The Beneficence Towards Them of Their Overlord Is Outlined (Deuteronomy 32:7-14).
“Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of many generations,
Ask your (thy) father, and he will show you (thee),
Your (thy) elders, and they will tell you (thee).
“When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
When he separated the children of men,
He set the bounds of the peoples,
According to the number of the sons of Israel.
‘For Yahweh's portion is his people,
Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.”
So he now tells them to consider what Yahweh has done for them. Let them look back over the generations and remember what Yahweh did from the beginning. They only have to ask their fathers, or their elders to discover it. Because they were Yahweh's inheritance and His people, when He divided up the world He remembered them, and how many of them there would be, so that he allocated portions to other nations accordingly. He ensured that a broad and wide land was available for them which would be more than sufficient to accommodate their numbers. Other nations were thus restricted accordingly.
“The Most High.” (Elyon). Compare Genesis 14:18; Numbers 24:16, both cases where connection with Gentile nations is emphasised. Israel appear to have taken the title over, assimilating it to Yahweh as Abraham had himself done (Genesis 14:22) for use when speaking of His dealings with Gentile nations.
“According to the number of the sons of Israel.” Some have seen here a connection between the seventy members of Jacob's household who went down into Egypt and the seventy nations in Genesis 10, but in view of the lack of mention of seventy here and in Genesis 10 that seems a little far fetched. LXX and a Hebrew fragment at Qumran have ‘sons of God' instead of ‘sons of Israel'. That might signify that the numbers of the nations were determined by the number of angelic powers who could have charge of them, but that seems to be irrelevant to the context. But it would appear to have arisen from the belief in guardian angels for different nations. As MT makes excellent sense in context we would suggest its retention. It simply mans that when allocating land to the nations He remembered how many Israelites there would be and allocated accordingly.
“He found him in a desert land,
And in the waste, a howling wilderness,
He surrounded him, he cared for him,
He kept him as the little one (ishon, diminutive of ish = man) of his eye.”
He had found Israel in the desert land, in the waste land, in the howling wilderness, (the threefoldness emphasising its wild nature). The idea is of someone who has been found wandering in the desert almost near death, helpless and hopeless, saved by the skin of their teeth. We can compare for this picture of being ‘found' Hosea 9:10, where we have the same picture indicating that they were ‘found'. Hosea makes it clear that this was after they left Egypt following God's call (Hosea 2:15; Hosea 11:1). Israel had left Egypt but had then turned away from Him (e.g. Exodus 16:3). They were thus helpless until He found them again. Then Yahweh had surrounded them with His love, caring for them and protecting them as His babes over whom He kept watch.
The purpose of this picture is to bring out their helplessness. The point here is that they were not then to be seen as the people of the covenant, safe in their Overlord's hand, for they had forfeited that (Exodus 32:10; Exodus 32:30-35; Numbers 14:11-12; Numbers 14:35), and had become ‘lost', a whole generation dying in the wilderness (Numbers 14:35). They had become like a party of people who had wandered in the desert and were lost and thirsty, and terrified of the howling creatures around. But Yahweh had found them and taken them under His protection.
In view of the redemption mentioned in Deuteronomy 31:6, and this mention of being preserved in the wilderness, there is a clear connection with the Exodus, confirmed by the references in Hosea, but with a recognising of how much they had forfeited of Yahweh's favour. They had been finally delivered as an undeserving people lost in the wilderness.
All of us without exception have at some time or other to travel ‘in the wilderness'. But the value of that experience will be determined by how we respond. If we look off to Him in confidence and trust it will be the making of us. But if we murmur and grumble and complain it will do us no good.
‘As an eagle which stirs up her nest,
Who flutters over her young,
He spread abroad his wings, he took them,
He bore them on his pinions.
Yahweh alone did lead him,
And there was no foreign god with him.'
Like the mother eagle He alone cared for them. None other was with Him. Like her he took them on his wings and bore them safely. The picture is that of an eagle teaching her eaglets to fly and ensuring their safety. In the same way Yahweh alone led His people. No foreign god was concerned. There was little competition to Yahweh in the wilderness.
This illustration aptly pictures the children of those who had failed and been doomed to die in the wilderness, being taken up by a gracious God so that he could teach them to ‘fly'. He did not forsake them but tenderly took note of their needs (compare Isaiah 40:11).
“He made him ride on the high places of the earth,
And he did eat the increase of the field,
And he made him to suck honey out of the rock,
And oil out of the flinty rock,”
The poem now moves on into the future. He will make them ride on the high places of the earth (having taught them to fly like the eagle), like some great all-conquering potentate (compare Isaiah 58:14). The one who conquers the heights, conquers the land. Or the thought may be of their settlement on the mountains of Canaan having conquered all enemies, something now seen in the poem as accomplished. They will eat the ample increase of the fields, they will suck honey from a rock, they will even obtain oil from a flinty rock. Honey and oil were symbols of luxury and plenty. Obtaining honey and oil from a flinty rock is a considerable step up from obtaining water. The wild bees would nest in the rocks producing their honey, and their olive trees would flourish in rocky soil, seeming to come from the flinty rock. Even the barren places would be fruitful.
“Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock,
With fat of lambs,
And rams of the breed of Bashan,
And he-goats,
With the finest of the wheat;
And of the blood of the grape you (thou) drank wine.”
They would have the best of everything, butter from the herd and milk from the flock, fat and strong rams from Bashan (compare Amos 4:1), similarly fat he-goats, the finest of the wheat and abundance of wine from the red grape juice which flows like blood. They would never have had it so good before.