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3 They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God, the Almighty! Righteous and true are your ways, you King of the nations. 4 Who wouldn't fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you only are holy. For all the nations will come and worship before you. For your righteous acts have been revealed."
They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God
A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. An evil man is snared by his sin, but the righteous can sing and be glad. The righteous care about justice for the poor. The wicked aren't concerned about knowledge. Mockers stir up a city, but wise men turn away anger. (Proverbs 29:5-8)
the song of Moses
Later we will come to a rehearsal of these two songs in chapter 19 where we see the difference between the two with a corrective voice between them from the throne of God. Here is the first song that parallels what we will study today, the perception of reality and God through the immature but passionate devotion of one of the most famous people who ever lived – the prophet Moses.
After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Hallelujah! Salvation, power, and glory belong to our God: for true and righteous are his judgments. For he has judged the great prostitute, who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." A second said, "Hallelujah! Her smoke goes up forever and ever." The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne, saying, "Amen! Hallelujah!"
A voice came forth from the throne, saying, "Give praise to our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, the small and the great!" (Revelation 19:1-5)
This is a pattern used in several songs of Moses, for as we shall see, there is more than one instance of this style of music. This is the version of praise that might be most familiar to us as it resonates with the dualistic way of thinking we inherited from our first parents who received their false identity by indulging in and then participating with the agenda of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
That tree represents the use of rewards and punishments and how to manipulate relationships. The philosophy behind that way of thinking asserts that God uses these methods to achieve compliance. More on this later.
Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Yahweh, and said, "I will sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously.
The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. Yah is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him; my father's God, and I will exalt him.
Yahweh is a man of war. Yahweh is his name. He has cast Pharaoh's chariots and his army into the sea. His chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea. The deeps cover them. They went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, Yahweh, is glorious in power. Your right hand, Yahweh, dashes the enemy in pieces. In the greatness of your excellency, you overthrow those who rise up against you. You send forth your wrath. It consumes them as stubble. With the blast of your nostrils, the waters were piled up. The floods stood upright as a heap. The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, 'I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the spoil. My desire shall be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.'
You blew with your wind. The sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? You stretched out your right hand. The earth swallowed them.
You, in your loving kindness, have led the people that you have redeemed. You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation.
The peoples have heard. They tremble. Pangs have taken hold on the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed. Trembling takes hold of the mighty men of Moab. All the inhabitants of Canaan are melted away. Terror and dread falls on them. By the greatness of your arm they are as still as a stone-- until your people pass over, Yahweh, until the people pass over who you have purchased.
You shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, the place, Yahweh, which you have made for yourself to dwell in; the sanctuary, Lord, which your hands have established. Yahweh shall reign forever and ever.
For the horses of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and Yahweh brought back the waters of the sea on them; but the children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of the sea."
Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dances. Miriam answered them, "Sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea." (Exodus 15:1-21)
This is the first round of the Song of Moses where we see a mixture of New and Old Song lyrics. How much of our praise to God involves this mix? Now for somewhat improved versions.
Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation." Moses begged Yahweh his God, and said, "Yahweh, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, 'He brought them forth for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?' Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.'" Yahweh repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people. (Exodus 32:10-14)
Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold. Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin--and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written." (Exodus 32:31-32)
Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your sight: and consider that this nation is your people." (Exodus 33:13)
He said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." He said to him, "If your presence doesn't go with me, don't carry us up from here. For how would people know that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn't it in that you go with us, so that we are separated, I and your people, from all the people who are on the surface of the earth?"
Yahweh said to Moses, "I will do this thing also that you have spoken; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name." He said, "Please show me your glory." (Exodus 33:14-18)
Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the commandments of Yahweh, and his statutes, which I command you this day for your good? Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is therein. Only Yahweh had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as at this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked. For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn't regard persons, nor takes reward. He does execute justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves the foreigner, in giving him food and clothing. Therefore love the foreigner; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear Yahweh your God; him shall you serve; and to him shall you cleave, and by his name shall you swear. He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things, which your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude. (Deuteronomy 10:12-22)
Notice the earning and deserving often attributed to God. Moses embraces the system of earning and deserving, reward and punishment as a primary motivation for allegiance to God along with love and obedience. I am not condemning this approach as all bad. Rather it is more along the lines of the perspective of an immature child needing to continue to grow into a deeper, more expansive kind of relationship.
Now therefore write you this song for you, and teach you it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. For when I shall have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and grown fat; then will they turn to other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant. It shall happen, when many evils and troubles are come on them, that this song shall testify before them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they frame this day, before I have brought them into the land which I swore. So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 31:19-22)
Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. For I know your rebellion, and your stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious against Yahweh; and how much more after my death? Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will happen to you in the latter days; because you will do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.
Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were finished. (Deuteronomy 31:26-30)
This exposes a problem inherent with this old way of thinking. Moses is projecting his own frustrations with the children of Israel onto how he views God's disposition and way of relating. In addition, by telling them to their face that they are going to corrupt themselves and rebel against their God, he is assigning to them an identity that can easily tend toward becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. This cuts to the heart of our own identity crisis, and this is why it was so necessary for the true Reflector of God's heart to fully become a human to live among us, in order to show us our true design as reflectors of God rather than reflectors of our propensities to selfishness.
