He Declares Their Hopeless State Without Him (Deuteronomy 32:28-30).
“For they are a nation void of counsel,
And there is no understanding in them.
Oh that they were wise, that they understood this,
That they would consider their latter end!'
He declares Israel's folly. They lack wise guidance, and are lacking in understanding. They are ignoring the lessons of history which might turn them back to Him, and they were forgetting His Instruction (contrast Deuteronomy 4:6). He longs that they might just be sensible and consider where what they were doing would take them in the end (compare Deuteronomy 4:6 where such wisdom would come from considering his God-given words).
Of how many of us can it be said that we are without understanding? If we had even a glimmer of the truth about life and about eternity what different people we would be.
How should one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Except their Rock had sold them,
And Yahweh had delivered them up?'
How was it that they could not even stand up against the weakest of their enemies? How was it that a single soldier of their enemies could put a whole regiment of them to flight, and two could put a brigade to flight (contrast Leviticus 26:8; Isaiah 30:17). It was because they had become weak and unable to defend themselves. This could only be because He, their Rock, had sold them (contrast Deuteronomy 32:6, where their Father had bought them, and Deuteronomy 32:18 where their Rock had begotten them), because He, Yahweh, had delivered them up. It was because He no longer treated them as His redeemed people.
How often we have to look around and see that all that is spiritual is dying around us. We have no impact because we have gone so far from God. Our only hope too is to return to Him with strong crying and tears, but we do not do so because we have grown complacent.