Scripture Notes: The Song of Moses, Part 4 (Deuteronomy 32)

God is angry at His covenant people for their infidelity. In turning to other “gods,” they have essentially told Him that He is not good enough, that He is not doing what they want, so they will find someone else who will.  God’s anger becomes like a fire, but we must remember that God is not throwing a tantrum. He is not angry like we humans get angry. His anger is a recognition of and response to human sin and especially to what that sin does to His beloved children. It ruins them. It breaks their relationship with Him.

So God declares that He will give His people a reality check. They will see the consequences of sin in all their horror. He will allow them to experience the covenant curses that they have brought down upon their own heads when they broke the covenant. Hunger, heat, pestilence, beasts, venom, the sword, all of these will fall upon Israel because of their disobedience. They have made it clear that they do not want God and His care, so God will make it clear exactly what they are choosing instead. They will even be scattered in exile because they have spurned God’s gift of the Promised Land, in which they were to have a home fit for perfect worship of God alone. 

It is not a pretty picture, and we might wonder why God would bring such terrors upon His people. Quite simply, God knows that this is the only way to wake them up. “For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them” (Deut 32:28). They cannot and will not see what is right in front of them. They refuse to discern the truth and live by it. So they will suffer the consequences.