Matthew Henry Commentary Deuteronomy 32
Matthew Henry Commentary
Deuteronomy 32
Matthew Henry Commentary
Deuteronomy 32
"Give ear, ye heavens, and I will speak; And let the earth hear 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 grass, And as the showers upon the herb." — Deuteronomy 32:1-2 (ASV)
Moses begins with a solemn appeal to heaven and earth, concerning the truth and importance of what he was about to say. His doctrine is the gospel, the speech of God, the doctrine of Christ; the doctrine of grace and mercy through him, and of life and salvation by him.
"For I will proclaim the name of Jehovah: Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. The Rock, his work is perfect; For all his ways are justice: A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, Just and right is he. They have dealt corruptly with him, [they are] not his children, [it is] their blemish; [They are] a perverse and crooked generation. Do ye thus requite Jehovah, O foolish people and unwise? Is not he thy father that hath bought thee? He hath made thee, and established thee." — Deuteronomy 32:3-6 (ASV)
He is a Rock. This is the first time God is called by this name in Scripture. The expression means that the Divine power, faithfulness, and love—as revealed in Christ and the gospel—form a foundation that cannot be changed or moved, on which we may build our hopes for happiness.
Under His protection, we may find refuge from all our enemies and in all our troubles, just as rocks in those lands provided shelter from the burning rays of the sun and from tempests, or served as fortresses against the enemy.
His work is perfect: this refers to the work of redemption and salvation, in which there is a display of all the Divine perfection, complete in all its parts.
All God's dealings with His creatures are regulated by wisdom that cannot err and by perfect justice. He is indeed just and right; He ensures that no one will suffer loss because of Him.
A serious charge is brought against Israel. Even God's children have their spots while in this imperfect state; for if we say we have no sin, no spot, we deceive ourselves.
But the sin of Israel was not habitual, notorious, unrepented sin, which is a certain mark of the children of Satan. They were fools to forsake their mercies for lying vanities. All willful sinners, especially sinners in Israel, are unwise and ungrateful.
"Remember the days of old, Consider the years of many generations: Ask thy father, and he will show thee; Thine elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, When he separated the children of men, He set the bounds of the peoples According to the number of the children of Israel. For Jehovah`s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, And in the waste howling wilderness; He compassed him about, he cared for him, He kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle that stirreth up her nest, That fluttereth over her young, He spread abroad his wings, he took them, He bare them on his pinions. Jehovah alone did lead him, And there was no foreign god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, And he did eat the increase of the field; And he made him to suck honey out of the rock, And oil out of the flinty rock; Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, With fat of lambs, And rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, With the finest of the wheat; And of the blood of the grape thou drankest wine." — Deuteronomy 32:7-14 (ASV)
Moses gives particular instances of God's kindness and concern for them. The eagle's care for her young is a beautiful emblem of Christ's love, who came between Divine justice and our guilty souls, and bore our sins in His own body on the tree. And by the preached gospel, and the influences of the Holy Spirit, He stirs up and prevails upon sinners to leave Satan's bondage.
In verses 13-14 are emblems of the conquest believers have over their spiritual enemies—sin, Satan, and the world—in and through Christ. Also of their safety and triumph in Him; of their happy states of soul, when they are above the world and the things of it. This will be the blessed condition of spiritual Israel in every sense in the latter day.
"But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: Thou art waxed fat, thou art grown thick, thou art become sleek; Then he forsook God who made him, And lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They moved him to jealousy with strange [gods]; With abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto demons, [which were] no God, To gods that they knew not, To new [gods] that came up of late, Which your fathers dreaded not. Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, And hast forgotten God that gave thee birth." — Deuteronomy 32:15-18 (ASV)
Here are two instances of the wickedness of Israel, each an apostasy from God. These people were called Jeshurun—interpreted by some as “an upright people,” and by others as “a seeing people”—but they soon lost their reputation for both knowledge and righteousness.
They indulged their appetites, as if they had nothing to do but to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts of it. Those who make a god of themselves and a god of their bellies, in pride and wantonness, and cannot bear to be told of it, thereby forsake God and show they esteem him lightly.
There is only one way for a sinner's acceptance and sanctification, even though different forms of irreligion or false religion may show a favorable regard for other paths—a regard often miscalled 'candid.' How mad are idolaters, who forsake the Rock of salvation, only to run themselves upon the rock of perdition!
"And Jehovah saw [it], and abhorred [them], Because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: For they are a very perverse generation, Children in whom is no faithfulness. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; They have provoked me to anger with their vanities: And I will move them to jealousy with those that are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in mine anger, And burneth unto the lowest Sheol, And devoureth the earth with its increase, And setteth on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap evils upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them: [They shall be] wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat And bitter destruction; And the teeth of beasts will I send upon them, With the poison of crawling things of the dust. Without shall the sword bereave, And in the chambers terror; [It shall destroy] both young man and virgin, The suckling with the man of gray hairs." — Deuteronomy 32:19-25 (ASV)
The revolt of Israel was described in the foregoing verses, and here follow the judgments of Divine justice concerning them. We deceive ourselves if we think that God will be mocked by a faithless people. Sin makes us hateful in the sight of the holy God. See what mischief sin does, and consider those to be fools who mock at it.
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