This section is all about Yahweh vs. the other gods. Israel is literally only a month away from crossing the Jordan and beginning the conquest. Ever since leaving Egypt, they’ve been fairly isolated and on the move. There haven’t been many opportunities (like Peor) for other tribes to influence them into worshiping other gods. That is about to change. They are going to move into Canaan and be surrounded by people who worship other gods. And they’re going to fall off the wagon.

“And Yahweh said to Moses, “Look, you are about to lie down with your ancestors, and this people will arise and they will play the prostitute after the foreign gods of the land to which they are going.”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭31‬:‭16‬ ‭LEB‬‬

How sad for Moses! He has been like a shepherd to Israel for 40 years. To die knowing that the flock you cared for is going to eventually be eaten by wolves – that’s not a very nice way to go.

The whole point of “The Song of Moses” in chapter 32 is to be prophetic proof for future generations that Yahweh was right. And because Yahweh “called it” in advance – and no other god can do that – it is to be the definitive evidence that Yahweh is unique. He is superior to all the gods of the other nations – the MOST High.

This context of Yahweh vs. the gods is critical to keep in mind. Because Moses’ song is going to tell us why the nations have their gods and also give us a hint as to who they are. And in this song, Yahweh is called “The Rock” 4 times. So this is the first-ever legitimate Rock song. 🎸

🙄 Ugh… Really?

😟 What?

😑 That was the lamest… ugh… Just… leave the dad jokes to the dads please.

😒 Ok.

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Let’s see if we can break this song down into sections we can get our heads around. I’m going to summarize the sections with my own “lyrics” and use song terminology like verse and chorus. Don’t let that confuse you with the verse numbers in the text. K?

If Moses had written his song in the 70s, it might have sounded like the classic rock anthem, We Will Rock You by Queen.

(Who doesn’t love a good parody?)

Get your beat-box on. Here we go…

Boom boom BAH, Boom boom BAH 🥁🥁👏🏼

Boom boom BAH, Boom boom BAH 🥁🥁👏🏼

CHORUS (verses 1-4)

Yahweh is the Rock true! 🥁🥁👏🏼

He will, He will rock you. 🥁🥁👏🏼

VERSE 1 (verses 5-8)

Buddy, you are bad, bunch of lost boys

Showin’ how you treat

God who made you one day

You got put in your place

The big disgrace

Now you have gods for every race, singin’

CHORUS (verses 9-13)

Yahweh is the Rock true! 🥁🥁👏🏼

He will, He will rock you. 🥁🥁👏🏼

VERSE 2 (verses 14-17)

Buddy, you’re a rich man, hard man

Laughing at the Lord

Gonna be like the world to-day

You got blood on your face, you big disgrace

Praying to the Rebels all over the place

CHORUS (verses 18-31)

Yahweh is the Rock true! 🥁🥁👏🏼

He will, He will rock you. 🥁🥁👏🏼

VERSE 3 (verses 32-38)

Buddy, you’re a weak man, dead man,

Pleading with a stone

Gonna give it your best to-day

You got mud on your face, big disgrace 

Nobody’s gonna help you

You’re done in this place

CHORUS (verses 39-43)

Yahweh is the Rock true! 🥁🥁👏🏼

He will, He will rock you. Sing it! 🥁🥁👏🏼

Yahweh is the Rock true! 🥁🥁👏🏼

He will, He will rock you. 🥁🥁👏🏼

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Well. That was fun.

There is something very important that we need to zero-in on though- 🔬

THE DIVIDING OF THE NATIONS…

“When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.” Deut. 32:8 LXX

OT translations based solely on the Masoretic text have verse 8 as “according to the number of the sons of Israel.”

The Dead Sea Scrolls have it as “according to the number of the Sons of God.” The Sons of God as in, the heavenly beings that report before the LORD in the book of Job. That’s significantly different. The LXX and the Dead Sea Scrolls BOTH came before Jesus was even born. They are THE oldest versions of the OT that we have. The Masoretic text dates to the 900s AD.

🤔 What event is verse 8 even talking about?

🤓 It would have to be The Tower of Babel.

“Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.” Genesis‬ ‭11‬:‭1‬ ‭LEB‬‬

Before Babel we don’t have “nations.” We have everyone on earth speaking the same language with agreed-upon meanings. We also have the whole population living together as one.

By verse 9, something has changed. We have multiple languages and scattered people-groups – nations.

Now, look at these verses from Genesis 10:

“From these the coastland peoples spread out through their lands, each according to his own language by their own families, in their nations.” Genesis‬ ‭10‬:‭5‬ ‭LEB‬‬

“These are the descendants of Ham, according to their families and their languages, in their lands, and in their nations.” Genesis‬ ‭10‬:‭20‬ ‭LEB‬‬

“These are the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, and according to their nations.” Genesis‬ ‭10‬:‭31‬ ‭LEB‬‬

“These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations and in their nations. And from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭10‬:‭32‬ ‭LEB‬‬

So – the Most High “divided the nations” and “separated the sons of Adam” when He confused the languages at Babel and they scattered across the world.

At that time He also “set the bounds of the nations.” In other words, He established their physical borders; “their lands.” We just read recently where Yahweh told Israel “Don’t mess with the Moabites. That land is theirs.” Or, “You aren’t allowed to drive out the Edomites and take their land. I’ve given it to them.” The LORD is the One Who decided that the Cushites would live in Ethiopia and the Javanese would live in Tarshish and that Texans would live in Texas. (Yee haw, y’all)🤠

The “sons of Israel” didn’t exist at Babel. Yes, I suppose it could be referring to the future sons of Israel. But what would be the point of that? Why would God divide the nations among men who won’t be born for several more centuries? Did the sons of Israel ever have charge of the nations?

