Hebrew Gospel Pearls #18 – Seeing God with a Pure Heart

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Nehemia: So, there’s this idea we’re hearing in second Chronicles 25 that you can fulfil perfectly the letter of the law, follow everything that God commanded in the Torah, but if your heart’s not in the right place, you got a problem. Wow.

Nehemia: Shalom, welcome to Hebrew Gospel Pearls, episode 18. I’m so excited, we’re gonna continue talking about the Sermon on the Mount, the section known as the “Beatitudes,” the section that begins, “Ashrei,” “Blessed is.” And today, we’re gonna be talking about Matthew 5:8.

Keith: Excellent.

Nehemia: What you call “the buffet of the biblical Beatitudes.”

Keith: Look at all this stuff.

Nehemia: I feel like, you know, how you get to the buffet and first they give you the macaroni, and they give you the mashed potatoes, and now we’re at the steak. That’s how I feel here. Yeah, so the verse reads in Hebrew Matthew, “Ashrei zakey halev,” “Blessed are those pure in heart,” “vehema yir’u Elohim,” “for they will ‘blank’ God.” And I’m saying “blank” because it could be interpreted the way it’s written in most of the manuscripts of Hebrew Matthew, in two different ways.

I’ve talked in the past, those who follow my teaching about something called “hollow verbs.” I won’t get into that, it’s a bit complicated. But every verb, adjective, and noun in biblical Hebrew has a three-letter root. And the three-letter root, sometimes, some of those letters will drop out, and that creates what’s called “hollow verbs.” And because of that, you don’t always know in a particular context, which root it is. And here, it can be two different roots. It says, “And they will ‘yir’u’ Elohim.” Yir’u can mean two different things, it’s ambiguous.

It can be from the root yud resh alef, “for they will fear God,” or it could be from the root resh alef heh, “for they will see God.” And certainly, the standard English translations and the Greek translate based on the word “see.” For example, NRSV, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see.” In the Greek “opsantai, God,” they’re gonna see God. But there’s a possibility of the Hebrew being translated, “for they will fear God.”

Now, what’s interesting is there’s two manuscripts of Hebrew Matthew, and Howard didn’t have access to this information. There’s manuscript W and manuscript B…

Keith: You’re at the steak already? Wow.

Nehemia: Actually, manuscript B he did have access to, so I’m assuming it’s in his notes there. But I looked at the 20 surviving manuscripts, and it has “she’hema yir’eh Elohim, “for they are those who fear God,” and that’s unambiguous. So, two of the copyists, at least, either had their source, or maybe they made a mistake and changed “they see God” or “they fear God” to, “they are they who fear God” unambiguously. Well, that’s interesting.

And there’s a third manuscript, manuscript J which has something like “fear.” So, there’s a possible way of reading it in the Hebrew, not in the Greek though.

Keith: Now Nehemia, obviously we’re in the public phase of things, we’re not at the hard hat section. Those of you that have not gotten a chance to go to the Plus episode, you’re missing it, both at Nehemia’s Wall and bfainternational.com. But let me just say something. I gotta give a little context of this, so this is going to be a little touchy. Just a little touchy. Say, “A little touchy.”

Nehemia: A little touchy.

Keith: So, we had some time between episode 15 – if you didn’t see episode 15, you gotta go see it – and us taping this today. And so, what I did is, I went further beyond the resources that we’ve used. We’ve used a number of resources. We’ve used Delitzsch, we’ve used your cousin, we’ve used Howard, etc.

But I have my trusty English Bible, and something happened. I actually called Nehemia, folks, and I apologized to him for what I found in my Bible. I’ve referred many people to this Bible, because it’s a Hebrew-Greek key study Bible, the New American Standard Bible. And I have to make a confession. I hadn’t spent much time throughout the Hebrew Gospel Pearls in this, other than to read in Matthew, to read if Nehemia would say, “Read a verse,” I would do that.

Mostly, what we’ve been doing is staying within the resources, our reference material that we’ve agreed to. Because of the extra time, I got into a little trouble. And as I’m reading, there’s a note in my Matthew and it says, “Go to this section.” So, I go to this section and come to find out that the editor of this Bible wrote a book on the Beatitudes. I’m thinking, “Jeez Louise, I waited until episode 15 to find out that he has a book.” I ordered the book. I had time, I went click, click, click, and I get the book.

I start reading the book and my heart literally sank because Nehemia, what he does – and I had no idea, this actually is a Greek man, he was actually born in Greece – he has a Greek name. He believes that the Greek is the original inspired, no problem with that. But what he starts to do… And I want to use this verse as an example. I have the book here. I want to read this verse, his culmination of the verse, there’s a whole chapter on the verse. But what he says is, “Therefore, we might very well paraphrase this Beatitude, ‘blessed,’ that is to say, ‘in dwelt by God are the pure in heart.’”

