Hebrew Voices #116 – Live from Quarantine #2

You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Nehemia: Look, I’m alone in my house, under quarantine. I’m not allowed to leave, and I have nobody here. And I… come on, and I’m with you in this room, and I feel like I’m not alone. I feel encouraged that the word of God is strengthening me. And I’m like, “We have to do this. We’ve got to come back and share the word of God with people.”

Nehemia: And I am back here today with Keith Johnson. Shalom, Keith.

Keith: Shalom, Nehemia. How are you?

Nehemia: This is our second broadcast live from quarantine.

Keith: We are coming from quarantine. And actually, this is another one of those situations where we didn’t actually plan that it would happen right now.

Nehemia: Let me set the stage. I woke up, and there were two missed phone calls from Keith, and they were both from around 6 AM. And I’m like, “Why is Keith calling me at 6 AM? Something’s going wrong.” I call you up, and what do you share with me?

Keith: So, I tried to call you at 6 AM because I got awakened by a phone call from a very dear friend. This dear friend calls me, and I’m telling you, this is how it happened. He started telling me about how significant it has been that you and I have done this recording, Live from Quarantine. And he said how he and his wife sat down and listened to the whole thing, and he said, “Keith, I know sometimes you might get concerned,” and he’s going on and on, talking about the length of it, and the technology, and he’s saying how important it was. “And I saw videos from Israel, and Yehuda Glick.” And he goes on and on, five, seven minutes. And I’m like this, “Aha,” and I’m thinking, “He’s calling me for this?”

And after he’s done, I say to him… Oh, he goes on and he says, “You know, what’s nice about what you and Nehemia are doing is that a lot of us are struggling with different issues and we need perspective. We need the word of God. We need…” And I’m thinking, “Okay.” Then I asked the question, “How are you doing?” He says, “Well, I could be doing better. I’m actually calling you from isolation at a hospital. I came at 3 o’clock in the morning, because I think I have COVID-19.” And I literally stopped…

Nehemia: He’s in isolation in a hospital?

Keith: Isolation in a hospital. He’s calling me and he says, “I’ve only got 29 minutes, but I thought I should call you,” not to call and tell me that he’s in the hospital. He’s calling to tell me that what you and I have been doing is helping him. And I’m thinking, “Couldn’t we have started the other way? First, tell me you’re in the hospital.” But why did I try to call you, Nehemia? I tried to conference you in, so that you could see if you sensed what I sensed. Here’s a man… and he stopped the conversation because the ER person is coming in. He said, “Okay, Keith. I’m going to have to call you back. They’re coming in to check my blood pressure.”

And I tried to patch you in so you could hear him talk about how significant it is in times like these for the word of God to be our base, and for what we are doing, we need to do. You and I need to do this, and I was trying to call you up to wake you up, saying, “Nehemia, everything changes. We’ve got to do something.”

Nehemia: Well, and when you shared that with me, I said, “Okay…”

Keith: Tell them what you first said.

Nehemia: We’ve had some disagreements about how to do this, and when to do it. So, my first answer was, “No.”

Keith: No.

Nehemia: And then, I think I called you like half-an-hour later or something.

Keith: You hung up the phone. You were sniffling, and I said, “Nehemia, are you okay?” You said, “Well, I just woke up.” And I thought, “Well, it was a good run.” And then, the phone call comes, just like it did last week. And what did you say to me?

Nehemia: I said, “I feel convicted.”

Keith: Why did you say you felt convicted?

Nehemia: Because I got off the phone with you and, you know, we also had people contact us at Makor Hebrew Foundation, and we had one particular woman who said, “Look, I’m alone in my house, under quarantine. I’m not allowed to leave, and I have nobody here. And I come on, and I’m with you in this room, and I feel like I’m not alone. I feel encouraged that the word of God is strengthening me.” Then I got off the phone with you, and that was going through my mind. Now, you essentially received the second witness. And I’m like, “We have to do this. We’ve got to come back and share the word of God with people.”

Keith: I want people to be brought into our conversation. You and I, neither one of us, and I thought about this a lot; we are not interested in a news show. We’re not interested in marketing. We’re not interested in extra drama. But this situation is very, very, very serious. And the people, like my friend this morning, who called me… and by the way, let me just report real quickly. He was sent home. I just want to bring this up.

Nehemia: Halleluyah.

Keith: He was sent home but listen to this. They said, “Well, yeah. You’ve got something. It looks like you’ve got something on your lungs, something on your lungs. And it looks like this, and it looks like that. We want you to go home and self-isolate. We’ll take the test. You’ll hear in two to seven days if you’ve got it. When you get home, quarantine, check yourself, make sure you’re good.” But basically, he’s experienced what a lot of people are experiencing and will experience. He will be sent home to see if you have this thing. Hopefully, you don’t. And if you do, you can get back to the hospital quick enough to be treated. What does “treated” mean, Nehemia? There’s no cure for it. So, if you have underlying issues and it comes on quick, and we’ve heard of that happening, it really is a very, very serious health concern.

But he’s home now, and when I called him back, I said, “Nehemia called me, and he’s all excited about us,” rather than the fact that he’s under quarantine after being in the hospital at 3 o’clock in the morning.

Nehemia: Rather than being happy he’s out of hospital, he’s…

Keith: He’s out of the hospital, and he and his wife, they’re wonderful people, they’re doing what Andrea and I have to do. We’re in the middle of 14 days of quarantine because of the vulnerabilities and all the things that have happened over these last few weeks. So, I know there are other people who are dealing with this, and so I was encouraged that you called me back. I was encouraged that he called me, and now I’m ready to go, to get into the word of God because we need it, folks.

Nehemia: Hey, before we get into that, could you tell people what your background is? I have the same background as last week, which is an ancient Torah scroll. What’s your background?

Keith: You did you a really wonderful thing. You said to me, “Hey, here’s a couple of things I wanted to talk about.” And one of the things you wanted to talk about was a verse in what’s traditionally called the Sermon on the Mount. And what’s behind me is the Horns of Hattin, which you and I did some extensive research on. I told the people you did something really interesting… but anyway, I’ll get to that, extensive research in finding out where this wonderful sermon was preached. And after it was all said and done, it seemed that this could be the place that was closest in line with what we find in the Gospels as the description.

So behind me is the mountain in the Galilee called the Horns of Hattin, which very possibly and probably was the place where Yeshua taught the Sermon on the Mount.

Nehemia: Beautiful, beautiful. All right, so we’re going to get to the verse that’s from Matthew later for the Sermon on the Mount, but what I said to you is, people need encouragement. There are people who are Jewish, there are people who are coming from a New Testament background, and they’re all alone. They’re alone, they don’t have anyone around them, or they’re in families, huddled around during this time of quarantine. Let’s bring them from these different sources. So, I said, “Let’s bring something from the Tanakh, let’s bring something from the Prophets, let’s bring something from the Writings, and bring something from the New Testament.”

Keith: Before we move on, we did this last time. Last time, we started out with prayer. Can we take a minute to pray? And we’ll both pray, how about that? To represent all the things. So, Father, wow, this feels a bit overwhelming with what we’ve seen going on in the world right now. Our dear friends that are at home, some of them by themselves, some of them stuck, some of them sheltering in place, some of them in quarantine, some of them feeling sick, some of them feeling nervous, some of them wondering what’s going on. Yehovah, we ask that You would do what You do best, and bring comfort to our friends around the world. Not only those that are listening, but even those that are not.

Father, we need You now. We need You all the time, but there are so many people that just need to sense, right now, that You are with them. For You never will leave us, and You never forsake us. And in times like these, especially in times like these, not only do we want You to come and to be a blessing to us, but help us to be a blessing to others, through what we do, through what we say, through what we believe.

Father, just thank You so much for the circumstance this morning with our dear friend. I pray that You would touch his lungs, that You would remove any pneumonia, that You would heal him. And thank You for the witness that he has been to me, and this morning, what a great wake-up call. May this time together be a wake-up call for our friends who aren’t taking this seriously. Let them know that it’s time for us to really, really focus in and do what we need to do. To be a blessing to those around us that we love, and those that are outside of our homes, in terms of how we act, how we speak, how we live.

