The Rock and the Rebels: God's Covenant Lawsuit
Introduction: The Courtroom of Creation
We live in a sentimental age, an age that prefers a god made of marshmallow fluff to the God of the Scriptures. Our generation wants a divine therapist, a celestial butler, a God who exists to affirm our choices, no matter how foolish or rebellious. But the God of Moses, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is not a sentimental deity. He is the sovereign Judge of all the earth, and He does right.
The song that Moses is commanded to teach Israel, which we have before us in Deuteronomy 32, is not a campfire singalong. It is a legal summons. It is a covenant lawsuit, a divine rib pattern, formally presented. God is the plaintiff, heaven and earth are the jury, and Israel is the defendant in the dock. This song is to be a perpetual witness against them, a testimony that will pursue them through the centuries. It is a declaration of who God is, a recounting of His faithfulness, a formal indictment of Israel's treachery, a pronouncement of the sentence, and, gloriously, a promise of ultimate restoration and triumph.
This is not some dusty artifact from the Bronze Age. This is the very logic of God's dealings with men. It outlines the pattern of blessing, rebellion, judgment, and grace that defines not only Israel's history but the history of the world, and the history of every human heart. To misunderstand this song is to misunderstand the gospel. For the gospel is not a cancellation of this covenant lawsuit; it is the stunning resolution of it, where the Judge Himself steps down from the bench to take the place of the guilty party.
So as we approach this text, we must do so with sobriety. This is God's testimony about Himself and His dealings with His people. It is a rock-solid foundation in a world of shifting sand, and it is a terrible thing for those who build their house anywhere else.
The Text
"Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 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. For I proclaim the name of the LORD: Ascribe greatness to our God. 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..."
(Deuteronomy 32:1-43 LSB, selected)
The Summons and the Standard (vv. 1-6)
The song begins by summoning the entire created order as witnesses.
"Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth... For I proclaim the name of the LORD: Ascribe greatness to our God. 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." (Deuteronomy 32:1, 3-4)
God calls the cosmos to attend. This is not a private dispute. When God's covenant people rebel, it is a cosmic treason, and the very fabric of creation is called to bear witness. This is because the covenant with Israel was not made in a corner; it was the hinge of world history.
Moses then declares the central theme, the bedrock reality upon which everything else is built: the character of God. He is the Rock. This is the foundational metaphor of the song. A rock is stable, unchanging, a place of refuge, a firm foundation. All His work is perfect, all His ways are justice. He is a God of truth, without injustice. This is the absolute standard. God is not one variable among many; He is the straight edge by which all crookedness is measured. The central conflict of this song, and of all history, is the collision between the character of the Rock and the character of the rebels.
The charge is then leveled with a piercing question: "They have corrupted themselves; they are not His children, because of their blemish: a perverse and crooked generation. Do you thus deal with the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you, who has made you and established you?" (vv. 5-6). The sin is not just rule-breaking; it is filial rebellion. It is a child spitting in the face of a loving father. He bought them, made them, established them. Their rebellion is therefore not just an error, but a profound and monstrous ingratitude.
God's Fatherly Care Remembered (vv. 7-14)
The prosecution now presents its evidence, which is a recital of God's unmerited goodness to Israel. He tells them to "remember the days of old."
"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. For the LORD's portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance." (Deuteronomy 32:8-9)
This is a staggering statement. From the very beginning, from the time of Babel when God scattered the nations, His central purpose was the formation of His people, Israel. The entire geopolitical map of the world was arranged with this tiny nation at its center. They were not an afterthought; they were the plot.
And how did He treat them? "He found him in a desert land... He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, so the LORD alone led him" (vv. 10-12). This is the language of intimate, tender, and fierce protection. He lavished them with blessings from a land they did not deserve, making them "suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock." This is a picture of miraculous provision. Everything they had was a gift.
Prosperity, Apostasy, and Jealousy (vv. 15-21)
What is the result of all this grace? Rebellion. This is the tragic pivot of the song.
"But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; you grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, and scorned the Rock of his salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger." (Deuteronomy 32:15-16)
"Jeshurun" is a term of endearment for Israel, meaning "the upright one." The irony is thick. God's blessings, intended to produce gratitude, instead produced arrogance. They grew fat and kicked like a spoiled mule. As one Puritan put it, "Faithfulness begat prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother." This is a perpetual danger for God's people. Affluence is a far more dangerous spiritual test than adversity. When our bellies are full and our houses are secure, we forget the Rock who made us.
