“but Adonai’s share was his own people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
“He found his people in desert country,
in a howling, wasted wilderness.”
-Deuteronomy 32:9-10
Alrighty, now that we’re aware that God has assigned other divine but subordinate beings to rule over the gentile nations of the earth, I think we can all the more appreciate the special privilege He has bestowed upon His chosen people Israel by keeping them for Himself.
Understand this decision distinguishes Israel from all the other nations forever and for all time.
And since this decision of God is made so clear in the Scriptures (including the New Testament which is NOT Scripture by the way), I’ll never understand how Christian theologians and church leaders can come to the ridiculous conclusion that the Lord reversed His decision concerning the chosen status of Israel and replaced them with some gentile church.
We can also now understand clearly what the phrase “Israel was the Lord’s share” means.
Israel is God’s share or portion of the nations…
…with the rest of the portion being given over to the authority of the BENEI ELOHOM or sons of God.
Interestingly, in verse 9, Moses refers to Israel as “Jacob”.
Recall that the Patriarch Jacob after wrestling with an angel of the Lord had his name changed to “Israel”.
Afterwards, “Israel” was the name given to the nation formed from Jacob’s sons.
And throughout all the Scriptures we’ll see the names of Jacob and Israel being used interchangeably.
Onward.
Verse 10 reminds Israel that he “found” them in the wilderness or to be more accurate He found them in desert territory.
It was in the barren landscape of the Sinai and Arabian Peninsulas that the Hebrews wandered and that was where the Lord established a covenant with them.
It was this covenant that created the identity of the Israelites.
Once the covenant was ratified, they became His people, and He became their God.
Also, the verb “found” doesn’t quite do justice to the original Hebrew and context of what the Lord did for Israel in the desert.
The verb being used in verse 10 more means “to provide” or “to keep”.
What’s being expressed is that the Lord carefully watched over the children of Israel and provided for all their needs in the desert wilderness.
He protected them and made sure they were safe and secure.
All of these ideas are consistent with the idea consistently demonstrated in the Scriptures that the Lord is Israel’s Father in Heaven.
And we’re going to see this picture of a loving father caring for his children fleshed out even more in the next several verses of this chapter.
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