Deuteronomy 32:1-3 "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: (3) Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God."
At this point, Moses has gathered the elders of each tribe together to speak his
last words to them. I remember an attribute of Moses that was spoken
about him in Numbers 12:3, "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the
men which were upon the face of the earth." There seems to be no
bitterness whatsoever in him as he takes this time to speak to the
people. He knows his time on earth is very short and he knows the reason
why. He is meek as he declares Joshua will take the people into the land.
He is meek just now as he is speaking to the elders of the tribes. He is
meek in the manner that he speaks concerning the Lord.
Notice to whom he is addressing these words: "Give ear, O ye heavens, and
I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth." He is
speaking before the Lord, the angels of heaven, the people of Israel, and yes,
he is speaking to us this morning. "My doctrine shall drop as the
rain." I remember several years ago, we had experienced a long
period of time without rain. It had been weeks and quite possibly a couple
months without rain. One night, I heard the sound of rain falling. I couldn't
help but walk out into the driveway and just let the drops of rain fall upon me
as I walked. There was such a relief and refreshing that came as a result
of the raindrops hitting upon me. God inspired Moses to speak concerning
his teaching as being that refreshing rain, as the gentle dew in the mornings,
and the gentle showers upon the grass. May I say just now that God's Word
is that which refreshes our souls. We become dry and shriveled in our souls
when we deprive ourselves of the Word of God.
Moses spoke of "my doctrine". We read in Acts 2:42, "And
they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine..." Moses
referred to it as "my doctrine" and Luke referred to it as the
"apostles' doctrine". We know the teaching of Moses and of the
Apostles did not originate in them; rather, they were the first teachers of
it. Moses clarifies his intention when he spoke of it as "my
doctrine" by quickly saying, "I will publish the name of the LORD:
ascribe ye greatness unto our God." We can say that which makes the
Word of God different from any other book that has been published is the fact
that it is indeed THE WORD OF GOD. The words which we read when we open
our Bible come directly from the heart of God to the hearts of His children.
"Give ear.... and hear... the words of my mouth." Those words were
physically spoken by Moses but they came from the very heart of God by way of
Moses' mouth. As I typed that, I remembered a conversation between God
and Moses some forty years earlier. "And Moses said unto the LORD, O my
Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto
thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. (11)
And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb,
or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD? (12) Now
therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt
say." (Exodus 4:10-12) God was indeed true to His Word. Moses
was now speaking very eloquently. With His help, even in our weakness, we
are able to ascribe greatness unto our God. May we be bold in our speech
concerning our great God.