Hebrew Voices #119 – Live from Quarantine #6

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Nehemia: Shalom, welcome to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon and my special guest, Keith Johnson. Live from Quarantine. We’re under lockdown. What are you laughing at, Keith?

Keith: Oh. Welcome, everyone. Glad that you’re here. Very excited about this. It’s a twofer week.

Nehemia: It’s a twofer. How is it a twofer?

Keith: Well, last week we had a twofer. We had Passover day, where you had the taste test…

Nehemia: Yeah.

Keith: And then, you came back on Friday with another guest. This week, we’re having a taste test, it’s my understanding.

Nehemia: Well, it’s not so much a taste test. You know, one of the things in the Jewish culture, and I think in the Tanakh as well, is that food has a central place. Food has spiritual significance. Think about what was the first commandment God gave to mankind. It was, “Don’t eat this. And by the way, you can eat all these other things, including that thing that will give you eternal life.” Because I was taught early on that the prohibition was to eat both from the tree of knowledge and tree of life. Then I read the story myself. The prohibition was only to eat from the tree of knowledge, not the tree of life. They were expected to eat from that. He said, “All the other ones in the garden you could eat, including that tree of life.”

Keith: So, it’s number six. We’ve been doing this Live from Quarantine, and this will be the sixth time.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: At least, the sixth time that we’ve had the title, Live from Quarantine. And I want to know if I can bring people into our process, if I can…

Nehemia: You absolutely can. But can we start with the Passover foods?

Keith: Absolutely, start with the Passover foods.

Nehemia: Okay. So, I was looking for something, doing this study about things that, let’s see, how do I explain it; to make for Passover, because we have matzah, we’re told to eat for seven days. And, you know, it’s also called in the Tanakh, “the bread of affliction”, “lekhem oni”. And the joke is, it’s called “bread of affliction” because of some gastro-intestinal stoppage that takes place.

However, I thought, “Is there somewhere we can have some variation?” And I was doing a study with a gourmet chef. We would read a passage, and she would come up with these incredible dishes. And so, I just want to share some with the people. And these are biblical dishes; these are things people had in biblical times.

Keith: This has to do with the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. How does this work?

Nehemia: Well, so the seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the first and the seventh days are days that are holy convocations, or holy occasions, in some translations, or holy proclamations, even. Days that we are to proclaim to be holy. The seventh is actually an assembly, something which today we actually can’t do. And I mean “today,” meaning like in 2020, dealing with the Coronavirus, you have a problem if you try to assemble people in most countries around the world, including where I am, right now, in Texas.

So, the seventh day is the holy convocation. It’s essentially a day similar to Sabbath where you’re not allowed to work. And part of that celebration… I mean, you’re getting me off-topic, but let’s do it if we’re going to do it. So, if you look at my favorite book, the Book of Nehemiah, chapter 8, there’s this really interesting scene where the people hear the Torah read to them, and they’re very upset when they hear the Torah read to them.

Let me start in verse 8. “So, they read in the book in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading.” Okay. So, Nehemiah, which is the tirshata, the governor, and Ezra, the priest, describe, “And the Levites that taught the people said unto all the people, ‘This day is holy unto Yehovah, your God. Mourn not nor weep,’ for all the people wept when they heard the words of the Torah.” Why were they weeping? Because they weren’t doing it.

They had these commandments in the Torah that they weren’t doing, and they heard how there was a blessing and a curse; a blessing if you do it, a curse if you don’t. And they didn’t even know what the commandments were, and so they were weeping. So, he says, “Today is a holy day. We don’t mourn on holy days. We don’t weep.”

“Then he said unto them…” verse 10, “Go your way.” And it says, “ikhlu mashmanim, eat fatty foods, u’shtu mamtakim, and drink sweet drinks.” I’m not going to show the drinks on the video. Well, actually we have a nice, sweet drink here, which is milk, to represent the land flowing with milk and honey. Lactose-free. “And send portions unto them…” Oh, that’s delicious, “for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy unto Yehovah, neither be sorry, for the joy of Yehovah is your strength.”

Keith: Thank you. Just context, that’s all.

Nehemia: Beautiful context here. So, by enjoying this day, that gives us strength, even though there might be something we’re upset about. There’s something we’re sad about, in this case the coronavirus, which is devastating in many countries. Today is a day of rejoicing, a day of happiness. And part of that happiness, we see there in the book of Nehemia, is you eat fatty foods, and you drink sweet drinks. You eat…

Keith: On this day, Nehemia?

Nehemia: On this day, yeah.

Keith: On this day, wow.

Nehemia: This day, beginning at sunset, is a day where we’re actually commanded, it’s a mitzva from the Torah, to eat foods. Also, if we’re on that topic… you’re a little bit off what I want to talk about, but sure. So, we also have a very interesting passage where it talks about the tithes, in Deuteronomy. And it says there, and they’re talking about the tithes of the agricultural produce, that they would separate out, and then they would come to the appointed place, the holy place, that is, and they would eat it. And it was a sacred act to eat it. You had to be ritually clean when you ate it.

And what he talks about there in Deuteronomy, he says, “Well, if you’re far away, you’re not going to bring it to the land. You’re not going to bring it to the place Yehovah puts His name,” which later is Jerusalem. You can sell it, and then there buy strong drink, it says, actually, “strong drink”. And I know for the Baptists, that might be really sweet grape juice, maybe. I don’t know, but in the Tanakh, it’s an alcoholic beverage, and “meat to your desire”.

So, you had this idea of eating food as a sacred act to celebrate these appointed times of Yehovah. And here we are, coming upon… in some places it’s already begun, here we’re a little bit before sunset, the sacred time. That is today, right now, is the beginning, Tuesday night and Wednesday, the beginning of the seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: Khag haMatzot, which we colloquially call “Passover.” Can I share some of the foods here?

Keith: Please.

Nehemia: So, the first and foremost, of course, is going to be matzah. And I shared last time, we have three types of matzah, which are based on Leviticus chapter 2. We’ve got… I believe this is the baked matzah, and the deep-fried matzah, and the roasted matzah, or one of the other matzahs. So, we’re going to have that. And we’re going to have some… Let’s see, what shall we have with this? Ah. So, I was looking for recipes with my expert chef, and one of the things we looked at was the manna, the manna from heaven.

And isn’t that manna delicious, right? Well, I guess it’s delicious if you’ve never had it before. But if you’re eating it every day, it becomes quite annoying. And this is what it actually says. So, this is Numbers chapter 11. Let’s do Numbers 11, and let’s start in verse 6. “But now our soul has dried away. There is nothing at all besides this man.” In Hebrew, it’s “man,” in English, “manna,” “this man before our eyes. Now, the man was as coriander seed, and the color thereof is the color of bdellium.” It doesn’t actually say in Hebrew “the color”, it says it has the appearance of bdulakh, which is some kind of a precious gem. Meaning, maybe, it was translucent or something.

