Commentary - Deuteronomy 32

Bird's-eye view

Deuteronomy 32 is the Song of Moses, a capstone to his ministry and a final, powerful sermon delivered in poetic form. This is not a sentimental farewell. It is a prophetic testimony, a covenant lawsuit that Moses lodges against Israel before the watching world. He calls heaven and earth to the witness stand (v. 1) to hear his indictment and God's verdict. The song establishes the absolute righteousness, faithfulness, and perfection of God, whom he calls "the Rock" (v. 4), and contrasts it with the utter corruption, foolishness, and apostasy of Israel. It recounts God's tender, fatherly care for His people, leading them out of nothing and lavishing them with blessing. Then it describes their inevitable, tragic rebellion, how they "grew fat and kicked" (v. 15), abandoning the God who made them for worthless, demonic idols. The remainder of the song details the terrifying consequences of this covenant treachery, the outpouring of God's righteous judgment. Yet, even in this, God's ultimate purpose is the glory of His own name and the eventual restoration of His people, culminating in a call for the nations to rejoice with them (v. 43).

This song is a microcosm of the entire biblical narrative: God's goodness, man's sin, divine judgment, and God's ultimate, sovereign grace that triumphs in the end. It is a sobering warning against apostasy and a profound declaration of the character of God.

Outline

Commentary

v. 1-2 Moses begins with a formal summons. He calls the entire created order, "heavens" and "earth," to serve as the jury in this great covenant lawsuit. This is not mere poetic flourish; it establishes the gravity of what is about to be said. God's dealings with His people are not a private affair. The testimony he is about to give is as essential to the world as rain and dew are to the grass. His doctrine, his teaching, is not a dry list of rules but a life-giving precipitation. True theology is always refreshing; it is what makes things grow.

v. 3-4 The central theme is declared immediately. This song is about the "name of Yahweh." To proclaim His name is to declare His character, His reputation, His very being. And what is that character? He is the "Rock." This metaphor speaks of stability, permanence, faithfulness, and strength. He is a refuge. All His work is "perfect," and all His ways are "just." He is a God of "faithfulness" (emunah, the root of our word Amen) without a hint of injustice. He is "Righteous and upright." This is the foundational truth upon which everything else rests. Before we can understand our sin, we must understand His perfection. God is the standard, the immovable benchmark of all reality.

v. 5-6 The contrast is immediate and jarring. God is perfect, but "They have acted corruptly toward Him." The problem is not with God, but with them. They are His children in a covenant sense, but their actions prove they are defective, illegitimate children. They are a "perverse and crooked generation," a phrase the apostles would later apply to their own contemporaries. Moses then asks a rhetorical question dripping with holy indignation: "Do you thus repay Yahweh?" Is this how you treat the Father who bought you, made you, and established you? The foolishness is breathtaking. It is the sin of the creature turning on the Creator, the redeemed turning on the Redeemer. This is the essence of all sin: ungrateful, wicked foolishness.

v. 7-9 The antidote to such foolishness is remembrance. "Remember the ancient days." History is not a random series of events; it is the unfolding of God's sovereign decree. The call to ask fathers and elders is a call to maintain covenant continuity. And what should they remember? That God, the "Most High," arranged the geography and demography of the entire planet with Israel in mind. He drew the borders of the pagan nations "according to the number of the sons of Israel." This is an astonishing statement of God's meticulous providence and Israel's centrality in His plan for the world. Why? Because "Yahweh's portion is His people." He has chosen them for Himself. This is the doctrine of election in embryonic form.

v. 10-14 Moses now paints a tender picture of God's grace. He found Israel in a "desert land," a place of death and chaos. They had nothing to commend them. It was God who acted. He "encircled him," "cared for him," and "guarded him as the pupil of His eye", the most sensitive and protected part of the body. The image of the eagle stirring its nest is one of the most beautiful in all of Scripture. The mother eagle teaches her young to fly by making the nest uncomfortable and then catching them as they fall. This is how God trains His people, pushing them out of their comfort zones but never letting them fall to their destruction. He alone guided them and then lavished them with impossible blessings, honey from the rock, oil from flint, the richest of foods. This is all grace, pure grace.

