THE SONG OF MOSES
1. Introduction
| Revelation 15: | 1: “And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. 2: And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. 3: And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. 4: Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest. 5: And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.” |
| Revelation 11: | 19: “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.” |
Make no mistake, there is an Ark of the Covenant in heaven.
Inside that ark, which really is the throne of the Almighty God of
Israel, are the Ten Commandments. The ark is also known as
the Ark of the Testimony; the Testimony being the Commandments
of God. That is why the heavenly Temple is called the Tabernacle
of the Testimony. It is because it houses the law of Jehovah!
We read of how Moses came down the mountain carrying the Ten
Commandments; and also of how the priests of Israel held up the
Ark of the Testimony when they crossed the Jordan.
| Exodus 32: | 15: “And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.” |
| Joshua 4: | 16: “Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of Jordan.” |
First Song
In Exodus 15 we read of a song Moses and the children of Israel sang
after the LORD had overthrown Pharaoh's chariots in the Red Sea. Points
of special note from this song are:
- 2: The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God...
- 3: The LORD is a man of war:...
- 4: Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea:...
- 5: They sank into the bottom as a stone.
- 11: Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
- 18: The LORD shall reign for ever and ever.
But though Moses sang this song with all Israel, this is not the song of Moses referred
to in the Revelation. Beautiful and true though these words are, they are very unlike the
song of Moses recorded in Deuteronomy.
2. Background to the Song of Moses
At the end of the 40 year wilderness wanderings, Jehovah summoned Moses,
Joshua and all Israel to hear this message. If there were any Israelites who doubted the
Almighty's presence was with them, this was the time all such doubts would vanish. For
they were about to hear the God of Israel's voice and once again see His shrouded glory
enter the Tabernacle!
| Deuteronomy 31: | 14: “And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thy days approach that thou must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation. 15: And the LORD appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud: and the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle. 16: And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. 17: Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day. Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? 18: And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods. 19: Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. 20: For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant. 21: And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware. 22: Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.” |
3. The Song of Moses
Bear in mind that though this is called the Song of Moses, it really is an
inspired prophecy - given by God Himself. It tells the story of salvation;
of how Israel would behave in the coming centuries and how Jehovah
would save His chosen people because of His great love and mercy. It is - and
ever will be - the greatest folk song ever written. In this Sermon I
have decided to divide the Song of Moses into into several Parts.
Part One
This Part invites the entire universe to take note that the Almighty knew
long before the events occurred what His people Israel would do in the coming
millennia.
| Deuteronomy 32: | 1: “Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 2: My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:” |
Part Two
This Part contains the first fundamental fact about salvation: that Yahweh is
Israel’s Rock. He is perfect in all that He does, that He is a God of Truth
and the Creator! Moreover, Israel is His people and He is their Father.
| Deuteronomy 32: | 3: “Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. 4: He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. 5: They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. 6: Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?” |
Part Three
Part three reminds us that Israel is the LORD'S portion, the apple of His eye,
His favourite nation, His chosen people! Gentiles may not like this irrefutable
fact; but their ire will not make it go away. It is an eternal fact.
| Deuteronomy 32: | 7: “Remember the days of old, consider the years of
many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and
they will tell thee. 8: When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. 9: For the LORD's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. 10: He found him 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. 11: As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: 12: So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. 13: He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; 14: Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.” |
Part Four
But alas! Israel forsook the LORD, treated with disdain His great salvation and
turned instead to worshipping pagan idols. In a feverish frenzy of false religion, Israel
found itself sacrificing to devils like the heathen do. They not only turned away from
Jehovah, but they forgot Him; forgot that the God of Abraham was in
fact the Creator - their Maker!
| Deuteronomy 32: | 15: “But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. 16: They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. 17: They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. 18: Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.” |
Part Five
When Jehovah saw this He was extremely hurt. He became disgusted with
His people Israel. He decided to hide His face from them and to remove His
protection. He allowed war, famine and pestilence to ravage
the nation. He even allowed the foolish nations of heathendom to persecute His
chosen ones. Moreover in His anger, He would devastate the whole earth with
its increase; such was His disappointment and rage!
| Deuteronomy 32: | 19: “And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters. 20: And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. 21: 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 which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. 22: 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. 23: I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. 24: They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. 25: The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.” |
Part Six
Alas! Israel still wouldn't take note. It seemed that the nation was blind to the obvious;
that unfaithfulness to their God was the root cause of all their ills. They somehow couldn't
see that their sins were turning their God away from them. That their absolute disregard
for His laws and His salvation and their infatuation with evil was like a cancer eating
away their lives. Then Yahweh decided to scatter His chosen people to the four
corners of the globe. But - thanks to His great mercy - He didn't wipe them out altogether.