“And the people went about and gathered it and ground it in mills or beat it in a mortar and baked it in pans and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of…” and then it’s… boy, it’s anybody’s guess. It says, “leshad hashamen”, “the (blank) of oil”. So, what’s the (blank) of oil? Some translations have “cakes of oil”. Here, in the King James, it has “fresh oil”. It might even be “buttery oil”, or “oily butter”.

So, in that spirit, I have here a concoction which is butter mixed with silan, which is honey. Silan is date honey. It’s the modern Hebrew word, silan. And basically, this is what it says it tasted like, as well. If we look in Exodus 16:31, “And the house of Israel called the name of it man, and it was like coriander seed, white. And the taste of it was like wafers made with honey,” or “wafers with honey.” So, the honey they talk about in the Tanakh is generally understood to be date honey, or silan. This is home-made date honey from medjool dates mixed with butter. I’m telling you, this is gourmet stuff, Keith.

So, we’re going to take a little bit of this, and we’re going to put it on the matzah, and just enjoy some of it. Ah. There’s a reason it’s called “bread of affliction”. But boy, that’s delicious. It really is like candy, it’s delicious.

Okay. The other thing I have here is, it says of the man they made it like cakes. Well, what kind of cake could I make here? Not cakes like sweet cakes, but like into little clumps, right? So, this is a cake made of matzah meal. Matzah meal is, you take matzah, and you grind it up into a flour, and then you can make stuff out of it. And this was actually marketed in a local supermarket here in Dallas as cream of wheat. But it’s not cream of wheat. It tastes a lot like matzah ball soup. Mmm, this is the taste of Passover to me. This is a taste of food that my savta, my grandmother used to make. Delicious.

Then here we have some goat cheese, because they had goat cheese back then, and why not? Oh, that’s good. All right, we’ve got some other foods, but I’m going to put that on the back burner, and we’re going to come back later and share some of the other foods. You go, Keith. I know there’s something you want to talk about.

Keith: I tell you, last time when you did this, I got so hungry. And of course, I’m getting hungry again. You and your chef came up with some biblical foods that… I mean, what was so cool about last week is that these are foods that come right from the Tanakh. The way that you were able to make them so delicious looking, it sounds like you’ve done the same this week, huh?

Nehemia: The chef did, yeah. Yeah, okay. Go ahead. I know you want to talk about something else.

Keith: Is it true, Nehemia, that in the tradition that you come from… In the tradition I come from, we pray before we eat. But for you, it’s a prayer after you eat. So maybe we could do prayer after you ate a little bit.

Nehemia: Bevakasha.

Keith: If we’re running out of time, why don’t you…

Nehemia: It’s actually before and after, in the traditional household.

Keith: Give us a traditional prayer that you would have had, when you sat around the table with your father and mother.

Nehemia: Okay. So, the main prayer would have been, “Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha’olam, hamotzi lekhem min ha’aretz.” “Blessed art Thou, Lord, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the ground.” And you could say that about matzot, as well. We could say a traditional-type prayer which is, “Barukh ata Yehovah,” “Blessed art Thou, Yehovah,” “Eloheinu melekh ha’olam,” “our God, King of the Universe,” “shetzivanu le’ekhol matzah,” “who has commanded us to eat matzah.” Mmm.

Keith: So, you can say the prayer, eat, and then eat some more?

Nehemia: That’s right. Who knew that matzah could be so delicious?

Keith: What’s interesting about that is the idea of being thankful of what He’s providing for you and being able to pray in that way.

Nehemia: And that comes from the verse from Deuteronomy that says, “Ve’ahavta vesavata uverakhta et Yehovah eloheikha,” “You shall eat and be satisfied, and bless Yehovah, your God,” “al ha’aretz asher natan lakh,” “for the land which He has given you, for the earth which He has given you.”

Keith: Amen. Well, I’d like to say a prayer too, if that’s okay.

Nehemia: Bevakasha.

Keith: Father, thank you for this day, and that You’re preparing us in this part of the world, for others that have already entered into that special day, a day at the end of our Feast of Unleavened Bread, a time where we’re able to remember what You’ve done for us, so many symbols in this week. And now, as we enter into this last day, help us to have a heart and a mind that’s thankful. Help us to remember and have that remembrance actually make a difference in our life. Help us not to just be people of rote, but a people who truly have a heart that would seek You. In Your name, Amen.

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: I got a phone call today, Nehemia. I do have something. And actually, you did this with me. I have ambassadors that actually set up a face-to-face conversation, it’s one of the funniest stories that ever happened. You set up a meeting with me for an ambassador meeting, and you got on the video with me, and would you please tell them?

Nehemia: No, you had this thing with BFA International that you were doing, where you were inviting people to come to a face-to-face meeting. And I saw this email probably two months after you sent it out. I’m thinking like, “Okay, this is Keith’s little webinar, where you go to the face-to-face meeting and it’s like, ‘Hello, I am Keith Johnson of the Biblical Foundations Academy.’” Instead, it’s like…

Keith: You told someone ahead of time, you said, “It’s not going to be him,” right?

Nehemia: Of course, it wasn’t going to be you, but it was you live, so that was pretty cool. So, what did you think, when you saw that I’d signed up for it?

Keith: So, I want to tell you what happened today, and it’s related to the beginning of our time here after the wonderful food. So, a friend set up a meeting with me, and he got the same email. He’s from England. His name is Stewart, and he’s dealing with the coronavirus like you wouldn’t believe. He actually works with the police department there, and they’re helping to prepare some things. He was going on and on.

So, he’s telling me a verse. He says, “Keith, I’ve got to tell you something. There’s a verse I want to share with you.” And I said, “Can I have your permission to share this tonight, when I meet with Nehemia?” And he said, “Absolutely.” And it’s in Jeremiah 33:3, and here’s what it says. “Call to Me, and I will answer you.” Just stop right there. “Call to Me, and I will answer you.” It says, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things which you do not know.” And I’ve got to tell you, Nehemia, this is related to my phone call with you, and all that stuff, is the thought that the Father would say, “If you call to Me, I will answer.” And then it says, “I’m going to tell you things you do not know.”

Now, I’ll tell you, the spirit of this whole thing that we’re doing, Live from Quarantine, I don’t know about you, but there have been some times in the last six weeks, or five weeks, or how many weeks have we done this?

