The Song of Moses

The Song of Moses 

Monday, May 19, 2025 

Deuteronomy Chapter 32 records the Song of Moses that was given shortly before he died at the age of 120. There is a portion of that song that bears a dangerous parallel between Israel and the United States today. I begin with Moses’s song about Israel. 

Deuteronomy 32:9-14 (NLT) 

“For the people of Israel belong to the LORD; Jacob is his special possession. 10 He found them in a desert land, in an empty, howling wasteland. He surrounded them and watched over them; he guarded them as he would guard his own eyes. 11 Like an eagle that rouses her chicks and hovers over her young, so he spread his wings to take them up and carried them safely on his pinions. 12 The LORD alone guided them; they followed no foreign gods. 13 He let them ride over the highlands and feast on the crops of the fields. He nourished them with honey from the rock and olive oil from the stony ground. 14 He fed them yogurt from the herd and milk from the flock, together with the fat of lambs. He gave them choice rams from Bashan, and goats, together with the choicest wheat. You drank the finest wine, made from the juice of grapes. 

Jacob/Israel was truly God’s special possession. They experienced the incredible provision and protection of God. But something happened! Something terrible happened…revealed in next verse of the Song of Moses. 

Deuteronomy 32:15-18 (NLT) 

“But Israel soon became fat and unruly; the people grew heavy, plump, and stuffed! Then they abandoned the God who had made them; they made light of the Rock of their salvation. 16 They stirred up his jealousy by worshiping foreign gods; they provoked his fury with detestable deeds. 17 They offered sacrifices to demons, which are not God, to gods they had not known before, to new gods only recently arrived, to gods their ancestors had never feared. 

18 You neglected the Rock who had fathered you; you forgot the God who had given you birth. 

God had revealed the incredible story of Israel to Moses in advance. God told Moses that Israel would one day become fat and unruly…heavy, plump and stuffed. The prosperity and blessing of God would cause them to abandon the very God that made them. They would abandon the Rock of their salvation and in that abandonment they would sacrifice their children to demons. 

Does any of that sound familiar today? God has truly established and blessed America more than any nation on earth. Let me explain this deadly parallel between Israel and America by using one of our founding documents, the Mayflower Compact (from Britannica). 

Mayflower Compact, document signed on the English ship Mayflower on November 21, 1620, prior to its landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts. It was the first framework of government written and enacted in the territory that is now the United States of America. The Mayflower Compact was not a constitution but rather an adaptation of a Puritan church covenant to a civil situation. This is a portion of the founding document from the Puritans on the Mayflower. 

Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, covenant, and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; 

For the glory of God…that’s how America began. For the glory of God and by the power of God. That was the story of Israel, recorded in the Song of Moses. And that was the story of America as recorded in the Mayflower Compact. For the glory of God, the Rock of our Salvation. 

But something happened to both Israel and America over time. Israel soon became fat and unruly; the people grew heavy, plump, and stuffed! Then they abandoned the God who had made them; they made light of the Rock of their salvation. 

Can you see it…the deadly parallel between the Song of Moses and America today? 

They stirred up his jealousy by worshiping foreign gods; they provoked his fury with detestable deeds. 17 They offered sacrifices to demons, which are not God, to gods they had not known before, to new gods only recently arrived, to gods their ancestors had never feared. 18 You neglected the Rock who had fathered you; you forgot the God who had given you birth. 

Do you know how the Song of Moses ends? 

Deuteronomy 32:43 (NLT) 

“Rejoice with him, you heavens, and let all of God’s angels worship him. Rejoice with his people, you nations, and let all the angels be strengthened in him. For he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will take revenge against his enemies. He will repay those who hate him and cleanse the land for his people.” 

Maranatha, Hosanna, Hallelujah and Amen, 

Terry Cooper 

  ph with bold text.