Moses Counsels the Israelites to Be Mindful of the Rock of Their Salvation (Jesus Christ)
Deuteronomy 32:1–4, 15–18, 30–40, 45–47
1 Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:3 Because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. . . .15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.16 They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.17 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.18 Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. . . .30 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?31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.34 Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?35 To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.36 For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.37 And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,38 Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.39 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.40 For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. . . .45 And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel:46 And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.47 For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote:
“‘I am Messiah, the King of Zion, the Rock of Heaven, which is broad as eternity’ (Moses 7:53). So spake the Lord to Enoch. ‘I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he’ (Deuteronomy 32:3–4.) So proclaimed Moses the great lawgiver. . . . [A]ll of this is to teach that the great Redeemer, who is Christ the Lord, is the secure foundation, a foundation ‘broad as eternity,’ upon which all men must build if they are to inherit, receive, and possess the full blessings of the infinite and eternal atonement.
“Christ is the foundation upon which the house of salvation is built, and ‘other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 3:11.) He is the Rock; by Him salvation comes; without Him there would be neither immortality nor eternal life; and all those who build upon Him, when the rains descend and the floods come and the winds blow, their houses shall stand, for they are founded upon the Rock. . . .
“Knowing all these things—and they have also been known by the faithful people in all ages—it comes as no surprise to find prophets in all ages speaking of the Lord as their Rock. Knowing all these things, we can also discern the inspired Messianic meanings of the many passages which extol the Rock.”
(The Promised Messiah: The First Coming of Christ [1978], 169, 170.)