In Deuteronomy 32 we find an expanded version of the Song of Moses. We will explore that entire chapter so as to get a gist of how Moses saw God's relationship to His chosen people. This helps us differentiate between the Song of Moses and the more advanced, mature Song of the Lamb. Notice that closely this parallels the first version of the song we looked at in Revelation 19, starting out with New Song lyrics but then diluting them by celebrating the demise of His enemies who have fought against Him and His people.
Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain. My speech shall condense as the dew, as the small rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb. For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh. Ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice: a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he. (Deuteronomy 32:1-4)
Like the one in Revelation, this song begins with focusing attention on the truth about God's goodness, kindness and greatness. The Song of Moses is influenced by the perspective of the Tree of Good and Evil, not that God necessarily is inherently evil, but the view that because of the need for discipline, God is compelled to resort to methods of the enemy to deal with the unfaithfulness of His children. This becomes more clear later in this song.
They have dealt corruptly with him, they are not his children, it is their blemish. They are a perverse and crooked generation. Do you thus requite Yahweh, foolish people and unwise? Isn't he your father who has bought you? He has made you, and established you. Remember 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. When 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. For Yahweh's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. (Deuteronomy 32:5-9)
Notice how the influence of commerce affects the perspective of Moses about God's relationship to His people. Isn't he your father who has bought you? Yahweh's portion is his people. While an inheritance has to do more with relationship than with commerce, it also invokes the idea of partiality to some extent. Keep in mind though that Moses' perspective represents the incomplete view of God colored by years of living under the law of sin and death, reward and punishment, and that God works with people from within the limitations in which they operate, though seeking to move them beyond that toward a far more mature appreciation and participation in His original purpose of complete unity with Himself in a righteousness apart from the law.
He 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. As 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. Yahweh alone led him. There was no foreign god with him. He 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; Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat. Of the blood of the grape you drank wine. (Deuteronomy 32:10-14)
See how Moses switches back and forth between how God seeks to bless and nurture and remedy the unfaithful condition of the recipients of His blessings. This is classic old song style. It feels natural for us to do this, but God's design is to move us past this to something greater.
But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They moved him to jealousy with strange gods. They provoked him to anger with abominations. They sacrificed to demons, which were no God, to gods that they didn't know, to new gods that came up of late, which your fathers didn't dread. Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth. (Deuteronomy 32:15-18)
From here through the rest of this song there is very little focus on God's kindness that leads to repentance. While Moses describes accurately the problems that God's children have and how easily they turn to other sources of provision, identity and pleasure, his portrayal of how God responds is very humanistic in nature which is why we struggle so much still today to imagine God to be like how the Lamb reveals Him rather than how tradition and biblical authors make Him out to be.
Yahweh saw it, and abhorred them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. 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. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in my anger, Burns to the lowest Sheol, Devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire. (Deuteronomy 32:19-22 )
God returning evil for evil is reflective of how we react when we get offended. This perspective assumes God takes offense like we take offense, and we seldom question that presumption. Moses insists God will use His power similarly to how others have treated Him. Yet this is part of why Jesus came to show us the Father. “You have heard it was said... but I say to you...”
I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them. They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, With the poison of crawling things of the dust. Outside the sword shall bereave, and in the chambers, terror; on both young man and virgin, The suckling with the gray-haired man. I said, I would scatter them afar. I would make the memory of them to cease from among men; were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, Our hand is exalted, Yahweh has not done all this. For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them. (Deuteronomy 32:23-28)
At this point it begins to sound like Moses is intent on making God out as very harsh and severe and ready to punish those who forsake Him, offend Him and betray His trust in them. What is obscured in such language is the reality that God's wrath is really about releasing His protective shield from around those who spurn His affection and who disdain His loving authority.
Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up? For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall, Their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of serpents, The cruel venom of asps. Isn't this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures? Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. The things that are to come on them shall make haste. (Deuteronomy 32:29-35)
Here we begin to catch a glimpse of how God's wrath is not bad things imposed by God, but that our rebellion forces away His protection, leaving them vulnerable to calamities from their enemies.
For Yahweh will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, there is none remaining, shut up or left at large. He will say, Where are their gods, The rock in which they took refuge; Which ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you! Let them be your protection. See now that I, even I, am he, There is no god with me. I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand. (Deuteronomy 32:36-39)
Moses wants people to realize the difference between relying on God alone as their source of protection, blessing, fulfillment and sense of worth, and the impotence of any other source purporting to be better than Him. This is something all of us need to be aware of in our own lives, for we too are easily seduced into dependence on all sorts of other means of getting our wants and needs fulfilled outside of a mutually trusting, loving relationship with our Creator.
For I lift up my hand to heaven, And say, As I live forever, if I whet my glittering sword, My hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to my adversaries, and will recompense those who hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy. Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will render vengeance to his adversaries, And will make expiation for his land, for his people. (Deuteronomy 32:40-43)
This is almost a direct source of what is found in the song at the beginning of Revelation 19 we just considered. This is why I believe it represents the Song of Moses while the second one is the Song of the Lamb, the New Song that alone has superior power to defeat all the enemies of truth and love.
Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun. Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel; He said to them, Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you this day, which you shall command your children to observe to do, even all the words of this law. For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it. (Deuteronomy 32:44-47)
As this chapter comes to a close, we see how Moses frames life in the context of keeping the law and obeying God as the criteria for getting the reward of God's favor and extended life. While it is certainly true that living in harmony with principles that govern creation design will expand our ability to enjoy blessing and minimize experiencing the curse, it is important to keep in mind that the blessings and curses are not imposed by God but are inherent within the principles designed by Him.
Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day, saying, Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession; and die on the mountain where you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people: because you trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn't sanctify me in the midst of the children of Israel. For you shall see the land before you; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 32:48-52)
Moses was certainly a close friend of God and a faithful servant. Yet his immature view of God led him to lapse in his complete trust in God's heart regardless of how desperate conditions might become. This is not to detract from his life as a faithful servant to His Creator. Yet his perspective was limited, and though he usually deferred his problems and crises to God, when he became too stressed while mourning the loss of his beloved sister, he succumbed to doubt of God's care for him in the face of repeated bitter complaining and unbelief from the people he had served so long.
Note that God did not tell Moses he was being punished for disobeying God's command during the incident at Meribah. The real problem was more serious, and God could not allow him to lead the people into the promised land that had been the hope of Moses most of his life. Moses had misrepresented God's disposition, particularly during a most crucial moment when a very different outcome could have transpired had he chosen otherwise consistent with his previous choices.
This is a lesson we need to take to heart for ourselves in our time. Moses represents making obedience to God's commands of highest paramount, and they are important. Moses also had a very tight and intimate relationship with God like few others ever enjoyed, and that is a wonderful example for all of us. But it took Jesus, the Lamb of God to show us the far more exceeding glory of what the Father wants for all of us to supersede the witness of Moses and bring an end to the war over God's reputation.
the servant of God
Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. Yahweh showed him all the land of Gilead, to Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, to the hinder sea, and the South, and the Plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, to Zoar. Yahweh said to him, This is the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, I will give it to your seed: I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there. So Moses the servant of Yahweh died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of Yahweh. (Deuteronomy 34:1-5)
Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands on him: and the children of Israel listened to him, and did as Yahweh commanded Moses. There has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom Yahweh knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders, which Yahweh sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, and in all the mighty hand, and in all the great terror, which Moses worked in the sight of all Israel. (Deuteronomy 34:9-12)
Now Yahweh your God has given rest to your brothers, as he spoke to them: therefore now turn you, and get you to your tents, to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of Yahweh gave you beyond the Jordan. Only take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, to love Yahweh your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away; and they went to their tents. (Joshua 22:4-6)
Yes, all Israel have transgressed your law, even turning aside, that they should not obey your voice: therefore has the curse been poured out on us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God; for we have sinned against him. (Daniel 9:11)
Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken, but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house; whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end. (Hebrews 3:5-6)
While the glory revealed during the time of Moses was spectacular and very important for moving people out of abject darkness of evil, selfishness, pride and violence, it fell short of bringing to light the real truth of God's unconditional love and forgiveness that must be experienced in order to escape the power of darkness entirely and lead us to thrive in the kingdom of love, light, truth and freedom for which we are designed. This is the reason God's Son was sent, to do what could never be done by Moses.
From his fullness we all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. (John 1:16-18)
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn't know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. (John 15:15)
Summary
Listen now to what Yahweh says: "Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear what you have to say. Hear, you mountains, Yahweh's controversy, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for Yahweh has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.
My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me! For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage. I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of Yahweh."
How shall I come before Yahweh, and bow myself before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? (Micah 6:1-7)
Yahweh protests the dim views of Him that we cling to, despite all the glory that may be learned via Moses and his siblings. The story of Balak and Balaam that reveals the real righteousness of Yahweh apart from the law, is in how God related to him despite Balaam's extreme greed and his conspiracy with Balak to seek to bribe God with sufficient sacrifices to manipulate His power to achieve their own selfish agendas. (For a series where I expanded on this you can get it here.)
Micah's response to God's challenge for His people to answer, was a question of his own – how does God want us to come to Him, how are we to relate to Him, to worship the exalted God? Immediately we hear God's answer – it is a trust relationship, not by appeasement, bribery or other fear-based solutions. The New Song featured in Revelation directs our attention to what was witnessed about God's heart towards us in the life and teachings of His Son, the Lamb of God.
He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? Yahweh's voice calls to the city, and wisdom sees your name: "Listen to the rod, and he who appointed it." (Micah 6:8-9)
So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. However at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles, to which you desire to be in bondage all over again? (Galatians 4:7-9)
Application
How do I relate to this growing awareness of my need to let go of my old ways of thinking about God?
Am I willing to allow the conviction of the Spirit of truth to soften my perceptions of God and justice?
Pray that the Spirit of truth and love implants the seed of God that produces fruit of the Spirit in line with the disposition inherent in the New Song lyrics and tempo.
