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This week our parasha is Ha’Azinu which translates to “Listen” and covers Deuteronomy 32.  Parasha Ha’Azinu is a very unique and special parasha for several reasons.  We read this parasha today on Shabbat Shuvah, the Sabbath of Return or Repentance between Rosh HaShana and Sukkot.  Ha’Azinu is also the penultimate parasha and contains the final teaching and warning of Moses for our people.   This teaching that Moses was commissioned to write by the Lord takes the form of a song and was written down as part of the Law and kept inside the Ark of the Covenant.  A final point of uniqueness is that this song is recorded in the Torah in two columns, to emphasize the poetic nature of the song and the parallelism it contains. So let us examine the Song of Moses and consider the timeless lessons the Lord had recorded for all generations.

Our context for this song is found in the previous chapter of Deuteronomy.  In Deuteronomy 31 the Lord commissioned the writing of this song to be a witness against our people and a warning when we rebelled against Him and turned to false gods after the death of Moses.  When we asked why disasters of all kinds were happening to us in the land of Israel, this song would serve to answer our questions.  Moses wrote this song in a single day and gathered our people together to hear his words.  He tells us this is our life, which we should diligently teach to our children.  By this word we would prosper in the land of Israel.

The first two verses have Moses poetically summoning Heaven and Earth to hear his song. He asks that his words be like the gentle rains which allow plants to grow. Moses wants his teaching to help us grow just as the rain accomplishes for plants.  Moses then states the greatness of the Lord, who is called several times in this song, HaTzur, The Rock. The idea of the Lord as a rock, is not some pebble or stone, but a large rock such as a mountain.  King David in Psalm 18:2 illuminates the Lord as our Rock: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. “ The Lord is our place of refuge, an unmoving and unchanging foundation for those who are His people.

Moses continues to expound on the nature of our God who is our Rock. His nature and His actions are always just.  He is a God of faithfulness, completely sinless and is just and upright.  In contrast to Adonai, our people’s nature is described as the opposite.

We are indicted as having dealt corruptly with the Lord even though He is our Father who created and established us.  Moses calls on us to remember our past, a major theme of Deuteronomy, and to remember what the Lord has done for us.  In the past the Lord divided all the nations and gave them specific lands as their inheritance.  But the Lord claimed us for Himself and made us His inheritance from among all the peoples of the Earth.  He found us in the wilderness, in a desert land, and cared for and protected our people.  There was no other god that did this but the Lord alone. We were given bountiful blessings, good food and drink that satisfied completely.  We had the finest wheat and delicious wine, a sign of significant blessing.  As we followed the Lord we moved from bondage to freedom, from being destitute to being rich, both physically and spiritually. However, our devotion to the Lord would not last.

The Song of Moses continues with how we became satisfied and rebelled; we abandoned the Lord and mocked the Rock of our salvation, the source of all our blessing and joy.  Moses then references the Golden Calf incident where we created a god that had never existed before and angered the Lord greatly.  We worshipped what was no god at all and brought the great anger of the Lord against us.  The Lord decided that if we wanted to worship something that was no god at all, then he would use those who were no people to bring judgment against us. He used nations that were not His to punish us.  The fire of the Lord’s anger is described as burning all the way down to Sheol, burning the entire Earth, and setting fire to mountains.  Just as the Lord’s kindness, mercy, and love are above and beyond anything we human beings contain, so is the anger and justice of the Lord.

Adonai also caused us to experience natural disasters such as pestilence and plague.  He even set snakes against us and caused us great terror.  But the Lord did not completely destroy our people so that other nations would not think it was by their strength that they were able to defeat us in battle.

Adonai also states that we have no understanding; we did not understand that our enemies 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.  Their rock is not the same as our Rock, and they understand this fact.

Even though the Lord’s terrible anger would burn against us, the God who is a consuming fire is also a God of love.  When we were broken, when we realized that our false gods could not save us, He would relent.  At that time we would truly understand our Rock as the Lord Himself declares 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 Lord declares that He will cut down all those who are His enemies, that He will repay all those who hate Him.  All the enemies of God who come against His people will experience His judgment.  The Song of Moses concludes then on this hopeful note for those who belong to the Lord:

Rejoice with him, O heavens;

bow down to him, all gods,

for he avenges the blood of his children

and takes vengeance on his adversaries.

He repays those who hate him

and atones for his people’s land.

The Song of Moses is as important a teaching today as it was when Moses first spoke it. We live in a society that is marked by a Post-Modern perspective.  It tells us that there are many different truths and it is impossible to judge which is correct.  It is a society that claims to be open-minded and tolerant, but when confronted with the Word of God we see the intolerance that really exists.  I believe Charles Spurgeon summarized it best when he wrote, “Modern philosophers will accept anything except the bleeding Substitute for guilty man.” So even though many supposedly learned individuals would tell us that there are many truths and many equally valid ways to live our lives, the Word of God and this parsha in particular tell us the real truth. There are only two choices, choosing to follow the Lord, or choosing not to.  In God’s Word we see the end result of each choice.

This song makes it clear that to experience fellowship, 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 the judgment that comes with such a choice, the entirety of God’s Word gives evidence to this truth.  The anger and justice of the Lord is as overwhelming as His love and mercy.

This song ends with the statement that the Lord will repay those who hate Him, but will also bring atonement.  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.    The Messiah taught that those who reject Him reject the source of eternal life.  They will face an eternal judgment that pales in comparison to what is described in this parasha.

Each one of us therefore has to make a choice, to consider the Word of God and decide where we will place our loyalties. What choice have you made?

I pray that on this Shabbat of Repentance 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 be inscribed in the Lamb’s book of life and experience the blessings that come from Him alone.