Listen, O Heavens (Deuteronomy 32)

How great is God and how weak are we? Who gave this song to Moses? Is God our Rock? Is He just, fair, faithful and upright? Let’s look at Deuteronomy 32.

Do we receive God’s teaching like gentle rain on young plants? Do we understand how just and upright He is? How glorious is our God?

Listen, O heavens, and I will speak! Hear, O earth, the words that I say! Let my teaching fall on you like rain; let my speech settle like dew. Let my words fall like rain on tender grass, like gentle showers on young plants. I will proclaim the name of the Lord; how glorious is our God! He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is! (Deuteronomy 32:1-4 NLT)

What were the sins of ancient Israel? Who was defective, who was perverse and crooked?

They have dealt corruptly with him. They are not his children, because of their defect. They are a perverse and crooked generation. Is this the way you repay Yahweh, foolish and unwise people? Isn’t he your father who has bought you? He has made you and established you. Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you. When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 32:5-8 WEB)

To whom did Israel belong? Did He protect them, care for them and watch over them?

Surely the Lord’s property was his people; Jacob was his part of the inheritance. God found Israel in a wild land— in a howling desert wasteland— he protected him, cared for him, watched over him with his very own eye. Like an eagle protecting its nest, hovering over its young, God spread out his wings, took hold of Israel, carried him on his back. The Lord alone led Israel; no foreign god assisted. (Deuteronomy 32:9-12 CEB)

Who gave Israel the land? Who is the only place of safety?

… he helped you capture the land. Your fields were rich with grain. Olive trees grew in your stony soil, and honey was found among the rocks. Your flocks and herds produced milk and yogurt, and you got choice meat from your sheep and goats that grazed in Bashan. Your wheat was the finest, and you drank the best wine. Israel, you grew fat and rebelled against God, your Creator you rejected the Mighty Rock, your only place of safety. You made God jealous and angry by worshiping disgusting idols and foreign gods. (Deuteronomy 32:13-16 CEV)

To whom did they really sacrifice when they worshipped idols?

They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth. The Lord saw it and spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. And he said, ‘I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness. (Deuteronomy 32:17-20 ESV)

Is there a right kind of jealousy, like the jealousy of a spouse faithful in marriage?

They have provoked My jealousy with their so-called gods; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will provoke their jealousy with an inferior people; I will enrage them with a foolish nation. For fire has been kindled because of My anger and burns to the depths of Sheol; it devours the land and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains. I will pile disasters on them; I will use up My arrows against them. They will be weak from hunger, ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will unleash on them wild beasts with fangs, as well as venomous snakes that slither in the dust. (Deuteronomy 32:21-24 HCSB)

Would punishment for unfaithfulness be from both within and without?

Outside, the sword will cause bereavement; within, there will be terror for the young man and virgin alike, also for the nursing infant and the aged man. I said, ‘I will scatter them, erasing their memory from the human race, if it weren’t for dreading the taunting of their enemies— otherwise, their adversary might misinterpret and say, “Our power is great. It isn’t the Lord who made all of this happen.”’ (Deuteronomy 32:25-27 ISV)

Should Israel be wise and consider who had blessed them?

For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up? For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. (Deuteronomy 32:28-33 KJV)