Deuteronomy 31: 30 to 32: 1 - 52
Those oldies but goodies remind me of You
31: 30 And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel:
32 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 2 Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass. 3 For I proclaim the name of the LORD: Ascribe greatness to our God. 4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright Is He. 5 “They have corrupted themselves; They are not His children, because of their blemish: A perverse and crooked generation. 6 Do you thus deal with the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not made you and established you? 7 “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: 8 When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. 9 For the LORD’s portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance. 10 “He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. 11 As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, 12 So the LORD alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him. 13 “He made him ride in the heights of the earth, that he might eat the produce of the fields; He made him draw honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock; 14 Curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs; And rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the choicest wheat; And you drank wine, the blood of the grapes. 15 “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; you grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. 16 They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. 18 Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you. 19 “And when the LORD saw it, He spurned them, because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters. 20 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 faith. 21 They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; They have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation. 22 For a fire is kindled in My anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell; It shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. 23 ‘I will heap disasters on them; I will spend My arrows on them. 24 They shall be wasted with hunger, devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction; I will also send against them the teeth of beasts, with the poison of serpents of the dust. 25 The sword shall destroy outside; There shall be terror within for the young man and virgin, the nursing child with the man of gray hairs. 26 I would have said, “I will dash them in pieces, I will make the memory of them to cease from among men,” 27 had I not feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should misunderstand, lest they should say, “Our hand is high; and it is not the LORD who has done all this.” ’ 28 “For they are a nation void of counsel, nor is there any understanding in them. 29 Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! 30 How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had surrendered them? 31 For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. 32 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. 33 Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of cobras. 34 ‘Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up among My treasures? 35 Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them.’ 36 “For the LORD will judge His people and have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their power is gone, and there is no one remaining, bond or free. 37 He will say: ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge? 38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise and help you, and be your refuge. 39 ‘Now see that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand. 40 For I raise My hand to heaven, and say, “As I live forever, 41 If I whet My glittering sword, and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to My enemies, and repay those who hate Me. 42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the heads of the leaders of the enemy.” ’ 43 “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, and render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people.” 44 So Moses came with Joshua the son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. 45 Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 and he said to them: “Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe—all the words of this law. 47 For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.” 48 Then the LORD spoke to Moses that very same day, saying: 49 “Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho; view the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel as a possession; 50 and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be gathered to your people, just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people; 51 because you trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin, because you did not hallow Me in the midst of the children of Israel. 52 Yet you shall see the land before you, though you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.”
I was channel surfing the other night and I came across a couple of channels that promoted different decades of their most popular songs. For those individuals who were young and alive in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s those songs are now considered ‘oldies but goodies’.
Our Holy Father God Yahweh composed the lyrics to the ultimate oldie but goodie song. He gave Moses and Joshua the words to His song which He created for His people the Israelites. Even though the song is now many thousands of years old they have been preserved for our benefit.
In reading our Holy Master’s masterpiece I was thinking of a song back in my generation that fit the bill in similarity. The song was made popular by LITTLE CAESAR AND THE ROMANS and was called "Those Oldies But Goodies". I list for you the lyrics of this song. As you read them think about our Holy God and see if you can somehow match them to His Song and the thoughts behind it.
Those oldies but goodies reminds me of you
The songs of the past bring back memories of you
I always remember the first night we met
The songs they were playing I never will forget
I always will treasure them so close to my heart
They always will haunt me although we're apart
Each time that I hear them a tear's bound to fall
For I love those memories that I, I-I recall
Those oldies but goodies reminds me of you
The songs of the past bring back memories of you
Forever they will haunt me but what can I do
Those oldies but goodies reminds me of you
(Oldies but goodies reminds me of you)
[Spoken:]
Yes, dear, they are playin' our songs
And they will always remain our songs
And each time you hear them
I hope you, too, will cherish
The wonderful memories that our love once knew
For these songs are just a symbol of the love that I had for you
Those oldies but goodies reminds me of you
The songs of the past bring back memories of you
Forever they will haunt me but what can I do
Those oldies but goodies reminds me of you
(Oldies but goodies reminds me of you)
Having written a prophecy as a song to be sung by the children of Israel until its words were fulfilled and it could be called on as a witness against them, and also be seen as a promise of hope, Moses read out the song to the people.
