The Rock and the Rot: A Covenant Lawsuit
Introduction: The Danger of a Full Stomach
We live in an age of spectacular historical amnesia. The modern Western church, particularly in America, is like a trust fund baby who has forgotten the name of his benefactor. We are lounging in a house we did not build, enjoying liberties we did not earn, and spending a spiritual inheritance we did not accumulate. And having grown fat, thick, and sleek on the unmerited blessings of God, we have begun to kick. We kick against the authority of our Father, we treat the Rock of our salvation with contempt, and we chase after every new and fashionable idol that comes shuffling down the pike.
This is why the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 is so essential for us. This is not a quaint bit of ancient Hebrew poetry. This is a covenant lawsuit. This is God, through Moses, calling heaven and earth to the witness stand. This song was to be a perpetual testimony against Israel for the day when they would inevitably stray. It is a prophetic diagnosis of spiritual rot that sets in, not during times of trial, but during times of prosperity. It is a detailed account of God's faithfulness, man's predictable treachery, the terrifying nature of covenant curses, and the ultimate, sovereign grace of God that triumphs even over our apostasy.
We are tempted to read this and cluck our tongues at stiff-necked Israel, all the while failing to see our own reflection in the mirror. But this song is for us. It is a warning to a people who have been given much, who have been carried on eagle's wings, who have sucked honey from the rock of God's providence, and who are now, in our foolishness, turning to worship demons. This song is God's eternal word to a people like us, a people who have grown fat and forgotten.
The Text
"Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak; And let the earth hear the words of my mouth. Let what I have learned drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As the droplets on the fresh grass And as the showers on the herb. For I proclaim the name of Yahweh; Ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He. They have acted corruptly toward Him, They are not His children because of their defect; But are a perverse and crooked generation. Do you thus repay Yahweh, O people who are wickedly foolish and without wisdom? Is not He your Father who has bought you? He has made you and established you. Remember the ancient days, Consider the years from generation to generation. Ask your father, and he will declare to you, Your elders, and they will speak to you. When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, When He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the sons of Israel. For Yahweh’s portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land, And in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him; He cared for him; He guarded him as the pupil of His eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, That hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them; He carried them on His pinions. Yahweh alone guided him, And there was no foreign god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, And he ate the produce of the field; And He made him suck honey from the rock, And oil from the flinty rock, Curds of cows, and milk of the flock, With fat of lambs, And rams, the breed of Bashan, and goats, With the finest of the wheat, And of the blood of grapes you drank wine. But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked, You grew fat, thick, and sleek, Then he abandoned God who made him, And treated the Rock of his salvation with wicked foolishness. They made Him jealous with strange gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons who were not God, To gods whom they have not known, New gods who came lately, Whom your fathers did not dread. You neglected the Rock who begot you, And forgot the God who brought you forth. And Yahweh saw this and spurned them Because of the provocation of His sons and daughters. Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them; I will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation, Sons in whom is no faithfulness. They have made Me jealous with what is not God; They have provoked Me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a wickedly foolish nation, For a fire is kindled in My anger, And it burns to the lowest part of Sheol, And it consumes the earth with its produce, And it sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. ‘I will heap calamities on them; I will exhaust My arrows on them. They will be wasted by famine, and consumed by plague And bitter destruction; And the teeth of beasts I will send upon them, With the venom of crawling things of the dust. Outside the sword will bereave, And inside terror, Both choice man and virgin, The nursing baby with the man of gray hair. I would have said, “I will cut them to pieces; I will cause the memory of them to cease from men,” Had I not feared the provocation by the enemy, Lest their adversaries misjudge, Lest they say, “Our hand is triumphant, And Yahweh has not done all this.” ’ For they are a nation where counsel perishes, And there is no discernment in them. Would that they were wise, that they had insight into this, That they would understand their future! How could one pursue one thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their Rock had sold them, And Yahweh had handed them over? Indeed their rock is not like our Rock, Even our enemies themselves judge this. For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, And from the fields of Gomorrah; Their grapes are grapes of poison, Their clusters, bitter. Their wine is the venom of serpents, And the deadly poison of cobras. ‘Is it not laid up in store with Me, Sealed up in My treasuries? Vengeance is Mine, and retribution, In due time their foot will stumble; For the day of their disaster is near, And the impending things are hastening upon them.’ For Yahweh will render justice to His people, And will have compassion on His slaves, When He sees that their strength is gone, And there is none remaining, bond or free. And He will say, ‘Where are their gods, The rock in which they sought refuge? Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you, Let them be your hiding place! See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded, and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand. Indeed, I lift up My hand to heaven, And say, as I live forever, If I sharpen My flashing sword, And My hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance on My adversaries, And I will repay those who hate Me. I will make My arrows drunk with blood, And My sword will devour flesh, With the blood of the slain and the captives, From the long-haired leaders of the enemy.’ O nations, cause His people to shout for joy; For He will avenge the blood of His slaves, And He will render vengeance on His adversaries, And He will atone for His land and His people."
(Deuteronomy 32:1-43 LSB)
The Unimpeachable Plaintiff (vv. 1-4)
Moses begins by summoning the oldest witnesses, the heavens and the earth. This is a cosmic courtroom. The universe itself is being called to testify to the truth of God's word. God's doctrine, His teaching, is not harsh and abrasive; it is like rain and dew, life-giving, refreshing, and necessary for growth. This is the foundation. God’s revelation is a blessing.
