MY ROCK (DEUT.31-32)
JOSHUA IS APPOINTED
Then Moses again spoke to the whole nation of Yisharal: “Guys I’m a hundred twenty years old, unable to go out and come in (BATTLE LINGO), and I can’t be your leader anymore. Yahuah your Alahim has told me that He won’t let me cross over the Jordan River, but He’s promised that He and Joshua will help you cross over and lead you to attack the nations that live on the other side.
Yahuah will destroy those nations just as He destroyed Sihon and Og, those two Amorite kings. But don’t forget, whenever you capture a place, make sure you kill everyone who lives there. So always be brave and strong and don’t be afraid of the nations on the other side of the Jordan because Yahuah your Alahim will always be at your side, and He will never abandon you”.
MOSES WAS NOT SAYING THAT HE WAS TOO OLD TO LEAD YISHARAL IN BATTLE (`TO GO OUT AND COME IN' IS MILIARY TALK), BUT RATHER HE WAS SAYING THAT BECAUSE YAHUSHA HAD DECIDED THAT HE WOULDN’T CROSS OVER THE JORDAN RIVER INTO THE PROMISED LAND THAT HIS TIME WAS UP, AND A NEW LEADER WOULD GENERAL THE COMING SET-APART WAR UPON CANAAN.
Then Moses called Joshua up in front of the crowd and said: “Joshua, be brave and strong as you lead these people into their land. For Yahuah made a promise long ago to Yisharal’s ancestors that this land would someday belong to Yisharal. Well that time has now come, and you must divide up the land among the people, because Yahuah will lead you into the land. He’ll always be with you and help you, so don’t ever be afraid of your enemies”. So Moses wrote down all of these Instructions and gave them to the priests (sons of Levi) and the leaders of Yisharal, and they carried Yahusha’s Ark of the Blood-Covenant Witness.
THE INSTRUCTIONS HERE ARE NOT REFERRING TO ALL THE BOOKS OF MOSES BUT JUST THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. THE EARLIER BOOKS OF GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS WERE HANDED DOWN BY WORD OF MOUTH. YES IT WAS THE FINGER OF YAHUSHA WHO CARVED THE 10 WORDS (COMMANDMENTS) ON STONE BUT THE TRUTH IS THAT THE BULK OF ALL THE DIVINE LAWS, COMMANDS AND INSTRUCTIONS WERE MEMORISED AND TRANSMITTED ORALLY.
THAT’S RIGHT. THE FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES WERE ORIGINALLY AN “ORAL INSTRUCTION” THAT WAS ONLY LATER WRITTEN ONTO SCROLLS. IN FACT, THE ORAL TRANSMISSION OF YAHUSHA’S INSTRUCTIONS WAS NOT ONLY THE NORM FOR THIS ERA, IT ACTUALLY HAD SOME ADVANTAGES, BECAUSE IT MEANT THAT IT WAS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TRIBAL ELDERS TO MAINTAIN THE INTEGRITY OF THE TRADITIONS THEY WOULD PASS ON TO THE NEXT GENERATION WHO WOULD IN TURN PASS THEM ON TO THE FOLLOWING GENERATION AND SO ON AND SO FORTH. THE POINT IS IF THE NEXT GENERATION TRIED TO CHANGE SOMETHING, THE ELDERS WERE ABLE TO STEP UP AND REFUTE IT. DAMN... HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED !!
Moses then told these priests and leaders: “Each year the Yisharalites must come together to celebrate the Festival of Booths at the place where Yahuah chooses to rest His Name. You must read these Divine Laws and Instructions to the people at the festival every seventh year (the year of release when loans don’t need to be repaid). And everyone must come; men, women, children, and even the foreigners who live in your towns. And each new generation will listen and learn to follow Yahuah their Alahim with fear and trembling and to do exactly what is said in His Divine Law.
Yahusha then told Moses, “You will soon die, so bring Joshua to the Tabernacle, and I will appoint him the leader of Yisharal.” So Moses and Joshua went to the Tabernacle and Yahusha appeared in a thick cloud right over the entrance to the tent, saying: “Moses, you will soon die, but Yisharal is going into a land where other wicked deities are worshiped, and Yisharal will reject Me and start bowing down to these idols. They will break the Blood-Covenant of Deliverance I made with them, and I will be so furious that I’ll abandon them, ignore them and hide My face from them. I will send disasters and suffering that will nearly wipe them out. Finally, they will realise that the disasters happened because I abandoned them. They will cry out to me, but I will ignore them because they were evil and started following other deities.
