"Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 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: because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of His children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not He thy father that hath bought thee? hath He not made thee, and established thee?
"Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the LORD'S portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape." Deut. 32:1-141Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 2My 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: 3Because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. 4He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. 5They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. 6Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee? 7Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. 8When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. 9For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. 10He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. 11As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: 12So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. 13He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; 14Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. (Deuteronomy 32:1‑14).
It is a great comfort to our hearts, beloved brethren, when evil comes out, that all the evil and the sin (and each one that proves what is in his own heart, and finds there what perhaps he never suspected, and that Satan has used it for the casting down of confidence in the soul) has already been taken into account by God; and while it might surprise us, God, I may say with reverence, is not taken by surprise. When it was needful for the testing of the creature that the question of good and evil should be raised under the law (and we all have to learn it practically in one way or another), yet God is always beforehand. We get that in the beautiful Psalm (105:16, 17): "Moreover He called for a famine upon the land"; it was not by chance—He called for it—but then, "He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant." God had provided before the want came.
It is beautiful here that when the Lord takes up a people, the first thing He does is to proclaim His name to them. When Moses is sent to the children of Israel, and gets his commission, he asks the Lord by what name He would make Himself known to them. There is a great deal wrapped up in that for us, as for them—the way in which God reveals Himself to us. Immediately God proclaims His name to Moses: "I Am THAT I AM." "Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is My name forever, and this is My memorial unto all generations." Exod. 3:14, 1514And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. 15And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. (Exodus 3:14‑15). So before they start upon their journey, before it is a question whether they will ever reach Canaan, or of what they are as proved in the journey, God comes in first with what He is, what is in His name for the people He has taken up. Surely there is our strength—in what God is.
In the passage from Deut. 32, Moses summons the heavens and the earth as witnesses on God's side; because on the people's part there could be nothing but breakdown, and hence cursing. In the previous chapter this utter breakdown is foreseen; yet in chapter 30, He speaks of the word of faith: "It is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?... But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it—that was not the word of law. Under law there was nothing but a curse; this was the 'word of faith. The Apostle so explains it in Rom. 10:88But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; (Romans 10:8)—in reality there was a new thing. When they had come into all the judgments which Jehovah had prophesied, and were brought to their wits' end, it would be a question not of law, but of faith—the word "in thy mouth" and "in thy heart."
Moses was commanded to write chapter 32 as a prophetic song to be laid up for a testimony. He begins this in verse 2 after summoning heaven and earth to witness. In Psalm 50 they are summoned as witnesses too. But that is not what I want to call your attention to. Up to this point he could not have said, "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew." In all he had been saying, as putting Israel upon their responsibility in the land, he could not use such words as these: "As the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass." But now he can, for he is taking up another point—what God is. He will have to foretell all the breakdown of the people; that will have to come out; they will go through all that is said in the after part of the chapter till they come to their wits' end; then they will find out what God was for them. But before that, here is the doctrine that drops as the rain, and distills as the dew.
O fellow-Christian, is not that what suits our hearts? God knows how to come in. Is it not necessary for Him to teach us the lesson of good and evil? That may be necessary, but the doctrine which drops as the rain is before that.
What was the great capital sin that Moses speaks of here? It was idolatry, the giving up of God in that name in which He had revealed Himself. If the heart turns to the Lord, when the Lord is really before us, there is always recovery. It is when the heart departs from the Lord (see Heb. 3:1212Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. (Hebrews 3:12)) that there is no recovery. What then is to recover me? A person may say, "I have been doing wrong; I will set to work and do better." There is no recovery in that. "If thou wilt return, 0 Israel, saith the LORD, return unto Me." Jer. 4:11If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove. (Jeremiah 4:1). That is recovery. The grand sin of Israel was leaving the Lord. Quite true, they fell into all kinds of evil and sin and pride, but here was the great sin; and if the heart departs from the Lord, there is no center to recover to. As another has said, "A groan to God, however feeble it may be, however little we may have the sense that we are heard, yet if it is to God there is no consequence of sin which is beyond the reach of this groaning. The charge to Israel was, "They have not cried unto Me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds." Hos. 7:1414And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me. (Hosea 7:14). There was no turning of heart to God. Take the prodigal son: the recovery was really when he said, "I will arise and go to my father"—the turning of heart to the Lord.
Israel's great sin was idolatry. The sin of Christendom will be consummated really in giving up Christ. Then all is gone. But here Moses says, "I will publish the name of the LORD." What was treasured up for Israel in that! "Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He." Of course I do not say that the revelation of God here comes up to what we have now. I am only speaking of the principles we get as Moses brings out this simple lesson that he learned at the bush when the Lord made known His name. Not "I was" or "I will be," but "I AM"—an ever-present God forever. That was their strength. God our strength—"He is the Rock."
