Parshat Haazinu, (Give ear, listen) Torah Portion: Deuteronomy 32:1–52
“He made him draw honey from the rock, And oil from the flinty rock” Deut. 32.13 NKJV
What better text to begin the New Jewish year, Rosh HaShanah, than Moses’ call to drink honey from the rock. A little more than one-hundred years ago, 19-year-old Myer Pearlman, a Jewish immigrant born in Scotland and raised in Birmingham, England made his way to the U.S. After serving in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in WWI, he found himself living in San Francisco. One day he heard singing from inside a building. It was the refrain of a Gospel song written by F. A. Graves.
“O my brother, do you know the Savior, Who is wondrous, kind, and true? He’s the Rock of your salvation! There’s honey in the Rock for you.”
“Oh, there’s honey in the Rock, my brother; There’s honey in the Rock for you. Leave your sins for the Blood to cover; There’s honey in the Rock for you.”
Those words come from Moses’ final ancient song to Israel. I wonder if Myer, who spoke several languages, including Hebrew, recognized Moses’ voice in that Gospel song, inviting him to receive honey from the Rock. Myer felt compelled into the meeting, and soon put his faith in God, receiving Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel. Later we will see how those ancient words played a role in Myer finding his future wife, and his powerful influence on a new Christian movement, the Assemblies of God. For now, listen (haazinu) to the word pictures in Moses’ song revealing God as the Rock of perfection flowing with honey, the Rock of Salvation, the Rock who birthed Israel.
I. The Rock, His Work is Perfect
Moses song begins with one of these soaring words.
“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As raindrops on the tender herb, And as showers on the grass. For I proclaim the name of the Lord: Ascribe greatness to our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect.” Deut. 32. 1-3 NKJV
Moses ascribed greatness to God, calling Him “the Rock”, “ha’tzur” in Hebrew. This describes a massive cliff, sharp, mighty. This is not a stone which men shape to their liking. He is both immovable and majestic. Moses further revealed Him not as (a) rock, but (the) Rock, with the definite article. He is not a rock among many, He is God all by Himself. The nations carved stone idols in their likeness. Moses revealed God as a rock who does not conform to us; we must conform to Him as He is. He is just, all powerful, untouched, incorruptible. Moses calls us to examine our lives in light of the Rock’s perfection, only then can we see our corruption.
“Did it corrupt Him? No! The blemish is His children’s— a generation crooked and twisted.” Deut. 32. 5 TLV
God is not unapproachable like some unattainable peak? On the contrary, Moses revealed Him as our very source of life – the honey in the Rock. Our journey to the source begins with remembering.
II. The Rock of Honey and Oil
“He made him draw honey from the rock, And oil from the flinty rock” Deut. 32.13 NKJV
“Remember the days of old”. Deut. 32.7. Remember when you were nursed by honey from the rock. That word “draw” has been translated nursed, sucked, nourished. It is the word for a nursing a baby. Moses called Israel to remember their cries in infancy when God nursed them with honey from the Rock. The older we become, the more education we attain, the greater the danger of forgetting. Here Moses used a different word for the honey rock rather than the massive “tzur”. He used “sela” for rock. Sela is a smoother, approachable rock from which we draw nourishment. The next part of the verse returns to “tzur” as the source of our oil. But Moses also warns of the danger of spiritual obesity, using a play on words from oil to fat.
“But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; You grew fat, you grew thick, You are obese!” Deut. 32. 15 NKJV
Jeshurun, a special name for Israel, means “upright”. But Israel was now stooped in obesity, kicking against the One who alone brought them out of slavery. Unfortunately, the news is filled with former believers, pastors, and worship leaders who speak of having outgrown God. In reality, they are morbidly obese. Moses warned Jeshurun to not scorn the “the Rock of his salvation”, a timely warning for our generation.
III. The Rock of Our Salvation
“Then he forsook God who made him, And scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation.” Deut. 32. 15 NKJV
Moses revealed God as “tzur yeshuato”, “Rock of his (Jeshurun’s) salvation”. There is no salvation in any other name except the name of Yeshua. Here the root of Messiah’s name for salvation is revealed as the “Rock”. If we abandon God and His Son, our Redeemer, how can we be saved?
At the end of their forty years wandering, Israel scorned the rock of his salvation. An ancient Midrashic tradition tells of a large rock (sela) that rolled along with Israel until coming to rest in the courtyard of the tent of meeting.[1] The people would gather around the rock and sing, “עלי באר”, “Rise up O well” and water rose from the rock.[2] This was the Rock of Salvation of which Moses sang. The Apostle Paul reminds us of this oral tradition and even identifies the Rock.