Moses and Joshua, I’m going to give you the words to a new song, so write them down and teach the song to the Yisharalites. If they learn it, they will know what I want them to do, and so they will have no excuse for not obeying Me. For I am bringing them into the land that I promised their ancestors, a land rich with milk and honey, and the Yisharalites will have more than enough food to eat. But they will get fat and turn their backs on me and start bowing down to those stupid idols. Yes the Yisharalites will reject me and break the Blood-Covenant that I made with them. So when I punish the Yisharalites and their descendants with suffering and disasters, I will remind them that this song is a witness of Me, and they’ll have no excuse for not obeying Me. I will give them the land that I promised, but I know only too well, the way they are going to live later on”.
Moses wrote down the words to the song right away, and he taught it to the Yisharalites. And Yahusha told Joshua, “Be brave and strong! For I will help you lead the people of Yisharal into the land that I’ve promised them.”
Moses wrote down all these Divine Laws and Instructions in a book, then he went to the Levites who carried the Ark of the Blood-Covenant Witness and said, “This is the Book of Yahuah’s Divine Laws. Keep it beside the Ark that holds the Blood-Covenant that Yahuah your Alahim made with Yisharal. And this book is proof that you know how Yahuah wants you to behave. I know how stubborn and rebellious you and the rest of the Yisharalites are, for you’ve rebelled against Yahuah before I came along, while I’ve been alive there with you, and it will only get worse after I’m gone. So call together the leaders and officials of the tribes of Yisharal. And I will bring this book and read every word of it to you, and I will call earth and the sky as witnesses that all of you know what you are supposed to do.
For I'm going to die soon, and I know that in the future you will stop caring about what is right and wrong, and so you will disobey Yahuah and stop behaving the way I told you too. Then Yahuah will be angry, and terrible things will happen to you.
THE SONG OF MOSES
Moses called a meeting of all the people of Yisharal, so He could teach them the words to the song that Yahusha had given him. Here are the words:
Earth and Sky, listen to what I say! Yisharal, I will teach you and My words will be like gentle rain on tender young plants, or like dew on the grass. Join with me in lifting up the wonderful name of Yahuah our Alahim. For Yahuah is a MIGHTY ROCK and He never does any wrong and can always be trusted to bring justice. But you lie and cheat and are twisted and crooked towards Him. You’ve disgraced yourselves and are no longer worthy to be His children. Yisharal, Yahuah is your Father, the one who created you, but you repaid Him by being foolish. Think about the past generations. Ask your parents or any of your elders and they’ll tell you that Yahuah the Most High gave land to every nation, setting their boundaries according to the number of the children of Yisharal. (70 NATIONS BASED ON JACOB'S 70 PEOPLE WHO WENT DOWN INTO EGYPT IN GENESIS? OR 70 NATIONS ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF DIVINE BEINGS ASSIGNED TO OVERSEE THEM?) What the ??
IF THE MASORETIC TEXT IS USED, THE END OF THE VERSE IS RENDERED “ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF YISHARAL”. HOWEVER, IF THE SEPTUAGINT OR THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS ARE USED, THE END OF VERSE IS RENDERED AS “ACCORDING TO THE SONS OF ALAHIM”.
DID YAHUSHA ASSIGN CERTAIN DIVINE BEINGS (SOME OF WHICH ARE NOW DISOBEDIENT) TO WATCH OVER THE EARTH BACK AT BABEL WHEN HE SCATTERED THE LANGUAGES AND FORMED ALL THE DIFFERENT NATIONS? AN INTERESTING THOUGHT EH. IS THIS DISOBEDIENCE FROM THE SPIRIT WORLD WHY THE EARTH IS IN SUCH A DEPRAVED STATE?
OR SHOULD WE JUST USE THE `JACOB'S KIDS' VERSION OF THE TEXT? I'D PREFER TOO BUT THAT'S JUST ME . . . YOU DECIDE :-)
For Yahuah Himself takes care of Yisharal for He discovered you in a barren desert filled with howling winds and became your fortress, protecting and watching over you like the pupil of His own eye. WHEN YOU WERE A KID DID YOU USED TO PLAY THAT GAME WHERE YOU'D PUT YOUR FACE SO CLOSE TO YOUR FRIEND'S AND LOOK INTO THEIR EYE, SO THAT YOU COULD SEE YOUR OWN REFLECTION IN THE PUPIL OF THEIR EYEBALL? THIS TEXT IS TELLING US IS THAT YAHUSHA'S WATCHFUL EYE IS SO CLOSE TO YISHARAL THAT HE CAN LITERALLY SEE HER BEING REFLECTED BACK TO HIM IN HIS OWN PUPIL AND HE WILL PROTECT AND FIGHT FOR HER AS HIS BRIDE. THIS IS A STATEMENT OF JUST HOW INTIMATE YAHUSHA'S RELATIONSHIP WITH YISHARAL IS. THE COMMON AND MISTAKEN INTERPRETATION IS THAT YISHARAL IS SO PRECIOUS TO HIM AND `THE APPLE OF HIS EYE' THAT IF YOU EVEN TOUCH HIS CHOSEN NATION, YOU ARE POKING HIM IN THE EYE. BUT THAT ISN'T THE HEBRAIC THOUGHT. WOW!!
