Prophet Pearls #40 – Balak (Micah 5:7[6]-6:8)

You are listening to Prophet Pearls with Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Keith: Welcome to Prophet Pearls. This is Keith Johnson and Nehemia Gordon down into the deep dark breaches of a basement in the side of a mountain in the land of Jerusalem. We are here actually recording at breakneck speed, but really having an amazing time, not only having our nose in the Scriptures but actually walking amongst the people in the land. It really is becoming amazing. We’re trying to do our best to let you know about prophecy for yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and that’s exactly what we’re about to do in this section in the Book of Micah. Nehemia, welcome back again!

Nehemia: Shalom, Keith. I love this book, the Book of Micah. I can’t wait to talk about this.

Keith: You’re talking about the Book of Micah, so I have to tell you something. We talked earlier about Isaiah, and how I see him, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and even Amos, but I have to tell you I don’t have an image for Micah. Can you help me? Can you tell me something about this prophet?

Nehemia: So he’s actually mentioned by Jeremiah, if I’m not mistaken. Let’s see, Jeremiah Chapter 26 verse 18. It says… here let me read you in the JPS. Jeremiah is talking about the different prophets, and it says, “Micah the Morashtite, who prophesied in the days of Hezekiah of Judah, said to all the people of Judah, ‘Thus said Yehovah of Hosts, Zion shall be plowed as a field, Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins and the Temple Mount a shrine in the woods.’” That was his famous prophecy.

And what they’re talking about there is if you have a negative prophecy, does that mean that you’re a traitor against the government? Because that’s what they were accusing Jeremiah of. They said, “Well, wait a minute, why is Jeremiah against the kingdom of Judah for prophesying that we’re going to be punished – Micah the Morashtite did that.” So that’s him, he’s a cool… it’s interesting, I don’t know that we have many other examples of one prophet who mentions another prophet in parallel. We actually have Daniel mentioning Jeremiah, but Daniel’s not in the Prophets in the Tanakh, Daniel’s in the Writings. So that’s interesting.

Keith: Yes. Well, the verse that we start out with is verse 7, Micah 5.

Nehemia: By the way, that quote is from Micah Chapter 3 verse 12 in Jeremiah. Isn’t that interesting?

Keith: Wow.

Nehemia: He’s quoting a prophecy of Micah, and we have the original in Micah Chapter 3 verse 12. That’s cool.

Keith: Wow. Wow.

Nehemia: But here we’re in Micah 5.

Keith: Yes. And actually, I have to tell something, in English it starts out with a word that I’ve used a lot. I really love this word. I honestly have to tell you, this English word gives me an image that really just makes me think a lot about not only what the future, in terms of the remnant, I use the word the remnant, but so many people that I meet, that I feel like when I meet them, I’m like, “Boy, they just look like, smell like, feel like, act like the remnant.”

And it says here, “Then the remnant of Yaakov, the remnant of Jacob, will be among many peoples.” And then it gives the image that there will be among many peoples, “Like dew from Yehovah, like showers on vegetation which do not wait for man or delay for the sons of men. The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations,” it says it again, “among many peoples,” there it is, “like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep, which, if he passes through, tramples down and tears, and there is none to rescue.” So he’s giving images of what it looks – like this remnant of people.

Now, go ahead and make that statement.

Nehemia: Well, read verse 8 now. Let’s finish the prophecy.

Keith: Yes. Okay. And then, well, let’s see. No, I actually just did verse 8 in English. You want me to do in…?

Nehemia: No, no. And there’s none to… Oh, I’m sorry. So it’s verse 9 in the Hebrew. In Hebrew, it’s verse 8. I’m looking at the Hebrew.

Keith: Okay. “Your hand will be lifted up against your adversaries, and all your enemies will be cut off.”

Nehemia: So that’s this prophecy that ends in verse 8 in the Hebrew, is that 9 in the English?

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: Okay. So what’s this? So first of all, this phrase in verse 6 “kirvivim alei esev,” like, how do you have that? “Like showers upon the vegetation”?

Keith: Verse 7 in the English?

Nehemia: Verse 7 in the English, which is verse 6 in the Hebrew. You translate it as, “showers upon the grass,” that exact phrase…

Keith: “Showers on vegetation,” yes.

Nehemia: Yes. That exact phrase in Hebrew, “kirvivim alei esev,” appears in Deuteronomy 32:2 and in the Song of Moses, and it’s a pretty distinctive phrase. So it clearly is – Micah is prophesying and he has this image in his head, or this phrase, that’s being taken from there.

So this is interesting. This is describing Israel. You know, we’ve read many times about Israel scattered among the nations, Yehovah will come and kibbutz them back, He’ll gather them back. But I don’t know that we’ve read many images like this, where Jacob among the nations is like this lion that’s going to destroy its enemies. Isn’t it appropriate that we’re reading this around the time of Purim? Where there is an image of Israel among the nations as this victim about to be wiped out, and then venahafochu, it gets turned around.

Keith: Turned around.

Nehemia: Turned upside down. The victim becomes the victor and the persecuted becomes the defender and wipes out the enemy. And that’s why to this day, Jews, to kind of express that, will dress up in costumes. And I actually asked my niece the other day – she was dressed up as a little princess – and I said, “Well so why…” and she’s 9 years old. I’m sorry she’s almost 10.

Keith: Yes, you must never say 9.

Nehemia: Right. “Ani kimat bat eser.” So she’s almost 10 and I asked her, “So why, Aviv, are you dressed up on Purim? Why Purim. Like, why dress up?” And she said, “Well, because venahafochu,” and she quoted the Hebrew, because she’s a little Israeli girl, which means the “opposite happens.” And so she said, “We do the opposite of what we do in daily life, and in daily life, I’m not a princess, and now I’m dressed like a princess.”

But here’s an image of sort of a Purim situation, which is not a common image in the Tanakh. Israel is a lion among the sheep. That speaks for itself.

Keith: Yes. And he says it twice, “Among many peoples.” And here it says, “Among the nations.” So now we’re talking about them not necessarily being amongst the people of Israel, but rather being amongst all sorts of different nations, so that like they’re the ones that are, what’s that called again when you’re a… what’s that called? A cell. [laughing]

Nehemia: A cell?

Keith: In other words, they’re groups of people, and like, I get the image of them being all over the world, not just in one place.

