At the age of 120, after living for 40 years in the wilderness, Moses sang a song. With his prophet's eyes still clear, and with the memories of the struggles through which he had passed during those 40 years still vivid, Moses laid out for the people of a new generation the fearful prospect of apostasy by the people of God. Knowing that he would have to die very soon afterwards, Moses endeavored to stamp on the memories of those who would enter the land of Canaan the history and the admonitions of their God. There were only two others present on that occasion who were from the generation that had come out of Egypt and that had passed through the Red Sea. Joshua and Caleb were at least 20 years older than everyone else can within sight of the promised land. Some of the people were old enough to remember the experience of leaving Egypt, but the generation that came out of Egypt that was responsible for the people, that generation was gone, except for two. No doubt the hopes of the people were high, Though surely they were mixed with some apprehension at the prospect of the dramatic change that was about to take place in their lives. For forty years, the people had known no other leader than Moses. And one last time, they gathered to hear his voice and to observe the man who spoke with God face to face. It was not a happy song. It was not like the cheap little ditties that have become so popular in contemporary worship, the so-called 7-11 songs. You know what they are, seven words repeated eleven times. That's what passes for Christian music. in many churches today. There was nothing about this song that was calculated to gain the applause of the multitude. In fact, the preface to the song at the end of the previous chapter would be considered in today's parlance a real downer. For at the end of the preceding chapter we find the words of Moses about what would happen after his death. He foresaw that the people would rise up against the Lord of whom Moses was preparing to sing. He predicted that they would provoke the Lord to anger. And yet the song itself set a very high tone against which to consider the prophesied provocations by the people of Israel. Throughout the song, Moses set forth the person of the Lord under the name of the Rock. In verse 4, he said plainly of the Lord, He is the Rock. In verse 15, Moses described God as the Rock of His salvation. In verse 18, He reproached the people with being unmindful of the rock that begat thee. In verses 30 and 31, there is a contrast drawn between the counterfeit rocks that are false gods and the true rock who is the God of heaven. Clearly, Moses meant to face each of the people of Israel with the truth that each one of them was accountable. Each one of them was answerable to the Lord of Heaven. If they lived according to His Word, if they kept faith with the Lord and walked in His ways, then they would experience the outpouring of the mercy of the Lord as they had never known it before. But Moses warned that those who would make themselves enemies of the Lord would experience the fury of His vengeance. And as a way of emphasizing the power of those words, Moses, at the end of the chapter, received the commandment from the Lord that it was time for him to die. In fact, if you look at it, Moses was commanded to die. He was directed to behold the land, to go up into the mountain and behold the land and die in the mountain. There was no question about the reason Moses would not be entering the land of Canaan. He had not sanctified the Lord in the eyes of the people at the waters of Meribah Kadesh. The death of Moses before the people entered the land then should have served for them as a constant reminder that the commands of God are not to be taken lightly. And if it was a word for the people of that generation, it is a word for the Lord's people of every generation. Your life, as Moses said, is in the hands of God. It is your life, as Moses said to the people. How will you use it? How will you spend it? When the command of God comes for you to die, Will the review of your life reveal a catalogue of rebellion or of humble submission to the will and word of God? This chapter then raises the searching question of your relationship to the rock. It is a question, in the words of Moses in this chapter, of how you requite the Lord. When God has displayed His mercy to you thousands of times, have you humbled yourself in His sight, or have you corrupted yourself? Have you made yourself crooked and perverse? Have you lightly esteemed the rock of your salvation? Have you been unmindful of Him We learn the lesson in this chapter of the awful legacy that a disobedient generation bequeaths to its successors. Simply being unmindful of the Lord in one generation leads to the awful harvest of idolatry and immorality in the generation that follows. It's one of the great lessons that we must learn from history. It does not take long. It doesn't take long for there to be a departure. Not just a slight departure, but a complete departure. So parents and grandparents, you have a great responsibility, not only for your children and for your grandchildren, but also for the generation that those children and grandchildren will influence long after you have departed this world. The song of Moses was full of pathos. He desired that the people would be wise in those memorable words of verse 29. Oh, that they were