OT Study: Deuteronomy Pt. 6

VII. Epilogue: Moses’ Legacy ()

A. Main point

The main point of this section is to conclude the Pentatauch by preparing the people of Israel one last time before Moses dies and they enter the Promised Land and begin The Conquest. 

B. Structure 

Preparation of the People ()

Preparation of the Leader ()

Preparation of the Priests ()

Commissioning of Joshua and the Song of Moses ()

Blessing of Moses ()

Death of Moses (34:1-12)

C. Exposition

1. Preparation of the People ()

1 So Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel. 2 And he said to them, “I am 120 years old today. I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ 3 The Lord your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them, and Joshua will go over at your head, as the Lord has spoken.

Moses begins these closing remarks by reminding the Israelites that he will not be leading them over the Jordan to begin the conquest. He points to Lord their God who will go over before you Himself. Moses was not the one who was responsible for delivering Israel out of Egypt and through the WIlderness. He was not the one who gained victory over the Moabites. It was God who did these things and Moses seeks to remind the people that it will be God who will destroy the nations before them, with Joshua being their human representative. 

2. Preparation of the Leader ()

7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. 8 It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

Moses then turns his attention to Joshua and commands him to be strong and courageous as he leads the Israelites in conquering the land that the Lord had Promised. The basis of his strength and courage was that it was the Lord who went before him and Who will be with him. He should never fear or be dismayed because the Lord would not leave or forsake him. 

3. Preparation of the Priests ()

9 Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 And Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12 Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law,

Moses then turns to the Priests and instructs them to read the Law to the people once a year at the Feast of Booths. Remember that this feast commemorate God’s work of bringing Israel through the wilderness to the Promised Land. Every person in the community of Israel down to the little children were to come and hear the law, learn to fear the Lord and be careful to do all that the Law commanded. See here how this looks back to the opening commands of the book to hear the law and then do it. See also that the basis for outward obedience, the beginning of applying the law to your life is learning to fear the Lord. 

4. Commissioning of Joshua () 

14 And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, the days approach when you must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, that I may commission him.” And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting. 15 And the Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud. And the pillar of cloud stood over the entrance of the tent.

19 “Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel. 20 For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant. 21 And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring). For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.” 22 So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the people of Israel. 23 And the Lord commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the people of Israel into the land that I swore to give them. I will be with you.” 

After Moses’ address to the people God comes down in the pillar of cloud and meets with Moses and Joshua. He commissions Moses to write a song to teach to the people. This song was to stand as a witness against them and all future generations when they broke the covenant with God by turning to other gods, serving them and despising God. After instructing Moses, God then turns to Joshua and commissions him personally. Joshua was to take the mantel as the theocratic leader of God’s people and just as God had been with Moses, God promises to be with Joshua as he brings the people into the Promised Land. 

5. The Song of Moses (31:24-32:52) 

A. Covenant Lawsuit: Call of the Witness (31:24-32:3)

26 “Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. 27 For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more after my death! 28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to witness against them. 29 For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you. And in the days to come evil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands.” 30 Then Moses spoke the words of this song until they were finished, in the ears of all the assembly of Israel

Remember how chapters detailed the curses that would come upon Israel when they failed and then the restoration of God when He caused them to return to Him by circumcising their hearts. In this chapter Moses teaches Israel a song that will remind them, or stand witness against them, of the reason for their curse, for God’s rejection and the hope of their future restoration. This was to be a song that was learned and sung from generation to generation. What we see is that this in fact did happen as Isaiah cites this song on numerous occasions about 700 years later. This song was written in the form of a covenant lawsuit which begins with an accusation that is then supported with evidence

B. Covenant Lawsuit: Accusation (32:4-6)

4 “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, righteous and upright is he. 5 They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation. 6 Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?