“And all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ (Messiah).” I. Cor. 10. 4 NKJV
C. H. Spurgeon, the great English preacher, tells of a minister in Wales who went to visit a dying woman. Approaching her bedside, he whispered, “Sister, are you sinking?” She did not respond. He repeated the words again. Turning to the man she said,
“Sinking! Sinking! Did you ever know a sinner to sink through a rock? If I had been standing on the sand, I might sink; but thank God, I’m on the Rock of Ages, and there is no sinking there.”
In the rock of our salvation there is both shelter and sustenance. In her last moments she declared, “I am safe on the solid rock”. Not only is He the Rock of our Salvation, Moses also revealed Him as the Rock who birthed Israel.
IV. The Rock who Birthed Israel
“The Rock who birthed you, you ignored. You forgot God who brought you forth.” Deut. 32. 18 TLV
Our Creator who nursed us with “honey from the Rock”, is the tzur (Rock) who birthed us. Moses calls us to look at our baby pictures, our helpless season when Adonai carried us. Anything that gives birth passes on its DNA. Israel is meant to resemble the One who gave birth to him. God’s Word gives life. Our words should give life. His acts are just. Our acts must mirror His.
“Remember the days of old…ask your father, and he will inform you.” Deut. 32. 7 NKJV
Just before these words Moses asked, “Is not He your Father who has bought you?” Deut. 32. 6 NKJV We need to trace the family tree until we reach find a father who can inform us about our origins. If need be, go to your father Noah, a preacher of righteousness. He will lead you to Adam, and Adam will bring you to his Father and your Father – God. Finally, Moses interceded for the nations lamenting that the rock they were clinging to would fail them for “their rock is not like our Rock.”
V. The Rock Unlike Any Other
“How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their rock had sold them, And the Lord had surrendered them? For their rock is not like our Rock, Even our enemies themselves being judges.” Deut. 32. 30-31 NKJV
Israel’s enemies were routed because their rock had sold them. Moses sang, “their rock in not like our Rock!” Our Rock, the God of Israel, is a sure foundation, a shelter amid the final storm. Is there is a difference between Israel’s God and the false gods of this world? Absolutely! Their rock will abandon them in the end.
“He (Adonai) will say: ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge? “…Let them rise and help you, And be your refuge.” Deut. 32. 37-38, NKJV
Conclusion
And now we join Myer Pearlman on the sidewalk of the San Francisco Gospel meeting. The strains “There is honey in the Rock my brother”, by Rev. F. A. Graves fill the house. Myer’s decision brought him to new birth, born through the Rock of which Moses spoke. A Rock which cannot be shaped, but indeed shapes us, a Rock unlike any other. Myer soon enrolled in Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri. There he met the young lady who became his wife, Miss Irene P. Graves, daughter of Rev. F. A. Graves, the very man who wrote, “Honey in the Rock.” Pearlman became a powerful voice and prolific writer in the Assemblies of God. For decades, he called that denomination to love both God and His people Israel.
I wonder if you hear Moses’ invitation today to be fed and sheltered by the Rock of Salvation? Perhaps you have suffered with the malnourishment of this world. As we enter this new Jewish year, just before Yom Kippur, hear the invitation,
“Oh, there’s honey in the Rock, my brother;
There’s honey in the Rock for you.
Leave your sins for the Blood to cover;
There’s honey in the Rock for you.”
May you find the sweetness only found in Messiah. Have a Sweet and Happy New Year.
Shanah Tovah U’Metukah
[1] וְלֹא הָיָה מַיִם לָעֵדָה, וְהֵיאַךְ הָיְתָה הַבְּאֵר עֲשׂוּיָה, סֶלַע, כְּמִין כַּוֶּרֶת הָיְתָה וּמִתְגַּלְגֶּלֶת וּבָאת עִמָּהֶם בַּמַּסָּעוֹת, וְכֵיוָן שֶׁהָיוּ הַדְּגָלִים חוֹנִים וְהַמִּשְׁכָּן עוֹמֵד, הָיָה אוֹתוֹ הַסֶּלַע בָּא וְיוֹשֵׁב לוֹ בַּחֲצַר אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד וְהַנְּשִׂיאִים בָּאִים וְעוֹמְדִים עַל גַּבָּיו וְאוֹמְרִים: עֲלִי בְאֵר, וְהָיְתָה עוֹלָה.” במדבר פרשה א. 2
[2] BaMidbar Rabbah, 1.b
