Deuteronomy 32

Deuteronomy 32:1-3

In this chapter we have, 1. The song of Moses, (1.) The preface, ver. 1, 2. (2.) A high character of God, and the ill character of the people of Israel, ver. 3—6. (3.) A rehearsal of the great things God had done for them, and their ill carvings towards him, 7—18. (4.) A prediction of the destroying judgments which God would bring upon them for their aggravated sins, ver. 19—13. (5.) A promise of the destruction of their enemies at last, and the glorious deliverance of a remnant of Israel, ver. 33—43. 2. The rehearsals with which Moses delivered this song to them, ver. 44—47. 3. The orders God gives to Moses to go up to mind Nilo and die, ver. 48—52.

1. OWE ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak: and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 2. My doctrine shall drop as the rain: my speech shall fulfil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the flowers upon the grass. 3. Because I will publish the name of the LORD: a scribe ye greatness unto our God.

Moses opens his important song, 1. With a solemn appeal to heaven and earth, for the truth of his word, and the justice of the divine procedure, or as if more attentive than this stupid people, they would sooner hear and obey him. His doctrine is described as dropping as the rain, whether in wrath, as the deluge, or in mercy, as the gentle flowers to refrain the parched ground; and the influence of it like the small rain on the tender grass, descending fortly, and sweetly insinuating into the affections. Such is the gospel of Jesus, cooling the parched conscience, burnt up with the wrath of God, causing the heart to yield its fruit, and wherever received making the inward man to flourish as a green field; whilst like the ground which, after rain produced only brats and thorns, is high unto curling, whose end is to be burned; so an unprofitable hearing and rejection of this word exposes to greater damnation, and makes it a favour of death unto death. 2. The reason is given for the audience and attention he demands, because of the greatness and glory of that God, whose name he was about to proclaim. 3. Nor, The higher thoughts we entertain of God, the more shall we be afraid to sin, and the reader to submit to every providence, and to own the justice of every afflictive dispensation.

4. He is ’the rock,’ his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment: ‘a God of truth, a. I without iniquity, just and right is he. 5. They have composed themselves, I their foot is not the foot of his children; they are a perverse and crooked generation. 6. Do ye

ye

Deuteronomy 32:19-25

John Chall 1451.

2. Their idolatry was especially vile and abominable. They set up strange gods, other than the true God, and new idols, such as even the work of their idolatrous fathers neither knew nor feared, and thus grew worse and worse. Nor, they derived to devils, so shockingly beforesd and infatuated is the blind idolater, and more solemnious to placate a malignant spirit, than to secure the favour of that God, before whom the devils tremble. Nor, There is nothing so shocking and absurd of which a fallen spirit is to itself is not capable. 3. Their ingratitude was most basic and provoking: they forget the God who formed them, made them a people so dislinguish, and were unmindful of their rock who begat them. No wonder therefore, his jealousy burnt like fire, and fierce wrath awoke against their trandestness. Nor, (1.) God is a jealous God, he cannot bear a rival in the afflictions of his people, much less a superior. (2.) They who forget God, will not be forgotten of him, his wrath abducts on them.

3. And when the LORD saw it, he + abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters. 20. And he said, ‘I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very forward generation, children in whom is no faith. 21. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not real, they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people, I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. 22. For a fire is kindled in my anger, and I shall burn into the lowest hell, and I shall conflate the earth with her incase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. 23. ‘I will keep my chiefs upon them, I will spend mine arrows upon them. 24. They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with a burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. 25. The sword without, and terne of within shall I destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling aloe, with the man of gray hairs.

