Page 122 - Pentateuch

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).

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 same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink
for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:3-4). We
should probably see this song as containing both law and grace. The people would be unable to obey the
law, deserving death just like the previous generation. Yet the most disastrous decision is turning from the
Rock, Jesus Christ. Without him, sinners have no atonement and will receive God’s vengeance.

In contrast to Yahweh, the people are corrupt, not his children, a warped and crooked generation, and a
foolish and unwise people (v. 5, 6). They are called to remember and to ask “the generations long past”
about the history of the nation (v. 7). Our text becomes difficult with many interpretations of “days of old.”
When did this segment of history begin and end? The description is graphic. “Jacob” is found in a “barren
and howling waste”. He is guarded as the apple of God’s eye, protected like the young of an eagle (vv. 9-
11). God alone does this (v. 12). God nourishes him, gives him curds and milk, the finest of wheat and wine
(vv. 13-14). Verse eight holds the key: “when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples
according to the number of the sons of Israel.” The expression sounds like Genesis 10:5 and 32, when
people spread out after the flood through the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob until they came to the
border of the Promised Land. (See also Isaiah 10:13; Amos 9:7; Acts 17:26).

A new era begins with the land. Jeshurun grew fat. The nation turns to foreign gods, new gods that previous
generations did not fear (vv. 15-18). The pattern is repeated often. This leads to God hiding his face from
them. He is made jealous “by what is no god” and decides to make them “envious by those who are not a
people” (vv. 20-21). God’s wrath is kindled, wrath that knows no bounds (v. 22). This period of Israel’s
history is their time in the land from the very day Moses spoke these words through the time of Christ.
Their treatment of God led to his treatment of them. The prophet Hosea will live God’s jealousy in his
private life as his wife becomes a prostitute and Hosea calls his son Lo-Ammi, “not my people” (Hos. 1:9).

The era of the people of Lo-Ammi begins after the Day of Pentecost and the inclusion of the Gentiles as
God’s people. The apostle Paul uses these scriptures to describe what had happened to the nation of Israel
by his day (Romans 10:19). As our text continues to point out, God chooses to “heap calamities on them”
during this time (v. 23). Famine, wild beasts, sword, and scattering would all be their experience (vv. 24-26).
They would need sense, wisdom, and discernment to escape (vv. 28-29). Anyone should be able to see
God’s hand as one chases a thousand (vv. 30-31). They display the same characteristics as the people of
Sodom (vv. 32-33). All of this is due to God’s will (vv. 34-35) and has continued for over 2000 years. 143

143 Patrick W. Skehan, “The Structure of the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy (32:1-42),” in A Song of Power and the
Power of Song (Winona Lake, Eisenbrauns, 1993) makes an interesting case for dividing the chapter into three
sections, 1-14, 15-29, and 30-43. Yet the content seems to indicate a break at 32:33.
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