Hebrew Voices #127 – Live NOT from Quarantine

In this episode of Hebrew Voices, Live NOT from Quarantine, Keith escapes from quarantine with his wife to join Nehemia and Lynell for a live unscripted discussion. Nehemia shares how his mother gave Keith a Hebrew name, Keith gets Nehemia to make a statement about his faith in the name "Yeshua", and Lynell recites the prayer that changed her life. Wanda wrote: “Thank you so much for this. What a blessing!”

I look forward to reading your comments!


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Hebrew Voices #127 – Live NOT from Quarantine

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: And you turned to me, Keith, in front of our wives and you said, “Nehemia, do you believe in the name of Yeshua?”

Keith: I asked the question, and what did you say?

Nehemia: Live here, not from quarantine…

Keith: Live, not from quarantine.

Nehemia: …after a year of being locked up in our homes, locked up, quarantined, persecuted.

Keith: One year ago, we came back from Israel. Nehemia called me and said, “Keith, Israel is shutting down, the first time in its history.” And we had a number of conversations, and we got to Passover. We did a Passover event, and someone cooked for Passover.

Andrea: I cooked for Passover.

Keith: Someone cooked for Passover. Andrea cooked the beautiful Passover… We talked about when we put the Passover over the door, remember? Do you remember all this? One year later, we decided, enough of this. We made it.

Nehemia: We survived.

Keith: How's it been for you guys?

Nehemia: For the audience who doesn't know, this is my beautiful wife, Lynell.

Keith: And this is my beautiful wife, Andrea, and we're all together.

Nehemia: In the flesh.

Keith: In the flesh. Some of you have been watching Hebrew Gospel Pearls, you know we've got a little bit of a delay. We're stopping that for just a little bit because we're doing some adjusting, etc. We’re gonna get back…

Nehemia: We're working on the program.

Keith: We're working on the program, but it's not being aired right now.

Nehemia: Well, I mean, it was actually aired last week.

Keith: Okay, but the next one is not going to be like in a week, or anything.

Nehemia: Right. It’s probably gonna be a bit later on. We're working on it, guys. We're working on some really exciting things, some of them we can't share right now. In the background, there's all kinds of exciting things going on.

Keith: Oh, my goodness, some really exciting things are going on.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: So, what's it been like? I mean, with us this weekend, just me and Nehemia...

Nehemia: It was amazing, having Keith and Andrea visit us here, it's been very, very... Wow, some beautiful spiritual revelation, the counting of birds. All kinds of things are going on.

Lynell: Seriously, we counted birds. Important work. We've had picnics on the beach, we've had time to fellowship and enjoy each other.

Keith: My biggest concern is that Andrea and Lynell have walked together four times, and I have no idea what they've been talking about. What have you guys been talking about?

Nehemia: We must keep them apart.

Keith: This would be the only time to be "live not from quarantine" with them. I think they're telling secrets.

Nehemia: So, Keith, you received an email. Are we gonna talk about that?

Keith: You know what? I think we might need to. Someone has challenged me regarding what we do through Hebrew Gospel Pearls when we pray, at the end of our prayer, Jewish and Gentile people together, praying together as we have. We've looked at scripture together, etc. And this person says that I need to re-examine the relationship, because I should be praying specifically, according to New Testament standard, in Yeshua's name only, otherwise I put you at risk and me at risk. And this has been something that we've been talking about today. And you said something really, really, really radical that stopped the whole conversation.

Nehemia: What's that?

Keith: Regarding Yeshua's name, and what you believe about Yeshua's name. Can you just share that for the people?

Nehemia: Before that, I just want to remind people, Keith and I wrote a book called “A Prayer to Our Father.” And what inspired that book on some level was the Disciples and Luke, at least. We talked about the Matthew version, but in Luke, the Disciples came to Yeshua and they said, “Master, how shall we pray?” And he said, “You shall pray like this.” And he gave them what Christians often refer to as the “Lord's Prayer,” “Avinu shebashamayim, yitkadesh Shimkha, yitbarekh malkhutkha” in the Hebrew version. So, he gave them a prayer, and the prayer was directed to our Father in heaven.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: And according to the woman who wrote to you, rebuking you and saying, “You're gonna burn in hell and you're pulling me down to the pit of hell with you,” Yeshua would be burning in hell, because he didn't pray the way that she said he must pray.

Keith: Right.

Nehemia: In fact, he taught the Disciples, he said, “You shall pray like this, in this manner.” Look it up in Luke. And he didn't pray the prayer that this woman said, “If you don't pray this way,” this woman who wrote to you, that you're going down to the pit of hell. So Yeshua, when he actually taught people to pray in this manner, he taught them to pray to the Father in heaven.

Keith: If we were going by her post, the life of Yeshua, theological perspective and everything else, she was convinced that I have been doing the wrong thing. I'm actually convinced that I've been doing the right thing; Jew and Gentile coming together, praying the way that Yeshua taught his Disciples is pretty darned good… can I say this? Good news for my Jewish brother and for me together.

Nehemia: What I love about it, and we talked about this when we did the tour on “A Prayer to Our Father,” is it's a prayer that any Jew could pray…

Keith: Any Jew can pray.

Nehemia: …and certainly, any Christian can pray.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: Even a Muslim could pray. “Our Father who art in heaven, may Your name be sanctified.”

Keith: May Your name be sanctified.

Nehemia: Maybe they've got some confusion about what that name is. Maybe they've got some doctrine that wouldn't pass the Nehemia standard or the Keith standard. But there's this beautiful verse in Psalms, “Karov Yehovah lekhol kore'av,” “Yehovah is close to all who call upon Him,” “lekhol asher yikra'uhu be'emet,” “to all that call upon Him in truth.”