So, we’re talking about the issue of pure in heart, that’s what he’s saying. “These are pure because of Christ, God, the Son. These, the blessed and the pure, shall see the Father, and the Father is made visible through the Son. Isn’t this exactly what John 1:18 declares?” And he goes on, Nehemia, to do this, and he does this for each Beatitude, I’m not going to go into great depth.

He basically isn’t so concerned about what Yeshua said, and I say this all the time. Don’t tell me about what they say about Yeshua. Let’s hear what he says. And this book, I have to say… And I said I apologize to you, because based on this book, you and I can’t do this series. If this is my only resource, his translation and his book, he’s the editor of the entire Hebrew-Greek study Bible, NASB. The editor is telling me that if you’re going to have a conversation about the Beatitudes, it’s gotta be theological. And it’s got to be theological from the perspective of the present-day Christian or Western Christianity, which means that you… I’ve said this many times, I don’t mind saying it this live here. I believe that we could have been at the Sermon on the Mount listening to the Beatitudes, and I think that there was a message for us back then, and I think it’s for us today.

The problem I have with the editor is he leaves what we call “language, history and context.” He left the language issue, kind of, no history and no context, and dives into theology, and literally cuts out the opportunity for you and I to be in our 19-year journey. If I’m not doing what he wants me to do – and he says it in the beginning of his book – he says it’s all about one thing. It’s all about evangelism. Evangelism of his understanding of the theology that was created through the Beatitudes.

And I just had to say, as I said, I apologize because when I read it, my heart sank. I thought… we could have never had this conversation if that was the focus that I was using to speak to you. What have we done instead? We’ve come together in common ground to… think about this; to find out what the language, history and context of the words of Yeshua are.

If I go by his approach, I talk to you only about what they say about him theologically, not what he said. So, that’s a big controversy, but I had to bring it up. I called you ahead of time, to say this.

Nehemia: I want to understand why he did what he did, and I think it’s pretty clear. It’s almost like… Or it’s not almost like, it is. There are a bunch of things that Yeshua taught that don’t fit Christian theology. And it’s not that they’re necessarily contrary to Christian theology in many cases, but they don’t fit the emphasis of Christian theology. The emphasis of Christian theology is, you’ve got one job, and that job is, believe in certain theological doctrines or you’re going to hell.

And those theological doctrines may come from the New Testament, it’s debatable whether they do or not. What’s not debatable is, they were clearly formulated for the first time at the Council of Nicaea, and later at the Council of Constantinople in 325 and then 381. The version we use today, “we” meaning not me, Christians, is from 381, the Council of Constantinople.

And what he’s basically saying is, “Look, if this doesn’t fit the Nicene Creed, or the Constantinople Creed, what’s it doing in the New Testament?”

Keith: Oh, wait a minute.

Nehemia: So, he’s taking statements that Yeshua taught to a Jewish multitude of 5,000 people at a mountain that we went to together, a Sermon on the Mount, and he’s saying, “Whoa, this doesn’t fit our theology.” It reminds me of when you were sitting in my parents’ house and you were sharing with my father about Isaiah 56. The famous story, we won’t go into the whole story. But you’re showing my father what it says in Isaiah, how you’ve joined yourself to the God of Israel and the people of Israel. And his response was “You don’t count”.

Keith: You don’t count.

Nehemia: And what he was really saying is, “I don’t care what Isaiah said. Whatever Isaiah said has to fit into our paradigm of rabbinical Judaism. And if in rabbinical Judaism, becoming part of the people of Israel and the God of Israel requires standing before a council of three Rabbis who have overseen you being educated in their doctrines, and then you pass, literally, a test, an academic test, of do you know this information? And then you get immersed by them in the mikvah…” Well, Isaiah 56 doesn’t say anything about that, but we have to force Isaiah 56 to fit our doctrine. And it seems to me like what he’s saying is, “Wow, these are beautiful things Jesus said, but they don’t fit what we’ve been taught Christianity is. Let’s make them fit.”

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: And if we have a definition from the Council of Nicaea that to be “pure in heart” means you profess this particular doctrine in this particular way… And I’m not saying whether that doctrine’s right or wrong, I leave that to talk to your Pastor, Rabbi or Priest. That’s not for me as a Jew to tell you if it’s right or wrong. But Yeshua doesn’t mention that doctrine in Matthew 5. And it reminds me of another verse that we’ve talked about in the past, and it’s this verse that is very problematic to Judaism, whether it’s Karaite Judaism or Rabbinical Judaism. It’s the verse where God says in Psalm 145, verse 18, He says, “Karov Yehovah lekhol koreh’av,” “Yehovah is close to all who call upon Him,” “lekhol asher yikra’uhu be’emet, “to all who call upon Him in truth.”