Nehemia: I don’t know, it seems like a long time.

Keith: A few weeks, where that’s the only thing I could do, was call to Him, because there’s a lot that we don’t know. And so, I called you this morning and asked you about a passage that you were going to see if we could look at.

Nehemia: Before we get to that, can we give the context of Jeremiah’s prophesy?

Keith: Absolutely. Feel free.

Nehemia: All right. “And the word of Yehovah was to Jeremiah a second time, and he was still shut up in the court prison, saying…” So, he is under quarantine.

Keith: He’s under quarantine.

Nehemia: He’s in prison.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: “Thus sayeth Yehovah, the maker thereof, Yehovah who forms it, who prepares it. Yehovah is His name. ‘Call to me, and I will answer you. And I will tell you great…’” It’s interesting what this is, “mighty things…”

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: “…which you did not know.’” And then He talks about the war with the Babylonians. And the war is going to be a destructive war, but then in verse 6 He says, “Behold, I will bring health and cure. And I will cure them, and I will bring unto them the abundance of peace and truth.” Can this be our prayer again? This has to be the prayer. “Call Him and answer He will.” And one of the things He’s going to reveal is, there will be a healing.

Keith: Well, let me tell you…

Nehemia: And it wasn’t immediate, because that healing wasn’t going to be for another 70 years. I hope this COVID-19 doesn’t last that long.

Keith: No, no, no. Well, my friend, Stewart, like I said, he’s set up for this meeting with me. And we have a strategy session with people around the world that would take the information and make it their own. And so, he’s agreed to do that in the United Kingdom. That’s something that’s happening, but when he gave this verse, it was in preparation for something that I’ve been dealing with for two weeks. Say, “two weeks…”

Nehemia: Two weeks.

Keith: The passage that… I called you this morning and I said, “Could we look at this for Live from Quarantine in the spirit of…”

Nehemia: You made me look at it last week too.

Keith: …giving people some perspective…

Nehemia: I’m like, “I read this already.”

Keith: Giving people some perspective that might help them during this time. Now, I’m going to tell you, I sent out something today, Nehemia, where I just basically said… I’ll put it to you this way; perspective, to me, is everything. And I get my best perspective through the word of God. So, can we look at this passage together?

Nehemia: Let’s do it.

Keith: I’d like you to give your thoughts. I’d like to give my thoughts. Anyone that’s listening on the live chat, they can give their thoughts. But it’s kind of in the spirit of what I think we’re dealing with. So, can we look at Isaiah chapter 31?

Nehemia: Let’s do it. It’s a short chapter, let’s read it.

Keith: Isaiah 31, and I have been, for two weeks… And when I tell you that this has been a devotional for two weeks, it really has. And I’ve done something, if I can say, with the people that are listening in mind. What’s beautiful about our study that we had together, we’ve always had the ability to go to the language, history, and context. We’ve got the tap-tap there, for those who don’t know. Nehemia’s got a very powerful software program. We could check a word, how many times it’s used. We can go to the Hebrew; we can find it in the Greek. We can find what’s in the Mishna. We can find it in the Talmud. We can talk about this sort of thing.

But I decided to do something for those people out there who don’t have access to all of that. And what I did, back to my old days, is I just took this passage and read it most every day, and just let, if I can say, the spirit of our Father minister to me through this passage. And I want to share it with you, and I want you to do the things that we do, tap-tap, check the words. But I think this passage could be a blessing to everyone.

So, Isaiah chapter 31, and maybe, Nehemia, do me a favor. You just did it with Jeremiah. A little bit of context, just a little bit of context about Isaiah 31 before I start reading.

Nehemia: Yeah, so the context here is that Israel is at a crossroads between two major empires. Actually, a literal crossroads. There is an international trade route that if you went anywhere, really anywhere in Asia and you wanted to go to Egypt, you passed through Israel. You passed through specifically, the Jezreel Valley, but other parts of it. That was a choke point, the Jezreel Valley. That’s where we get the battle of Megiddo, the first battle of Megiddo, and the second battle of Megiddo, and the future battle of Megiddo.

So, Israel’s at this crossroads, and the two major empires on either end of the major trade route are on one side, Assyria, and the other side, Egypt. And Israel was always pinched between these two superpowers.

And when Assyria put a lot of pressure on them, who did they go to? They said, “Egypt, help us, help us, help us.” And when Egypt put pressure on them, they said, “Assyria, help,” or Babylon later, which is in the same area, “help us, help us, help us.” So that’s the context here, that instead of relying on Yehovah, the people are relying on Egypt and on Assyria.

Keith: Now, with that context, I have to be honest with you, I’ve been struggling, because I’ve noticed a lot of what I call different agendas that are coming constantly, regarding what we’re dealing with. Permission to speak freely…

Nehemia: Bevakasha.

Keith: …on points here. We’ve got the left and the right. We’ve got the conservatives; we’ve got the liberals. We’ve got the politics; we’ve got the church. We’ve got the religions; we’ve got all these sorts of things that are vying for our energy and our time. And what I love about this passage, I’m just going to read it, and we’ll just go through it like we used to do when we did the Prophet Pearls. Have you listened to Prophet Pearls, by the way? That was amazing.

Nehemia: Well, I haven’t actually listened, to be honest with you.

Keith: I’m not asking you; I’m asking…

Nehemia: Oh, the audience. You know, we still get people who are discovering Torah Pearls now, after… is it nine years, really?

Keith: Yeah, of course.

Nehemia: I get people who say, “Nehemia, your four episodes from finishing. What are you going to do when you’re done?” And I’m like, “What do you mean?” Like, “Well, there are four more episodes of Torah Pearls,” so people are still discovering it, it’s incredible, and Prophet Pearls as well. A lot of people don’t realize that just as there’s a weekly Torah portion, there’s a weekly Prophets portion. And through my ministry, Makor Hebrew Foundation, and your ministry, BFA International, we came together, and we studied those different passages. And we’re putting those out every week, and we still get people discovering that.

Keith: So, can we do it like we did Prophet Pearls, Isaiah chapter 31?

Nehemia: Please.

Keith: You’ve given us context. I’m going to read it.

Nehemia: The Hebrew voice of Isaiah, and the Hebrew voice of Keith Johnson. Let’s do it.

Keith: “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they do not look…” Now, I’m reading from the NASB. It’s my former Methodists Bible.

Nehemia: Okay.

Keith: Did I tell you, Nehemia, I’m not a Methodist anymore? Did I tell you about that?

Nehemia: You did but tell the people why you’re not a Methodist anymore.

Keith: So, I’ll talk about that, in a bit.

Nehemia: Be careful, we might get kicked off of YouTube.

