Read | Deuteronomy 32
Pay attention, heavens, and I will speak;
listen, earth, to the words from my mouth.
Let my teaching fall like rain
and my word settle like dew,
like gentle rain on new grass
and showers on tender plants.
For I will proclaim the LORD’s name.
Declare the greatness of our God!
The Rock—his work is perfect;
all his ways are just.
A faithful God, without bias,
he is righteous and true.
His people have acted corruptly toward him;
this is their defect—they are not his children
but a devious and crooked generation.
Is this how you repay the LORD,
you foolish and senseless people?
Isn’t he your Father and Creator?
Didn’t he make you and sustain you?
Remember the days of old;
consider the years of past generations.
Ask your father, and he will tell you,
your elders, and they will teach you.
When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance
and divided the human race,
he set the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number of the people of Israel.
But the LORD’s portion is his people,
Jacob, his own inheritance.
He found him in a desolate land,
in a barren, howling wilderness;
he surrounded him, cared for him,
and protected him as the pupil of his eye.
He watches over his nest like an eagle
and hovers over his young;
he spreads his wings, catches him,
and carries him on his feathers.
The LORD alone led him,
with no help from a foreign god.
He made him ride on the heights of the land
and eat the produce of the field.
He nourished him with honey from the rock
and oil from flinty rock,
curds from the herd and milk from the flock,
with the fat of lambs,
rams from Bashan, and goats,
with the choicest grains of wheat;
you drank wine from the finest grapes.
Then Jeshurun became fat and rebelled—
you became fat, bloated, and gorged.
He abandoned the God who made him
and scorned the Rock of his salvation.
They provoked his jealousy with different gods;
they enraged him with detestable practices.
They sacrificed to demons, not God,
to gods they had not known,
new gods that had just arrived,
which your ancestors did not fear.
You ignored the Rock who gave you birth;
you forgot the God who gave birth to you.
When the LORD saw this, he despised them,
angered by his sons and daughters.
He said, “I will hide my face from them;
I will see what will become of them,
for they are a perverse generation—
unfaithful children.
They have provoked my jealousy
with what is not a god;
they have enraged me with their worthless idols.
So I will provoke their jealousy
with what is not a people;
I will enrage them with a foolish nation.
For fire has been kindled because of my anger
and burns to the depths of Sheol;
it devours the land and its produce,
and scorches the foundations of the mountains.
“I will pile disasters on them;
I will use up my arrows against them.
They will be weak from hunger,
ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague;
I will unleash on them wild beasts with fangs,
as well as venomous snakes that slither in the dust.
Outside, the sword will take their children,
and inside, there will be terror;
the young man and the young woman will be killed,
the infant and the gray-haired man.
“I would have said: I will cut them to pieces
and blot out the memory of them from mankind,
if I had not feared provocation from the enemy,
or feared that these foes might misunderstand
and say, ‘Our own hand has prevailed;
it wasn’t the LORD who did all this.’”
Israel is a nation lacking sense
with no understanding at all.
If only they were wise, they would comprehend this;
they would understand their fate.
How could one pursue a thousand,
or two put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
unless the LORD had given them up?
But their “rock” is not like our Rock,
as even our enemies concede.
For their vine is from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are poisonous;
their clusters are bitter.
Their wine is serpents’ venom,
the deadly poison of cobras.
“Is it not stored up with me,
sealed up in my vaults?
Vengeance and retribution belong to me.
In time their foot will slip,
for their day of disaster is near,
and their doom is coming quickly.”
The LORD will indeed vindicate his people
and have compassion on his servants
when he sees that their strength is gone
and no one is left—slave or free.
He will say, “Where are their gods,
the ‘rock’ they found refuge in?
Who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise up and help you;
let it be a shelter for you.
See now that I alone am he;
there is no God but me.
I bring death and I give life;
I wound and I heal.
No one can rescue anyone from my power.
I raise my hand to heaven and declare:
As surely as I live forever,
when I sharpen my flashing sword,
and my hand takes hold of judgment,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries
and repay those who hate me.
I will make my arrows drunk with blood
while my sword devours flesh—
the blood of the slain and the captives,
the heads of the enemy leaders.”
Rejoice, you nations, concerning his people,
for he will avenge the blood of his servants.
He will take vengeance on his adversaries;
he will purify his land and his people.
Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song in the presence of the people. After Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, he said to them, “Take to heart all these words I am giving as a warning to you today, so that you may command your children to follow all the words of this law carefully. For they are not meaningless words to you but they are your life, and by them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
On that same day the LORD spoke to Moses, “Go up Mount Nebo in the Abarim range in the land of Moab, across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan I am giving the Israelites as a possession. Then you will die on the mountain that you go up, and you will be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. For both of you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the Waters of Meribath-kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin by failing to treat me as holy in their presence. Although from a distance you will view the land that I am giving the Israelites, you will not go there.”
Click here to listen to the Scripture in ESV.
List the central themes from Moses’ song in Deuteronomy 32. How do these themes help reveal the purpose of this song which Moses delivers immediately before his death?
Focus
Based on your Bible reading this past week, journal about three topics:
1. What stood out to you about the character of God?
2. What stood out to you about the nature of humanity, or yourself?
3. What remains confusing, challenging, or difficult to grasp from your Scripture reading this week?
(There are With God journals available at each campus.)
Pray
Pray a reflective prayer, sharing with God what you journaled about. Allow what arose as you answered the questions to direct your prayer time. As you meditate on the character of God, how does that inform your posture in prayer? How does that inform your view of yourself and humanity as you pray? As you wrestle with Scripture, how does that inform your prayers?
Going Deeper
If you are also following the BibleProject’s One Story That Leads to Jesus reading plan, complete today’s reading.
