A Witness Against You
14 Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, your days approach that you must die. Call Joshua, and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, that I may commission him.” Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting. 15 Yahweh appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the Tent’s door. 16 Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers. This people will rise up and play the prostitute after the strange gods of the land where 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 come on them; so that they will say in that day, ‘Haven’t these evils come on us because our God is not among us?’ 18 I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods. 19 “Now therefore write this song for yourselves, and teach it to 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 have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they have eaten and filled themselves, and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant. 21 It will happen, when many evils and troubles have come on them, that this song will testify before them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten out of the mouths of their descendants; for I know their ways and what they are doing today, before I have brought them into the land which I promised them.” 22 So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel. 23 He commissioned Joshua the son of Nun, and said, “Be strong and courageous; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to them. I will be with you.” 24 When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, 25 Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, saying, 26 “Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of Yahweh your God’s covenant, that it may be there for a witness against you. 27 For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. Behold, while I am yet alive with you today, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. How much more after my death? 28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them. 29 For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn away from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will happen to you in the latter days, because you will do that which is evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.” 30 Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were finished.
God tells Moses in advance that the people will fail, and the countermeasure is a song they will not be able to forget.
The commissioning takes place at the Tent, with the pillar of cloud standing at the door Deuteronomy 31:15. And what God says to Moses there is not encouragement.
Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers. This people will rise up and play the prostitute after the strange gods of the land where they go to be among them, and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them.
The failure is stated as certain, before the crossing, to the man who has spent forty years preventing it. And the mechanism is named: not persecution, but success. When I have brought them into the land... and they have eaten and filled themselves, and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods Deuteronomy 31:20.
The people's own reaction to the consequences is quoted too, and it is half right: haven't these evils come on us because our God is not among us? Deuteronomy 31:17. They will diagnose the absence correctly and misread its cause.
What God does about a failure he has just predicted is the interesting part, and it is not to prevent it.
“Now therefore write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.
A song. The reason is given plainly: it will not be forgotten out of the mouths of their descendants Deuteronomy 31:21. Laws are filed and forgotten; a song learned in childhood survives in people who have abandoned everything it says. When the disaster comes it will already be in their mouths, waiting, and they will find themselves singing the explanation.
That is a strange and merciful piece of foresight. God plants the diagnosis inside the patient before the illness, in the one form that will outlast the apostasy.
The book is then deposited: take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark Deuteronomy 31:26. Not inside it — the tablets are inside. Beside it, and the stated purpose is the same as the song's: that it may be there for a witness against you.
Moses' own assessment closes the chapter and it is bleak and unsentimental. While I am yet alive with you today, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. How much more after my death? Deuteronomy 31:27.
He has no illusions and he does the work anyway. That combination — clear sight about what is coming, and full effort regardless — is the last thing the book shows about him before the song.
settled What this mark means