This week's scriptures: Deuteronomy 32:1-52; 2 Samuel 22:1-51; Romans 10:14-11:12

This week's Torah portion coincides with the days leading up to the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) when Jews in our own day remember the days of the wilderness journey to the Promised Land.

The Books of Torah begin with the account of Creation and the Fall and include the history of Noah and Abraham - the beginning of God establishing and outworking his Covenant plan. This week's Torah portion brings us to the point when Moses was soon to die, handing over leadership responsibility to Joshua. Before doing so, Moses brought a prophetic Song to ancient Israel. In this Song he recalled what God had done and looked into the future.

Blessings and Warnings

We Christians have extracted some wonderful verses from this song to sing in our church services:

Ascribe greatness to our God the Rock, His work is perfect and all His ways are just. A God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He. (Deut 32:3-4)

Do we sometimes, however, over-emphasise the blessings and ignore the difficulties? For Israel, Moses' song was also full of warnings. He prophesied accurately concerning the way the Children of Israel would constantly rebel against God and suffer the consequences. These are the hard truths to be remembered at Sukkot in the context of repentance and praising God for his greatness.

Accurate Prophecy

These are the Days of Awe for Israel. By the time we read the Torah portion this week, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) will also have been celebrated in Israel (on Tishrei 10, Wednesday 12 October). This is considered to be the holiest day of the year when religious Jews put matters right with their family and friends and seek to put matters right with God.

Much has happened in Israel's history since the days of Moses. There have been good times, but also unbearable difficulties and pain. In the context of ascribing greatness to God, we must understand that Moses' prophecy (Song) was an accurate description of what it would take for God to shepherd his chosen people through the course of history, up to and including today and on into the future, when all Covenant purposes will be fulfilled.

The Song of Moses should be, for all of us, a cause for deep meditation, with the high notes of God's faithfulness harmonising with the bass notes of human experience.

Final Fulfilment

"For the joy set before him Jesus endured the cross" (Heb 12:2) comes to mind as a fitting truth to put alongside our Torah portion meditations this week, for here too are expressions of both the high notes and the bass notes of Covenant history. "It is finished" (John 19:30) resounded from the Cross, across all time and history. All the pain and suffering that were an inevitable consequence of the Fall, which the entire world has suffered and into which Israel was called to be the prominent example, were brought to a climax through the sacrifice of Jesus.

This is in fulfilment of the last words of Moses' Song (Deut 32:43), as he looked forward to the great day when the promise of redemption would be fulfilled:

Rejoice O Gentiles, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people.

If we choose this week in our congregations to sing the chorus "Ascribe greatness to our God the Rock", perhaps we should remember the full context.

Yet, we are not wrong to major on God's blessings if we live in faith in Jesus, taking all things in balance. One day the emphasis will not only be on the Song of Moses. When all is finally accomplished for our eternal life with our Great God, it will be in the full balance of the Song of Moses "and the Lamb" (Rev 15:3-4), when complete and final justice has been brought - not only to Israel but also to the entire world.

Author: Dr Clifford Denton