Maybe the angel/sons of God translation is the correct one.

Genesis 10, in many Bibles, has a heading that says, “The Table of Nations.” It’s like the periodic table. But for people. There are 70 nations listed. There were 70 sons of Israel listed in Genesis 46 so I could see why a translator would make the connection. Also- Israel basically means “prince with God” but that’s what the angelic sons of God are too.

We know that:

1. The nations were divided at Babel according to the number of x.

And

2. There were 70 nations

So we have 2 parts of the equation. And, like the Pythagorean Theorem, we can solve for the 3rd.

Could verse 8 be saying that at Babel, the Most High divided up the nations amongst 70 members of the Heavenly Host?

🤔 But why would God put Fallen Angels in charge of anything?

🧐 That’s an assumption. Who said anything about them being fallen when God assigned nations to them? Psalm 82 actually explains a lot about this. It seems that for some of these heavenly “princes” the power went to their heads and corrupted them as it does with so many humans. Instead of being like the angel who forbids John to worship him (Rev. 19:10), they rebelled against Yahweh’s commandment and allowed humans to begin to worship them.

We don’t get many glimpses into the politics of the heavenly realm. But one passage in Daniel may shed just enough light for us to figure this out.

Daniel has been fasting and praying for 3 weeks in Babylon. And an angel comes to him in a wondrous vision…

“And he said to me, “You must not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I myself have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia stood before me for twenty-one days. And look, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to assist me, and I left him there beside the king of the Persians.

Then he asked, “Do you know why I have come to you? And now I return to fight against the prince of Persia and I myself am going, and look, the prince of Javan will come. However, I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth, and there is not one who contends with me against these beings except Michael, your prince.”
‭‭Daniel‬ ‭10‬:‭12‬-‭13‬, ‭20‬-‭21‬ ‭LEB‬‬

😏 (More princes than a Dinsey convention.)

These princes are clearly angelic. And they fight. (So some of them are bad guys.) And they team up to help one another. And they are identified by the geographical territories to which they are assigned. Michael (as in, the Archangel) is assigned to Israel as a protector. And he has a big moment at the time of the end…

“Now at that time, Michael, the great prince, will arise, the protector over the sons of your people, and it will be a time of distress that has not been since your people have been a nation until that time. And at that time your people will escape, everyone who is found written in the scroll. And many from those sleeping in the dusty ground will awake, some to everlasting life and some to disgrace and everlasting contempt.”
‭‭Daniel‬ ‭12‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭LEB‬‬

And Michael is mentioned in the NT too:

“Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭12‬:‭7‬-‭8‬ ‭ESV‬‬

So – let me get this straight. You’re saying that at the Tower of Babel, God didn’t just confuse the languages to force people into tribal groups, He also assigned them geographic locations on the globe and assigned Angelic “princes” of some kind over them?

I’m saying that one could legitimately interpret the texts that way, yes.

😳🤯

So – are there like some kind of “Princes” over America? And Canada? And…Iran?

Iran, for sure yes. It used to be called “Persia.” So, unless Michael and his boys tied ‘im up to a fence post, I assume the Prince of Persia is still picking fights in the heavenly realm. I honestly don’t know for sure about other nations but I’d say it’s likely. Here’s what the Apostle Paul wrote as inspired by God:

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians‬ ‭6‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

🤔 So… isn’t that talking about demons?

Demons would be one class of evil, yes. But there are 4 distinct classes of beings listed. A Prince of Persia character is probably considered a “ruler” or “authority” since he has a title.

According to 1st Enoch (a 2nd Temple period work, quoted by the apostles and studied by the rabbis), demons are the disembodied spirits of the dead Nephilim – primarily those destroyed in the flood of Noah. The Sons of God that sinned in Genesis 6 were referred to as the “Sons of God” or the “Watchers.” Daniel (chap.4) refers to the Watchers as a class of angelic beings. They are not demons.

Angels (the Sons of God) are inhabitants of the heavenly (spiritual) realm. The ones who rebelled in Gen. 6 created offspring by human women (and very likely in other cases, animals – “ALL flesh.” I know. Eww). Those were the Nephilim. Nephilim are not fallen angels. They are the spawn of the fallen angels. So…

Demons = disembodied spirits of fallen angel offspring.

We need to grow beyond the Sunday School concept of angels that all look identical – as if they came off of some heavenly assembly line – and who stand around doing nothing but singing all day. They might actually look a bit more like this:

If this topic interests you and you’d like to dig deeper, I recommend the work of the late Dr. Michael Heiser. His book, The Unseen Realm is a good starter. Or, if you prefer something super easy, his book Supernatural is kinda the “Readers Digest” version. You can also watch a TON of his material for free on YouTube. Here’s one to get ya started.

I also recommend this short overview and playlist from The Bible Project.

This topic is going to come up a LOT as we go through the scripture. We live in universe that has both “visible and invisible” realms:

“For by him [Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” Colossians‬ ‭1‬:‭16‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Jesus, the Word, MADE the various kinds and rankings of the heavenly host. And He has ALL authority in Heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18), so those who are in Christ have no reason to be afraid of them.

In the whole epic story of Yahweh vs. the gods – from the upcoming conquest of Joshua to the big battle of Michael and his angels – we already know Who the winner is.

He is the Rock. 🪨

And He will, He will rock you. 🥁🥁👏🏼