Keith: That’s okay, I won’t get kicked off YouTube. It says, “But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor do they seek Yehovah. Yet He also is wise, and will…” here it comes, “bring disaster.” I’m going to read the end of the verse, and I want you to comment, “and does not retract His words, but will arise against the house of evildoers and against the help of the workers of iniquity.”

Nehemia: So, the JPS has, “He has brought on misfortune.”

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: That’s too bad. And what the Hebrew says is, “ra,” “He brings evil.”

Keith: Yeah, and this is something that people really, really struggle with. I’m just going to say this. In the tradition that I come from, if we look around, we look for Satan around every corner. Anything that’s bad that happens, any disaster that happens, “it’s from Satan, Satan did it,” as if to say that God and Satan are in some sort of battle. In this corner you have God, and in this corner, you have Satan. I’m not going to go into depth with that, but this is an example where it says, where sometimes… Say, “sometimes…”

Nehemia: Sometimes.

Keith: …He brings disaster. Now, I’ll tell you, I have no problem saying tonight, for those that are listening, as I have been in prayer and looking at the circumstances of the situation, I don’t think our Father is up in heaven saying, “What COVID-19 are you talking about?” I don’t think He’s up there wondering, “What’s going on?” I think this whole situation is an opportunity for us.

It’s almost like this; I think I might have told you this. Last week, when were about to have our meeting, the sirens went off on a Wednesday, because every first Wednesday of the month they test the emergency broadcast system here and the sirens go off to make sure that the sirens work. Well, I think the sirens are going off. It’s an emergency broadcast system from heaven, an opportunity for us to respond and to be tested through this process. This is something that our Father is and will continue to use for His people.

Nehemia: Can you just verify in the Hebrew there, it says, “vayaveh ra”, “and He brings evil”.

Keith: There it is, “and He brings evil”.

Nehemia: And how is it that God can bring evil? God has nothing to do with evil. God is only good. He’s only love. Well, that’s the Zoroastrian view of God. The Zoroastrians believed there was a good God and an evil God, and the good God was only good, and the evil God was only evil. And in fact, Yehovah, we’re told in Isaiah 45… can we read Isaiah 45 real quick?

Keith: Please read it. It’s a great one.

Nehemia: I know you want to focus on 31, we’ll get back to that. 45, I’ll start in verse 5, “I am Yehovah, and there is no other. Apart from Me, there is no Elohim.”

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: “I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged Me.” Who does He mean? He’s talking to Cyrus. He mentions Cyrus by name. Cyrus is a Persian emperor. The Persians are Zoroastrians. So even though Cyrus doesn’t acknowledge Yehovah, he is going to strengthen him, “So that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting, they may know that there is none besides Me. I am Yehovah, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness. I bring prosperity and create…” in Hebrew, it says “evil”. NIV has “disaster”, I don’t know what the other translations have. We can look them up. But the Hebrew says, “yotzer ohr,” “He who is the former, or the fashioner of light,” “u’voreh khoshekh,” “and He creates darkness,” “oseh shalom,” “He makes peace,” “u’voreh rah,” “and creates evil. I, Yehovah, do all these things.”

Keith: Now, Nehemia, here’s why this is encouraging to me. When I began to read all of the big book, from Genesis all the way in through Chronicles, in English, and for Malachi in English, and then when I get to the parts of the New Testament, I say, “Well, how does this fit?” A perfect example is that when Yeshua is tested by the tester, he can only go so far. It reminds of the story in Job. What can he do? And what’s Yeshua’s response back to the word of God?

Now, I want to keep reading this passage.

Nehemia: Keep going.

Keith: It says this.

Nehemia: What verse are we in?

Keith: “Now, Egyptian are men…” I’m sorry, verse 3, 31 verse 3. “Now, the Egyptians are men and they are not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit, so Yehovah will stretch out His hand, and he who helps will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and all of them will come to an end together.”

Verse 4, and I love this part. “For thus says Yehovah,” to me, “as the lion or the young lion growls over his prey, against which a band of shepherds is called out, will not be terrified at their voice, nor disturbed at their noise.” Comment?

Nehemia: It’s interesting. I don’t know that much about lions, but I have to wonder if somehow the lions in Israel were more aggressive than, at least the lions they have in North America, because I’m told in North America the way they hunt down a lion is, they have three dogs, or maybe five dogs, and the dog, if it faces that lion, it’ll be ripped to shreds. Two or three will be ripped to shreds. But the lion doesn’t know that. It’s afraid of the bark, and it ends up in a tree.

So, I wonder if the lions were maybe more aggressive, and more bold in Israel. I don’t know, they’re extinct now, so who knows. We hunted them into extinction. Yeah, but it’s an interesting metaphor.

Keith: So, it says here, then it goes on in verse 4, “So will Yehovah of Hosts come down to wage war on Mount Zion, and on its hill. Like flying birds, so Yehovah of Hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it.” And then, here’s the part that caught me. “He will pass over and rescue it.”

Nehemia: And the word there is “pasoakh”, which is from the same root as “Passover, Pesach”.

Keith: Exactly, that’s what we’re talking in Isaiah.

Nehemia: He will pesach it.

Keith: This is another pass over.

Nehemia: And I have a teaching on this called Passover Feast of Protection, where I show how a lot of the ancient sources understood this, actually, as referring to protection.

Keith: Amen. Verse 6, “Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel.” Let’s stop. What if this whole thing that’s happening, all of this that’s happening… And my son, Kyle, said it best. He said this to me three weeks ago. As soon as I got home from Israel, I wasn’t home for 10 minutes, and he said to me, he said, “You know, dad. I don’t wonder for those of us who trust in Yehovah, if He’s not testing us, if He’s not going to use this situation to see where we’re at in our heart.”

And the other thing he said to me, he says, “You know how you can find out who people are? In crisis. In crisis, when it’s difficult, you start finding out who people are, and what their response is, and how they respond.” And this is an invitation for us, during this time, to be able to look again where we are at in relationship to the true God; not the horses of Egypt, not the strength of politics, or whatever. Now, this is the verse that I want to get to.

Nehemia: Hey, before you get to that, I just want to point out something here. So, we’re talking here about… I think what you’re really saying is that this pandemic could be something from Yehovah to test us, to purify… is that what you’re saying?

Keith: I’d like to go on record, and I’d like people to hold me accountable for this. What’s happening right now in our lifetime has not happened in our lifetime. It may never happen again. The entire world, everyone would say it’s unprecedented. And when you start talking about something like this that’s going to affect the entire world, it’s affecting the United States and the entire world on many levels…

Nehemia: Satan’s out of control.