Thank You so much for Nehemia’s conviction. Thank You for the phone call this morning and thank You that this will go forward and touch somebody at their point of need.

Nehemia: Amen. Yehovah, rofeinu, Yehovah, our healer. There are so many people out there, Yehovah, who are alone and scared, or they’re huddling with family, afraid. Yehovah, be there with them. Give them comfort. Touch their hearts and touch their lives and put Your protection around them. And those who are in the hospital, Yehovah, be with them and give them healing. And give us the wisdom to speak only truth and things that honor you today. Amen.

Keith: Amen. Thank you, Nehemia.

Nehemia: I want to start with Exodus 15 verse 26.

Keith: Okay, great.

Nehemia: Our Torah verse here. It says, “Vayomer,” “And He said,” “Im shamoah tishmah lekol Yehovah eloheikha,” “If you will surely listen to the voice of Yehovah, your God,” “vahayashar be’eainav ta’aseh,” “and you will do that which is right in His eyes,” “ve’ha’azanta lemitzvotav,” “and you will listen to His commandments,” “ve’shamartah kol hukhav,” “and you will keep all His statutes,” “kol makhana asher samti beMitzrayim,” “all the disease that I placed upon Egypt,” “lo asim aleikha,” “I will not place upon you,” “ki ani Yehovah rofeikha,” “for I am Yehovah, Your healer.”

I mean, this is a beautiful verse about Yehovah’s healing. Now, some people think this is like a one-to-one thing, like, “I do this, automatically, this is what He’s going to do.” And this is what Job thought.

Job said, “I demand an answer for God to explain to me why I’m suffering. I’m righteous, so I shouldn’t suffer. I demand an answer.” And I think the message of Job is, God doesn’t work that way. God works in His way, and He has His reasons for what He does, but He does give us this promise in general of healing. He is our healer.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: Now, there’s an interesting way, and this was received in Jewish tradition, in Jewish sources, this verse. I want to read you this passage from the Mishna. So, Mishna Sanhedrin chapter 10 section 1, it says, “All of Israel have a portion in the world to come. As it is written…” then it quotes Isaiah chapter 60, “Your people are all righteous, forever they will inherit the earth,” etc.

And then it says, “These are they that have no portion in the world to come.” So, it gives a general rule here in the Mishna Sanhedrin 10:1, and then it gives the exceptions to the rule. “He who says there is no resurrection of the dead in the Torah, and he who says the Torah is not from heaven.” Then it says, “and an epicurean,” which we can discuss; that is in a different context. Basically, it’s somebody who doesn’t believe in miracles. “Rabbi Akiva says, ‘Even someone who reads the outside books.’” What are the outside books? So, they could be Homer, Aristotle, that is, the writings of the Greeks. But in some contexts, this actually refers to the New Testament.

It goes on and says, “He who whispers over someone with a wound saying, ‘All the diseases that I placed upon Egypt, I will not place upon you, for I am the Lord, your healer.’” Abba Shaul says, “Also one who pronounces the Name according to its letters.” So, this is very interesting. This is the first time in Rabbinical sources, the first time in history, that the Rabbis tell us, “It’s forbidden to speak the Name of Yehovah,” meaning, to pronounce it according to its letters, Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey, and to say, “Yehovah” as opposed to the title, the circumlocution, “Adonai”, which means “Lord”.

So, most scholars interpret this as a prohibition to speak God’s name in the Rabbinical sources. And you can then trace it to Abba Shaul in the 2nd century. However, there was a Jewish scholar, a great scholar of Rabbinic studies called Orbach, Ephraim Elimelech Orbach. He was a Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. And he said, “No, no, no, no. You can’t just ignore the word ‘af’”. “Af” literally means “nose”, but in this context, “af” means “also” or “even.” If it’s “also” it’s contrasting to something earlier in the passage. And what comes immediately before it in the passage? The statement of Rabbi Akiva, who’s a contemporary of Abba Shaul, who said, “Anyone who whispers over a wounded person, all the diseases that I placed upon Egypt, I will not place upon you, for I am the Lord, your God.”

Then Abba Shaul says, “Even someone who pronounces the Name according to its letters, or also someone who pronounces the Name according to its letters.” In what context? In the context of healing. And so Orbach said, “Definitively, the context here is healing.” And what’s interesting, the Talmud then elaborates upon this context, and it really does seem like it’s healing, which from the perspective of the Rabbis, if you heal by proclaiming God’s name, that was considered magic, and that’s why they use the word “whisper”, because whisper is a word that implies magic.

So, it’s not just that I am praying, “Oh, Yehovah, please heal these people, for You have said, ‘All the disease I put upon Egypt, I will not place upon them, for I am Yehovah, your healer.”

The Rabbis saw that act, while using God’s name, as an act of magic. And this is interesting; in Judaism, Rabbinical Judaism, praying isn’t just using your own words, it’s reciting specific benedictions and blessings in specific contexts. It means you just can’t take a verse from the Bible and pray it. I guess you could, but in this case, they’re saying, “If you’re praying these words over somebody who’s sick, then you’re invoking a magical incantation, and that’s forbidden, and you’ve lost your portion in the world to come.”

Keith: I’m so glad that we are not under the authority of the Rabbis. And I’m so glad that when I’m talking to my friends, those that are listening right now and those that I’ve prayed for, where I can call out Yehovah rofeikha, “Yehovah who heals you”, and I can call out the One who promises certain things. And Nehemia, I’m actually really excited that you picked Exodus 15, because what do we always talk about? Language, history and context. So, the context of Exodus 15 is within a really significant thing that we’re dealing with. I’ve talked to you a little bit about it.

What I’ve been focusing on and reflecting on is this thing that’s happening right now where we do need healing, but this idea that the Father sometimes, say sometimes…

Nehemia: Sometimes.

Keith: …allows things to happen. And what’s interesting about this in this context, chapter 15, chapter 14, chapter 13, and chapter 12 of Exodus, we’re talking about this very important and significant time where He said, “Listen. I want you to shelter in place.” “What?” “Yeah. I’m about to send a plague. I want you to shelter in place, and when this plague comes over, I’ll be able to see this sign, and this which is coming will hop over.” Now, I have to make the connection, because…

Nehemia: So, you’re talking about the 10th plague. So, this came just after Egypt, and there’s this contaminated water, and the water is purified and then He says, “Look, if you obey Me, then the plagues upon Egypt won’t come upon you. I am Yehovah, your healer.” And you’re saying, “Let’s go back to Exodus 10, 11, and 12, where we had the plagues.” Okay, so give us the Passover context here.

Keith: So, what I want to talk about for a second, and please stop me if it seems like I’m making too many parallels, I just got a note yesterday…

Nehemia: And we’re fixing to have Passover…

Keith: Let me tell you what’s happened.

Nehemia: …very soon. We don’t know exactly how soon, but very soon.

Keith: Yeah, and Andrea and I are in the midst of quarantine. And yesterday, they sent a note out in the city of Charlotte that said, “Hey, listen. We require, starting Thursday morning, that you shelter in place from now until April something.” Now, I did something. I just checked. I said, “April, something. I wonder, could it be possibly that we’ll be sheltering in place during a time that Yehovah told His people to shelter in place?” Why did He tell them to shelter in place? He said, “Because there’s going to be this plague that comes over, and everyone that does what I ask them to do, it will pass them.”

Now, Nehemia, I have been really focusing on this, that what are the possibilities that we’re dealing with something that feels like one of the plagues of Egypt? It feels like it.

Nehemia: Oh, this really gives us some perspective of what the Egyptians felt like.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: You know, it’s really interesting that there’s the part of the plague, and I want to say it was the hail, where it says some of the servants of Pharaoh believed Moses. So, they brought their animals inside, and the animals weren’t killed. And others were like, “Moses, he’s some Hebrew prophet. We worship the Egyptian Gods. He can’t touch us,” and their animals were destroyed. And I go outside, and I see people who are going about their business like nothing’s going on.