wise! Oh, that they understood this! that they would consider their latter end. They wanted them to remember in the words of verse 35 that the day of their calamity is at hand, that the things that shall come upon them may caste. Are not those words directed to us in our own time? Is not God's hand about to take hold of judgment? Is not His glittering sword of vengeance whetted and unsheathed? Is it not time for the Lord to work? Have not the people made void His law? I tell you, when I think about what is being debated in the halls of Congress these days, And when I think about the fact that it doesn't appear that there are even half of the senators who would cast a vote to define in constitutional terms what marriage is, when I think about that, I think about that word of the psalmist, it is time for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law. Have you trusted in the Lord? Have you surrendered to Him? Is the rock of salvation your Lord and Savior? If not, Moses sang, be sure your foot will slide in due time. Consider your latter end, for there will come one day the command for you to die. We're not here today to play little religious games. We're here to deal with eternal issues. What is your relationship to the rock? That's a question you must answer. This chapter, this song, if you will, sets itself out in three stanzas, three major themes. And the first of them is God's glorious grace. Moses said, as he began this song, that his doctrine was designed to be a refreshment. That his doctrine would drop as the rain, as the small rain upon the tender herb, as the showers upon the grass. It was designed to bring revival. It was designed to bring refreshment. This song that deals with your relationship to the rock is rooted in the truth about the rock. Let us never grow weary of the setting forth of doctrine, of the setting forth of the truth. Doctrine should refresh us! Doctrine should revive us! I tell you, there is nothing so assuring and so motivating as the truth. When you have the truth, as I have said before, and you know that you have the truth, your soul is set on fire. You can bear any burden in its defense. What is the doctrine of which Moses spoke? It is the truth about God. It is basic theology. We learn in verse 3 that God is great, that we are to ascribe greatness to our God. And let us remember that as He says here in verse 3, the name of the Lord is linked to His greatness. And that is the testimony everywhere we look in Scripture. Let's turn to Psalm 105. Psalm 105. And verse 1. O give thanks unto the Lord. Call upon His name. Make known His deeds among the people. Sing unto Him. Sing Psalms unto Him. Talk ye of all His wondrous works. Glory ye in His holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord." There is a great emphasis on the name of the Lord. Let's turn back in the Psalms to Psalm 29. Psalm 29 and verse 1. Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. And then Jeremiah chapter 10. Jeremiah chapter 10 and verse 6, For as much as there is none like unto thee, O LORD, thou art great, and thy name is great in might. The greatness of God is closely associated with the name of God. So Moses sang, I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto our God. And when we think of God's name as being linked to His greatness, we must understand the importance of the third commandment that prohibits the profaning of God's name. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. God's name must be hallowed. God's name must be kept apart. It always strikes me that none of the names of this world's false gods are used in oaths or in cursing. Why is that? That tells me that there is something in the depraved heart that rises up against the name of the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity and can use that name as an oath, as a simple expression of displeasure or whatever, or surprise. And there are Christians who employ that name in that profane way. They just change a little bit of it so it doesn't sound so offensive. This is the name of God. The name of God is associated with the person of God. There is something in the depraved heart that despises the one who is perfect and seeks to drag his name in the gutter. The rock, Moses said, is a God of truth and without iniquity. He is just and He is right. And as we also read in this chapter, there is no God like Him. The gods that sinners have invented, of whom we read in this chapter, are reflections of those who have invented them. They are capricious. They aren't arbitrary. Their knowledge is limited. They are full of lust. They have to be carried here and there. Those are the gods that the people of the world worship. But the God of heaven is perfect. His work is perfect. Everything that he does is right. It is excellent. It was said of the Lord Jesus Christ, the full manifestation of the rock of salvation, that He does all things well. That is why, in the service of God, we seek to do all things as well as we can. Why? because we are seeking to reflect the glory of the one whom we serve. And this rock, this perfect one, we learn in the words of this song, is merciful. He is full of grace toward his people. What had the Lord done? If you look at verses 10-14, Having said that the Lord's portion is His people, we read in that section that the Lord found Jacob in a desert land and in the waste, howling wilderness. He