THE SONG OF MOSES
AND THE LAMB

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part I Knowledge Not Automatic Commandment Not Too Hard	Part III God Punishes His People Why Doesn't God Cast Them Away? "Sealed Up Treasures" God's Declaration
Part II The Song of Moses The Rock Jacob His Heritage A Desert Land An Eagle Stirreth Up Her Nest Jeshurun Waxed Fat Moved Me to Jealousy	Part IV Ezekiel 38:18-23 The Song of the Lamb Overcoming the Beast and Image "It Is Your Life"

Part I

Song of Moses:

"Because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. 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." Deuteronomy 32: 3, 4

 

Song of Moses and the Lamb:

"And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thy judgments are made manifest." Revelation 15:3, 4

 

    Moses said: "Just and right" are God’s "judgments."
Deuteronomy 32
    The Lamb says: "Just and true" are "thy judgments."  
Revelation 15.

    The Song of Moses is the one given by Moses to Israel the day that he died. It is called the Song of Moses and also the Song of the Lamb, because the Lamb later confirms that same Song to us. That brings certain majesty to it.
    Moses may very well have been one of the greatest men of God that ever lived. When we combine his Song with the Song of the Lamb, the Son of God, that is a duet that will long live in our hearts and memories. There is an unforgettable beauty and melody that lingers to all who hear it.
    There were two songs given by Moses, forty years apart, one at the crossing of the Red Sea and the other was the song Moses sang the day that he died.

Moses' Song at the Crossing of the Red Sea	Moses' Song at his Death
Song of Moses after Red Sea	Israel Taken into Captivity
The first song of Moses was a song of triumph and of God’s judgment on His enemies. This song will be sung at the end of the Millennium, after all the people of God have passed the Second Death. It is a song of deliverance for God’s people and judgment against their enemies.	Whereas the Song of Moses and the Lamb proclaims God’s judgments and punishments against His own people. When that work is done, He receives His chastened people and then punishes the enemies of His people.
Crossing the Red Sea	Israel Persecuted
The song sung after the crossing of the Red Sea is recorded in Exodus 15:1-19. Both Moses and the children of Israel sang this together.	The Song of Moses and the Lamb is a two-fold punishment. This, therefore, pertains to both the Jewish and Gospel Ages. It is similar to the Major Prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel who pronounced judgments against Israel but also against their enemies. Because it covers two ages it became the Song of Moses and the Lamb.

    The real Song of Moses is the one that he sang the day that he died. The Lord then took him, putting him to sleep by the word or mouth (I like to think of it as a kiss) of the Lord. This song contains the parting message of one of the greatest servants of God that ever lived, our Lord Jesus being excepted. It is this song that the Lamb also sings.
    Moses visited each of the tribes before he offered this song. No doubt he had many wonderful things to tell each tribe. There were personal ties and warm friendship involved in this last exchange as well as very serious exhortations. They knew he was to leave them. There was a serenity and sense of awe and wonderment that gripped the people still living there on the other side of the Jordan waiting to enter the Promised Land.

Wilderness Wanderings

The realization that he had led them these forty years, and now at the critical moment when they were to enter the Promised Land, they realized they must do so without that great servant of God to lead them. Whatever their sins, whatever their murmurs of the past that had been against Moses, that was all gone.

     They could not, at this point in time, hide their great love and affection for Moses. They truly loved him.
    Love has a way of winning out at the end. If you can’t win people with love you can’t win them any better way. Moses’ love for his people had finally won, and they truly loved him.
    Unquestionably, he had been their meeting place with God. They all knew this. Now that the nation had finally come to appreciate him for the legend that he was among them, he was to leave them. No longer would they have his awe-inspiring presence and his great leadership.
    Great moments such as this have not often come. When they do, few are aware of the great drama occurring. But here, the whole nation was awake. They were at full attention. They were listening to Moses, the servant of God, even while tears of sorrow filled their eyes.
    How could they hold back their sorrow and tears knowing this was the last time their beloved leader would speak to them—that would last forever in their hearts and minds.
    This song was no ordinary song. This song was never to be forgotten and to make certain of this the Lamb of God picked it up and taught it to the saints. We must never forget it either. Once having heard it, we also must learn it and sing it with him. We will refer to Revelation 15 later.
    Do not think that Moses’ last words were full of sweetness and tender reflections on the journey that they had shared in the wilderness. This refrain of the Lamb is heard in Revelation l5 and constitutes the chorus to the Song of Moses.
    Considering Moses’ last words, we learn there was no need for Moses to build monuments with words touching those great things that had happened in their singular relationship with God. Moses needed to spend no time generating warmth and affection. It was there already.
    You see, Moses was a Prophet, and as a Prophet sometimes there is unhappiness about knowing things which will come to pass. It had been revealed to Moses what would happen at his passing. He knew things that were heavy on his heart.
    Let us not underestimate the value of prophecy. How often we do. We are not encouraged to do so by any scripture. In Hosea 12:13 we read:

"And by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved."

