You can hardly go to a sporting event without hearing the pounding beat—Boom, boom, BOOM! Boom, boom, BOOM! We shall, we shall ROCK you!” When I was younger, many of my favorite radio and television programs were sponsored by a company that guaranteed to make you as safe as the Rock of Gibraltar. Imagine my chagrin when, as an adult, I discovered that the actual Rock of Gibraltar was not only crumbling, but instead of being rock solid, was filled with a catacomb of tunnels in its role as military base. In traditional hymns, we sing of “Christ the Solid Rock,” and “Rock of Ages.”
Now, some of you may chide me for beginning this sermon by drawing from the idea of “rock” music—an art form that derives its satisfaction out of rocking people’s worlds, shaking familiar ideas and accepted customs to their roots or tearing down the establishment to build upon the rubble. I will admit that the great majority of rock music is not intended to glorify God—indeed, much seems deliberately intended to glorify ungodliness. But the Bible tells us that this was Moses’ SONG and we don’t have to read too far in order to see that he intended to rock the world of the Israelites. It really shouldn’t surprise us. If you want to know about people’s theology, today, listen to the hymns and choruses they sing. MOST importantly, pay attention to the words they sing.
Deuteronomy 31:30 tells us that Moses SPOKE the words of this song to everyone in Israel. Someone once called this the “rap song” of Moses because it uses poetry and imagery to help everyone remember the promise of being God’s covenant people—Israel of yesterday and the church of today. Even though Moses knew they’d sing the song at a later date and that it would be easier to remember as a song than as a sermon, he SPOKE this message loudly and clearly so that all could hear. Here, then, is an important word from God about what it means to be the People of God. No matter what God has in store for your church in the future; no matter what obstacles, difficulties and persecutions you face in continuing to survive as the fellowship of god; and no matter what special needs surround you or ministries God will inspire, God wants you to focus on the warnings and promises in this passage.
Read the text from King James Version.
Prayer
31:30 And Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel, the words of this song
until the end (goal, completion, perfection).
32:1 Give ear, heavens, and I will speak,
And let the land (earth) hear the words of my mouth.
32:2 Let my teaching drip like the rain and my speech trickle like the dew,
Like the raindrops upon the grass and like the showers upon the herb.
32:3 BECAUSE I proclaim the name of Yahweh,
Give glory to our God!
32:4 The Rock, His work, is complete (perfect, attained)
BECAUSE all His ways are justice,
God of faithfulness and without injustice,
HE is righteous and straight.
Verse 1 tells us that what Moses is sharing is of cosmic importance. God’s work within His people is of far more significance than the self-help personal transformation cults or relativist cultures of the modern day. A call is given out to the heavens because the stars, in the ancient world, were viewed as representative of persons in the heavenly court. They were witnesses to God’s contract with Noah, Abraham, and Moses, God’s dealings with Jacob, Joseph and Moses. Further, they were to act as an informal jury in considering how far Israel had failed in reaching her potential and achieving her purpose in partnership with God as part of that covenant.
I think it’s interesting that the Hebrew uses the word (eretz) that can be translated as either earth in general or land in specific in verse 1. The earth in general and the land promised to Israel in specific will judge her failure in reaching the potential for which God called her, even as the world in general and specific individuals around us will judge how we have lived up to our potential in God. When God saved us, there was a goal, a purpose in mind. When God saved us, we entered into a covenant, contract, partnership with God to be part of saving the world and bringing honor to His name. But like Israel, we need to see that we are in “breach of contract.” That’s what Moses will say in his song. But he doesn’t say it to make us feel bad. He says it so that we can do what the lawyers call “remedy.”
The “remedy” is to be found in one place—the ROCK. Verse 3 prepares us for this. God’s name—Yahweh (explain) is His essence. Glory is God’s significance—power and resources at our disposal. The ROCK is a poetic expression of God’s place in our lives—the completion, fulfillment, perfection of God’s purpose. He is a God of faithfulness. This is the root of the Hebrew word from which we get the word AMEN. You can build upon it, you can stand upon it, you can depend on it. God as creator, sustainer, and redeemer is the foundation upon which we build.
But, the rock is even more. Imagine that you live in a desert land, subject to the inveterate blaze of the sun and the recurrence of nasty sandstorms driven by fierce winds. What do you look for as the mid-day arrives or the sirocco appears as a threatening wall of sand on the horizon? A sheltering rock, perhaps? In Exodus 33:21, Moses is ordered to stand upon the rock for God’s glory, God’s significance, to pass by. The rock is foundational. But in verse 22, God says that He will hid Moses in the cleft of the rock—to shelter him from the raw power of God’s presence. God is our foundation stone—the dependable bedrock upon which we build a relationship. It is all about Him, but this Rock is also our comfort, our shelter, our resting place. It is a hiding place from which we can ambush the enemies of God. It is a high place where we can climb above the cares of this world and commune with our Father, hearing His instructions and directions for abundant living.
God’s foundation is justice and righteousness. We are to deal with integrity and the best will toward each other and those around us so that God’s will can be done. And, as God’s will is done, justice and righteousness both comfort and protect us. It is that rock of God’s presence, purpose, and power that enables us to have the kind of confidence, stability, and joy in every circumstance that the world cannot understand.