And what is the substance of this testimony? It is the name, the character, of Yahweh. "Ascribe greatness to our God!" The entire case, the entire history of the world, hinges on the character of God. And His character is summarized in one potent metaphor: "The Rock!" His work is perfect. His ways are just. He is a God of faithfulness, without injustice, righteous and upright. This is the bedrock of reality. Before any charges are brought against the defendant, the character of the plaintiff is established as flawless. He is the standard. He is not a fickle, moody pagan deity. He is the unchanging, solid, utterly reliable foundation of all that is. If we get this wrong, we will get everything else wrong.
The Ungrateful Child (vv. 5-18)
Having established God's perfect character, the song turns to the character of His people. The contrast is jarring. "They have acted corruptly toward Him." They are a defective, perverse, and crooked generation. The charge is ingratitude of the highest order. "Do you thus repay Yahweh, O people who are wickedly foolish and without wisdom?"
The prosecution then lays out the evidence of God's goodness to them. He is their Father. He bought them, made them, established them. History itself is God's testimony. Moses commands them to remember, to ask their fathers and elders. God's sovereign plan is seen in His arrangement of all nations with Israel in mind. He found them in a howling wasteland, a place of death, and He treasured them, guarded them as the "pupil of His eye," the most sensitive and protected part. He carried them with the strength and tenderness of a great eagle.
And the result of this lavish, undeserved grace? Blessing. Abundance. Honey from the rock, the finest wheat, the richest milk and meat. God withheld nothing good from them. And here we come to the central point of the indictment, a verse that ought to ring in the ears of the American church: "But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked." Jeshurun means "the upright one." It is a term of endearment, used here with savage irony. The upright one, when his belly was full, became a rebellious beast. Prosperity is a far more dangerous spiritual test than poverty. When we are comfortable, secure, and well-fed, our hearts are prone to the deadliest sin of all: forgetfulness. They abandoned the God who made them. They provoked Him with abominations, sacrificing to demons, to "new gods who came lately." This is a perfect description of our current cultural moment, where we have traded the ancient faith for every new, politically correct, soul-destroying ideology that our academic high priests can invent.
The Covenant Lawsuit (vv. 19-38)
God's response is not surprise. It is righteous, covenantal jealousy. This is not the petty envy of a human being; it is the holy fury of a husband whose bride has played the harlot. Because they provoked Him with what is "not God," with empty idols, He will provoke them with those who are "not a people," a foolish nation. The Apostle Paul quotes this very verse in Romans to explain the inclusion of the Gentiles into the church. Israel's apostasy was the very mechanism God used to open the doors of salvation to the world.
The sentence is terrifying. God's anger is a consuming fire that burns to the lowest parts of Sheol. He will hide His face, withdrawing His blessing and protection. He will heap calamities upon them: famine, plague, destruction, the teeth of beasts, the sword. This is not God being arbitrary or cruel. This is God simply enforcing the terms of the covenant that they themselves agreed to. These are the curses listed in Deuteronomy 28, the automatic consequences of rebellion.
Yet even in this fierce judgment, we see God's sovereign purpose. He restrains His full wrath, not for their sake, but for His. He will not utterly destroy them, lest the pagan nations misunderstand and claim victory for their own impotent gods. "Indeed their rock is not like our Rock," Moses says. The ultimate bankruptcy of their idolatry will be exposed. When disaster strikes, God will mockingly ask, "Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge? ... Let them rise up and help you!" The purpose of judgment is to drive them to the end of their own resources, to see the utter foolishness of their sin, and to strip away every false hope.
The Sovereign Executioner and Healer (vv. 39-43)
The song reaches its crescendo with one of the most powerful declarations of God's absolute sovereignty in all of Scripture. After the idols have been proven worthless, God speaks: "See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded, and it is I who heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand."
This is the ultimate truth. There are no rogue molecules in the universe. There are no maverick calamities. God is sovereign over life and death, over wounding and healing, over blessing and cursing. He takes full responsibility. And because He is sovereign, His vengeance is certain. "Vengeance is Mine, and retribution." This is not a license for our personal vendettas, but a promise that God will settle all accounts perfectly. He will sharpen His flashing sword and repay those who hate Him.
But the song does not end in blood and fire alone. The final verse is a startling turn to grace. "O nations, cause His people to shout for joy." The Gentiles are called to rejoice with Israel. Why? "For He will avenge the blood of His slaves, and He will render vengeance on His adversaries, and He will atone for His land and His people." The final word is not vengeance, but atonement. The God who wounds is the God who heals. The God who kills is the God who makes alive. The God who judges is the God who atones.
The Rock Who Was Struck for the Rot
How can this be? How can a God of perfect justice, whose work is perfect, simply atone for a corrupt, perverse, and crooked generation? How can the Rock remain righteous while forgiving the rot?
The entire song points to a reality that Moses could only see in shadows. The Rock of Israel, who gave them water in the desert, is Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 10:4). All the covenant curses described in this song, the full, fiery measure of God's wrath against our wicked foolishness, our fat-bellied kicking, and our demonic idolatries, were heaped upon Him. God hid His face from His own Son on the cross. The sword of God's justice was not restrained; it was plunged into Him. He was wounded that we might be healed. He was put to death that we might be given life.
God's vengeance against sin was not set aside; it was satisfied. He poured it out on the Rock of our salvation. And because the Rock was struck, streams of living water, honey from the rock, now flow to all nations. We, the foolish nation, have been made jealous for God by Israel's stumbling, and we are now called to rejoice with them in the God who atones for His land and His people, Jew and Gentile alike, through the blood of His Son.
Therefore, let us not be a people who grow fat and kick. Let us be a people who remember what our Father has done for us. He found us in the howling waste of our sin, and He has made us His own treasured possession. He has bought us, not with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of the Lamb. Let us ascribe greatness to our God, for He is the Rock, and His work of salvation is perfect.