    Prophecy is necessary for both being delivered and preserved. The Song of Moses was written down as a part of the Book of the Law. It was taught to the people and later it was preserved in the Ark of the Covenant. It became a part of Law together with the two tables of stone. Yes, the Song of Moses was there also. We read this in Deuteronomy 31:24-26:

"And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, "That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, "Take this book of the law and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee."

 

|Ark of the Covenant

     This showed its eternal qualities and the weight God associated with these words.
    The reason for this song, therefore, was that Moses was a Prophet, and God had revealed to him what was going to befall the people of God after they entered the land of promise. He said to them in Deuteronomy 31:27-30:

"For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death? "Gather unto 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 record against them. "For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands. "And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended."

Israel in the wilderness forty years.

Standing there, the children of Israel, perhaps found it hard to believe their future conduct would be so perverse. Here they were, full of love and affection for Moses and really for the Lord, as they reflected on the long and terrible journey through the wilderness together these forty years.

    How could these predictions be true of them and their children? Surely, they would be better for all the experiences they had shared with Moses. Perhaps these things would happen way down the road. And to a certain extent that was true. We read in Joshua 24:31:

"And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done for Israel."

    For eighty years after Moses, the children of Israel at least made some effort in keeping God's law.

Knowledge Does not Automatically
Improve Our Performance

    Sometimes, we think, when we have adequate knowledge it automatically insures protection against taking a wrong course. Knowledge may guide us in the right way only if acted upon. Moses' words in Deuteronomy 31:19-21:

"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. "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. "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."

Israel turned to worshipping Moloch

    How true that prophecy was. One of the tragedies of life is in the fact that one generation cannot give to the next generation their wisdom. How often parents see their children take a course they know will bring them sorrow and pain, and yet they are powerless to change matters.
    It seems every generation wishes to make mistakes of their own choosing. How often youth feels strong and impervious to life’s pitfalls, only to be taken in the snare that countless millions who preceded them had fallen into.
    Thank God for the resurrection when all mankind will have a chance to relive life with personal knowledge of the consequences of sin, when peer pressure will always be to do the will of God.
    By the spirit of prophecy Moses gave the children of Israel an awesome lesson that was never to be forgotten. The dangers lurked down the road, when they entered the land and would become comfortable and full. That is when they would relax their disciplines, and that is when temptations to be like the people round about would take hold of them.
    While these words of Moses served as a witness against them, more importantly, they would be a consolation to those who took the wrong course in departing from the Lord. The words of Moses in Deuteronomy 30:1-3 would also be remembered.

"And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, "And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; "That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee."

The Prodigal Son

    These words are an indictment against Israel, but also a consolation. Yes, Israel, like the prodigal son, would in the end find it must return to the Father’s house, thoroughly humbled, thoroughly chastened, but oh so glad to return to the house of the Father.
    The Lord will have compassion on His people. We read in Deuteronomy 32:36:

"For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, and there is none remaining, bond or free." (ESV)

    Yes, the Lord will vindicate both His natural people and His spiritual people.

This Commandment Is Not
Too Hard for You!

    Another thing to remember is that the Lord had not given His people an impossible Law to keep. True, none could keep God’s Law perfectly, but they could keep its essence while walking humbly before the Lord.
    They would be blessed in basket and in store, they would be blessed when they arose and when they lay down, they would be blest when they went out and when they came in. They would be blessed and freed from the sicknesses of the surrounding nations. They would stand before their enemies while their enemies would fall before them.
    Sometimes it is easy to conclude that the Law arrangement was an Albatross hanging around Israel’s neck impeding all of their progress and all of their hopes. Such is not the case.

The Law was beautiful and worthy of their meditation day and night. While it could not bring them life in the truest sense, yet it provided the disciplines necessary for them to walk humbly with their God. To some, it actually was a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ, while to others it was a stumbling-stone and a rock of offense. No the Israelites could not keep the Law to gain everlasting life, but indeed they could keep it in a way that would bless them richly.

     We read in Deuteronomy 30:11-14 (ESV):

"For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. "It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ "Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ "But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it."

    Yes, "You can do it!" That is the message Moses left with the people, and that is what we must never forget.
    Many might be inclined to say, "Why should God and Moses bother with a people who are going to forget God?" Why not just let them go unhindered in the evil course they were disposed to take? Why tell them that they would be chastened for their evil ways and that afterward God would be gracious to them?

Ezra Reading Law to People

Because God loved the people and He tried to provide them with the entire moral helps and strengths He could instill within them. That even if they wandered from Him they would remember their way back to God’s fold.

   God is always merciful and gracious to receive them, when at last they return with all their heart to Him.

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         Topical Studies on:
The Song of Moses and the Lamb Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV

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Dedicating the Temple Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV

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