Please explain the phrase “except their rock sold them” in Deuteronomy 32:30.
Deuteronomy 32:1-43 is a song of Moses. With the first three verses considered as an introduction, the rest of the portion can be divided into three parts with three themes.
Verses 4-18 – The faithfulness of God and the faithlessness of Israel
Verses 19-33 – The chastisement and the need of its infliction by God
Verses 34-43 – God’s compassion upon the low and humbled state of His people.
Verse 30 falls within the topic of the need for the chastening hand of the Lord upon His people. Let’s read verses 29-31, “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up? For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
Moses is lamenting the ignorance of the Israelites. His desire is that they would be wise enough to realize that all this chastening and destruction that was coming upon them was to bring about a determined end. The Lord was not against His people. He was for them. Because of that, He chastened them so that they might understand and return to Him. God’s chastening was a sign of His love to them. Hebrews 12:6 tells us, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”
In verse 31, we read of two rocks. THEIR ROCK and OUR ROCK. The ROCK speaks of a fortress or a refuge, a sanctuary. How could one person chase one thousand people, or how could two people chase ten thousand people? That would happen if their Rock, (their fortress, their sanctuary) had disposed of them and given them over into their enemies’ hands. Verses 16-17 tells us that the people had “provoked (God) to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.” Because of that, the Lord gave them over into the hands of their enemies. We read in verses 19-21, “And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.” Notice that the Lord did not want to destroy His people, He wanted to provoke them to jealousy so that they would return to following Him. Chastisement is an act of grace!
The Lord did not want Israel’s enemies to think that they had defeated Israel under their own strength. NO. As Moses had told them, “Their Rock (the rock of the enemies) is not our Rock (the One true God). Oh, that Israel was wise enough to understand that their downfall and destruction wasn’t because their enemies were greater, or that their god was greater. No, God was allowing these calamities to come upon Israel because of their sinful rebellion against Him. Even though the enemies were in a place of judgment over Israel, the Lord had permitted this to bring them back to Himself.
How about you, dear friend? Are you in a state of rebellion against the Lord who loved you and saved you by His death on the cross? If you fell the chastening hand of God upon your life, be wise enough to know that it is there for your own good. Repent and return to the Lord. Proverbs 3:11-12, “My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.”