I am reminded of Archimedes, the ancient Greek scientist who discovered the value of leverage. As he was enamored with his fulcrum, he was said to have proclaimed, “Give me a place to stand and I’ll move the whole world.” Beloved, God, our Rock, IS that place to stand. Indeed, if we can handle the pun, it is the place to stand where we can ROCK the whole world (or at least, as the New Testament says, turn it upside-down).
But if we have such a rock, why aren’t we more effective? Why are some congregations so small? Why are some churches closing their doors? Why are some believers turning to New Age? Why is science so threatening to Christian parents? Why do we seem to be losing ground? Verse 5 makes it clear that, even in Israel before the conquest, something had gone wrong.
32:5 They have ruined [what] belongs to Him;
They are not His children [because of] –their blemish!
A tortuously twisted generation.
32:6 Is this the way you benefit Yahweh, people of foolishness without wisdom?
Is He not your father who crafted you, who made you and constructed you?
32:7 Remember the days of antiquity;
Reflect upon years of generation after generation.
Question your father, and he will cause it be revealed to you;
And [even ask] your elders, and they will say [it] to you.
32:8 When Most High [God] caused to give an inheritance to the nations,
When He separated the sons of humanity [lit. Adam],
He fixed the boundary lines of peoples according to the number of the sons of
Israel.
32:9 Because the inheritance of Yahweh is His people;
Jacob [is} His appropriate inheritance.
The problem is not with God or God’s purpose. The verb translated as “corrupted” in verse 5 is from the Hebrew root for ruining or spoiling. God’s intent in Israel of old and the New Israel of today’s church was to provide the wonderful fruits of salvation as expressed through the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. But the sin, rebellion, failures, and misunderstandings of God’s people keep God’s purpose from shining through. The term I translated as “tortuously twisted generation” is echoed in Jesus’ indictment of His disciples in Matthew 17:17. He was frustrated because their lack of faith, their feeble efforts which did not depend on Him were doomed to failure. They were unable to accomplish a healing and deliverance from a demon because they were focused on themselves and their own understanding instead of upon Him. It is also the same phrase used in Philippians 2:15 when Paul admonishes the church to be without blemish in order to shine out with a clear, bright witness in the midst of a torturously twisted world—a wicked and perverse generation.
If, then, God is our Rock, why don’t we listen to Him? Instead, we listen to peer pressure—everybody’s doing it. Instead, we listen to science—only what can be demonstrated in the laboratory is real. Tell me, what laboratory is big enough to PROVE the power the God or even CONTAIN the power of God? Instead, we listen to philosophy—everything is relative and we create our own meaning. Instead, we listen to the New Age religions—you are God, you are divine, you create your own meaning, you are masters of your own universe, you can create new realities from spiritual energy. Instead, we listen to the laws of success and pragmatism—whatever seems to work from quarter to quarter and from day to day instead of what we know is right and according to God’s will. But the message here is that God has a plan. Even though we are divided by races and nations, God has a plan. God’s people who as Israel were to bring God’s Kingdom on earth to fruition in Jesus the Messiah and God’s people as the church who are His inheritance for changing, transforming, renewing, and saving the world, today. Anything else is, in the words of verse 6—foolishness without wisdom.
But this reflection to be done is not idle thinking. It is a command to think back upon the mighty works of God that God had done with earlier generations. It was to be inspired and instructed so that God could work through Israel. In the same way that Moses urged Israel to be instructed by these past experiences, so are we as the church to be instructed by both Israel and the New Testament church.
I. In verse 4, God is described as a ______________.
A. God’s dealings involve ______________ and _______________ (v. 4).
B. God’s people are not without _________________ (v. 5).
32:10 He found him in a land, a wilderness and in formlessness (a wasteland), a howling desolation;
He surrounded him, he protected him,
He kept him like the little man of his eye.
32:11 Like a bird of prey (lit. griffon/vulture) stirs its nest, hovering over its young,
Spreading out her wings and catching them; lifting them on her broad wings.
32:12 Yahweh alone led him and there was not with him any foreign god.
In these three verses are delightful images about God’s care. Locating Israel in desolation, God created a hedge about him and protected him like “the little man of his eye.” Ever notice how we flinch to protect our eyes? The little man of the eye is that upside-down image on your eye—that sensitive place and God protected Israel like we protect our eyes and He protects us like that.
I also like the image of the eagle, griffon, or vulture—let’s call it a bird of prey. Throwing its babies out of the nest and allowing them to land on her own wings. In the same way, God allows the difficult times, the challenges, the apparent disappointments and disasters we face to thrust us out of the nest. He is always, like the mother eagle, ready to catch us and allow us the strength of His wings, BUT we aren’t always allowed the comfort of the nest.
Finally, note that God led Israel with no help—not even from a foreign god. Too often, Israel was tempted to follow false gods—particularly the Baal. We know Baal as a fertility god but we often confuse that religion as being strictly about sexuality. Nope! The sexuality was a means to an end. They believed that sexual ritual was necessary in order to guarantee fertility—good crops and success.
