Deuteronomy 32:15–26

We cannot be sure of the exact meaning of Jeshurun. It seems to lie between "upright ones" and "beloved of Jehovah." So we start with God's thoughts about His people. They are the beloved of His heart, fitted to live here on earth in uprightness, in full keeping with their calling.

At verse 15, we reach a very different note in the song of Moses. Up to this point, God Himself has been before us. We have had His actings, His purposes, His counsels, His thoughts, His loving interest in His people Israel, His tender gracious dealings with them. There can be no drawback here. When we have God and His ways before us, nothing hinders the heart's enjoyment.

Jeshurun grew fat and kicked: God's loved, upright one became rebellious in prosperity — a strange, common case — and gave up his Maker, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. Then the heart estranged from Him turned to those that were His opposites.

The fat shows the energy of the inward will. Compare Deuteronomy 32:15, "Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked" — the will was set against God. Here the fat was not the Lord's. In the Lord Jesus there was perfect subjection and devotedness: "Behold, I have come to do your will, O God." There the fat was all the Lord's.

The verse goes on, "and kicked." This is an early sign of turning away — if not the earliest. Instead of lowliness and meekness, bearing with one another in love; instead of quietly submitting to and accepting the will and way of the Lord, we put a will and way of our own in their place. There is impatience of spirit. There is a determination to get rid, by any means, of whatever resists our idea of things. There is resistance to authority or correction. There is a fretful impatience that will not wait for the Lord to direct and handle things.

They took ungodly advantage of their prosperity. They forsook the God who made them, and treated the Rock of their salvation with scorn. Of course this Rock is Christ. When He came, His own nation scorned and rejected Him, for they had chosen other gods.

Suppose a servant stops living out the truth the Lord has made known to him. Whatever his excuse, he has stopped being, in practice, one of the "upright ones." He has so far forsaken the God who made him. Made him for what? Surely to be the instrument of His will, the vessel of His pleasure, the witness to His Name.

But Jeshurun (Israel) grew fat, and kicked, and forsook the Rock of his strength. As a result God moves them to jealousy with those who are not a people. It is the call of the Gentiles, according to Romans 10:19.

Surrounded, on all sides, by the rich and varied mercies of God, we are apt to use them to feed a spirit of self-satisfaction. We make use of the gifts to shut out the Giver. In a word, we, too, like Israel, grow fat and kick. We forget God. We lose the sweet and precious sense of His presence, and of His perfect sufficiency, and turn to other objects as Israel turned to false gods.

"But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked" (v.15). Jeshurun means "upright." That was Israel's proper character, but they gave it up when they became rich. This is prophetic of their time in the land, when God prospered them by His pure grace. They took godless advantage of their wealth. They abandoned the God who made them, and they held the Rock of their salvation in scorn. This Rock is Christ. When He came, His own nation scorned and rejected Him, because they had chosen other gods. Their detestable idolatry provoked God to anger (v.16).

Then the heart, estranged from Him, turned to those that were His opposites. Strange gods came in, with their abominations. Newly invented gods took the place of Him who had brought them into being. The same thing has been repeated ever since, in every form you can imagine.

"Abominations" simply means idols. The word "abomination" occurs constantly in the Old Testament, meaning an idol. It is tied to everything degraded. The moment a man gives up belief in the true God, he is sure to degrade himself. If a man does not look to something above himself, he will sink to what is below him, as we see in Romans 1.

In every age, one thing marks the gap between God's word and men's thoughts more than anything else. People take idols and strange gods lightly. God hates that, above all in His own people. There may be no deliberate plan to abandon His worship. It may only be what they count a small thing: going along with idolatry now and then, while still claiming His name. But God rejects such a compromise outright. And those who allow it face a further danger — complete revolt from Him. It strikes at His majesty, at holiness and truth, and is intolerable in His eyes. Israel should have known that God called Abraham out of this very abomination, to be a separate witness, with his descendants, to the one true and living God (Joshua 24:3).

Love cannot help being jealous of wandering affections; it would not be love if it did not resent unfaithfulness. And is He so powerless that we can despise Him and get away with it? Are we stronger than He?

The very call of the Gentiles is only to provoke them to jealousy (v. 21), as the apostle drew from this long afterwards, when it came to pass (Rom. 10:19)... but even when He restores Israel as He will (v. 36), He calls the Gentiles to rejoice with His people (v. 43).

