Deuteronomy 32
1 Listen, O heavens and I will speak; O earth, hear the words of my mouth. 2 My doctrine will drop as the rain, my speech will distill as the dew, as the small rain on the tender herb, and as the showers on the grass: 3 Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe greatness to our God. 4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without evil, just and right is he.
- God is infinitely great.
- He made all that exists.
- Psalm 145:3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.
God is our Father who bought usat the greatest price every paid for anything
5 They have corrupted themselves so that they are not his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. 6 Is this how you repay the kindness of the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your father who has 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 to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
- God divided the nations and set the boundaries according to the number of the children of Israel.
- Those who believe in Jesus Christ are included in this number.
- By faith we become children of Abraham.
- 1Peter 1:18 For you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
- Galatians 3:7…they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
9 For the LORD’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. 10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he surrounded him, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple/pupil/center of his eye. 11 As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, and spreads abroad her wings, and takes them, and carries them on her wings: 12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no foreign god with him. 13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; 14 Butter of cows, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and you drank the pure blood of the grape. 15 But Jeshurun/upright grew fat, and kicked: you have grown fat, you are grown thick, you are covered with fatness; then he forsook God that made him, and fell away from the Rock of his salvation.
- God’s portion is His people. That means that the part of creation He wants for His own is us.
- He took you personally for His own.
- He finds, leads, instructs, protects, and keeps us as the center of His attention.
- 'Apple of his eye’ is correctly translated PUPIL of His eye.
- The pupil is the very center of the eye and has five systems of protection—the eyebrows, the eyelids, the eyelashes, the tear ducts, and the bone around the eye.
- Is it not better to be the ‘center’ of God’s eye than the apple of His eye?
- About the eagle: “High on a ledge is her nest. It takes eaglets 3 years to grow enough feathers to try to fly. Then mom kicks against the nest to get them to start flapping their wings. When they are ready she nudges them out of the nest and hovers near to catch them if their wings don’t hold them. She swoops under them and bears them back up to the nest. God often stirs up our nests to teach us to spread our faith wings to learn to soar and when we fall He swoops under and bears us up on eagles wings.” Skip Heitzig, pastor Calvary Chapel Albuquerque NM (All scripture is for all of God’s people.)
- 1Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened to them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
God is jealous because He loves us
16 They provoked him to jealousy with foreign gods, with abominations they provoked him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to devils, not to God; to gods whom they did not know, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers did not fear. 18 But you are unmindful of the Rock that begat you, and have forgotten God that formed you. 19 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 will be: for they are a very stubborn and disobedient generation, children in whom is no faith.
- Devils is the word ‘shadim.’ This word means demons, the evil spirits that Jesus cast out of people when He walked on earth.
- These evil spirits are behind all false worship. They are behind the idols. The statues are a front for the forces of evil that entered earth when man fell in Eden.
- To seek power from sources rather then our Maker is to place another god before us—demons.
- Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.
- Exodus 20:5 You will not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And showing love to thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and make them jealous 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 will burn to the lowest hell, and will consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
- Hell is the word ‘sheol.’ It means Hades, the place of the dead. Dr. Maurice Rawlins in his book, Beyond Death’s Door, speaks of resuscitating patients in cardiac arrest. Some come back screaming ‘I am in hell.’ When he interviewed them immediately afterward, they knew hell was real, literal; they had just been there.
23 I will heap misfortunes on them; I will spend my arrows on them. 24 They will be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning coals, 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 outside, and terror inside, will bereave/ miscarry both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. 26 I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men: 27 Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries would misjudge, so they not say, Our hand is high, and the LORD has not done all this. 28 For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. 29 O 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 shut them up? 31 For their rock is not as our Rock, 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 dragons and the cruel venom of asps. 34 Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
- God longs for us to be wise and think life through.
- Notice here that God calls it wise to considerthe outcome of
something.
- They could not have been defeated if they had stayed with God.
35 To me belongs vengeance, and recompense; their foot will slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that will come upon them hurry. 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 none shut up, or left. 37 And he will say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted, 38 That ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.
- Vengeance belongs to God.
- God is far better at it, more thorough, and He uses it for good.
- Romans 12:19 Dearly beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.
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 forever. 41 If I sharpen my flashing sword, and my hand takes hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to my enemies, and will reward them that hate me. 42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges on the enemy.
- He alone is God.
- He controls all things.
- He is inescapable.
- We will all meet our Maker face to face.
- Some will enter His great love and blessing; some will feel shame at selfishness and loss of rewards; and some will receive eternal punishment.
He will avenge the blood of His servants and be merciful to His people
43 Rejoice, O nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will cover his land, and to his people. 44 And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Joshua the son of Nun. 45 And Moses ended speaking all these words to all Israel: 46 And he said to them, Set your hearts unto all the words that I testify among you this day, which you are to command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. 47 For it is not an empty thing for you because it is your life: and through this thing you will prolong your days in the land, where you go over Jordan to possess it.
- Obedience to God is life, blessing, and prolonging of days.
- God covering his land (v.43) is like Noah’s ark was covered with pitch/bitumen so that it would float on the waters of judgment and not sink.
- God’s people were safe inside Him no matter what disasters the world brings on itself by refusing His grace.
48 And the LORD spoke to Moses that same day saying, 49 Get up into this mountain Abarim, to mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab that is over against Jericho; and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession: 50 And die in the mountain where you go, and be gathered to your people; as Aaron your brother died in mount Hor and was gathered to his people: 51 Because you trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah/strife-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you did not sanctify me in the midst of the children of Israel. 52 You will see the land before you; but you will not go into the land that I give the children of Israel.
- Disobedience results in loss of blessing.
- Exodus 17 tells the incident of Moses disobedience.
