"Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more," (Jer 31:31-34).
Since Paul quotes this prophecy in Hebrews 8, we see the Holy Spirit's application of His own words that the first covenant is growing old, becoming obsolete, and is ready to vanish away; hence, there can be no question regarding the imminent fulfillment of this prophecy when Paul penned these words.
After the 40-year wilderness wandering, Joshua was being prepared to lead the children of Israel across the Jordan river into the promised land. Here, we find Jehovah giving Israel the Law of Blessings and Cursings in addition to the Sinaic covenant given in Horeb, (Deu 29:1).
"Deu 28:1And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: 2And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God…13And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them: 14And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. 15But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee…20The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me…25The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. 26And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away…43The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low. 44He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail…49The LORD shall 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."
I find it remarkable that Jesus, in predicting the consummation of the Jewish age, brings the context of these predictions into the minds of the apostles in the Olivet Discourse when He said, "For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together," (Mat 24:28).
Jehovah commanded that this covenant of Blessings and Cursings be read to Israel every seventh year (the year of release, cf. Deu 15:1-2) at the Feast of Tabernacles (Deu 31:10-11); then, He directed Moses to write a song as a witness against Israel (Deu 31:19-21) and teach it to them. Moses instructed that this book be put inside the Ark of the Covenant and remain there as a witness against Israel for what would befall them in their last days (Deu 31:26-28); then, Moses taught this song unto all Israel, as is recorded in Deuteronomy 32.
Unfortunately, it's not possible here to point out all of the citations in the New Testament which are drawn from the Song of Moses; however, the scope of this article is to focus on a few specific connections, and the significance of those connections. In referring to the evil nature of Israel, Moses said, "Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps," (Deu 32:33).
When John Baptist saw "the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his immersion, he said to them, O generation of vipers, who has indicated to you to flee from the wrath about to come," (Mat 3:7, see the present tense verb mello explained here and here). Jesus also identified the obstinate scribes and Pharisees as the "generation of vipers" (Mat 12:34; 23:33), as did Paul when he said, "Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips," (Rom 3:13).
In the Song of Moses, Jehovah said, "I will hide My face from them; I will see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, sons in whom is no faithfulness," (v.20). Peter preached the gospel on Pentecost day, and with many "words he earnestly testified and exhorted, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation" (Acts 2:40); Paul exhorted Christians to "be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation," (Php 2:15).
Jehovah said Israel had moved Him "to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation," (v.21); and, He reiterates His remorse, wishing that "they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end," (v.29).
Paul applies this context of the Song of Moses to his kinsmen after the flesh (Rom 9:3-5) when he says, "Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you" (Rom 10:19). Since John Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles routinely quoted from, and applied the Song of Moses to that first century generation, then there can be no debate against Holy Spirit's interpretation and application of this Song's predictions as applying to Old Covenant Israel, and coming to fruition in Israel's last days during the first century.
It is with this contextual backdrop that we now proceed to the thrust of this article. I urge the reader to read, carefully, Deuteronomy 28-32, and then to consider the beginning of this Song of Moses, where it says of Old Covenant Israel, "5They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. 6 Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?"
Just as Peter calls upon the context of Moses' Song in his Pentecost sermon, likewise, he draws heavily upon its context in his epistles, particularly in the second and third chapters of his second epistle.
"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction," (2Pe 2:1; cf. Deu 28:20).
It's easily seen here that Peter is calling upon the context of the Song of Moses (Deu 32:6) as he implicates the false teachers as the crooked and perverse generation of vipers, and says many would follow them in the destruction (2Pe 2:2), and for whom the judgment of old would no longer be delayed, nor would their destruction continue in slumber (2Pe 2:3). Glancing back to the context of the Song, we find that in Israel's last days, Jehovah says, "Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; Their foot shall slip in due time; For the day of their destruction [LXX] is at hand, And the things to come hasten upon them. For the LORD will judge His people And have compassion on His servants, When He sees that their power is gone, And there is no one remaining, bond or free," (Deu 32:35-36).
The serious Bible student can't help but notice the added connection here to Daniel's predictions of Israel's last days as he inextricably linked the judgment and the resurrection of the just and the unjust to the Great Tribulation (which Jesus posited in His generation, Mat 24:21,34), then said, "and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished," (Dan 12:1-2,7). The common thread in all these predictions is the judgment of Old Covenant Israel in Israel's last days; and, as Peter invokes the context of the Song of Moses as the basis of his prelude to the impending day of the Lord, this contextual criterion becomes unavoidable.
