In this chapter we have, I. The song which Moses,
by the appointment of God, delivered to the children of Israel, for
a standing admonition to them, to take heed of forsaking God. This
takes up most of the chapter, in which we have, 1. The preface,
1 Give 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 distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: 3 Because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. 4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. 5 They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. 6 Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?
Here is, I. A commanding preface or
introduction to this song of Moses,
II. An awful declaration of the greatness
and righteousness of God,
1. He begins with this, and lays it down as
his first principle, (1.) To preserve the honour of God, that no
reproach might be cast upon him for the sake of the wickedness of
his people Israel; how wicked and corrupt soever those are who are
called by his name, he is just, and right, and all that is good,
and is not to be thought the worse of for their badness. (2.) To
aggravate the wickedness of Israel, who knew and worshipped such a
holy god, and yet were themselves so unholy. And, (3.) To justify
God in his dealings with them; we must abide by it, that God is
righteous, even when his judgments are a great deep,
2. Moses here sets himself to publish
the name of the Lord (
III. A high charge exhibited against the
Israel of God, whose character was in all respects the reverse of
that of the God of Israel,
IV. A pathetic expostulation with this
provoking people for their ingratitude (
7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. 8 When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. 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 led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. 11 As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: 12 So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange 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 kine, 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 thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.
Moses, having in general represented God to
them as their great benefactor, whom they were bound in gratitude
to observe and obey, in these verses gives particular instances of
God's kindness to them and concern for them. 1. Some instances were
ancient, and for proof of them he appeals to the records (
Three things are here enlarged upon as instances of God's kindness to his people Israel, and strong obligations upon them never to forsake him:—
I. The early designation of the land of
Canaan for their inheritance; for herein it was a type and figure
of our heavenly inheritance, that it was of old ordained and
prepared in the divine counsels,
1. When the earth was divided among the
sons of men, in the days of Peleg, after the flood, and each family
had its lot, in which it must settle, and by degrees grow up into a
nation, then God had Israel in his thoughts and in his eye; for,
designing this good land into which they were now going to be in
due time an inheritance for them, he ordered that the posterity of
Canaan, rather than any other of the families then in being, should
be planted there in the meantime, to keep possession, as it were,
till Israel was ready for it, because those families were under the
curse of Noah, by which they were condemned to servitude and ruin
(
2. The reason given for the particular care
God took for this people, so long before they were either born or
thought of (as I may say), in our world, does yet more magnify the
kindness, and make it obliging beyond expression (
II. The forming of them into a people, that
they might be fit to enter upon this inheritance, like an heir of
age, at the time appointed of the Father. And herein also Canaan
was a figure of the heavenly inheritance; for, as it was from
eternity proposed and designed for all God's spiritual Israel, so
they are, in time (and it is a work of time), fitted and made meet
for it,
1. He found him in a desert land,
2. He led him about and instructed
him. When God had them in the wilderness he did not bring them
directly to Canaan, but made them go a great way about, and so he
instructed them; that is, (1.) by this means he took time to
instruct them, and gave them commandments as they were able to
receive them. Those whose business it is to instruct others must
not expect it will be done of a sudden; learners must have time to
learn. (2.) By this means he tried their faith, and patience, and
dependence upon God, and inured them to the hardships of the
wilderness, and so instructed them. Every stage had something in it
that was instructive; even when he chastened them, he thereby
taught them out of his law. It is said (
3. He kept him as the apple of his eye, with all the care and tenderness that could be, from the malignant influences of an open sky and air, and all the perils of an inhospitable desert. The pillar of cloud and fire was both a guide and a guard to them.