led him about. He instructed him. He kept him as the apple of His eye, as an eagle stirreth up her nest. fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings. So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him." He made him ride on the high places of the earth and so on, talking about all the things that God had done. to provide for His people everything that they needed and everything that they could have desired. He had treated them with the tenderest care, with the greatest condescension. Can you not testify yourself, if you know the Lord, that such has been your experience at the hands of God? Can you not echo those words? Can you not say today that the Lord found you in a desert land, in a waste, howling wilderness? Was that not the condition of your soul when the Lord found you? Without hope, without God, and has not that same God sustained through all your days since." Paul described the experience of the people of God in this connection in 1 Corinthians 10. Let's read beginning at verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. That is how they were sustained. But you know, the fifth verse of that chapter made it plain that the song of Moses had another stanza to it, but with many of them, God was not well pleased. For they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them. And he goes on. It is to that second stanza of the Song of Moses that we now come. sin's savage rebellion. How had the blessed people responded to their rock? How would they respond in the days that had yet to unfold? Moses made it very plain. They would respond in the future as they had in the past. What had been Moses' experience for 40 years? Nothing but complaining and grumbling. Nothing but seeking to appoint another leader and to go back to Egypt. They would requite the rock who is perfect, whose work is perfect, who was merciful and gracious to them. They would requite him by being foolish and unwise. As we read in verse 6, Do ye thus requite the Lord? They would respond to His grace and His mercy by waxing fat and kicking. They would forsake the rock of their salvation. They would esteem Him lightly. Notice how that statement is put into the rest that we understand that esteeming God lightly, being unmindful of Him, is held in the same regard as forsaking Him. What a catalog of degradation we find beginning in verse 16 in this chapter. They served strange gods. They sacrificed to devils. They exchanged the rock of their salvation for other rocks, where the small are counterfeit rocks, gods who could never do anything for them and who would never know them, because they were gods invented by people. Let us listen to the history today. Perhaps you are being described today. Perhaps you have been taught the ways of the great God of Heaven. Perhaps you have learned the words that tell you about His grace and His mercy, and you have heard others testify to the reality of that grace. Perhaps you have been directed to follow Him, but in your heart you are setting up other gods. other rocks, counterfeit rocks. If that is so, then hear what God is saying in the words of this song. You are provoking Him to jealousy. And nothing depicts this rebellion more effectively than the image we have in verse 15, but Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked. This is an interesting name, Jeshurun. It occurs only four times in the Bible. Three of them are in Deuteronomy in this chapter and in the chapter that follows. And the other one is in Isaiah. Let's turn to Isaiah chapter 44. Isaiah chapter 44. And let's look at verse 2. Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb which will help thee, Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and thou just Urim, whom I have chosen. It's a name for the people of God. It's a name that is linked to the idea that the Lord has chosen them. It's a name that comes literally from the idea of being upright. It's a name of affection, a tender name that God uses for His people. If you turn to Deuteronomy 33 and to verse 26, you find it employed in that sense There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. That is the nature of Jeshurun. Yet, what do we find in chapter 32 and verse 15? We find that this people, Jeshurun, the people who occupied such a tender place in the affections of their God, that they could not stand the prosperity of being the Lord's people. This was the prediction of Moses. You'll get into the land. and you will enjoy the bounty of the land, and you will wax fat there, and you will forget God." They had done it in the past. How many times had God blessed them? They needed food. They didn't have any food, so what did God do? He gave them manna. Their lives were sustained. by a daily miracle. Every day bread appeared on the ground. They went out and gathered it up and it was bread that was just what they needed to sustain them. It had every nutrient that they needed in it. What a blessing that was! But you know what? They became used to it and pretty soon they loathed it. They detested it. They kicked. God had blessed them and they kicked. They needed water. God gave them water. Moses struck a rock and water came from the rock and they drank and they were satisfied. But it wasn't long until they were tested again. There was another time when they needed water and they didn't have any. And what did they do? They kicked, they complained, they