Nehemia: Well, yes, they’re amongst the nations. And the point here is that he’s saying, “Lift up your hand against your enemies and all your enemies will be cut off.” This is really the image of Purim. And like we have this image we’ve talked about before, where Israel is among the nations and they’ll be sifted out. And that’s something that’s more familiar to me from the history of Israel. Israel is scattered among the nations and Yehovah is doing this kind of sifting out. We’ve got the Holocaust and we’ve got the pogroms and we’ve got the inquisitions, and the Jews just keep getting whittled down, whittled down again and again and again. And that’s a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. But then here, this image of Israel among the nations, and wiping out other nations who come up against us as enemies, that’s not an image we see a lot of. That’s interesting.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: And here I have to think this prophecy hasn’t really been fulfilled much in the past. This might be one coming for the future.

Keith: Oh!

Nehemia: This might be for today and tomorrow.

Keith: But you mentioned Purim. I mean, they were…

Nehemia: There’s just one example. Yes, okay.

Keith: Yes. They’re amongst the nations. It says, “Your hand will be lifted up…”

Nehemia: But here it’s the remnant of Jacob, so I don’t know that that would apply to Purim exactly. I’m saying that’s an image of it, but here I’m thinking – and I could be wrong – that this is an end times prophecy, a future prophecy that hasn’t been fulfilled yet. And we don’t actually see it in history very much, or even at all.

Keith: Can I ask…? This is kind of a grammatical question.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: But what I like about it in English, it says, “Your hand will be lifted up.” Now, I think… It sends the message that… it doesn’t say, “You will lift your hand up.” You see what I’m saying? “Your hand will be lifted up,” but that’s not grammatically what it looks like is happening here. So my question is, when it says, “Your hand will be lifted up,” if I read it that way, then that kind of means there’s sort of a passive thing, “Your hand will be lifted up.” But what do you see here grammatically, as far as the…?

Nehemia: Yes, in Hebrew it’s not in passive. [laughing] However, it is adjustive, and so the subject could actually adhere. We’ve talked about this before, how you have the four prefixes of Hebrew verbs called the Eitan letters, Alef-Yud-Tav-Nun. And the Tav means “you” or “she.” And so you could read “ta’arom,” as, “You will lift up yadchah, your hand,” and yadchah, “your hand,” is the object. Or ta’arom yadchah is “Your hand will lift up.” And then your hand is the subject.

The point is that tav in ta’arom could be “you will lift up,” or “she will lift up.” In both cases, it’s an active verb. Your hand is the subject of the sentence according to the other one, and that’s how they’re interpreting it. But for English style, they’re switching it to passive. “Your hand, she will lift up against your enemies,” is literally what it says.

Keith: Awesome.

Nehemia: Or one way of reading it.

Keith: Yes. And actually, it’s interesting – it doesn’t say here “against your satans”.

Nehemia: No, it says “tza’arecha,” “your enemies.”

Keith: Yes, “Your enemies.” “And all your enemies will be cut off.”

Nehemia: Yes, another word for enemy, “oyev.”

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: Okay.

Keith: Then we get this phrase, Nehemia, that I love when I hear it, and its three little letters, three little words in English, “in that day.” “In that day,” I don’t know how many times it shows up. You could probably tap, tap, tap.

Nehemia: Let’s do that.

Keith: But when we say, “It will be in that day.” That phrase kind of makes my antennas raise up, because I…

Nehemia: I’ve got that exact phrase 34 times in the Tanakh.

Keith: Is that not impressive, folks? Did you see how quick that was? No, that could be a record.

Nehemia: Wait. Hold on a second. Well, no, so there are different forms of it. There’s “Vayehi bayom hahu,” “And it was on that day.” But what we want is “Vehayah bayom hahu,” “And it will be on that day.” So for that, I need to do something a little bit different, so it’s going to take me a minute.

Keith: Oh, boy.

Nehemia: So go on while I’m looking for this.

Keith: Okay. Well, again, the reason I’m thinking of it is because when I hear that word, “in that day,” I ask myself, “Is there any other day that we’re not waiting with more expectation?”

Nehemia: Okay. Thirty-two times where it’s that exact phrase in the Hebrew, “Vehayah bayom hahu,” “And it shall come to pass on that day,” or literally, “it will be on that day.”

Keith: Yes. And what is in that day?

Nehemia: That day is the great and terrible day of Yehovah.

Keith: Is that the day we’re talking about? Is that the day that we’re talking about?

Nehemia: That’s usually what it is, although not necessarily – it could be other things, too.

Keith: Okay. Well, it says, “in that day,” declares Yehovah,” “ne’um Yehovah,” “sayeth Yehovah, ‘That I will cut off your horses from among you and destroy your chariots.’” In other words, whatever you’re depending on, whatever you think is your strength, you’ve got this, you know, horses and chariots and images…”

Nehemia: Yes. Can I just say one more thing about the phrase that you focused on? “Vehayah bayom hahu,” “And it shall come to pass on that day.” So I’m looking 32 times that appears, that exact phrase, and the first time it appears is Isaiah. Then it appears in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Micah, Zephaniah, and Zachariah. And what do all those have in common? So in Hebrew, we have this block of books called, The Latter Prophets. We’re doing Prophet Pearls, and we have Torah, Nevi’im, Ketuvim.

Keith: The Latter Prophets.

Nehemia: We have Torah, Nevi’im, Ketuvim – Torah, or instruction, Prophets, and Writings. But among the Prophets, there is a division in the Hebrew between the Former Prophets and the Latter Prophets. The Former Prophets are the history books, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. And then you have the Latter Prophets. There are four Latter Prophets just like there’s four Former Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve. And the Twelve in Hebrew is actually one scroll. It’s twelve books, but it’s one scroll.

Keith: It’s funny, in our tradition we call them the Minor Prophets.

Nehemia: Well, the Minor – because they’re small, I guess.

Keith: They’re small, yes, but they’re not minor. [laughing]

Nehemia: No. So it’s only in the Latter Prophets that we have this phrase, “And it shall come to pass on that day.”

Keith: Wow.

Nehemia: That’s interesting. I’ve never noticed that, 32 times.

Keith: But it says, “I will cut off the cities,” I’m sorry. Yes, “the horses from among you and destroy your chariots.” Kind of as signs of strength, the signs of the things maybe that people depend…

Nehemia: Of human strength.

Keith: Yes, of human strength. Those things will be cut off. Then it says, “I will also cut off the cities of your land and tear down all of your fortifications.” But I’m saying, there’s this ebb and flow. “This is what I’m going to do. This is what I’m going to do. This is what’s going to happen. This is what you’re going to see.” You really have to kind of get the overall picture, and I don’t know how to do it other than just to read. You just read and see what’s going on. But that’s what He’s saying here.

