Deuteronomy 32:1-16: a reflection

1Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth. 2My doctrine will drop as the rain. My speech will condense as the dew, as the misty rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb. 3For I will proclaim the LORD’s name. Ascribe greatness to our God! 4The Rock: his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he. 5They have dealt corruptly with him. They are not his children, because of their defect. They are a perverse and crooked generation. 6Is this the way you repay the LORD, foolish and unwise people? Isn’t he your father who has bought you? He has made you and established you. 7Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you. 8When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. 9For the LORD’s portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. 10He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness. He surrounded him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye. 11As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, he spread abroad his wings, he took them, he bore them on his feathers. 12The LORD alone led him. There was no foreign god with him. 13He made him ride on the high places of the earth. He ate the increase of the field. He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, oil out of the flinty rock; 14butter from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat. From the blood of the grape, you drank wine. 15But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock of his salvation. 16They moved him to jealousy with strange gods. They provoked him to anger with abominations.

Moses' great song proclaims the character of God: the Rock, whose work is perfect and all whose ways are just, a God of faithfulness who does no wrong. And it paints a tender picture of how God had cared for his people. He found them in a howling wilderness, surrounded and cared for them, and kept them as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and spreads its wings to bear its young, God carried them, leading them alone, with no foreign god beside him.

But the song turns to a warning. When the people grew prosperous, well-fed and comfortable, something dangerous happened: Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; sleek and full, they abandoned the God who made them and rejected the Rock of their salvation. The very abundance God had given became the occasion of their forgetting him. Prosperity, which should have deepened their gratitude, instead dulled their hearts and drew them away.

Both parts of this song speak to you. First, marvel at how tenderly God cares for his people, carrying them like an eagle bearing its young, keeping them as the apple of his eye. Let that shape how you see God's love for you. Second, take the warning seriously: comfort and abundance can be spiritually dangerous, dulling gratitude and drawing the heart away from God. When life goes well, guard against the fat, sleek forgetfulness of Jeshurun. Let your blessings deepen your devotion rather than replace it.

Lord, you carried your people like an eagle bearing its young and kept them as the apple of your eye, and yet when they grew comfortable, they forgot you. Thank you for your tender care of me. And guard my heart in times of comfort and abundance, that prosperity would not dull my gratitude or draw me from you. Let my blessings deepen my devotion, and keep me near the Rock of my salvation. Amen.