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: Well, we know that’s not true. How do I know it’s not true? What if you call upon Yehovah but you eat pork? What if you call upon Yehovah and you don’t keep Shabbat? I’m talking from the Jewish perspective, then God can’t be close to you. How about we let God do God and we do us? Think about this. In a sense, this is heresy to say, “Yehovah is close to all who call upon Him, who call upon Him in truth.” Well, now we’ve got to define truth as, you’ve gotta do these specific things and profess this specific doctrine. What if you have a different understanding of God than me? Well, no, then God’s not close to you. How about we take God at His Word?

Keith: You told me something, and we’re in controversy already, folks, so let’s just keep going. You told me something where someone actually said to you that they took the Apostles creed and put it in the Bible as a part of…

Nehemia: I was having a conversation with someone, and he was explaining to me… And look, I said to him, “I filter everything through Deuteronomy 6:4.”

Keith: Right, that’s what it was.

Nehemia: “Shema Yisra’el, Yehovah Elohenu, Yehovah ekhad,” “Hear O Israel, Yehovah is our God, Yehovah is one.” Everything in the Tanakh I filter through that. It’s got to fit that. And really, I take the Torah and everything in the Prophets has to fit the Torah, and everything in the Writings has to fit the Prophets and the Torah. And if there’s something in Amos that doesn’t fit the Torah, well, I go by the Torah. And I say either I don’t understand Amos, or maybe Amos is a false prophet. I don’t think that, but I leave that open as a possibility. It’s got to fit the Torah, according to Deuteronomy 13.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: And this gentleman I was speaking to, he had a Bible and he turned it over to the beginning. He opened up the cover and he said, “I filter everything through this…”

Keith: What was it?

Nehemia: …and he pointed to the Nicene Creed. And I said, “How interesting, you had to paste that into your Bible, it was not in there.” And he said, “Well, it wasn’t formulated clearly.” Okay, so you’ve done a much better job than Jesus has.

Keith: Here’s why I wanted to say this to you, and I want to say it to everyone that’s out there. The reason this has inspired me, and the reason that I’ve changed schedule, changed plans, done everything, everything stopped when the offer came for us to do this together, is because looking at language, history, and context of Yeshua, in his language, history, and context, is common again just like it was when you said to me, Nehemia, “Let’s study the Tanakh together.” You said, “Let’s study the Tanakh together,” and we did that. And then, you called and said, “Let’s take a look at the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew.” And we have found a number of things where, is it fair to say without going too far, where there’s commonality through what he spoke in its original language, history, and context. I couldn’t do that with this approach. I just can’t, there’s no conversation. We don’t get through the first episode.

Nehemia: Well, I understand what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to say, “Okay, ‘pure of heart,’ well, we have a definition of that.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: The definition of “pure of heart” is based on our Christian theology.

Keith: Yeah.

Nehemia: You’re in this particular theological walk. Here’s the question I asked; so, there were 5,000 or something like that, Jews who heard Yeshua preach from a mountainside. They were down there in the valley. We’ve been there, where I think it was, at least, and I think you agree. And they heard him preaching. Was it just a bunch of gibberish he was speaking? Imagine that. He’s standing up there and he’s preaching chapters 5-7, and in his mind, he’s thinking, “This has nothing to do with you.”

Keith: We’re going to wait until the editor of the Bible 2,000 years later…

Nehemia: “This is for the future people who have known the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s only for them. You in the audience, this has nothing to do with you. Maybe 12 of you, but the rest of you, this doesn’t apply to you.” That’s the theological approach he’s presenting there. And maybe he’s right, theologically. I’m not a theologian. My question is – and the approach of what I’m trying to do in the program is – what did those 5,000 disciples… They weren’t even disciples, some of them. Maybe some of those people were opposed to Him, but they came to hear what the guy had to say.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: And what could they have understood when they heard him preach from the mountainside? And maybe they didn’t always understand him. We see things where the disciples say, “Well, that’s what you told them, what do you tell us?” There might have been things like that, especially in the parables. But what did they have the potential to understand, and then based on the evidence of what we have, what was he trying to communicate in the language, history, and context?

Keith: Let me state the obvious, folks. Yeshua didn’t 2,000 years ago, teach in the King James English. Many of you already know that, who are listening. I would argue, he didn’t teach the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, in Greek. I don’t believe that he did that. If he would have done that, the people that were there, the 5,000 would have said it was gibberish. They wouldn’t have known what he was talking about.

Nehemia: Some people would have understood him…

Keith: Okay, but I’m saying…

Nehemia: …because you had people who were multilingual. Let’s even say he did speak in Greek, let’s not dwell on that specific point, for this purpose. Even if he spoke in Greek, he was communicating to them in a way that they would have understood what he was communicating. Otherwise, what was the point of what he was saying?