But then it says, “not only I’m going to cut off the cities,” in English, it says here, “I’m going to cut off sorceries from your hand,” That’s the word that’s used.

Nehemia: That’s in a different verse. I think you’re mixing verses.

Keith: No, 11. 11?

Nehemia: So there’s a series of things He’s going to cut off. He’s going to cut off the horses. He’s going to cut off the cities. He’s going to cut off the sorceries.

Keith: It’s the next verse.

Nehemia: He’s going to cut off the idols. Right. So it’s verse 11 in the Hebrew, I assume it’s 12 in the English.

Keith: Yes, it’s 12 in the English, “I will cut off your sorceries from your hand, and you will have,” and then it uses the word, I don’t know what’s…

Nehemia: “Me’ononim,” which is diviners.

Keith: Are they fortune-tellers, Nehemia?

Nehemia: Fortune-tellers, diviners, people who prophesy the future and look up to the stars and tell the future based on constellations in the heaven, and certain… what you call those?

Keith: But you’re making that up. So you mean to tell me if someone looks at the patterns of what’s going on and then says, “This is what’s going to happen,” that they’re considered like a fortune-teller?

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: What’s the technical term here? Let’s use the technical term here.

Nehemia: If we want to get technical, we’ve got to go to Deuteronomy 18. Can we do that?

Keith: Yes, that’s what I’d like to do.

Nehemia: All right. Let’s go to Deuteronomy 18. And it’s funny – just before we started recording, I said to Keith, “I got nothing on this.” [laughing]

Keith: You guys, it’s the funniest thing. I’m going to tell a funny story about Nehemia. So while he’s looking for that…

Nehemia: I got it.

Keith: So one of the reasons that I was excited to do this is that I don’t think people really, unfortunately, they don’t get a chance to really interact with people that maybe come from a different perspective, especially as it pertains to the Hebrew Bible, just because I don’t think… Can I say this? I want to be really honest.

Nehemia: What’s that? Sure.

Keith: I think that a lot of people who know Hebrew, who actually know how to read it, aren’t so interested in having conversations with people that don’t come from their same theological background and their religious background. And so it really is kind of a sad story that folks literally have to either change who they are to get access – and you’ve never asked for that. You’ve never asked for people to actually have to get on board. You know, “Become a Karaite before I will share this with you. Be just like me and think like me and act like me.”

Probably the reason that you get in so much trouble is because, if anything, it’s the exact opposite – that you want to give people the information, and you don’t put it upon them to have to jump through some hoops before they can get that information. But one of the things that I do, and I do it on purpose, is I do a lot of setups in these… I just have to confess it, Nehemia. I do a lot of setups where I’m like, “Okay, how can I get him to talk about this?” And you’ll say, “Yes, Keith, I just don’t know, I don’t have a lot here.” I’m like, “Right… You’re going to have more than you can imagine!” [laughing] So I have these little setups, and this is one of them. I want you to talk about this.

Nehemia: Sure. All right. And we talked about this in the Original Torah Pearls, which you can find on nehemiaswall.com and bfainternational.com. So he’s talking here in Deuteronomy 18 about prophets, and there’s going to be a prophet from among you, and there will also be a false prophet, beware of him.

But then the context here is how the peoples of the land – the heathens, the pagans – what they do is they don’t even go to prophets. What they do is they go to these fortune-tellers, these people who look at the heavens and predict what’s going to happen.

Keith: Man, this is a great word, Nehemia. This is a great word, 5:12. This is a great word. Go ahead.

Nehemia: Yes. So hold on, it’s in Deuteronomy 18, I just had it a second ago. I had it, and then you started talking, and I lost it. [laughing]

Keith: I’m sorry, folks. I apologize. Well, do your thing tap, tap. Come on, tap, tap.

Nehemia: Right. Okay, hold on a second. It’s here in… oh, here it is. In verse 14 it says, “For these nations which you are going to inherit them.” Let’s see. “They go to the me’onenim and the kosmim they listen to.” And there’s some question what the exact nuance of each of these terms is. Like for example, some say me’onenim are those who look at the clouds to tell the future. And kosmim we translate, I suppose, in Modern Hebrew, we translate it as a magician, but it’s more specifically somebody who uses magic to tell the future or to control the supernatural. And then there’s a list of specific things or types of this magic, which I think we just skipped.

Keith: No.

Nehemia: Where is that? Oh, here it is! It’s verses 10 and 11. This is almost like a menu.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: It’s a list of these different things. It says “There shall not be found among you one that causes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire,” that’s the Molech worship, the human sacrifice. It says, “kosem ksamim,” a magician, someone who performs magic, “me’onen,” someone who…

Keith: What are you reading right now?

Nehemia: Verse 10 of Deuteronomy 18.

Keith: Oh, of Deuteronomy 18. I’m sorry. I thought you said… okay, go ahead.

Nehemia: Yes. You wanted the basis in the Torah of what he’s talking about is Deuteronomy 18 verse 10. And it says, “me’onen u’menachesh u’mechashef,” which is one who looks at clouds, and one who divines, and one who performs – a witch, you could translate as.

Keith: Wow.

Nehemia: “Vechover chaver,” which is some other kind of magic, they say it has to do with bones, “and he who asks the ghost or a familiar spirit, and one who seeks the dead.” And basically, what this is talking about is these different ways of predicting the future or controlling the supernatural, whether it’s by using the bones of animals or looking at livers or things like that, various Pagan things.

And then Isaiah 47 speaks about this, as well, I’ll just read that real quick. He says, 47, I’ll read in verse 12, “Stand up, with your spells and your many enchantments on which you labored since youth! Perhaps you’ll be able to profit, perhaps you will find strength. You are helpless, despite all your art.” And the word “art” there, actually, in Hebrew, he’s talking about this knowledge they have that they used to try to predict the future. “Let them stand up and help you now, the scanners of heaven, the star-gazers, who announce, month by month, whatever will come upon you.”

Keith: The scanners of heaven?

