Deuteronomy 32:26 - Meaning and Application

After many awful warnings of deserved wrath and judgment, we come here to surprising hints of mercy, mercy that was undeserved and that triumphs over judgment. Through this, it is clear that God takes no pleasure in the death of sinners, but would rather they turn and live.

First, in his jealousy for his own honor, he will not wipe them out completely (Deuteronomy 32:26-28). It cannot be denied that they deserved to be destroyed and that their memory should vanish from among people. The name of an Israelite might have disappeared except in history, because they were a people without wisdom, the most foolish and careless people ever seen. They would not believe God’s glory even when they saw it, nor understand his kindness even when they experienced it and lived on it. Of people who could turn away from such a God, such a law, and such a covenant for worthless idols, it could truly be said, “There is no understanding in them.”

It would have been easy for God to ruin them and erase their memory. When the larger part of them had fallen by the sword, he could have scattered the rest into distant, hidden corners of the earth, where no one would hear of them again, and that would have been the end. God can destroy those who seem most secure, scatter those who seem most united, and bury in lasting forgetfulness names that were once famous.

Justice also called for this: “I said I would scatter them.” Those who cut themselves off from God deserve to be cut off from the earth. Why should they not be treated as they deserve? Wisdom also considered the pride and arrogance of the enemy. If God destroyed a people who had been so dear to him and for whom he had done so much, the enemy would use that as a reason to speak against God. They would say, “Our hand is high,” meaning, “We have surely won.” They would not see that the Lord had done this, but would imagine they had done it in spite of him, as if the God of Israel were as weak as the false gods of other nations.

Because of this, mercy prevails, and a remnant is spared. God saves that unworthy people from total ruin: “I feared the wrath of the enemy.” This is human language, because God does not fear any man’s anger. Yet in this matter he acted as though he had feared it. The few godly people in Israel who cared about God’s name feared the enemy’s anger in this case more than in any other, like Joshua and David did in their troubles (Joshua 7:9). And because they feared it, God is said to fear it as well. He did not need Moses to urge this concern on him, but he brought it to mind himself: “What will the Egyptians say?”

All who care about the honor of God’s name and the good of his people can take comfort here. God will act for his own name, and he will not allow it to be shamed and polluted. No matter how much we deserve disgrace, God will never disgrace the throne of his glory.

Second, in concern for their good, he earnestly desires their repentance, and for that he wants them to think seriously about their latter end, their future outcome (Deuteronomy 32:29). Though God had called them a foolish people and lacking understanding, he still wishes they were wise, as in Deuteronomy 5:29, “Oh, that they had such a heart,” and Psalm 94:8, “You fools, when will you be wise?” God does not delight in watching sinners ruin themselves. He wants them to help themselves, and if they will, he is ready to help them.

It is great wisdom, and it helps bring sinners back to God, to seriously consider the latter end, the future state. Here it refers especially to what God, through Moses, had foretold about this people in later days, but the lesson is broader. We should understand and reflect on the end of life and the future state of the soul. We should think of death as leaving a world of what we can see and enter a world of spirits, the final end of our time of testing, and the beginning of an unchanging state of reward and judgment. We should also think about the end of sin, and the future state of those who live and die in it. Oh, that people would consider the happiness they will lose and the misery they will surely bring on themselves if they keep going in their sin, and what the end of it will be (Jeremiah 5:31). Jerusalem forgot this, and so it came down in shocking ruin (Lamentations 1:9).

Third, he recalls the great things he had done for them before, as a reason not to cast them off entirely. That seems to be the point of Deuteronomy 32:30-31. How could one Israelite have put a thousand Canaanites to flight, as they often did, unless God, who is greater than all gods, fought for them? This matches Isaiah 63:10-11. When God turned against them because of their sins, he remembered the days of old and asked, “Where is the one who brought them out of the sea?” So here, his arm begins to stir again, as it once did, against the enemy’s rage (Psalm 138:7).

There was a time when Israel’s enemies were sold by their own rock, their own false gods, who could not help them and instead failed them, because the Lord, the God of Israel, had shut them up like sheep for slaughter. Even the enemies themselves had to admit that their gods were no match for the God of Israel. Their vine is from the vine of Sodom (Deuteronomy 32:32-33). This must mean Israel’s enemies, who fell so easily before Israel’s sword because they were ripe for destruction and their sin was now full. Yet these verses can also be understood as speaking of how Israel’s enemies overpowered them when God used them as the rod of his anger (Isaiah 10:5-6). How could one Canaanite chase a thousand Israelites, unless Israel’s Rock had left them and handed them over? Their false gods could not have overcome the Rock of Israel. God would have quickly subdued their enemies (Psalm 81:14), except that Israel’s wickedness delivered them into their hands.