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: Look, and there are things where you could say, “Oh, well, there’s no way the people understood that.” We have passages in Luke where it specifically says they didn’t understand what

he was saying. That’s not the case in the Sermon on the Mount. In the Sermon on the Mount, the assumption, I think, has to be that he was communicating in a way that they could understand, otherwise, what was he doing? He was just reciting words for Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to write down for future generations, or was he teaching something to those people who were present? And that’s fundamentally the question, according to that book that you cited, he was only preaching for the future church, not for the people who were there.

Keith: They’ve hijacked the message. They’ve kidnapped Yeshua.

Nehemia: And look, theologically, that’s not for me to say. I’m asking in the context, what does it mean?

Keith: Yeah, I needed to get that, so let’s go to the verse. Thank you so much.

Nehemia: All right, let’s talk about this. There’s two things we have to talk about. What does it mean to see God? And we said in two manuscripts it’s to fear God, and in all the rest, it’s either ambiguous or certainly in the Greek, it’s to see God. We’re gonna ask what that question means, to see God, but before that, what does it mean to be pure at heart? According to him, to be pure at heart means you’ve recited the Nicene Creed.

Keith: Can I read something before you…?

Nehemia: Sure.

Keith: Because I really want to get to what you have there. There’s something that I wrote, Nehemia, a few years ago, actually, a simple phrase, and you can pick of these which you want to look at. But I want to just throw these out really quick, okay?

Nehemia: Yessir.

Keith: First two words, the two words that Yeshua connects for “pure of heart” are what, in Hebrew?

Nehemia: “Zakey halev.”

Keith: Okay. So, I would translate that as “clean heart” and I’ll tell you why.

Nehemia: Okay, I accept that.

Keith: I’m going to give you some verses. The verses are Ezra 2:9, Nehemiah 3:20.

Nehemia: My favorite book, I wrote it.

Keith: Nehemiah 7:14. Hey, folks, can I switch this around? Nehemia, I want you to look for this verse and I’ll look for that verse.

Nehemia: Wait, so what verse do you want me to read?

Keith: Ezra 2:9, if you can read that. And here’s what I love about our experience in the past. What really, really inspired me and caused me to be quite frustrated was, when I was looking over your shoulder and you had the Hebrew Bible in front of you, and you were reading in Hebrew but you were translating in English. Would you do me a favor and take me back to those days at the Old City of Jerusalem?

Nehemia: But I won’t let you look.

Keith: I don’t want to see it. I want you to go to Ezra 2:9. I just want you to pick a couple of these, and folks, remember, can you tell them the two words that in Hebrew, these two words mean…

Nehemia: “Zakey halev.”

Keith: “Zakey halev.” Now, can you read Ezra 2:9?

Nehemia: Ezra 2:9 is giving a list of different people who were involved in the return to Zion. And it says, “The sons of Zakkai, 760,” so Zakkai was somebody’s name.

Keith: Okay, excellent. Now, go to Nehemiah 3:20.

Nehemia: In Nehemiah 3:20, I think it’s a repeat of the same list.

Keith: Nehemiah 7:14. I’ll tell you, go to 7:14.

Nehemia: 3:20 is interesting, ‘cause here we have, “Baruch the son of Zabbai,” in the body of the text, and in the margin, it says “Zakkai.” That’s interesting. And there we have clearly what is – I shouldn’t say “clearly” – in my opinion, what we have is clearly a graphic confusion between the letter bet and the letter kaf in the square Hebrew script.

Keith: Excellent.

Nehemia: Okay, what was the next one? Nehemiah what?

Keith: 7:14.

Nehemia: Nehemiah 7:14. And here we have, “The sons of Zakkai,” that’s a repeat of the list in Ezra 3, or whatever, or 2.

Keith: I’m just giving these. So, when you see that word, what does it say to you?

Nehemia: So, “Zakkai,” the first thing I think of is Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai, who was a leading Rabbi at the time of the siege of Jerusalem in the year, approximately 70 AD, he went over to the Roman side. Zakkai was somebody’s name and it meant “innocent.” It comes from… Well, tell me where you’re going with this.

Keith: I had a conversation with Rabbi Eliezer ben Yehuda, two weeks ago.

Nehemia: Tell us who that is.

Keith: Rabbi Eliezer ben Yehuda is the grandson of Eliezer ben Yehuda.

Nehemia: Who was the original Eliezer ben Yehuda?

Keith: I would argue, he’s the man who resurrected the Hebrew language as we know it today.

Nehemia: He’s credited with helping to resurrect modern spoken Hebrew, not written, but spoken Hebrew.

Keith: So, I called him on another matter, and I was talking to him and says to me… And he’s a wise guy. He says, “Well, Keith, as I read there’s something that happens. When I come across Hebrew names it’s as if it’s the gunpowder of the verse, that the name actually sometimes gives you a chance to look at the name. And what the name means can sometimes blow the verse up.” So, the idea of asking, what does this word mean? And what do these names mean? And what would be the root of that name? So, that’s what I’m getting to.

