This chapter in Deuteronomy has the heading in most translations as the “song of Moses”. It’s not the only song of Moses: There’s another in Revelation 15. We’ll come to that. The song in Exodus 15 is often referred to as the song of Moses too.
It’s a very old song – more than 3,000 years old. But maybe surprisingly, the New Testament picks up the words of this song as having huge implications for you today.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church in May 2025. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
Hear the Song
We need to get a bit of an overview. It’s a long song!
The important thing to grasp is that it’s a kind of court scene too. Moses is to teach Israel this song because it will explain so much about them in the future, when they sin. It was given as a warning for them which they absolutely failed to hear. But it’s also a warning for us, as we’ll see.
When we read of the heavens and the earth in verse 1, we’re immediately reminded of last week when they were called as witnesses to the covenant God made with Israel. Sure enough, the song is about how Israel will certainly fail to keep the covenant with God, and what will happen then. The interesting thing for you is: You benefit from their sin.
The big contrast
Verses 4 and 5 spell out who’s keeping the covenant and who isn’t: Read Deut 32:4-5. It’s a stark contrast. God is faithful; Israel were faithless.
God isn’t just good in himself: He was good to Israel.
- Verses 6-14 spell out how he is your Father and Creator.
- God alone made you and sustains you.
- And of all the people, he chose Israel to be his own portion, his special possession, his beloved.
- He cared for them and provided for them in love.
So the crookedness of Israel in v5 is expanded out in v15-18. “Jeshurun” in v15 means “Upright One”. It’s speaking of Israel in sarcastic, ironic language. Read Deut 32:15. One minute you’re singing, “Ascribe greatness to our God, the Rock” – and the next minute you’re sinning against him
The language of v15 isn’t the kind of thing that happens overnight (“fat, bloated, and gorged”). It’s gradual. As they settled in the land, and had all they needed, they felt less need to remember or cry out to God. They became self-satisfied, and self-sufficient. And then they really lost their way, and started worshipping other gods – gods of other nations, to fit in, to trade.
They didn’t set out to abandon God; it just happened over time. At the start, they wouldn’t have believed they ever would.
Verdict & Sentencing
So everything so far is the case against Israel, presented before the covenant witnesses (the heavens and the earth). The Judges verdict comes next in v19-22.
Read Deut 32:20-21. It’s almost as you’d expect, but with a surprise. Just as Israel forgot and abandoned the Lord, he will turn his back on them. But (v21) they provoked the Lord’s jealousy with a “no god” and he will provoke their jealousy with a “no people”.
They rejected God, but God’s blessing and love can’t be stopped in the world: So he will give his blessing and love to others!
That’s the verdict, but there’s still a sentence to come to Israel. Verses 23-25 spell out what will happen to them under the covenant curses. Will God wipe them out completely, like he has other nations? No! Verses 26-33 show how God knows he can’t. He has made promises to keep them, and so his own honour is bound up with them: He can’t let their enemies win, as it would look like victory over God himself.
So v34-38 describe God bringing justice to the earth (vindication for Israel and judgment against their oppressors). Then v39-43 describe God’s glory being recognised in all the earth: Read Deut 32:43.
So you see the overall shape of the song?
- God was ever faithful to Israel.
- They were faithless in return, bringing God’s anger.
- His jealousy was aroused by their “no gods” so he would arouse their jealousy by giving his love to a people called “no people”.
- Israel wouldn’t be wiped out, because of God’s honour.
- And, somehow, God’s name would be praised in all the earth.
That’s the song, so how does any of that affect you?
Live in humility and harmony
The NT writer Paul was God’s apostle to the Gentiles. It was his job to take the gospel – the Good News – to non-Jewish people (Gentiles). He himself was a Jew, very much of the nation of Israel. But they’d crucified the very Messiah they’d been waiting for, and then rejected Paul’s explanation of how Jesus was the promised saviour of the world. He was grieved about their souls: In Romans 10:1 he could say, “my heart’s desire and prayer to God concerning them is for their salvation.” But they had rejected their Saviour.
But for Paul, the Song of Moses helped him understand what was going on – and even fuelled his evangelistic efforts. Remember God’s verdict: Read Deut 32:21. Paul quotes that in Romans 10:19.
He goes on to spell out what that means for you: Read Romans 11:11-16.
See how he hopes his mission to Gentiles will actually lead Jews to feel jealous! So he becomes more zealous! But if God has saved you, it’s not because you’re any better than those Israelites! Read Romans 11:17-18.
Humility
It’s easy to sit here and imagine that those ancient Israelites were somehow less clever, or less spiritual than you. You can believe that you would never have walked away from God if you’d seen all the things they’d seen. But never forget: You’re spiritually dead until God himself breathes life into you through the Holy Spirit. You don’t come to faith because you’ve brilliantly worked something out that other people can’t understand. “Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded” (Romans 3:27).