And who is this woman to say to you, or to say to me, or to say to anyone, “You are not calling upon our Heavenly Father in truth? You have the wrong doctrine, the wrong understanding.” I mean, it says in Psalm 44, it talks about how people will stretch out their hands to the name of this foreign God, of a strange God, because they don't know any better. Their hearts are directed to the Creator of the universe, but they don't know His name. They’re in the Babylonian exile and they think his name is Marduk, or Bel, or something like that. And in their innocence, their ignorance, they call out to the wrong name. And even that, it says, “God will investigate their hearts, and look into their heart and see what it is that they meant to say, what they meant to do.”

And so, for her to say that you're going down to the pit of Hell, the audacity, when you're doing what Yeshua taught his Disciples to do... And we were having this conversation, Keith, earlier, and you were talking about believing... We've heard it described this way. There are people who have faith in Yeshua, but not the faith of Yeshua. They believe in him, but they don't believe him. And I made a really radical statement for a Jew. And I could tell you right now, this is probably going to be edited out of context.

Lynell: Out of context.

Nehemia: They're gonna take that little snippet...

Lynell: They’re gonna take it, and that’s it.

Keith: Before you do it, you guys, listen now. Let me tell you what's happened here, just the context, because these two here, I think there's a bit of a conspiracy. We had a Bible study today, and I'm like, “What's going on here?” Andrea takes her phone, she's like, “I need to record this, Nehemia’s gonna share it.” Lynell says, “Can we please share this study?” And so, we did a little short study, did we not?

Lynell: We did.

Keith: It set the context in a really powerful way. Why did you want to have that study, just generally?

Lynell: Because it was very powerful for me to know what God said about Himself.

Keith: Exactly.

Lynell: I want to know what God said about Himself, not what someone says about God. I want to know what God says about Himself.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: So, she asked me that question a while back, what does God say about Himself? And I said, “Moses asked God, ‘Who are you? Describe Yourself to me.’” He says, “Make known to me your ways, ve'eda'akha, so that I may know you.” And what does God respond? It's in Exodus 34:6-7. He starts out and He says, “Yehovah, Yehovah,” which could be translated as, “Yehovah is Yehovah.”

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia:El rakhum vekhanun,” “A God who is merciful and gracious.” “Erekh apayim,” “He is abundantly patient,” literally, "long nostrilled,” I've talked about that before. He’s abundantly patient, “Erekh apayim, rav khesed ve'emet, “abundance, full of khesed and truth.”

Lynell: Amen.

Nehemia: We've done a whole study on khesed, it's a profound concept. I don't think we have time to get to it now. But then He goes on in the next verse, and He says, “Notzer khesed la'alafim, “He preserves, He guards the faithfulness, the khesed, to the thousandth generation.” “Noseh avon vafesha vekhata'ah,” “He takes off our shoulders and He carries iniquity, transgression and sin.”

Keith: Amen.

Lynell: Amen.

Nehemia: That's what He says about Himself. You could have any doctrine you want. You could say, “This is what God is, this is what God's like.” He defines Himself. Then we looked at Numbers chapter 14, I love it. God's about to wipe out Israel to the last man, and Moses does this thing. It's a thing that husbands and wives often do in relationships, where he says, “Honey, you know what you said before?” And Moses says, “God, you're the One who proclaimed that you are Yehovah,” and he recites, essentially, a paraphrase of Exodus 34:6-7. He throws it back in God's face. He says, “You told me what you're like. These are Your attributes.” And God responds, and He says, “You’re right,” “Salakhti,” “I have forgiven.”

Lynell: Amen.

Keith: In other words, “You're right, Moses.”

Nehemia: You're absolutely right, I love that you are paying attention. Maybe even it was a test for Moses to see, “When I told you my nature, my characteristics...” we call it in Judaism the “middot,” the “attributes of God.” “When I told you my middot, my attributes, were you paying attention?” And Moses says, “I've got it written on the tablet of my heart. I can cite it verbatim.”

Keith: Amen. Well, the other thing that we've been doing, before we get to this issue, Nehemia, about what you said that is so radical, we've been talking about the name. And we talked about the history of the name. And we've been talking about the journey we've been on together about the name. And, you guys, he and I did a video, was it 10 years ago, Nehemia?

Nehemia: Oh, wow.

Keith: We all watched it together. We've been reminiscing about how we did this video.

Nehemia: My wife said, “Who's that skinny guy in the video?” I said that.

Keith: And so, we did this video 10 years ago. It's called “border busters.” I think people can find it on YouTube. So, we did this video, but the long and the short of it is, we just talked about how far we've come, and what we've been doing, and how we've been doing it. And now we're at a place where we are gonna do what the lady said we should do. She said, “You should reexamine the relationship,” and we're reexamining our relationship, aren't we?

Nehemia: We call this, “Relationship reexamined.”

Keith: Live, not from quarantine. But as it pertains to the name, Nehemia, I was looking, you've got your book up there, “Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence” is now in Spanish. Can you tell us?

Nehemia:Rompiendo La Conspiracion Del Silencio.” It's now been released in Spanish, my book, “Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence,” and I read it and didn't understand a single word.

Keith: I did a book, “His Hallowed Name Revealed Again,” and Nehemia wrote the foreword to this book, you folks. You wrote it based on the story of Khayelitsha. I want you to tell the story of Khayelitsha.

Nehemia: You must share it.

Keith: No, no, I want you to share it, it's your story. And after you say this, I've got something to say. We're live, are they gonna edit this?

Nehemia: I mean, they can’t edit this.

Keith: Because we’re live. Go ahead, tell the Khayelitsha story.

Nehemia: My wife’s mic. There’s no mic.

Keith: You guys, we're having a blast. We've been together for now two-and-a-half days, it's almost over. We thought we should share it with you because of the love you shared to us, we want to share some love to you. But tell the story.