I had one person write to me and say, “This whole thing is a hoax. There is no coronavirus. It’s part of the one-world government trying to take over the world.” You know, people are dying and in New York, people are dying. And the government’s taking bold steps, and maybe it’s not enough. Maybe it’s too much, I’m not an expert. But I know we have to do the most that we can.

Keith: Here’s what I want to tell you, and my friends that are listening, and your friends that are listening, and people that are not are friends that are listening, is that in this, there is a witness that is going to go forth. India determined 1.3 billion people must shelter in place. They’re shutting down the entire country. We’ve got states in the United States that have shut down. We’ve got counties that are shut down. It’s possible that by the time we get to the time, whether it’s the traditional Pesach time or the time according to the biblical calendar, there will be an image. There will be a possibility for people to understand what it means… the significance of being in your house when something is outside that can take you out.

I am praying that people will take this opportunity to understand it, to live it, but also to see the grace in it. There’s grace in quarantine, Nehemia. There’s grace in shelter in place. And the grace is, go inside so that we don’t cause the spread, and so that we don’t allow that which is out there to potentially affect those that are inside.

So that’s what I’ve been focusing on. So, I’m really glad that you brought 15, because we need the healer.

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: We need the deliverer. We need the One who’s able to stop it, start it, change it, shift it. And I’m sure there are people like me that are like, “This is just not my thing. I don’t like this, but it’s what’s best for me.”

Nehemia: Yeah. Well, even if it doesn’t affect you, it’s best for people out there who could die from this, and that’s what a lot of people don’t understand. “Well, so I’ll get it. Big deal. I’m in my 20’s, you know,” somebody might say. And you know what? You might be right, that it might not affect you if you get it in your 20’s, but there might be a 70-year-old grandmother who’s going down the same aisle of the supermarket, and she gets it and she dies.

Keith: Exactly. Now, just before we move on with this, I wanted to see if we could look at a really hard verse related to Him being the healer, related to this idea of Him sending and not sending. Around the corner here… you’ve been in my house; around the corner I have this Torah scroll. And this Torah scroll reminds me every single day of what it means to be in a covenant with Him, and what it means to be under His teaching and His instruction.

So, two things I want to bring up. First of all, they don’t know 100 percent where it came from, though they have really close ideas to think, “Maybe this is a virus that has come from some unclean animal.” Is that fair to say?

Nehemia: Well, there’s just a paper that came out, a peer review journal article that says that bats infected with something called the pangolin, which comes from Malaysia, and then, the pangolin is something that they eat in Wuhan. And so, it didn’t jump directly from the bats, it jumps from the bats to the pangolin. And the previous SARS, the SARS that happened in 2002, according to this paper, was caused by bats that infected something called a civet, which I’ve heard people compare to a cat. But as much as I’m not a cat fan, civet’s not a cat. It’s more like a squirrel, and they eat that in Guangdong. And so that actually started in Foshan. So, some people are calling the current coronavirus the “Wuhan Coronavirus,” and that other one, SARS, you might want to call that the “Foshan Coronavirus,” because Foshan is the city where that started.

Keith: Here’s what I’m going to call it. I’m going to call it both of them. You know what I’m going to call them?

Nehemia: What’s that?

Keith: The unclean animal virus, and here’s why.

Nehemia: Well, and then the third one that I know about, at least, that has caused some concern, there are seven coronoviruses that affect humans, three of them are really problematic. There’s the SARS, there’s COVID-19, and then there’s the MERS, which is really the Saudi Coronavirus, and there the bats infected a camel, and they eat camel meat in Saudi Arabia, and that infected the people. So, all three of these, the camel, the pangolin, and the civet are unclean animals. They don’t have split hooves and don’t chew their cud.

So, there are three types of animals in the Torah… well, there are really four, that one is allowed to eat. There are land animals, which have to have a split hoof and chew their cud. There are some animals that chew their cud but don’t have a split hoof, like the camel. And there are animals that have a split hoof but don’t chew their cud, like the pig. So, you have to have both of those, which are goats, sheep, moose, wildebeest, all of those, giraffe, all those are clean animals that one may eat, according to Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. And then there’s fish that have to have fins and scales when they’re alive in the water. There are then birds, and there’s a list of unclean birds, and there we have a number of birds that are known to be clean. And anything related to the clean ones are clean, anything related to the unclean ones are not clean. And then, there’s grasshoppers, or things like grasshoppers, where the back legs are above their back and they’re used to hop upon the earth. So those are the categories of what’s considered food in the Torah.

And in Deuteronomy 14, it begins the whole section on clean and unclean, and the introduction starts off and says, “You are children to Yehovah, your God, for you are a holy nation to Yehovah, your God. Yehovah’s chosen you to be for Him a chosen people from all of the nations upon the face of the earth. Do not eat any abomination.” And the whole rest of the chapter is, what are the abominations that one should not eat? And it was eating these abominations that brought us SARS-1. COVID-19 is now being called SARS-2. MERS… It’s eating these abominations.

Keith: So, you’ve experienced this. I experienced this. I want to share this, because this actually came to me from a friend who’s living in China. And when I went to China, he sent me a note and he said, “Hey, I saw some video that we did.” And we ended up, he says, “If you ever come to China, I’d like to meet you.” So long story short, I end up going to China. He’s in Shanghai, and he says to me these words. He says, “Well, I eat kosher.” Now, if you’re a Chinese person or a person who’s living in China and talking about eating kosher, that is a really difficult thing. And when Andrea and I lived in China, we ate kosher. Now, here’s the point.

He says to me in the middle of this epidemic that’s going on, I say, “Hey, how are you doing?” He says, “Well, the root cause of this virus is non-kosher food; people eating bat stew, etc.” And he’s serious. If you go into the stores and the wet markets, and all of these different places, you see what it is that people eat. Now, long-term Chinese tradition, people have a misunderstanding of what they think a bat can do for them. They think that if I eat bat stew, it’s somehow going to affect my ability to what?

Nehemia: To think? Oh, to see.

Keith: To see. And the list goes on and on. So, my point is, when I look at my Torah scroll and I see what’s happening, it’s not a big jump to say that if we live according to the Torah, we don’t eat bat stew, right?

Nehemia: It probably wasn’t bat soup, it was the bats that then infected the pangolins. And they believe that if you take the pangolin… it’s kind of like an armadillo, it has this shell, they believe that if you take the scales, that it has healing properties.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: A lot of this is magic, meaning… why do I call it magic? Like you said, “Oh, bats can see at night, so if I eat a bat, I’ll imbibe those properties of the bat.” That’s called sympathetic magic, or it’s a type of magic.

Keith: And the list goes on and on and on. It’s going to be a very difficult thing to change in China. But the reason I’m bringing that up is that that’s a witness; the Torah is speaking in 2020 regarding what we’re faced with right now, and what the word of God says.

Second thing I want you to do is go to Deuteronomy… help me with this. I believe it’s 28:60. I want you to read it in Hebrew, then we can move on to your next verse.

Nehemia: Okay. It’s 60 or 16?

Keith: 28:60 in the tap-tap, if you would.

Nehemia: All right. “Moreover, He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you.”

Keith: 61, please.

Nehemia: “Gam kholi vegam makah shelo katuv basefer haTorah hazot,” “Also diseases and plague which are not written in this book of the Torah, “ye’alem Yehovah aleikha ad hishamdakh,” “Yehovah will pile upon you till you are destroyed.”

Keith: Can I read my NASB? It says, “And also sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this Torah, Yehovah will bring on you until you are destroyed.” Now, what’s the context? Blessing and curse. I know this is a difficult conversation. This is a difficult thing to bring up, but it’s not surprising to me. Permission to speak freely.

Nehemia: Bevakasha.