The song begins in verses 4-6 with Moses describing the two parties in this covenant relationship. First, Moses establishes that God is The Rock. God is totally immovable in His perfection and His righteousness. All that He does is just and unlike humanity there is no iniquity or perverseness in Him. Moreover, He is a God of faithfulness to His covenant promises. Moses then contrasts the perfect God with His people. They have rejected His perfect ways, His faithful love and His righteousness Law and rejected Him as their father. He is perfect and just, they are crooked and twisted. He is without iniquity, they are blemished. Moses then ends this introduction by incredulously asking, “is this how you treat your marvelous and wonderful God, the One who created and established you?”

C. Covenant Lawsuit: Evidence (32:7-18)

7 Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. 8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. 9 But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. 10 “He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. 11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, 12 the Lord alone guided him, no foreign god was with him. 13 He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. 14 Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the very finest of the wheat— and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape. 15 “But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation. 16 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. 18 You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.

The song then moves in verses 7-14 to provide proof of his accusation that Israel had dealt corruptly with their God. He begins by describing God's love for His people. He does not just appeal to God's love over the past 40 years but begins by describing God's love for the past 400 years. God had brought their forefather, Jacob, out of nothing, out of the waste of the wilderness. God cared for and kept Israel in the desert. They were the apple of his eye and He provided for them like an eagle protecting and providing for its young. God had blessed them with a superabundance of honey and olive oil, curds and milk, lambs, goats, and rams, wheat and wine. Surely they had a special place and position amongst all the nations.  

Instead of enjoying the wonderful provisions, love and care of their Father, Israel abandoned him to worship strange gods. Israel ate from the hand of God and instead of loving Him in return they grew fat and treated Him with contempt. Unlike most animals which are calm and gentle when they are fed, Israel kicked at their God. Despite God’s love and faithfulness to bring them from Egypt to the brink of the promised land, they had turned to sacrificing to demons and worshipping foreign idols. Israel had not experiencing anything from these gods to compel them to worship them. Lastly, they forget God and removed Him, their Rock from their minds. 

D. Covenant Lawsuit: Verdict of the Judge (32:19-25) 

 19 “The Lord saw it and spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. 20 And he said, ‘I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness. 21 They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. 22 For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. 23 “ ‘And I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend my arrows on them; 24 they shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured by plague and poisonous pestilence; I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with the venom of things that crawl in the dust. 25 Outdoors the sword shall bereave, and indoors terror, for young man and woman alike, the nursing child with the man of gray hairs. 

In response to Israel’s awful rejection of God, God will reject them. His face shone upon them in love for generations and they chose to forget Him so He will hide His face from them. They chose to serve and worship the gods and idols of foreign people, so in response, God will make them jealous by loving the foreign people instead of them. Not only will God make them jealous, he will pour out His curses on His people like an archer emptying the arrows from his quiver. The fire of his anger will devour from the lowest depths to highest mountain. He will cause hunger, plague, and pestilence to come upon them in the outdoors and indoors, with the men and the women, infants and the aged.

This in fact looks forward to God’s plan for the redemption of the gentiles. See how this is prophesied of by Hosea in , “23 and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’” This verse is then quoted by Paul in . It is in that Paul details how God has sovereignty worked through Israel’s rejection of Him to extend His eternal salvation to us gentiles. Not only are we now grafted in to the people of God, God will ultimately use the gentile church to bring Israel back to Himself,  “11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! 13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?” () If God has used Israel’s rejection of Him which culminated in their great transgression of rejecting her Messiah to bless the Gentile world, how much more will He bless the world when Israel turns to Him in faith! 

E. The Nation’s Pride (32:26-35)

26 I would have said, “I will cut them to pieces; I will wipe them from human memory,” 27 had I not feared provocation by the enemy, lest their adversaries should misunderstand, lest they should say, “Our hand is triumphant, it was not the Lord who did all this.” ’ 28 “For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them. 29 If they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern their latter end! 30 How could one have chased a thousand, and two have put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had given them up? 31 For their rock is not as our Rock; our enemies are by themselves. 32 For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison; their clusters are bitter; 33 their wine is the poison of serpents and the cruel venom of asps. 34 “ ‘Is not this laid up in store with me, sealed up in my treasuries? 35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.’ 