Nehemia: We were in South Africa, and in South Africa, we traveled to... Oh, wow, I think we did like 12 venues in 14 days, something insane like that. We had quite a journey, quite an adventure. You know, we went to places where it was jam-packed, wall-to-wall, and we went to other places where people drove across the mountains. We were like in a mountain pass, or something. People drove from one side to the other side.

Keith: Hey guys, if you don't think it, we're huge in South Africa. We’re huge.

Nehemia: And then, we get to go speak and there's no power in the building. And I'm like, “All right, well, we're not using the microphone and we're not using the PowerPoint. This is a first.” And so, we're there in South Africa and we're nearing the end, and we're staying with these folks outside of Cape Town. We've got a flight the next day out of Cape Town, like 10 or 11 am, or something. And Keith says, “I want to go to one of the townships.”

Keith: “And I'm not getting on the plane until I do it.”

Nehemia: So, we go to the townships and meet the people.

Lynell: I haven't heard this story. I haven’t heard that one.

Keith: You've never heard this story?

Lynell: I haven’t heard this one.

Keith: Before we continue, do you know there's some stories they haven't even heard? Andrea heard this one because she’s…

Nehemia: He wants to go to the townships and I'm thinking, “I just wanna get on a plane, get out of here and survive.”

Keith: You were sick, by the way.

Nehemia: I was severely sick at the time, dealing with some gastrointestinal issues.

Keith: They’ve gotta be personal.

Nehemia: And, you know, I made the mistake of drinking the tap water there. And so, the man we're staying with says, “Oh well, I know of somebody in one of the townships.”

Keith: Yes, he did.

Nehemia: “I helped him build a church in a place called Khayelitsha.” And he had this maid, would you call it? A woman who lived with them and she took care of their situations. And she's like sweeping the floor and she turns, and she says, “Khayelitsha? You just go into Khayelitsha and they kill you.”

Keith: She said it just like that.

Nehemia: Just like that, with the very interesting accent she had. And so, of course for Keith that's like, “Well, now there's no choice…”

Lynell: You’ve gotta go.

Keith: “We’ve gotta go.” He makes the arrangements, and I'm thinking, “We're gonna die. They're gonna kill me first and they’ll kill him second.” And look, we've been in some situations. We were in a place in Georgia where the guy told us about how they’d just had a Ku Klux Klan rally the previous weekend. And Keith says, “Why do you think they had it here, of all places?” And he says, “Well, there are no black folks in this whole county.” And he calls up Andrea, and do you remember what you said? She said, “Well, the good news is they can get two for the price of one.”

Keith: My wife said that, you guys. It wasn't funny to me. It wasn’t funny to me. She said that on the phone, and I'm like, “What are you talking about?”

Nehemia: Especially since the place where we went to speak wasn't even on Google Maps. It was like down a private road, a private church on private property. We could have just disappeared, and no one would ever know.

Keith: We weren't concealing and carrying back then.

Nehemia: Well, and in any event, you know what? Those people turned out to be amazing.

Keith: Oh, beautiful.

Nehemia: Keith told the story during the service in this place in Georgia, about how he said, “I heard there was a Klan rally here.” And one man stood up and says, “Well, there were about six of us there.”

Lynell: No, he didn’t.

Nehemia: He was joking. And later on, this man was crying with Keith over how Yehovah had moved his heart. I mean, it was incredible.

And so, we go into Khayelitsha and they're going to get two for the price of one. They’d probably get four for the price of one, because we were there with the man who was taking us, and I think it was his wife there, I don't even remember. So, three or four for the price of one. And we can't even go into this place on our own, because we'll be killed. This is what we're being warned, it's a dangerous place to go.

So, he has to meet us at the entrance and we follow his car. And we get there to the place and we're telling about who we are. Keith tells him a little bit about his ministry. And I say, “Well, I lived in Israel for such and such years.” He stops and says, “You live in Israel?” He says, “Do you speak Hebrew?”

Keith: This was an African man in Khayelitsha who didn't speak great English, but heard "Israel.”

Nehemia: Yeah. I mean, I would say he spoke English with an accent, but his native language, I believe, was Xhosa, or however you pronounce that.

Keith: He could speak 12 languages.

Nehemia: Yeah, he spoke several languages. He had quite a moving testimony of his own about how he'd been a gang leader and he found God and started to build a church. He didn't have any money. Somebody donated the bricks, somebody donated the labor, they donated the mortar. And he's living… literally in the back of the church was his house. And this is early in the morning, we're getting there early in the morning before too much activity’s going on, so we can get out alive. And early in the morning, and of course, we have to get to our flight, as well, that's why we were there early in the morning. This is on the way to the airport in Cape Town, in Khayelitsha outside Cape Town. And this is just a sprawling, what you would call like a… well, it's a township, meaning it's a sprawling...

Keith: Shacks.

Nehemia: Shacks. It's not a tent city, because there aren't tents there. They're like wooden shacks, a shanty town, wooden shacks with corrugated roofs. And they tell us how somebody knocks over a kerosene heater in the winter and it burns hundreds of these shacks, because there's no building standards, there's no safety mechanisms. And so, we're there in this little church, and he says, “You are from Israel? Do you speak Hebrew?” I'm like, “Yeah, of course I speak Hebrew.” He starts to tell us, he says, “About seven years I had a dream. And in that dream, I saw four letters. Four letters.” Now, if you say a four-letter word in English, what do you think of?

Lynell: Yud-hey-vav-hey. No, I'm just kidding.

Nehemia: In English, you think of a bad word. In Hebrew, if you talk about the four-letter word...

Keith: But the four letters for this weekend have been… L-O-V-E, love.