Their sin is described as spiritual adultery. They provoked God to jealousy. We get squeamish about this, but God's jealousy is not like our petty, sinful envy. Envy wants what isn't yours. Jealousy is the righteous zeal to protect what is yours. Israel belonged to God. He was their husband. Their worship of other gods was adultery, and God, as a faithful husband, responded with a holy and righteous jealousy. His name is Jealous (Ex. 34:14).
And so, the sentence is pronounced, and it is a terrifyingly symmetrical justice. "They have moved Me to jealousy with what is not God... so I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation" (v. 21). This is the key that unlocks so much of the New Testament. The Apostle Paul quotes this very verse in Romans to explain God's purpose in turning to the Gentiles. God's plan was to use the salvation of the Gentiles to provoke unbelieving Israel to jealousy, so that they might turn back to Him (Rom. 10:19, 11:11). The covenant lawsuit has global implications.
The Sentence of the Covenant Curses (vv. 22-35)
The curses that follow are not the outburst of an unpredictable tyrant. They are the stipulated penalties of the covenant they had agreed to (Deuteronomy 28). God is simply doing what He promised He would do.
"I will heap disasters on them; I will spend My arrows on them. 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." (Deuteronomy 32:23-24)
This is a terrifying litany of judgment: famine, plague, wild beasts, the sword. God says He will hide His face from them. This is the ultimate curse, the withdrawal of His presence and favor. Yet, even in this wrath, God shows a strange restraint. He says He would have scattered them completely, "had I not feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should misunderstand, lest they should say, 'Our hand is high, and the LORD has not done all this'" (v. 27). God's ultimate concern is the glory of His own name. He will not allow pagan nations to misinterpret His judgments as their victory. He is sovereign even over the execution of His own curses.
Vengeance belongs to Him alone. He declares, "Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time" (v. 35). This is the text Jonathan Edwards famously preached from in "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." The point is that the wicked are held up from judgment only by the sheer mercy and sovereign timing of God. When He removes His hand, they will fall.
The Final Verdict: Atonement and Hope (vv. 36-43)
Just when the judgment seems absolute, the song turns. This is the gospel.
"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." (Deuteronomy 32:36)
God's judgment is ultimately restorative for His people. He brings them to the end of themselves, to the point where their own strength is gone, so that they will turn back to the only one who can save. He will mock their false gods: "Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge?" (v. 37). The idols are powerless. And then God makes the ultimate declaration of sovereignty: "See now 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" (v. 39).
The song concludes with a stunning, global vision of restoration. "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" (v. 43). The final word is not judgment, but atonement. And notice who is invited to the celebration: the Gentiles. The very "foolish nation" used to provoke Israel to jealousy is now called to rejoice with Israel in their restoration. Paul quotes this in Romans 15 as proof that the gospel was always intended for the whole world. The covenant lawsuit against Israel becomes the legal basis for the salvation of the nations.
Conclusion: The Rock Who Was Struck For Us
This song is a witness. It testifies that God is the unshakeable Rock, and that man is a fickle and foolish rebel. It testifies that sin is an act of cosmic ingratitude. It testifies that God judges sin, and that He does so righteously. But it also testifies that God's ultimate purpose is not damnation, but atonement and restoration.
How can a just God, the Rock, whose work is perfect, provide atonement for a crooked and perverse people? How can the lawsuit be resolved? The New Testament gives us the answer. The Rock of their salvation, whom they scorned (v. 15), is Jesus Christ. As Paul tells us, that spiritual Rock that followed them in the wilderness was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4).
In the covenant lawsuit, we are all in the dock. We have all grown fat and kicked. We have all scorned the Rock of our salvation. The curses of the covenant are due to us. But God, in His infinite mercy, resolved the lawsuit in the most astonishing way imaginable. The Judge, God the Son, stepped down from the bench, entered the dock, and took our sentence upon Himself. On the cross, the arrows of God's wrath were spent on Him. He was wasted with the hunger and thirst of judgment. He endured the ultimate curse: God hid His face from Him.
He did this to provide atonement for His land and His people, Jew and Gentile alike. The song of Moses is fulfilled and completed in what the book of Revelation calls "the song of Moses... and the song of the Lamb" (Rev. 15:3). The justice of God revealed in this song is the necessary backdrop for the grace of God revealed at Calvary. You cannot appreciate the sweetness of the gospel until you have felt the bitterness of the law. Our only hope is to abandon all trust in our own righteousness and hide ourselves in the Rock of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was struck for us, that we might drink the water of life freely.