Keith: As we live outside of the place of relationship to Yehovah and His word, that there are things… it’s not surprising. And literally, this verse says like, “it’s not even written in the book here, but that also can come.” So, what are we talking about? They’re talking about designer… what do they call it, viruses that we don’t know, and all that staff? For those of us who joined ourselves to Yehovah and His word, we should not be surprised when these types of things happen. It’s not out of left field, Nehemia. If you look at that verse, interpret that verse for me in the light of what we’re dealing with, right now, 61 of chapter 28…

Nehemia: I mean, you could definitely say that this is one of the curses that Yehovah warned us about, and here, it’s happening. You know, I said years ago that the pig was the most dangerous animal on planet earth, and specifically, I was referring to not just coronaviruses, which I’d never even heard of, but flu’s, which are endemic, they’re like the common cold among birds. And birds usually can’t pass it directly to a human, but they could pass it to a pig, and then pigs can pass it to humans. And probably tens of millions of people have died in the last century because of pigs.

Keith: Okay, so here’s what I want us to do right now. If we’re quiet for a second, do we hear the voice of Yehovah through that old book that they say is no good anymore? Do we hear Him talking to us in that book that some say is not applicable in 2020? I hear Him speaking from those years, and years, and years ago, for today. And that is why I am excited, Nehemia, that we’re doing this. We want to bring to the forefront, what does His word say? What does it mean? How do we apply it? Pretty good application there. Read the blessings. Read the curses. It’s not that confusing. Now, you can move to the next verse. I apologise if…

Nehemia: No, no, no. That’s beautiful. The theme of today is healing… of this program, so I want to jump to 1 Samuel chapter 6, and if we can, I’d like to read the whole chapter. There’s actually a context to the chapter that I don’t think we’ll have time to read, but the context is that they were in a battle against the Philistines, and the Ark was taken captive. You have a whole study series on this, don’t you, Keith?

Keith: Yeah, we have…

Nehemia: What’s that called on your BFA International? By the way, guys, you can support what we’re doing here. Keith has BFA International, I have Makor Hebrew Foundation, and nehemiaswall.com. Keith, what is your website at bfainternational?

Keith: Bfainternational.com.

Nehemia: What does BFA stand for?

Keith: Biblical Foundations Academy International. Inspiring people around the world to build a biblical foundation for their faith so that when times like these come, we don’t get shaken, because the book lets us know. But my friend said this, this is for you and me, he said, “Listen, it’s okay to let people know how things connect with what you guys are talking about.”

I have to be honest with you, I don’t know if you remember, you’re going to read 1 Samuel chapter… what was it, you’re going to read 2 Samuel? What did you say you’re going to read?

Nehemia: 1 Samuel 6.

Keith: 1 Samuel chapter 6.

Nehemia: “The Ark of Yehovah was in the field of the Philistines seven months.”

Keith: Do the part you want to read, and then I want to bring up something, unless you’re going to say you forgot it.

Nehemia: Don’t bury the lead. You have a whole teaching on this. Tell people about it. Obed Edom, come on. We’re not getting to that today…

Keith: We have the Open Door Series, we talk about this.

Nehemia: Don’t you have a whole video you did about the house of Obed Edom the Gittite? Did you do that in the end?

Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s within the Open Door Series.

Nehemia: Oh, it’s the Open Door Series, okay. All right, so what happened is, the Ark came to the Philistines, and it caused plagues, and people died. And even the god of the Philistines was destroyed.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: We’ll start in verse 9. I’m actually going to jump to the previous chapter. You’ve got to start in chapter 5. “The hand of Yehovah was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and He ravaged them and struck them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territories.” And what’s interesting, the word for tumors is the Hebrew word ofalim, and we have here what’s called a kri ktiv, which is the word ofalim is written, but they don’t read that in the synagogue. They read the word t’chorim. So why do they read a completely different word? There’s no question here that they were afraid that if they even spoke that word, it could bring about the disease, so they used a different word instead. It’s unbelievable. And this has found its way into the Masoretic text. Meaning, the prophet who wrote this, he wasn’t afraid of the word, but later, the people reading the Torah were afraid even to say the word ofalim which means the boils… it says here, tumors. But it’s the boils of Black Plague, of the Bubonic Plague, or something like the Bubonic Plague.

“And when the men of Ashdod saw how it was, they said, ‘The Ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand is harsh against us and Dagon, our God.” Remember there in the story, the God Dagon fell down before the Ark…

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: Verse 8, “Therefore, they gathered to themselves all the rulers of the Philistines and said, ‘What shall we do with the Ark of the God of Israel?’ And they answered, ‘Let the Ark of the God of Israel be carried away to Gath.’” Gath was one of the other five cities of the Philistines. The Philistines had a pentapolis of five cities: Gath, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, and Aza, or Gaza. So now it’s going to another city of the Philistines.

“They carried the Ark of the God of Israel away, so it was after that they’d carried it away that the hand of Yehovah was against the city with a great destruction. He struck the men in the city both small and great, tumors…” or again, “ofalim,” “broke out on them.” So, every place the Ark goes in the Philistine territory, they have something that we would call the Black Death. They have some kind of boils that kills them. Let’s skip ahead now to chapter 6.

“Now, the ark of Yehovah was in the country of the Philistines seven months.” So, they say, “We’ve got to get rid of this thing.” “And the Philistines called the priests and the diviners saying, ‘What shall we do with the Ark of Yehovah? Tell us how we should send it to its place.’ So, they said, ‘If you send away the Ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty. But by all means, return it to Him with a trespass offering.’” It says in Hebrew, asham, a guilt offering. “Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why His hand is not removed from you.” So, they believed they had to do a sin offering to get this healing, or a guilt offering, actually.

“Then they said, ‘What is the trespass offering which we shall return to Him?’” So, they didn’t read Leviticus to find out how to do a trespass offering, a guilt offering, an asham. “Therefore, you shall make images of your tumours and images of your rats that ravage the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel.” Okay, this is not how you give glory to the God of Israel, but in the mind of the Philistines, it is. If they make golden boils, some kind of bump which is the bumps of the Black Plague. And they understood it was related to mice, or rats. Today, we would say it’s actually the fleas that infect the rat and kills the rat, and then jumps to a human. But they just saw dead rats, and then shortly after the dead rats, they would get sick.

So, they make these golden tumors, or boils. “Why didn’t you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their heart?” These guys are studying Exodus, right? They don’t know Exodus, but they know the story. “When He did mighty things among them, did they not let the people go, that they might depart? Now, therefore, make a new cart. Take two milk cows which have been yoked, and hitch the cows to the cart, and take the cows home, away from them.”

It’s interesting, so two cows that have not been worked, female cows. This sounds like something in Deuteronomy, that when you find a dead body, you take what’s called the “egla erofah”. If it’s between cities, you take it into a nakhal, and you take an animal that’s never been worked and you break its neck, right? So, what we have here, it’s almost like a funhouse mirror of the Torah. It’s a grotesque reflection of what we have in the Torah. We’ve got guilt offerings, we’ve got a heifer that’s never been worked, and rituals are being done with them, but not the rituals of the Torah. Manmade rituals are being done with them because these Philistines are ignorant. They’ve heard some of these Israelite ideas, but they don’t quite understand how they fit and how they work. So, they’re doing what they know how to do.

Keith: That sounds familiar.

Nehemia: It does. You have spoken it; you have said so. “And watch if it goes up to the road to its own territory…” that is, the cart, “to Beit Shemesh. Then He has done us this great evil…” meaning, Yehovah. “But if not, then we shall know that it is not His hand that struck us. It happened to us by chance.” It says in Hebrew, “mikra hu”, “it’s an occurrence.” It’s just happenstance.

So, I like that they have a scientific control here, right? Meaning, it could go either way. The scientific control here is the control. I mean, it really wasn’t a scientific control, but they were trying, right? These were Philistines.

“Then the men did so. They took two milk cows,” etc. let’s jump ahead. “Then the cows headed straight for the road to Beit Shemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right-hand or to the left. Then the lords of the Philistines went after them, to the border of Beit Shemesh.” This is the interesting part, that we’re going to have to talk about. “Now, the people of Beit Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they lifted their eyes and saw the Ark and rejoiced to see it. Then the cart came into the field of Joshua of Beit Shemesh and stood there. A large stone was there, so they split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD,” to Yehovah.