Keith: It’s hard for me not to believe that our Father in Heaven is maestro, that He is… I just don’t believe that this is happening on earth, apart from what’s happening in heaven. Heaven is sending us an emergency broadcast system alert, and the people of God are to respond, as we find over and over in Scripture. This passage has been, for two weeks, I can’t get it out until tonight. This passage, every single morning it’s like, “This is me. Don’t be afraid. Let’s now move on to what He says,” because what does He say, Nehemia?

Nehemia: Oh, before we move on… Go ahead, yeah. Are you reading on, or are you reading it again?

Keith: Say that again?

Nehemia: No, are you continuing the passage?

Keith: Verse 6.

Nehemia: Wait, so before you get to verse 6, I want to point that I agree with you that something so momentous must somehow be part of God’s plan, no question about it. This isn’t just an accident, that it happened. On the other hand, I want to point out that the black swan here… they call it a “black swan”, the unusual event that happened, isn’t the pandemic. The black swan is the extended period of time we’ve had without a serious pandemic. And to put that in context, if you look at cholera pandemics, the first great cholera pandemic was 1817 to 1824. I mean, that’s seven years.

Then in 1829 to 1837, 1846 to 1860, 1863 to 1875, so they had a three-year gap there, right? 1881 to 1896, 1889 to 1923, 1961 to 1975. Those are the great cholera pandemics which killed who knows, countless millions. So, the fact that we’ve gone since 1918 or 19 without a major pandemic, that’s actually also something we have to look at as the hand of Yehovah. Maybe Yehovah wanted something to happen during that period of time, and that’s why we didn’t have a pandemic. I don’t know, I’m just throwing that out. I’m going to let you continue.

Keith: You can go back and forth on when they call it a pandemic. In 2009, they called H1N1 a pandemic, and it killed 12,000 people. But the point being, in this situation, pandemic from the standpoint of worldwide, affecting the entire world, I think, what are we at, 185 countries that are dealing with this right now?

Nehemia: Something like that, yeah.

Keith: And in the United States alone, 96 percent of people are sheltering in place, and doing all of these things. I mean, there’s no question we’re dealing with something on a worldwide level.

Nehemia: Well, in Israel, my mother, who takes the dog out every morning, she tells me there’s police waiting there to see if she’s going more than 100 meters from her house in her wheelchair. And so, my sister wanted to visit her. She hadn’t seen her in weeks, except on Zoom. And so, she went on a walk and happened to be walking six feet apart, two meters away from my mother as she was walking her dog. I mean, this is really unprecedented in modern times, no question about it. But that’s because we’ve had this unprecedented period of a blessing, at least in the Western world.

Keith: Amen. So, it says this, “For in that day, every man will cast away his silver idols and his gold idols, which your hands have made as a sin.” I said it last week. During the time of Passover, they talk about Him passing over, but it also says, “He’s judging their gods, the gods of the Egyptians.” And in this situation, it’s saying, “Those idols that you’re holding onto…” And I have to tell you something, this is a deep thought, but I’m wondering if even the busyness that we do daily doesn’t also become an idol that’s been cast away. Listen, I mean, come on. This has become more important than the wallet…

Nehemia: Yeah, but don’t you spend more time on that now?

Keith: Now, they’re telling us. People are walking around, they won’t let go of this thing, they won’t let go of it. And guess what? What this thing continues to give us is all sorts of images and all sorts of videos and all sorts of conversations. And we’ve got social, and we’ve got sports, and we’ve got money. You can check your finances, and you can check it all. And all of that, all of that, the place that we’re at right now is becoming not so important.

And in this passage, what He’s saying is, “Those silver idols that you have, those gold idols that you have, those will be cast away.” Let this go on for another month, two months, six months. You know what the scientists said today? True story. Some scientists actually said today that the way that we’re going to be able to get rid of this is to do this social distancing and all this stuff, until 2022. I’m struggling for 10 days. I’m having a really hard time.

Nehemia: Let me just jump in here and tell people what’s going on in the world. So, in Israel, I’m told that you can’t even go in the supermarket unless you have a face mask. There’s a limited number of people out in the supermarket. We’re not there yet in Texas, but there’s one shop that I called today, and they said, “Well, you didn’t make an appointment.” I’m like, “Okay, there’s something I need to buy.” “Okay, we can pencil you in for 12 o’clock on Thursday, but you only have a certain amount of time. Come with a mask. We’ll give you gloves.”

Keith: Yeah, well there it is.

Nehemia: And that’s the law in Israel now. Here, they’re kind of…

Keith: We were talking about that, as far as going… But the point being, it says here in the verse that “the silver idols and the gold idols which your hands have made as a sin, those will be cast away.” Now, here’s verse 8, “And the Assyrian will fall by a sword not of man, and a sword not of man will devour him, so he will not escape the sword. And his young men will become forced laborers…” and I love this, “and his rock will pass away.” “His rock,” same words that we’re using up there, talking about the pass over, it will pass over.

Nehemia: Okay, wait a minute. That was the word “pesach”, and here it’s “avor”. Yeah, “avor”.

Keith: Yeah, but guess what it says.

Nehemia: So, in Hebrew it’s a different word.

Keith: Why will it pass away? Because of this word in English, “panic”.

Nehemia: Or “terror”.

Keith: Or terror. And listen, people have legitimate reason. This is not being made up. This is not a conspiracy; 24,000 people have died in a matter of what, six weeks? We were one, one person, I think, when we left. We came back, it’s now 24,000 people. It’s not made up, it’s for real. People have reason for that. But how would the Father use this situation for us as His people? What would it look like if we would just say, “Okay, Father, 100 percent it’s You, and You alone? We are giving our entire life to You, our fears, our concerns, our ideas, our gods, all of that.” Let’s just put it down and return to Him.

Nehemia: So, talk to me about what you understand here, “from His rock”. What’s the rock?

Keith: Well, it’s interesting. I think about the security, or the idea of what’s important, the thing that they believed. Like, we talk about Yehovah as our rock…

Nehemia: Yeah.

Keith: Them talking about it as their rock.

Nehemia: So, there are a number of ways of interpreting this, right? One way to interpret it, which seems to be the way that many of the translations interpret it, maybe all of them, is that this is some kind of a fortification. Like the NIV has “their stronghold will fall because of terror”. So, it’s a military position. It’s some kind of a redoubt, or fortress. That’s one interpretation. The other is what you’re saying, that his rock is his god. And actually, the Assyrians believed their emperor was a god. Maybe it means that; the symbol of their power, which is their god, will pass away. And then maybe it is a play on words with what we had earlier in the passage, where it had “pasoakh”, meaning “to defend”, but also with the connotation of hopping over something, passing over something.