Peter again calls upon this same contextual evidence and says that these false teachers, who are no different than natural brute beasts, "shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you," (2Pe 2:12-13), which he draws from Deuteronomy 32:5. Peter's introduction of the context of Moses' Song in verse one of this chapter, then again in verse 13 creates the common Hebraic literary device known as inclusio.
In biblical studies, inclusio is a literary device based on a concentric principle, also known as bracketing or an envelope structure, which consists of creating a frame by placing similar material at the beginning and end of a section. Having already stated that God was ready to judge the living and the dead, and, the end of all things has drawn near (1Pe 4:5,7), Peter, here, creates an envelope from verses 1—13, which indicates to his readers that the damnation which no longer slumbers, and, his analogous judgments of the fallen angels, the antediluvians, and the Sodomites depict the impending judgment on Old Covenant Israel posited in Israel's last days.
Thus, as we have adduced, Peter is applying the context of Moses' Song to those Jewish false teachers, i.e., Old Covenant Israel, the generation of vipers as identified by John and Jesus. Noting that he states in verse thirteen that they are spots and blemishes, we find that he reiterates this same statement after predicting the dissolution of the then-present heavens and earth; in eager anticipation of the new heavens and earth, he admonishes his readers to "be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless," (2Pe 3:14), and thus, we find Peter using another inclusio, encapsulating his reminder of what the holy prophets predicted (2Pe 3:1-2) regarding the parousia/day of the Lord, all within the contextual judgment against Old Covenant Israel in Israel's last days.
Since Peter prologues his predictions of the day of the Lord in chapter 3 with the analogy of Noah's kosmos being destroyed by water (which left the space/time continuum intact); and, of Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed by fire (which also left the material universe unharmed), all in a bracketed paragraph based on the Song's contextual judgment of Old Covenant Israel in Israel's last days; then the conclusion is unavoidable, i.e., Peter posits not only his analogies of destruction-judgment by both water and fire in this first inclusio, but marries a second inclusio based on the identical contextual foundation of the Song of Moses. This reinforces the inescapable fact that, contextually, there is not the slightest hint of a history-ending conflagration of the material creation thousands of years in Peter's future as we have been misled to believe; especially, when the Bible student will acknowledge that Peter reiterates the same pattern of destruction-judgment by both water and fire in both chapters; and, since his analogies in the first inclusio left the material universe intact, then the same analogies, based on the same context (from the Song of Moses), must have the same application, i.e., the destruction-judgment predicted to come upon Old Covenant Israel, in Israel's last days.
As Peter says "the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up" (2Pe 3:10), glancing back to the Song we find Jehovah saying, "For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains," (Deu 32:22); we also recall that Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees, "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Mat 23:33).
Looking again at Peter's statement in his first inclusio referent to obstinate Israel whose judgment of old would no longer be delayed, nor would their destruction continue in slumber (2Pe 2:3), glancing ahead to his reiterative inclusio we see him saying, "For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men," (2Pe 3:5-7); so this very clearly demonstrates that the content of 2 Peter 3 is a reiteration of the patternistic inclusio Peter established in chapter two which is based on the context of the Song of Moses; and that context was a forecast of judgment-destruction to come against Old Covenant Israel in Israel's last days for breaking their covenant with Jehovah (cf. Deu 29:1; 31:16-19).
Again, we find Peter saying "But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men," (2Pe 3:7). Now that we know Peter is predicating his forecast upon the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, particularly in this inclusio, taken from the Song of Moses where find Jehovah saying, "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: Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures? 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. For the LORD shall judge his people…" (Deu 32:32-36).
Considering what we have demonstrated from this exegesis, it makes perfect sense why Holy Spirit would state, in the present tense, "Now since all things are in the process of dissolution, what kind of men ought you to be, in all holy living and piety," (v.11 MNT; cf. YLT).
Jesus came to fulfill the law of Moses (Mat 5:17-18). I know of no one in the churches of Christ who denies that Jesus fulfilled the law of Moses; therefore, since the Song of Moses is part of Torah, then its predictions were fulfilled in the first century by Futurist's own admission. Since Jesus said heaven and earth would pass away at the fulfilling of the law of Moses, accordingly then, the exegesis presented above refutes beyond question two of the most coveted doctrines in Main-line Christendom: 1) that the law of Moses was fulfilled at the cross; and, 2) that 2 Peter 3 predicts the dissolution of the material universe in a history-ending cataclysm at the mythological end of time.