“The Levites took down the Ark of Yehovah and the chest that was with it…” and what was in the chest? It was the five golden rats, and the five golden tumours, or boils. “Then the men of Beit Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices on the same day, to Yehovah. So, when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.”

And it says what the five offerings were, “The golden rats, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and country villages,” etc., “even as far as the large stone of Abel, on which they set the Ark of Yehovah, which stone remains to this day, in the field of Joshua of Beit Shemesh.” Which stone is added, it’s not in the Hebrew, but whatever.

“Then he struck the men of Beit Shemesh because they had looked into the Ark of Yehovah. He struck 50,070 men of the people. Then the people lamented because Yehovah had struck the people with a great slaughter.” The word “lamented” is related to the word “avel.” “And the men of Beit Shemesh said, ‘Who is able to stand before the Holy Yehovah, our God, and to whom shall he go up from us?’ So, they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiryat Yearim…” and that’s where you pick up the story.

Keith: First of all, I just want to say, this story, this witness in Scripture reminds me of two things about our Father in Heaven; how big He is, and how small He can be. What I mean by small, I mean details, the little things that He’s able to be involved in, and how big He is in terms of the big movements. And when I was hearing the story, I just want to bring one little thing that happened just last week in Israel. We were actually towards the end of our tour in a place called Abu Ghosh, which is not far from the place which you just mentioned, Nehemia.

Nehemia: Kiryat Yearim, yeah. So Kiryat Yearim today is a village of Abu Ghosh.

Keith: A village of Abu Ghosh, so we were there. We went to the famous restaurant called the Elvis Restaurant. I want to just give this quick little... So, we go there as the last place to eat, and as we go there, they called the bus driver. The guy calls and says, “Hey, listen. I’ve got a group coming,” and in Israel, they’d just shut down all the restaurants. All the restaurants had shut down except what you can do is, you can get take-out. And so, we pulled into the bus. We could not have more than five people in the restaurant at one time, and I’ve got pictures of people coming out with food, and one person goes in, a person comes out. And just to the right of Elvis Restaurant, I go, and I look up there at the top. And do you remember where we were at, Nehemia, where they believe, by tradition, that the Ark actually…

Nehemia: Yeah, yeah.

Keith: …was there. What was the name of that place, again? The monastery that…

Nehemia: There’s a monastery there, the monastery of Abu Ghosh. I don’t know what the official name is. Just call it the Monastery of Abu Ghosh.

Keith: The Monastery of Abu Ghosh. So, I didn’t know you were going to pick this verse. Obviously, for me, I was just physically in this place, not far from Beit Shemesh, where the oxen would have gone. I’m going to this restaurant, and then to the right, there it is, up on the hill. So again, this just reminds me about how big He can be, and how small He can be. Did He literally lead the oxen to go to the exact place? I mean, it’s the little details, Nehemia, the small things that He can be involved in.

Nehemia: What’s interesting to me here is that we have this image of Yehovah as the healer, but He’s so holy, it’s actually dangerous. And we have these statements in the Torah. It says, “Love Yehovah, your God, and fear Him,” right? And I hear people say, “Oh, God is all love. He’s only love.” Well, not in the Torah. In the Torah, He’s love but there’s also awe. And awe is this intense feeling of, “Wow, He’s amazing,” but it also has an element of fear. And the Hebrew word there is “fear”.

Keith: And you know, it’s interesting, we’ve got a friend, Richard, we just did an interview at the Jerusalem School of Bible Translators. And he asked the question about, what is the meaning of fear? And the idea of, to revere Him. Like what you’re talking about, Nehemia, is you’re talking about when we fear, it isn’t just… I mean, He is awesome. And can I use the word in English… let’s just use the words “to revere Him”, to literally treat Him as…

Nehemia: And revere, yeah. But revere implies a certain amount of fear.

Keith: Exactly. So anyway, to physically just be there and to be there in the midst of this going on is a little eerie.

Nehemia: Yeah. Well, and to me, what’s interesting here is that the Philistines… they’re grasping at straws, anything they can do to bring healing. And for them to make healing, the way you do it is you make idols, idols out of rats and out of boils. And you offer these idols to the God of Israel. Did that help take away the healing, or the plague that they had? No, it took away the plague as they weren’t supposed to have the Ark of Yehovah, it’s this holy thing.

And then, the people of Beit Shemesh, they rejoiced. They had rejoicing over Yehovah, and they carried out these rituals, but they didn’t have the fear. And if you have that rejoicing, that love, but you don’t have the fear, then that can be a really dangerous combination.

Keith: It’s amazing. He can be close and He can also be, it seems, far off. But there’s a reverential fear of Yehovah in His word, and instruction, and clarity. We’re talking about that. What does He say? And how do we respond? And how do we act? Again, back to what we talked about earlier. He says, “This is what you have to do.  You’re either going to do it… here’s what the response is if you do it. Here’s what the response is if you don’t.”

Nehemia: Yeah. I wanted to bring a verse from Proverbs, but I changed my mind. Instead, I want to bring a verse from Chronicles. We’ll leave the Proverbs verse for another time. Can I read 2 Chronicles 7:14? I think Christians love this verse, but it’s a beautiful verse. “Vayikan’u ami asher nikra sh’mi aleihem, veyitpallelu veyivakshu lefanai, veyashuvu midarkheihem ha’raim. Va’ani eshma min hashamayim ve’eslakh lekhatatam ve’elkah et artza.” Could you read it in the English?

Keith: Did you start at 13?

Nehemia: Verse 14.

Keith: Oh, 14. Well, I mean, I don’t know how you can’t go to 13, because he says, “And then…” So, “If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I should send pestilence among my people…”

Nehemia: So, did He say “pestilence”?

Keith: Yes, pestilence. “And My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Now, Nehemia, it doesn’t take a great preacher to be able to see that there are three things that He says. There are three things, “If My people who are called by My name will first humble themselves, pray and seek My face,” and then number four’s the one that we don’t like to talk about. I don’t know if in Hebrew, maybe it hides it. Maybe it doesn’t say it in Hebrew. But in English, what it says is important, and that is, to turn from that which is wicked in us, contrary to Him.

And you know, I think even right now, honestly, Nehemia, most people keep up this verse, and you said, “Hey, listen. If My people will humble themselves and pray and turn and seek My face,” I think even some people who are not that spiritual will be like, “Yeah, let’s do it. Yeah, you know, we’ll pray.” In fact, let me just tell you something, not to go on too far, but when we were on the Temple Mount, even the people that are there, the police, even though in the past they’d be pushing people, etc., I think even there, they’re thinking, “Yeah, let’s pray. Let’s be humble ourselves.” But now, that part. What does it mean? And maybe you have some hidden meaning to this. What does it mean, “to turn from our wicked ways”? Why did He add that part? Did He have to add that part?

Nehemia: Well, I mean, that’s the money ball. Meaning, it’s a key part of it. In other words, it’s not a trivial part of it.

Keith: Nehemia, I want to say something, and I’m probably going to get in trouble for this, and you can’t erase this part. When I think about our country these days, and the types of things our country does, and the attitude that we have to our Father who is in heaven, and this sort of loosey-goosey, do as you want, be who you want to be, say what you want to say, it feels to me sometimes… and maybe I’m a little conservative, it feels wicked to me, what I see. Sometimes, when I turn on the television, sometimes when I look on the Internet and see the kinds of things that people are saying and doing, it feels that way to me.

So, it seems to me that if we could make sure that this part gets in the prayer, that the turning from the wickedness is a part of Him saying He’ll heal.

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: This is what I hope, is that we acknowledge that an evaluation of what’s going on the inside, and He says, “Then, what I’ll do is, I will heal.”

Nehemia: The context here is really important, because Solomon had just dedicated the Temple, and he had offered this prayer on his knees, with his hands raised to heaven. And part of that was, people would turn to the Temple, and they would pray even from a far-off land. A stranger would turn to that place, to the place where Yehovah chose to put His name forever, to Jerusalem. And he would turn, and then this is God’s answer.