31: 30 And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel:
This song was read out (not sung) by Moses before all Israel so that they might begin to learn its contents. All would know that in the end they had to memories it by heart. But the fact that it is called a song indicates that it was intended to be sung in future worship, and we have certainly no reason to doubt that that happened.
Throughout the song’s lyrics Yahweh as Israel’s great Lord God Is the offended party. He Is blameless and righteous in all His ways, while Israel are disobedient and rebellious. Their folly in rebelling against Yahweh is revealed, the judgment that will follow, in which Yahweh will make use of their enemies, is declared, but then, it finalizes with a description of their vindication, not because of what they are but because of Yahweh’s gracious action. Yahweh will not allow His purposes to fail.
32 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 2 Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass. 3 For I proclaim the name of the LORD: Ascribe greatness to our God.
First heaven and earth are called on to witness to what Moses will speak such is the solemnity of his words. These are world fashioning events. Then the nature of his teaching is described. It is like the rain and the dew falling and bringing forth lush vegetation, bringing life and fruitfulness. His words should come as words of refreshing to their hearts. And the reason that it is like this is because He is proclaiming the name of Yahweh. They are therefore to ascribe greatness to ‘our God’. . Here it is connected with ‘the name’, that is with the nature of, Yahweh. Yahweh is the living God, the life-giver.
4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright Is He.
The reason that God can be ascribed as great is now expanded on. It is because He Is The Rock, He Is what alone is firm and sure in the midst of uncertainty, He alone provides shelter from the burning heat, and water for the thirsty. For His work is perfect and without fault or failure, His ways are totally just and right, and He Is totally faithful and without any trace within of wrongdoing.
5 “They have corrupted themselves; They are not His children, because of their blemish: A perverse and crooked generation.
In contrast with Yahweh’s faithfulness and reliability are His people. They have dealt corruptly with him, being deceitful, unreliable and untrustworthy. They are ‘not His children’, that is, not behaving like Him or revealing Him in their lives. As a result of their blemish, which is in contrast with His perfection, they are a perverse and crooked generation, unreliable and twisted, not fit to be seen as His children.
6 Do you thus deal with the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not made you and established you?
He then faces the people up with their folly and lack of wisdom. Is this really the way that they repay Yahweh for all He has done for them? Do they not recognize that He is their Father Who has redeemed them (from bondage in Egypt, and has brought them through the wilderness, and has made them into a fruitful and abundant nation, and has shaped them and established them so that they are there ready to possess God’s land and live in it securely?
These are questions that we should put to ourselves. So often we forget that He Is our Father, and that what He does is for our good. That is why we so often take little notice of Him and what He requires from our lives.
7 “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: 8 When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. 9 For the LORD’s portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance.
So he now tells them to consider what Yahweh has done for them. Let them look back over the generations and remember what Yahweh did from the beginning. They only have to ask their fathers, or their elders to discover it. Because they were Yahweh’s inheritance and His people, when He divided up the world He remembered them, and how many of them there would be, so that he allocated portions to other nations accordingly. He ensured that a broad and wide land was available for them which would be more than sufficient to accommodate their numbers.
10 “He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.
He had found Israel in the desert land, in the waste land, in the howling wilderness. The idea is of someone who has been found wandering in the desert almost near death, helpless and hopeless, saved by the skin of their teeth.
The purpose of this picture is to bring out their helplessness. The point here is that they were not then to be seen as the people of the covenant, safe in their Lord God’s hand, for they had forfeited that (Exodus 32.10), and had become ‘lost’, a whole generation dying in the wilderness (Numbers 14.35). They had become like a party of people who had wandered in the desert and were lost and thirsty, and terrified of the howling creatures around. But Yahweh had found them and taken them under His protection.
All of us without exception have at some time or other to travel ‘in the wilderness’. But the value of that experience will be determined by how we respond. If we look off to Him in confidence and trust it will be the making of us. But if we murmur and grumble and complain it will do us no good.
