by Zach Kincaid
Moses is no casual follower of God. In fact, out of everyone in the Scriptures, Moses alone sees God. In Exodus 33, we read this beautiful, intimate moment between God and Moses, his friend. It’s after the events in Egypt and while the Israelites are encamped at Mt. Sinai (also known as Mt. Horeb).
Oh, Mt. Sinai! It’s the place God revealed so much of himself. It’s where Moses’ journey begins with the burning bush and where he now brings God’s people to receive their next set of instructions. It’s where Elijah runs after heaven’s fire burns up the prophets of Baal, where he receives reassurance from the ravens, from the whisper, and from the news of God’s next move. Mt. Sinai, many suspect, is where Paul also journeys after his Damascus experience, to find guidance and peace to his newfound belief of Jesus as Son of God.
When Moses sees God, it’s just after the golden calf, the smashing of the tablets, the call of Levi, and the slaughter of many people. He is in a crisis. He ushered the people through miracle after miracle, through saving and saving again, and here, in the shadow of God’s mountain, their sin is still so poignant.
“You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people; lead these people,” Moses says to God in the tent where they often met, “but you haven’t let me know what to do next. I know we’re close, so let me know what to do.”
God answers, “I’ll be with you and give you rest. I know your name, Moses, and I care about you.”
What happens next jerks me to tears every time I read it. The Lord says that he will show Moses his glory but not completely. He knows Moses can’t see his face without dying. “There’s a place beside me where you can stand. It’s a solid rock,” God says. “Go there, and when my glory passes by, I will hide you in the cleft of that rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed you. Then I will remove my hand so you can at least see my back.” So, it happens. Wide-eyed Moses waits under the shelter of God’s hand to see what no human being has ever seen before or since: God himself.
After some time, Moses makes a new set of tablets and leaves the tent with his face radiant from being in God’s presence. What a story of God’s goodness, how he tenderly guides Moses’ eyes so the glory becomes a testimony to all of Israel.
When we get to Deuteronomy 32, Moses’s words are almost his swan song. God tells him as much in 31:14 and he goes up to Mt. Nebo where he will die by 32:48. So, Moses sings to the assembly of Israel a song that recounts God’s faithfulness through creation and revelation, amid the fallenness that is created and reveled in by the creatures that bear his image. In many ways, it is a lament about the dichotomy between a life-giving God and a reckless people who don’t care.
Here are a few other observations.
He starts with an appeal to Heaven and Earth, that God is the rock, the foundation of it all. But, we are crooked and warp this goodness into some form that reflects our sin, like the golden calf that Israel made and could maintain as a tamed god. Moses invites the people to remember - remember what God has done and what he is doing to preserve a future and a hope. From the desert to the days of plenty, the provider God made a way.
Notice in 32:4, 13, 15, 18, 30-31, and 37, the repetition of rock. The last references say it all: “For their rock is not like our Rock…” and “Now where are their gods, the rock they took refuge in…”
There are a variety of ways God will seek amends for the people’s rebellion. Here’s a short list: fire that devours (32:22), arrows of calamity, fangs of wild beasts, venom of vipers (32:24), swords (32:25), and arrows drunk with blood (32:42).
God is omnipotent. This is reiterated in 32:39 when he says, “There is no god beside me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal…”
This is a song very much for Israel, that God would still provide despite their sin, that his promises will be kept.
As much as this is a lament, with only a single “Rejoice” at the end of the song, there is a blessing that Moses provides to the people before he dies and Joshua becomes their leader. That blessing makes up chapter 33. Just as Moses is the only one to have seen God, he is also the only one to be buried by God. You can imagine the scene on Mt. Nebo, as the Lord takes up the shovel and buries the body of his friend. Deuteronomy 34:5-6 simply says, “And Moses, the servant of the Lord died… He buried him on Moab.” (We also know from Jude verse 9 that the archangel Michael and the devil fought over Moses’s body.)