Nehemia: And so what we had there is people back then who would look up in the sky and they would say, “There’s a certain alignment taking place, and based on this alignment, and based on this omen in this heavens, we know this is going to happen or that’s going to happen.” And they would use this to predict the future, and really, to just terrify people so that they could control them. And he’s speaking against them, and I love verse 14 of Isaiah 47, who ties it in, he says, “See, they are become like straw, fire consumes them. They cannot save themselves from the power of the flame, this is no coal for warming oneself, no fire to sit by!” They’re really going to get burned – the people who make these predictions by looking up at the heavens and make predictions on what’s going to happen in the future based on alignments and things like that.

Keith: Well, you know it’s something.

Nehemia: I think we call that astrology.

Keith: Yes. It’s funny, because the English word they use often is the word “sorcerer”, and they use the word sorcerer, it’s almost like the English is doing this – and maybe I might be going a little far I don’t want to think it’s a conspiracy – but it’s almost like by using the word sorcerer, you’re like, “Well, that’s the days of whatever.”

Nehemia: Well, I think what it is, is it’s something that’s really easy to identify and sort of demonize, which is like, let’s say, Harry Potter.

Keith: Exactly! I hate that Harry Potter.

Nehemia: And the point of Isaiah 47 and Deuteronomy 18, what we just read, is that it doesn’t always look like Harry Potter. Sometimes it looks like something much more familiar. It might be something that looks like, “Hey, I’m going to come…” I mean can I throw under the bus the people I’m thinking about? We’ve got these Kabbalists, who will come along in my tradition, and they’ll look up and they’ll say there’s this in the constellation, and they’ll bring you some ancient Jewish source, which was doing the same sort of thing – because there is ancient Jewish magic, and it’s a sin. It’s against the will of God.

But they’ll bring this to you and say, “Look, this is what our ancient rabbi said.” And generally, it tends to be these Kabbalists, and they’ll say, “And then there’s this thing with the moon that’s going to happen, and there are these other alignments.” And they’ll do this to try to predict the future. And any time somebody looks up at the stars of heaven and is telling you, “I’m going to predict the future based on that,” that doesn’t have to be Harry Potter, but that’s biblical necromancy – or not necromancy – but magic and divination. Divination is the broadest term.

Keith: Wow.

Nehemia: That’s “kosem ksamim” in Hebrew.

Keith: Yes. There it is. I mean as we’re saying in Micah, he’s saying…

Nehemia: And the point of Micah is, “Look, you don’t want to rely on me, you want to rely on yourselves. You want to get this information about what’s going to happen in the future, not through me, but through looking up at the stars of heaven and figuring it out for yourself.”

Keith: Man, oh man. And isn’t it something that we’re talking about ancient times and modern times?

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: You know, wow. Okay.

Nehemia: Let’s move on.

Keith: 5:13, the next thing he’s going to cut off, it’s the third thing he’s going to cut off.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: “I will cut off your carved images.”

Nehemia: And it says, “the asherecha.” Asherah was the goddess who was represented by a tree.

Keith: Yes. “And your sacred pillars from among you, so that you will no longer bow down to the work of your hands.” Man!

Nehemia: What are you reading? You’re reading a different verse.

Keith: No, that’s 13.

Nehemia: Oh, I’m in 13 in the Hebrew. You’re in 13 in the English. [laughing] We’re in different verses.

Keith: Yes. Now, we’re going to get to the asherim. You keep saying, “What are you reading? That’s the wrong one.” Look.

Nehemia: I don’t have the English. I’m just looking at the Hebrew.

Keith: Okay. So folks, as you’re listening to this, bear with us on here. So I have to read 13 before I can get to 14, but that’s actually 12.

But I’m saying, first He’s saying about these fortune-tellers and sorcerers. He’s talking about what He’s going to cut off. Then He goes from cutting off to rooting out, and that’s the verse that you’re talking about there. He says, “I will root out your asherim from among you and destroy your cities.”

Nehemia: Yes. Okay.

Keith: We talked about that before.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: “And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath on the nations which have not obeyed.” And we’re about to have a switch here before we get to 6:1. Is there anything, Nehemia, that when you’re reading through this… and I will say again, the endorphins, as I mentioned to you, they’re kind of taking over for me. It’s like literally I just…

Nehemia: Here’s what strikes me about this passage.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: So he’s talking about what I would call the end times, the great and terrible day of Yehovah, and I’m saying that in a very general sense, because within that, there are subdivisions of things that will happen at different times. But generally, we’re talking about some kind of end-times scenario. He’s talking about there’s going to be people who are performing divination and magic. And wait a minute. Here’s what I was taught growing up – that in the ancient days we used to worship idols, but God came and blinded Satan, or the yetzer hara, the rabbis call him, we blinded Satan, and ever since then we’ve never had the desire to worship idols. And so now we deal with gossip against our neighbor and we deal with really minor things.

Keith: Who says that?

Nehemia: This is what I was taught growing up.

Keith: Really?

Nehemia: This is a Rabbinical doctrine that in ancient times there was idolatry, but the stuff we’re dealing with is peanuts compared to what they had to deal with in biblical times. And I read this, and I realize, “Wait a minute, what I was taught is completely false. We’re dealing with biblical idolatry up until the end times. It’s not going to go away. It’s going to be there. And it’s not going to be cut off until that day.” And I look around and I say, “Well, where is that today among God’s people?” And when you look, then all of a sudden you find it.

Keith: You find it. It’s there.

Nehemia: It’s there. It’s masqueraded as other things. You know, it’ll be a holy rabbi, who’s studying an ancient Hebrew text. But it turns out he’s no different than the ancient magician.

Keith: And I have to say something – you mentioned earlier, Nehemia, you kind of said it, you were talking about Kabbalah. And I have to be careful about this, I want to be sensitive, but you do see how those things sneak their way in, sort of like “And it says this,” or they might not even tell you where it comes from. “And our ancients taught us…” “Our history says…” And you can say it in those words, in those phrases, “Ancient sages said…”

And when I see that, that sort of sometimes is code language. Sometimes it’s code language for that kind of thing that I think that’s absolutely something that we don’t want to be a part of.

Nehemia: In my approach as a Karaite Jew, of course, in full disclosure, I’m a Karaite Jew. When I look at the ancient writings of Jews, I always check it against Scripture. “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”

Keith: I’m liking that.

Nehemia: If it doesn’t fit Scripture it doesn’t matter if it was spoken by someone who predates Moses. I mean think about that. The fact that Moses is telling us not to perform these forms of divination and magic means there were people who were doing them.

One of the fights I’ve had with my Jewish brothers and sisters – not all them, but some – is that they’ll go to the grave of a rabbi and they’ll pray to that rabbi asking for intercession before God. And I say, wait a minute; Deuteronomy 18 speaks about seeking the dead, doresh al hametim. Why are you praying to a dead rabbi? I know it’s a little off-topic.