11 As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, 12 So the LORD alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him.
Like the mother eagle He alone cared for them. None other was with Him. Like her he took them on his wings and bore them safely. The picture is that of an eagle teaching her eaglets to fly and ensuring their safety. In the same way Yahweh alone led His people. No foreign god was concerned. There was little competition to Yahweh in the wilderness.
13 “He made him ride in the heights of the earth, that he might eat the produce of the fields; He made him draw honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock;
The lyrics now moves on into the future. He will make them ride on the high places of the earth (having taught them to fly like the eagle. They will eat the ample increase of the fields, they will suck honey from a rock, they will even obtain oil from a flinty rock. Honey and oil were symbols of luxury and plenty. Obtaining honey and oil from a flinty rock is a considerable step up from obtaining water. The wild bees would nest in the rocks producing their honey, and their olive trees would flourish in rocky soil, seeming to come from the flinty rock. Even the barren places would be fruitful.
14 Curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs; And rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the choicest wheat; And you drank wine, the blood of the grapes.
They would have the best of everything, butter from the herd and milk from the flock, fat and strong rams from Bashan, similarly fat he-goats, the finest of the wheat and abundance of wine from the red grape juice which flows like blood. They would never have had it so good before.
15 “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; you grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. 16 They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger.
But His ‘righteous one’ (Jeshurun) grew fat, and kicked out, they got fatter and fatter and grew sleek and well groomed and untrustworthy. Thus they forgot the One to Whom they owed it all. They ceased to be His righteous one. They forsook the God Who made them; they esteemed lightly the Rock on Whom their deliverance was built, the Rock which was their security. They made Him jealous with what was foreign, seeking to false gods and false religion, they provoked Him to anger with their idolatrous ways and behavior.
It is a sad fact that when God prospers men they soon forget Him. It only takes a little wealth and the opportunity for pleasure for our consecration to go out of the window.
17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. 18 Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you.
In preference to God they turned to demons which were no god, they sacrificed to them, and to gods that they had never had anything to do with, to new gods who were not even gods that their fathers had never feared, and they forgot their God from of old Who had brought them into being, Who had begotten them and Who had borne them in pain.
We may not play around with these. But we do waste our time and attention with our idols in music and sport, in travel and entertainment, and we forget our responsibility towards the One Who was crucified for us.
19 “And when the LORD saw it, He spurned them, because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters. 20 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 faith.
Yahweh’s response was horror at what they were doing and hatred of what they were doing it with. His very children were provoking Him with their behavior, and He declared His determination to hide His face from them and watch over them no more. Then He would see what their end would be. They were like unruly children who were perverse and totally lacking in loyalty.
There is nothing sadder than people forsaken because of their own folly. Can we not remember our first love when all that we desired was to please Him? But now like the Laodiceans many of us have grown lukewarm. And thus God has become very distant.
21 They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; They have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.
Indeed with their ‘phony gods’ they had made Him intolerant of their disloyalty, and they had provoked Him to anger with the vain things that they had to do with. Thus He will bring against them another people and He will favor those people and make His people jealous of them and angry in their hearts. There are probably no particular people in mind here. The point is simply that for a while He will favor their enemies, who are not a chosen people.
22 For a fire is kindled in My anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell; It shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
The destruction coming will result in few that will escape. This introduction of a ‘favored’ enemy will be like a fire kindled by Yahweh which will even burn their dead, will destroy their crops and trees and the land, and set on fire the lower parts of the mountains. The picture is one of ultimate devastation.
23 ‘I will heap disasters on them; I will spend My arrows on them. 24 They shall be wasted with hunger, devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction; I will also send against them the teeth of beasts, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
So will He heap evil circumstances on His people and strike them with His arrows, wasting them with hunger, striking them with plague and pestilence, letting them endure the burning and destruction of their land, its devastation by wild beasts and its being overcome with poisonous crawling things. All the curses of chapter 28 will come on them.