4. He did that for them which the eagle
does for her nest of young ones,
III. The settling of them in a good land.
This was done in part already, in the happy planting of the two
tribes and a half, an earnest of what would speedily and certainly
be done for the rest of the tribes. 1. They were blessed with
glorious victories over their enemies (
15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. 16 They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. 17 They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. 18 Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
We have here a description of the apostasy of Israel from God, which would shortly come to pass, and to which already they had a disposition. One would have thought that a people under so many obligations to their God, in duty, gratitude, and interest, would never have turned from him; but, alas! they turned aside quickly. Here are two great instances of their wickedness, and each of them amounted to an apostasy from God:—
I. Security and sensuality, pride and
insolence, and the other common abuses of plenty and prosperity,
II. Idolatry was the great instance of their apostasy, and which the former led them to, as it made them sick of their religion, self-willed, and fond of changes. Observe,
1. What sort of gods they chose and offered
sacrifice to, when they forsook the God that made them,
2. What a great affront this was to Jehovah
their God. (1.) It was justly interpreted a forgetting of him
(
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 shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. 21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; 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 mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. 23 I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. 24 They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with 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 terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.
The method of this song follows the method
of the predictions in the foregoing chapter, and therefore, after
the revolt of Israel from God, described in the
I. He had delighted in them, but now he
would reject them with detestation and disdain,
II. He had given them the tokens of his
presence with them and his favour to them; but now he would
withdraw and hide his face from them,
III. He had done every thing to make them
easy and to please them, but now he would do that against them
which should be most vexatious to them. The punishment here answers
the sin,
IV. He had planted them in a good land, and
replenished them with all good things; but now he would strip them
of all their comforts, and bring them to ruin. The judgments
threatened are very terrible,
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 should behave themselves strangely, and lest 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 O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! 30 How should one chase 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 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? 35 To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; 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 haste. 36 For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth 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 the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.
After many terrible threatenings of deserved wrath and vengeance, we have here surprising intimations of mercy, undeserved mercy, which rejoices against judgment, and by which it appears that God has no pleasure in the death of sinners, but would rather they should turn and live.
I. In jealousy for his own honour, he will
not make a full end of them,
II. In concern for their welfare, he
earnestly desires their conversion; and, in order to that, their
serious consideration of their latter end,
III. He calls to mind the great things he
had done for them formerly, as a reason why he should not quite
cast them off. This seems to be the meaning of that (
IV. He resolves upon the destruction of
those at last that had been their persecutors and oppressors. When
the cup of trembling goes round, the king of Babel shall pledge it
at last,
1. In displeasure against their wickedness,
which he takes notice of, and keeps an account of,
2. He will do it in compassion to his own
people, who, though they had greatly provoked him, yet stood in
relation to him, and their misery appealed to his mercy (
3. He will do it in contempt and to the
reproach of idol-gods,
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 render 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 revenges 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.
This conclusion of the song speaks three things:
I. Glory to God,
II. Terror to his enemies,
III. Comfort to his own people (
44 And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun. 45 And Moses made an end of speaking all these 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 selfsame day, saying, 49 Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against 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 goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people: 51 Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified 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.
Here is, I. The solemn delivery of this
song to the children of Israel,
II. An earnest charge to them to mind these and all the rest of the good words that Moses had said to them. How earnestly does he long after them all, how very desirous that the word of God might make deep and lasting impressions upon them, how jealous over them with a godly jealousy, lest they should at any time let slip these great things!
1. The duties he charges upon them are,
(1.) Carefully to attend to these themselves: "Set your hearts both
to the laws, and to the promises and threatenings, the blessings
and curses, and now at last to this song. Let the mind be closely
applied to the consideration of these things; be affected with
them; be intent upon your duty, and cleave to it with full purpose
of heart." (2.) Faithfully to transmit these things to those that
should come after them: "What interest you have in your children,
or influence upon them, use it for this purpose; and command
them (as your father Abraham did,
2. The arguments he uses to persuade them
to make religion their business and to persevere in it are, (1.)
The vast importance of the things themselves which he had charged
upon them (
III. Orders given to Moses concerning his
death. Now that this renowned witness for God had finished his
testimony, he must go up to Mount Nebo and die; in the prophecy of
Christ's two witnesses there is a plain allusion to Moses and Elias
(