There is a solemn voice in all this for the writer and the reader. Each of us is in danger of walking the moral path these words describe. Surrounded on all sides by the rich and varied mercies of God, we are apt to use them to feed a spirit of self-satisfaction. We use the gifts to shut out the Giver. In a word, we too, like Israel, grow fat and kick. We forget God.

The Hebrew word shed, though traced from the word "lord," properly means "a destroyer, a violent one; and so, figuratively, a mischievous demon." It appears only twice in the whole Old Testament. A second word, sair, means "rough, hairy," and especially a he-goat: so "a goat-shaped deity, which people worshipped as an idol… People believed such hostile beings lived in the deserts and woods, and that they had to appease them with divine worship."

In 1 Corinthians 10:20 the apostle quotes Deuteronomy 32:17 and declares what idolatry really is, though the form may differ. Men worshipped the heavens and all their host, the earth and the sea and their creatures, the serpent especially, or heroes and dead ancestors, or legendary beings and their images. It soon took hold of their imagination. It did not only shut God out; it degraded its followers to the utmost. And no wonder. For both Old Testament and New declare that what they sacrificed, they sacrificed to demons, not to God. Demons were in effect behind the idols. If the idols were nothing in themselves, the demons were an awful reality of subtle and malignant evil, ruining those who honoured the idols.

The idols and their sacrifices may be completely powerless. But demons hiding behind them can and do shut the true God out of souls. They seize the homage due to Him alone. This is the effect of heathen worship, not the intention of the worshippers or of those who share in their sacrifices. They no more planned to revere demons (fallen and evil spirits) than the unconverted today mean to serve Satan. But they did, and they do, all the same.

Here is the general rule. Take any person, thing, or theory — what I call a "principle" when I hold it myself, and a "fad" when someone else holds it. If we let it hold the place, the authority, and the devotion that belong to our Creator, it is a false god we are serving, whatever pleasant name we give it… So the crude outward forms of idolatry pass away; but those who worship the false gods still worship in spirit and in fact.

There is a solemn voice in all this for the writer and the reader… God's mercies surround us on every side, rich and varied. We are apt to use them to feed a spirit of self-satisfaction. We use the gifts to shut out the Giver. In a word, we too, like Israel, grow fat and kick. We forget God. We lose the sweet and precious sense of His presence and of His perfect sufficiency. We turn to other objects, as Israel turned to false gods.

Scripture states plainly what "devils" means. It means nothing but the gods of the heathen, and it points back to Deuteronomy 32:17: "they offered to devils, and not to God." To apply this to Baptists or Independents is a gross abuse. The apostle is speaking of fellowship with demons (in idol temples) and heathen sacrifices, and nothing else.

Behind the things people worshipped were real beings — evil, unclean spirits. So it was impossible to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus and with these demons at the same time.

I think this word tzur is connected in sense with its root, tzur, which means to "form" or "make." So the One who orders all things is the security of His people, the One who orders His people. These senses seem bound together: forming, refuge, and salvation. So Peter says that believers should "entrust their souls to a faithful Creator." The word carries the security implied in "formed for Myself." And since this purpose of care is assured, there is also the "formed all things," with reference to that same purpose.

They had chosen to put the only stable, enduring Rock of salvation out of their minds. They chose to forget the eternal God who had proved a Father to them (v.18). Of course this could only lead to total confusion.

Then the song turns from past to future, but which is seen as past, clear in the vision of God. Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. God's loved, upright one became rebellious in prosperity — a strange, common case. He gave up his Maker and thought little of the Rock of his salvation. Then the heart, now distant from Him, turned to His opposites. Strange gods came in, with their detestable practices. Newly invented gods replaced Him who had brought them forth. The same thing has been repeated again and again since, and in every form you can imagine.

This was not just worshipping material things. It was sacrificing to demons (v.17). Ignorant as they were of such "gods," they were ready to be taken in by them. They did not learn this from their fathers, so no doubt they felt they were advancing beyond the wisdom of their fathers. Such pride will make people easy victims of deception.

He was the Rock who fathered them, their Father who had bought them (Deut. 32:6, 18). This was the gracious name the God of Israel took when He set out to take a nation from the middle of another nation. They would be His people, and He would be their God. But the nation had meanwhile corrupted itself... Still, the same mouth that testified to their self-corruption, and spoke fierce rebuke against their sin, defends their cause. It declares their eventual security and blessing as the nation of the Lord's salvation.

For the motherhood of GOD, see Deut. 32:18, and compare, of course, Matt. 23:37-39.