- God had planned to graciously give the people water from out of a rock a second time.
- The first time Moses struck the rock one time, as Christ was struck for our sins one time.
- The second time, God told Moses to speak to the rock as we only need to speak to God now to have our needs met.
- Moses yelled at the people and struck the rock twice instead of speaking to it.
- He didn't show god's graciousness, but anger, Moses' anger.
Because of Christ, God is not angry at us.
- Leviticus 10:3…This is what the LORD spoke, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified.
Deuteronomy 33
1 And this is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death. 2 He said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir to them; he shined forth from mount Paran. He came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a law of fire for them.
- At creation, God pronounced blessings.
- He made man in His image and gave man, like Himself, power to bless.
- Daniel 7:10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
God loves His people, holds them in His hand, and gives them His words
3 Yes, he loved the people; all his saints are in your hand: and they sat down at your feet; every one will receive of your words. 4 Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. 5 And he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together. 6 Let Reuben live, and not die; and do not let his men be few. 7 And this is the blessing of Judah: he said, LORD, hear the voice of Judah, and bring him to his people: let his hands be sufficient for him; help him from his enemies.
8 And of Levi he said, Let your Thummim and your Urim be with your holy one, whom you proved at Massah, and with whom you strove at the waters of Meribah; 9 Who said to his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brothers, nor knew his own children: for they have observed your word, and kept your covenant.
- The Urim and Thummim were stones on the breastplate of the high priest by which the priest asked counsel of the Almighty God.
- Luke 10:39… Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.
- John 10:28 And I give to them eternal life; and they will never perish; neither will man pluck them out of my hand.
10 They will teach Jacob your judgments, and Israel your law: they will put incense before you, and whole burnt sacrifice on your altar. 11 Bless, LORD, his substance, and accept the work of his hands: strike through the loins of them that rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they not rise again. 12 And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the LORD will dwell in safety by him; and the LORD will cover him all day long, and he will dwell between his shoulders. 13 And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that couches beneath,
14 And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things produced by the moons, 15 And for the best things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills,
- The heart is between the shoulders.
- God covers His beloved and keeps them safe and close to His heart.
His eternal glory dwells in us
16 And for the precious things of the earth and its fullness, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come on the head of Joseph, and on the top of the head of him that was separated from his brothers.
17 His glory is like the firstling of his bull, and his horns are like the horns of unicorn: with them he will push the people together to the ends of the earth: they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh. 18 And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out; and, Issachar, in your tents. 19 They will call the people to the mountain; there they will offer sacrifices of righteousness: for they will suck of the abundance of the seas, and treasures hid in the sand. 20 And of Gad he said, Blessed be he that enlarges Gad: he dwells as a lion, and tears the arm with the crown of the head.
- The Lord is the flame, we are the bush. His love eternally blazes within us if we allow it.
- Exodus 3:2 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
- Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
21 And he provided the first part for himself, because there, in a portion of the lawgiver, he was seated; and he came with the heads of the people, he executed the justice of the LORD, and his judgments with Israel. 22 And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion’s whelp: he will leap from Bashan. 23 And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, and full with the blessing of the LORD: possess the west and the south. 24 And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brothers, and let him dip his foot in oil. 25 Your shoes will be iron and brass; and as your days, so will your strength be.
- One of the great oil reserves on earth is in the foot-like tip of the land that belonged to the tribe of Asher.
- Our God is perfect justice (Deuteronomy 32:4).
26 There is none like the God of Jeshurun/upright, who rides on the heaven to help you, and in his excellency on the sky. 27 The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: he will thrust out the enemy from before you and will say, Destroy them. 28 Israel then will dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob will be on a land of grain and wine; his heavens will drop down dew. 29 Happy are you, O Israel: who is like to you, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of your help, and who is the sword of your excellency! And your enemies will cringe before you; and you will tread upon their high places.
- God has no equal; there is none like Him.
- He is infinite, eternal, at infinitely exquisite.
- Upright ones are those who seek God and walk by faith.
- He is our refuge.
- His everlasting arms are underneath us.
- He conquers and throws out our enemies.
- Jeremiah 10:6 For there is none like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in power.
- Isaiah 63:9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
Deuteronomy 34
1 So Moses went up from the plains of Moab to the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah that is opposite/facing Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land of Gilead to Dan, 2 And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, to the farthest sea, 3 And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, to Zoar. 4 And the LORD said to him, This is the land I promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob saying, I will give it to your seed: I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you will not go over there.
- Dan was the northernmost part of the land. God showed Moses all the promised land.
- We view our ‘promised land’ on the pages of God’s Word.
- Revelation 3:21 To him that overcomes I will grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
- Revelation 21:7 He that overcomes will inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he will be my son.
5 So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. 6 And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor: but no man knows his grave to this day. 7 Moses was 120 years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force/vigor abated. 8 And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: and the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
- God walks with us through death.
- God buried Moses. He didn’t want Moses to become a false object of worship.
- Burial places often become shrines of worship. This is wrong.
- We worship the One who rose from the dead, not those who have no such power.
- Notice also that God had kept Moses strong until the end of his life.
- Psalm 23:4 Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me:
9 And Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands on him: and the children of Israel listened to him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses. 10 And never since has a prophet arisen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 11 In all the signs and the wonders, that the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, 12 And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror that Moses showed in the sight of all Israel.
- God knew Moses face to face.
- He showed His mighty hand and great awesomeness.
- Deuteronomy 10:17 For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, who does not regard persons, or take reward:
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SUMMARY: Deuteronomy 32-34
- God, our Father, bought us with the greatest price ever paid for anything
- He is jealous because He loves us with all His heart
- He will avenge the blood of His servants and be merciful to His people
- God loves His people, holds them in His hand, and gives them His words
- His eternal glory dwells in us