Deuteronomy 32:7

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 32:7, “Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.” This verse is talking about the children of Israel after they have gone away from the Lord. What should they do? Those who are no longer walking with the Lord, but who come from a Christian heritage or a Christian background, what should they do now? They should “remember.” There is at least one situation where the old days were better than the current days: if you once walked with the Lord, but no longer do, then the old days were much better. They should remember what they are able to remember, and they should ask the “fathers” and the “elders.” The primary responsibility of a father is to teach. Blessed are those who have parents that they can go to in order to ask them about the things of the Lord. Not everyone has such parents, but everyone can find an “elder” who can provide the same benefit. The word “elder” simply means an older person, and in the context implies an older person who has spiritual wisdom and the knowledge of the Bible. Older should mean wiser. If someone has lived a life the way that they are supposed to live it, then they gain more wisdom from the Lord and knowledge of God’s Word as they get older. In the New Testament pastors are called elders. That is because often the pastor should be one of the older men in the congregation. It takes a lifetime to learn everything that needs to be known about following the Lord and serving the Lord. An older man might have that knowledge if he stayed in the Word for a lifetime: a younger man will not have that knowledge. Anyway, in these last days of disjointed families, if you do not have a father to teach you, you might be able to find an elder. You will definitely be able to find the Ancient of Days, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 32:8-11, “When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.[9] For the LORD's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.[10] He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.[11] As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:” When these verses start off by talking about God dividing the nations, and giving an inheritance, this represents the fact that God set the nation of Israel apart from the other nations. And so the point is how much Israel was blessed. They are the one nation described in the Bible that God set up. Of course, that happened because of the promise that God made to Israel. One would think that the children of Israel would have always remembered that fact and always appreciated what God did for them. But that did not happen. Today God has another way of setting up a people for Himself: Jesus saves individual believers and makes them citizens of the kingdom of God. Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” God had a kingdom in this world, but it failed Him. And so the Lord is not going that route any more to get a people for Himself.

How much God loves people. That is what Deuteronomy 32:9-11 is saying. God gave the children of Israel their own nation for their inheritance. What did God want in return? God wanted an inheritance too: His own people to love. God called the Jewish people “the apple of His eye.” And God compared how He took care of them to an eagle taking care of its young as if an eagle could carry them on its wings. The image is this: the powerful God takes care of the small and weak and fledgling children. Jesus loves us and wants to teach us to fly: to sour above this earth and all of its troubles and woes. He carries us on eagle’s wings.

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 32:12-14, “So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.[13] He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;[14] Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.” These verses tell how much the Lord took care of the children of Israel and provided their needs. One of the many benefits of being a Christian is that Jesus promised to supply our needs. Jesus gave the equation to have your economic and financial needs met. He said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Put God first and He will take care of you. That is His promise. Notice the phrases used to remind us how He takes care of us. In verse 14 God reminds the children of Israel of all the animals they had that provided food for them such as kine, sheep, lambs, rams, and goats. Also, God gave them wheat and “the pure blood of grapes.” The pure blood of grapes is grape juice. What verse 14 means is that every good thing that we already have to supply our needs was given to us from God. But should we lose all things and have nothing and stand in need, then God will do whatever it takes to supply our needs. That is why it says in verse 13, “he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock.” God owns everything, and He will perform miracles if necessary to supply the needs of His children and to keep His promise to them. God provided manna from heaven and water from the rock for the children of Israel. God always takes care of His children.

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 32:15, “But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.” The word “fat” is used three times, and then the word “thick.” I think the message is: they got fat. In other words they took the blessings from God, enjoyed the blessings, and then took the blessings for granted and turned away from the Lord. They “lightly esteemed the Rock.” As believers we need to be always going in a direction that leads us further and further into the love of God, learning to love our Savior more and more because He died for us. Be careful. If you are not going more into that love, then you will certainly be going away from Him, and you will end up just like the Israelites. God is the Rock. He is our foundation and the source of our security and strength. Guess what will happen when we go away from the Rock: we will sink in quicksand.