Nehemia: Okay, so we’ve talked in the past, even in this episode, I think, about how every noun, adjective and verb has a three-letter root. And here, we’re presented with a word with a two-letter root. And the two-letter root is zayin kaf, and the assumption is that the third letter is either a hey or another kaf. And in that case, because it’s hollow, one of the letters drops out, or maybe that’s the definition of “hollow,” actually.

And what the third letter is, it’s debatable whether it’s a hey or a kaf. “Zakh” means “pure.” And so, let’s give an example, Exodus 27:20. “And you shall command the children of Israel and they shall take for themselves shemen zayit zakh,” “olive oil that is zakh,” “pure.” What’s pure olive oil? It doesn’t have any impurities in it. It’s probably what we would call “extra virgin olive oil,” but that has a very specific definition. I don’t know if it has that definition in the Tanakh in precisely that way. That’s like a cold pressed olive oil.

And then, Leviticus 24:2, “shemen zayit zakh katit,” which again is olive oil that’s pure, “katit,” which has been crushed. They crushed the olives and they put them in these bags, and whatever oozes out in that first cold press, that is “zakh,” that’s the pure, and the word “katit” added, which is the crushed. Exodus 30:34. There’s nothing theological here, we’re not talking about people’s hearts, or their intentions. We’re talking about certain types of materials, a certain type of olive oil. And then here in Exodus 30:34, we have “levona zaka,” it’s the feminine form. Before, it was “zakh,” masculine, here it’s zaka. So, it’s pure frankincense. What’s non-pure Frankincense? You mix some other powders in with it. Why would you do that? It’s very expensive. You know, you cut it, you water it down.

So, they’re saying, “No, no, no. God’s saying it has to be pure frankincense.” Leviticus 24:7 again has “levona zaka,” “pure frankincense,” and then sometimes it’s used metaphorically. Let’s see, Job 8:6. It says, “Im zakh veyashar ata,” “If you are pure and straightlaced.” “Yashar” is literally “straight,” but straight in the sense of having integrity, in biblical Hebrew. And so, the parallel there is “zakh,” “pure.” And you said an interesting statement earlier. You said, “My heart literally fell.” Well, no, your heart didn’t literally fall. This is interesting…

Keith: Did I say that?

Nehemia: You actually said that, and I paid attention because in modern English usage of today, “literally” is used metaphorically. They’ll say, “He’s literally Hitler.” Well obviously, whatever you think of him, he’s not literally Hitler, unless you believe in reincarnation. You think he has the attributes of Hitler, or he behaves like Hitler. He’s obviously not literally Hitler, because he didn’t look anything like Hitler. Hitler’s dead. So, people use that regularly in that modern usage. They use “literally” to mean metaphorically. Isn’t that ironic?

Keith: Did I really do that earlier? Will the editors be able to…?

Nehemia: Oh no, they’re leaving it in. Leave it in, guys. So here, “zakh” is being used metaphorically. In Proverbs 20 verse 11, it says, “Im zakh ve’eem yashar po’alo,” “If his action is pure and straightlaced,” meaning it has integrity. But again, even “straightlaced” is a metaphor, right? What does “straight” mean? It doesn’t mean what it means in modern English. “Straight” means similar to straightlaced, that you’re walking the straight path rather than the crooked path. Metaphorically, I’m not walking in any path. I’m sitting in a chair, and I’m doing things that are righteous or unrighteous. Righteous is straight, unrighteous is crooked, in the biblical Hebrew.

So, we have this usage in the Tanakh where “zakh” means “for your actions to be pure,” and it comes metaphorically from pure materials like pure frankincense, and pure olive oil. And the olive oil is strained out, you don’t want all kinds of impurities, you can add some water to it… So, the pure olive oil is just pure.

Now, we go back to this verse, “Zakey halev,” “Pure of heart.” It means there are no impurities in your heart, right? Think of frankincense and olive oil. There’s no bad stuff mixed in there. You’re doing something righteous, that’s what it means, I think. Delitzsch interestingly translated it, “Ashrey barey levav,” “Those who have a clear heart.” He used the word “bar” from “barur,” “clear.”

Keith: Oh, boy.

Nehemia: And why did he do that? It was a reasonable translation. I’m not saying it’s wrong. It’s different than the way Shem Tov’s Hebrew Matthew has it, but he took that from Psalm 2:12. Perhaps intentionally, because Psalm 2 he interprets, whether you agree with him or not, as referring to the Messiah.

Keith: We gotta slow down on that one.

Nehemia: Okay.