Nehemia: Anyway, so a four-letter word. And Keith, or I was thinking, we're both thinking, “Okay, could it be he had a dream?” And he says, “Seven years ago, I had this dream. And I've been waiting seven years for someone to walk into my church who speaks Hebrew, who knows Hebrew, who could verify or help me understand what's in this dream. I have no idea. I remember what they look like, but I don't know what they are, those letters.” And so, I say to him, “Do you have a pencil and paper?” His little son runs into the back into their room that the whole family lives in, in the back of the church. He brings out paper, and I write, “yud-hey-vav-hey.” I show it to him…

Keith: In his writing.

Nehemia: …in my chicken scratches.

Keith: He's like, “Ah, uh?” And Nehemia says, “Keith, run out to the car...”

Nehemia: I remember you going out on your own, but okay.

Keith: He said, “Run out to the car.”

Nehemia: Did I?

Keith: Yeah, it’s in the video.

Nehemia: So, he goes out to the car, and he gets the book, “His Hallowed Name Revealed Again.”

Keith: It was a study, and it had “yud-hey-vav-hey” in fiery letters. And what did he say?

Nehemia: Those are the four letters that I saw.

Keith: That is what I saw, those are the four letters. That's what he said.

Nehemia: And it struck me, especially. I mean, I don't know how you processed it, but the way I processed it was, here was this man who had a dream…

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: And in my upbringing, in my culture that I came from, God doesn't speak to Christian Pastors in dreams. Christian Pastors have the wrong doctrine, the wrong theology. And what I was taught growing up was, they're just in error. They're at best a heresy of Judaism, at worst, idolators. And God does not interact with such people in dreams. He doesn't relate to such people. They're just cast out in the desert of nothingness. And here was this man who’d waited seven years for me to walk into his church.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: He’d had the dream. Now, I had the knowledge, but I didn't have the dream. And you've said this thing for years that I've known you. I've known you now for almost 20 years.

Keith: Almost 20 years.

Nehemia: We're fixing to be 20 years.

Keith: We’re fixing to be 20 years.

Nehemia: Yeah, we're at 19 years, soon it'll be 20. And you've said this thing for years, and this was 10 or 11 years ago. I've heard you say this for many years, that there's information and inspiration, and when you combine them, you get revelation. And I never knew what that meant. I thought that was just some cute thing that Methodists say on Sunday morning, and you are importing that into the teachings we were sharing. And here's this man standing in front of me. He certainly doesn't read Hebrew. I frankly don't know if he reads English or not, I’ve no idea. He speaks several languages, but English isn't even his native language. And we're communicating about these four letters he had in the dream. So, he has the inspiration, but he doesn't have the information. I've got the information, but I don't have the inspiration. I didn't have that dream. And God knew, say, “God knew.”

Keith: God knew.

Nehemia: God knew that one day I would walk into that church, and I would be able to bring him the explanation of his dream. And together, what went out of that was revelation.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: And that changed my life, that event, ‘cause I realized, God is bigger than the box that I have created for Him. You know, I used to be the doorkeeper. I used to be the gatekeeper. People would come and they would say, “We think we want to be put in this box,” and I would say, “Well, you've got to answer...” I would do the interrogation. “What is your doctrine about this? What is your observance about that? What is your view on this other thing?” And if they didn't fit the bill, I would say, “Rejected.” And I realized, I was putting God in a box, and God was bigger than the box that I had created for Him. And I decided there going forward, I was gonna let God be God.

Keith: Now, I want to let you guys in on a little secret. So, we've been here for the weekend, and we did something with our wives. We made them sit down and watch episode 15 of Hebrew Gospel Pearls. No, I'm telling you what happened.

Nehemia: And Andrea said, “There's a series called ‘Hebrew Gospel Pearls?’”

Lynell: She didn’t. No, she didn’t.

Keith: No, she didn't, but she did ask how long it was gonna be, how long is the program. “Is it longer than 30 minutes?” she says. Could you imagine these guys living with us, are you kidding me? “Have you watched this, honey? Have you seen this?” But listen, I want to say this to you guys. They sat down and watched Hebrew Gospel Pearls 15. Hebrew Gospel Pearls 15 changed my life…

Nehemia: Really?

Keith: …and I want to tell you guys why. As they sat and watched this, Nehemia did something that for years, and years, and years, for as long as we've been knowing each other, I've been waiting for. I can tell you, he did Hebrew Gospel Pearls. It's public, you can watch it now. Go to Nehemia's Wall, go to YouTube, go to bfainternational.com, watch the first episode. As a result of that episode, I made a really big decision. And the decision was that for the last 10 years, Nehemia and I, through information that he's given to me, information that we did together, information that we've done with other ministries, other radio shows, etc., put together a nice little free guide for you. Can I tell them about the free guide? It's free. Say, “Free,” folks.

Nehemia: Free.

Lynell: Free.

Nehemia: What website is it on?

Keith: Bfainternational.com front page, it says, “free.” Name of God, pure and simple, free guide. You push the button, you go, you register, you're free, and it's going to download this PDF. I don't want to get into that. What it really does is it gives you about 50…

Nehemia: Oh, a funny number.

Keith: Fifty different presentations that you can look at about the name of God. I'm hoping that after that, it will lead you to nehemiaswall.com. Nehemia has done something at nehemiaswall.com that in my opinion is... Sometimes, he'll stick his chest out, “Let me tell you the story about Khayelitsha,” but he won't promote his own stuff. And so, what I'm hoping this is going to do... and can I share this?

Nehemia: Bevakasha.

Keith: I mean, it's just us, right?

Nehemia: Nobody's here, it's just the four of us. There's nobody even watching this right now.

Keith: Except for you guys.

Nehemia: That’s the whole point, this is live. Is it live? Yeah, I forgot to plug it in, so it’ll play something back.

Keith: So, listen, BFA International free guide. You get access to it immediately. My goal and my hope and my excitement is, you're going to look at Hebrew Gospel Pearls 15. You're going to realize the information that Nehemia is sharing about the name of God, that is a game-changer. Do you not agree, Lynell and Andrea?