Now let us turn for a moment and look on our side, at the revelation made in those words, "I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God." John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17). And look at Phil. 2:6-116Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:6‑11): the Lord Jesus Christ empties Himself, comes down and takes the place of a servant here, obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Now God has "given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow." Jesus—What a name we have now! The Father and the Son. The Father, the source of all blessing, revealed, unfolded to us by the Son. The Son unfolding the Father here on earth, and then taking His place in heaven as having fully unfolded what God was, walked as a man upon the earth glorifying God. Now a name has been given Him above every name, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow." But do we know the power of that name? We sometimes sing:
"To sound in God the Father's ears
No other name but Thine."
What that name is, as known to us by the power of the Holy Ghost, what there is there, what there is in that Rock, I do not pretend to say much about; but I just quote Phil. 2 because there is a reference to Deut. 32:55They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. (Deuteronomy 32:5) in that very chapter. "They have corrupted themselves"—that is what they have done—"their spot is not the spot of His children: they are a perverse and crooked generation." Now in Phil. 25Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (Philippians 2:5) we are exhorted to let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus. There is to be the simple subjection of heart to that name of Jesus; that name having all its power upon our souls; that name, not only as Savior but as Lord, is to sway our hearts.
That is one great point, I think, in that chapter—the name of Jesus having its full power and sway in our hearts. Thus we get the result a little lower down. As the Apostle to the Gentiles, he is absent, and contemplates his passing away from them; but then there is what God does: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.... That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke." Now we get the contrast of this in Deut. 32:55They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. (Deuteronomy 32:5). There was what God was, but Israel never knew the power of that name. Until the last day, when really they see the Lord Jesus and find He is their Jehovah, they will never know it. They did not know the power of that name Jehovah, but in Philippians 25Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (Philippians 2:5) we do; we know the power of the name of Jesus, not only as salvation, but as commanding our hearts, having its sway in the secret of our souls. Well, then, what is the effect of it? Exactly the contrary of what we get here in Deuteronomy (the very words are referred to in Phil. 2:1515That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; (Philippians 2:15))—we are to be sons, blameless and harmless, luminaries, shedding a heavenly light on the scene down here, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, the Lord Jesus having His sway over us.
How the Lord pleads with Israel in that passage in Isa. 45, which is quoted in Phil. 2 "I am the LORD, and there is none else." Again, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by Myself,... that unto Me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear." Now is brought out the connection of the names of the Father and the Son; for if Jesus is confessed as Lord, it will be to the glory of God the Father.
0 that there may be a place in our hearts where that name is owned, and that that name may really sway our affections! Then it would come out—"That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation." Moses had to say of Israel, "Their spot is not the spot of His children." It is a question now of other people seeing the power this name has upon us.
When the name of Jesus sways our hearts, we have before us the salvation spoken of in this epistle; that is, the final triumph of Jesus over all the power of the enemy. That is referred to in the word salvation. Paul was in prison when he wrote the epistle to the Philippians, and this triumph was in his mind when he said, "I know that this shall turn to my salvation." In chapter 3:21, our bodies of humiliation become the subjects of the Savior's power. All will be subjected to Him; even things infernal will have to bow to His name. Our hearts have bowed to that name now. If that name is hidden in our hearts, then we shall answer to what is said, "the sons of God, without rebuke [it is really what the blessed Lord Himself was], in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation." He was shedding forth heavenly light in the scene down here.
Only one word more. Just this: "The LORD'S portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him." vv. 912. There could be no failure on God's side. If He brought them into the wilderness, well, "His way is perfect"; what was it but to find God there? If Paul speaks of infirmities, he can say, I take pleasure in them, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. God has led His people into the wilderness; there He led them and instructed them, but He kept them as the apple of His eye. He brought them out of Egypt to be their God, and then "there was no strange god with him." "Little children," John says, "keep yourselves from idols." If the blessed Lord Jesus Christ has His name really sovereign in our hearts, if it is treasured up there and has power and sway over our souls, there will be no "strange god"—"the LORD alone did lead him."
Then we get all the blessings they received from Him (vv. 13, 14). Then, alas! (v. 15) "Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked:... he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation." It was the turning away of heart.
O may the Lord keep us in the secret of that doctrine that drops as the rain and distills as the dew—what God is to us and for us—our hearts knowing it and entering into it. We know how it is when there is failure; we are legal often and try to alter and put it right ourselves. That is not the doctrine that drops as the rain; that does not make the tender grass grow. What can really be the revival of our souls but this "doctrine that drops as the rain"?-this name of the Lord Jesus Christ getting fresh power in our souls, swaying our hearts, so that we not only know Him as Savior, but as Lord?