Day 561: Remember this - Deuteronomy 32 vs 1 - 14

1- 3 Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distil as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb. 4 For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe  greatness to our God! The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. 5 They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because they are blemished; they are  a crooked and twisted generation. 6 Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?

7 Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. 8-9 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders (territories) of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.

10-11 He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he  encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,  that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions. 12-14 The Lord alone guided him, no foreign god was with him. He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the very finest of the wheat - and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape. Deuteronomy 32:1-14 (English Standard Version)

The chapter we start today is the 'song' Moses taught Israel just before they would cross over the Jordan river to take possession of the land God was giving them. It's different to our Western idea of a song and is more like a Jewish Psalm. The first thing it does is to describe the God who'd rescued them out of slavery in Egypt. What does vs 4 tell us about God?

This is the same God who sent Jesus Christ into the world to rescue people of all nations from their slavery to sin. It's good to think over each of those words of what God is like.

But the song also anticipates a day when the Israelites would forsake God. (vs 5) What was the challenge the song puts to them for when that day would come? (vs 6)

Moses is saying to them, “Is this how you repay God for all He has done for you?” That's a question that each of us should ask our self. How have I repaid God in my life for all that He has done for me? What has my response been to His mercies? In vs 7-8 Moses reminds them of how God, who owns the whole world, was in charge of all the nations. But He was setting aside a special place for them. In a similar way Jesus said to His followers that He was returning to the Father to prepare a place for them. And that incudes all who love Him.

Verses 10-14 then describe the loveliness of the land to which God was bringing those Israelites. Their forefathers had lived in desert regions, now they were coming to a land of plenty. Apart from calling them 'the apple of His eye', what does the picture in vs 10-11 of the eagle and it's young tell us about God?

There's so much in that picture, but one of it's thoughts must surely be the gentleness of the powerful eagle as it catches the chick that has not quite yet learned to fly. Such is the God of Israel. Such is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So what does the first word of vs 7 say the Israelites needed to do in the days when their faith was wobbling?

They were to remember all that God had done for them over the years. Your life may have had many tough times. But the fact that you're here today and reading this post means you've been kept through your years by God. Psalm 103:2-4 says: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.” That's something we must remember.