When we have backslidden we too experience the awfulness of His seeming abandonment. And then what is important is that we respond immediately, otherwise it will only get worse. For whom God loves, He chastens.
25 The sword shall destroy outside; There shall be terror within for the young man and virgin, the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.
When they dare to go outside the sword will slay them and bereave their families, and if they hide within their dwellings terror will enter both for young men and maidens, for grandfathers and grandchildren. None will be safe.
Yahweh is now seen as hesitating at the thought of destroying His people completely. Not because they do not deserve it but lest their enemies think that they have defeated them rather than it being due to His activity.
26 I would have said, “I will dash them in pieces, I will make the memory of them to cease from among men,” 27 had I not feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should misunderstand, lest they should say, “Our hand is high; and it is not the LORD who has done all this.” ’
He had determined to destroy them, to cut them in pieces, to so deal with them that they vanished for ever from people’s memories. The only thing that prevented Him was that their enemies would take the credit for themselves. Instead of recognizing that it was Yahweh’s work they would claim that they had done it themselves.
28 “For they are a nation void of counsel, nor is there any understanding in them. 29 Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
He declares Israel’s folly. They lack wise guidance, and are lacking in understanding. They are ignoring the lessons of history which might turn them back to Him, and they were forgetting His Instruction. He longs that they might just be sensible and considers where what they were doing would take them in the end.
Of how many of us can it be said that we are without understanding? If we had even a glimmer of the truth about life and about eternity what different people we would be.
30 How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had surrendered them?
How was it that they could not even stand up against the weakest of their enemies? How was it that a single soldier of their enemies could put a whole regiment of them to flight, and two could put a brigade to flight. It was because they had become weak and unable to defend them. This could only be because He, their Rock, had sold them because He, Yahweh, had delivered them up. It was because He no longer treated them as His redeemed people.
How often we have to look around and see that all that is spiritual is dying around us. We have no impact because we have gone so far from God. Our only hope too is to return to Him with strong crying and tears, but we do not do so because we have grown complacent.
31 For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. 32 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. 33 Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of cobras.
Here there is a brief interlude where the singer, and the author Moses, have their word. The enemies who are being so successful do not have a Rock like Yahweh. Their rock cannot even compare. Yet they trust in it. Thereby do they act as judges of Israel who have turned away from their so great a Rock
How ashamed we should be that other people whose hopes are in something transient and passing will often reveal more dedication to it than we do to God. Many a football supporter shows more dedication to his team, than Christians do to Christ.
For Israel’s vines and fields have also been destroyed just like those of Sodom and Gomorrah. Their grapes have become wild grapes and taste bitter, their clusters of grapes are inedible. Their very wine that which should make glad the heart of man is like poison and venom. And it is because they have forsaken God.
34 ‘Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up among My treasures? 35 Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them.’
Yahweh again takes up the narrative. The wicked will not finally triumph, whether they are the unfaithful in Israel or their adversaries. Within His treasure house Yahweh has stored up what the wicked are and what they have done, and will take vengeance on His enemies. For ‘Vengeance is His’, and He will recompense. This is a general statement applied to this particular situation. One day their foot will slip and calamity will come on them, and what is to come on them will come on them speedily.
While He may for a time make use of peoples who are equally sinful, yet in the end they too must face judgment. Please notice that vengeance is connected with recompense. It is not arbitrary vengeance, but vengeance on those deserving of it.
36 “For the LORD will judge His people and have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their power is gone, and there is no one remaining, bond or free.
Because Yahweh sees that the strength of His people has gone, and are weak and helpless, He will step in on their behalf and act as their vindicator. He will pass a right judgment concerning them, having a change of mind on their behalf. He will again be their Lord.
What a good thing it is for us that God Is so merciful. For even when we have failed Him so badly He comes to seek to restore us to what we should be.
37 He will say: ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge? 38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise and help you, and be your refuge.
First He will face them up to what these gods in whom they had trusted were like. He asks them, where are they now? They had taken refuge in them, and these gods had been given the fat of their sacrifices as food, and had drunk their drink offerings. Why then did these gods not rise up and help them? Why were they therefore not their protection? If they were able, let them see to their situation, and help them and protect them. So Israel must see that unless they turned from these gods there was no help for them. Deliverance could only be for those who truly sought Him.
