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This week, our parasha is Ha’Azinu, which translates to “Give Ear” and covers Deuteronomy 32. Ha’Azinu is the penultimate parasha and contains the final teaching and warning of Moses for our people. This teaching takes the form of a song, written in double columns in the Torah. The song prophecies our people’s future disobedience and destruction at the hands of other nations, but ends with a promise of future restoration and atonement. So let us examine the Song of Moses and consider the timeless lessons the Lord had recorded for all generations.

We begin with Moses poetically summoning Heaven and Earth to hear his words. The Lord is described as HaTzur, The Rock, throughout this song. But what does it mean that Adonai is our Rock? The Lord is our place of refuge, an unmoving and unchanging fortress for those who are His people.

Our parasha continues to proclaim the greatness of Adonai. He is a God of faithfulness and justice. The song remind us that the Lord chose us from all the nations. We are promised in this song that we will experience every blessing of the Lord and enjoy plentiful crops in Israel. But it then changes to a prophecy of our future rebellion against the Lord.

It is prophecised that after experiencing every good thing from Adonai, we became rebellious and self-satisfied. We did not see any need for the Lord since we were comfortable. Instead we turned to false idols, gods we could control, offering sacrifices and worship. These were new idols of our own creation, false gods like the golden calf created to serve our selfishness.

In response to our rebellion the Lord distanced Himself from our people. He then used other nations to punish our people for our idolatry. The great anger of the Lord afflicted us like a consuming fire. A fire strong enough to burn all the way down to Sheol, burning the entire Earth, and setting fire to mountains. We like to think about the vastness and power of Adonai’s kindness, mercy, and love, but so is His anger and justice.

The song continues with a prophecy of the first exile, where nations and natural disasters destroy our people. Every type of horrible disaster is recorded in this song and then happens. But the Lord also promised to not completely destroy our people. Our enemies would believe they were able to overpower us by their strength. But they did not understand they were only victorious because our Rock, our foundation, had allowed it to happen. Though the Lord used other nations to punish our people, they still did not know Him and were incredibly wicked.

Our enemy’s destruction and our restoration would occur when we finally repented and acknowledged our false gods could not save us. The Lord’s terrible anger burned against us, but the God who is a consuming fire is also a God of love. This duality is beautifully captured in verse 39:

See now that I, even I, am he,

and there is no god beside me;

I kill and I make alive;

I wound and I heal;

and there is none that can deliver out of my hand

This is the one true God; this is the Rock of our salvation. The creator of the heavens and the Earth, who has the power over life and death. His will can never be stopped. The song continues and declares that Adonai will destroy His enemies, everyone who hates Him. All the enemies of God who come against His people will experience His judgment.

The final verse of Ha’Azinu looks farther into the future, beyond the first exile. It looks to an amazing day where the nations will rejoice with the Jewish people when the Lord makes atonement for our sins. Adonai will also take vengeance on those who hate Him and His people. This is a future hope for the Lord’s people:

Rejoice, you nations, with his people,

for he will avenge the blood of his servants;

he will take vengeance on his enemies

and make atonement for his land and people.

Ha’Azinu makes it clear that to experience blessing, and life; we must be in a right relationship with Adonai. If we choose to follow idols and not the Lord, we will experience righteous judgement. All of God’s Word records this truth. And let’s be clear that idols do not have to be made from wood or stone. In our age we can create new idols very easily. We create idols from celebrities, money, things, philosophies, and from ourselves. Whenever we give something else other than God priority in our lives, believing it can help us, we are worshipping an idol of our own creation.

The Lord is not passive or distant. The creator of the universe is no impersonal force, no unintelligible spirit, and certainly does not sit idly by while human beings worship idols of their own creation.

Ha’Azinu ends with the Lord promising to repay those who hate Him but that He will also bring atonement. The anger and justice of the Lord is as overwhelming as His love and mercy.

The Lord has made atonement possible through Messiah Yeshua. For those who desire to know God and become loyal to Him, a way has been made possible through His sinless sacrifice and resurrection. Our Messiah taught that those who reject Him, reject the source of eternal life. They will face an eternal judgment greater than any of the judgments described in this parasha.

There are only two choices, choosing to follow the Lord, or choosing not to. In God’s Word we see the result of each choice. Each of us must make a choice. To trust in the Rock or some pebble. Which have you chosen?

I pray that the Lord would cause us to return to Him, to make each of us aware of His revealed will and to choose Life. May each one of us set aside the idols in our lives and place our trust in the faithful and eternal Rock. May we rejoice together in the atonement and justice of the Lord.