Keith: Let’s back up for a second. This is important, you guys. You can actually get this book, Delitszch’s book, “The Hebrew Gospels,” where he’s taking the Greek and he’s translating it back into Hebrew. And an example where he used a different word, and you’re saying it’s possible theologically… Can I use that word, “theologically…?”

Nehemia: I don’t know that’s it’s theological here. He’s using the principle of association, perhaps, I don’t know for sure.

Keith: Okay, so tell us about that verse.

Nehemia: Psalm 2:12 in the King James is, “Kiss the son, lest He be angry.” And “the Son” is understood by the translators of the King James to be the Son of God, who is the Messiah. Now, some Jews would agree with that and say “Son of God” in the sense that Solomon was called the “Son of God,” and that he’s the chosen… I think we’ll get to that later, hopefully in a future episode.

Keith: Yeah.

Nehemia: But “Nashku var” also is translated by Jewish translators as, “Kiss in purity.” Your heart should be pure and clean, when you come to kiss and pay homage to the Messiah, whoever that is. So, JPS has, “Pay homage in good faith.” And what’s the good faith? That’s a paraphrase. What they would literally understand it to mean is, “Kiss with purity of heart.” I could be wrong. My hypothesis is that Delitzsch is taking that word, “bar” from Psalm 2:12 and using it here…

Keith: Give us his translation one more time.

Nehemia: “Blessed are those who are pure in heart,” but “pure” using the word from Psalm 2:12, that when you kiss the Son, whoever that is, you’re kissing him with a pure heart. He’s kind of, maybe, taking a dual interpretation of it, which is possible. That could be the correct interpretation. So, that’s Delitzsch.

We have this idea of people doing things with the right heart in a number of places in the Tanakh, and I want to start with Psalm 51 in the Hebrew, verse 12. Here, I think in the English it’s a few verses off. 51:12, let’s see. In the King James it’s verse 10. “Create in me a clean heart.”

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: A different word completely for “clean,” but it’s talking about the nature of your heart.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: So, it’s “lev tahor” instead of “lev zakh” or “zakh levav.” It’s a pure heart, but with a different word for “pure,” but it’s the same principle there. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” So this, first off, is just a purely Tanakh idea, and it reminds me of another passage, which doesn’t talk about heart, it talks about spirit. But again, in a sense, it’s sort of related.

And I have a lot of people I’ve shared this with, Christians, and they’re shocked that this is in the Tanakh. They’re like, “No, that’s gotta be in Acts somewhere, that’s in one of the Epistles of Paul.” And it’s Ezekiel 18:31. I’ll read it in the King James. “‘Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit. For why will you die, O House of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies,’ says Lord Yehovah. ‘Therefore/wherefore, turn yourselves and live ye.’” So, here in Psalms, the prayer is to create in me a new heart. And in Ezekiel, the exhortation of the Prophet, he’s telling the people, “Get rid of your transgressions and sins, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.”

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: So, this is a purely Tanakh idea of having the new heart, the pure heart, the clean heart. Get rid of your heart which has sin and take upon a new heart.

Now, we talked about in an earlier episode, 2 Chronicles 25. I’m gonna put it in a little bit of context. For each one of the kings of Israel and Judah. We have the statement in the Book of Kings, First and Second Kings. Jews just talk about the “Book of Kings.” In the Book of Kings we have… Meaning, in the Greek it’s divided into first and second. Actually, in the Greek it’s third and fourth, but we’ll leave that for a different discussion.

So, we have the Book of Kings, and in Kings, for almost every king it’ll say, “He did that which was right in the eyes of Yehovah,” or “He didn’t do that which was right in the eyes of Yehovah.” And then all of a sudden, in 2 Chronicles 25:1 which is taking information from Kings and adding more information, it says about King Amatzyahu, “Amaziah,” in English. It says, “Amatzyahu was 25 years old when he reigned, and he reigned in Jerusalem for 29 years. And the name of his mother was Yeho’adan of Yerushalayim.” “Vaya’as hayashar be’eyney Yehovah,” “And he did that which was straightlaced, that which was right, in the eyes of Yehovah.” It could be any King, nothing special here. That’s taken out of the type of information we get from Kings, and all of a sudden, he says, “Rak lo belevav shalem,” “But not with a complete heart.” Not with a complete heart. So, there’s this idea we’re hearing in 2 Chronicles 25 that you can fulfill perfectly the letter of the law, follow everything that God commanded in the Torah, but if your heart’s not in the right place, you got a problem. Wow.

Keith: Now, Nehemia, I wanna ask something. I’m trying to be sensitive, folks. I don’t know if you’re ready for a transition or not.

Nehemia: I wanna finish this passage, and then we’ll go to a transition.

Keith: Excellent.