In the modern world, we are tempted from the relativism of the left that claims sexual crimes and immorality to be victimless crimes. So, pornography and immoral behavior is treated as something inconsequential—something personal. BUT, we are also tempted by the moral relativism of the right that claims that success and wealth are our right—that preserving wealth is more important than taking care of people. We are torn by the idols of Hollywood on one side and Wall Street on the other. And, if we are not careful, we can become as spoiled as Israel. Even worse, we try to bring the world into the church. We contaminate our fellowship with the considerations of the business world and we relax our mores to the level of the entertainment media. How can God bless us?
32:13 He caused him to ride upon the high places of the land (or earth)
And he devoured the produce of the field;
And he caused him to suck honey out of the cliff and oil out of the rock.
32:14 Cottage cheese from the cattle and milk from the goats…
32:15 But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked,
you waxed fat; you grew thick, gorged [with food],
He forsook the God of his making and scorned the Rock of his salvation.
The Bible makes it clear that all good things come from God’s sovereignty and provision. This idea of riding upon the high places is a picture of God’s chariot above the heavens. It is an image that would have been familiar to the worshippers of Baal, Asshur, and Marduk, but it makes clear that God is truly the one in charge—not his alleged rivals. All blessing comes from God’s bounty—even when it seems unlikely or impossible. Yet, even though Israel knew this well, Jeshurun—a Hebrew name that means “upright one” or “Mr. Righteous”—is twisted here to mean something of a spoiled and rebellious child. Instead of focusing on God and God’s will, Israel was trying to be just like her neighbors and just get along. God called to her as He calls to us to center ourselves upon Him and His Word. Then, He has something that He can build upon.
II. Good things came from God’s ________________ (v. 13).
A. All blessing comes from God’s ____________________ (vv. 13-14).
B. God’s people became the spoiled child, _____________________ (v. 15
and scoffed at God’s ____________________ (v. 15).
So, how did Jeshurun/Israel/Mr. Righteousness scorn the Rock? They went the same way as the rest of the world. They provoked God (v. 16) to jealousy with other gods. They adopted strange practices. How do you think God feels when he hears us quote worldly wisdom that is contrary to His word? How do you think God feels when we are looking for something different in our worldview—supposed believers who convert to Mormonism or the belief in reincarnation and channeling? How do you think God feels when corporate America invades the church and we make our decisions on the basis of profits and human understanding instead of seeking His will? Strange gods, other loyalties, and lack of faithful service and worship are no substitute for the Rock. In verse 20, God says that He will hide His face—His wisdom, His power and His intervention will be unavailable to those who depend on something else. Verse 21 says that since God’s people played around with that which was really NO GOD, He would provoke them with what was really NO PEOPLE. In other words, our identity—the fulfillment of God’s purpose in our lives—that satisfaction of a job well-done and of life really mattering can’t exist without God’s presence and work in our lives. We aren’t anyone without Him but ANYONE—even those we look down our noses at—can be SOMEONE with Him. Sometimes we wonder why blessings and opportunities come to other people. Sometimes, we are resentful. BUT, we often find that such situations are due to our ingratitude and our own indolence in terms of serving God.
III. There are many false _________ (v. 31).
A. Strange _________ are no substitute for the Rock that begot God’s people (v.19).
B. Since God’s people play with what is "No _____," God will provoke them with
what is really "No ________" (v. 21)
C. False gods are ___________________ (v. 30)
Frankly, this whole discussion leads to the verses God originally laid on my heart. Verse 30 describes an ironic reversal where the very God that once gave Israel victories in spite of being outnumbered has sold them into defeat. Instead of being blessed, they find themselves cursed. It is God’s way of getting their attention. It is the stress testing that helps them find their weaknesses that, in turn, should help them find the strength which is external to them—God’s presence.
And, I believe the entire key to the passage is verse 31. THEIR rock is not as our ROCK!. Why is this so important? Why is this so key? Believe it or not, this is explained in the 10th chapter of I Corinthians. In I Cor. 10:4, Paul says that Israel’s ancestors “drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” Paul goes on to say that anything other than Christ displeased God and caused them to experience failure.
The world’s rock of science with its mechanistic explanations of the world is no substitute for a relationship with Christ Jesus. The world’s rock of material wealth is no substitute. The world’s dependence on military might and political-diplomatic security is no substitute for knowing that God is with you. The world’s irreverent slogan “If it feels good, do it!” cannot provide the meaning, courage and satisfaction of learning to listen to and obey our spiritual Rock. The false gods of celebrity and power cannot begin to compensate for our Rock who is love. “Why don’t you lead me to that Rock that is higher than I? His love has been a shelter for me!” Moses’ rap song blasts Israel for not being focused on and dedicated to God’s purposes. He speaks of judgment and defeat when God would rather offer salvation and success in community and ministry.
This AM, the question is: “Where is your Rock?” Are you totally focused on and dedicated to Jesus? Or have you bought into the world’s rocks instead of God’s great Rock who is Jesus.