Lynell: No, I agree 100%.

Keith: It's game-changing. He's talking about access to things other scholars haven't even held in their hands. And so, what we're gonna do is, we're going to promote, we're going to keep sharing everything that we can about the name of God, because we really do believe it changes people's lives. Is that fair to say?

Nehemia: I believe Yehovah changes people's lives.

Keith: Amen.

Lynell: That’s right.

Nehemia: And when Moses asked Him, “I want to know what You are like. I want to know your nature,” He said, “Yehovah, Yehovah.” Those are the first two words He said. And to this day, that message reverberates throughout the world and can change people's lives.

Keith: Amen, Amen.

Nehemia: The word that God spoke panim el panim, face-to-face to Moses, can change people's lives around the world. I want to say something now, really controversial. I would even do it before, we were talking about this before. You had talked about the woman who said that you must pray in the name of Yeshua to be a legitimate prayer, and if not, you're dragging me down to the pit of hell with you, even though Yeshua taught to pray in this manner. “Our Father who art in heaven, may Your name be sanctified.”

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: And you turned to me, Keith, in front of our wives, and you said, “Nehemia, do you believe in the name of Yeshua?”

Keith: I asked the question, and what did you say?

Nehemia: And I said, “The name of Yeshua means, ‘Yehovah saves,’ and that is a name that I can say I believe in 100 percent.” Yehovah, He says in Isaiah, it repeatedly has this idea where He says, “I am Yehovah,” “Ani, ani Yehovah, ve'en mibal'aday el akher.” “I, I am Yehovah, and besides Me there is no God.” He says, “I am your savior,” “Yehovah, El yeshu'ati evtakh velo efkhad,” “the God of my salvation I will trust, I will not fear.” That is in Isaiah chapter 12.

And the message that we could take away from the Tanakh is, Yehovah is the God of our salvation, and that name “Yehoshua,” which is abbreviated in Second Temple times to “Yeshua,” we even hear about Yehoshua the son of Nun, which is, Yehoshua, “Yehovah yoshia,” “Yehovah saves.” I believe in that name with 100 percent of my being. That is a name that every Israelite in the time of Moses believed. You know, we're told that Moses's disciple's name was Hoshea, which means, “He saves” or “He has saved.” And Moses said, “I'm gonna change his name so everyone knows who saves.” And it says, “Moses called Hoshea, Yehoshua, Yehovah saves.”

Keith: You've said it, “With every fiber of my being...”

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: ...you believe.

Nehemia: Absolutely.

Keith: Are we almost done? Can I get one more controversy allowed?

Nehemia: Absolutely, go for it.

Keith: So, I did something else, you guys, Nehemia had a couple of arguments about.

Nehemia: It might be a bad idea.

Keith: No, no, this was a big argument. In the last chapter of my book, “His Hallowed Name Revealed Again,” I did a chapter called "What about the name, Jesus?" And there's some people who will go to the last chapter and read that before they'll read anything else.

Nehemia: Oh, really?

Keith: And what it leads them to… you gotta get the book. It's so funny, we did this thing 10 years ago and Nehemia said to me… Because I got kicked off TV. We were telling our wives about this story, I got kicked off TV. And I was over in Israel almost weeping and crying, and Nehemia said, “I tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna produce a video for you.” Yoel Halevy was the director.

Nehemia: We went up to the top of...

Keith: Tell them about this.

Nehemia: The valley of Elah, Emek Elah, where David slew Goliath. And just a few years before that, they’d excavated a place called Khirbet Qeiyafa, which had become known as the “Fortress of Elah.” It was the Israelite fortress overlooking the valley of Elah. On the other side of the Valley of Elah was Sokho, which was Palestinian occupied territory, Philistine, as it were, occupied territory, and they met in the middle between the two fortresses.

And so, we went up to the Valley of Elah, where the Israelites had taken refuge during those 40 days of battle. Their fortress where they were relying on was at their backs, it was up at the fortress of Elah. And we went up there and we did this video. And as we're doing the video, I reminded you, we were stopped in the middle, cut short by two Israeli helicopters, these massive Israeli gunships flying overhead. I have a photo of it up on my Facebook page to this day. We did this video, and I saw that video and I'm like, “Wow, we did that. That's incredible.”

Keith: We also had the wives sit down and watch our first video from 2011 called "Border Busters.”

Nehemia: This is that video.

Keith: This is that video.

Nehemia: I think that's the first video we ever did where we weren't in somebody else's studio. I had just purchased this little device. It was hilarious, because now you can do this all on your cell phone, right? This is being done right now on my iPhone 12 max.

Keith: Live, not from quarantine. Say, “Not from quarantine.”

Lynell: Not from quarantine.

Keith: Say, “Not from quarantine.”

Nehemia: And here's the proof. I can actually touch him. I don't fade away in the green screen. And so, this is the first thing we had done. And I remember the sun was beating down in my eyes and I was squinting. The sun was setting, it got worse and worse. But we did that video and we proclaimed the glorious name of Yehovah.

Keith: Amen. And you know what, you all? I really do want to encourage them. I really, really want you to make sure that you look at episode 15 in the Hebrew Gospel Pearls. I want to say something about Hebrew Gospel Pearls.

Nehemia: Yessir.

Keith: We are working behind the scenes. You may not see the fruit of it for maybe a few more weeks...

Nehemia: Weeks, maybe a month or two, but we're working on it.

Keith: We are working on it.

Nehemia: We’ll get it out as soon as we can.

Keith: In the meantime, here's what I want to challenge you all to do. Can I challenge them?

Nehemia: Sure.

Keith: In the meantime, I want you to go to BFA International and Nehemia's Wall. Between now and Shavuot, I want you to study about the name of God.