He had, after all, made some astounding promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; promises
He fully intended to keep. But He would scatter them.
| Deuteronomy 32: | 26: “I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men: 27: Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this. 28: For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. 29: O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! 30: How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up? 31: For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. 32: For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: 33: Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. 34: Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures? 35: To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.” |
Part Seven
Thanks be to God the Song of Moses is not all gloom and doom. To be sure
it catalogues Israel's sin and woe. It is history set to music, just like most folks songs.
But we are happy to report that the Song of Moses ends with glorious victory
and endless joy. It is a the song of salvation - salvation through Yeshua the Lamb
of God! That is why in Revelation it is called the Song of Moses and
the Lamb!
| Deuteronomy 32: | 36: “For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left. 37: And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted, 38: Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection. 39: See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. 40: For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. 41: If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. 42: I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. 43: Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people. 44: And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.” |
Notice what the Almighty God of Israel intends to do:
- He has allowed His people Israel to be sorely wounded. But He is well able to heal.
- He has allowed millions of Israelites - His chosen people - to be killed, to be burned to ashes! But He is well able to resurrect every single one of them.
- He is about to take hold of judgment and render vengeance on those that hate Him; and that includes all the enemies of Israel.
- There is going to be a great slaughter - a great and terrible slaughter!
- But, to those who love Israel, the message is very different.
- Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people! For He is about to be merciful to His land and to His chosen people Israel!
4. Will You Sing the Song of Moses?
As far as sin is concerned, to a greater or lesser extent, all the world has done
what Israel did. No nation, community or individual can escape the fact that we have all
sinned. There is none righteous - no not one! So it's no good looking at the Jews and
incorrectly supposing that ‘They killed Jesus the Son of God.’
The fact is: sin brought about the death of the Son of God; your sin - my sin! We
all played a part in His murder!
| Psalm 53: | 2: “God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. 3: Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” |
| Romans 3: | 23: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” |
The Christian church is particularly guilty in this matter of rejecting
Jehovah’s law. Far worse than Israel, the church has wallowed
in iniquity.
It has turned its back on the Almighty’s testimonies
(His commandments) and bowed before the shrines of heathenism. Idolatry,
blasphemy, Sabbath-breaking, murder, adultery, fornication, deception,
greed and covetousness, all these sins are rampant in the church.
The time has come for the Most High to act. His patience has all but run out.
Believe us, when Jehovah’s anger is poured out, He will
no more spare the unrepentant Christian church and its members than He did
His chosen people Israel! A fearsome day is fast approaching!
But who will sing the song of Moses and the Lamb?
| Revelation 15: | 1: “And I saw another sign in heaven, great and
marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is
filled up the wrath of God. 2: And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. 3: And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. 4: Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest. 5: And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: 6: And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. 7: And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. 8: And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.” |
5. Summary
- The Song of Moses is a prophetic folk song, a love song, which will tell through eternity the story of salvation.
- The Song of Moses was a prophecy in the days of Moses. But soon - after the seven last plagues - it will be history.
- Like most folk songs, the Song of Moses tells a story. It tells the story of Salvation through the blood of Yeshua the Lamb of God. That's why it is called the Song of Moses and the Lamb!
- The Song of Moses tells of Israel’s faithlessness! Of how God's people became infatuated with paganism, forsook the commandments of their God and adopted the doctrines and practices of the heathen. The Christian church has done exactly the same - if not worse!
- The Song of Moses Tells of Israel's punishments: of war, famine, burning heat and of being scattered to the four corners of the globe.
- The Song of Moses Also reminds us of Yahweh’s enduring love, His great pity and everlasting mercy; of how the Almighty will win back His people Israel to true repentance, faith and obedience. Here we will see obedience at its best; obedience which will blossom before the whole universe when the Antichrist rules the earth! Obedience that will reflect a degree of faith comparable to that of Abraham's. God's chosen people Israel will overcome the Beast, his image and his Mark and will stand on the sea of glass!
- The Song of Moses Tells of Yahweh’s vengeance on His enemies. It ends with these words: “Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.” (Israel)
Will you be amongst those who will sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb?
You will need to answer that question for yourself. How you are currently
reacting to the Most High's testimonies - the commandments He gave by the
hand of His servant Moses - is a good indication of what that answer
will be.
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