge that there was still one God over all, Jehovah, but that the other God’s that they worshipped were like God’s helpers. God is God alone. There is no other God beside Him. He doesn’t need helpers – He is the all-powerful perfect God. Now look at verses 13&14. “He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him with the fruit of the fields. He nourished him with honey from the rock, and with oil from the flinty crag, with curds and milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats, with choice rams of Bashan and the finest kernels of wheat. You drank the foaming blood of the grape.” These verses speak of the future, after God has brought His people into the Promised Land and they begin to enjoy the abundant blessings God has provided for them. As I have said over and over, God’s heart’s desire is to bless His people. He does not want His people to live in misery, but as we will see, if we don’t use God’s blessings properly and thank Him for them and draw closer to Him because of them, we will abuse those blessings and fall further and further from God. Third, what Israel did with God’s abundant blessing (15–18). Look at verse 15. “Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; filled with food, they became heavy and sleek. They abandoned the God who made them and rejected the Rock their Savior.” Jeshurun means the upright one, and this word is referring to Israel, God’s chosen people. God’s people grew fat, lazy and complacent. They began kicking at the goads. They didn’t like all of God’s restrictions. They wanted to be free to do as they saw fit, so they rebelled against God, abandoned Him and rejected God their Rock as their Savior. They began to run after foreign gods. Who were these gods? They were no gods at all. In fact the King James Version translates verse 17, “They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.” They were sacrificing to devils or demons – to new gods that their fathers or elders neither knew of or feared. Why did they do this? Simply speaking they didn’t remember what God had done for them. They didn’t remember who God was, because they stopped studying His word. They were too busy looking for new ways to entertain themselves to remember what God had already done for them. They forgot the first half of the song, because fathers stopped passing on to their sons and daughters as a matter of first importance. God’s word must always be the first in our life, because as we will see when we get to the key verse, God’s word is our life. Fourth, God’s response to Israel’s rejection (19-43). Look at verses 19&20 “The Lord saw this and rejected them because he was angered by his sons and daughters. ‘I will hide my face from them,’ he said, ‘and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.’ The Lord was simply going to turn away from His people just as they turned away from Him. He was going to hide himself from them. Keep in mind, that there is always a remnant among God’s people that will not fall away, but God doesn’t seem to make any distinction among His true people living among these corrupted Israelites. God seems to be saying to them, “I am going to hide my face from you as well, but please remember that I am here as you go through what is about to happen. Notice that God said in verse 20, “They will see what their end will be.” Verses 21-42 list all the horrible things that God says will come about as a result of their rejecting Him, but instead of going through them one by one let me just say, that they are all bad and result in most, if not all, cases in the Israelites being driven from the land of Israel. There are a couple of points of note that should be made about results that the Israelites will see. First, they should know that all of the bad things that will happen to them are a result of God’s justice. In carrying out His justice, He says in verse 21 that He will use a people who are not a people and a nation that has no understanding. These people or nations will be used by God to war against the people of Israel and they will even be used to scatter the Israelites among the nations. They might be used to bring on a lot of the calamities mentioned in these verses, but it must be remembered that it is God that is using those people in this way even if they don’t realize it. Second, many of the calamities will appear as just natural disasters. Famine, drought, pestilence, plagues, wild animals and poisonous snakes are said to be used in God’s judgement. These are all just natural events, but they will come about because God’s people rejected Him as their Rock and Salvation. God is telling the people before they happen that these things will occur if they reject Him, the one true God, and run off after false gods. He is telling them, so that when they see these happens they might remember and turn back to Him in repentance. Remember, God promised to hide himself from them so that they would see what their end would be, but in verses 28&29 God is lamenting over his people because they won’t have the wisdom to see that what is happening to them is happening because of their rebellion. In verse 30 God gives examples of what He means. The Israelites will see one of their enemies chasing a thousand of them – in the glory days of Israel when they conquered the Promise Land and up through the time of David this was just the opposite, one Israelite would chase a thousand of their enemies. But why would it be so different in the future? It was because they had abandoned God their strength, so now God was no longer fighting for them. Third, verse 34&35 tell us that God is always watching His people. God may not always punish immediately because He is a compassionate God hoping that His people will come back to their senses and repent. However, if they don’t repent and continue on in their sin, the day of disaster, the day of God’s judgement will rush upon his people and overtake them. Fourth, if you read verse 36-38 carefully you will see that God will have compassion on the remnant of His people when the time is right. When will that be? When they have nothing left and they realize that they had abandoned the one true God to worship worthless idols. To conclude the song, God reminds us that it is Him and Him alone that is in sovereign control of history. It is God alone that brings life or death, and no one can deliver us out of God’s hand. Let’s look at verse 43. “Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will take vengeance on his enemies and make atonement for his land and people.” As I said before, there will always be a remnant of God’s people whose heart either never turned away from God, or whose spiritual eyes and ears God opened through His punishments and they repent. These people, together with people of all nations who see these things and understand and accept who God is will rejoice when they see God avenging His people and making atonement for the land. Fifth, the conclusion of the matter (44-47). In verse 44, both Moses and Joshua stand before the people and recite this song. This is very important, because Moses was about to leave them and Joshua was taking over. Joshua needed to be seen approving of this song so that the people would obey God’s command to pass it down through the generations after Moses was gone. But it is what Moses says to the people after they have listened to the song that is most important. Look at verses 46&47. “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. 47 They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” Moses begins by saying “Take to heart all the words…” Take to heart, means more than just remember these words, it means that they should memorize them until the words are a part of their life. Why should these words be so important to them? For starters, without knowing God’s words well no one can carefully obey them, so this is the first reason Moses gives. The second reason, I think is far more important. Moses says that the words of the law and the song that He just taught the Israelites are not just idle or empty words. He says, “They are your life.” The words in the Bible are not just any words. They are not words that should be just studied for one hour a week, prayed over a little bit, a testimony written about them, and maybe a meeting or two attended to think about them (although all these things are really good), they are much more than that. The words found in the Bible are our very life. In them we find salvation and eternal life in Jesus. These words must be the most precious thing in your life, because they are the source of your life. Only by taking these words to heart can we truly live long, that is eternally, in the Promised Land of Heaven, where Jesus has promised to prepare us a room. |
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