Lynell: Oh, Amen.

Keith: By the time Shavuot comes, who knows what’ll happen. After Shavuot, Nehemia and I are gonna get back to work on making it public for you, Hebrew Gospel Pearls. But I'm telling you, folks. If you only watch one Hebrew Gospel Pearls, watch Hebrew Gospel Pearls episode 15, public. I'm telling you, what Nehemia shares is a game-changer that inspired me to put together the name of God, a pure and simple guide. It's gonna inspire you to go to his site, to the Yehovah study. You have it right there on the front page, the tab is there.

Nehemia: There are those 50 things that we've done between us. Wow, an interesting number.

Keith: I just happened to count. I didn’t even do that on the… No, I promise you guys. You go to the guide for free, 50 different things that have been done in the last 10 years. They're leading us to the next level of what we're gonna do. I do want to take… permission for you to explain one thing that really blessed me.

Nehemia: What’s that?

Keith: I wanted to bless your mom, Bubby Dina. I went to Israel, folks, and I asked her to help me with a Hebrew name. I was feeling it back then. “Yeah, Keith, I don't like the name.” I tell my wife, “I don't like the name Keith.” It's got one syllable, Keith. Look at this, “An-dre-a, Ne-hem-ya, Ly-nell.” Keith, are you kidding me?

Nehemia: Wait, Lynell is three. Ly-ney-il.

Lynell: He’s channeling my…

Keith: They’ve all got three, I’ve got one.

Lynell: He’s channeling my Aunt Joy.

Nehemia: She’s lovely.

Lynell: She is lovely, my aunt.

Keith: So, I asked Nehemia's mother, I said, “What do you think about my name?”

Nehemia: She said, “I got a good name for you. You should be called Nakhshon.”

Keith: Nakhshon.

Nehemia: And why Nakhshon? So, Nakhshon, in the Torah, he is the nasi, the prince of the tribe of Yehudah, of Judah. Every one of the 12 tribes had a prince that represented them, and the one who was honored to represent Judah was a man named Nakhshon Ben Aminadav, Nakhshon, the son of Aminadav. And what he's known for in Jewish culture is actually based on a midrash, a Rabbinical… I would say elaboration of what it actually says in the Torah. So, they take a verse in Psalms where it says, “Afafuni mayim ad nafesh,” “The waters have surrounded me up to my neck.” And it's a prayer there, of David, but they say that was originally the prayer of Nakhshon, the son of Aminadav. And what was the context?

Moses is standing there with the people at the water; the Egyptian army is at their backs. And the people are crying out and God says, “I'm gonna show you the salvation of Yehovah.” He says, “You will see yeshu'at Yehovah, the yeshu'ah, the salvation of Yehovah.” And then, Moses stretches out his arms and then all of a sudden, the people are walking through the water. And the Rabbis tell us this legend that actually, somebody had to walk in first. And the person to walk in first… and this is what my mother, she knows this story. She doesn't know if it's from the Bible or the Midrash, she just knows this story, it's part of her culture she grew up with. She says, “The man who walked in first was Nakhshon, the son of Aminadav. And when he walked in the water, first his feet got wet, and then his knees got wet, and then his midsection got wet. And then finally, he was walking up to the water, and the waters were pounding against his chin. And the waves were hitting against his chin.” And the word for "wave" in biblical Hebrew, a wave that comes and washes over you is a “nakhshol.” And so, because of that, the people called him “Nakhshon,” the “man of the wave.”

And when Nakhshon got up to the water, when it got up to his neck and he prayed, according to this legend, the words of the Psalms, “Afafuni mayim ad nafesh.” “The waters have reached my neck. I'm up to my neck in it.” And at that moment, he was the first one to walk in and show his faith, and then the waters split.

Keith: My God.

Nehemia: And my mother, little Bubby Dina says, “Keith, you're just like Nakhshon. You're the first one to walk into the water, and you'll get up to your neck in it. You have the faith of Nakhshon.”

Keith: Amen. And folks, let me tell you something. This has been a Red Sea water experience for the last how many years?

Nehemia: Oh wow, I've known you since 2002, 19 years. Just like COVID-19, 19 years.

Keith: It's taken everything for me this weekend not to weep in joy to see Nehemia and Lynell together, and the way that they have just been sharing love. It’s inspired us, Andrea and I. You know, we're the older married couple. We always look at the young couples, you know, but we have just had such a... hasn’t it been sweet...

Andrea: And beautiful.

Nehemia: Hasn't it been sweet, my dear?

Keith: They've been blessing us. And so, this weekend is kind of a weird timing of all of it. But I think it's all pointing us toward Shavuot. Shavuot is where I met Nehemia in 2002. And I met Michael Rood in 2002. And guess what?

Nehemia: That was Shavuot.

Keith: Yesterday, we got a chance to talk to Michael and pray with him. That was a blessing.

Nehemia: That was a huge blessing.

Keith: Oh man, you guys. So many things are happening. But the sea, the waves, the water is opening up and we're walking through with the name Yehovah, sharing it around the world. And this is just one more step for us to continue to do that.

Nehemia: Look, and even the name, I'll give you credit. He walked first into the water, and I warned him, “Don't do that.”

Keith: He told me, “Don't do it.”

Nehemia: And once he went in, and I saw the situation, I became convicted myself and I walked in with him. And there were times when we were up to our necks in the water, and the waves were hitting against us, and water was getting in our nefesh, our throat.

Keith: There were some people that said, “Well, you know, the name could never be erased.” If you haven't seen episode 15 and what this guy thinks about that, then the list goes on and on and on. So again, what inspired me was this name of God, pure and simple. It was a way for people to get that first, you know, in the water information, so that they can then move to the next level, which I think is at nehemiaswall.com. It's the same thing we've been doing for years, but it's just more finding creative ways to bless people. And again, episode 15 changed it for me. Nehemia, I have to tell you, thank you. And, by the way, folks, we have had... I mean, this weekend… Is it thank you time, or do you want to...?