murmured, they grumbled. And Moses is saying, that's what's going to happen. When you get into the land, you get into an easy place. When the campaign of conquest is over, and you settle down, and you enjoy the land, then you're going to forget God. It is when the people of God find an easy place that they tend to forsake their God. We crave ease. We crave comfort. But how many times Do people get comfortable situations and then they forget God? When all is well, when there is no immediate trouble that you can see, you relax. And then you become a candidate for waxing fat and kicking. Have you rebelled against the Lord? Have you refused His command to you to repent and to believe the gospel? If you have, and you will not surrender your foolish ways, then you must know the reality of the third stanza of this song, judgment's solemn warning. Moses had something he wanted to impress upon these people, It wasn't enough for them to think of their parents and grandparents, perhaps, that they had buried out in the desert. If that wasn't enough reminder that God does not deal lightly with rebellion, then Moses would impress it upon them again. God is not complacent in the face of this rebellion. He said in verse 20, that He would hide His face from them. Notice that. I will hide My face from them, and I will see what their end shall be. For they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. Will that be true of our children? Will it be said of them, they are a froward generation? children in whom is no faith. Will you be described that way? In verses 21 through 26, the Lord outlined the devastation that He would bring upon them. You look at those verses. He said, I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation, for a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains." We're in the midst of fire season here in Arizona, and we have watched as firefighters in various parts of the state have struggled to keep wildfires at bay. on those mountains down in the southeastern part of the state where those valuable observatories are. They've been fighting sometimes to keep the flames just a few hundred yards away. What a picture we have here of God's jealousy. I will heap mischiefs upon them, he said. I will spend mine arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger and devoured with burning heat and with bitter destruction." God is saying, here's what I'm going to do. Moses was reaching the climax of his song, and it was a heartfelt plea for them, consider their ways! Ponder what the end will be! The New Testament has such a solemn warning. We find it in 1 Peter 4. 1 Peter 4. Verse 17. For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? I tell you, those are fearful words. What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? What was the Lord's warning through Moses in verse 35? Their foot shall slide in due time." Oh, it may seem to be well with them now, but in due time, their foot shall slide. It was from that very text that Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, in 1741, about this time of the year it was. And what was His emphasis in that message? There is coming a time when the judgment of God will be visited on all who remain in rebellion against Him. Their foot shall slide in due time. Here was the warning that Moses left with the people. God does not play games. And what was to be the exclamation point to the song of Moses? When the song had died away, and the people would go back to their tents, what would be the exclamation point they would watch as Moses went up the mountain called Nebo? And there he would die. They would not see him again. They would not hear him again. He would die because there was an incident where God had said to Moses, you speak to the rock and it will send forth its water. And Moses, in a fit of rage, said to the people, hear now ye rebels, must we fetch you water from this rock? And with his rod he struck the rock and water did come forth. That was the mercy of God. But from that day, the Lord said to Moses, you did not obey Me. That seems a small thing to people in these days. But God said, I will be sanctified. That was to be a reminder to the people that God is exact when it comes to His law, to His command. There's an interesting thing, and with this I have to come to a close, but there's an interesting thing just in the reading of it in verse 6 that I think we must give attention to. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not He thy Father that hath bought thee? That was a reference to redemption. It was a reference to the blood of the Passover lamb. That blood that was struck on the doors of the houses in Egypt on the night of the last plague. And were there not people standing there as Moses sang those words, whose lives were preserved by that blood They were children then, perhaps some of them just infants then, but their lives were preserved because of the blood of the Passover lamb. Here's the plea. The blood of Jesus has been shed. Don't trample it under your feet. Instead, avail yourself of this redemption. Requite the Lord's mercy and grace by turning away from sin and trusting in His work. And then you will be able with a clear eye to face the day when the Lord's judgment shall be visited. May God grant that warning to continue echoing in every heart. and give us grace to make a beeline for the cross of our blessed Savior.