There is a solemn voice in all this for the writer and the reader. We are each of us in danger of walking the moral path these words describe. Surrounded on all sides by the rich and varied mercies of God, we tend to use them to feed a spirit of self-satisfaction. We use the gifts to shut out the Giver... We forget God. We lose the sweet and precious sense of His presence and of His perfect sufficiency, and turn to other objects as Israel turned to false gods. How often we forget the Rock who fathered us, the God who formed us, the Lord who redeemed us!

So God provided a song for Israel, seen in the first 43 verses of chapter 32. Moses was to write it down for Israel to learn. God would bring them into the land. There they would grow well fed and wealthy, turn to idols, and provoke God. Then this song would testify against them. If they learned it by heart, they would remember it. Its words would at least embarrass them when they disobeyed. It is amazing how carefully God worked to impress their responsibility on Israel from every angle. And He knew full well that they would rebel.

Then Moses sings of His wonderful love and goodness and patience to that people. He sings too of their falling into every kind of wickedness. They sacrificed even to demons — scornfully called "he-goats" — not to God, but "to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded." "You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth."

When the Lord saw this rebellion, He spurned Israel. They had spurned Him without reason, now He spurns them with good reason. They receive themselves something of their own treatment. His face had been shining with pleasure on Israel. Now He hides His face from them, to see what their end will be. For if God's face does not shine with approval on His creatures, they cannot continue without serious consequences.

No nation on earth was ever called to pass through discipline as severe as Israel's. As the Lord reminds them in those solemn words, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." No other nation was ever called to the privileged place of a real relationship with Jehovah. God reserved this dignity for one nation. But that very dignity was the basis of a most solemn responsibility.

We are, each of us, in danger of treading the moral path indicated by the words just quoted. God surrounds us on every side with rich and varied mercies. We are apt to use them to feed a spirit of self-satisfaction. We use the gifts to shut out the Giver. In a word, we, too, like Israel, grow fat and kick. We forget God. We lose the sweet and precious sense of His presence and of His perfect sufficiency. We turn to other things, as Israel turned to false gods.

Without doubt this is the sure and solemn threat of God's displeasure. He turns from Israel to the Gentiles, as certainly as Israel used to turn from Jehovah to false gods. But God is carrying out that threat now, after the utmost patience. It was only carried out in full when they added to their old idolatry the still graver sin of rejecting the Messiah and scorning the gospel. That gospel offered them pardon for these and all other sins by His blood. And the threat itself contains just as sure an indication of restoring mercy in the end.

It covers the whole range of God's dealings with Israel from first to last. It gives a very solemn record of their terrible sin, and of God's wrath and judgement. But, praise God, it begins and ends with Him. This is full of the deepest and richest blessing for the soul.

When the Lord saw this rebellion, He rejected Israel. They had rejected Him for no reason; now He rejects them with good reason (v.19). They get back something of their own treatment. His face had been shining on Israel with pleasure. Now He hides His face from them, to see what their end will be (v.20). If God's face does not shine with approval on His creatures, they cannot go on without serious consequences.

The meaning here is moral rather than a matter of dates... So in Deuteronomy 32:5, 20 we find generation used in the same way. It does not mark off a period of time; it expresses the moral character of Israel. In the Psalms we also have "the generation to come," which is not limited to a mere thirty or a hundred years.

"This generation" is the perverse and unbelieving generation of the Jews. Even today they remain a race separate from all others. They live among the nations, but they always remain a separate people, kept for the fulfilment of the counsels of God.

God had displayed His power in judgment right in front of them. Yet they stubbornly refused to see His hand in it. They accused Moses and Aaron, as if these two had done it by some hidden power. They either could not, or would not, see the act of God. Truly they were "children in whom is no faith" (Deut. 32:20).

It is the sure and solemn threat of God's displeasure in turning from Israel to the Gentiles, as surely as Israel used to turn from the Lord to false gods. That threat is now being carried out, after the greatest patience. It was only fully carried out when they added a still graver sin to their old idolatry: they rejected the Messiah and refused the gospel that offered them pardon of these and all other sins by His blood. Yet the threat itself contains the no less sure sign of restoring mercy in the end.

The higher our privileges, the richer our blessings, the nearer our relationship, the more fitting it is for us to be faithful. We are bound to it all the more solemnly. In everything we should seek to live in a way that pleases Him. He is the One who has called us into the very highest and most blessed place that even His perfect love could give.

God could not forget, as a man would; but He could hide His face, and He had to. They had given Him up for gods that were not, and He would move them to jealousy by a people they disdained as none. It is here that the apostle sees the calling of the Gentiles (Rom. 10:19).