Three more points about Moses. Although he doesn’t immediately enter the Promised Land, he makes it there when comforting Jesus (Luke 9:30), he is counted among the righteous and faithful (Hebrews 11:24-29), and his song from Exodus 15 is used again by the seven angels at the end of all things (Revelation 15:3).
Deuteronomy 32:1-43
1 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak,
and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 May my teaching drop as the rain,
my speech distill as the dew,
like gentle rain upon the tender grass,
and like showers upon the herb.
3 For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
ascribe greatness to our God!
4 “The Rock, his work is perfect,
for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
just and upright is he.
5 They have dealt corruptly with him;
they are no longer his children because they are blemished;
they are a crooked and twisted generation.
6 Do you thus repay the Lord,
you foolish and senseless people?
Is not he your father, who created you,
who 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 gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he divided mankind,
he fixed the borders of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God.
9 But the Lord's portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
10 “He found him in a desert land,
and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he encircled him, he cared for him,
he kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
that flutters over its young,
spreading out its wings, catching them,
bearing them on its pinions,
12 the Lord alone guided him,
no foreign god was with him.
13 He made him ride on the high places of the land,
and he ate the produce of the field,
and he suckled him with honey out of the rock,
and oil out of the flinty rock.
14 Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,
with fat of lambs,
rams of Bashan and goats,
with the very finest of the wheat—
and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape.
15 “But Jeshurun [means the upright one, Israel] grew fat, and kicked;
you grew fat, stout, and sleek;
then he forsook God who made him
and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.
16 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;
with abominations they provoked him to anger.
17 They sacrificed to demons that were no gods,
to gods they had never known,
to new gods that had come recently,
whom your fathers had never dreaded.
18 You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you,
and you forgot the God who gave you birth.
19 “The Lord saw it and spurned them,
because of the provocation of his sons and 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 perverse generation,
children in whom is no faithfulness.
21 They have made me jealous with what is no god;
they have provoked me to anger with their idols.
So I will make them jealous with those who are no people;
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22 For a fire is kindled by my anger,
and it burns to the depths of Sheol,
devours the earth and its increase,
and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 “‘And I will heap disasters upon them;
I will spend my arrows on them;
24 they shall be wasted with hunger,
and devoured by plague
and poisonous pestilence;
I will send the teeth of beasts against them,
with the venom of things that crawl in the dust.
25 Outdoors the sword shall bereave,
and indoors terror,
for young man and woman alike,
the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.
26 I would have said, “I will cut them to pieces;
I will wipe them from human memory,”
27 had I not feared provocation by the enemy,
lest their adversaries should misunderstand,
lest they should say, “Our hand is triumphant,
it was not the Lord who did all this.”’
28 “For they are a nation void of counsel,
and there is no understanding in them.
29 If they were wise, they would understand this;
they would discern their latter end!
30 How could one have chased a thousand,
and two have put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
and the Lord had given them up?
31 For their rock is not as our Rock;
our enemies are by themselves.
32 For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah;
their grapes are grapes of poison;
their clusters are bitter;
33 their wine is the poison of serpents
and the cruel venom of asps.
34 “‘Is not this laid up in store with me,
sealed up in my treasuries?
35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense,
for the time when their foot shall slip;
for the day of their calamity is at hand,
and their doom comes swiftly.’
36 For the Lord will vindicate his people
and have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone
and there is none remaining, bond or free.
37 Then he will say, ‘Where are their gods,
the rock in which they took refuge,
38 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 protection!
39 “‘See now that I, even I, am he,
and there is no god beside me;
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven
and swear, As I live forever,
41 if I sharpen my flashing sword
and my hand takes hold on judgment,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries
and will repay those who hate me.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
and my sword shall devour flesh—
with the blood of the slain and the captives,
from the long-haired heads of the enemy.’
43 “Rejoice with him, O heavens;
bow down to him, all gods,
for he avenges the blood of his children
and takes vengeance on his adversaries.
He repays those who hate him
and cleanses his people's land.”