06 | Song of Moses | Deuteronomy 32:30-33 | DISCERNING DEFEAT

MAIN IDEA

When the enemies of God seem victorious, it is not because the Lord has lost control—the Rock remains. His judgment is not weakness, and his blessing is found only in the true vine, the true grape, and the true wine.

—————

INTRODUCTION

Deuteronomy 32 is made up of three cycles:

First Cycle = v1-14 - The Lord Blesses Israel

Second Cycle = v15-29 - Israel Provokes the Lord

Third Cycle = v30-43 - The Lord’s Justice and Salvation

If it is God’s prerogative to judge, it is also his prerogative to save.

He is just to relent and preserve a remnant of his people.

PRAY

4:00

v30 — DISCERNING DEFEAT

The context of our passage is two-fold

The Lord gives evidence for their discernment.

Read v21 — The Lord brings a foreign nation against the people of Israel.

Read v28-29 — The People Failed to Discern

The Lord gives evidence for their discernment.

Read v30

The Lord is making the argument that they shouldn’t have been defeated so easily.

They shouldn’t have been put to flight.

But they were because the Lord is judging them.

The destruction of the people was not the natural interplay of warring nations.

It was a supernatural act of judgement by the Lord.

6:00

A Warning Before Wandering

Remember that this song is given to the people to sing before they are judged …

… and even before they wander from the truth.

How might this song serve the people in their future discernment?

1) In part, it leaves them without excuse. They were warned.

v30 - “sold them” and “gave them up”

Psalm 44:12 ESV

You have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no high price for them.

Moses gave this song to the people as they are entering the land that the Lord had given them as a nation …

… so that in the generations to come, each generation would be warned that their life in the land is bound to the covenant of the Lord.

If they wander from his way and his worship, they can be removed from the land just as easily as the Lord has given it to them.

8:00

2) As judgement comes in future generations …

… there are always a small remnant who continue and are strengthened in faith.

I always think of Nehemiah or of Daniel and his friends.

They recall the warnings of the Lord, and the justice of God in condemning idolatry.

These warnings serve not only to leave the condemned without excuse …

… but as a light to guide a remnant to repent and cling to the Lord’s covenant of steadfast love and mercy.

10:00

APPLY

Read v26-27

The Lord is telling a story in history by means of his justice judgements.

He is clear that one aspect of that story is that

Covenant judgement isn’t divine weakness.

Though the Lord uses foreign nations who do not know God …

… it is the Lord who is working according to the perfection of his judgments.

Deuteronomy 32:4 ESV

“The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

Success doesn’t mean blessing.

It is a repeated refrain for the psalmists and the prophets to ask, “Why do the wicked prosper?”

Why is this wicked and godless nation successful in their campaign against Israel?

This is important for us to discern.

The momentary successes of godless peoples do not mean the blessing of the Lord is upon them.

They are still godless.

As we will see: Read v31.

Let the remnant who survive the onslaught of the Lord’s judgement on the covenant people be warned …

… but let them also not misunderstand, and begin to envy the enemy.

As Habakkuk reminds the people:

Though the enemy is proud and arrogant in his violence …

… the righteous will live by faith

… not by collusion with the ways of a godless people.

13:00

v31 — THEIR ROCK AND OUR ROCK

Again, read v31.

The enemy is triumphant even though they are nothing and have nothing.

They are by themselves.

Though they are victorious in this battle …

… they have no god and no inheritance on the earth.

(1 Samuel 5) I think of the Philistines when they are victorious against Israel …

… as Israel treats the Ark of the Covenant like a talisman

… rather than trusting in the Lord for victory in battle.

The Philistines destroy the armies of Israel and capture the Ark of the Covenant as a victory prize.

They set up the Ark in their temple in Ashdod, making the sign of God’s covenant faithfulness a charm in service to the demon god, Dagon.

When they wake in the morning, the idolatrous statue of Dagon has fallen down to the ground before the Ark of the Lord.

This happens for multiple days, until plagues begin to afflict the people of Ashdod.

They aren’t being judged by nothing — garbage/nothing gods.

They are being judged by the Rock.

You see, the Philistines thought they were great in their victory.

But their rock is not as the Rock.

The enemies of the people of God, though an instrument of the Lord’s justice, remain by themselves.

They are nothing of themselves.

They are tools of the Rock.

16:00

APPLY

When we see wickedness prosper, how do we think about it?

As we see the billionaires, celebrities and dictators of the world, flaunt their worldliness …

… how do we feel toward them?

We must not envy the victories of the world.

They have no god.

They are literally empty victories.

They are vacuous and will ultimately mean their own destruction.

When you read the prophets, and you see how the Lord uses of foreign nations, remember the Song of Moses.

It will help you to rightly read these scripture about God’s execution of judgement.

The enemy nations with their godless idols are mere tools.

The true people of God …

… the remnant of the people

… are not mere tools.

They are the chastened children of the King and friends of God.

20:00

Moses gives a further explanation of the ways of the foreign enemies of God.

He uses the images of …

v32-33 — VINE, GRAPES AND WINE

What is Sodom and Gommorah?

Remember the story

Retell Genesis

The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, in which, the nephew of Abraham, had taken up residence …

… were marked by corruption and perversion.

In the account prior to their destruction by the Lord …

… the men of the city sought to violate angelic visitors to Lot.

Their desires were unnatural, raging against the created order and defying both hospitality and holiness.

In response, the Lord rained down fire from heaven, utterly destroying the cities as a warning of judgment against unrepentant sin.

22:00

So, when Moses calls Sodom and Gommorah to mind …

… we ought first to think of a people of …

Corruption and Perversion

Even the violence of the enemy as they bring God’s judgement tells you what their way produces.