They had provoked God to jealousy by trusting false gods and idols. So God would provoke them to jealousy by means of a foreign nation (v.21). He would use those Israel despised to discipline them. That nation would gain so much power over Israel that Israel would become jealous of it.

Instead of Israel being a witness for Jehovah, before all nations, the song of Moses was to be a witness for Jehovah against the children of Israel. They were called to be His witnesses. Their task was to make His Name known and to display His praise in the land where He brought them, in His faithfulness and sovereign mercy. But sadly, they failed completely and shamefully.

But Jeshurun (Israel) grew fat and kicked, and abandoned the Rock of his strength. So God makes them jealous with those who are not a people. It is the call of the Gentiles, according to Romans 10:19.

How could the Jews say that this meant themselves? On the contrary, it was the Jew who was provoked by the Gentiles — "By those who are no people, and by a foolish nation I will make you angry." Did they deny that they were a foolish nation? Very well then — Moses said it was a foolish nation that would make them angry.

In the meantime God uses Israel's fall as the occasion for proclaiming salvation to the Gentiles. And if God proclaims salvation to the Gentiles, it is not only that the Gentiles may be blessed, but that through their blessing Israel may be provoked to jealousy and again turn to God.

The threat is being carried out now, after the greatest patience. It was carried out only when they added to their old idolatry a still graver sin: rejecting the Messiah and refusing the gospel that offered them pardon for these and all other sins by His blood. Yet the threat itself contains an equally sure hint of restoring mercy at the end. For certainly, the One who acts to make them jealous by blessing the Gentiles does not mean to cast them off in the end — quite the reverse.

And they are asked a conscience-searching question: "Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?" Is He not rightly jealous of our giving any honour (honour that belongs to Him) to demons? Or, "are we stronger than He?" Do we think we are strong enough to take part in such mixtures without danger? God Himself is completely separate from them.

But doesn't Scripture say that the fire of God's wrath burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains? Yes, it does. But it is His wrath that does this, and the passage holds no hint of mercy. And it is not threatened against Israel's enemies. It is threatened against Israel themselves.

No other nation was ever called to hold such a privileged place: a real relationship with Jehovah. God kept this dignity for one nation. But that very dignity was the ground of a most solemn responsibility. If they were called to be His people, they had to live in a way worthy of such a wonderful position. If not, they would go through the heaviest discipline any nation on earth has ever known. Men may reason about all this. They may ask whether it is morally consistent for a good God to act on the terms set out in verses 22-25 of this chapter. But sooner or later all such questions and reasonings turn out to be complete folly.

The word Sheol is vague in Scripture (see Genesis 42:38; 44:29, 31). It comes into sight at the grave, and beyond that all is dark and silent... Yet we have "the lowest hell," where "lowest" means the lowest part. Deuteronomy 32:22 uses the same word as "the lower parts" of the earth, only in the singular.

Then we have expressions like the "depths of Sheol" (Prov. 9:18) and "the lowest Sheol" (Ps. 86:13; Deut. 32:22) — the last of these being the passage where God's wrath burns down to it — and "though they dig into Sheol" (Amos 9:2). These show that the grave cannot be the whole story. Even in Sheol (Ps. 139:8) there is no escape from the presence of God: "If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!" Can that be nothing at all?

Here we meet the first mention in Scripture of the fire of hell. The picture shows it burning down to the regions of the dead, and down to the very foundations of this natural order — as if that order were the source of the corruption that had come on His people.

Fire is the constant symbol of wrath and judgment — not wrath that is arbitrary, but wrath that is necessary and essential... As fire, it must burn up everything that does not stand its test. So God must consume in judgment everything that is opposed to His righteous and perfect will.

And while the earth will in the end be burned up in this way, Scripture links that with the judgment of ungodly men (2 Peter 3:7). The earth was made subject to futility because it was made subject to man (Rom. 8:20), not because man was made subject to the earth. So it is set free when the sons of God are revealed.

The fire of God's anger would burn down to the depths of Sheol and consume the land and everything it produced (v.22). It would also set the foundation of the mountains on fire. The mountains picture high authorities, and the very foundations of that authority in Israel would suffer the destroying flame.

The song of Moses (Deut. 32 and Rev. 15:3) is a wonderful summary of God's ways with Israel. It gives God's sovereign call of that nation, their stubborn ways, and, as a result, their defeat by enemies and their scattering. It then gives the final overthrow of those enemies, and the recovery of both land and people through sovereign mercy, so that they enjoy the favour of Jehovah together with the nations that are spared.

