Of the Rock that begot thee wast thou unmindful, And thou hast forgotten God who brought thee forth.
Moses' song reaches its saddest line here: the people who owe their very existence to God have put Him out of mind. Two pictures sit side by side: a Rock who fathered them, and a God who gave them birth. The children they made forgot both.
The Hebrew word for "Rock" here is tzur, and it also carries the idea of forming and making. So the title says more than strength. One writer follows that link:
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.
Forgetting Him is not a small slip of memory. It knocks away the only ground under your feet:
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.
The forgetting in this verse did not follow hardship. It followed success — and that pattern is not unique to Israel:
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.
Nothing stays empty. What replaced the Rock was not harmless, and pride in moving past the fathers made the swap easy:
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.
The birth language points to a relationship God Himself set up when He took one nation out of the middle of another. Israel ruined its side of it. God did not drop His:
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.
There is a mother's tenderness in "gave you birth." One writer ties the verse straight to the Lord's words in Matthew 23:
For the motherhood of GOD, see Deut. 32:18, and compare, of course, Matt. 23:37-39.
The song describes Israel, but one writer turns it on us. God's gifts can shut out the Giver:
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!
- Rock means Maker. The title joins forming, refuge and salvation in one word — the God who shaped them is the God who secures them.
- Forgotten in plenty. The song locates the drift not in suffering but in comfort: prosperity made the upright one rebellious, "a strange, common case."
- Forgotten, then filled. Dropping the Rock left no empty, neutral space. It led to sacrifice to demons, and pride in outgrowing the fathers made deception easy.
- Forgotten by them, not by Him. He fathered the nation and bought it. The voice that rebukes their sin still promises their blessing in the end.
- Forgotten by us too. We can use God's gifts to shut out the Giver. The test: do today's mercies keep driving you back to the Rock who fathered you?
And Jehovah saw it, and despised them, Because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters.
Moses is at the end of his life, teaching Israel a song God gave him as a witness against them before they ever failed. Verse 19 is where the song turns: God sees what His people have become and turns away, yet He still calls them His sons and His daughters.
The song came before the disaster, not after. Israel learned it by heart first, so the words were already waiting when the failure came.
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.
The verse says God "saw it." Moses has just sung of God's love and patience, and of what Israel gave that love in return.
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."
God's reaction matches theirs. The rejection runs in both directions, but only one side of it is deserved.
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.
The verse calls them His sons and His daughters. No other nation stood that close, and closeness is what made the discipline so severe.
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.
The song is not only Israel's history. The same path is open to us: good gifts crowding out the Giver.
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.
Verse 19 is not where the song ends. The same threat that turns God away also carries His mercy at the end.
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.
- Warned — Israel learned the song before the failure, so their own words would testify against them.
- Seen — God turned away because of what He saw: worship handed to gods Israel had never known.
- Spurned — they rejected Him without cause; He rejected them with cause, and He hid His approving face.
- Family — He calls them sons and daughters even while rejecting them. That nearness is why the discipline was so severe.
- Restored — the same threat that scattered them carries within it the promise of mercy at the end.
And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation, Children in whom is no faithfulness.
The Song of Moses looks back over Israel's whole history and forward to its end. Here God Himself speaks. He will turn His face away and wait to see where such a people will land. Two questions follow: what does it mean for God to hide His face, and who is this "generation" He describes?
One writer describes how much ground the Song covers:
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.
God hiding His face is an answer to what Israel had just done to Him:
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 word "generation" here is not a measure of time. One writer compares how the Psalms use the word:
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.
One consequence of that reading stands out. The people described here did not disappear with the crowd Moses spoke to.
"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.
The verse ends by calling them children with no faithfulness in them. Older translations read "children in whom is no faith." One writer applies that line to the people who accused Moses and Aaron:
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).
God's turning away from Israel is a real threat. But one writer finds something else inside that threat:
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.
One writer turns the lesson on readers who have received more, not less:
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.
- Cause — Israel turned from God first. The hidden face is His answer in kind. No creature can go on without His approving face.
- Character — "Generation" here describes a moral kind, not a span of years. It says what a people are like, not when they lived.
- Continuance — On that reading, the same unbelieving people live on among the nations today. God keeps them for His own purposes.
- Consequence — The turning away opens the door to the Gentiles. The threat itself carries the certainty of mercy for Israel at the end.
- Caution — The Song begins and ends with God. The greater a reader's privileges, the greater the reason to walk humbly.
They have moved me to jealousy with that which is no God; They have exasperated me with their vanities; And I will move them to jealousy with that which is not a people; With a foolish nation will I provoke them to anger.
Near the end of his life, Moses teaches Israel a song about their coming failure. In it God answers their sin in kind: they chose what is "no god", so He turns to what is "no people".
Israel gave up the living God for gods that do not exist. In return God turns to a people Israel treated as no one.
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).
God picks the punishment for its sting. He lifts up the very people Israel looked down on, and gives them the upper hand.
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.
There is a painful reversal here. The people chosen to speak for God became the people the song speaks against.
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.
Who are the "no people"? Commentators point to the Gentiles — the nations outside Israel.
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.
Paul quotes this line in Romans to close off every escape route. The wording itself makes the Jewish reader choose between two uncomfortable admissions.
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.
Why does God stir jealousy instead of simply ending the nation?
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 severe. But it carries its own remedy inside it.
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.
The same jealousy stirs today. Believers can mix the worship of God with what belongs to demons.
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.
- Cause. Israel traded the living God for gods that were not — the offence that sets the whole sentence in motion.
- Mirror. God's answer matches the crime: the nothing they chose is repaid with a people they thought were nothing.
- Witness. The people called to testify for God became the people His song testifies against.
- Reach. That "no people" is the calling of the nations, which Paul uses in Romans to silence every Jewish objection.
- Return. The jealousy is not rejection but pursuit — the threat itself carries the promise of mercy at the end.