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Patriarchs and Prophets
bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift
as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a
nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the
old, nor show favor to the young.”
The utter wasting of the land and the horrible suffering of the
people during the siege of Jerusalem under Titus centuries later, were
vividly portrayed: “He shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of
thy land, until thou be destroyed.... And he shall besiege thee in all
thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou
trustedst, throughout all thy land.... Thou shalt eat the fruit of thine
own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord
thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith
thine enemies shall distress thee.” “The tender and delicate woman
among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon
the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward
the husband of her bosom, ... and toward her children which she shall
bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege
and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.”
Moses closed with these impressive words: “I call heaven and
earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and
death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and
thy seed may live: that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that
thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him :
for He is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in
the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac,
and to Jacob, to give them.”
Deuteronomy 30:19, 20
.
The more deeply to impress these truths upon all minds, the great
leader embodied them in sacred verse. This song was not only histori-
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cal, but prophetic. While it recounted the wonderful dealings of God
with His people in the past, it also foreshadowed the great events of
the future, the final victory of the faithful when Christ shall come the
second time in power and glory. The people were directed to commit
to memory this poetic history, and to teach it to their children and
children’s children. It was to be chanted by the congregation when
they assembled for worship, and to be repeated by the people as they
went about their daily labors. It was the duty of parents to so impress
these words upon the susceptible minds of their children that they
might never be forgotten.