Deuteronomy 31:14 - Meaning and Application

Here, Moses and Joshua are summoned to come before the divine majesty at the door of the tabernacle (Deuteronomy 31:14). Moses is told again that he will soon die. Even people who are ready and willing to die need to be reminded often that death is near. In light of this, Moses must come and meet God, because anything that deepens our friendship with God also helps prepare us for death. He must also bring Joshua with him, so Joshua can be presented to God as Moses’ successor and receive his charge.

Moses obeys at once. He was not the kind of man who looked with jealousy on the one who would follow him. Instead, he welcomed Joshua and was glad for him.

God then graciously meets them. He appears in the tabernacle, as the glory of the Lord had often appeared before, in a pillar of cloud (verse 15). This is the only place in this book where we read of God’s glory appearing in that way, even though the earlier books speak of it often. This may suggest that in the later days, under the gospel (the good news of Christ), we should not expect these visible displays of divine glory. Instead, we must pay close attention to the sure word of prophecy.

God then tells Moses that after his death, the covenant he worked so hard to establish between Israel and their God would certainly be broken. Israel would forsake God (verse 16). If the covenant between God and man is broken, the blame must lie with man, because man is the one who breaks it. We have often seen that God never leaves anyone until they leave him first. Worshiping the gods of Canaan, the people who had once lived there and were now to be treated as strangers in the land, would be a clear act of deserting God. It would be like adultery, a betrayal of the covenant.

The same is true today. Those who turn from Christ are rebels against him, whether they make money their god through greedy love of wealth or make their stomach their god through ruled-by-appetite living. Those who turn to other gods (verse 18) abandon their own mercy. Their turning away is foretold as the result of their prosperity (verse 20). They will eat and be satisfied, and that will be all they care about. Then they will grow fat, meaning they will become secure and sensual. Their ease will lessen their fear of God and his judgments, and their sensual desires will lead them into the idolatries of the nations around them, which gave room to fleshly desires.

God knows all the evil the wicked will do, and he knows it perfectly in advance. He has often made covenant with people whom he knew would deal very treacherously (Isaiah 48:8). He has also given many blessings to people whom he knew would be deeply ungrateful.

God also tells Moses that he will then forsake Israel, and he does so justly, since they had so wrongly forsaken him (verse 17). His providence would leave them, no longer guarding and prospering them, and then they would become easy prey for their neighbors. His Spirit and grace would also leave them, no longer teaching and guiding them, and then they would sink further and further into stubborn, foolish, hardened idolatry. Many evils and troubles would come upon them (verses 17, 21), and these would be such clear signs of God’s displeasure that even they would be forced to admit it: “Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?” Those who sin away their God will find that they bring misery on their own heads.

What made their misery complete was that God would hide his face from them in that day, the day of their trouble and distress (verse 18). No outward trouble can truly ruin us if we still have the light of God’s favor. But if God hides his face from us and does not hear our prayers, we are undone.

God then directs Moses to give them a song, one he would compose under divine inspiration, and which would stand as a lasting witness for God, showing that he had faithfully warned them, and against them, because they refused the warning (verse 19). The written word in general, and this song in particular, would testify against all who break covenant with God. It will be for a witness (Matthew 24:14). Human wisdom has found many ways to pass on the knowledge of good and evil, through laws, histories, prophecies, proverbs, and songs. Each has its value. God’s wisdom has used them all in Scripture, so that ignorant and careless people have no excuse.

If this song were used rightly, it could help keep them from falling away, because God shaped it with their present thoughts in mind, even before they entered the promised land (Deuteronomy 31:21). God knew there were already deep false ideas about himself in their hearts, along with strong leanings toward idolatry, and these would catch fire easily when temptation came. So in this song he warned them of their danger. The word of God knows the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and it reaches people in striking ways through its correction and rebuke (Hebrews 4:12). Compare (1 Corinthians 14:25). Ministers preach the word without knowing all the thoughts people are carrying, but God, whose word it is, knows them completely.

Even if the song did not keep them from falling away, it could still help bring them to repentance and restore them after they had fallen. When trouble came, the song would not be forgotten. It could serve like a mirror, showing them their true condition, so they might humble themselves and return to the one they had rebelled against. Those for whom God has mercy ahead of time may still be allowed to fall, but he will also provide means to bring them back. The medicine is prepared before the sickness comes.