Yahuah was like an eagle teaching its young to fly, always ready to swoop down and catch them on its back. Yisharal, Yahuah led you, and without the aid of a foreign deity. THERE IS DEFINATELY NO GROWTH IN COMFORT, IMAGINE BEING DROPPED FROM A HUGE MOUNTAIN TO ALLOW YOU TO DEVELOP YOUR WING STRENGTH ENOUGH TO FLY! He helped you capture the land. Your fields were rich with grain. Olive trees grew in your stony soil, and honey was found among the rocks. Your flocks and herds produced milk and yogurt, and you got choice meat from your sheep and goats that grazed in Bashan. Your wheat was the finest, and you drank the best wine.
Yisharal, you grew fat and rebelled against Yahuah your Creator; you rejected the MIGHTY ROCK, your only deliverance (FUTURE PROPHESY OF YISHARAL REJECTING YAHUSHA - `YAHUAH MY DELIVERANCE' HIMSELF). You made Yahuah jealous and angry by bowing down to the abominations, those foreign deities and idols. You offered sacrifices to demons, those useless deities that never helped you, and even offered sacrifices to new idols that your ancestors had never even followed before. You turned away from Alahim, your Creator; you forgot the MIGHTY ROCK, the source of your life. You were Yahuah’s children but you made Him angry.
Then He rejected you and said, “Let Me hide My face from them, and see what happens to them, for they’re a perverse generation who have no trust or belief in Me. You bowed down to worthless idols and made Me jealous and angry! Now I’ll send a cruel and worthless nation to make you jealous and angry.
My people, I will breathe out fire that sends you down to the world of the dead. It will scorch your farmlands and burn deep down under the mountains. I’ll send disaster after disaster to strike you like arrows. You’ll be struck by starvation and deadly diseases, by the fangs of wild animals and poisonous snakes. Young and old alike will be killed in the streets and terrified at home. I wanted to scatter you, so no one would remember that you had ever lived. But I dreaded the sound of your enemies saying, ‘We defeated Yisharal with no help from Yahuah.’
People of Yisharal, that’s what Yahuah has said to you. But you don’t have good sense, and you never listen to advice. If you did, you could see where you are headed. How could one enemy soldier chase a thousand of Yisharal’s troops? Or how could two of theirs pursue ten thousand of ours? It can only happen if Yahuah stops protecting Yisharal and lets the enemy win. Even our enemies know that only our Alahim is a MIGHTY ROCK. Our enemies are grapevines rooted in the fields of Sodom and Gomorrah. The grapes they produce are full of bitter poison; their wine is more deadly than cobra venom. But Yahuah has written a list of their crimes and locked it in his vault. Soon our enemies will get what they deserve, suddenly they will slip, and total disaster will quickly follow.
When only a few of Yahuah’s people remain, when their strength is gone, and some of them are slaves, Yahuah will feel sorry for them and give them justice. But first Yahuah will say, “Hang on a second? You ran for safety to other deities. What? Couldn’t they help you? But you offered them wine and your best sacrifices. Can’t those idols help you now or give you protection? Don’t you understand? I'M THE ONLY ALAHIM!! THERE ARE NO OTHERS. I AM THE ONE WHO TAKES LIFE AND GIVES IT AGAIN. I PUNISHED YOU WITH SUFFERING AND I CAN HEAL YOU, AND NOTHING CAN STOP ME! And I make this solemn promise: Just as I live forever, I will take revenge on my hateful enemies. I will sharpen My sword and let it flash like lightning. My arrows will get drunk on enemy blood; My sword will taste the flesh and the blood of the enemy. It will kill prisoners, and cut off the heads of their leaders.”
Tell the sky to celebrate and all deities to bow down to Yahuah, because He will take revenge on those hateful enemies who killed his people. He will forgive the crimes of Yisharal and purify their land.
Moses spoke the words of the song so that all the Yisharalites could hear, and Joshua helped him. And when Moses had finished, he said, “Always remember this song that I’ve taught you today. And let it be a warning that you must teach your children to obey everything written in the Book of Yahuah’s Divine Laws. For they aren’t useless, empty words, but can give you a long life in the land that you are going to take.”