So Yehovah passes over, He passes over to protect. The pagan god, he passes over because he’s just gone, he’s disappearing.

Keith: Now, what’s under all of this? I will tell people, what’s under all of this is a great sense of love and grace from our Father, that He, in His love, doesn’t leave us to just continue down a path. He doesn’t just say, “Well, whatever. Those people, those humans, do whatever they want.” We see it in history over and over again. We see it in the Scripture, over and over again, where He intervenes. He intercepts. We encounter Him, and I believe, and I would just say it for myself as a former Methodist, yes, I still want to talk about that. I’ve got to leave the farm today on a little live conversation here, that He is intervening in history in our lives, with a purpose. And that purpose is for us to dwell…

Nehemia: Can I read what it says in the word of God? Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 5, “Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Yehovah, your God, disciplines you.”

Keith: Now, could you give me just a minute to tell the folks that are listening something? I, for the last few years, have been struggling deeply with what I see happening in the tradition that I come from, the United Methodist Church. And over the last couple of years, it’s gotten hotter, and hotter, and hotter, and hotter. And finally, about a year or so ago, there was an international…

[inaudible]

Nehemia: Okay, I’m not trying to be funny. But exactly when you brought up the controversial thing, you broke up.

Keith: Okay, good. We were having a conversation…

Nehemia: I think it’s PC here.

Keith: …in the United Methodist Church regarding the issue of human sexuality. Here was my struggle. My struggle was that the United Methodist Church is based on the world’s voice. So, we have people from all over the world that come together to determine how they’re going to deal with things. What they did about a year ago in the spring is the world spoke and they said, “We’re going to go with the biblical…”

[inaudible]

Keith: …and how we act this out within the church in love, and in grace, this is going to be our response.” The people that didn’t like that happened to be some very powerful people that said, “We’re not going to listen to the voice of the world, and what we’re going to do is next year, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the annual conference, we’re going to change the whole thing.” And my conference, which is Minnesota, determined, “We’re not going to go with the world’s voice. We’re going to go on our own path, and everyone connected to the Minneapolis international conference will go the way we’re going,” which happened to be at the most liberal place that they possibly could.

I called the bishop. I said, “Bishop, here’s the situation. Here’s my credentials. Here’s my ordination. I’m done.” He sends me a note back and he says, “No, no. You must not do this. You must wait,” he says, “because this will affect finances, and this will affect this, that and the other. And maybe you can connect with another denomination.” The Father told me, “Get out,” so I got out. Here’s the funny part, to me. They were going to make this decision in Minneapolis in May, but guess what just happened, Nehemia?

Nehemia: Has it been cancelled?

Keith: It got cancelled. There’s not going to be any international conference. That’s just one of the many…

Nehemia: Can you get your credentials back?

Keith: Listen, I don’t want my credentials back. Here’s the good news. The good news is, I’m free. I’m free from saying, “The Methodist position is this. Here’s the idea about that.” I’m just a guy who’s joined himself to Yehovah. I get to be free from the church. By the way, did you know the church is closed? Even on Easter Sunday, there’s no church service. The synagogue is closed, the mosque is closed, you tell me this isn’t the Father in Heaven.

The religion of humanism, the religion of the atheists, and the lists go on, all the religions, shut down. It’s a chance for us to draw near to Him. I just happened to get out before He closed it.

Nehemia: All right.

Keith: So, I’m pretty excited right now, because I get a sense of His love and His care, and I want to say to people that are listening, that Isaiah 31 is not supposed to scare us. It’s not supposed to make us think that He doesn’t love us. But if you read the whole book, it’s a love letter. Including when sometimes, say “sometimes…”

Nehemia: Sometimes.

Keith: …He needs to discipline His people. He needs to bring them to a place where they can be molded again. And I think we, as a society, across borders, have an opportunity to do that.

Nehemia: Wow.

Keith: That’s as much as I want to say about Isaiah 31. You can go ahead on the thing…

Nehemia: No, this is deep. So Yehovah… and look, however you translate the word “Pesach”, we have Yehovah specifically… Well, let’s see. You have that same word “over” in Exodus 12, let’s just look at that. Yeah, Yehovah says, “And I will pass over,” and that word means “Passover,” right?

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: That’s avar, the same word that in Isaiah 31, it says there, “His rock, the rock of Assyria will pass over,” meaning “pass away.” He’s going to cease to exist.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: So Yehovah, here, may be contrasting Himself. This may be a call back to Exodus 12. It probably is, because of the word “Pesach” as well, right? You have those two words in juxtaposition, “avar” and “pasach”. So Yehovah is the defender. When He passes over, it’s to defend things. When the pagan god, which is powerless against Yehovah, the idolatry will pass away.

Keith: And this has been for two weeks, and I couldn’t wait to talk to you about it this morning. You were so gracious to be willing to discuss with me. I hope people that are listening will do something that I’ve been challenged to do since I met you. And I want to challenge you to something.

One of the things that you used to always say is that “Listen, we need to see what the Scripture says. Not what people say, not what the religion says.” And man, we had a great situation, Nehemia. We had questions back and forth, back and forth. But there was something that you said to me when we first got together. You said, “Keith,” and I called you this morning and asked you about this. You said, “Keith, listen. Yeah, we’ll study the Bible together on two conditions,” or was it one condition?

Nehemia: Two conditions.

Keith: You said, “On two conditions we’ll study together.” Can you tell the people what you said? Because some of them may not have heard these conditions.

Nehemia: Yeah, so the first condition was that you don’t try to convert me, and I won’t try to convert you.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: And the second one was, we’ll only talk about the Tanakh. No Jesus talk.

Keith: Yeah, so you said, “No conversion, none of that Jesus stuff. No little book. No New Testament.” And Nehemia, have I lived by that with you?

Nehemia: You have, absolutely.

Keith: Have I ever tried to get you in a corner and tried to convert you?

Nehemia: No. Have I ever tried to convert you?

Keith: You’ve never tried to convert me. And if so, you haven’t done a very good job. Even though I’m not a Methodist, I’m not a Karaite. Somebody say, “not a Karaite”.

Nehemia: Not a Karaite.

Keith: …I’m not a Methodist. I’m glad. I am one who’s joined himself. But here’s what’s really interesting. This morning, something happened. Can we bring the people into this?

Nehemia: Please.

Keith: So, this morning, I got up and I was looking for the link for the YouTube, and I see here, last Friday, you had this great conversation with a dear friend of mine, A.J. Bernard, who’s a Methodist pastor. And you were talking about the Trinity, on the…

Nehemia: Hebrew Voices.