Nehemia: I want to be thankful to Yehovah, the Creator of the universe.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: Yehovah, Yehovah, el rakhum vekhanun, erekh apayim verav khesed ve'emet. Yehovah is Yehovah. He is a God merciful and gracious, abundantly patient, full of abundance of khesed and truth. Noseh avon vafesha vekhata’ah. He carries, He forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. It's all about this message He's given for all mankind, to spread the glory of His name.

Keith: Well, I want to say thank you to Andrea. You guys, this last year has been really, really difficult. But I'll tell you what. Over this last year, we've gotten a chance to just go deeper with each other. And what a way to celebrate the coming out of quarantine. Coming out of quarantine to come spend time with you two has been just the most wonderful. Thank you, honey. I said to her, “Would you come with me?” And she said, “Where?” “To go see Nehemia and Lynell.” “Oh, absolutely, I'll do that.” I think, hey, you guys should have made this invitation earlier, I wouldn't have been stuck in the house for God's sake.

Nehemia: Well, I have to say the last year for me has been a huge blessing. It's changed my life. I've gotten to know this amazing woman even better. You know, the pandemic’s been a horrible thing. Hundreds of thousands have died in just the US alone. I don't know the numbers worldwide. And it's also created situations that were completely unanticipated. I would have never had time, and let's be honest, I would have never made time for doing Hebrew Gospel Pearls and Live from Quarantine, because I would have said, “I've got to go to this place, and I've gotta go to that place. And I've got to do this thing, and I've gotta do that thing.” And instead, God said, “You ain't going nowhere.”

Keith: God said it.

Nehemia: And I'm like, “All right.” People are writing in and they're saying they're all alone. I literally had people write and saying, “I'm all alone. All I have is the programs that you and Keith do, and that Michael Rood does, and that other people do. That's all I have access to right now. Please continue to share what you've been sharing.” And I became convicted. I said, “First, we'll do Live from Quarantine, and then we became convicted to do Hebrew Gospel Pearls, and here we are. This is Yehovah's doing, He's amazing.

Keith: He's amazing, and now you guys get a chance, while we work on this you guys focus on the name before Shavuot. I don't know what's going to happen on Shavuot specifically, but I will tell you that that is a time that's been always really important for me. And I remember... well, no more remember stories. Our wives are probably like, “Do you guys ever talk about anything else? You remember, remember, remember. What about what you’re gonna do now?”

Nehemia: I want to remember something that happened 3,500 years ago. And according to the chronology, many people say it happened on Shavuot. There were 600,000 men, maybe 2 to 3 million people were standing at the foot of a mountain. And this had never happened before in history, it had never happened since, that God, the Creator of the entire universe came down with His kavod, His presence upon the mountain. And with His own voice He shouted out, “Anokhi Yehovah, I am Yehovah.” “Anokhi Yehovah Elohekha asher hotzetikha mi'eretz Mitzrayim, mibeyt avadim.” “I am Yehovah, your God, who took you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.”

Lo yihiyeh lekha Elohim akherim al panay.” “You shall have no other gods,” literally, “upon My face.” Don't put any other mask on me. Don't superimpose anybody… don't have anybody else in My presence, I don't need no help.

Keith: I don’t need no help.

Nehemia: He says in Isaiah, “Ani Yehovah ve'en mibal'aday el akher.” “l am Yehovah and besides Me there is no god.” And I explained to my wife, who's learning just a little bit of Hebrew, just a bissel Hebrew, me'at Ivrit. And I explained to her that that word "akher" “other God,” that ties into something in the Shema, the Shema that my wife knows incredibly. Can you recite the Shema for us?

Keith: Oh, my goodness.

Lynell: You're not gonna put me on the spot. If you do it with me, I'll do it.

Keith: Go ahead. We’ll do it together.

Lynell: Shema Yisrael, Yehovah Eloheinu, Yehovah ekhad.

Keith: Ekhad, yeah.

Nehemia: There it is, that word, “ekhad.” So, that word, “ekhad,” Yehovah is our God, Yehovah is one. That word "ekhad" is alef, khet, dalet. And in Isaiah He says, “There is beside Me no el akher, other.” And the difference between "akher" “other, another,” and “ekhad,” “one,” is, we call it in Hebrew a “chupchik.” A chupchik is a little bump. The dalet has a little bump on it that the resh doesn't have. And the difference between the dalet and the resh is that little chupchik, the little bump. And if you don't see that little bump there in ekhad, you'll read it, “Yehovah Elohenu, “Yehovah is our God,” “Yehovah akher,” “there's another Yehovah.” And so, in every Hebrew manuscript in the world, when you get to that word "ekhad" they've made the dalet big. It's a large dalet so that you cannot be confused.

Keith: My God.

Nehemia: You see, it’s a big dalet. Dalet and resh, they get mistaken a lot. It's a common confusion that happens in the Dead Sea Scrolls all the way up into modern Torah scrolls. When they write a Torah scroll there are confusions between dalet and resh. And so, to make sure there's no confusion about whether it's Yehovah akher, or Yehovah ekhad, another Yehovah or one Yehovah, the dalet’s written big. And the dalet is emphasized when Jews recite it in the synagogue. My father used to put his hands over his eyes, and he would say, “Shema Yisrael, Adonay” he would say, “Adonay Elohenu, Adonay ekhaddd.” He would emphasize that dalet, and this has been done by Jews for 2,000 years and more, that every time they recite the Shema, we know it's one God.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: Yehovah ekhad.

Keith: We have to give opportunity. Is there anyone else that would like to say anything, blessings to the people, Shaloms, anything like that before I give the ending commercial. Is there anything? Go ahead.

