the last song of Moses

The Rock, his work is perfect,

for all his ways are justice.

A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,

just and upright is he.

Deuteronomy 32:4

A last song from Moses to the nation of Israel before his last look at the Promised Land and death upon Pisgah is given to Israel in the last book of the Law. It is a song of warning. It extols the perfect worthiness of God to be worshiped, yet spends most of its meter and rhyme warning the nation of the dangers of disobedience and chiding them for past rejections of God despite His continual faithfulness to them. It is a song of warning.

As such, it is a prophetic epic poem. For Israel was entering into one of her most faithful epochs under Joshua as he followed Moses as leader. Israel would enter the Promised Land and receive blessing as they destroyed the various peoples of Canaan at God's direct command. But they would also fail to obey God completely, setting themselves up for a low point in their history under the rule of judges. There a cycle of sin, suffering, supplication, & salvation would mark them as Moses' song echoed over several generations

From there God would lead them under a monarchy, and again a cycle of unfaithfulness would mark the nation until the prophecy of Moses' song would be most vividly realized when the nation rejected God at His temple and was taken from the land into captivity in Babylon. Even after that, Israel would return to the land and continue cycling into unfaithfulness.

Finally, they would rigidly dig into self-gratifying legalism and largely reject God whose "ways are justice" when Jesus came to them "without iniquity, just and upright", only to be crucified by a crowd of screaming Israelites calling for the death of their God. Moses' last song was a vivid warning of what would be, but even in that warning, salvation has come to those who believe.