Keith: Say it again?

Nehemia: Oh yeah, Live from Quarantine. Yeah, yeah.

Keith: It was on Live from Quarantine, and that connected then to a conversation you were having with two pastors, I guess, or two Christian guys.

Nehemia: Yeah. The funny thing is, I’m not sure that one would consider the other Christian, but they both self-identify as Christian. One of them was a Trinitarian, and one was a Unitarian.

Keith: You were having this conversation, and it struck me; what happened to Nehemia? What happened? It used to be no theology guy, no New Testament guy…

Nehemia: Well, I wasn’t dealing with theology, they were dealing with theology.

Keith: Yeah, they were dealing with it. So, I want you to give a chance to share with people, what’s changed? You said something really touching to me today, when you said something. Can you just share what has changed?

Nehemia: So, the cultural background here… Look, I’m not afraid if somebody wants to try to convince me of their religion. I’m confident enough in what I believe, and I’m also open to hearing what other people have to say. So, the reason I said to you, “No Jesus talk and no conversion” was that Christians trying to convert Jews is something that there’s millennia of pain and baggage over. Over the centuries, Jews were persecuted repeatedly by Christians who tried to force them to convert.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: And what they would actually do is, they would hold these public disputations and the Jews were required to be present; they didn’t want to be, but they were required to be present, and the Christians would then debate the Jews. If the Jew lost, the Jews would be persecuted. If the Jew won, they’d be persecuted even worse.

And so there is this historical deep pain that Jews have still. They carry a generational pain over this whole issue of Christians trying to force Christianity upon Jews. And now, Christians may come with love, and other tactics, but the Jews perceive this as, “Okay, you tried to do it through force, now, you’re trying to do it through some other way. It’s the same thing.”

And so, I think what happened was, we had spent enough time together where there was trust.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: And after knowing you for… I don’t remember how many years it was, a number of years, it was, “Okay, we’ve interacted, and we’ve studied Tanakh together and studied Hebrew together, and you haven’t tried to convert me, and you know what? Maybe it’s not so dangerous and as painful to study the New Testament as it was in the past, because there’s been this trust and sincerity.”

Keith: Well, here’s what I want to do, Nehemia. You’ve opened the door. By the way, I want to thank you for what you’ve done with me over these years. I’ve kept to what we’ve said. But you did something. You called me, and you said, “I want to suspend one of the rules.” Now, some of those that are listening don’t understand why that would really excite me. I’m going to turn the light on in the background, because I’m getting really dark here. Hold on. Hold on.

Nehemia: Now you’re backlit, that’s worse.

Keith: I’m going to cover the light.

Nehemia: Oh, you’re covering it, okay.

Keith: Can somebody say, “light”?

Nehemia: There’s a light coming from behind him!

Keith: Well anyway, so now all of a sudden, you called me, and what did you say, Nehemia?

Nehemia: I want to suspend one of the rules. I want to study the Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew with you.

Keith: You said, “I want to study the Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew.” So, here’s the deal. I want to cut to the quick on this. I feel like you’ve opened the door for me to just say to you, “Nehemia, I want to go to a little bit of challenge now,” because you have done a really powerful thing. You’ve given us tools to be able to interact with the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew like never before, in all the years that we’ve been studying. What we have now is amazing, and we’re about to do something starting Sunday. But I actually want to do it on Friday, based on one condition.

Would you be willing, my friend, to hear some questions that people would have to you about the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew?

Nehemia: Absolutely.

Keith: Can I read just one to you…

Nehemia: Sure.

Keith: …that I got today?

Nehemia: Wait a minute. Just so people understand, so we’re going to do another program on Friday.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: And that’s going to be Live from Quarantine number 7, 6 PM Eastern, 5 PM Central. And we’re going to talk about this. Okay, what’s one of the questions?

Keith: Okay, hold on. So, here’s what…

Nehemia: I can’t wait, I’m so excited.

Keith: Okay, you actually did something. This is a question for you, just one. And I don’t want you to answer this right now.

Nehemia: I won’t.

Keith: I want you to prepare for Friday.

Nehemia: I’ve got more food I’ve got to show you guys.

Keith: Wait a minute. You’ve got to show more food. I’m actually going to ask the listeners to prepare questions for Nehemia based on the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew. I want you to prepare some questions.

Nehemia: Can we do it live?

Keith: …Hebrew Voices, but I’m going to be Nehemia. No, I’m going to interview you now, on Friday. And I’m going to interview you about the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew. Here’s one that I want…

Nehemia: No, but do they have to send the questions in advance, or can they do it live?

Keith: Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to give them two options, to send the questions in advance, and also on the night when we’re doing the chat. I’m going to read one, then I’m going to finish them, and you can go back to the food.

Here’s a friend of mine. He said, “Is there anything that Yeshua taught or did that is inconsistent with the Tanakh, the Torah, the Big Book, in the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew?” Don’t answer the question, Nehemia. Is there anything that Yeshua taught or did that is inconsistent with the Tanakh, the Big Book, that is in the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew?

Now, my friends that are listening, here’s what I want you to do. I’m going to do this really quick. This is a very simple thing you can do; if you just go to BFA International, on the front page, if you scroll down, you’re going to see Red Letter. You click it, and you can actually ask Nehemia a question there, that I can be in preparation for. Just click it and it’ll take you to the free thing. You don’t have to do anything, and you can ask a question for Nehemia to answer on Friday night live. So, this isn’t going to be a pre-production thing. Is this okay, Nehemia?

Nehemia: Are you putting me on the hot seat?

Keith: Have I built enough trust with you that I can…

Nehemia: Absolutely.

Keith: …ask the Rebbe.

Nehemia: About your Rebbe? Yes.

Keith: Yeshua in the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew… this is a really exciting thing.

Nehemia: Can I sit in the seat of Moses while you do it?

Keith: Let me finish, wait. So, this is the first time where my friends and I are going to get a chance to ask you questions I’ve never even asked you.

Nehemia: Okay, looking forward to it.

Keith: It’s going to be based on… this is important, and we’re going to get to the background… it’s got to be based on the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, a book of commonality that you and I have studied together. So, Friday, we’re going to do a sneak peek. I am going to, on Friday, after Nehemia answers these questions, I’m going to make it available for everybody that’s with us.

Nehemia: Wait, what are you going to make available? Because that’s not three or four people.

Keith: I’m going to make available the second phase of the Red Letter Series, which is based on a tool that you have made available to us, where people, if they know no Hebrew, it’s a Hebrew interlinear with English words, based on the words that Yeshua taught at the Sermon on the Mount. It’s going to be phenomenal. 17 weeks of quarantine… hopefully without a quarantine by then, but 17 weeks, I’ll talk more about it on Friday.