Andrea: I don't like to speak, and you all know that, but bless Yehovah that we've been kept. And that whatever His purposes were for us to learn and know through COVID, He's brought us to that place where a terrible situation accomplished His purpose.

Keith: Amen. Amen.

Lynell: I have nothing to say. Actually, I'm just grateful that you guys came this weekend. We've had a really good time. It's been wonderful to spend time together, and to fellowship, and to see what God is doing. The episode 15 was extraordinary, but I really grasped the ramifications of what that was. I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is amazing.” I'm so looking forward to seeing what God's gonna do in the next few years. I mean, it's wide open right now. I just can't wait to see what God does.

Nehemia: He's amazing.

Keith: Anything you want to say, Nehemia?

Nehemia: I've said enough.

Keith: You’ve said enough? Okay folks, here's what you do. First of all, thanks for taking this time live with us. We're gonna go back to having a little more partying before they kick us outta here. I'm gonna tell you a funny story.

Lynell: I knew what you're gonna do. You should tell it.

Keith: It’s hilarious.

Lynell: It's Nehemia, this is who he is. You tell the story.

Nehemia: I'll tell the story that you don't know about, Lynell. So, Keith says to me, when you guys aren't around, he says, “Look, as soon as breakfast is over, I gotta get out of here, I’ve got work to do. When my wife comes down, tell her that you and Lynell have to go and visit your mother-in-law, or something,” is what he said. So instead, I open up…

Keith: You gotta go home now.

Lynell: Don’t say that. That’s not what I thought.

Nehemia: So, I open up from Judges 19, and I read them the story about the man who went to Beit Lekhem to get his concubine, and he's visiting the father-in-law. And then it says that, “Her husband set out with an attendant and a pair of donkeys and went after her to woo her, and to win her back. She admitted him into their father's house. And when the girl's father saw him, he received him warmly. His father-in-law, the girl's father, pressed him, and stayed with him three days. They drank and lodged there.” And I read this to Andrea, I said, “Early in the morning on the fourth day, he started to leave. But the girl's father said to his son-in-law, ‘Eat something to give you strength, then you can leave.’ So, the two of them sat down and they feasted together.” I wouldn't let them go.

Keith: But let me tell you the funny part, folks. So, we're gonna eat breakfast and leave, right? So, this is Nehemia's way of saying we can stay longer. Lynell says that she's going to make barbecued beef, but it's only for you guys, so can you stay at least until lunch? So, now we stay until lunch, and then after lunch, “Hey, you know what? Let's take a few minutes and talk to the people. And now we're here. Why not stay for dinner?”

Lynell: Amen, exactly.

Nehemia: We'll have an amazing breakfast tomorrow.

Lynell: Exactly.

Keith: Clap with us, folks. We're having a great time.

Nehemia: Hallelujah.

Keith: Listen, folks. Remember to do this. Two steps. First, bfanternational.com, front page, click free guide. Second step, nehemiaswall.com, Yehovah studies. Between the two, you're gonna be walking through the split waters of the Red Sea regarding God's name, where He shared first the poetic form of it, which was Yah. Remember that? Amazing. So, you all are wonderful for visiting with us and meeting with us.

Nehemia: My wife's a prayer warrior. Can she end in prayer?

Keith: Absolutely.

Nehemia: Would you do it? Would you mind?

Lynell: Of course. Yehovah, thank you so much for our time together, God, for the blessings that you've given, and God, for revealing Your will. Lord, it's in the small things that we see, as well as the big things, but God this time, to fellowship after COVID, to get out and really spend time with friends has been extraordinary and we are grateful for the opportunity that You've given for us to be together. Now Father, I pray that You would bless all that listen, Father, all that hear. I pray that You would bless them, that You would give them the same peace and the same joy that You've given to us this week, and that You would share that with others. And God, I pray that all that we do, that You would be glorified in all that we do.

Nehemia: Yes, Amen.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: Amen.

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

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  • Daniel says:

    Congratulations Nehemia on your marriage!

  • Ronald Wilson says:

    like all the subjects i view, which is not a lot. someone tell Keith this west virginian has been a Vikings fan since 1968.

  • Katie Marks says:

    you guys are inspiring, can you tell me this,
    Eashua Meeshka is the name given in Vic Alexanders book for yashua ‘story of Jesus’
    is that true?
    Also I have posted ‘the Lords will be done’
    on Youtube last month, some input ok.

  • Jill Ann says:

    What a joy to see friends together in the Lord. Thank you for sharing this. Shalom to all.

  • Jane Hartley says:

    Excited about the future of your ministries and so glad to meet your lovely wives!

  • Shelley Greening says:

    That was great – so much fun! It was delightful to “meet” beautiful Lynnelle (and Andrea, whom I’ve never seen before, either). Thank you for sharing a bit of this weekend with us.
    I think I’ll go back and watch Hebrew Gospel Pearls #15 again. (And that’s saying a lot, because I don’t do reruns.)
    YHVH Saves! Halleluyah!

  • Richard Clarke says:

    The coming of Pentecost is the time of the great awakening for all mankind. It will hit like a tsunami! “Arise and shine for the light has come.” And, Shavuot, the harvesting of the grain — the beginning of the separation of the grain from the chaff, separating the sons of God from the sons of men.

  • Kevin George says:

    Nehemia, thanks for finally introducing us to your lovely wife. She is wonderful and you are truly blessed!

  • Nicole Chaplain-Pearman says:

    Your studies have always been a blessing to me. Each time I listen to one I feel like a light goes on and I understand something about Scripture on a much deeper level. May Yehovah bless and inspire you for many years to come.

  • Bob Curfman says:

    Thank you for the shared knowledge

  • Paul Case says:

    Tears of joy for YHVH’s blessings on yall, and to us through you.