Meaning, this whole statement… let’s read it from the beginning, verse 12. “And Yehovah appeared to Solomon at night, and He said to him, ‘I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen this place as a place of sacrifice. Behold…’” and then it’s verse 13 and verse 14. And then, verse 15, which we didn’t read yet, “Now, My eyes will be open and My ears will be attentive to the prayer in this place. And now I have chosen, and I have sanctified this house, “lihiyot shemisham ad olam”, “for My name should be there forever. And My eyes and My heart will be there for all the days.”

Keith: Really? So why did we pick that verse to focus on when we went to Temple Mount last week?

Nehemia: Well, you’ve got to put it into the context.

Keith: Yeah, the woman comes, prays. Like I said, I think everyone just… Listen, can I just stop for a second?

Nehemia: Yeah.

Keith: We have to reflect and ask ourselves, if we read this verse that you just read, being humble, turning, seeking and then asking the question, “Is there any wickedness that we need to repent from?”

Nehemia: I want to make it clear, we’re not saying that “Hey, if your loved one died of the coronavirus…”

Keith: Oh, no, no.

Nehemia: …that they were wicked.” We’re not saying that at all.

Keith: No, no, no, no.

Nehemia: In this case, I think we have to all, whenever something bad happens, you have to look at your ways and say, “Hey, is there anything I can do better?” And as a people, as well.

Keith: Our country… I’m speaking corporately, and I ask myself this always, and individually, what needs to change to get closer to Him? What needs to change to respond to the call that He gives me? And that’s why I think this verse is so appropriate. So, thank you for bringing it.

Nehemia: The other verse I want to bring is 2 Chronicles 16:12. “And Asa became sick in the 39th year of his reign, in his legs.” Let’s see. “Demah lekholio, his disease was from his legs and up. And also in his sickness, lo dorash et Yehovah ki barofim,” “he did not seek Yehovah, but only the doctors.” Now, New King James version has “the physicians”. What translation do you have there, Keith?

Keith: NASB.

Nehemia: What does it have?

Keith: It’s “the physicians”.

Nehemia: The physicans, okay. And RSB has “the physicians”, okay. And rofim is from the same word we’ve now read several times, rafeh. “Ani Yehovah rofekha,” “I am Yehovah, your rofeh.” “And he did not seek Yehovah, he sought the rofim.”  Now, what does “rofim” mean here? Historically, most commentators on this verse explain that it means “witch doctors”. These were people who… And if you look actually in Genesis, when Joseph wants to have the body of his father embalmed, who does he go to? He goes to the rofim. Those were Egyptian priests who were witch doctors. I don’t believe this refers to what we call today, “doctors”. You know, if you break your leg, you go to a rofeh who sets it, and you also have to seek Yehovah. Some people look at this verse and they say, “No, we reject modern medicine.” I don’t see that in the verse. It’s very clear to me, we must always seek Yehovah, but we must also seek medical advice. The medical advice might be wrong.

I was reading recently, and I want to do a program on this if I could get an expert on to talk about it, in 1848 there was a cholera epidemic in Vilna, the capital of Lithuania today. At the time, it was the major Jewish learning center in the world. And the leading rabbi of Vilna came in on Yom Kippur and he said, “Everyone in the congregation is required to eat, because the doctors have told me that if we don’t eat, people can die.” Now, looking back, they were wrong. The cholera had nothing to do with eating or not eating. In fact, it may have even strengthened their immune system by fasting. But what they knew with the best information they had was that to prevent cholera you want to go out in the fresh air, and you don’t want to weaken yourself by not eating. They were wrong, but that’s what they believed at the time.

Keith: It’s interesting, today happens to be the day that we’re doing this. It happens to be when the rabbi, David Lau from Jerusalem and some other places, they’re actually taking this as a time of prayer and fasting throughout this day. So, this is our attempt to try to help people get recharged, and giving them the word of God, connecting with our Father, just remembering again that ultimately, it is about Him, and us having a relationship with Him.

And so, for me, I have to tell you something. I, for a week, have been battling a cold, and I feel on the victorious side of it. But it kind of was like an eerie, weird feeling, like what it must feel like for people. Like I don’t believe at all, and I can’t be tested to know for a number of reasons. I don’t believe that I have the virus, but I felt this feeling of battling. And when your body is battling, you tend to get worn down. And then after a while, you start to feel recharged. And so this is my way of recharging is to get into the word of God.

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: And I want to encourage people to do that during this time, to really reconnect with Him through word and prayer. And so, again, thank you for giving me a chance to do this with you. I really appreciate it.

Nehemia: And just to go back to the passage we read in Chronicles, to me, with King Asa… And by the way, there’s a play on words there, because “asa” the name of the king, also can mean “healer” in Aramaic, and also in Hebrew, or “healing”. And so hence, there’s a play on words. The very person whose name meant “healer” didn’t come to Yehovah for healing, he went only to the doctors, to these witch doctors, at that, and didn’t seek Yehovah.

Keith: When you were saying this, Nehemia, I’m really glad that you brought up what that meant, because the English Bible says, “physicians”. You say, “Oh, it means he went to physicians. I shouldn’t go to my doctor.” That’s not what we’re talking about.

Nehemia: No, no, no, that’s not what it means, yeah. So, the take-away here is, get the medical advice that you need. That’s a good thing. You should do that. But also seek Yehovah, and look, you also have to use your common sense and your own brain. You have to decide, the doctors are giving us the best information they have. It’s not always right. Somebody sent me an article about a new treatment, potential treatment. I sent it to one of my sisters, and she said, “Oh, no. That’s not a real scientific site.” I looked it up. It’s a peer review journal article of medical science that’s actually pretty well accepted. So, who do you believe is one of the questions here, as well.

I heard a story that this woman heard about some medication that the President was talking about, and she went and ate some material for a fish tank, which had the same chemical, and she got really sick.

Keith: You got it confused. Her husband died.

Nehemia: He died, okay.

Keith: In Arizona, he took this thing that was presented, and he ended up dying. In Nigeria…

Nehemia: No, no. It wasn’t the medication that the President was talking about…

Keith: The medication he was talking about in Nigeria, people overdosed on it. So, you have to be careful. You have to be careful, and you have to use people who understand these kinds of things and include that into what you need to do for your body.

Nehemia: Look, and she and her husband didn’t even have any symptoms. I’ve had a cold for the last week, you asked me the last program we did about that cough, what was going on? And I didn’t know, actually, until the following morning, and the cough was still there. And I called my doctor, I did a phone session with the doctor, and I asked her to get tested. And she said, “Even if I gave you a referral, they wouldn’t test you. You don’t have a fever. They would send you back because they don’t have enough tests.”

Keith: Yeah, same situation I’m in. But the truth is, there are ways that we can take care of our bodies…

Nehemia: Absolutely.

Keith: …with wisdom and understanding.

Nehemia: Vitamin C is highly recommended by me, with no medical experience whatsoever. So, take that with a grain of salt, but it definitely can’t hurt. Worst comes to worst, it gives you some gastrointestinal issues.

Hey, can we jump to… We have been working in the background on Hebrew Matthew, and we’ve been working on this project for some time. And if I wasn’t dealing with some other things, this would probably make a lot more progress. But under the circumstances, it is what it is.

But I said, “Okay, let’s do some Tanakh, Torah, and Prophets, Writings,” which we’ve now done. And now I want to pull up Matthew chapter 6.

Keith: And before those that say, “Well, I don’t want anything,” Nehemia, when you say we’ve been working in the background, this is not a small thing that’s been happening over the last few years, especially it’s increased in the last year. And you have been busy on other things, but you have offered something… If we talk about this, I want to let people know about it, because it’s a game-changer. So, you picked this Hebrew Matthew verse, bring it.

Nehemia: Before we do that, can you tell people about your Red Letter Series that you have over at BFA International?

