Page 133 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

gospel, by emphasizing that it demands only a simple response and that, when responded to, it
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mediates God’s salvation.”

Moses now makes provision for the transition in leadership to Joshua. Moses cannot cross the Jordan.
God will go before them (31:3, 8). They are challenged to be strong and courageous (31:6, 7). The law is
put into the ark, and they are commanded to read it every seven years when debts were canceled
(31:10). Once again the future disobedience of Israel is clearly described despite all God’s gifts to them
(31:16, 20). The nation of Israel is confronted with a stark choice. One option is to follow the law and live
or break the law and die. The second option is to believe in a future Messiah and have hope. Joshua as
the new leader would need a firm purpose. He could not let fear dilute his faith. Loss of courage in God’s
Messiah would bring him disaster worse than the disobedience of the nation he is to lead (31:23).

Next Moses gives Israel a song to teach from one generation to the next. While we do not know of any
tune, we can understand the function of a song in remembering. “When many disasters and calamities
come on them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants
(31:21).” It is for “days to come (31:29)” or “in the last days (depending on translation).” Just as with
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earlier songs (Gen. 49:1; Num. 24:14), the author connects the past and the future. In the day of Jesus
people saw the song as prophetic.

“Moses recited to them a poem in hexameter verse, which he has moreover
bequeathed in a book preserved in the temple, containing a prediction of future events,
in accordance with which all has come and is coming to pass, the seer having in no whit
strayed from the truth. All these books he consigned to the priests, together with the
ark in which he had deposited the Ten Words written on the two tablets, and the
tabernacle.
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The song begins with an invitation to listen (32:1, 2). The
first topic is the nature of God. He is great, perfect, just,
faithful, and upright (3, 4). God is their Father and Creator
(v. 6). Most striking is the name used here for God. He is
the Rock. The word appears nine times throughout the
song. God “nourished him with honey from the rock and
with oil from the flinty crag [rock]” (v. 13). The nation
“rejected the Rock their Savior” (v. 15). They “deserted
the Rock, who fathered” them (v. 18). They were sold by
their Rock (v. 30). The rock [of the nations] is not like
Israel’s Rock (v. 31). These other gods are not worth
taking refuge in (v. 37). Fig. 86: Negev Desert rock

As we read these references, we rightly wonder about the
direction of the metaphors. How does a rock “father” a people? How does a rock sell a nation? If these
are pictures of God, might not other rock references be metaphors also? How about “honey from the
rock” or “oil from the flinty crag?” Can these also be capitalized to indicate God? How far can we push
these concepts and how much did Israel realize? The NT identifies the Rock as Christ. “They all ate the

140 Moo, Romans, 657.
141 Sailhammer, Pentateuch. 36.
142 Flavius Josephus, Aniquities of the Jews, trans. William Whiston (Grand Rapids: Kegel, 1978), 4.8.44.

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