“Adonai alone led his people;
no alien god was with him.
He made them ride on the heights of the earth.
They ate the produce of the fields.
He had them suck honey from the rocks
and olive oil from the crags,
curds from the cows and milk from the sheep,
with lamb fat, rams from Bashan and goats,
with the finest wheat flour;
and you drank sparkling wine
from the blood of grapes.”
-Deuteronomy 32:12-14
Up until now, the Song of Moses has spoken of God’s protection and nurturing of Israel.
However, from verse 12 the content shifts.
Hashem now makes it a point to remind His people that it was ONLY Him who has been guiding them from the beginning.
Israel did NOT receive assistance or help from some other foreign deity or god of any other nation.
This theme fits in perfectly with the following words of Adonai spoken through the Prophet Hosea.
“Still, I am ADONAI your God,
from the land of Egypt;
and you don’t know any God but me or,
other than me, any Savior.
I knew you in the desert,
in a land of terrible drought.”
-Hosea 13:4-5
The takeaway here is as crystal clear as can be.
There is no logical reason for Israel to think it should ever need help from any another spiritual source than their God EVER!
The glory for the Jew’s deliverance should always rest upon the glory and might of Hashem!
Why?
Because Israel certainly didn’t receive any assistance from any of the gods of the gentile nations after they left Egypt and entered into their promised land inheritance.
From verse 13 we’re told that it was Hashem who plucked Israel from the ground below and placed her upon the high places of the earth (this is referring to the central highlands of Israel by the way).
We’re also told it was Hashem who kept Israel alive in the barren desert by producing what they needed to live from the most unimaginable and unlikely sources possible.
We’re talking about honey from rocks, water pouring out of boulders and even olive oil seeping out from the cracks in the rocks.
And it was also Hashem who caused Israel’s livestock to grow abundantly so that they would have plenty of milk and meat.
Hashem also caused the fields to produce in great abundance the finest of wheat and as the Scripture puts it “sparkling wine” for His people.
Incidentally and interestingly the phrase “sparkling wine” (some translations say “foaming wine”) refers to the blood of the grape.
Remember in Scripture “grape-blood” or the “blood of the grape” is simply a Hebrew idiom for wine.
And don’t be thinking that wine is being compared to blood or that it symbolizes blood here.
That is mistaken gentile thinking (and I say this as a ger myself).
Remember, in Scripture wine represents joy and celebration.
Blood is for purification and atonement.
The words “sparkling” or “foaming” just reinforces the idea that what’s being talked about here is wine as an alcoholic drink and NOT pure grape juice.
It also refers to the process of grapes transforming into wine because when grapes ferment, the liquid foams and bubbles up.
Leave a Reply