Here God details that if His judgement would have been unrestrained Israel would have been wiped from human memory. His judgment against Israel is to demonstrate His just wrath against sin and His jealous desire for their exclusive worship of Him. Furthermore, to completely annihilate Israel would have violated the unconditional promises He made to Abraham and caused His plan for Redemption to fail. Furthermore, as Moses writes here, the nations who God would have used to destroy Israel would have seen their work as a mighty triumph of their own hand. Their inability to recognize God’s sovereign use of them to punish Israel reveals their lack of understanding. They worship the gods of Sodom and Gommorrah and their rock is not the Rock. Because of their devotion to false gods and their refusal to recognize that God was to be the One who would give them victory over Israel would God promises to exercise His vengeance on them with calamity and doom. 

F. Israel’s Restoration and YHWH’s Vindication (32:36-43)

36 For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone and there is none remaining, bond or free. 37 Then he will say, ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, 38 who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you; let them be your protection! 39 “ ‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. 40 For I lift up my hand to heaven and swear, As I live forever, 41 if I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and will repay those who hate me. 42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh— with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired heads of the enemy.’ 43 “Rejoice with him, O nations, with His people; bow down to him, all gods, for he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries. He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people’s land.”

Instead of wiping Israel from human memory, YHWH will vindicate His people, He will right their wrongs and shower compassion on them. This will happen on the day when they will see that their gods were powerless to provide and protect them. This will happen when God circumcises their heart and they remember all the curses and blessings of the law, when they remember the words of this song and know that God is their God and there is no god besides Him. On that day He will judge Israel’s enemies and exercise vengeance on the people who hate Him. When this day comes the nations who love Him instead of hating Him are invited to rejoice with Israel that He has righted all wrongs and has fulfilled all His promises. 

See here how the song of Moses foretells and summarizes the entire future of Israel. It tells of how they will fail and fall into curse, how God will turn His face from them to love another people, how God will retain His wrath from them, how they will return to worship Him alone and how He will vindicate and restore them in the end so that they and the nations will rejoice in God.

G. Epilogue (32:44-52) 

45 And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law.

48 That very day the Lord spoke to Moses, 49 “Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession.

Looking back on the song and on the law in general, Moses again charges Israel to live according to what God has commanded. They were to store up the warnings of the song and curses in their heart and teach them to their children so that they would do al the words of this law. After Moses finishes, God instructs him to ascend Mount Nebo to view the Promised Land that he was barred from entering.

6. Blessing of Moses ()

1 This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the people of Israel before his death. 2 He said, “The Lord came from Sinai and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran; he came from the ten thousands of holy ones, with flaming fire at his right hand. 3 Yes, he loved his people, all his holy ones were in his hand; so they followed in your steps, receiving direction from you, 4 when Moses commanded us a law, as a possession for the assembly of Jacob. 5 Thus the Lord became king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together. 6 “Let Reuben live, and not die, but let his men be few.” 7 And this he said of Judah: “Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him in to his people. With your hands contend for him, and be a help against his adversaries.” 8 And of Levi he said, “Give to Levi your Thummim, and your Urim to your godly one, whom you tested at Massah, with whom you quarreled at the waters of Meribah; 9 who said of his father and mother, ‘I regard them not’; he disowned his brothers and ignored his children. For they observed your word and kept your covenant. 10 They shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law; they shall put incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar. 11 Bless, O Lord, his substance, and accept the work of his hands; crush the loins of his adversaries, of those who hate him, that they rise not again.”

26 “There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, through the skies in his majesty. 27 The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy before you and said, ‘Destroy.’ 28 So Israel lived in safety, Jacob lived alone, in a land of grain and wine, whose heavens drop down dew. 29 Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph! Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread upon their backs.”

In , before his death, Jacob gathered his twelve sons to give them prophetic blessings about their future and the future of their generations after them. Here we see Moses doing the same thing before he dies. He gathers the twelve tribes to bless them with a prophetic blessing of their future in the land. 