Well, the point is that we can delude ourselves and tell ourselves, “Well, today we’re only dealing with the minor issues; the big issues we’re in biblical times. That’s what my people have said. And in reality, no, we’ve got the same issues they had back then, and in some ways, they’re worse because they pretend to look like something holy. Although back then they looked like they were something holy, too, it’s just a different thing.

The point is, when you actually face it, it won’t look like Harry Potter. It’ll look like a rabbi with side locks who looks really holy and righteous, but he’s performing divination and magic. He’ll be speaking about Torah. He’ll be throwing out Torah words and phrases. He’ll be using cute little blessings and benedictions and phrases. But in the end, when you look at it, ultimately, what he’s saying he’s trying to predict the future by looking up at the stars of heaven and the moon and the sun. Then we call that divination.

Keith: Okay.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: Before we go to 6:1, there’s something I want us to teach people if we could.

Nehemia: Please.

Keith: Actually, I want to say by “teach them,” I want to just bring it as an issue. So we’ve had this struggle, we make jokes about it back and forth, which verse are we in? Are we in 14? Are we in 11? And we go back and forth. But in the Hebrew text, there are really some signs. I call them road signs, Nehemia, that are there. And one of them is, I just want to ask you how you interpret this. When you see a ‘Samek,’ the letter ‘Samek’ at the end of a verse.

Nehemia: ‘Samach.’

Keith: ‘Samach?’ Okay. Look, it’s ‘Samek’ for me. That’s what they tell me at the seminary. Okay?

Nehemia: Okay.

Keith: So when you see that ‘Samek,’ or ‘Samach,’ what does that say to you when you’re reading in the text?

Nehemia: First of all, let’s back up. What I read in the Hebrew manuscripts, in the Aleppo Codex and Leningrad Codex and Damascus Crown, these Hebrew manuscripts, I won’t see a ‘Samech,’ and I won’t see a ‘Pey.’ And just for those who don’t know, there are two types of paragraph divisions in the Hebrew. In the Hebrew manuscripts there are no chapter numbers. I guess you could argue there are in the Book of Psalms, that there are chapters. But there are no chapter divisions. There are no verse numbers in the original Hebrew text. The verses are divided, but they’re not numbered.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: And so in our printed Hebrew Bibles and in your computer program, you have a thing where it says ‘Samech,’ and it says ‘Pey’ to tell you that there are different types of chapter divisions. And the ‘Samech’ is called the parasha stumah, the closed portion, and the petucha, the open portion. And that actually just describes the type of paragraph division.

So a closed portion means what you actually see in the manuscript isn’t a ‘Samech,’ what you see is there is an end of a section, and then a space, and the next section begins on the same line of the manuscript. Hapetucha, I’m sorry that’s the stumah, yes. The petucha, or the ‘Pey,’ means that in the manuscript there’ll be the end of the section, end of the paragraph, and the next paragraph begins on the next line. Meaning, that space is open, it goes all the way to the end of the line. And it’s been argued that the open paragraph mark is a bigger break than the closed paragraph mark. That’s not entirely clear.

What is clear is that these paragraph divisions tell us more or less, and it’s not so straightforward, but they tell us more or less that here’s the end of one prophecy, here’s the beginning of the next prophecy. Now, sometimes in the middle of the prophecy, there’ll be subdivisions like that. We even have examples, it’s rare, but we’ll have a division like that in the middle of a verse, it’s called piskah be’emtzah pasuk. That happens, as well. And that usually is for some sort of emphasis.

Keith: Well, what I appreciate about it is when I’ve got my English Bible and then I’ve got the Hebrew text open, and I see that. That’s where I kind of say, “Well, that’s a good a pause.”

Nehemia: It’s definitely a pause.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: And so for example, in what we just read, we started… What verse did we start in, actually? I’m so confused by the verse numbers.

Keith: It depends on what you want to say.

Nehemia: Oh, we started in verse 8 in the Hebrew, which was verse 9 in the English.

Keith: No, verse 7 in the English. “The remnant of Jacob,” is 7.

Nehemia: So I’m looking right now, it says… Oh, you’re right. You’re right.

Keith: I’m right! Wait, stop the recording. Hold on just a second!

Nehemia: No, this is history. This has never happened before. [laughing]

Keith: Hold on, folks! We need to stop the recording. Okay? We’re going to stop the recording. Nehemia just said, “No, Keith, you’re right.” And he didn’t even have an explanation after it!

Nehemia: You just happen to be right sometimes.

Keith: [laughing] Go ahead.

Nehemia: I’m just messing with you.

Keith: All right.

Nehemia: No, so you’re absolutely right. All right. So chapter 5 verse 6 in Hebrew, which is verse 7 in English, begins a new section. And how do I know? Because before that, between 5 and 6, is a ‘Samech,’ in this text. In the manuscript, what I’d actually see would be a space in the middle of the line. But it tells me there’s a new thought there. It actually, in many instances, especially in the Prophets, indicates this is a new prophecy.

And often you’ll say, “But wait a minute – this is a continuation of the last prophecy or the last section, why do you say it’s a new prophecy?” And what tends to happen is the prophet will… the way it’s arranged in many sections very often is there’ll be a certain subject he’s prophesying on, and maybe he prophesied it 30 different occasions, and they’ll take those different prophecies and put them next to each other so you can read them as a running text. But they’re actually different prophetic occasions.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: And again, I go back to Jonah who prophesied, “And it was arba’im yom ve’Nineveh nehepachet,” “forty days and Nineveh is overthrown.” It was a four-word prophecy in Hebrew. And by the way, can I just talk about something completely off-topic real quick? So I don’t know if you know this, but today, as we’re recording this, or recently – I don’t know if it was actually today, I heard about it today – the ISIS terrorists in Iraq have destroyed an ancient Assyrian site. I think it’s called “Nimrud,” which is just the Arabic translation of Nimrod. You’ve got to wonder if it’s not that city mentioned possibly in the Book of Genesis.

And then they said on the news how they’re physically destroying the ruins because they want the only culture in the world to be Islam, and the ancient culture that existed there, to them, that has to be wiped… like, literally, they’re grinding it into dust. And they said they also have already done this, and I didn’t know this, they already have done this to Nineveh, the ancient Assyrian capital. The one where Jonah walked the streets. ISIS has now come and ground the ruins of Nineveh into the dust.