That means that a healthy contemplation of your salvation in Christ should always lead to humble thanksgiving. The Lord could have saved anyone; he chose you. Not because you’re worth saving any more than anyone else is. He chose to love you; he loved to choose you.
Harmony
But Paul’s thinking on this chapter goes further too. God’s blessing has overflowed to the nations because the nation of Israel rejected him and his Messiah, Jesus. And yet there will be those within that nation who are chosen to come to faith in Christ: As Paul says in Romans 11:1-2, “I ask, then, has God rejected his people? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.”
It seems there will always be a nation of Israel, descended by blood from Abraham, and by God’s grace there will always be some within that nation who come to faith in Jesus Christ and are saved. Not everyone born into that nation will be saved simply because they claim Abraham as their father; but those who are children of promise, who have faith in Christ, will certainly be saved. And there will always be such people.
So Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32:43. Read Deuteronomy 32:43. Read Romans 15:7-10.
So whether someone is of Jewish or Gentile descent, there are to be no dividing walls of hostility within the church of Christ. That’s why people were first called Christians at Antioch; people realised that these new believers were neither Jews nor Gentiles in the normal sense: So they called them Christians, Christ-followers.
At the very least, this makes it clear that there’s no room for anti-semitism in the church. More, it encourages many Christians to witness to the nation of Israel with confidence that there will be some who are saved. Together, Jewish and Gentile believers in Christ will rejoice and worship God forever!
No divisions in heaven
Equally, you need to remember that there are no denominations in heaven. The oneness between Jew and Gentile is often recognised by Christians as a kind of theoretical thing – it doesn’t really affect us directly. But that oneness is to cross every divide: Social class, intellectual differences, colour, gender, political views, etc.
It’s easy for an individual Christian or a church to look down on others for their style of music, Bible translation, liturgy, church website, or coffee. Choose the better path. Live in harmony with other believers; work in partnership whenever you can. “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people!”
It’s worth pausing briefly to ask why God the Holy Spirit put all this stuff in a song. Why not just explain it all? Songs tie truth to emotion and so embed that truth deeply in us. It also helps us realise that these aren’t dry laws on some statute book for God: They matter to him. Sin matters to him because he loves you deeply.
But all this has a profound warning for us all to hear:
Hold on to Jesus
Just in case you still think the Song of Moses has nothing to say to you, go back to Verses 4 and 5.
Read Deut 32:4. This side of the cross, we see the perfect justice and faithfulness of God more clearly than ever. Your sin demands punishment, and God sent his Son into the world to die, taking your punishment for you. When you ask him for forgiveness, his faithfulness shines through: He will forgive you. Just ask him (today!). Then you’re united to Jesus, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, adopted by the Father. He is your Rock forever.
But what happened to Israel? Read Deut 32:4,15.
How’s your response to God’s faithfulness to you? Has your life become a little too comfortable? Things in this country are often pretty easy; many of us are healthy. You might find that your prayer life, or church attendance, or Bible reading seem ‘kind of ok’, but you know they’ve become ritual, or even optional. You didn’t mean to walk away from God; and you certainly never thought it would happen. And yet, little by little, sins are creeping in that you wouldn’t have put up with just a few years ago. Idols take up too much of your thinking time, your money, your attention. You can do this on your own, or even as a whole church.
Self-sufficient drift
In Jesus’ letter to Laodicea in Revelation 3, the church had become self-sufficient and complacent.
Jesus himself was standing outside, looking in. And he was knocking on the door, ready to come in and have fellowship with them – a meal, even.
The constant threat to churches in the letters in Revelation is that if they continue in their sin, Jesus will close the church. He will stop adding believers; no more baptisms. No more growth. It might look alive, but they’ll just be cut flowers. Will that be the end of Christ’s church? No way! Read Deut 32:20-21. Suddenly, you find that the church down the road is seeing growth instead of you. And you get jealous. But that’s often simple envy, rather than an actual jealousy for a living dependence on the Lord.
What’s the answer, when you’ve drifted away, either on your own or together as a church?
Go back to Jesus.
That’s what he invites you to do over and over in those Revelation letters. One day he will cause you to stand and sing a new song. Read Revelation 15:3-4. “All the nations”!
He will keep hold of you. Keep hold of him. Choose life every day, choose Jesus every hour.
So:
- Hear the song: God will always continue to pour out grace and blessing, and if he’s rejected in one place then he’ll pour it out on others!
- Live in humility and harmony. Humility because you don’t deserve God’s blessing any more or less than anyone else: Give thanks to him. Harmony since all Christians are one in Christ; don’t put up false barriers; actively work for partnership.
- Hold on to Jesus. Don’t repeat the mistakes of those ancient Israelites; don’t drift away from the Lord. Choose life every day, choose Jesus every hour.