Deuteronomy 32 to 34: Do Not Forget God, Choose the Blessing

Introduction

With Deuteronomy 32 to 34, Pastor Chihiro Kinoshita of Kumejima Kibōgaoka Christian Church in Okinawa wraps up the church's study of Deuteronomy at the Thursday Bible meeting. "Moses is not a goodbye, but a see-you-later!" he says as he opens the evening.

Deuteronomy gathers Moses' last words to the new generation, just before they enter Canaan. Throughout the series, the pastor has summed up its theme in three verbs: do not forget God's voice, listen to it, and choose the blessing. These final three chapters are where it all comes to a head.

Chapter 32 holds the Song of Moses, chapter 33 the blessing spoken over the tribes of Israel, and chapter 34 the account of Moses' death. One thread runs through them: your life with God depends on what you remember.

Outline of the message

1. A song so that you do not fall completely

In Deuteronomy 31:19-21, God tells Moses to write this song and put it in the mouths of the Israelites. He already knows that once they are full and fat in the land, they will turn to other gods.
So the song has two purposes. First, to encourage the people to move forward with confidence, answering the "Be strong and courageous" of chapter 31. Second, to serve as a staff: you may stumble, but you will not fall so far that you cut yourself off from God.
"When you have failed, when you realize you have sinned against God, sing this song you know by heart, and your heart will turn back to God."
Verses 1 to 3 are its introduction: heaven and earth, everyone is called to listen. Just as rain and dew make the grass live, this teaching becomes blessing and strength for the one who receives it.
Moses proclaims the name of Yahweh. For the pastor, this name says "I am everything you need." That this name is in the song is enough to make it worth listening to.

2. God is the Rock, and his work is perfect

"The Rock: his work is perfect" (Deuteronomy 32:4). The God we believe in is the same: he does not make mistakes.
Sometimes everything that hits our eyes and ears throws us into a kind of storm and makes us panic. "That is exactly when we need to remember that God is perfect."
A rock saves you from the flood. Whoever stands on it is not swept away, and whoever shelters behind it is not carried off by the storm. He is also our foundation.
God is faithful: what he says will happen, happens, and what he says will not happen, does not happen.

3. Forgetting God, a choice that ruins the relationship

Verses 5 and 6 accuse the people of acting corruptly toward Yahweh. The Hebrew verb, shachat, means to destroy, to ruin.
This is not about being imperfect: we all are. It is about sliding down from who you are in Christ, children who call God Father, until you become something else entirely.
"Forgetting God is not just failing to think about him today." It means corrupting and ruining the relationship with him, a fatal choice for a child of God.
When did Israel make that choice? When it prospered: "Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked" (verse 15). When we cry out for help, we hold on tight. Once things calm down, we say thank you and stop seeking God.
"The most dangerous time is when everything starts going well." When you are aware of your weakness, you are in a certain sense safe.
Verse 15 calls Israel "Jeshurun," the upright one, the righteous one (see also Isaiah 44:2). It is the ideal form of God's people, straight and honest in their relationship with him. Israel did not start from nothing: it was Jeshurun, and it fell from that place through its own choices.

4. Remember what God has done for you

"Remember the days of old" (verse 7). We must not lose the memory of grace, of all the good God has done.
The people are Yahweh's portion (verse 9). To win us, God gave Jesus Christ, who emptied himself and became obedient even to death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). He endured the pain and the shame because of the joy of seeing us saved (Hebrews 12:2).
For forty years in the wilderness, God kept his people "as the apple of his eye" (verse 10). We protect our eyes by reflex: God protects his own the same way. He carried them as an eagle carries its young on its wings.
Through faith in Jesus Christ, we are counted among Abraham's descendants. We do not become ethnic Israel, but God keeps us and carries us in the same way. "We are here because he has helped, led, protected, and fed us up to this day."
That is why personal time with God matters: "It is not a to-do list, like reading from this verse to that verse today." It is a deeply personal relationship in which you remember what God has done for you.
When the Holy Spirit shows us that we have forgotten God, we need to remind one another and return to him.

5. Justice and mercy: you can always come back

Verses 19 to 25 describe the disasters that would fall on a people who choose the curse. When everything goes wrong, Israel can remember the song and ask: "Have we forgotten God?"
When God announces what is going to happen, he gives a warning, an exhortation not to let it come to that, and a plan of salvation if it does. "Choose life," he says. As long as we live, the choice stays open: by God's grace, you can start over from anywhere.
In verses 26 and 27, God does not destroy his people, so that their enemies will not say, "Our hand is exalted." Yet he does not keep them reluctantly. In him, the justice that punishes evil and the compassion that wants to restore go together: "For us it is hard; in God, the two coexist."
"Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge?" (verse 37). Idols protect no one. Then God declares, "I, even I, am he," the one who kills and makes alive, who wounds and who heals (verse 39).
When our relationship with God is damaged, there are two options: leave everything in ruins and say "it is over for me," or remember his mercy and hold on to him once more. "On this earth, we have no choice but to keep repeating this."
"Failure is normal." But that is no reason to settle into it: staying there is dangerous. Each time, we ask for God's help, taste how good it is to stay close to him, and move toward maturity.
Verse 43 invites the nations to rejoice: God's faithfulness, justice, and mercy are not reserved for Israel, and all peoples are called to sing them.
"For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life" (verse 47). Knowing God's name, believing it, and meditating on it is our life: remembering who he is and what he has done, and choosing the blessing he has prepared.

