Deuteronomy 32:37

32:26-38 The idolatry and rebellions of Israel deserved, and the justice of God seemed to demand, that they should be rooted out. But He spared Israel, and continues them still to be living witnesses of the truth of the Bible, and to silence unbelievers. They are preserved for wise and holy purposes and the prophecies give us some idea what those purposes are. The Lord will never disgrace the throne of his glory. It is great wisdom, and will help much to the return of sinners to God, seriously to consider their latter end, or the future state. It is here meant particularly of what God foretold by Moses, about this people in the latter days; but it may be applied generally. Oh that men would consider the happiness they will lose, and the misery they will certainly plunge into, if they go on in their trespasses! What will be in the end thereof? Jer 5:31. For the Lord will in due time bring down the enemies of the church, in displeasure against their wickedness. When sinners deem themselves most secure, they suddenly fall into destruction. And God's time to appear for the deliverance of his people, is when things are at the worst with them. But those who trust to any rock but God, will find it fail them when they most need it. The rejection of the Messiah by the Jewish nation, is the continuance of their ancient idolatry, apostacy, and rebellion.

And he shall say, where are their gods?.... Not the Lord shall say to Israel, upbraiding them with their idols and their idolatries; but, as the Targum of Jonathan,"the enemy shall say, where is the God of Israel?''and to the same purpose is, the Jerusalem Targum, and which is the sense of other Jewish writers (w); and the words may be rendered impersonally, and in the singular number, "and it shall be said, where is their God?" as it follows: their rock in whom they trusted? that is, it shall be said to the people of God, when in the low estate before described, and which will make it still more distressing; it shall be said to them by their enemies in a sneering way, where is the Lord their God they boasted of, and the rock of salvation in whom they trusted? which agrees with other passages of Scripture, Psalm 42:3.

The persons insulted and upbraided are the Protestant witnesses at the time of their being slain; when "they that dwell upon the earth", the Papists, "shall rejoice over them", Revelation 11:10; they are such who are true believers in the God and Father of Christ, as their God and Father in Christ, who of his own free grace has blessed them with all spiritual blessings in him; and who trust in Christ the rock alone for justification before God, for acceptance with him, and for their whole salvation; rejecting the Popish notion of justification by works, the doctrines of merit, and of works of supererogation, and the like; who now will be taunted at, and triumphed over, saying, where is the God of the Protestants they gloried in, as being on their side? and where is their rock on which they say the church is built, and not on Peter? (w) Aben Ezra & R. Nehemiah in Jarchi in loc.

Deuteronomy 32:37-38 . He shall say — The Lord, before he deliver his people, will first convince them of their former folly in forsaking him for idols. Which did eat — That is, to whom you offered sacrifices and oblations, after the manner of the Gentiles. Let them rise up and help you — If they can. Or, perhaps, instead of He shall say, ( Deuteronomy 32:37 ,) it may be better rendered, One shall say; or, It shall be said. And then the meaning will be, Whoever beholds these judgments with due consideration will be convinced of the vanity and unprofitableness of these imaginary deities, to whom they offered their sacrifices, without receiving the least benefit from them.

Repent himself for - Rather, have compassion upon. The verse declares that God's judgment of His people would issue at once in the punishment of the wicked, and in the comfort of the righteous. None shut up, or left - A proverbial phrase (compare 1 Kings 14:10) meaning perhaps "married and single," or "guarded and forsaken," but signifying generally "all men of all sorts."

The Lord would then convince His people of the worthlessness of idols and the folly of idolatry, and bring it to admit the fact that He was God alone. "Then will He say, Where are their gods, the rock in whom they trusted; who consumed the fat of their burnt-offerings, the wine of their libations? Let them rise up and help you, that there may be a shelter over you! See now that I, I am it, and there is no God beside Me: I kill, and make alive; I smite in pieces, and I heal; and there is no one who delivers out of My hand." ואמר might be taken impersonally, as it has been by Luther and others, "men will say;" but as it is certainly Jehovah who is speaking in Deuteronomy 32:39 , and what Jehovah says there is simply a deduction from what is addressed to the people in Deuteronomy 32:37 and Deuteronomy 32:38 , there can hardly be any doubt that Jehovah is speaking in Deuteronomy 32:37 , Deuteronomy 32:38 , as well as in Deuteronomy 32:34 , Deuteronomy 32:35 , and therefore that Moses simply distinguishes himself from Jehovah in Deuteronomy 32:36 , when explaining the reason for the judgment foretold by the Lord. The expression "their gods," relates, not to the heathen, but to the Israelites, upon whom the judgment had fallen. The worthlessness of their gods had become manifest, namely, of the strange gods or idols, which the Israelites had preferred to the living God (vid., cf.