Deuteronomy 32:10
He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
He found His people Jacob as His own portion and inheritance in a barren, desolate, waste wilderness, and He guided and taught them and guarded them with tender, close care like protecting what is most dear and vulnerable. As an eagle stirs its nest and bears its young on its wings, so the Lord alone led Israel with no other god beside Him, caring for them as a father for his children. He brought them out of Egypt to dwell under His shadow with Christ Himself leading in cloud by day and fire by night, preserving them through peril, thirst and hunger until He established them in the promised land as His chosen possession. The same finding and keeping belongs to His church today, called out of darkness into light and found in helpless need in the wilderness, yet held securely through trial and danger and never forsaken by the One who bought them. That unceasing care calls for grateful praise and obedient loyalty, guarding His law as carefully as the eye is guarded and letting Him make the wilderness fruitful for the glory of His name.
Song Setting And Language
This is Moses' closing song spoken in the hearing of all Israel, summing up God's past dealings with Israel and telling of things to come. It gives plain warning that disobedience brings swift calamity with no remedy, and it foreshadows the final victory of the faithful when Christ returns in power and glory.
The song publishes the name of the Lord and ascribes greatness to Him as the Rock whose work is perfect and whose ways are judgment, a God of truth without iniquity, just and right. It calls to remember the days of old and learn from fathers and elders how, when the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance and separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
God commanded that the song be taught, memorized, sung in worship, and repeated in daily life by parents to children, with memorials kept in sight. In this way its truth would stay familiar to young and old, and the history of His providential dealings and marked goodness and mercy in care and deliverance would not be forgotten. So taught throughout Israel, it would warn, restrain, reprove, and encourage them.
The verse declares that the Lord's portion is His people and Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land, in a barren, desolate, waste howling wilderness. There He led him about and instructed him. He kept him as the apple of His eye, guiding and teaching and guarding with tender, precious, close care, like one protecting what is most dear and vulnerable. That care belonged to the forty years of wandering as God's discipline, which humbled Israel and tested whether they would keep His commandments.
That attentive keeping is portrayed by what follows, as an eagle stirs its nest, flutters over its young, spreads its wings, takes them and bears them on its pinions. The Lord alone led Israel, with no strange god with Him, as Israel's sole leader and teacher, with a father's care for his children. The passage reveals both God's love for His people and His abhorrence of sin.
God's Care For Israel
He drew Israel out of Egypt to Himself, to dwell as under the shadow of the Most High, with Christ Himself as their leader veiled in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. In the great and terrible wilderness He miraculously preserved them from its perils, from fiery serpents and scorpions and drought. He brought them water out of the rock of flint and fed them with the corn of heaven, keeping them through the wandering until they were finally established in the land of promise as a favored nation and His own chosen possession in the sight of all nations.
The forty years of wandering were His discipline, humbling Israel and testing whether they would keep His commandments. That leading and teaching and guarding them as something precious, as the apple of the eye, was carried on through guiding and teaching and protecting them in the wilderness years. The wilderness was both judgment upon the rebels and training discipline for the rising generation, preparing them to enter the promised land.
This deliverance was not for their benefit alone but as an object-lesson to the surrounding nations. By it He revealed Himself as a God above all human authority and greatness, showing His power over nature and over those who worshiped nature. He went through proud Egypt with fire and tempest, earthquake and death, as He will go through the earth in the last days, in order to prepare the way for the diffusion of His light to the whole world and to restore the moral image of God in man.
Care For His Church Today
The Lord's portion and inheritance is His church today, dear to His heart with infinite love as His dearest possession on earth. Called out of darkness into marvelous light, that church is to declare His praise and shine as lights amid the darkness of the world. After sin broke connection with God and left human beings with no means of salvation, in Christ they are brought near to the Father as His elect. He finds them in desolate and helpless need in a desolate wilderness, leads them about, teaches them, and guards them with tender, precious care.
Christ will not forsake those who belong to Him and were bought with His blood, even in trial and danger. He helps the helpless and holds His people securely through distress, so that even when their own faith feels weak His care and aid remain strong. His care is undiminished, and heavenly angels work to protect those tempted by Satan's deception when they heed the Word and recognize their danger. God's people remain dear to His heart and precious to Him even when they suffer condemnation and oppression from the world. The church that keeps His commandments is precious to Him.
Keeping as the apple of the eye is also the measure for keeping God's law. As people guard the eye from injury, they are to love, guard, preserve, and obey the law with equal careful regard and loyalty without treating it as optional. Christ brings transgressors back to loyalty so they may keep His law as something precious and live. He can make the wilderness a fruitful field for the people that keep His commandments, for the glory of His name. His tender, unceasing care and wise methods of leading, His providential dealings and goodness and wonderful works, are part of His claim on them and call for gratitude, humble devotion, and cheerful thanksgiving. Obedient children are to claim His blessing and come before Him with praise and thanksgiving, often repeating His dealings and recounting His goodness before young and old with praise and joy and gladness.