How moving and solemn all this is! Israel should have been a witness for Jehovah before all nations. Instead, the song of Moses was to stand as a witness for Jehovah against the children of Israel. They were called to be His witnesses. They were responsible to declare His Name and to show His praise in the land He brought them into, in His faithfulness and sovereign mercy. But they failed completely and shamefully. So, in view of this sad and humbling failure, a song was to be written. First, it sets out the glory of God in the most magnificent language. Second, it records Israel's terrible failure at every stage of their history, and records it with unbending faithfulness.

The arrow was used with the bow, a common weapon of the ancients... Arrows picture the judgements of God, Ps. 38:2; Ps. 45:5. They also picture anything sharp and painful, such as a wounding tongue. Jer. 9:8.

Jehovah then has to prepare arrows against His people. He has to pour out His vengeance even on His loved Israel — more guilty than any other. Then the nations take advantage of God's anger against His people, until at last, in mercy to Israel, He rises up to deal with their enemies.

Disasters of many kinds would be heaped upon them. God's arrows of penetrating judgment would torment them. They would be wasted with hunger and devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction. But also God would send wild beasts to attack them, and poisonous reptiles (v.24). Enemies from outside would attack with their swords, and inside young and old together would be huddled in terror (v.25).

No nation on earth has ever been called to pass through discipline as severe as Israel's... No other nation was ever called to hold the privileged place of a real relationship with Jehovah. God kept this dignity for one nation alone. But that very dignity was the ground of a most solemn responsibility. If they were called to be His people, they had to live in a way worthy of such a wonderful position. If they did not, they would undergo the heaviest chastenings any nation under the sun has ever borne. Men may reason about all this. They may ask how a kind Being can act on the terms set out in verses 22-25 of our chapter and still be morally consistent. But sooner or later all such questions and reasonings prove to be complete folly.

It would have been just for God to say He would dash them in pieces and destroy their very memory from among men (v.26). But He would not go that far. Otherwise Israel's enemies would boast that their own strength had destroyed Israel, and would give the Lord no honour for His hand in this (v.27).

They justify Him in His past dealings with themselves. It was He who had heaped disasters on them. They had been pierced through with His arrows (Deut. 32:23). So they can appeal to His name against the anger of the enemy. That enemy was making himself great against that name by oppressing the poor of His covenant. The enemy would gladly use them for his own pleasure; but God had other thoughts. He had appointed the oppressors as a rod of correction for His own people.

Moses wrote the second song at the end, just before he died. There is no record that it was ever sung. The instruction was, "Now therefore write this song for you, and teach it to the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel" (Deut. 31:19)... They were unlikely to sing it. The earlier part celebrates God's kind dealings with them, and the closing part celebrates His final intervention and deliverance. But the main weight of the song is their folly in abandoning God for idols, and the discipline and punishment this was certain to bring on them.

Disasters of many kinds would be heaped upon them. God's arrows of penetrating judgment would torment them. They would be wasted with hunger and devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction. But also God would send wild beasts to attack them, and poisonous reptiles (v.24).

Scripture uses the poison of snakes and asps as a symbol of God's judgment and of the malice that lives in the wicked. Deut. 32:24, 33; Job 6:4; Job 20:16; Ps. 58:4; Ps. 140:3; Rom. 3:13.

"They shall lick the dust like the serpent, they shall move out of their holes like creeping things of the earth," Micah 7:17. But we have here, not only a reference to Gen. 3:14, but a quotation of certain words found Deut. 32:24. The Hebrew word for "creeping things" occurs only here, in Deut. and in Job 32:6.

No nation on earth has ever been called to pass through such severe discipline as Israel. The Lord reminds them with these solemn words: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I punish you for your iniquities." No other nation was ever called to hold that privileged place of real relationship with God... but that very honour was the ground of a most solemn responsibility... People may argue about all this. They may raise all kinds of questions about whether a good God can act on the terms set out in verses 22-25 of this chapter. But sooner or later all such questions and arguments prove to be complete folly.

But Moses does not end without a song (Deut. 32). This song rests on the hidden things of God's grace, though it also takes in the judgments of the last days. He is not blind to the evil, yet he looks on to the blessing that would come to them. He feels deeply what they would do against God in their stubborn folly and ingratitude. But he also sees, in prophetic vision, what He will do for them.