The point for us is that anything that we trust in other than Christ will finally let us down. There is no one and nothing else which is totally dependable.
39 ‘Now see that I, even I, Am He, and there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand. 40 For I raise My hand to heaven, and say, “As I live forever,
Yahweh provides His own answer to His question about these phony gods. It is because they are powerless. He alone can do these things. He alone can protect His people. He Is the great ‘I Am’, the One Who Is, besides Whom no other can compare. He alone has the power of life and death. He alone performs His own will, wounding and healing as He will, with none being able to deliver from His hand. For He raises His hand to heaven with the purpose of making an oath, and can only swear by Himself, for there is none other. Thus He declares, ‘As I live forever’.
In these verses the greatness of Yahweh is emphasized. He Is ‘the One Who Is’, the only One, with power of life and death, and sickness and health, the One so supreme that there is none greater to swear by than Himself as the living God
41 If I whet My glittering sword, and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to My enemies, and repay those who hate Me. 42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the heads of the leaders of the enemy.” ’
When He wills He can take vengeance on His enemies. He has but to sharpen His sword which is like lightning, and take in His hand the means of judgment, and then He can render vengeance on all of them, whether the unfaithful of Israel or their enemies. He can recompense all of them for their hatred of Him. His arrows will slay innumerable foes, and His sword will devour their flesh. It will be covered with the blood of the slain and the blood of captives and blood will flow from the long haired ones of the enemy.
43 “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, and render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people.”
For in the end He will deliver His people. And the nations, who had previously looked on His people with scant respect, were now called on to praise them for what they have now become, for He will have avenged the blood of His servants, and rendered vengeance on His enemies, and provided a ‘covering for sin’ (making atonement) for His land and people. Thus in the end will Yahweh triumph. Justice will have been exacted and the sins of His people atoned for.
The cry of triumph and praise is echoed throughout Scripture by the true people of God for He Is always faithful to His people, and in the end sees them through all their troubles.
44 So Moses came with Joshua the son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.
That is repeated here with the addition of the presence of Joshua. Joshua is now no longer Moses servant but the Leader-elect, and his connection with the song is again emphasized. And the song was given to the people that they might take it to their hearts ready for the time when it was needed.
45 Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel,
Now his final great task of preparing the people for his death and for the entry into the land was accomplished. It was all over. There remained but the final exhortation.
46 and he said to them: “Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe—all the words of this law. 47 For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.”
In his final moments with them he calls on them to set their hearts on all the words which he has testified to them
He stresses that they must teach these words to their children with the command that they obey them, for it is through observing these words that both they and their children will have true life, and a life that is prolonged in the land which they will shortly be crossing Jordan to possess.
48 Then the LORD spoke to Moses that very same day, saying: 49 “Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho; view the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel as a possession; 50 and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be gathered to your people, just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people; 51 because you trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin, because you did not hallow Me in the midst of the children of Israel.
Moses having given his final exhortation to the people, on that very same day Yahweh calls him up to a mountain to have one last look at the land to which he has safely brought his people before he dies, explaining that he will then die on that mountain. Although his punishment must be carried out he is given special treatment as the favored servant of Yahweh.
He is to climb Mount Nebo, in the mountains and there behold the land of Canaan which Yahweh is giving to the children of Israel for a possession. Thus His final assurance to His servant is as to the success of his venture. They will go over and possess it.
Once he has had this one last look Moses will die in the mountain to which he has climbed. Just as Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, so will Moses die on Mount Nebo and be gathered to his people. And he too was dying because of the trespass at Meribah when both of them were involved in defaming Yahweh in the eyes of the people. They had failed to ‘sanctify Him’, set Him apart in His uniqueness and compassion and power, among the people because of their own perverseness.
52 Yet you shall see the land before you, though you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.”
Yahweh’s concession was for him to see the land, but he was not to have any false hopes of entering it. This embargo was not only to be seen as a lesson for him, but as a lesson for the whole of Israel.