Keith: Let me tell you something, Nehemia. That’s really interesting. The verse before…

Nehemia: It breaks my heart that someone… It breaks my heart.

Keith: The verse before the verse we start actually says, “They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, the land of Nimrod at its entrances.” It’s actually the verse before, 5:6.

Nehemia: And today, Nimrod has been destroyed.

Keith: Been destroyed. And they showed video of them actually going to some of the ancient things that were there, and actually taking sledgehammers and smashing them and cutting them and… You know, Jonah’s tomb, the tomb of Jonah.

Nehemia: They destroyed it. Unbelievable.

Keith: They blew it up, and that was on the video. And I got to be honest with you, Nehemia. When you bring this up – and you know I’m not trying to pick a fight – but this is where I just say, “When do you say they’ve done enough damage, you know, you’ve just got to go in there and do what you got to do?”

Nehemia: Blast them back to the Stone Age.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: Yes. Well, what they’re dealing with is these people are hiding behind civilians, and they actually learned this from the Palestinians. And they’re literally, I heard an interview today with the guy in the Iraqi army, he’s like, “What do you want us to do? This is really difficult, they’re hiding behind civilians and they’re using them as human shields, and these are our civilians.” He’s Iraqi. They’re trying to liberate these areas of Iraq that were conquered by ISIS.

And here’s what happens. America pulled out and left this power vacuum and left behind these guys who couldn’t… They destroyed the Iraqi government, and then they came in and occupied the country, and there was this weak army that couldn’t defend itself, and these terrorists take over. It’s a problem. It’s a real problem. Yes.

So my prayer goes out that Yehovah will smite these evildoers and crush them. But maybe they’re there for a purpose. I don’t know what that purpose is.

Keith: Wow.

Nehemia: Then I think, “Wait a minute, as someone with a degree in archaeology, it breaks my heart to hear about what they’re doing to the archaeology.” But then I think, “Wait a minute, what are they doing to the humans?” They’re selling them as sex slaves, and they’re cutting off their heads, and they’re burning them alive. Why? Because they’re not Muslim. Or sometimes they’re Muslim, but they’re part of the wrong Muslim denomination. I mean literally, they’re doing that. I mean, these guys are just evil.

Keith: Yes. Okay. We’ve only got a few more verses, but they’re important.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: “Listen, you mountains…” Can I continue here?

Nehemia: Please.

Keith: Oh, no, no.

Nehemia: 6:1.

Keith: 6:1, “Hear now what Yehovah is saying,” it’s interesting it’s “shim’u.”

Nehemia: “Shim’u,” which is the plural of Shema.

Keith: Yes, which is the plural of Shema. [singing] “Shema Israel Yehovah Eloheinu, Yehovah Ehad.” “Hear now what Yehovah is saying, ‘Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.’” Wow. “Listen, you mountains, to the indictment,” is that a good word there, Nehemia?

Nehemia: No.

Keith: You don’t like that?

Nehemia: Indictment, it’s “riv,” which is “an argument against,” or a strife he’s got.

Keith: KJV says “controversy.”

Nehemia: Okay. You could say that.

Keith: Yes. “To the controversy of Yehovah, and you enduring foundations of the earth, because Yehovah has a case against His people.” Let me do the legal terms now…

Nehemia: By the way, “case” is the same exact word, “riv.” It appears twice.

Keith: Yes. He has an indictment.

Nehemia: Why did they translate one as “indictment,” one as “case”? [laughing]

Keith: Because they can do whatever they want to do unless we check it. [laughing] They can do whatever they want. “Because Yehovah has a case against His people,” an indictment, a controversy, “Even with Israel He will dispute.” We’ve moved into this sort of legal… is it fair? This conversation about what’s going on. It’s kind of cool. He says, go to the mountains and tell them about it.

Nehemia: All right. Well, they are the witnesses. Oh, and there’s definitely like, God’s going to bring a case against Israel here. Yes.

Keith: “My people, what have I done to you.”

Nehemia: Can I stop you here?

Keith: Go ahead. No problem.

Nehemia: One of the things we talked about in a recent episode was about how in Rabbinical tradition Satan is the kategor, the prosecutor, and I pointed out that that’s actually not in the Tanakh. You definitely have him in an adversarial role in the royal court, in the holy court, up in, for example, in Job. But here, Yehovah is the prosecutor. So I think it’s really dangerous where we say, “Yes, this is the role of Satan, and this is the role of the Archangel, Gabriel.” Wait a minute. Is that in Scripture? Here, Yehovah is coming with a case against Israel and wants the mountains to hear what He’s got to say.

Keith: Can you imagine? I was listening – and I know it sounds like a diversion – but I was watching the Nuremberg trial, the documentary.

Nehemia: Oh, wow. Back in 1947?

Keith: In 1947, no, I was watching…

Nehemia: But you were doing the more recently.

Keith: Well, yes, I was watching… No, but it was the actual one…

Nehemia: The video?

Keith: Yes, the video.

Nehemia: Oh, okay.

Keith: And I was watching it. It really is interesting – you talked about Yehovah bringing the case. What’s so phenomenal about that documentary is that the world, in effect, is like bringing this case against these guys. And I mean they spent months, Nehemia, and they had thousands of pages, and back and forth, back and forth. And then I think about this and what’s happening, and I think, “Boy, you know what? What will it be like? It’ll be nothing compared to that when Yehovah brings the case. When He brings the case, there’s not going to be any defense. There’s not going to be any argument back and forth.” If I ever am standing in the court, I never want Him to be the prosecutor, be the prosecutor because, how can I stand? What can you say in His presence?

Nehemia: Yes. Yesterday we were riding on the train, here in Jerusalem, the light rail, and there’s this big poster there. Because when you go on the bus in Israel, you pay the driver. When you go on the train, there’s no one there to check you.

Keith: I’ve had a crisis with this with the driver. It’s confusing.

Nehemia: So there’s a big sign that says, there’s no excuse not to pay for riding the train, and there’s a picture there of a dog eating the train ticket.

Keith: [laughing] And you can’t figure out what he’s saying. What is he saying?

Nehemia: Right. And the message is, don’t come with the excuse, “the dog ate my homework,” or “the dog ate my ticket.” [laughing]

Keith: That’s right.

Nehemia: And when Yehovah comes with His case against us, no one will be able to say, “Georgia ate the Bible, I couldn’t keep it.”