Keith: Yeah, so basically, for people who don’t know, the Red Letter Series, which was done a couple of years ago, the first phase of it, 1 through 18, I don’t remember how many verses. You can go to BFAInternational.com, it’s free. You go through 18 episodes in the Red Letter Series, but then something radically changed. So, I want to let people know about that, but I kind of want to go to this verse, because what you’ve picked, you didn’t tell me ahead of time. You said, “Hey, I want to go to this Matthew 5 verse.”

And of course, we were just, a week ago, at the spot that you see behind me, which is the Horns of Hattin, where the group of people that went actually spent time there, looking, praying, reading, reflecting, and we made a decision that I might as well announce here with you, that we made at the Horns of Hattin. So, let’s bring up Matthew, and I’ll tell everyone the decision that we made.

Nehemia: Tell them the decision that you’re surprising them with.

Keith: I want the verse here. The first is important, it’s key. It’s related to everything that we’re doing. Go ahead, 7 and 8 of 6.

Nehemia: Yeah, and we did a book called A Prayer to Our Father, which was really about verses 9 through 13. But verse 7 and 8, we could have done a whole book as well. Let me read it in the Hebrew, Shem Tov’s version. “Ve’atem,” “And you,” “ka’asher titpallelu,” “when you pray,” “al tarbu dvarim,” “do not multiply words, or have large amounts of words,” “kemo shehaminim khoshvim sheberov devarim yishme’u,” “in the way that the…” and it says here, “that the heretics think that in the multiplying of their words, they will be heard, they will hear them.”

“Ve’atem al tiru sheAvikhem shebashamayim yodea divreikhem kodem shetishalu mimeno,” “And you do not be afraid, for your Father in Heaven knows…”

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: “…your words before you ask them of Him.”

Keith: So that doesn’t mean “don’t ask”.

Nehemia: Oh, no. It doesn’t mean that at all. So, I was once in a situation where I was in a congregation and they said, “Does anybody need prayer?” and they were praying for different people. I really, at that point, was in a difficult place in my life, and I raised my hand and I said, “I need prayer.” And the person at the front said, “What do you need prayer for?” I said, “God knows.” And he said, “No, but if you don’t speak it, if you don’t say it, you can’t claim it.”

And I said, “Well, God knows what I need, and I don’t frankly, feel like sharing it with the congregation, because it’s kind of personal.” And it was interesting, this was somebody coming from a New Testament background. His own book says, if you read it in the English version, it’s not really different than what we just read, there really is no fundamental difference, that there’s this idea that God knows what you need. He knows what you need, better than you know.

Keith: You know, Nehemia, as you’re speaking right now, I want to be sensitive, because I know there are so many people… I mean, what I love about what you picked today regarding this issue of, may I say, healing and prayer, isn’t it really interesting, isn’t it amazing, that the Creator of the entire universe knows what’s in our heart before we say it? But the cool part is, He knows it and yet he still invites us to say it. I mean, that’s just like a double blessing, He knows, and He says, “Come to Me in prayer.”

Nehemia: Can I be a little controversial here, with this passage we just read in Matthew?

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: Look, I’m a Karaite, and coming at this as an ancient text by a Jewish teacher. But I see parallels to this idea in the Tanakh, that Yehovah knows what you want, even without you asking. We have verses in Isaiah, I don’t have time to get to them all. To me, I see this in my tradition, what I grew up with. You’ll see this in Israel a lot with women, especially older women, who’ll be sitting on the bus and they’re holding the Book of Psalms, and they’ll read the entire Book of Psalms every week. So, they break it up into seven portions, and throughout the week, they read one-seventh of the Psalms. However, if you ask them, “I don’t even need the previous words you just recited, what was the gist of what you just recited?” they’ll have no idea. They’re reciting the words… you know, we talked before about incantations, about people who say, “I am Yehovah, your healer,” and they’re doing it as a whisper, as an incantation, over someone who’s wounded, or sick, or over a plague.

If it’s a prayer, it’s not magic. If it’s an incantation, it is. It’s a very subtle difference. In a way, it’s not subtle, right? Like, am I turning my heart to heaven, and are these words that I’m reciting to Yehovah? Or am I just babbling words I don’t even understand? I understand the heart of these women, and I understand the historical context of where it came from, but certainly, you have this situation where the multiplication of words, it’s almost like, “If I could just get enough words to heaven, God will hear me.” And you know what? He can hear you without you even speaking.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: He’s that incredible. Can we end with a prayer, or do you have something more you want to share on this passage?

Keith: Yeah, so before we end with a prayer, I want to bring you up to date, and everybody up to date. When we were there at that mountain behind us, this group of 40 people, we determined together after reading and reflecting, I invited them to do phase two, and I’m not going to go into it too much right now, we can maybe do another program or not, it’s okay. But basically, it’s to study this second half of that sermon that took place there at that mountain, but this time, it’s with a twist. And the twist I have to say publicly, is a thanks to you, Nehemia, because of something that you did. And actually, I’m going to tell the story right now. I have a minute to tell it.

Nehemia: Please.

Keith: On January 2nd, I called you. I said, “Nehemia, I really feel led to do part 2 of the Red Letter Series, which will be the end of the Red Letter Series.” It ends the Sermon on the Mount, but we’ve been working on this Hebrew Matthew together for the last few years, and there was a game-changing tool that you actually brought to the forefront, and I’m going to force you to tell this story now, because we may not have another chance to have this recording.

Nehemia: Okay.

Keith: And the story is simply this. I said to you, “Nehemia, if we’re working on this Hebrew Matthew, what are we going to do about the issue of vowel pointing? The first 18 episodes I did, I just used Howard’s text, it had no vowel points.” Again, I’m going to force you to say this story, how it was that you found a person that would help us vowel point, and explain what that is, the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, because that’s the tool we’re using for phase two.

Phase two is the last 18 episodes from Sermon on the Mount. We’ll be announcing that, sending it out. But this tool changed the study game, and you said to me on January 2nd, “You should make that tool available to the people,” and we are. But I want, out of your mouth, to tell people what happened, how we came to the place where you found someone that would assist us, and who it was.

Nehemia: Well, my approach is, I can read an Israeli newspaper without vowel points. I don’t need the vowel points. I can read the Hebrew text. I can read the manuscript without vowel points. I don’t need them. If you speak the language, it’s very easy to read without vowel points. It’s just something you learn to do. For those who aren’t Hebrew speakers, or for those even who are Hebrew speakers who don’t know medieval or Second Temple Hebrew, or Biblical Hebrew, if they read any kind of text, even if it were a text from 200 years ago, they’ll have a really hard time reading that text without vowel points. I’ve seen this with native Hebrew speakers who’ll read a text from the 18th, 19th century, and they can’t understand it.

And so, my desire was to add vowel points to Hebrew Matthew so anybody could pick it up with a rudimentary understanding of Hebrew, and be able to read for themselves, and eventually understand. That has been a dream of mine for years. And literally, for years, I’ve been looking for somebody, a pointer, because this is profession just like it was in the time of Ben Asher, a little bit different, there, he was copying and not creating, but it’s a profession, a pointer. I could point the text and it would be 98 percent accurate, but I’m not about 98 percent. I’m about 110 percent.

So, I needed a professional pointer to point the text. It wasn’t pointed in the Middle Ages because people could read it. It wasn’t pointed before that. There’s a debate about whether they had pointing or not, but definitely people could read it. So, every time it was copied, people didn’t put the vowels in. I said, “Let’s put the vowels in, so people who aren’t native Hebrew speakers can read it,” or who aren’t fluent in Hebrew, as well.

And so, I asked a number of different people over the years, and they said, “That’s the New Testament, we want nothing to do with it. We won’t come near it. You couldn’t pay us all the money in the world. We want nothing to do with that text.”

Keith: Maybe our rabbi wouldn’t let us do it. Maybe these are Orthodox people who are very, very, very talented and with this ability to do points.

Nehemia: Even some who weren’t Orthodox, they said, “I still want nothing to do with this text.”

Keith: Okay, excellent. Everyone said no, until you’re watching TV and you see a guy without a kippa, what happened?

