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What On Earth (or In Heaven) Would Cause God to Ask for a Song? -- Deuteronomy 31:14-21
In the course of life, a good number of people attend a concert or a small gathering where someone very talented is singing and they get a chance to "ask for a song" they would like to hear. A much smaller number of individuals may find themselves in an intimate relationship with either a singer or a songwriter and have a song written about them. Still fewer have the status or the economic means to have a song commissioned about them. Some of us fall into the very first, broad category.
But never until I studied this passage this time, did I realize that God, given Who He was, actually asked someone -- namely Moses -- to write a song at His request. While we don't get to the song until the next chapter of Deuteronomy (number 32 to be exact), we do get the 'back story' to the request. And if you are anything like I am, it may well sadden you. It did me, even more so than the average Country and Western song which if you could play backwards, they say, on a record-player, "you'd get your dog back, you'd get your truck back, and you'd get your wife back".
The song God wanted written had a specific purpose. You just might get your life back. Let's take a look.
In verse 14, God tells Moses he is about to die, so He wants Moses to present Joshua to Him at the Tent of Meeting so that God could commission Joshua. And the two went there for that purpose as requested.
In verse 15, God shows up in a pillar of cloud over the doorway of the tent.
In verse 16, Moses is told that the day when he will be buried as his ancestors were is very close at hand, something that was natural and to be expected. But the next thing God said would have been less welcomed by Moses. God told him the day would come after he died that the Israelites would "play the harlot with the strange gods in the land they inherited, and they would forsake God and break the covenant He had made with them."
I am in my seventies. I have children and grandchildren. If I live long enough, I may even see great-grandchildren. I don't have to be 120 years old as Moses was (chapter 31, verse 2) to be told that the day of my life's end is nearby. (After all, elsewhere in Scripture we read that the lifespan of man given by God is 'threescore years and ten and by virtue of good health, another ten years may be lived' (Psalms 90:10). I'm living in my 'another ten'. So I can handle that news.
But if God were to tell me that my children, or my grandchildren, or great-grandchildren would actually forsake God and live their lives not only without Him, but against Him as they pursued idolatry, I would be something much worse than heart-broken. Let me just say we can be thankful that God is not so direct with us as He was with Moses. Best not to know.
In verse 17, God tells Moses what the Israelites will do will make Him so angry that He won't want to see them. He will forsake His people and hide His face from them to the point where they will be destroyed after having to deal with many evils and troubles. And those that remain will say at that time, "Where is our God?"
In verse 18, God says I will not be found because of the evil they will do and the fact that they will turn to other gods.
So, God goes on in verse 19, "Moses write this song for yourselves." Clearly this wasn't to be a song that Moses was to make up, but rather, like the commandments God had given him to give to the people, this song was going to come from God Himself, or be inspired by God. It was to be taught to the sons of Israel, the leaders, the heads of homes, etc., in a way that they would have it memorized. And by so having it on their lips, God says, it would "be a witness for Me against them."
Wow, now you know the "rest of the story" as the newscaster Paul Harvey used to say at the end of each night's broadcast. What a heartbreak for God to even think of this happening in the days that lay ahead.
Verse 20 drove that home for me. Here was God saying He would bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey, allow them to eat and be satisfied, and become prosperous as a people, and then they go and "turn to other gods and serve them, and spurn Me and break My covenant." Man, that has to hurt. I can't even begin to imagine how that felt. Perhaps the closest some of us humans may have come is being spurned by a lover, or worse still, a spouse. But God being spurned, and knowing that He would be, in advance, by the Israelites leaves me speechless. Yet it points out His incredible love for them as we will see when indeed we learn the "rest of the story".
The short passage ends with verse 21 where God says to Moses this song he is being asked to write will come to their minds because it will be on their lips (the Israelites will not forget -- God will see to that). And they'll realize what they have done. And hopefully repent.
Chuck Smith says, "The song will be a reminder to them of the reason why the calamities have befallen them is because they have forsaken God."
David Guzik writes, "Yet this was a strange national anthem, because the purpose of this anthem was to testify against them as a witness. God knew that words are more memorable when set to music, so He told Moses to compose the sermon in a song found in the following chapter."
Now someone may ask 'why on earth would God do this?' Why would He use a song in this way? Look at the last part of verse 21. It says, "for I know their intent which they are developing today, (even) before I have brought them into the land which I swore." So, 'why on earth would God do this?' Let me ask you, 'what would you or I have done?'
Matthew Henry wrote these words for this passage: "God knew very well that there were in their hearts such gross conceits of the deity, and such inclinations of idolatry, that they would be tinder to the sparks of that temptation; and therefore in this song he gives them warning of their danger that way. Note, The word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of men's hearts, and meets with them strangely by its reproofs and corrections, Heb. 4:12."
Before we leave this passage, let us not lose sight of the fact that God can get very angry at what those whom He loves so much, to the point where His Son died for us, do sometimes. When we forsake Him and go after the 'harlots' and the 'idols' of our own lives, God's anger rages to the point where He may well want to hide His presence from us. Perhaps in reflection we can think about what that does to God.
Yet God provides us the 'medicine with which we might be cured of our disease' even in advance. This song also had a purpose as Henry continues: "If this song did not prevent their apostasy, yet it might help to bring them to repentance, and to recover them from their apostasy. When their troubles come upon them, this song shall not be forgotten, but may serve as a glass to show them their own faces, that they may humble themselves, and return to him from whom they have revolted. Note, Those for whom God has mercy in store he may leave to fall, yet he will provide means for their recovery."
May it be so with us.
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