Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Deuteronomy 32:19-25
The Overlord's Verdict Is Pronounced (Deuteronomy 32:19).
‘And Yahweh saw, and abhorred,
Because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
And he said, I will hide my face from them,
I will see what their end shall be,
For they are a very perverse generation,
Children in whom is no faithfulness.'
Yahweh's response was horror at what they were doing and hatred of what they were doing it with. His very children were provoking Him with their behaviour, and He declared His determination to hide His face from them and watch over them no more. Then He would see what their end would be (compare Psalms 73:17). They were like unruly children who were perverse and totally lacking in loyalty.
There is nothing more sad than a people forsaken because of their own folly. Can we not remember our first love when all that we desired was to please Him? But now like the Laodiceans many of us have grown lukewarm. And thus God has become very distant.
“They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God,
They have provoked me to anger with their vanities,
And I will move them to jealousy with those that are not a people,
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.”
Indeed with their ‘no gods' they had made Him intolerant of their disloyalty, and they had provoked Him to anger with the vain things that they had to do with. Thus He will bring against them another people, an unchosen people, a no-people, and He will favour those people and make His people jealous of them and angry in their hearts. There are probably no particular people in mind here. The point is simply that for a while He will favour their enemies, who are not a chosen people.
But in the end it would result in the responsive among the no-people, the Gentiles, being united with the faithful in Israel in forming the new Israel, the true church of God, which would indeed make unfaithful Israel jealous (compare 1 Peter 2:10).
For the provocation see Deuteronomy 29:22. For the contrast between no-gods and no-people compare Hosea 1:9; Hosea 2:23.
“For a fire is kindled in my anger,
And burns to the lowest Sheol,
And devours the earth with its increase,
And sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.”
Few will escape. This introduction of a ‘favoured' enemy will be like a fire kindled by Yahweh (compare Deuteronomy 4:24) which will even burn their dead, (for even they will not escape), will destroy their crops and trees and the land (compare Judges 6:4), and set on fire the lower parts of the mountains. The picture is one of ultimate devastation.
“I will heap evils upon them,
I will spend mine arrows on them,
Wasted with hunger, and devoured
With burning heat and bitter destruction,
And the teeth of beasts will I send on them,
With the poison of crawling things of the dust.”
So will He heap evil circumstances on His people and strike them with His arrows, wasting them with hunger, striking them with plague and pestilence (‘burning heat', compare Deuteronomy 28:22), letting them endure the burning and destruction of their land, its devastation by wild beasts and its being overcome with poisonous crawling things. All the curses of Deuteronomy 28 will come on them.
When we have backslidden we too experience the awfulness of His seeming abandonment. And then what is important is that we respond immediately, otherwise it will only get worse. For whom God loves, He chastens.
“Outside will the sword bereave,
And in the chambers terror,
For both the young man and the maiden,
For the suckling with the man of grey hairs.”
When they dare to go outside the sword will slay them and bereave their families, and if they hide within their dwellings terror will enter both for young men and maidens, for grandfathers and grandchildren. None will be safe.
The verdict having been given at this point, the likeness to the treaty indictment ceases, for having obtained his vengeance the ordinary overlord would pass on having destroyed his enemies, while Yahweh cannot do so. For He is faithful even to those who are unfaithful.