Parasha Ha’azinu
Title: The History of the Gospel
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 32:1-32:52, Shemuel Bet (2 Samuel) 22, Qorintim Aleph (1 Corinthians) 1
Shabbat Shalom everyone, I am your host Ulices Rodriguez. Welcome to this week’s parasha Ha’azinu, which is titled the history of the gospel. This week we will be briefly discussing the history of mankind according to scripture, and throughout the study of this history, we will see, that the work of the gospel has been in effect since the beginning of creation.
Our Torah portion this week is known as the Song of Yahweh. And Yahweh’s Song begins by calling heaven and earth to be brought forth as witnesses to testify of Yahweh’s glory and greatness.
In Devarim, we read:
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 32:1-3
1 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb.
3 For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh; ascribe greatness to our Elohim!
Now, other than testifying to Yahweh’s greatness, what is the importance behind calling heaven and earth as witnesses? Yahweh calls on heaven and earth to serve as witnesses to what He is about to decree, so that in this way, Yahweh may righteously judge His people, so that He may hold them accountable by the evidence of several witnesses.
For example, as we read in 2nd Corinthians:
Qorintim Bet (2 Corinthians) 13:1
1 This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
Therefore, for Yahweh to righteously judge His people, all charges against His people must be established by two or three or more witnesses.
Another example, let’s look at Psalm 50, which says:
Tehillim (Psalms) 50:4
4 He [Yahweh] calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that He may judge His people:
Another example is in Deuteronomy chapter 4 where Yahweh says:
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 4:26
26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed.
And, all of this is very akin to even what Yeshua said in the Book of Luke.
In the book of Luke, we read:
Luqa (Luke) 19:39-40
39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”
40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
Yeshua is stating, that if his own disciples, if his own people chose to remain silent and not give glory to Him and Elohim, then the very rocks of Yahweh’s creation would cry out and give Him glory. This has very special significance when you compare the verses we have seen thus far to what we read in Paul’s letter to the Romans which says:
Romim (Romans) 1:20
20 For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Now we will revisit what Paul wrote to the Romans later and cover it in more depth, but the general idea here is that when we see phrases like, “I’m calling upon heaven and earth as witnesses” in scripture, we must pay special attention to what follows. Because even if we choose to remain willfully ignorant of the truth that has been proclaimed in whatever way shape or form, nevertheless the truth has been proclaimed, and because heaven and earth stand as witnesses, we will never be able to stand before Elohim with a valid excuse. Ignorance of Yahweh and His laws will never be a valid excuse.
And in this way, no one can claim ignorance of the gospel. When we say proclaim the gospel, in other words, we are saying, proclaim the revelation of Yeshua as the Messiah. And as we will discover in this study, Yahweh has proclaimed the gospel since the beginning of creation.
This is why Yeshua, said:
Yochanan (John) 14:6
6 Yeshua said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Yahweh and the truth of His existence and power is self-evident in His creation around us. And, no matter how we might try to justify our ignorance of His truth and existence and the truth of the existence of His Son, there will be no excuse that will be considered permissible on the day of judgment. The only thing that will save us and justify us on that day, is whether or not we have received Yeshua’s sacrifice as atonement for our sins.
Now, as we dive deeper into chapter 32 of Deuteronomy.
Verses 4 and 5 say:
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 32:4-5
4 “The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. An Elohim of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He.
5 They have dealt corruptly with Him; they are no longer His children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation.
Here we see that Yahweh is described as perfect, He is blameless and just in all that He does, He has no iniquity in Him. And as we learned last week, iniquity means perverseness and crookedness.
Therefore, Yahweh is described as having no perverseness or crookedness in Him. He is completely perfect, righteous, and just in every sense of those words. Therefore, there should never be any reason for us to doubt Him or not trust His ways.
However, we see that Moshe states that Yahweh’s people have dealt corruptly with Him, specifically the Israelites within the context of this verse. However, for the scope of this study, we are going to apply this verse to the overall of mankind, and how mankind has dealt corruptly with Him, by not trusting in Him and all His ways, by not obeying Him.
As we learned last week since we are inherently sinful beings, we are incapable of being good, therefore we naturally rebel against Elohim and choose not to trust Him, and obey Him. And this would be considered dealing with Him corruptly because not trusting Him enough to obey Him would imply that He is not All Good. And that would be a fallacy, for Yeshua said no one is good except Elohim alone.
Marquas (Mark) 10:18
18 And Yeshua said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except Elohim alone.
Not trusting in Yahweh enough to obey Him, is considered a great evil in His eyes. A clear example of this is when the ten spies bring back a bad report of the land. This is when Yahweh calls them a wicked and crooked generation.
Bemidbar (Numbers) 14:3-4
3 Why is Yahweh bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”
4 And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”
He calls them wicked because effectively we are the inherently evil ones and yet in our pride, we are the ones who are attributing evil to Yahweh even though He is incapable of committing evil, or tempting others to commit evil. Therefore by doing so, we are profaning Yahweh’s good and righteous name.
Bemidbar (Numbers) 14:27
27 “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against Me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against Me.
Now related to this topic of crookedness and wickedness, Moshe asks, the Israelites a rhetorical question, and really it’s a rhetorical question for all of us who consider ourselves believers:
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 32:6
6 Do you thus repay Yahweh, you foolish and senseless people? Is not He your father, who created you, who made you and established you?
Now the way this question is asked, implies that the reader or the listener understands the profound significance of the question.
