Deuteronomy 32:20-33, The Song of Moses and the USA

It is Thanksgiving Day in the United States.  And we are in the midst of a survey of Deuteronomy.  We see some things in Deut. 32, a song written for the people of Israel, that speak to me as an American.  We want to share on that today.

First, let me wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.  Better, let me wish for you a meaningful Thanksgiving Day, a day in which you devote time to giving thanks to God for the blessings you have received because you live in this nation.  Remember that, for every nation, God determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:26-28).

First, consider the “I wills” of God when Israel had turned away from Him.

·       v20a: I will hide my face from them

·       v20b: I will see what their end will be

·       v21a: I will provoke them to jealousy by the Church (Rom. 10:19)

·       v21b: I will move them to anger by the Church (Rom. 11:11-14)

·       v23a: I will heap disasters on them

·       v23b: I will spend my arrows on them (specifically v24-25)

·       v26a: I will dash them in pieces (He did not say this but would have had said it)

·       v26b: I will make the memory of them cease (had He not feared the enemy, v27)

In light of this, remember Peter’s words: For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God (a reference to the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in 70AD since Peter was writing to Jewish believers); and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God (1 Pt. 4:17)?

Now consider the commentary on rebellious Israel in 32:28-33.  Verse 28 is the definition of “stupid.”  Israel will not understand that all the difficulties she faces are the work of God.  Their God, the LORD, is at the bottom of all this.  He chose Israel, He blessed Israel and made her great.  He would also be the cause of her demise and being cursed rather than blessed.  But Israel would fail to recognize this.  She would explain events in “natural” ways.  Ezekiel 39:23,28 predicts that eventually this ignorance will be done away; both the nations and Israel will know that God was at work in Israel’s dispersion and captivity among the nations.  They will understand that God brought them back to the land.

We can learn from this.  The USA is not Israel.  But we should remember that God judged Gentile nations as well.  Sodom and Gomorrah, the Canaanites, the Assyrians and Babylonians and many others in the past should make this clear to us.  We have been blessed wonderfully by God.  But if we turn away from Him, we should not expect to be treated any differently.  Today, give thanks!  AND pray for this nation.