Keith: You know what’s funny about what you just brought up?

Nehemia: The dog ate Scripture.

Keith: You just brought up that story, and you know you can look at that dog, and you know that everyone understands what that image is.

Nehemia: Yes. Even though it’s not actually explained there. [laughing]

Keith: Exactly! But no one will be able to then say, “Well, I didn’t understand the image. I didn’t understand. It wasn’t in my culture.” Like when you stand before Him, there’s no excuse.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: And again, now we’re going to get to this. I don’t want to know what you want to do here, because we’re going to get to this…

Nehemia: I want to get to verse 8. When can we get the verse… or 9 and 7 and 8?

Keith: If you’ll just let me say this.

Nehemia: Okay.

Keith: If you’ll just let me read real quick 3 and 4 and 6 real casually.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: “My people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer Me. Indeed, I am the one who brought you out of Egypt. I brought you out of the land of Egypt and ransomed you from the house of slavery,” and you don’t want that to be the Word of the Week – okay. I don’t understand.

Nehemia: Didn’t we just do a Word of the Week?

Keith: No, we didn’t but that’s okay. We will do it in a second. “And ransomed you,” and actually, we did this word before.

Nehemia: So we won’t do it again.

Keith: Yes, it’s “padah.” But here it’s “paditah.” Or no, “padititah.”

Nehemia: “Pediticha.”

Keith: Yes, “from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron and…” and I think this is what caught my attention.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: Because you said I have an agenda.

Nehemia: Wait. Is this the feminist agenda again? Oh no! [laughing]

Keith: [laughing] No, you called me the feminist agenda. It says, “Indeed, I brought you up from the land of Egypt and ransomed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, and Aaron.” No, it says, “I sent before you Moses, Aaron,” and please tell me it doesn’t say in the Hebrew “Miriam.”

Nehemia: Miriam, yes.

Keith: Is that a mistake?

Nehemia: No, it says that in the Hebrew.

Keith: So what do they mean by that? “I sent before you Moses, Aaron and Miriam”?

Nehemia: She was a prophetess. It says that.

Keith: Wow. Amazing. It’s not often that we talk about Miriam, other than she had leprosy and whatever.

Nehemia: She led the people in song in Exodus 15.

Keith: Not only was she a dancer and a singer, He says…

Nehemia: She was a prophetess.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: Miriam HaNeviah.

Keith: You know that’s amazing. That’s amazing. That’s not something that I normally would hear or see. So it really caught my attention.

Nehemia: Yes, it caught you.

Keith: I’d like you to make a comment about it.

Nehemia: Well, yes, before I commented on that, I would want to go look and see how often is Aaron mentioned, because I don’t know that he’s mentioned all that often either, outside of the context of the Kohanim. So I’m just really quickly doing research.

Keith: Moses and Aaron are constantly mentioned, “Went before Pharaoh, Moses and Aaron.”

Nehemia: Here’s the homework for people.

Keith: Homework!

Nehemia: Outside of the Torah of the Five Books of Moses, how many times is Aaron mentioned where it’s not talking about the sons of Aaron, the Kohanim. And he is. For example, Joshua 24:5, “I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt.” So there’s an example.

But then what wouldn’t count is Joshua 24:33, “And Eleazar son of Aaron died.” Okay, so we’re not really talking about Aaron there, we’re talking about the Kohanim. How many times is Aaron mentioned? I’ll bet it’s not that many times.

Keith: Yes, but I’ll tell you what, Miriam…

Nehemia: It’s more than Miriam, I’ll grant you that.

Keith: I think that’s pretty cool.

Nehemia: The more the Miriamer.

Keith: Now…

Nehemia: That was funny. Actually, Miriam is mentioned only 15 times in the entire Tanakh.

Keith: Wow.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: But anyways, it says this, Nehemia, “My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab counseled, and what Balaam son of…”

Nehemia: That’s why it’s this portion, because that’s the weekly Torah portion that we’re talking about that.

Keith: Yes. What a phenomenal story.

Nehemia: I want to read verses 6 through 8.

Keith: Okay, good.

Nehemia: Could we read those real quick?

Keith: Yes, 6:6 for me?

Nehemia: 6:6 through 8.

Keith: Yes, “With what shall I come to Yehovah and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does Yehovah take a delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body, for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good.” Ah, I love this verse. “And what does Yehovah require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Go ahead.

Nehemia: Wow. First of all, this is homework for people, because we’re not going to… I’d love to talk…

Keith: What are you talking about? I’m going to talk about the whole…

Nehemia: The next 45 minutes.

Keith: No, the last part I want to talk about that.

Nehemia: Okay. Can I give people the homework, and then they can…?

Keith: Sure, yes.

Nehemia: Then they can stop listening and you can talk, okay?

Keith: Yes. Okay.

Nehemia: 1 Samuel chapter 15 verse 22. Write these down. These are passages in the Bible. And the reason this is homework is we’re actually going to come back to this in a future episode. These are the passages in the Tanakh – and maybe not all them – there are a bunch of passages that talk about obedience versus sacrifice. We already talked about at least one in Jeremiah.

1 Samuel 15:22; Jeremiah 7:10; Micah 6:7 through 8 – that’s this passage, Hosea 6:6. Of course, these are all the verses in the Hebrew, it might be one or two verses off in English. I don’t know. Isaiah 1:11. Amos 5:22 to 25. Psalm chapter 40 verse 6 or verse 7, depending on which version you’re reading. Psalm 51 verses 18 to 19. And those are just some of the passages that have this theme of “God wants obedience, not sacrifices.” And that’s basically what it’s saying here. But I love verse 8. Can I share a story?

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: So growing up in Chicago, we lived in… well, we lived in two places, but when I was around eight years old we moved to Peterson Park, and literally, around the corner from the place where my family lived there was this synagogue. It was a huge, beautiful, ornate synagogue, and it had a giant sign in front of it quoting this verse in English. And it’s kind of tragic – in my whole life I’ve never been inside that synagogue, growing up. In fact, we would walk a significant distance some Shabbats, some Sabbaths, to the synagogue, so as to avoid that synagogue, the one with this big sign in front of it. And the reason is that my father was an Orthodox rabbi and that was a Conservative synagogue. And the way my father described it is the Conservative Jews are worse than Christians. [laughing] That’s the way my father used to describe it. Looking back, it’s funny, you know, here I am sitting with a Methodist. But my father liked you.