6. The blessing rests on God as king

Verses 2 to 5 of chapter 33 lay the foundation. God "loves the people," not only Israel, and by his grace he has gathered us in his hand. "He was king in Jeshurun": God's people are the people who make God their king in everyday life.
A servant's role is to obey the king's word. Moses does not bless the tribes unconditionally: the blessing assumes that God is king and that you listen to his voice.
"Bless me" is not a bad prayer. But if I do not obey, if I do not repent of what the Holy Spirit shows me, if I do not let go of what I need to let go of, "that prayer is very weak."
God wants to bless us abundantly. Being righteous before him does not mean being perfect in our actions: our sins are forgiven in the name of Jesus Christ. Just as our feet get dirty as we walk, we need Jesus to wash them, as he washed his disciples' feet (John 13:1-10), and to acknowledge the forgiveness we have received each time.
A few of the blessings: may Reuben live, even if few in number, as long as he stays in relationship with God; may God help Judah when he fights alone; Benjamin, "the beloved of Yahweh," dwells in safety near him; Joseph, with Ephraim and Manasseh, receives abundant fruit; may Asher dip his foot in oil, and may his strength last as long as his days.
For Levi, the Urim and Thummim were used to ask God yes-or-no questions. "Today there is nothing like that anymore": in the name of Jesus Christ, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16). Levi's zeal recalls the golden calf (Exodus 32:26-29) and Phinehas at Baal Peor (Numbers 25), which should not be applied as is to our families.
One tribe is missing: Simeon. The text does not say why. Simeon numbered about 59,000 men when leaving Egypt, third in rank, and only 22,000 at the second census, making it the smallest, probably because of the sin at Baal Peor. It ended up absorbed into Judah's territory. "Not choosing God is fearful. It is also a warning to us."
"Happy are you, Israel: who is like you, a people saved by Yahweh?" (verse 29). If we fully tasted our relationship with God, we could no longer live the life of this world, so wonderful it is. Even tasted in part, it gives strength to get through any trial.
"We are the happiest people in this world. Are you aware of it?" We may be lacking things: money, health. Yet, justified by faith in Jesus Christ, we have received an intimate relationship with God as Father.

7. Moses dies, a greater prophet is announced

At Meribah, Moses was supposed to speak to the rock. Angry with the people, he struck it twice with his staff and presented God as irritated when he was not (Deuteronomy 32:51; Numbers 20:7-12). So he does not enter the land, but God lets him see it from afar on Mount Nebo: God's justice, and at the same time his goodness.
For the pastor, this is symbolic. Moses represents the law. You do not enter the promise by the works of the law, which cannot put the flesh to death, and a single transgression is enough to lose the right to the blessing. That said, Moses' real relationship with God rested on grace.
Moses dies at 120, his eye undimmed and his vigor intact (34:7). "That is impressive. My own eyes are starting to go... farsightedness."
Jude 9 mentions the archangel Michael disputing with the devil over the body of Moses. The spiritual battle around God's people goes on: God keeps his people so that they remain Jeshurun, and the devil tempts them to become corrupt. "We have to keep trusting God."
Joshua, filled with the spirit of wisdom, takes over and brings the people into the land. His name is the same as Jesus', "God saves": a symbol of salvation by grace, through faith and not by works.
"There has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses" (34:10). Moses himself had announced a prophet like him (Deuteronomy 18:15), and the New Testament sees Jesus Christ in that. Like Moses, Jesus showed who God is, by his deeds and his words.
"Not forgetting the words of Jesus Christ, not forgetting Jesus Christ, listening to his voice, and continuing to choose the blessing he promised: that is all we have left to do."

Key takeaways

The Song of Moses is given for the day you fall: remembering who God is brings your heart back to him.
Forgetting God means ruining the relationship with him, and this danger lurks above all when everything is going well.
In God, justice and mercy go together. As long as you live, you can come back to him, again and again.
The blessing is not a magic word: it rests on a life where God is king and where you listen to his voice.
Moses does not bring the people into the promise; Joshua, whose name is the same as Jesus', does. We enter by grace.

Personal application

In which season of your life, when "everything was going well," did you stop seeking God?
What "song," what word, or what memory of God's faithfulness can you keep in mind for the day you fall?
Does your time with God look like a to-do list or like a relationship where you remember what he has done for you?
Are you asking God to bless you in an area where you refuse to obey him or to let go of something?
Are you aware of being among the happiest people in the world because you have been saved in Jesus Christ?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Why does Moses give Israel a song in Deuteronomy 32?

According to Deuteronomy 31:19-21, God already knows that the people will turn away from him once they are settled in the land. Chihiro Kinoshita explains that the song serves as a staff so they do not fall completely: when Israel fails, it can sing the song, remember who God is, and its heart turns back to him.

What does forgetting God mean in Deuteronomy 32?

For the pastor, forgetting God is not a simple memory lapse. It means corrupting and ruining the relationship with him, a fatal choice for a child of God. Israel did it when it was prospering: the greatest danger comes when everything starts going well.

Why is the tribe of Simeon missing from Moses' blessing?

The text does not say. Chihiro Kinoshita points out that Simeon went from about 59,000 men to about 22,000 between the two censuses, probably because of the sin at Baal Peor. The tribe ended up absorbed into Judah's territory. He sees a warning in it: not choosing God is a fearful thing.