In verses 1-5 Moses begins by rehearsing God’s appearance to them at Mount Sinai. He is their conquering Hero and covenant God who has brought them from Mount Sinai to the Promised Land. He loved them and lead them as their King. This introduction serves as a literary bookend, or inclusio with verses 26-29 which again turn to meditate on the God of Jesherun. These bookends serve to highlight what lies in between - the blessings of the tribes. 

When compared to , we can see that Moses blessings to the 12 tribes expand on or correlate with Jacob’s blessings to his 12 sons.. Jacob declared that the scepter would not depart from Judah, and here Moses declares that Judah will have victory in battle with hands of the Lord to help him. Jacob declared that Levi was to be scattered but here we see that Moses prays for God’s blessing of their work as teachers and priestley mediators between the people and God throughout the entire land.. They were to take up the priestly responsibility of Moses and Aaron who mediated between Israel and God at Massah and Meribah. So too does Moses bless the other tribes here in this chapter. 

Moses ends this chapter meditating on the favor of Israel’s amazing God. He declares that there is none like God. He is a God who rides on the heavens to help His people and bring them to a land of safety and prosperity and heavenly provision. They are a people saved by the Lord from Egypt, He is a God who is their Shield, their Help and their Sword. 

7. Death of Moses (34:1-12)

1 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, 2 all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, 3 the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. 4 And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” 5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, 6 and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day.

9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. 10 And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, 11 none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 12 and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

There is no reason to question Mosaic authorship here. There are multiple people who talk about the details of their death in the Bible (Elijah, Elisha, Jesus). Here we see Moses looking out into the promised land and looking at what the tribes will inherit in the future. No human eye could have seen all of this land from Mount Pisgah so what Moses saw is what God showed him a vision of the future inheritance of Israel. No one has seen the land that they will possess but here they read that Moses has seen the exact inheritance of each of the tribes; from Gad to Gilead, from Judah all the way to the western sea. This is the Land that God had promised to Israel’s forefathers and here we see Moses witness God fulfilling this promise. This was a clear sign to the people that God would be with them as they went into the Land and that they would inherit it. 

But then the text shifts from Moses’ clear vision to the cloudy details of his death and burial. The emphasis of this change in mood is mystery. There is mystery surrounding Israel’s future and their leader into the promised land. The text is intentionally setting up for a new leader to bring Moses’ clear vision of the future into a present reality. The text looks to Joshua to be that person as he reasons a spirit of wisdom as Moses blessed him. But he is not the one. As we will see in Joshua, under his leadership Israel only conquers a portion of what Moses saw. He was not a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. Here Moses is implying that Israel was to look for a prophet like him. Moses had already prophesied that such a prophet would come in , “15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—” 

This Prophet would be the Deliverer of God’s people. He would come to perform signs and wonders that none like Him had done before. He would demonstrate mighty power and great deeds and declare a new law from on top of a mountain. He would mediate a New Covenant between God and His chosen people and He would know God face to face for He would be the Son of God. The New Moses is none other than Jesuus Christ Himself and He will be the one who will completely fulfill all of God’s promises to Israel.

Israel was supposed to watch for Him. Sadly, almost all of Israel rejected Him when He came. Thankfully, God has revealed Him to us, gentiles who did not know God.. But there will be a day coming when Israel “will look on Him who they have pierced ()” and  “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. ()” With divinely circumcised hearts, ears that hear and eyes that are opened, they will see their Savior and  be cleansed from their sins with His blood. 

Questions for Application

From today’s text: 

In the Song of Moses, God describes His Redemptive Plan for Israel and the World. What character traits and attributes of God can be seen in this song? 

In the Song of Moses, God describes His Redemptive Plan for Israel and the World. What character traits and attributes of God can be seen in this song? 

From the Book of Deuteronomy 

From the Book of Deuteronomy 

What are 1-2 themes or applications from this study of Deuteronomy that have impacted you the most? 

What are 1-2 themes or applications from this study of Deuteronomy that have impacted you the most? 

From the Entire Pentatuach 

What are 1-2 aspects about God’s character and/or His Redemptive plan that you have learned about in this study that you didn't know or didn’t understand as well before?