v. 15-18 And here is the great tragedy. "But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked." Jeshurun, meaning "the upright one," is a poetic and ironic name for Israel. God's blessings, instead of producing gratitude, produced arrogance and rebellion. Fat, thick, and sleek, they no longer felt their need for God. This is a perpetual danger for the people of God. Prosperity is a far more dangerous test than adversity. They abandoned the God who made them and treated the Rock of their salvation with contempt. How? By turning to "strange gods," which the text bluntly identifies as "demons." All idolatry is ultimately demonic. They traded the living God for new, trendy idols their fathers never knew. They "neglected the Rock who begot" them. The sin is a profound forgetting of their identity, their history, and their God.

v. 19-22 God sees, and He is not indifferent. He "spurned them." Their idolatry is a direct "provocation." God's response is to hide His face, to withdraw the sense of His presence and favor. He will let them see what the natural end of their choices is. And then comes a key principle, one the apostle Paul quotes in Romans. Because they made God jealous with a "not God," He will make them jealous with a "not people." He will provoke them with a "wickedly foolish nation." God will use the pagan Gentiles to discipline His rebellious covenant people. This is the principle of reciprocal justice. His anger is not a petty tantrum; it is a holy fire that burns to the lowest parts of Sheol and consumes the very foundations of the mountains. The judgment for covenant breaking is cosmic in its scope.

v. 23-27 The description of the covenant curses is terrifying. God will exhaust His arrows on them. Famine, plague, destruction, wild beasts, venomous snakes, the sword outside, and terror inside. The judgment is total, affecting everyone from the young man and virgin to the nursing baby and the old man. God's judgment is not indiscriminate, but it is thorough. He then reveals His inner counsel. He would have utterly annihilated them, erased their memory from history, were it not for one thing: His own reputation. He would not allow the pagan enemy to misinterpret the situation and boast that their own hand had achieved the victory. God's primary motive, in salvation and in judgment, is the glory of His own name.

v. 28-33 The song returns to the foolishness of Israel. They are a nation devoid of counsel and discernment. Moses utters a wish: if only they were wise enough to understand their end, their future. How could their enemies possibly defeat them, one chasing a thousand, unless their own Rock had sold them into judgment? It is an admission that Israel's defeats are never a result of the enemy's strength, but of God's disciplinary action. He then contrasts the true Rock with the false ones. "Indeed their rock is not like our Rock." The source of their apostasy is corrupt, like a vine from Sodom. It produces only poison grapes and bitter clusters. Their religion is serpent venom.

v. 34-36 But God has not lost control. All these things are stored up with Him, sealed in His treasuries. He is biding His time. "Vengeance is Mine, and retribution." This is not for us to take into our own hands. God will settle all accounts perfectly and in His own time. The day of disaster for His enemies is near. And in the midst of this, there is a turn. Yahweh will "render justice to His people" and "have compassion on His slaves." When does this happen? When He sees that their own strength is completely gone. God brings us to the end of ourselves so that we can rely only on Him. This is the bedrock of the gospel.

v. 37-39 At that point of desperation, God will issue a divine taunt. "Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge?" Let those idols who feasted on their sacrifices come and save them now. The silence will be deafening. When all false refuges have been exposed as fraudulent, God makes His great declaration. "See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me." This is the ultimate assertion of sovereignty. He holds the power of life and death, wounding and healing. No one can deliver from His hand. He is the absolute monarch of the universe.

v. 40-42 God confirms this declaration with an oath. Because there is no one greater to swear by, He swears by Himself, lifting His hand to heaven and declaring, "as I live forever." He is the eternal God, and His justice will be as eternal as He is. He will sharpen His flashing sword and execute vengeance on His adversaries. The imagery is that of a divine warrior, making His arrows drunk with blood and His sword devour flesh. This is the language of holy war against evil, and it should be a comfort to God's people that He will not allow wickedness to stand forever.

v. 43 The song ends on a surprising and glorious note. After this massive display of judgment and salvation, the call goes out not just to Israel, but to the "nations." The Gentiles are commanded to shout for joy with His people. This is a profound, early glimpse of the gospel's reach. The work God does for Israel is not just for Israel. He will avenge the blood of His servants, render vengeance on His foes, and, most gloriously, He will "atone for His land and His people." The final word is not vengeance, but atonement. This points forward to the cross of Christ, where the ultimate atonement was made, providing the basis for both Jews and Gentiles to be brought together into one people, shouting for joy together.