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 32:16, “They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.” God is a jealous God. He is jealous because of His great love. Human beings should understand jealousy because we also get jealous if the one we love is unfaithful. The first commandment that God gave in the Ten Commandments is: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” That means: “Thou shalt have no other gods before my face.” It is an insult to the Almighty God when a human being that He created turns from Him and bows before a false god. Since God’s love is an eternal love and is a mighty, strong, and powerful force; just think of how strong His jealousy is. His jealousy is strong, and it does arouse Him to action based upon His righteous anger. “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the mighty God.”

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 32:17-20, “They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.[18] Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.[19] And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.[20] And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.” False gods can be called “gods” with a small “g,” or they can be called “devils.” It just depends from what angle we are looking at it. They are not really gods. They are only gods in the minds of the foolish people who have turned to them. The false gods are devils in the sense that evil forces use them to enslave the minds of people. God also calls them “new gods that came newly up.” How can a god be a new god? The one true God is the Ancient of Days who has existed from eternity past, and therefore, to call a god a “new god” emphasizes the fact that such a limited god is not a god at all. God calls these false gods “gods whom they knew not.” True religion is knowing God and knowing Him personally through faith in Christ. You can know Jesus because God has all the attributes of an individual: personality, will, mind, and emotions. You cannot know a false god because a false god does not exist.

What happened to the children of Israel in going away from God is the same thing that often happens to people in our culture who are raised in Christian homes, but who eventually go away from the Lord. The children of Israel turned to false gods “whom your fathers feared not.” They should have remembered the teachings of their parents and of their homes and of their upbringing, but they did not. They had a good start, but they fell away from it. Being a faithful Christian has a lot to do with remembering what you should remember, and forgetting what you should forget. When they forgot God, they forgot what their parents taught them. It says in verse 18, “Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.” This is the second time that God is called “the Rock.” In verse 15 God was called the Rock of salvation. If you know Jesus as Savior, then your salvation is secure. It is solid. You have nothing to fear. You will not sink. You will not lose your salvation. This firm foundation has nothing to do with you or who you are. Jesus is the foundation. In verse 18 it says that the Rock “begat thee.” This has meaning both for our physical existence and our spiritual life. When we are born into this world, it means that we came from God. It was His idea to put you here. God gave you the attributes and the abilities that you have, and He wants you to develop them and use them for His glory. Many people benefit from their gifts and abilities, but they act as if those gifts came from themselves, and they do not recognize that they are God’s creation. Just like the Israelites: they have “forgotten God that formed thee.”

When God saw that the people had forgotten Him, which is about as bad as it can get, it says that in response to that, God “abhorred them.” And God also “hid” himself from them. It is disgusting when someone does not become that good thing that they could have become. The best thing that can ever happen to anyone is that they come to know Christ, but they can only come to know Him if He reveals Himself to them. God is a God who hides Himself, and thus it takes a miracle for anyone to come to know Christ as their personal Savior. When you see people who do not know Jesus, that is the condition that they are in. God has hidden Himself from them, and they are poor, starved, and destitute spiritually speaking.

God says two things about the children of Israel when they went away from Him and forgot Him: “they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.” When it says that they are “froward,” it means that they have gone away from God instead of towards God. They have personally chosen to go away from God. The reason that they are not close to God is because that is the way that they want it to be. They are froward.

Also, these people who choose to go away from God have no faith. Faith is a gift from God. If you go away from Jesus, then you will not have His benefits, one of the greatest of which is faith. Since we are saved by faith in Christ, no one will go to heaven without faith. And so we are talking about a horrible consequence for those who go away from God. Faith is more valuable than gold. Plus, you are going to need your faith for the craziness and sorrows of life that may come against you. We might start with only a little faith when we get saved. We put the little faith that we have in Jesus, and He saves us. As long as our faith is in Christ, then He will save us from our sins, even if our faith is as small as a grain of mustard seed. It is good to have saving faith, even though our faith is small, but we do not want our faith to stay small. We want to grow in faith so that we can become everything that God meant for us to be as human beings who live on this earth and trust in Him.

If you do not have faith, you can turn to Jesus and trust Him. Jesus will give you the gift of faith and salvation.

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