It is the way of death.

The Lord is using a wicked and godless people to judge his covenant people …

… but that doesn’t mean that the way of these enemies is itself right and good.

No, their vine—their source …

… and their grape—their fruit

… are like that of Sodom and Gommorrah.

They themselves will be utterly wiped from the face of the earth.

And, unlike Israel, there will be no remnant preserved.

25:00

What’s wrong with their vine, grapes and wine?

What is mean by vine, grapes and wine?

These are the root assumptions and the ways of life …

… by which a people seek satisfaction in this life.

You have heard me say that sin is shaking our fist at God, saying:

On my own I can live!

The vine, grape and wine of a people are the way they seek to make a life for themselves without God.

It is the cultural assumptions and the vain pursuits.

The points Moses is making here is that they way of the enemy …

… are not from God.

They are corrupt perversions, like Sodom and Gommorrah.

They are Bitter —

Their way and worship does not satisfy. It leaves a bitter taste.

Even more, they are deadly: They are Poison —

They are self-destructive

What of their wine?

It is not the sweet and warming, foaming wine …

… that is the gift of the Lord to his people

… to remind them of his covenant of grace.

The enemy’s wine is not the fruit of a land blessed by God …

… but the poison of serpents and the venom of cursed snakes.

(Read all of Isaiah 5.)

29:00

What of the true vine, grape and wine?

John 15:1–2 ESV

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

The vine—the source of life is Christ.

The grape—it is the fruit of righteousness.

The wine—is the sweet and warming remembrance of the covenant of the Lord.

Under the old covenant:

Exodus 24:8 ESV

And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

The blood of the old covenant remembrance becomes the wine of the new covenant remembrance.

No longer blood as the ritual by which we remember, because we remember that the blood has already been poured out. (COMMUNION)

Luke 22:20 ESV

And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

APPLY

The source of the enemies is corruption.

The fruit of the enemies is poison.

The hope, promise of the enemies is venomous poison.

While the Lord is using this godless nation for the purpose of his judgement …

… it would be a deadly error and failure of discernment

… for the remnant of the people of God to look to the ways of the enemy for their hope.

Even in the presence of the victory of the enemy, we cry out for the righteous, substantial, grace of the One Rock.

35:00

APPLY

To the Idolator

For the one who has adopted the godless ways of the enemies of God.

The Lord will judge.

Last week we saw his jealousy provoked.

This week we see what false worship produces: poison and death.

→ Turn from your dead vine.

Run to the Rock.

To the Believer Troubled by Defeat

When enemies triumph, the Lord has not lost control.

Even when you are outnumbered or overwhelmed, the Rock has not changed.

The Lord remains the rock.

The ways of the enemies of God have no substantial success in and of themselves.

Their ways and the fruit their ways are poison and death.

→ Just as was true of Israel in our passage, we are poor at discernment.

If you are troubled by defeat, and the apparent successes of the enemies of the Lord …

… simply remember.

Our most pressing need is not to be wise, real-time interpreters of the cultural moment.

It is to remember the Rock:

[whose] work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he

Here, I could have refer to Romans 8:1 again, but I did that last week. This is my other favorite verse.

Philippians 1:6 ESV

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

40:00

To the Suffering Christian

It is possible that suffering is an opportunity to repent—not because you’re forsaken, but because you’re loved.

The suffering of the believer is not the judgment of an angry God, but may be the discipline of a faithful Father.

→ Ask: “What is true about the Lord—my Rock?

I don’t even know that it is the best question to ask, “What is the Lord showing me?”

That puts the burden of discernment on our own reading of the circumstance.

The best question is not, “What is God teaching me?”

It is: “What is true about God?”

My counsel to you is to simply take up the Word—meditating upon the scriptures—to remember what is true.

Then, in meditation upon the truth of God, our circumstances find their circumstance.

Our suffering is situated in the unchanging faithfulness of our Rock.

Neither should the first question be: “What have I done wrong?”

Recently, I was doing some research on the religious understandings of musician— Maynard James Keenan of the band Tool.

He is vehemently opposed to faith religions and particularly rejects the Christian God.

When giving an account of his rejection of Christianity he tells how, when his mother suffered an aneurism, it was because:

“she wasn't right with God" and "that's why she got sick."

My mother was actually told much the same thing by her church when she was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Again, NO suffering is God taking out his wrath upon the believer.

And, not all suffering is even the Lord’s discipline because of a particular sin.

But it is an opportunity to remember the righteousness of our Lord …

… and not to become distracted by the momentary successes of the enemies of God.

And, it is an opportunity to ask if there is any way of iniquity that remains in us.

And we know …

→ The Lord is lovingly pursuing and confidently guiding, even in the presence of suffering.

43:00

To the Unbeliever Who Suffers

v28 - No Discernment — Is it possible that if they would have discerned the judgement and turned in repentance, that thy would have been saved? The righteous will live by faith.

Judgment is a megaphone

What if those in vv19–29 had seen their defeats and turned?

What if you, today, realized that suffering in this world is not an accident—but can serve as an interruption?

→ Don’t ignore the mercy of the Rock.

You aren’t just being warned. You are being called to repentance.

45:00

FINAL GOSPEL CONNECTION

The Rock who gave up the idolatrous Israel in judgment is the same Rock who was struck, that from him might flow the true wine of the covenant for all who run to him.

Are you running from the Lord?

Perhaps you are tempted, in the face of the successes of the enemies of God …

… to turn to their ways, as if their successes were a sign of their blessing.

The Rock remains.

We do not turn to the enemy and his ways.

We turn to the Rock, that in him we will find mercy.

47:00