Sermon Central
Deuteronomy 32-33
1Listen, you heavens, and I will speak; hear, you earth, the words of my mouth.
2Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.
3I will proclaim the name of the LORD . Oh, praise the greatness of our God!
4He 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.
5They are corrupt and not his children; to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.
6Is this the way you repay the LORD, you foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator,
7Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you.
8When 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.
9For the LORD ’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance.
10In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye,
11like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft.
12The LORD alone led him; no foreign god was with him.
13He 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,
14with 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.
15Jeshurun
16They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols.
17They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God— gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your ancestors did not fear.
18You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.
19The LORD saw this and rejected them because he was angered by his sons and daughters.
20“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.
21They made me jealous by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols. I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.
22For a fire will be kindled by my wrath, one that burns down to the realm of the dead below. It will devour the earth and its harvests and set afire the foundations of the mountains.
23“I will heap calamities on them and spend my arrows against them.
24I will send wasting famine against them, consuming pestilence and deadly plague; I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts, the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
25In the street the sword will make them childless; in their homes terror will reign. The young men and young women will perish, the infants and those with gray hair.
26I said I would scatter them and erase their name from human memory,
27but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest the adversary misunderstand and say, ‘Our hand has triumphed; the LORD has not done all this.’ ”
28They are a nation without sense, there is no discernment in them.
29If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!
30How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
31For their rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede.
32Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are filled with poison, and their clusters with bitterness.
33Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.
34“Have I not kept this in reserve and sealed it in my vaults?
35It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them.”
36The LORD will vindicate his people and relent concerning his servants when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free.
37He will say: “Now where are their gods, the rock they took refuge in,
38the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up to help you! Let them give you shelter!
39“See now that I myself am he! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.
40I lift my hand to heaven and solemnly swear: As surely as I live forever,
41when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me.
42I will make my arrows drunk with blood, while my sword devours flesh: the blood of the slain and the captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.”
43Rejoice, you nations, with his people,
47They 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 to Die on Mount Nebo 48On that same day the LORD told Moses, 49“Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. 50There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. 51This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. 52Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”
Moses Blesses the Tribes 1This is the blessing that Moses the man of God pronounced on the Israelites before his death.
2He said: “The LORD came from Sinai and dawned over them from Seir; he shone forth from Mount Paran. He came with
3Surely it is you who love the people; all the holy ones are in your hand. At your feet they all bow down, and from you receive instruction,
4the law that Moses gave us, the possession of the assembly of Jacob.
5He was king over Jeshurun
6“Let Reuben live and not die, nor
7And this he said about Judah: “Hear, LORD, the cry of Judah; bring him to his people. With his own hands he defends his cause. Oh, be his help against his foes!”
8About Levi he said: “Your Thummim and Urim belong to your faithful servant. You tested him at Massah; you contended with him at the waters of Meribah.
9He said of his father and mother, ‘I have no regard for them.’ He did not recognize his brothers or acknowledge his own children, but he watched over your word and guarded your covenant.
10He teaches your precepts to Jacob and your law to Israel. He offers incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar.
11Bless all his skills, LORD, and be pleased with the work of his hands. Strike down those who rise against him, his foes till they rise no more.”
12About Benjamin he said: “Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders.”
13About Joseph he said: “May the LORD bless his land with the precious dew from heaven above and with the deep waters that lie below;
14with the best the sun brings forth and the finest the moon can yield;
15with the choicest gifts of the ancient mountains and the fruitfulness of the everlasting hills;
16with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness and the favor of him who dwelt in the burning bush. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among
17In majesty he is like a firstborn bull; his horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth. Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim; such are the thousands of Manasseh.”
18About Zebulun he said: “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out, and you, Issachar, in your tents.
19They will summon peoples to the mountain and there offer the sacrifices of the righteous; they will feast on the abundance of the seas, on the treasures hidden in the sand.”
20About Gad he said: “Blessed is he who enlarges Gad’s domain! Gad lives there like a lion, tearing at arm or head.
21He chose the best land for himself; the leader’s portion was kept for him. When the heads of the people assembled, he carried out the LORD ’s righteous will, and his judgments concerning Israel.”
22About Dan he said: “Dan is a lion’s cub, springing out of Bashan.”
23About Naphtali he said: “Naphtali is abounding with the favor of the LORD and is full of his blessing; he will inherit southward to the lake.”
24About Asher he said: “Most blessed of sons is Asher; let him be favored by his brothers, and let him bathe his feet in oil.
25The bolts of your gates will be iron and bronze, and your strength will equal your days.
26“There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides across the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty.
27The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemies before you, saying, ‘Destroy them!’
28So Israel will live in safety; Jacob will dwell