John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 32

Give ear, O you heavens. Moses begins with magnificence, so that the people would not despise this song with their usual pride, or even reject it altogether, being angered by its severe criticisms and rebukes. For we know well how the world naturally longs to be flattered, and that no message can be pleasing to it unless it tickles and soothes the ear with praise.

But Moses here not only criticizes bitterly the vices of the people, but with the greatest possible intensity condemns their rebellious nature, their utterly corrupt morals, their obstinate ingratitude, and unteachable stubbornness. Moreover, he desired that these accusations, by which he made their name hateful, would daily echo from their own tongues, and so they became even more offensive.

It was, therefore, necessary that their impatience should be restrained, so to speak, so that they might patiently and humbly receive these just rebukes, however severe they might be.

If, therefore, they should reject this song, or should turn a deaf ear to it, he declares at the outset that heaven and earth would be witnesses of their extraordinary dullness. Indeed, he turns and addresses himself to heaven and earth, and thus indicates that it was worthy of the attention of all creatures, even though they were without intelligence or feeling.

For it is an exaggerated way of speaking when he gives the ability to hear and be instructed to the unfeeling elements. Just as Isaiah, when he wanted to indicate that he found no one among all the people to pay attention to him, similarly appeals to the heavens and the earth, and even summons them to bear witness to the extraordinary wickedness—that there would be less intelligence among all the people than in oxen and donkeys (Isaiah 1:2–3).

For it is only a poor explanation, which some offer for these words, suggesting they are used, by metonymy, for angels and men.²⁴⁷

My doctrine shall drop as the rain. Some, as I think improperly, interpret the future tense here as the optative mood.²⁴⁸ For in this splendid praise, he rather celebrates—in order to commend his doctrine—the fruitfulness²⁴⁹ that is actually imparted to it by the Holy Spirit, than asks for it to be given to him. Indeed, my readers must immediately perceive that such a request would have been by no means appropriate.

He therefore compares his speech to rain or dew, as if he had said that if only the people were like the soil—soft and prepared—he would deliver doctrine to them that would irrigate them for abundant fruitfulness.

Although this expression refers especially, and κατ’ ἐξοχήν, to the Song, its force and appropriateness still extend to all divine teaching. For God never speaks except to make people fruitful in good works, just as, by instilling moisture and vigor into the earth through rain, He makes it fertile to produce fruit.

But, like rocks and stones that imbibe no moisture from the most abundant rains, so many are hindered by their own perversity from being fertilized by spiritual irrigation. Therefore, Moses indirectly throws the blame on the Israelites if the doctrine of this Song should drop upon them in vain.

Because I will publish the name of the Lord. By these words, he indicates that if there were any spark of piety in the Israelites, it must be shown by their welcoming this address, in which the majesty of God shines forth.

The first clause of the verse, therefore, comes last, as it provides the reason for the other clause. For when he urges them to ascribe to God the glory He deserves, he impresses upon them the need for obedience and attention. It is as if he had said that unless they reverently submit to his teaching, God would be deprived of His due honor. He confirms this by adding as a reason that he will sincerely and faithfully publish the name of God.

For the word invoke²⁵⁰ is not used here as in many other passages, but is equivalent to making a profession of God. Moses, then, declares himself to be His proclaimer, so that under the authority of His most holy name, he may draw attention to his words.

His work is perfect. Those who interpret these expressions generally, without particular reference to this passage, not only obscure their meaning but also lessen the force of the doctrine they contain.

Let us, then, understand that the perfection of God’s works and the rectitude of His ways, etc., are contrasted with the rebellion of the people. For if there were anything²⁵¹ in God’s works imperfect or ill-arranged, if His way of dealing were deficient in rectitude, if His truth were doubtful—if, in a word, there were anything lacking—then there would have been a natural excuse for the people to seek something better than they found in Him, since the desire to obtain what is best deserves no blame.

To prevent the Israelites from offering any such pretext, Moses anticipates them. Before he begins to discuss the wicked ingratitude of the people, he lays down this principle: they were not persuaded to turn their affections elsewhere by any deficiency in God.

The general statement is indeed true in itself and may be applied to various purposes. However, we must consider Moses's objective here: namely, to remove from the people every pretext for their impious and perfidious rebellion. This is so that their amazing folly might be more apparent when they forsake the fountain of living waters, and hew them out cisterns with holes in them, as God Himself complains in Jeremiah 2:13.

