Deuteronomy 32:1-34:12, Ha’azinu, Give Ear
This week’s Torah portion starts off with Moses calling out to the heavens and the earth to “give ear” and to “hear the words” of his mouth.
What an interesting concept. There are two directions I want to go with this. The first is in the direct context of Moses calling out to the heavens and the earth to take ear to what he is saying. There is something very deep about understanding that the heavens and the earth were the very first things that God created and that, in the end, they will be the very last things to be destroyed. In fact, according to Revelation 21:1, the new heaven and the new earth will be created as the first heaven and the first earth pass away. It is very interesting to note that the last verses of Revelation chapter 20 present the final judgement. In other words, the heaven and earth will remain up until the final culling of all humanity has occurred and then, and only then, will their use in God’s redemptive plan be complete so that they can be destroyed to make way for the new.
How many times have we read in scripture a term consistent with the “heaven and earth standing witness” to what Moses is putting before the children of God? How many times have we read about the heavens and earth as if they are alive and are capable of seeing, hearing, and speaking? How many times have we discounted these scriptures and not really consider what is being said?
Ultimately, according to the scriptures, the heaven and the earth have a personality, they do observe, the do see, they do hear, and they do stand witness. They cry out and they sing. They are capable of spitting a people out form their presence, and they are capable of becoming defiled.
As I ponder the significance of this I could go in a lot of directions. Instead I want to stick with the concept of the enduring aspect of what Moses is saying. When we call heaven and earth as witnesses or when we make a vow toward heaven and earth, we are making the statement that what we are saying will surely pass. I reckon this to something like what Jesus is quoted as saying in Luke 21:33 where He says “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the law to fail”.
In other words, what I hear Moses telling the people is that what he is about to say, will surely come to be. I hear him basically saying, “I have told heaven and earth that these things will come to be, this is how sure I am that this is what will happen. Because I have said it to the ultimate witnesses I must be confident that it is true.”
If I am right in this, how is it that Moses can be so sure that what he is recording in the song is a true prophetic image and that there is nothing that anyone can do to change it? The answer to that question is really very simple. Because God said so. Picking up in Deuteronomy 31:16 we read about God telling Moses that the people would not stay true to the covenant. In verse 31:19 we read God telling Moses “Now therefore, write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the sons of Israel; put it on their lips, so that this song may be a witness for Me against the sons of Israel.” Skipping forward to verse 31:21 we hear God saying “Then it shall come about, when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify before them as a witness (for it shall not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants).
What I am hearing God telling Moses is this; “Moses, I know that you have walked with these people. I know that I have commanded you to walk with them, to teach them Torah, to share my Words with them, and to tell them about life and death. I know that I have commissioned you to do all these things and I know that I am now calling you up to this mountain to die. I know that this is hard. I know that you know that just like these people have not been able to honor me in the desert, they will not honor me in the land. I know that you know these things and I am setting you free from the pain of having to see it. But what I want you to understand is that it’s all OK. I am going to give you a song that I want you to teach them. Once you teach them this song, I will make sure that they are incapable of forgetting it. This song will live deep in their souls. At some point in the future, a long time from now, I will quicken this song into the remembrance of their children’s children. I will do this at the right time. You can trust me on that. And, when I do, it will stick. They will see the error of their ways, they will fall to their knees in humility, and they will finally be broken. When this takes place, they will be ready to be my people and I will finally be able to honor all that I have promised them. This will not take place for a long time and after many troubles have come upon them. But, it’s OK. This is what it must be. Trust me. This is my plan, and it will work”.
Another scripture that comes to mind when meditating on these verses is Isiah 66:7-9 “"Before she travailed, she brought forth; Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. "Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons. "Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?" says the LORD. "Or shall I who gives delivery shut [the womb?]" says your God.
Isn’t God speaking the same basic concept through the prophet Isaiah? The reality is, God has spent the last several thousand years creating a people. This people He refers to as a “nation”. A nation is not a physical presence but the people who establish the ideals, the beliefs, the way of life, and the atmosphere. The nation God is refereeing to is a very special nation and is one that stands apart from all the ways of the world and lives by heavenly principles. A nation of this nature simply can not be created in a day, it can not be created without pain, and it can not be created without great struggle. The way I read scripture; this will not occur through a physical re-establishment of the land but through the spiritual re-gathering that will occur when He comes to establish His 1,000-year kingdom here on earth. Because of this I will not be troubled if and when Israel falls again. I simply trust prophecy.
The assurance comes in the end of these verses and is the same assurance that each of us must stand on each day. As we look into a future that has great uncertainty there is one thing that we can trust. “God will not bring to the point of birth and not give delivery.”
For me this is the point and the assurance of Deuteronomy 31:16-21, the song of Moses, and Deuteronomy 30:1 where God tells Moses that “So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you and you call [them] to mind in all nations where the LORD your God has banished you,”.
One of the most beautiful things about prophecy is the hope that it can provide. As we read Deuteronomy 27-30, and the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32, we can rest assured that some day God’s people will be the people He has called us to be. We can rest in the confidence of knowing that all of our pride, foolishness, and adultery have not surprised Him. We can see that His redemptive plan has always taken all these things into consideration. We can let people be who they are, teachers teach what they teach, and religious institutions be what those institutions are. We can trust that when the time comes for Him to quicken this song into the minds of His people so that we can fulfill Deuteronomy 30 when we “call these things to mind” in the nations where He has banished us, that the timing will be perfect. We can trust that He knows when this quickening needs to take place, and we can have faith that He is not delaying longer than He needs to.
I believe this is the confidence that the New Testament authors had in these prophecies and why they were able to walk in the peace in which they walked. In 1 Peter 2:10, Peter refers to the Song of Moses when He speaks of a people who are not a people”. This is the same reference as Paul uses in Romans 10:19-11:12. The spiritual gathering of this “nation” is what is put forth in Deuteronomy 30:4 and is re-confirmed by Jesus as recorded in Matthew 24:29, Luke 21:27, and Mark 13:27. This is the same event Paul discusses in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, and John in Revelation 19-20.
All of these prophetic scriptures give us the confidence to trust that God is in control. As we look at Deuteronomy 27-30 and the Song of Moses, we can trace the journey of the Jewish people through time. What has already taken place gives credibility to what is proposed for the future.
As we read the New Testament, we are given what we need to know to see exactly where we are in this process and to know that this dispensation will end with all the promises finally coming into fruition. These prophetic utterances give us the assurance that someday we will be the nation that He has called us to be, we will be the people He has intended us to be, and we will be the blessing that He chose us to be. I can rest assured of these things regardless as to what I see taking place in the physical, if Israel remains in peace, or if it is overtaken in war. None of these things change my view, they don’t rock my faith, and they don’t hinder me in my trust of what He said will be.
For me there is something comforting in this and for that I think Him for providing these prophetic utterances, giving them to the prophets, and having them recorded in His Word. Sometimes it is hard knowing what the future will hold. But knowing what comes after the tough times surely sweetens the mix.
I pray that this has been a blessing
to you. Amen Amen.
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