Nehemia: And we’ll talk about the really controversial stuff in the Plus episode. I want to finish, because this is the mild stuff, wait till we get to the controversy. So, 1 Kings 8:61. Here, I believe it’s King David speaking to his son. And he says, “Vehaya levavkhem shalem im Yehovah Elohenu,” “And let your heart be complete with Yehovah, our God.” “Lalekhet bekhukav velishmor mitzvotav kayom hazeh,” “to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments as this day.” So, there are two aspects of this; keeping the commandments and doing it with a complete heart. You can have one without the other, and you could have the other without the one.

There’s this perception, I just have to keep these commandments perfectly. This is actually something I was taught in rabbinical Judaism, that if all Israel keeps two Shabbats in a row perfectly in accordance with rabbinical law, the Messiah will automatically come. Just two. And there are so many laws for Shabbat that the Rabbis have created, so nobody keeps it perfectly. But if all of Israel would keep it just twice, it would be an accomplished fact that the Messiah would automatically come.

And what we’re hearing here is it’s not enough to do it perfectly. Whether it’s according to God’s commandments or the rabbinical, that’s a different question. But it’s not enough to do it perfectly, you have to have the complete heart. 1 Kings 15:4, and this is interesting, ‘cause this is the exact opposite of Amaziah in the Book of Kings. Amaziah did everything yashar, straightlaced in the eyes of Yehovah, but not with a complete heart. Now, it’s King Asa. “The high places he did not remove, but Asa did…” let’s see, “Rak levav Asa haya shalem im Yehovah, “However, the heart of Asa was complete with Yehovah all of his days.”

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: So, Asa didn’t fulfill the letter of the law. He allowed the high places to remain, but his heart was in the right place. What? How can your heart be in the right place if you don’t do that which is right? Because God is the judge of all the earth. God decides. He looks in our hearts, that’s how merciful He is, and He knows what it is we intended. Psalm 24:3-5, I’m going to skip over that. Guys, look it up. Psalm 73:10. “And therefore, the people turn in praise and find no fault in them. And they say, ‘How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?’ So are the wicked also at ease, they increase in riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean, and washed my hands in innocence.” What’s happening here is the righteous are looking at the wicked and saying, “Wow, that guy is prospering. Why have I bothered to have a clean heart? I could just be wicked like him, and I’ll also prosper.”

So, the righteous looks at the wicked and he’s misled, thinking, “There’s no benefit in keeping God’s commandments. I can just be a bad guy and I’ll thrive.” They’re misled like that. “For all day long I’ve been plagued and I’m punished every morning.” So, when bad things happen to good people, they can come to the wrong conclusions, that I should just be bad, in that case. And of course, what the Psalm was saying is no, be good, because in the end God will judge all things.

Proverbs 16:2. “All the ways of man are pure,” “zakh.” Same word as in Hebrew Matthew, “…are pure in his eyes. Vetokhen rukhot Yehovah,” “but Yehovah is the measurer of spirits, measurer of souls.” In other words, Yehovah looks in your heart and He knows. And I’ll end with this, Psalm 44:21-22. Look guys, there’s also Jeremiah 17:10. “I am Yehovah who investigates the heart, who examines the kidneys.” It makes it sound like He’s some kind of surgeon. No, we think of the thoughts in your brain and your head, which they also had that idea, but they also have this idea of it being in your kidneys.

So Yehovah says, “Look into your heart, look into your thoughts, each man according to his ways and according to his actions.” God judges you based on your actions, but He also takes into account what’s in your heart, according to Jeremiah 17:10. Also, First Kings 8:39. Guys, look it up. But now, Psalm 44:21-22 is incredible. I’ll end with this, and then we have to talk in the next part about the really controversial information, what does it mean to see God?

Psalm 44:20-21. In the King James it’s actually verses 19-20, I believe, yeah. This is the JPS, it’s a horrible translation. Here’s King James, “Though thou hast sore broken us up in the place of dragons.” Place of dragons. Wow, I don’t have time to get into it, not exactly what it means. It’s actually more like crocodiles… “and covered us with the shadow of death. If we have forgotten the name of our God and stretched out our hands to a strange God.” And then, verse 22 in the Hebrew, 21 in the English, “God will surely search it out, for He knows the secrets of the heart.”

So, it describes here a situation of people whose heart’s in the right place, just like King Asa, but he does something wrong. It’s like we talked about in a previous episode, the kingdom of the Khazars, the Kuzari. His heart is in the right place, but he doesn’t know any better, and so he worships a foreign God. That’s addressed here. “I raise up my hands and I call up to the name of the wrong God.” I called the true God by the wrong name. We’re not even talking pronunciation here, it’s a completely wrong name, a different name altogether. God is that merciful, He can look in our hearts and see what we intended, because we had the pure heart.

Maybe Yeshua when he said, “Blessed are those pure in heart” knew what he meant. He meant what he said.

Keith: He meant what he said.

