Deuteronomy 32:13-25 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Deuteronomy 32:13-25. Let’s go!
Deuteronomy 32:13-15 (NIV)
13 He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him with the fruit of the fields. He nourished him with honey from the rock, and with oil from the flinty crag,
14 with curds and milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats, with choice rams of Bashan and the finest kernels of wheat. You drank the foaming blood of the grape.
15 Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; filled with food, he became heavy and sleek…
On verses 13-15a: Verses 13-14 describe how God gave Israel His best provision. His provision for them was not ordinary, but extraordinary. Truly God had allowed the Israelites to come into a land of milk (v14) and honey (v13). In the same way, the Holy Spirit is working in your life when you acknowledge that your heavenly Father’s provision for your life is not ordinary but extraordinary. That includes every blessing He has given you and most especially His Son Jesus Christ.
“Jeshurun” in verse 15 is another name for Israel and means “upright one”. It’s ironic that verse 15 calls Israel “upright one” and then describes how Israel abandoned the God who made him and rejected the Rock his Saviour. That doesn’t sound so “upright” to me. Yet God does the same with us. Although we have abandoned God and rejected Him so many times, although we have sacrificed to false gods (v17) and deserted the one true God (v18), God still calls us upright — all because Jesus Christ died for us and gave us His righteousness.
Deuteronomy 32:15b-25 (NIV)
15 …He abandoned the God who made him and rejected the Rock his Savior.
16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols.
17 They sacrificed to demons, which are not God– gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear.
18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.
19 The LORD saw this and rejected them because he was angered by his sons and daughters.
20 “I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.
21 They made me jealous by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols. I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.
22 For a fire has been kindled by my wrath, one that burns to the realm of death below. It will devour the earth and its harvests and set afire the foundations of the mountains.
23 “I will heap calamities upon them and spend my arrows against them.
24 I will send wasting famine against them, consuming pestilence and deadly plague; I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts, the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
25 In the street the sword will make them childless; in their homes terror will reign. Young men and young women will perish, infants and gray-haired men.
On verses 15b-25: Here Moses sings about how the Israelites deserted God (v18) and chose instead to worship things which were not gods but were in reality demons (v16-17). Because of this God was angered and had every reason to hide both His holy face and His hand of blessing from the Israelites (v19-25). Yet for all of the Israelites’ idolatry, God never ultimately gave up on the Israelites.
Likewise, for all our idolatry and sin we deserve the punishment that verses 19-25 describe. We deserve to be rejected by God (v19), cast from His presence (v20), and replaced by some other more faithful people (v21). We deserve hellish fire (v22) and all sorts of punishment (v23-25). But in His mercy God spared us. He let His Son Jesus suffer in our place so that we could go free.
Recently I saw a movie scene where a father was about to shoot his enemy, except that the son of this father stood in front of that enemy and asked his father not to shoot. The father didn’t shoot his enemy only because he saw his son in front of and protecting that enemy. God did the same with us: He spares our lives because He sees Jesus Christ in front of us, protecting us from His wrath.
Heavenly Father, thank You for giving me extraordinary provision all throughout my life. Thank You also for sparing my life when I sinned against You, and only because Your Son Jesus stood in the way between You and me. Thank You, Jesus, for being my shield from God’s wrath, which I fully deserved for my sin. Thank You that instead of punishment, You showed me grace and mercy. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
