Ha'azinu: Listen — האזינו

​Thoughts on Torah for Last Week.
 
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Deuteronomy 31
In this parsha, the Lord sets out a prophecy to Moses that Israel will apostatize and break His covenant.  We introduced the concept of the cycle of apostasy in previous reviews.  In the Book of Judges, we see Israel repeat this cycle of apostasy seven times. Moreover, during the Endtimes, we will see the Gentiles/Mingled Lineages of Israel apostatize and break God’s covenant that America made with Him. We have to ask ourselves –“what will it take for a people to remain loyal to God?”  To say that God gave Israel a law that they cannot keep, would imply that God does not know what He is doing.  In this review, will we see how this plays out during the Endtimes when God sets His hand a second time to recover the literal house of Israel.

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God foretells Israel's Apostasy
The Lord said to Moses in this parsha,  "And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them.  Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’  And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods." 31:16-18.
 
Why does Israel turn to other Gods?   The prophet Isaiah says that it is because man gets caught up in the things of the world – materialism, secular diversions, the appetites of the natural man.  Man no longer worships the true God but worships the Gods of materialism, worldly pursuits and the desires of the natural man.  Furthermore, Isaiah says that this focus on the world makes a person spiritually blind and can't identify the true God.

Paul's Endtime Apostasy Prophecy
Apostasy is not specific to ethnic Israel.  The Apostle Paul’s prophesies at 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 that during the Endtimes the Gentiles/Mingled lineages will apostatize – they will reject the covenant that America made with God, which is based on principles found in the Torah.  Watch this brief video on Paul’s words about this Endtime Gentile apostasy.

How do we know that Paul’s prophecy refers to the Gentiles/Mingled Lineages? 
First, the Gospel goes to the Gentiles/Mingle lineages after the Jews reject Yeshua, so the best candidate for Endtime Gentiles who are in covenant with God is America.  Second, there is direct reference to Yeshua’s return and third there is a direct reference to the anti-Christ.  Probably a better translation of verse 3 is with the NASB,

"Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,"

So we can see similar elements with the Endtime Gentiles as we see with ancient Israel.  The Gentiles reject the Torah (the covenant America made with God based on Torah) and then suffer destruction (at the hands of the anti-Christ).  So that sequence looks like this.


                                                                       Gentiles rejects Torah  (Apostasy)

                                                                                                     V 

                  Gentiles are subjected to the rule of the Anti-Christ who makes his own rules (Lawless)

                                                                                                     V

                            Gentiles suffers God's Judgment by the hand of the Anti-Christ (destruction)


All of these factors lead us to an Endtime context with the Gentiles/Mingle lineages apostatizing.


Isaiah's Prophecy of a Gentile Apostasy
We also see this Endtime apostasy of the Gentiles/Mingled lineages in the prophecy of Isaiah. Quoting Dr. Gileadi he wrote,
 
"God’s People—This Time Around It Is Us!
Applying Isaiah’s prophecy to ourselves for our profit and learning, we immediately face several inconvenient truths. As God holds us accountable for transgressing his law and word, the misfortunes that befall us as a people are a consequence of our collective guilt. As society breaks down, we may attribute our troubles to a failing economy, human error, freaks of nature, the forces of evil, and so forth. But to God we have set in motion an escalating series of covenant curses. Israel’s sliding into apostasy in former generations precipitated those same troubles and loss of privileges or covenant blessings. If we miss that point, we are wallowing in denial.
 
Isaiah declares our chief sins: idolatry and injustice. We worship idols when we pursue the things of this world—whatever steals our hearts away from God. The effect on us is spiritual blindness. We still assume we are right with God even as our religion becomes but a substitute for that deeper relationship with him that he offers us. Such religiosity isn’t enough to save us in his coming Day of Judgment. Injustices assume many forms: inequality, enmity, evil speaking, oppression, predatory practices, persecution, tyranny, and so forth. Through Isaiah, God offers us better way—to acknowledge our sins and keep his law and word so that he may heal us."


God’s Millennial People
The result of this Endtime apostasy by the Gentiles/Mingle lineages is Jehovah setting His had a second and final time to recover the literal house of Israel.  The prophesied Endtime Servant David and those who assist him will gather the literal house of Israel as the story of our Fallen World comes to an end and the earth moves into the Millennial Age with God reclaiming the literal descendants of Abraham and those who are grafted in by striving to live God’s covenant and law. 

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Hebrew Study

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Isaiah Chapter 51
Jehovah empowers his Endtime servant as an arm of righteousness to deliver his people in an exodus to Zion.

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Resource Links for this Week's Portion

TORAH: Deuteronomy 32
GOSPELS: John 6:26-35

Listen and Read the Portion
First Fruits of Zion

Torah Pearls with Nehemia Gordon

HAFTARAH: Isaiah Chapter 52

Commentary with Avraham Gileadi, PhD