Between now and Friday, go to BFA International. Click on the front page. You’re going to go there. Ask Nehemia a question about the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, anything you want to ask. And I’m going to pick those questions. I’m not going to tell you in advance, Nehemia, other than the one you just got. You’re not going to get them in advance.

Nehemia: Okay.

Keith: For the first time in our walk together, I get to really have a conversation with you about what you believe regarding these things that we’re reading.

Nehemia: Oh, is the question about what I believe, or about what the text says?

Keith: No, no, no. What you understand about what…

Nehemia: I’ll share what I believe and differentiate that when it’s different from the text.

Keith: This is not going to be… no, folks don’t get nervous. Nehemia’s put me on the hot seat more times than you can imagine. Do you remember when you brought me into the synagogue and made me read the Torah scroll without telling me in advance?

Nehemia: I sure do.

Keith: You remember when you did that, Nehemia?

Nehemia: I sure do, in Charlotte.

Keith: It’s my turn to now. Let’s have a conversation about the Red Letter Series.

Nehemia: Wait, can I set it up for the people?

Keith: Can you tell the story?

Nehemia: So, we went to visit these people who had a Torah scroll, and they took out the Torah scroll. And you had shared about how you were studying Hebrew, and I said in front of the man who took out the scroll, I said, “Let’s see if Keith could read it.” And blind, he read it and translated. It was impressive.

Keith: Now, and I say in humility, that was because I had a really good teacher. Nehemia, you have introduced the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew to me, and it’s captivated me. And I think for both Jew and Gentile it’s an opportunity, and this is the most radical thing I’m going to say tonight. Too many people are stuck on the idea of Jesus/Yeshua. They’re stuck on the idea, which becomes theology. And they don’t study his words, and what he did.

And to me, I think this is a chance for common ground for Jew and Gentile alike to have an interaction with the words in the original language, history, and context. And we’re going to use you on Friday as the opportunity to see whether that’s true.

So, people, please do me a favor. Go to BFA International, click the front page. You’re going to go to a thing that’s going to allow you to make a comment, ask a question of Nehemia. If you can’t do that, next week, you can ask it during the chat. It’s just that I’m not sure I’m going to get to it on the live chat. I know I’ll get to it if you send it through…

Nehemia: I don’t see how we can monitor the chat. We try to do the best, but it doesn’t really work.

Keith: That’s as much as I wanted to say about that. So, Friday, 6 o’clock, we’re going to have a live conversation about…

Nehemia: We are. 6 PM Eastern, 5 PM Central.

All right, I want to share some of these Passover foods that I have.

Keith: Excellent.

Nehemia: So here we’ve got matzah meal. This is ground up matzah. Here, we have sesame. That’s one of the foods they had in ancient Israel. Here, we’ve got cumin, that’s also another food they had in ancient Israel. I’m going to dip a little bit of matzah here in the cumin, or kumin, I don’t know how you pronounce that in English. And also get a little bit of the sesame here. Mmm, very good. Oh, wow. That’s delicious. Good lord. My compliments to the chef.

Keith: Compliments to the chef.

Nehemia: Here, I have this amazing platter, and that over there is a quail, because we know they ate quail in the desert. I’m just going to take a little piece here of quail and eat it. Now, did they eat quail on Passover? I don’t know. They ate whatever was available, right? It wasn’t commanded to eat, but it’s something they did eat in ancient Israel, and specifically in the desert, they ate it.

Keith: That’s quail, huh? Wow.

Nehemia: It’s actually the first time I’ve ever tasted quail in my life. This over here is silan, which is the date honey. You mix that with the butter. Here is watermelon, because it actually mentions in the Book of Numbers watermelon, avatiakh. They said, “We ate in Egypt, we remember eating the fish for free, and the watermelon.” It mentions other things they ate. So that is a little bit of my Passover feast for the seventh day, to celebrate the holy time of Yehovah.

Keith: Amen. And you know what, Nehemia? I’ve got to tell you something else. One of the things that we’ve done is, one of things you’ve always done, you’ve always said, “Let’s try to experience things together.” So, for example, we wouldn’t just study, we’d go and experience. And so now we’re experiencing this. Now, I’m not eating anything, so that’s kind of causing me some frustration. So, I’m about to go eat. I will say something else that people don’t know about this, what’s coming up on Friday, and going forward. This is not what’s called a milk study. This is a transition to meat. It’s not going to be even me teaching. You are going to be study partners with us. I’m inviting people to do what you did with me, which is to go through the process together, of discovery. That’s what the 17 weeks is about.

Nehemia: Hey, last thing here, my last eating lesson. So here I’ve got lamb, not a sacrifice, just lamb. And here, I’ve got milk. And according to the rabbis, it’s forbidden for me to eat this and then drink this, even though the Torah says, “Don’t boil a kid in its mother’s milk.”

Keith: What?

Nehemia: It’s actually really good. Wow.

And on that note, can we end in prayer?

Keith: Please.

Nehemia: Yehovah, thank you so much for Your Torah, which is so easy to understand. Not boiling a kid in its mother’s milk is just straightforward. Yehovah, give us the wisdom that everything in Your Torah, every word that comes from You, will be so straightforward to us and understandable. And Yehovah, be with all those people out there who are facing hard economic times because of the virus, and hard medical times because of the virus. Please be with all those people, and the frontline workers who are the heroes, who are putting themselves in danger. And even those people who are staffing the supermarkets and different outlets for us to continue to do what we need to do to survive. Yehovah, please be with them, strengthen them and give them courage. And all those who are alone and afraid, Yehovah, be with those people. Be their Pesach, be their protection. Not like the rock that passes away, but the rock that stays firm and protects all those who call upon Your name, and all those who in their hearts, turn their heart to You, even if they don’t know Your name. Amen.

Keith: And Father, also I pray that You would show yourself to be a great God of love, a God of compassion, a God of peace, a God of joy in the midst of this. Even in the midst of all of this, we’ve been able to be here and to witness the food and the joy of this day that we’re entering into. Thank you so much for Your holy days. Help us to be people that are excited, that we get to, not what we have to, but what we get to, into Your time, and Your Torah, and Your Name. And so many things that You’ve provided for us. Thank you for this week. Thank You for what You will do. We pray also and thank you that the numbers are going down. Those that are losing people, Father, we pray for comfort for them, and we also celebrate that the numbers of what they’ve projected are going down, and we pray they continue to go down. We give You praise and glory, in Your name.

[blows shofar]

Nehemia: Amen.

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