It is the folly of sinners that they often say, Tufts, God shall not be: but his eyes run to and fro in the earth, and there is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where any of the confuses of iniquity can hide themselves. We hear therefore, the wrath of God denounced upon them. 1. In his abhorrence of them. They had once born the character of children in profession at least; now that they act so undurfully, it is justice to disinherit them. Nor, Sin makes us odious in the fight of divine purity, and no sin so offerless as theirs, who made profession of religion. 2. In his hiding his face from them: not that he ceased to misuse their iniquities, but he withdrew every token of his favour from them, to try them if they would seek after him; but they continued perverse and oblivious, and faithless to all their vows and engagements. Nor, Their sin is greatly aggravated, who not only transgress the law they are under, but violate the covenant they once entered into. 3. As they had treated God with such evenings, he will punish them in kind, making them a prey to blind and idolatrous nations, and obliging them to serve those whom they regarded as vile and despicable. Such were the Babylonians and Romans, who subdued them, and such were all those Gentiles, who, on their rejection of Christ and his gospel, were admitted into covenant with God, from which by their wickedness they were excluded. 4. Their terrible end is forested. The fire of God shall burn up their pleasant land and goodly cities, God’s bow shall be bent, and his quiver emptied with repeated strokes of judgment, the famine shall devour, the pestilence confame them, the beasts of the field and poisonous serpents shall fix their insurmount forge upon them, whilst the sword of the enemy merciless and drenched in blood, shall spare neither young nor old, till they are destroyed. Nor, God’s plagues will overtake the sinner sinner or later; at least, if not before, in the everlasting bunnings of hell.

26. I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among them: 27. Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, left their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and left they should say, + Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this. 28. For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. 29. 30. That they were wise, that they understood this, that they would confide their latter and! 30. How should one chafe a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up? 31. For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies them-

selves 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 dragons, and the cruel venom of afps. 34. Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures? 35. To me belong to vengeance and recompense, their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make halfe. 36. For the LORD shall judge his people, and I repent himself for his servants; when he death that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left. 37. And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted. 38. Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank of the wine of their drink-offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.

Deuteronomy 32:26-38

Just had it been with God utterly to have consumed them; but for his great name’s like he says his arm. 1. He consults his own glory. He might have cut them down as ripe, for vengeance, nor left to much as a handful in the enemy of the field standing; but he knew their enemies, a people said of understanding, would secrete it to their own power, and to the honour of their pretended desires: therefore he untrusted to spare a remnant, fearing the wrath of the enemy, (not really, but speaking according to the manner of men) half they should triumph in making an end of them. 2. Moses express his ardent desire, that Israel might make a good use of God’s corrections and mercies, and in the view of their latter end, bethink them before it was too late. Nor, (1.) It is an important thing to prepare for death, and should be often and solemnly the matter of our consideration. (2.) The moment of our abode here is so short, and eternity so awful which depends upon it, that they are fools indeed, who for things tempered lute the things eternal. (3.) It should be the desire and prayer of every faithful minister, to awaken the souls of sinners to the consideration of these things. 3. The victory of the enemy over Israel, is allotted to the true cause, their sins, not effected by human arm, or heathen idols power, but because said into the hands of their foes, and forfakes of God their rock, under which blessing in times past, their remarkable success had restored from those they subdued, a confession of the superiority of Israel’s God. 4. The sin of Israel’s enemies shall come up in remembrance before God, and their punishment lingers not. Their sins are great as Sodom, and their iniquity like Gomorrah; the measure of their iniquity is filled: God keeps a record of it laid up in store before him, and sealed against the day of vengeance. Nor, The prosperous sinners flourish long, and be suffered to trample down God’s Israel, a book of their pride is kept, and the day is coming when they who treasured up wrath against the day of wrath, shall be overtaken by it. The hour is fixed, and it is near, even at the door, when death shall cut down the finers, and his damnation no longer flunkers. 5. God will remember his people in their distresses, and repent, i.e. change, not his mind towards them, for that is unchangeable, but his manner of dealing with them, corresponding to their desolation, beholding their cities without inhabitants, and their country deferred. Thus under the judges, and especially after the Babylonians captivity, they experienced his mercy towards them in their deep affliction. Nor, In the times of his people’s greatest calamities, he is near to usher, here, on their humble return to him, and to pluck them as brands from the burning. 6. God express his contempt and sin of the old deities; either those in which Israel had trusted, none of which could help them in distress, or rather, the gods of their enemies, to whom they had so liberally lacrificed on their former victories; let them now protect their victories. But how shall they save others, when themselves are bowed down and upon it, weary beasts, carrying among other spoil into captivity. Nor, They who trust on any thing but Christ alone for salvation, will find they lean on a broken reed, too weak to support them, which will run into their hand and pierce it.

