Deuteronomy 31:22

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 31:22-26, “Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.[23] And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, and said, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them: and I will be with thee.[24] And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,[25] That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying,[26] Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.” Some of the verses in the last part of chapter 31 are an introduction to chapter 32, which records what is called the song of Moses. God gave Moses the song just like all of the other verses that Moses recorded in the first five books of the Bible. God wanted the children of Israel to remember the song because He knew that the day would come when they would turn away from God and He wanted them to know why the terrible consequences fell upon them. The final judgment will be like that. People are given a free choice, and then they use their choice to turn from Jesus and His ways, but at the judgment God will show them His Word as a means of glorifying His name and showing that the judgment is a true and righteous consequence to these people’s choices.

No matter what the majority of people do, there are always a few who will believe and trust in the Lord. Moses told Joshua in verse 26, “Be strong and of a good courage: for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them: and I will be with thee.” Fear is weakness. Human beings naturally fear. They can fear anything and everything. Faith in the Lord casts out fear. Faith in the Lord brings strength and courage and bravery. The Lord told Joshua that he would be able to bring the children of Israel into the Promised-Land. God will always allow a believer to finish his or her work. That is why we are here. After we get saved by faith in Christ, and after we grow in faith, then we are supposed to be involved in the work that the Lord has for each of us, normally in regards to the spreading of the gospel. Not many wise and not many mighty are saved, and therefore, we know that we cannot do it by our own abilities or effort. But God told Joshua that God would be with Joshua. With God as our companion to help us at all times, we have nothing to fear. We have every reason to think that we will finish our life and our life’s work as long as we trust in the Lord Jesus each day.

Deuteronomy 31:24 mentions “writing the words of this law in a book.” What a wise God we have. He selected prophets, and He gave them His Word. Then God had the prophets write the Word in a book. Then all the writings of all the prophets were brought together in the book that we call the Bible. How wise to give all mankind a written Word. Now every generation can know the same Word of God that was given to Moses, or Isaiah, or John, or any of the prophets. “All scripture was given by inspiration of God.” The word “scripture” means “writings.” If all that we had was the spoken Word, then it is conceivable that it would have been altered as it was told from one generation to the next, but with a written Word, that would not happen. Of course, God would still need to be involved with His Word to preserve it for all generations. God used other people after the original writers in order to pass the written Word down to each generation. Others were involved not just the prophets. Verse 25 says, “Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD.” After Moses wrote the words, others were involved to make sure that the words that Moses wrote were preserved. In this case the Levites got involved to keep the writings and to keep them safe in the ark. Later we know that scribes were used to copy the writings onto new manuscripts so that the words would be preserved and would be passed to succeeding generations. That is why Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” This statement made by Jesus speaks to the preservation of the Word of God. Just as God helped the prophets to write down the words, God also helped the scribes to accurately copy the words. It is a combination of the divine work of inspiration and preservation. It says in Psalms 100:5, “For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 31:27-29, “For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?[28] Gather unto 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 record against them.[29] For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.” These three verses are about the sinfulness of man and the failure of man. Moses knew how much the children of Israel had already failed while he was with them and leading them. And so Moses knew that they would fail even more after he was gone. People failed under the law of Moses. People have failed under the grace of Christ. People have failed in the entire age of grace these two thousand years. People will fail even more as time goes by. It says in Second Timothy 3:13, “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” It also says in Second Timothy 3:1-7, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.[2] For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,[3] Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,[4] Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;[5] Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.[6] For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,[7] Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

It is interesting that Moses said in Deuteronomy 31:29, “evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.” Moses spoke about “the latter days.” Terrible things will happen to Israel, and they will especially happen in the latter days. It is possible that Moses is talking about the period of time that started in the first century, because we are in the final age, the age of grace, that exists just before the Great Tribulation. It does say in First John 2:18, “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.” One explanation for the terrible things that have happened to the Jews is the fact that they turned away from the Lord. They were conquered by the Babylonians, they were conquered by the Romans, and they have been under the heel of the Gentile nations ever since the Jewish leaders shouted out: “We have no king but Cesar.” How has that worked out for them? And we all know what Hitler and the Nazis did to them. There is no safer place than the arms of Jesus, and therefore there is no worse place than to reject Jesus.

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 31:30, “And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended.” All of chapter 32 is the song of Moses that God gave to Moses, because God especially wanted the children of Israel to remember these words. In the first two verses of the song of Moses we are told about the importance of the Word of God. It says in Deuteronomy 32:1-2, “Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth. The words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass.” God has spoken, and His great words are the most important of all words. The question is this: do you desire to hear the words of God? Are you ready to “give ear?” The value of the Word of God is expressed by the phrase, “my doctrine shall drop as the rain.” If you want to be blessed above all people on the earth, then love the Word of God. Understand its value, and give yourself to feeding upon it and enjoying it.

After telling us about His Word in verses 1 and 2, in Deuteronomy 32:3-4 we are told about God Himself. It says, “Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.[4] He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” First, always remember that God is great. Jesus is the Greatest. Be careful whom you honor and look up to. Make sure that the Lord is at the top of the list. One reason that He is great is because He is the Rock. He is the Rock of Ages. People need a foundation that they can stand upon in this crazy unstable world. Where else will you find absolutes? Where else will you find such a high standard of holiness? One of the many benefits of being a believer in Jesus is that He gives us a foundation. So many people are on sinking sand. They are going to be ruined. When we believe in Jesus, we are established upon a rock.

God’s work is perfect. God does not make mistakes. He knows what He is doing, and He has a plan. Everything fits perfectly into God’s plan. That is one of the reasons that He gave us the book of Revelation: to show us how everything will end up just the way God wants it to, and it will be perfect. When you believe in Jesus, one of the benefits is to become a part of God’s great perfect plan. That is why it says in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

Talking about what God does, it says in Deuteronomy 32:4, “all his ways are judgment.” God is the great Judge of the earth and of everyone in it. God watches and sees all. He knows, and He acts upon His knowledge of every deed that is done and why it is done. God makes decisions. God decides what will happen to one person and then to another. God decides what will happen to nations. All of these decisions and all of these actions of God have a lot to do with His judgments. God decides the consequences to actions. Man does not decide. God decides. And God makes good decisions because it also says in Deuteronomy 32:4 that God is, “a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.”

In contrast to the goodness of God, some things are said about human beings in Deuteronomy 32:5-6, “They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.[6] Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?” The children of Israel, who should have been the best people in the earth, are called “a perverse and crooked generation.” and “foolish people and unwise.” One might ask the question, “How did the children of Israel end up like this?” What could have caused this? They did it to themselves. They could have continued to follow the Lord and to trust in the Lord, but they chose not to. It says in verse 5, “They have corrupted themselves.” You cannot blame anyone for what you are spiritually-speaking except yourself. You have an individual responsibility to turn to the Lord Jesus, believe on Him, continue to follow Him, feed on His Word, and grow spiritually. How evil is the heart of man! After all of the blessings and miracles, they departed from serving the Lord. It says in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Sin has abounded. But where sin does abound, grace does much more abound. You can know the grace of God by putting your faith in Jesus Christ.

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