Having laid out the basic points of the Song
(God is righteous; Israel is corrupt) the Lord then illustrates these truths. He calls on Israel to Remember the days of old (v7).
Let us note some things in God’s reminders of His goodness to Israel.
·
God set the boundaries of all the nations
according to His planned goodness for Israel, v8-9.
This is an important truth. It takes us back to Gen. 10-11. Gen 10 lists the nations as they formed after
the flood. Gen. 11 tells the story of
the scattering of the nations (by the confusion of the languages) at
Babel. When you read the story you might
think that where each nation ended up was random. But our passage today says that God was in
it. His plan was that the descendants of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would have a particular land, a good land flowing with
milk and honey. His setting of the
boundaries of the nations provided for each nation while reserving one parcel
of land for His treasured inheritance.
It is no mere coincidence that the descendants
of Canaan, a grandson of Noah through Ham (Gen. 9:22) who was cursed by Noah
(Gen. 9:25) ended up in the land that would become Israel’s (Gen. 10:19). The expulsion of the Canaanites did not
happen in the days of Abraham because the
iniquity of the Amorites [was] not yet complete (Gen. 15:16). But the time came later when God used Israel
to judge the Amorites and cast them out of the land (Deut. 9:4; Judges 11:22-23;
1 Kings 21:26). People who consider God cruel
for ordering Israel to annihilate the inhabitants of the land need to
understand the big picture. Israel was
not allowed to dispossess Edom or Moab or Ammon (Deut. 2:4-5,9,19) because God
had given to each of them their own land; it was not to be Israel’s.
The Apostle Paul referred to God’s positioning of
the nations when he preached at Mars Hill: And
He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the
earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their
dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord … (Acts 17:26-27). This is an amazing recognition of the
Sovereign Lord but also of the goodness of the Sovereign Lord. The location of each nation is such that their
geographical context will encourage them to seek God! God is good to all nations, but we also see
that He has a special relationship with one nation, Israel.
·
God, and God alone, found Israel struggling in its
beginnings and brought her to be a nation (v10-12), a thriving nation
(v13-14). It appears Ezekiel had this in
mind in describing God’s love for Israel (Ezek. 16:1-14). All of Ezek. 16 seems to mirror the Song of
Moses as we will see in our upcoming studies.
Let us recognize and worship God for His
sovereign work in establishing our national boundaries. Let us seek Him, as He intended. In my own country both the fruitfulness and
the disasters we are prone to experience should be clarion calls to acknowledge
the Creator!
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