It is true that we possess eternal life... But does that excuse us from hearing the warning that Israel's history speaks in our ears? Are our far greater privileges a reason to live carelessly and brush aside the healthy warnings Israel's history gives? Certainly not!... The higher our privileges, the richer our blessings, the closer our relationship, the more fitting it is — and the more solemnly we are bound — to be faithful.

It is in view of all this that Moses is told to write this song. Of it we read: "when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness, for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring." In this song Moses pleads with the people about the sins he foretells they will commit. He faithfully predicts the disasters that will follow.

God's arrows of penetrating judgment would torment them. They would be wasted with hunger and devoured by disease and bitter destruction. But God would also send wild beasts to attack them, and poisonous reptiles (v.24). Enemies from outside would attack with their swords, and inside, young and old would huddle together in terror (v.25).

The term "fire" stands for the concentrated energy of the dissolving forces of nature. It is a rapid consumer of created forms. But this devouring energy also works in slower ways. It is more or less resisted, and for a while held off. And yet Scripture groups every form in which human lives are blighted and destroyed under this one head. It traces them all to one agency. "Our God is a consuming fire." And so we read verses 23-25.

No nation on earth has ever been called to pass through such severe discipline as Israel. The Lord reminds them of this in solemn words: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." No other nation was ever called to the privileged place of actual relationship with Jehovah. God reserved this dignity for one nation; but that very dignity was the basis of a most solemn responsibility. If they were called to be His people, they were responsible to live in a way worthy of such a wonderful position, or else undergo the heaviest chastenings ever endured by any nation under the sun.

It would have been just for God to say He would dash them in pieces and destroy their very memory from among men (v.26). But He would not go that far. If He did, Israel's enemies would boast of their own strength in destroying Israel, and would give the Lord no honour for His hand in this (v.27).

But is there to be no end to these calamities? Yes, there is an end. It comes by Israel's deliverance when they are at their last extremity, and by God transferring the judgments of His hand from them to their adversaries. Whatever partial restorations of Israel there may have been in the past, this complete transfer of God's judgments from them to their adversaries has never yet taken place.

Our privileges are far higher. Does that mean we may walk carelessly and despise the wholesome warnings that Israel's history gives us? God forbid! The higher our privileges, the richer our blessings, the nearer our relationship, the more fitting it is that we be faithful. We are bound to it all the more solemnly.

Two songs are attributed to Moses. The second was composed at the end, just before he died. It does not appear ever to have been sung. The instructions were: "Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the people of Israel." They would hardly be likely to sing it. The earlier part celebrates God's kindly dealings with them, and the closing part His final intervention and deliverance. But the main burden of it is their folly in forsaking God and turning to idols, and the chastening and retribution this was sure to bring on them.

It would have been just for God to say He would dash them in pieces and destroy their very memory from among men (v. 26). But He would not go that far. Otherwise Israel's enemies would boast of their own strength in destroying Israel, and give the Lord no honour for His hand in this (v. 27).

And why did He not? The answer to this question is a truth of infinite value and importance to Israel. It lies at the very foundation of all their future blessing. No doubt, as far as they are concerned, they deserved to have their remembrance blotted out from among men. But God has His own thoughts, counsels and purposes for them. And not only that: He takes account of what the nations think and do toward His people.

Still, the judgment falls on Israel. God would have destroyed them, if the glory of His name had not held Him back, for the Gentiles proved themselves completely wicked.

When He spoke of destroying the people in the desert for refusing to go up into the promised land, Moses pleaded against it. He pointed to the disastrous effect such a thing would have on His name among the nations of the earth. They would say that He had destroyed the nation because He was unable to bring them into the land (Numbers 14)… He will not act in a way that would give His creature a false impression. That would only increase the darkness in which that creature walks.

God will not permit the nations to treat His poor erring people as they please. He will use them as His rod of discipline. But the moment they indulge their own bitter hatred and go beyond their appointed limit, He will break the rod in pieces. He will make it clear to all that He Himself is dealing with His beloved though erring people, for their final blessing and His glory.

After all their unmatched ups and downs, and heavy discipline under the holy hand of God, they remain. They have come through all the hatred and persecution of the boastful nations, east and west. Where is Moab? Where are Edom, Assyria, Babylon, and the rest? Men may dig and find the ruins of their palaces and fortresses. But as nations they are dead and gone. They have long ceased to exist. Israel remains as distinct a people as ever.

In the end the Lord will judge His people, and will change His mind concerning His servants. He will call the nations to rejoice with them. Jehovah will be merciful to His land and to His people.