Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Deuteronomy 32:1 - 32:18

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Deuteronomy 32:1 - 32:18


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Israel's Position and Apostasy

v. 1. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth! Heaven and earth are not only called upon as witnesses in the event of Israel's future apostasy, but they are concerned also inasmuch as God's faithfulness and righteousness are revealed in heaven and in earth, the entire universe being filled by every exhibition of His glory.

v. 2. My doctrine shall drop as the rain,
the gentle and persistent rain which brings forth fruit in abundance; my speech shall distil, gently flow, as the dew, as the small rain, mild showers, upon the tender herb, as it breaks forth from the buds in the spring, and as the showers upon the grass, upon the young vegetation. That was to be the effect of Moses' song upon the hearts of the people, like that of a mild and fructifying rain.

v. 3. Because I will publish the name of the Lord,
proclaim, preach of His name; ascribe ye greatness unto our God; in their entire life, in words and deeds, they were to show that they acknowledged His exalted nature, His glory as Jehovah.

v. 4. He is the Rock,
the unchangeable, unshakable Refuge, Protection, and Security for the forsaken and for all those that believe in Him; His work is perfect, without a single defect; for all His ways, His manner of dealing with men in the world, are judgment, in perfect agreement with justice; a God of truth, upon whom one may depend in all the vicissitudes of life, and without iniquity, just and right is He, falseness, crooked dealing, is absolutely foreign to Him. But the very opposite is true of the children of Israel.

v. 5. They have corrupted themselves,
namely, in the various apostasies and rebellions charged against them since the days of Sinai; their spot is not the spot of His children, literally, "not His children, but their blemish," that is, all the rebellious people did not really belong to the children of Jehovah, but were properly considered a stain and a blemish upon the congregation of the Lord; they are a perverse and crooked generation. Cf Isa_1:4.

v. 6. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise?
Instead of showing their appreciation of God's kindness and mercy by worshiping Him and clinging to Him, they showed themselves an arrogant people, devoid of all real understanding. Is not he thy father that hath bought thee, acquiring them as His own by the many manifestations of His goodness? Hath he not made thee and established thee? The miraculous deliverance of the children of Israel from the power of Pharaoh had been followed by the covenant of Sinai and by their acceptance as His peculiar people.

v. 7. Remember the days of old,
the period of the Egyptian bondage and beyond, consider the years of many generations, the experiences which one generation after the other had had under the guidance of Jehovah; ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee, they were in a position to tell the younger generation of God's wonderful dealings with them, all of which were to be kept in mind always by all members of the nation.

v. 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.
From the very beginning it was a work of God's providence, of His government of the earth, to give to each tribe and nation as it was formed and as it grew, a place, a country, with boundaries; and He always had in mind the needs of that people whom He intended to choose for Himself, so that Israel should possess a land corresponding to its population.

v. 9. For the Lord's portion is His people, Jacob is the lot,
the surveyed land, the possession, of His Inheritance. In this people, therefore, He took a special interest, to it He gave countless proofs of His fatherly love and care.

v. 10. He found him in a desert land,
in a most helpless and disconsolate position, and in the waste, howling wilderness, where only the dismal and terrifying cry of wild animals could be heard, all of which is added to emphasize the position of Israel at that time. He led him about, He compassed him with the fullness of His loving care; he instructed him, without letting him out of His sight for as much as a moment; He kept him as the apple of His eye, with the most delicate tenderness.

v. 11. As an eagle stirreth up her nest,
in encouraging the young to make an attempt at flying, fluttereth over her young, ready to save the weak and helpless, whose wings are not yet fully grown, from a bad fall, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings,

v. 12. so the Lord alone did lead him,
the people of Israel, and there was no strange god with him. Jehovah being their only Helper and Stay, the children of Israel were under obligation to serve Him alone as God. It is a remarkable picture showing the loving care of Jehovah in leading the people forward to the proper independence.

v. 13. He made him ride on the high places of the earth,
as the victorious conquerors of the land, that he might eat the increase of the fields, the rich products, all the wealth of the fruitful land; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock, an expressive description of the productiveness of Canaan's soil;

v. 14. butter of kine,
including all the products gained from milk, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, noted for their excellence in every respect, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat, figurative for the finest and most nourishing grain; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape, unexcelled vine, full of fire and refreshment. Thus the various acts of God's mercy and goodness are enumerated, in sharp contrast to the apostasy which is now described.

v. 16. But Jeshurun,
the people of righteousness, as they are called to remind them of God's loving and honoring plans for their permanent advancement as the just and righteous among the nations of the world, waxed fat, and kicked, like an ox that is fed too well, like a horse that feels his oats, Isa_10:27; thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness, as Moses, in turning directly to the people, applies the figure; then he forsook God, which made him, deliberately rejecting his Creator, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation, who not only had delivered them from the bondage of Egypt, but wanted to be their Redeemer from all spiritual dangers as well.

v. 16. They provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods,
by forgetting the relation of faithfulness which the covenant laid upon them, with abominations provoked they Him to anger.

v. 17. They sacrificed unto devils,
to demons, to wasters or destroyers, for thus the evil and harmful character of the heathen deities was often indicated; to gods whom they knew not, who neither by benefit nor by blessing had manifested themselves as true gods, to new gods that came newly up, but recently invented and accepted by the Israelites, whom your fathers feared not, for whom they felt no reverential awe, since they are mere products of the imagination.

v. 18. of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
They had shown themselves coolly neglectful against Him whose care had partaken of the love of both father and mother toward them. They were thus unnatural children, an evil and perverse generation, a warning to all believers who are growing cold toward the rich blessings of God's grace.