Therefore, we perceive that every honorable distinction attributed here to God brands the people with a corresponding mark of disgrace, because they had knowingly and voluntarily deprived themselves of the fullness of all good things, which they could have enjoyed if they had not alienated themselves from God.

God’s work is spoken of not only with reference to the creation of the world but also to the whole course of His providence, as if to say that nothing could be discovered in God’s works that could be faulted.

Now, this perfection is not perceptible in every individual thing. For example, even vermin are God’s creatures; and among humans, some are blind, some lame, some deaf, and others mutilated in one of their limbs; and many fruits also never reach maturity. Yet we plainly see that it is foolish and misplaced to bring forward such questions as objections to the perfection of God celebrated here by Moses, since the very defects and blemishes of our bodies serve this purpose: that God’s glory might be made manifest (John 9:3).

The next statement, that all His ways are right,²⁵² conveys a similar truth, for it is well known that the word משפט, mishphat, is used for rectitude, and works and ways are synonymous.

The latter part of the verse confirms the former part, as Moses signifies in both that all who censure God may be clearly convicted of petulant impiety, since supreme justice shines forth in all His acts.

The words I have translated "God is truth," others render with the genitive case, "a God of truth." Either is true and consistent with the usage of Scripture. However, the apposition is more emphatic, declaring that God is not only true but the Truth itself.

In any case, this applies to those who give entire allegiance to the Word of God, because their expectations will never be frustrated. Thus, the people are indirectly reproved for their unbelief, because they deserted God, whose faithfulness was not only tested and proven but who is the very fountain of truth.

Although what follows—that there is no iniquity in God—seems to some to have little force, it is nevertheless of great importance. For we know well how often people are so absurd in their subterfuges as to, in a way, arraign God instead of themselves. And although they do not dare to accuse Him openly, they still do not hesitate to acquit themselves and thus cast direct reproach upon Him.

Elsewhere, therefore, God inquires by His Prophet, what iniquity the people had found in Him? (Jeremiah 2:5). In another place, He expostulates with them because He was loaded with their hatred and abuse, as if He dealt unjustly with such sinners (Ezekiel 18:2, 5). Therefore, when He vindicates Himself from such slander, it follows that no blame attaches to Him, but that the wickedness of those who turn away from Him is abundantly condemned.

They have corrupted themselves. Moses now unhesitatingly denounces the treachery of the people and unleashes the strongest rebukes. For if God is just and true, then it was clear enough that the Israelites were a depraved and perverse nation.

This perverse nation, he says, has corrupted itself in relation to Him—namely, the One whom he has just praised for His perfect justice and faithfulness. He accuses them of having basely prostituted to every kind of sin the purity they had pledged to God.

Undoubtedly, they were deeply hurt by these descriptions and would have been overcome with rage, if they had not seen that God’s incomparable servant, now called to die by God’s command, spoke as if from heaven. The voice of the dying man, therefore, restrained their pride, so that they did not dare to oppose him then as a mere mortal. Afterwards, when the condemnation had been approved by public authority and by common agreement, they were less free to unleash their fury against it.

He preemptively states that they were not His children, because otherwise they might obviously have objected that the sacred descendants of Abraham, whom God had adopted, should be treated less harshly. Moses, therefore, declares that they are not children because they are a perverse nation. For although their adoption always stood firm, its effectiveness was still restricted to the elect among them, so that God, without breaking His covenant, could reject the people as a whole.

But to explain this more clearly, we must remember that the Spirit, for different reasons, sometimes calls hypocrites God’s children and at other times denies them this name. For sometimes it makes their guilt worse when they are called children of Abraham and Jacob, as well as of God—an example of which will soon occur. Here, however, so that they might stop boasting without reason, they are said not to be children because they are degenerate and therefore disinherited by God, no longer retaining their honorable position. In this sense, Moses declares that they are not children, as they have rejected God as their Father.

It is added that this was “their spot” (or disgrace; ²⁵³), unless one prefers to understand that they were corrupted by their “spots,” or by their sins—an interpretation I willingly accept. However, I do not reject the other meaning: that their alienation from God had made them shameful, or that they had contracted the stain of disgrace through their faithlessness.