Deuteronomy 32 is the song Moses wrote to remind the people of what they are to do and how they are to live. This is his last swan song. God remains the center. “I will proclaim the name of the Lord”. Is that what you say? Are you proclaiming the name of the Lord? Is He the center of the way you live life? Do people know you serve and follow Him? Moses then launches into a history lesson about God and His faithfulness, and just how pathetic the people have been.
“Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people?” How can we forget that God alone is the reason for the good things that happen in our life? How can we lose sight of that so easily? Because we focus on self and what we convince ourselves that we can do. How foolish and wrong. We can’t do squat on our own. But we take our eyes off Him and focus on self and then like the children of Israel who “forsook God”, we do the same. We mess with “strange gods….. sacrificed to demons” and all other stupid things and we “forgot the God who gave you birth”. Hello folks. None of what we have would be our if God had not given it to us. We would not be where we are today but by His grace and blessing.
So Moses makes this very concise statement that describes where we are in America today. “For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them. If they were wise, they would understand this…. their rock is not as our Rock”. Some days I wonder if we even know who our Rock is? We have allowed self to become the center rather than the God of the universe. We will one day finally wake up “when he sees that their power is gone and there is none remaining”. We have no power on our own. We have nothing apart from God. Yet we continually leave Him out, we continually do it our way without regard to the only Source of power there is.
The answer to this? Moses tells the people to “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you….command them to your children….be careful to do all the words of this law”. We are to teach and obey. The amazing thing about God is that He never gives up on us. He wants us to finally figure it out. So He continues to give us opportunity to do the right things. He continues to allow us to find and follow Him. But there comes a time, when the chances end and we have to deal with the result of our choices. Moses is there at the end of this chapter. He made one big mistake, not the only one he made, but one that God saw as critical. Now God tells him to “go up this mountain…..and die…..be gathered to your people…..you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there”. Harsh treatment for a guy who gave up 40 years of his life to lead the people. God is clear why it has to end this way for Moses: “you broke faith with Me….you did not treat Me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel”. Is there a standard for leadership? I certainly think so!