11/09/2021
Deut 32 v 1-52

About God and His people, through the eyes of Moses

About God

“The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He” (vers 4)

Moses ascribed to God the attributes of a perfect being and of this He is worthy.
There is no other living creature on this earth or under the sea or in the heavens, who can claim this.

Many religious figures, throughout history, whether kings or prophets, scribes or pharisees, leaders or politicians, who have walked this earth, could not uphold the laws of God, yet they expected others to do the almost impossible.

Through the eyes of Moses we learn about God and His people and how they strayed from His perfect will and ways continuously. Every time God struck them through the hands of their enemies, they returned to the Lord, although only for a short while, before wandering off to worship other gods again.

Because of God’s nature He always showed compassion and granted them grace, knowing they would fall short, each and every time. Nothing has changed and today we behave in exactly the same manner as the people of Israel did during those times.

About Israel

“They have acted corruptly towards Him, They are not His children, because of their defect; But are a perverse and crooked generation” (vers 5)

In my relatively short life, I have not seen a more crooked and perverse generation than this one.
I agree that nothing is new and that everything we see is a repetition of the past and that throughout history people have experienced the same issues and committed the same atrocities, but…

The degree of our moral decline, not only as a secular society, but also in the evangelical church, has reached a new level where nothing seems sacred anymore. Again, during the time of God’s people, whether in bondage and under rule of other nations, or free wandering through the wilderness, they rebelled against the Lord and participated in idol worship.

Through the eyes of Moses, we do not only read about their rebellious actions, but we are awakened to the indecent acts that they participated in. “They made Him (God) jealous with strange gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons who were not God, to gods whom they have not known, new gods who came lately, whom their fathers did not dread” (vers 16 & 17).

Can the same be said about us? That “we are a nation lacking in counsel, and there is no understanding in us?” (vers 28) [paraphrased]. Have we gone so far astray that we can no longer see our wrongdoing and that we pronounce evil as good and good as evil?

Who is God to us?

Have we also broken faith with God, forsook Him and didn’t treat Him as holy in the midst of others?
Is God simply a convenience to us when we are in need of anything?

This kind of Pagan Christianity we live according to these days, is no different to how Israel worshipped God during the time of Moses. Seeking and following after other gods, because the One, True God, was not enough and as a result, they usually only called on the Lord after He dealt with them, like a father would respond to a child who misbehaves in disobedience.

We are no different and prefer to live our lives according to our thinking of what is right and wrong, instead of seeking the Lord’s will. There is a lesson to be learnt and the question remains this… Can we really be honest and say that we long after God and that we love Him above ALL other things, which He has created?

Photo by Matt Botsford on Unsplash

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB, Life Application Study Bible, unless stated otherwise. Copyright by “The Lockman Foundation”