TWO SONGS ?
WHAT IS IT THAT REVELATION 15 SAYS IS BEING SUNG BY YAHUSHA’S ARMY AS THEY DEFEAT THE BEAST, ITS IMAGE, AND THOSE WHO TOOK ON THE NUMBER OF ITS NAME? TWO SONGS: THE SONG OF MOSES (DEUTERONOMY 32, WHAT WE JUST READ) AND THE SONG OF THE LAMB. THE IDEA OF COURSE IS THAT YAHUSHA’S WARRIORS ARE SINGING THE SONG OF MOSES AS A VICTORY SONG, AND AS A REMEMBRANCE OF YAHUSHA’S AGE-OLD PROMISES OF REDEMPTION AND JUDGMENT THAT WERE MADE LONG BEFORE MOSES PASSED AWAY.
SO NOW WE SEE THAT THE SONG OF MOSES IS NOT PASSÉ OR DONE AWAY WITH ONCE MESSIAH CAME, OR IN OUR DAY, OR EVEN AT YAHUSHA’S RETURN, NOR IS IT ONLY FOR YISHARAL, BUT APPLIES TO THE WHOLE WORLD AND AT THIS EVENT IN REVELATION 15 THE SONG OF MOSES APPLIES TO THE UNREPENTANT WORLD THAT HAS DECIDED TO BE DISOBEDIENT AND AGAINST YAHUSHA AND INSTEAD HAS THROWN IN WITH THE SATANICALLY CONTROLLED ANTI-MESSIAH (THE BEAST).
MIGHTY ROCK
We saw the expression MIGHTY ROCK used several times in the Song that Yahusha gave Moses. Referring to Yahusha as our ROCK indeed identifies Him as the uniquely chosen Son Who dwelt among us, and obviously this was an issue that didn’t sit well with the ruling Sadducees and Pharisees during His time in Jerusalem.
ROCK: HEBREW 6697 TSUR - a cliff, a rock or boulder, a refuge; cliff-edge, mighty rock, sharp, stone, strength, strong.
"Yahuah is my ROCK, my fortress and my deliverer. Yes! My Alahim is my ROCK and I trust only in Him, for He's my shield, the horn of my deliverance, my high tower, my refuge, and my saviour, sparing me from violence". 2 SAM 22:2-3 BRS
"Yahuah lives and blessed is my ROCK, the Alahim of my Deliverance". 2 SAM 22:47 BRS
Listen to me! If you're trying to walk obediently and seek Yahuah, then look to the ROCK Who created you, and never forget where you came from (the rock you were hewn from and the pit you were dug from)". ISAIAH 51 BRS
"All our parents travelled under the same cloud, drinking the same spiritual drink from the ROCK that followed them: and that ROCK was Yahusha". 1COR 14 BRS
"He's like a man who built a house, digging deep and laying its foundations on the ROCK, so that when the floods came and the waters beat violently against the house, it would not shake or crumble, because it was founded upon the ROCK". LUKE 6 BRS
A TSUR (rock) is not some generic stone that we can just pick up off the ground. Hell, it doesn’t even really mean a huge boulder. If we were to really translate TSUR correctly, it would be rendered as a “MOUTAIN” or “CLIFF” because this word is really referring to a solid ridge or mound whose roots are firmly entrenched in the earth below but still tall enough to reach up into the sky above.
A TSUR TOWERS IMPRESSIVELY OVER EVERYTHING IT OVERLOOKS WHETHER IT BE PLAINS, VALLEYS AND RIVERS OR SMALL TOWNS AND BIG CITIES WITH TEEMING POPULATIONS. And actually, referring to Yahusha as our ROCK absolutely fits in well with that other common term used in the Scripture when referring to Yahusha: AL SHADDAI.
Recall that AL SHADDAI does NOT mean “Yahuah Almighty” because it's derived from an Akkadian word that just means MOUNTAIN. That’s right folks. AL SHADDAI quite literally means the “Mighty Alahim of the Mountain”. Remember this was the name that Yahusha used when He appeared to Jacob. So we can see the intimate connection between TSUR and SHADDAI as they both mean a mountain or a towering huge cliff. And this also fits in well with the ancient Middle Eastern mindset at the time that believed that their deities dwelt in high places.
HOW DOES YAHUSHA TRULY FUNCTION AMONGST HIS TREASURED BRIDE?
HOW CLOSE DOES HE WANT TO BE WITH US?
ISN'T THAT WHY WE HAVE DIRECT ACCESS TO HIM THROUGH A PORTAL-DOOR?
ARE YOU GOING IN TO CONNECT ?