Deuteronomy 32:19-22 – God abhors unfaithfulness

Deuteronomy 32:19-22 encapsulate for us what Paul has explained in Romans chapters 9 to 11. For a period, God will take His hand off the covenant people to favor the Gentiles who will believe in Him. But He will return and once again show compassion and favor to His covenant people. So in those three chapters in Romans, Paul assures us that when God returns to favor Israel, those Gentiles who believe in Him will be even more blessed. Paul's argument is this: if the rejection of Israel allows the Gentiles to be blessed, how much more blessings will the latter receive when the relationship of Israel with God is righted.

Bear in mind that the song Moses had written foretold the future events that would happen to the children of Israel. At the time of writing this song, many of those things had not yet come to pass. This song was meant to be a warning. It reveals the wickedness of the heart. They confirm what Jeremiah 17:9 so aptly put. It is so true that: “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” Despite the warning, and years of singing what God had warned in this song, every part of the song came to pass in the history of His chosen people.

God loved them so much and expected them to honor their relationship by being faithful to Him. However, He also foresaw their unfaithfulness through time. Ungratefully, the descendants of Israel spurned the grace of God and turned away from Him. They would provoke God to jealousy by their unfaithfulness. They would play harlotry with the foreign gods. In response to what they would do, God warned that he would also allow them to have a taste of their own medicine. He would hide from them and show favor to a people with whom He did not have a covenant relationship. He would use them to provoke His people to jealousy. We know from their history that God had used foreign nations to chastise and discipline Israel, His covenant people. God warned that they would face the mighty fury of God through the hand of those nations until they would ultimately return to Him.  

These four verses teach us never to spurn the love of God but instead to remain true to Him. Being faithful is the only appropriate response to God, who had given so much of Himself to us. The experience of the children of Israel warns us not to take God for granted. Don’t trifle with Him. Take the warning of Jeremiah 17:10 seriously! God said:

“I, the LORD search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give to each man according to his ways,
According to the results of his deeds.”