Their vine, that is, Israel’s vine, was planted as a choice vine, a true and good seed, but by sin it became a wild and degenerate vine (Jeremiah 2:21). They had not only copied the sins of Sodom, but even outdone them (Ezekiel 16:48). God had called them his vineyard, his pleasant plant (Isaiah 5:7). But their fruit was very offensive and displeasing to God, bitter as gall.

The enemies of God’s people are often very harmful to one another, like the cruel poison of snakes. Some understand this as speaking of their punishment instead: their sin will be bitter in the end (2 Samuel 2:26). It will bite like a serpent and sting like a viper (Job 20:14, Proverbs 23:32).

He then turns to the final destruction of those who had persecuted and oppressed them. When the cup of trembling goes around, the king of Babylon will drink it last (Jeremiah 25:26; Isaiah 51:22-23). A day is coming when the judgment that begins with God’s own house will end with the sinner and the ungodly (1 Peter 4:17-18). God will, in due time, bring down the enemies of his church.

He does this in displeasure against their wickedness, which he notices and keeps account of (Deuteronomy 32:34-35). In effect, he says, “Is not this stubborn rage against Israel stored up with me, ready to be repaid, when it becomes clear that vengeance belongs to me?” Some apply this to Israel’s own sin, especially their persecution of the prophets, which was stored up against them from the blood of righteous Abel (Matthew 23:35). Either way, the lesson is clear: the wickedness of the wicked is stored up with God.

He sees it (Psalm 90:8). He knows both the condition of the heart and the actions of life, both the vine and its grapes. He also keeps a record of it in his own perfect knowledge and in the sinner’s conscience. It is sealed up among his treasures, which shows both safety and secrecy, these records cannot be lost, and they will not be opened until the great day. See Hosea 13:12.

He often delays punishment for a long time. Sin is laid up in store until the measure is full and God’s patience has run its course. See Job 21:28-30. But a day of reckoning is coming, when all stored guilt and wrath will be opened, and the sins of sinners will surely find them out.

This will certainly happen, because the Lord is the one to whom vengeance belongs, and he will repay (Isaiah 59:18). The apostle quotes this to show the seriousness of God’s anger against those who turn away from the faith of Christ (Hebrews 10:30). It will also happen at the right time, the best time, and in a very short time. The day of their disaster is near. It may seem slow, but it does not truly delay, it does not sleep, and it hastens on. In one hour, Babylon’s judgment will come.

He will do it also in mercy toward his own people. Though they had deeply provoked him, they still belonged to him, and their misery called out for his compassion (Deuteronomy 32:36). The Lord will judge his people, meaning he will judge for them against their enemies, plead their case, and break the yoke of oppression under which they had long groaned. He will show pity for his servants, not by changing his mind, but by changing his action, and by fighting for them as he had once fought against them, when he saw that their strength was gone.

This clearly points to the deliverances God gave Israel through the judges, rescuing them from those to whom he had handed them over because of their sins (Judges 2:11-18). It also points to how his soul was grieved over Israel’s misery (Judges 10:16), even when they were brought to their lowest point. God helped them when they could not help themselves, when there was no one left, whether shut up in cities or living scattered in the countryside.

This teaches us that God often comes to deliver his people when things are at their worst. He tests faith and stirs up prayer by allowing matters to go to the last point. Then he shows his power more clearly, and he fills the faces of his enemies with shame and the hearts of his people with greater joy, because he rescues them from danger like brands pulled out of a fire.

He will do it also in contempt for idol-gods, bringing shame on them (Deuteronomy 32:37-38). “Where are their gods?” This can be understood in two ways. First, God will do for his people what the idols they served could not do. They had abandoned God and spent much on sacrifices to idols, bringing the fat of their offerings and the wine of their drink offerings, as if those gods could feed on them and enjoy them.

Now God says, in effect, “Will those gods you worked so hard to serve help you in your trouble and repay you for all your expense? Go to the gods you served, and let them save you” (Judges 10:14). This is meant to show them their folly in leaving a God who could help for gods who could not. It is also meant to lead them to repentance and make them fit for deliverance. When the unfaithful woman follows her lovers and cannot catch them, then turns to her idols and gets no help, she finally says, “I will go back to my first husband” (Hosea 2:7). See also Isaiah 16:12; Jeremiah 2:27-28.

Second, God will do against his enemies what the idols they trusted in could not save them from. Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar boldly challenged the God of Israel to rescue those who worshiped him (Isaiah 37:10; Daniel 3:15), and he did rescue them, to the shame of their enemies. But then the God of Israel challenged Bel and Nebo to save their worshipers, rise up to help them, and be their protection (Isaiah 47:12-13). Yet they were so helpless that they themselves, meaning their images, which were all that remained of them, went into captivity (Isaiah 46:1-2).

Those who trust in any rock except God will find that it is only sand when trouble comes. It will fail them when they need it most.