Nehemia: He wasn’t saying, “Well, pure heart, but what I mean by that is you have checked the right boxes from the Jewish perspective. You’ve checked the right boxes from the theological Christian perspective. I don’t actually mean ‘pure in heart,’ I mean pure in doctrine, pure in observance of theology, and observance of commandments and rabbinical law.” Maybe he meant what he said, “Pure in heart.”

Keith: Can I read one last thing?

Nehemia: Bevakasha.

Keith: Just one last thing, folks. Proverbs 20, verse 9. “Who can say, ‘I have cleansed my heart? I am pure from my sin.’” And I will tell you this, Nehemia, when we were talking about this. One thing that has been a blessing, folks is we got a chance to have some conversations back and forth. And I know we’re gonna talk about this in the next section, which I’m excited about. When you hear “heart” I hear a picture. I’m thinking of this, Nehemia, “bump, bump… bump, bump… bump, bump.” If I had a pure heart and I physically wanted to give you my heart, would that make you…

Nehemia: No, heart here is a metaphor for your thoughts, obviously.

Keith: Of course, but why heart? In other words…

Nehemia: When people get excited, they feel their heart beating fast. And when they’re sad they feel it in their heart, right?

Keith: There’s something that happens. In other words, “heart,” it’s not like a picture that you can’t relate to. When my heart starts to beat…

Nehemia: It’s not an anatomical description.

Keith: For example, let me just tell you something that happened. Today, my heart fluttered, folks, and let me tell you why my heart fluttered. My heart fluttered because Nehemia was in studio without a jacket. I’m going to tell this story, I have to, my heart fluttered. I was excited about this. And I think your heart fluttered too, and you’re going to tell people about it before we go to the Plus.

So, we’re in here and I’ve got my jacket, ‘cause I’m thinking, “Nehemia is gonna wear his jacket, I gotta bring my jacket.” But I couldn’t do with just the shirt, he had a shirt without a jacket. So, we do two episodes, and we’re gonna do the third episode. We go to take a break, and all of a sudden here comes Lynell. She walks in the room, and she’s got a bag. I couldn’t believe it. My heart starts to flutter. What’s in the bag?

Nehemia: This jacket. I’m not the kind of guy you can go shopping at Walmart for.

Keith: I’m telling you, folks.

Nehemia: I’ve got special sizes.

Keith: She walks in, and she gets the thing and she puts it on Nehemia. And he puts it on, and I could see him, and I said, “Say, Lynell, did your heart not flutter?”

Nehemia: She’s an impressive woman, my wife. I’ll tell you, we had this incident. We were in Washington DC and the flight was canceled twice. We finally get there on the third flight, but our bags aren’t there. And we were carrying thousands of dollars of equipment to go to the Museum of the Bible to photograph Torah scrolls. And we’ve come there, it’s been planned for months. And we were there, and we don’t have all of our equipment. And she says, “What do you need?” And I’m there with a colleague and he tells her the name of the equipment. She says, “I’ll get that.” And we’re both like, “You don’t understand. We have to order this equipment a month in advance. You can’t just walk into a regular store and buy it, it’s specialized equipment.” That afternoon, she comes back with the equipment.

Keith: Heart-fluttering.

Nehemia: Incredible. All right, let’s end with a prayer, and then we’ll continue in the Plus section where we’ll talk about the exciting part.

Keith: What’s exciting? Are you going to tell us, or are you gonna give us a…

Nehemia: We’re gonna talk about what it means to see God, and we’re gonna talk about some really deep concepts that we’ve talked about in the past, but we never got into the nitty-gritty, what it means, “the Shekinah glory.”

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: If you’ll allow me to talk about that, it’s a bit controversial.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: It’s extremely controversial, books were burned over this. Literally, Jewish books were burned by other Jews. Yehovah, Avinu Shebashamayim, Yehovah, Father in Heaven, thank You so much for blessing me with this amazing eshet khayil, this woman of valor that you’ve given me. Yehovah, thank you for giving me the opportunity to come into the studio and share these things with people. Thank you for the folks in this studio, and the production group who have allowed us to come in and enabled us to be able to teach these things and share it with the audience.

And Yehovah, thank You so much for giving me the understanding of Hebrew so I can understand what it means and share with others this idea of a pure heart. Yehovah, I pray that You give me a new heart and a new spirit, so that I can come before You not for my own sake, not to be righteous in my own eyes, or pure in my own eyes, but You who examines the heart, and the kidneys, and the spirit, so that I can be pure by your standard with a complete heart. Amen.

Keith: Father, thank You so much for this opportunity. Thank You so much for this study. Thank You so much for the open door that you’ve given us to be able to be here at this time. And we just lift it all up to You. Help us to be like David. Create in us a clean heart. Put a new and right spirit within us, in Your name.

Nehemia: Amen.

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