Nehemia: And he’s a pointer, and he’s pointed hundreds, maybe thousands of books. And they still do point books today. There are certain types of books that they’ll point even for native Hebrew speakers. Number one, they’ll point children’s books. Children’s books are pointed. Also, they’ll point books for new immigrants, and they’ll also point poetry, because poetry, you read it and you’re like, “Okay, I know what that means. I know the gist, but which word does he mean here?” And then, even academic publications will occasionally have individual words that are pointed on the page, when a word is ambiguous and could be interpreted in multiple ways.

So, I saw a television program on Israeli Channel 1 with this pointer, and I said, “You know what? I’ve gotten ‘no,’ I’ve got the door shut in my face so many times asking for a pointer. Let me ask this guy. He clearly knows his stuff,” and he was happy to do it. And we now have the full text of Hebrew Matthew pointed.

Keith: Yeah, so here’s the exciting part, everyone. Through that blessing, and Nehemia’s actually given us access to some resources, one of the people that does research with him has helped us, we actually created an interlinear for people, where you can actually see the Hebrew pointed word, you can see the English, and so we’re going to get a chance to actually study Hebrew Matthew at a deeper level. And I have to say to you, thank you, Nehemia. And soon, we’ll announce that. It’s going to be coming out very soon, but when it comes out, you will have tools that you have not had before, and we’re going to be doing the Sermon on the Mount, so that’s the picture in the back, that place. And I want to tell one story about that place.

Nehemia, being the person that he is, he wants to make sure that this could potentially be the place. He said, “If we’re really serious, someone’s got to walk from Capernaum to this place to see if it’s even a possibility.” So, we flipped one of my coins. Both of them are heads. I called heads, he called tails. He had to do the walking. [laughing] But he walked from Capernaum to this spot, and I want to say something. What’s about to come out, step one, and then ultimately what you call, Nehemia, a “critical edition of Hebrew Matthew”, that’s going to be amazing. It could take years and years, but we’re going to give this one little piece where we kind of brought these resources, the tool Nehemia has, the researchers, the interlinear, and just do the Sermon on the Mount, and it’s going to be a Bible study where people get a chance to interact with each other.

So, the 40 people in Israel agreed they want to do it. We’re going to pick the date, and Nehemia, maybe you can help me with that, but it will be soon. And if you’re interested in this at all, simply go to BFAInternational.com, sign up for the newsletter, and you’ll at least get the announcement. But hopefully, Nehemia will be willing, if we’re stuck in quarantine… I’ve got him on the spot now. He’ll be willing to do some discussion with us about the Hebrew Matthew.

Nehemia: I love that.

Keith: You picked the books. I didn’t say anything, you picked them.

Nehemia: Yeah, we’ve got some projects going on at nehemiaswall.com as well. Guys, sign up for my newsletter. Guys, sign up for both of our newsletters, because that’s the only way we can contact you. Think about the situation we’re in now. The only way people can interact now is through social media, and social media is like living in communist China. It’s like an authoritarian state. If you say the wrong thing…

You know, look, I wrote something to a friend of mine in China, and I made a veiled reference to their leader. And I got a phone call that said, “I live in China. You cannot do that.” And there are things that I can say right now that will get me kicked off of YouTube. Now, it’s a private company, really. I mean, come on, guys. They’re protected by law as a public platform, just like the phone…

Keith: This is the beauty of our situation right now.

Nehemia: Yeah.

Keith: I know you’ve done this, and I’ve done this. We’ve got audio, video, and written material. We’ve got this situation, we’ve got platforms, webinars, all that stuff, so that during this time where people can’t be in community, face-to-face, we can be in community online. And I think last week, Nehemia, if you could just do me a favor, just share a little bit about last week when we did this. It was on the fly. How many people…

Nehemia: We’ve already had 10,000 people access this teaching that we’ve done. It’s exceeded 10,000 and by today, it’s actually probably more. That was on Monday. And yeah, I mean, it’s getting to a lot of people around the world.

Keith: It was through YouTube, it was through Zoom, it was through…

Nehemia: Oh, yeah, yeah. We had about 200 live on Zoom, it’s on Facebook, YouTube, going out to different forums. This was on a podcast, which is audio that people download to their phone.

Keith: I’m like, “we do have a chance to do something.” I’m going to tell you this, for my part of closing. So, what we did is, we created 17 weeks of Bible study, and people can do it individually. Now, all of a sudden, if you’re quarantined…

Nehemia: Is this the Red Letter Series?

Keith: The Red Letter Series, 17 weeks, using the tools. We’ll talk more about that later, maybe we could do something special. But I wanted to say thank you for picking this verse, because it’s kind of like a segue to talk about that. And ultimately, this issue of prayer, you were talking about the book we did, A Prayer to Our Father, Hebrew Origins of the Lord’s Prayer. People, that ended up being the open door for me, the invitation for me to start making that mountain something that went even further. What a blessing.

Nehemia: Wow. All right, so I want to end with a Psalm.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: I want to end, because I mentioned how there are people who recite the Psalms and don’t know what they mean. I think it’s beautiful, the Psalms. I think the Psalms are there for us to pray, but to pray from the heart. It’s Psalm 130, Shir Hama’alot, A Song of the Ascents. This is a Psalm that people would sing as they were going up to the Temple Mount. The Temple is actually a mountain, and as they were going up the ascent, they would sing this song. “Mi ma’amakim k’ratikha Yehovah,” “From the depths I have called You, Yehovah, from the depths of despair.” “Adonai shema koli,” “O Lord, hear my voice,” “Tihiyena ozneikha kashuvot lekol takhanuni,” “May Your ears be attentive to the sound of my supplications.” “Im avonot tishmor Yah, Adonai mi ya’amod?” “Yah, if You guard, if You keep iniquities, our sins, Lord, who can stand before You?” No one. “Ki imkha haslikha le’ma’an tivareh,” “For with You is forgiveness, in order that You may be feared.”

Fearing Yehovah is not about, He wants to harm us; He wants to destroy us. He wants to love us, He tells us…

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: “I don’t want your death, but for your repentance,” Ezekiel 18. “Kiviti Yehovah kivta nafshi, velidvaro hokhalti,” “I have hope, Yehovah, my soul has hoped, and to His word I have yearned. “Nafshi le’Adonai mishomrim laboker, shomrim laboker.” “My soul is to Yehovah, even more than those who hope for the morning, those at night who are hoping for the morning.” “Yakhel Yisrael el Yehovah,” “May Israel yearn for Yehovah,” “Ki im Yehovah hakhessed,” “For grace is in the hands of Yehovah,” “veharbeh imo fedut,” “and redemption is great, multiplied with Him.” “Vehu yifdeh et Yisroel mi kol avonotav,” “And He is the One who will redeem Israel from all her iniquities.”

Yehovah, please redeem Your people from all of our iniquities, all the people of the world, Yehovah. Those who eat bat stew, those who eat pangolins, those who are sinning against You in other ways, and the way the treat their fellow, the way they treat their neighbors.

Yehovah, accept their repentance, and bring healing to the land. Yehovah, I ask this in Your Holy Name, amen.

Keith: Nehemia, before you close, I want people to know something. During this time of quarantine, it really is an opportunity to go deeper into study. I would like to ask you, how many things do you think you have at Nehemia’s Wall, that people can go to, audio, video, and written?

Nehemia: I used to count how many hours of audio and video I have, and I stopped counting. I stopped counting at 200, and it’s probably like 300 now, I don’t know.

Keith: There’s many others they can do at BFAInternational.com. I think at our last count, 400 plus audio, video, written presentations, and they’re available. And both of us, I think, have people who, like I said, if you’re stuck, you’re shut in, you’re self-isolating, what do they call it, quarantine…

Nehemia: Self-quarantine.

Keith: You know, this is a real great opportunity, a great opportunity, to add some information, inspiration and revelation. Can I blow the shofar to end?

Nehemia: Bevakasha.

Keith: Yes. [blows shofar]

Nehemia: Amen. Shabbat Shalom.

Keith: Shabbat Shalom.

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