39. See now that I, even I am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive: I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. 40. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say I live for ever. 41. If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment, I will mend vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. 42. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, (and my sword shall devour flesh) and that with the blood of the slain, and of the captives, from the beginning of revenues upon the enemy. 43. + Rejoice, O ye nations with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.

v. 39-42

Deuteronomy 32:39-45

The song concludes, 1. With a proclamation of God’s glory and greatness as it began. I, even I am he, the self-existent, and the only God. There is none with me equal in glory, none before me. I kill, and I make advice; dominion and power are all lodged in my hand, the death of my enemies is determined, the life of my people is secured; or if I finite them, so that they seem dead, I, who wounded, can heal them. Neither is there any who can deliver out of my hand; none who dare interpose to rescue my enemies from destruction, none to pluck my people, and separate them from my love. Nate, All these things are expressly ascribed to our Jesus, and in a more eminent manner have been, and continued to be fulfilled, both respecting his Spiritual Israel, and his spiritual enemies. 2. With a solemn oath of God, who because he can swear by no greater, swears by himself, to shew the immutability of his enemies, (1.) In his enemies destruction. The glittering sword is unabashed; it is whetted with fury; it descends upon the neck of his enemies, wedded by the arm of Omnipotence, and therefore the desolation cannot but be terrible, when God awakes to vengeance, and drenches his arrows in the blood of the Sun. Nate, It is a fearful thing to kill him the hands of the living God; and yet unfeels sinners repent, they must infallibly perish, without mercy or remedy. (2.) For his people’s comfort. They shall see the vengeance executed on their enemies, and rejoice in God’s glory therein manifested; they shall believe the precious promises confirmed by the oath of God, and triumph in their great and sure salvation: they shall see the well records of his church, when the nations shall flow into it, and all his redeemed come at last to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads. Nate, (1.) Whatever trials the faithful may be exposed to, or whatever fulfilment for their sins they may undergo, peace and joy shall be their everlasting portion. (2.) The people of God should be always comforted, nor amidst their days of heaviness, through manifold temptation, interest their rejoicing in hope. (3.) Let the enemies of God’s church and people knew their day is coming, and when the smoke of their torment ascended for ever and ever, the saints in glory shall shout Hallelujah.

44. ¶ And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and his Elisha the son of Nun. 45. And Moses made an end of speaking all their words to all Israel. 46. And he said unto them, ‘Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day; which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. 47. For it is not a vain thing for you; ‘because it is your life; and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it. 48. And the LORD spake unto Moses that self-fame day, saying, 49. ‘Get thee up into this mountain Abarin, and mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over again! Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession. 50. And die in the mount whither thou goeth up, and be gathered unto thy people; as I Aaron thy brother died in mount Hira, and was gathered unto his people: 51. Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel, at the waters of Meribah-kadeh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sandished me not in the midst of the children of Israel. 52. Yet thou shalt see the land before thee, but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.

Deuteronomy 32:44-52

Moses and Joshua, in different congregations of the people, solemnly rehearse the words of this song: as Joshua is shortly to supply Moses’ place, they must bear the same word, and witness the same truth. Nate, There is but one truth in the scripture, one faith, one hope, one gospel. Moses after delivery of this song, 1. Adds his earnest charge to them, to set their hearts to obey all these commands of God, and not only themselves to be exemplary, but seek to transmit their religion to the succeeding generations, by training their children up in the way which they should go; for it is not a vain thing, an uncomfortable matter, their life depended on it, their comfortable life in Canaan, their eternal life in heaven. Nate, Religion is our highest interest, as well as our bounties duty: happy, were we all more deeply convinced thereof! 2. God less Moses know he must die. The very day his work is done, he is relieved up to mount Nebo. Nate, When God hath accomplished all his will in us upon earth, he will not fall that time hour to take us to himself. He reminds him of his sin that prevented his passing over Jordan. Humble reflections upon past succinctness become us even in dying moments. He mentions Aaron’s death before him, as a comfortable support against his own. Moses had seen him die in peace, and was now to go to him. It is a comfort in dying seasons, to think of those who have gone before, and whom we shall so shortly

meet in glory, especially our Divine Redeemer, the High priest of our profession—Yet he may see the land, though he may not enter it. God is pleased to shew him this favour as a token of his reconciliation to him, and in full view of it he may die content. Nate, (1.) This side the grave, we can only by faith see the promises also off; we must crush the stream of death, and then we shall receive them in all their fulness. (2.) Thou on a dying bed we may have much to lament, it is enough if Jesus stands by to lay our iniquity is pardoned, and holds our eternal life, as the gift of God to us, through his obedience unto death in our behalf.

Behem Chod 1437.