Yesterday's reading speaks of a song that the Lord gives to Moses to teach the people. It is a song to remind the Israelites of their broken covenant when they turn away from God. Today we will analyze the song, whose poetic verses comprise most of Deuteronomy 32. I would recommend following the link above to read the song in its entirety. It is a beautiful piece of literature. However, the narrator shifts a few times throughout the song, so when reading it be careful to discern who is saying what.
The Song of Moses: Deuteronomy 32.1-47
You might remember from Deuteronomy 30 that the Lord's new covenant with Israel calls on the heavens and earth as witnesses. These witnesses are invoked in the very first line of the song:
Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;The heavens and earth comprise the universe; there is nothing that is not a witness to this contract. The witnesses of the covenant are omnipresent in order to ensure that God is eternally in his people's hearts and on their lips.
let the earth hear the words of my mouth
Next we are to consider God's speech/teaching in four different forms of water droplets: rain, dew, gentle rain, and showers. These are all synonymous in the sense that they come down upon the earth and yield growth.
Next we are presented with the Lord as Rock, a motif that will appear throughout the rest of the poem. The rock is perfect and just and faithful and upright. His "degenerate children," on the other hand, are perverse and crooked, foolish and senseless. This generation of Israelites is rebuked, and asked to remember their creation and protection by the hands of God.
Then comes a primeval image of the Most High (Elyon) apportioning nations and fixing boundaries "according to the number of the gods." The Israelites are kept by God as his own portion. This seems to suggest monolatry - the belief that there is more than one god but worshipping one only. This version of monolatry even suggests a hierarchy, with Elyon as the most high God, capable of assigning other gods to other peoples. From the Israelite point of view (in this verse at least), the Israelites are a protected people of the High God, and are justified in maintaining their convictions in the face of foreign peoples. [God, of course, just wants the Israelites to obey God.]
An eagle simile appears after to convey how God shields and cared for God's people in the wilderness. God protects and cares for the Israelites as an eagle protects its young. The Lord covers, bears, guides Israel, sets the nation "atop the heights of the land" (the location of eagle nests), feeds it, nurses it "with honey form the crags."
The Israelites grow fat, bloated, gorged, and then abandon God. This is a recurrent motif throughout the bible; when the Israelites get full access to food, they stuff themselves, grow complacent, and turn against the Lord. They follow strange gods, sacrifice to demons, forget the Rock that bore them.
The Lord sees this and "hides his face" from his people - meaning he will no longer support them. Just as the Israelites turned to another god, the Lord will support another people temporarily in order to seek revenge on the Israelites a la "eye for an eye."
The anger of the Lord is fiery like a volcano. It burns to the depths of Sheol [a shady place where souls go after death, though not a place where souls are tortured, like Hell) and "sets on fire the foundations of the mountains." The Lord will wage war against the Israelites with arrows, hunger, disease, and deadly animals. Young and old alike will die, their names blotted out.
Israel's enemies will not understand that they are successful because the Lord has given Israel into their hands:
They are a nation void of sense;Even when the Lord turns his face from the Israelites, he is still their one and only God. There will always be that connection between them. Other people have other false gods, but YHWH is the one true God that can make armies win and lose as YHWH Sabaoth. And so the Lord will vindicate his people, and their enemies will realize that their gods are naught.
there is no understanding in them.
If they were wise, they would understand this;
they would discern what the end would be.
How could one have routed a thousand,
and two put a myriad to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
the Lord had given them up?
Indeed their rock is not like our Rock;
our enemies are fools.
(Deut. 32.28-32)
God then declares monotheism:
See now that I, even I, am he;God kills and makes alive, wounds and heals. God is omnipotent and will take vengeance on those who hate him. Those arrows that were before aimed at the Israelites will now be used against their enemies:
there is no god beside me.
I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
and my sword shall devour flesh.
The people are told to worship God, as are the false "gods" of the foreign people. This is not meant to acknowledge that these gods exist, but rather is a rhetorical device to demonstrate YHWH's power. Even false gods would bow down to YHWH. And God will take vengeance and cleanse the land for his people.
These are the words that Moses recites for the people to remember after they have crossed the Jordan.
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