THE PATTERN OF PROPHECY

 

 

As Moses was about to transfer leadership to Joshua, the Lord instructed Moses to teach Israel a prophetic song:

 

·       “…Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel. For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant. And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring). For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.” (Deuteronomy 31:19–21)

 

The song prophetically laid out Israel’s future unfaithfulness and its consequences. It also served as a pattern of prophecy. It contained four central elements characteristic of almost all of Israel’s prophets:

 

1.     The Faithfulness of God

2.     The Unfaithfulness of Israel

3.     The Consequences

4.     The (Messianic) Hope of God’s Mercy

 

Easy, right! It is, but often the language of Prophecy is not as plain as we would like it to be. However, it might be helpful for the Bible student to look for these four elements.

 

After witnesses are invoked as a jury, God’s song begins with the faithfulness of God:

·       “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.” (Deuteronomy 32:4)

 

In this song, God is often referred to as a “Rock.” It is not because He is hard but that He is merciful. It refers to the rock from which God brought forth a river to water to give drink to thirsty and rebellious Israel (Exodus 17:1-7). Paul refers to this event and Rock as “Christ”:

 

·       and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:4)

 

There is also a suggestion that God would continue to be merciful in the most unlikely ways:

 

·       “Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him, and their fate would last forever. But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” (Psalm 81:13–16)

 

From the most unlikely places, God would administer His blessings.

 

Immediately after the declaration of God’s complete righteousness and faithfulness, the song turns to Israel’s unfaithfulness:

 

·       “They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation. Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?” (Deuteronomy 32:5-6)

 

These verses not only serve as a warning but also as an indictment of Israel’s future sins to remind Israel that they are at fault, not God. Instead, God had nurtured Israel:

 

·       “He found him [Israel] in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the Lord alone guided him, no foreign god was with him.” (Deuteronomy 32:10-12)

 

However, the more He nurtured His people, the more they turned away from Him:

 

·       “But Jeshurun [Israel] grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation. They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.” (Deuteronomy 32:15-18)

 

If there are never consequences for rebellion, then there will never be repentance:

 

·       “The Lord saw it and spurned them, 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 will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.” (Deuteronomy 32:19-20)

 

Almost the rest of the song is so dismal that it is no surprise that the Scriptures contain no indication that Israel ever sang it after Moses’ departure. However, the song ends hopefully:

 

·       “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people [Israel]; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, And render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people.” (Deuteronomy 32:43, NKJV)

 

It is God who will provide the atonement, the payment for the sins of His people, not the Levites! No wonder that our Lord declared to His enemies that the Scriptures were about Him:

 

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40)