Here is what I mean, when Adam and Havaah sinned they were forcibly driven out of the garden. As a result of their sin and disobedience corrupting the very image of mankind, the majority of mankind continued to willfully walk in natural rebellion against Yahweh, because now after sin and disobedience, it’s a part of our very nature to be sinful and rebellious towards Yahweh. We are innately born this way.
And we see that Scripture supports this idea, that living beings reproduce after their own kind, for all of Yahweh’s creation, plants, animals, and mankind:
B’reisheet (Genesis) 1:24
24 And Elohim said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.
However, even though the majority of mankind would continue to walk in rebellion, there would be a select few in mankind’s ancient history who recognized this and chose to submit to Yahweh’s will for their lives. They were chosen by Yahweh because they were willing to reject this corrupted nature of theirs in favor of walking in obedience to Yahweh’s commands, which is how we were originally created to be. And we learned this last week when we discussed what it means to be made in the image of Elohim.
Now, since the majority of mankind continued to walk in their natural rebellion, as a result of this they were abandoned in their relationship by Yahweh to be watched over by the gods of the nations of the earth. There is a lot more to say about the gods of the nations, whom scripture refers to as the sons of Elohim, and their connection to the Nephilim however we will not be exploring that topic in this parasha.
When we look at the purpose of why Yahweh abandoned the nations, Paul defines it as Yahweh’s way of having the people of the nations feel their way toward Him, and find Him. The hope is that people will see the evidence of Yahweh all around them and that they will be inclined to seek Him.
Ma’asei (Acts) 17:26-27
26 And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,
27 that they should seek Elohim, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us,
And, the profound significance of Moshe’s question is that although mankind was abandoned by Yahweh, Abraham and His descendants were not abandoned by Yahweh, instead, He established His covenant with them, forever.
Tehillim (Psalm) 105:7-11
7 He is Yahweh our Elohim; His judgments are in all the earth.
8 He remembers His covenant forever, the word that He commanded, for a thousand generations,
9 the covenant that He made with Abraham, His sworn promise to Isaac,
10 which He confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
11 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.”
This is why Moshe asks, the Israelites, while the people of the nations were abandoned and left to find Yahweh on their own, did Yahweh not establish you by making you your own nation, set apart from the rest of the world? Did He not establish His covenant with you, forever? Are you not children of the promise?
The history that we all know about Israel and the children of the Promise is what we read about in verses 7 through 9 of Deuteronomy.
In verses 7 and 8, we read:
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 32:7-8
7 Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when He divided mankind, He fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Elohim.
As I mentioned earlier, there is a lot to unpack here with these two verses, but what is clearly stated in Scripture, and what is pertinent to today’s study is that Yahweh divided the majority of mankind to the gods of the nations as their inheritance. This is why gentiles are typically referred to as people from the nations because they are people who belong to other gods of the nations.
Now when we look at the tower of Babel, this is pretty strong evidence to suggest that this is the point in mankind’s history where Yahweh gave up mankind to become Gentiles, to become people of the nations, when Yahweh said:
B’reisheet (Genesis) 11:6-9
6 And Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
8 So Yahweh dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of all the earth. And from there Yahweh dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
When Yahweh did this, He effectively gave up mankind to their selfish desires and pursuits. This is something that the apostle Paul references as a historical account of mankind. In his letter to the Romans, Paul says:
Romim (Romans) 1:18-24
18 For the wrath of Elohim is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
19 For what can be known about Elohim is plain to them, because Elohim has shown it to them.
20 For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
21 For although they knew Elohim, they did not honor Him as Elohim or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal Elohim for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore Elohim gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
And when we look at the history of mankind across several cultures around the world, this is exactly what we see in mankind’s ancient history. The majority of mankind was polytheistic and worshipped many idols and images. In fact across several civilizations, one could say that they worshipped the same pantheon of gods they just called them different names based on the language of their nation.
Now when we look at verse 9 of Deuteronomy, we read:
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 32:9
9 But Yahweh’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted heritage.
And this verse is tellings of the gospel. This verse tells us that while mankind was being divided, and walking in rebellion. Yahweh was simultaneously searching the hearts and minds of mankind to find one person who would demonstrate the level of faith that would be required for Yahweh to establish His covenant with them. Which would be a precursor to the Messiah descending from their lineage. Which is a proclamation of the gospel.
And Yahweh found that level of faith in Abraham, and Yahweh established His covenant with Abraham. Because of all the different people groups on the earth, of all the individuals on the earth, Abraham was the only one who answered the call, Abraham was the only one who walked in faith enough for Yahweh to be pleased and establish His covenant with him. Abraham did not withhold his one and only son from Yahweh, therefore Yahweh established His covenant with him, and through him would bless the nations.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 22:15-18
15 And the messenger of Yahweh called to Abraham a second time from heaven
16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares Yahweh, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,
17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,
18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
And this is why, the faith looks Jewish today, this is why scripture says that gentiles are grafted into the family of Elohim, who are the descendants of Abraham. Consider it adoption by Elohim. We are adopted as Israelites, not gentile church members. The church has not replaced Israel, rather Israel is comprised of people who are both genetically related to Abraham and those who are adopted into Abraham’s family by Yahweh. When we become believers in Yahweh and Yeshua, we are supposed to absorb the Jewish customs and traditions, the correct customs and traditions.
This is what the gospel is. Yahweh has always desired for mankind to seek Him and find Him. This is why Scripture says, when we are in Messiah Yeshua, there is no distinction, because for Yahweh it’s not really about genetics, it’s about who’s heart is dedicated to Yahweh above all else.
Galatim (Galatians) 3:28
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua.
Shabbat Shalom.