We are continuing on through the Song of Moses in Chapter 32. Yesterday our study closed with the Lord speaking of a day in which the ancient Israelites, having taken hold of the promised land, will turn to idolatry. As a result of this unfaithfulness, we talked about how the Lord would discipline the nation later on in the Bible. (The Lord, by the way, has the right to discipline any nation or any person who turns from Him and puts something else in His place.) We talked about how the Lord disciplines His sons and daughters to help them get back on the right path, the same reason good earthly fathers use discipline.
Because many of the people will turn from Him to idols later in the Old Testament, for a time the Lord will allow them to reap the consequences of this poor decision. He will allow hardship and defeat to come into their lives to remind them that only when they are in step with Him are they victorious. "'I will hide My face from them,' He said, 'and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful. They made me jealous by what is no god and angered Me with their worthless idols.'" (Deuteronomy 32:20-21a)
As we said yesterday, the Lord is jealous for us---jealous on our behalf. We could say the same of good and loving parents; they are jealous on behalf of their children---they want only the best for them. The Lord wants only the best for the humans He created. We can never be all we should be or have all we should have apart from Him. We'll never be "living our best life", as the saying goes, apart from Him. We'll never be our best selves without a relationship with Him. We'll miss out on a great deal of peace, comfort, strength, and victory in this life if we neglect a relationship with our Creator. Worst of all, we'll miss out on eternity in His presence if we reject Him our whole lives long.
The Lord says the people made Him jealous by forsaking Him in favor of heathen idols. He plans to stir the people's hearts and bring them back to Himself by making them jealous of people they've never been jealous of before: the Gentiles. "I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding." (Deuteronomy 32:21b) How do we know this is a reference to Gentiles? Whenever the Lord speaks of any tribe or nation other than the tribes of Israel or the nation of Israel, He is speaking of the Gentiles. All the other races on earth fall under the heading of "Gentile". Any time the Lord speaks of "the nations" He means nations other than Israel. He says the Gentiles have "no understanding"---meaning no understanding of Him---because at that time the vast majority of Gentiles did not want to know or serve Him.
The prophet Isaiah referenced Deuteronomy 32:21b when he spoke of the idolatry his own people had fallen into. The Lord revealed to the prophet His plan to call the Gentiles to salvation, saying, "I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. To a nation that did not call on My name, I said, 'Here am I, here am I.'" (Isaiah 65:1) The Gentiles were people who did not ask for the Lord, who did not seek Him, who were serving false gods for thousands of years, yet when He began to call to them, they listened. In comparison, the Lord said that the Israelites of Isaiah's day were "an obstinate people" who offered sacrifices to idols, ate unclean foods, and engaged in occult practices like trying to commune with the dead. (Isaiah 65:2-5)
Don't get me wrong: I don't believe there was ever a time when 100% of the Israelites turned from the Lord. The Bible makes it clear that the Lord has always had a remnant of faithful ones in every era. Also we must not forget that the nation turned back to the Lord; the people did not remain fallen away from Him. The Lord allowed a downturn in prosperity and then invasion and captivity for a time as discipline, but this discipline served to get the nation back on the right track. For a time the Gentile nations flourished more than the nation of Israel, but this was because for a time so many citizens of Israel forsook the Lord. The Israelites of that time could feel "envious", in a sense, of the Gentile nations. The Lord allowed the Gentiles to become mighty nations not because He approved of how they were living but in order to use them to bring His covenant people back to Him. Because so many of His covenant people fell into idolatry in Old Testament times, He allowed Gentiles to invade and conquer Israel. He allowed Gentiles to take Israelites captive to foreign lands. The Gentile nations of those days had great wealth and enormous armies. The comparison of the Israelites' current circumstances (after having fallen into idolatry) with the prosperity of the heathen Gentiles who lived in detestable ways was intended to turn the people back to the Lord and make make them ask themselves, "Why are times so difficult now? Why have our circumstances turned so bitter? Why are our enemies able to defeat us?" It was intended to make them conclude, "It is because we have forsaken the Lord our God."
As we've said before, whenever any of us experiences a downturn in circumstances it's wise to first consider whether we've drifted from the closeness we once had with the Lord. Have we been neglecting fellowship with Him in prayer? Have we been neglecting Bible study? Have we fallen into some sinful habits? If we find the answer is "yes" to any of those questions, we may be under the Lord's discipline. What's the best thing to do when we're being disciplined? Allow it to lead us to repentance and restoration.
Just as the Lord allowed ancient Israel to fall as a nation after the people fell from their relationship with Him, He is able to allow any nation of today's world to fall if its citizens fall from their relationship with Him. We should daily pray that we and all our fellow citizens who believe in the Lord would remain strong in the Lord. We should daily pray for the conversion of all our fellow citizens who don't know Him at this time. The Bible says that, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord," (Psalm 33:12), and the best way to ensure a blessing upon our nation is to serve the one and only God.
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