Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Deuteronomy 30-32
Key Verse
Deuteronomy 32:2 — “My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:”
Devotional Thought
The plains of Moab lie east of the Jordan, and there Moses stands, one hundred and twenty years old, addressing a nation he will not accompany into the land. He has led Israel out of Egypt, through the sea, through forty years of wilderness wandering, and now he must die on the wrong side of the river. His farewell is not sentimental; it is urgent. He sets before the people life and good, death and evil, and calls heaven and earth to witness. “Therefore choose life,” he pleads, “that both thou and thy seed may live.” He knows what they will do. God has told him plainly that after his death the people will rise up and go whoring after strange gods, that they will wax fat and kick like a spoiled animal, forgetting the Rock that begat them. So Moses writes a song—a witness, a testimony that will outlive him—and teaches it to the children of Israel.
That song, in Deuteronomy 32, is one of the most searching poems in all of Scripture. It begins with grandeur: “Give ear, O ye heavens… My doctrine shall drop as the rain.” It declares God’s perfection—”He is the Rock, his work is perfect”—and then turns to Israel’s corruption: “They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children.” The song rehearses God’s tender care in the wilderness, how He found Jacob in a desert land, led him about, instructed him, kept him as the apple of his eye, bore him on eagle’s wings. And then it grieves over the response: “But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked… then he forsook God which made him.” Prosperity became the occasion of forgetfulness. This is the song Israel was commanded to memorize, to teach their children, so that when the troubles came—and they would come—the words would rise up as a witness.
Notice the timing. Moses does not wait until the crisis to write the song. He writes it beforehand, while the people are still standing before him, while the land still lies ahead, while the milk and honey are yet a promise. He knows that in the day of calamity, memory is short and repentance is hard. So he plants the truth in their mouths ahead of time. This is pastoral wisdom for us. We do not know what the coming months will bring—what losses, what temptations, what seasons of fatness or famine. But we can put the words of God into our hearts now, while the sun is shining, so that when the darkness falls, the song is already there. This is why we read daily, why we memorize, why we gather to hear the law read aloud. We are laying up witnesses against the day of our own forgetfulness.
And yet the passage does not end in despair. Even in the song, after the judgments are pronounced, there is a turn: “For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone.” The Rock who disciplines is also the Rock who restores. The God who hides His face is the God who gathers from the outmost parts of heaven. Moses himself, barred from the land, is a picture of the law that cannot bring us in—but Joshua, whose name means “the LORD saves,” will lead the people across. And beyond Joshua, there is another Joshua, one greater, who goes before us through the Jordan of death itself and brings us into a better rest. The choice is real: life and death are set before us. But the Rock is perfect, and His work is perfect, and He has made a way for the wandering heart to return.
Reflection
- Where in your life has prosperity or comfort quietly become the occasion of forgetting God, and what “song” of truth do you need to plant in your heart now—before the day of trouble comes—so that memory will serve you then?
- Moses could not enter the land, yet he spent his final strength preparing a people who would. What are you building, teaching, or writing that will outlive you and bear witness to your children or your church after you are gone?
Prayer
O Lord, our Rock, whose work is perfect and whose ways are judgment, we confess that we are prone to forget You when we are full and to doubt You when we are empty. Teach us Your song, and write it on our hearts while the days are calm, so that in the hour of trial we may remember and return. Circumcise our hearts to love You with all our heart and soul. Be strong and courageous in us, for You are the One who goes before us and will not fail nor forsake us. Gather us from every far country of our wandering, and bring us at last into the rest You have promised, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.