Anyway. So why is it that we never stepped foot in that synagogue? Part of it was that they were a different denomination, and this is, you know, we sometimes call it the tribes of Israel. How divided we are among the Jewish people, sometimes. On the other hand, we’re very united in some ways. So I remember my father, when he looked at this verse on the wall of that Conservative synagogue, what he saw is, “here’s an excuse not to keep the Torah”. That’s what he heard from this verse.

Keith: What?

Nehemia: That they’re quoting this verse to get out of keeping the commandments. And why is that? You know, you could read it that way. “He has told you, man, what is good, and what Yehovah,” or the Lord, as they read it, “What the Lord seeks from you but to do justice,” or judgment, “and to love righteousness and to walk humbly with your God.”

Okay. So the way he looked at it – and I’m not saying this is what the Conservatives did, I don’t think it is – but from his perspective, here are these people who don’t follow all the Rabbinical rules and regulations, all of the takkanot and ma’asim. They don’t follow all of this minutia of Rabbinical law, and then they quote this verse. And their point is, “Look, I don’t have to do this because God doesn’t expect me to. All He wants me is to walk humbly with him and be a good person.” So what do you… talk to me about that.

Keith: Well, no. I’ve been waiting for this verse from the beginning of Prophet Pearls until the end. This verse is the verse for me that I absolutely 100% not only love, but continually think about.

Nehemia: Really?

Keith: I like to go with the verse word by word, and in English, it says, “He has told you,” and you use the word righteousness there, and it’s actually, “in the kindness.” He uses the word “chesed.”

Nehemia: “Chesed” is a difficult word to translate.

Keith: It is hard to translate. But I will tell you that when I think about it, I think about the description of who Yehovah is and how He treats us. And when I look at this word – and again, this is where I’ve been waiting to get to this, because I really want to lift this up, where it says, “And what does Yehovah seek,” in other words is “doresh.” “What does He seek from you, but, or that, if you should do mishpat,” judgment, “and that you should love chesed and that you should humbly,” I guess you’d say, “to walk humbly,” “to be humble with.”

Nehemia: To walk in, yes.

Keith: Yes, “to be humble with Elohekha,” with your God.

Nehemia: Or, “to walk humbly with your God.”

Keith: Yes, “with your God.” And the thing that I love about this is that I just ask myself on a daily basis, “Am I my walking and am I doing justice? Am I loving? Not just being kind, but do I love to be kind? And am I walking humbly with Him?” I realized that there’s so much about Him that no matter how much I study, and what I do, I’m just in a process of taking it piece-by-piece, learning little-by-little, and what a beautiful experience it is. It’s not about being a know-it-some and it’s not about being a know-it-all. It’s about being in a process of a relationship with Him that is about how I love Him and how I love others.

So this for me, this verse, Micah 6:8, when I look through Prophet Pearls, I thought, “You know what? If we don’t talk about anything else, I want to make sure that I talk about that.” That to me is what it means. And you said that your father said, “They’re making it almost like,” I’m misquoting him, sorry. “It’s like the shortcut of the way out to not having to deal with the Torah.”

Nehemia: “God doesn’t really care if I keep the Sabbath. God doesn’t really care if I eat pig or not. All He wants me to do is be a good person and walk humbly with Him.”

Keith: Yes. But just interesting what it…

Nehemia: This is the perception that at least my father had of the Conservatives. Why did they quote this verse of all the verses? The verse they should have quoted was, “You shall keep My Sabbaths and obey My statutes.” Why did they put this verse? His perspective was that this is a way of getting out of keeping the commandments.

Keith: Actually, it’s really…

Nehemia: And the question I have is, is he right? Is that what the verse means?

Keith: No, and let me say something.

Nehemia: What does the verse mean?

Keith: When I look at this verse, I think exactly the opposite of what he thinks. I think exactly this is what it means for me to love Him and to love my neighbor.

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: When I think of this, I think about everything I’ve read, everything we’ve talked about, everything we’ve studied.

Nehemia: Come on, Yeshua.

Keith: No. All the stuff that we talked about in Prophet Pearls, Torah Pearls, and everything else we’ve ever done. I think about this verse, and I’m thinking, “Man, what a beautiful thing Micah has written.” “He has told you. He has shown you. He has let you know, O man, what is good. And what does Yehovah seek of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” That for me is it. That’s what it’s about, and I believe that that’s the entire Bible. It’s like, wow, that’s what it means for me to be in a relationship with Him. Okay.

Nehemia: Now, do you know that Micah is referencing a verse back in Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 12?

Keith: Say it, brother.

Nehemia: Okay. “And Yehovah said unto me, ‘Arise, take your journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore unto their fathers to give them.’” Then verse 12 is the key verse, “And now, Israel, what does Yehovah your God require of you?” Does that sound familiar? [laughing] “But to fear Yehovah your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve Yehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Keith: “With all your heart and with all your soul.”

Nehemia: “To keep the commandments of Yehovah and His statutes, which I command thee this day for your good.” So Micah chapter 6 verse 8 is Deuteronomy chapter 10 verses 12 to 13. What does Yehovah want from us? To walk humbly with Him, to keep His commandments, to love righteousness, to love chesed, lovingkindness, to do justice, this is what it’s about. This is the underlying principle of the entire Torah is summarized here in Micah chapter 6 verse 8 and Deuteronomy chapter 10 verses 12 to 13. I know I’ve said this many times, and you make fun of me about this being my favorite verse in the entire Tanakh.

Keith: No, you can’t say this. No, we can’t agree that this is our favorite verse. You can’t say that, Nehemia!

Nehemia: It’s not yours, it’s mine.

Keith: No, as I said I’ve been waiting for this verse.

Nehemia: This is one of my top 50 favorite verses in the entire Tanakh. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite verse, but it’s definitely up there among my favorite verses in the entire Tanakh. These two passages together are such a powerful image and picture. And think about it – it really is a powerful saying. What does God want from me? What does He want from me? And He tells you exactly what he wants from you! Now, maybe to fulfill that isn’t such a simple thing, it requires… you know, I have to fashion my entire life around what He wants me. I can go live my life the way I want to and do certain things which God considers to be sinful or not humble, but if I want to know what He wants from me, He tells me straight out what He wants for me.

And yes, there are details to what that entails, and how I have to live my life, and how I have to adjust according to His expectations. But bottom line, what does He want from me? Yes, be a good person and love God and love your neighbor. That’s really what both of these passages are saying. Now, what that entails – that’s what the whole rest of the Torah is about.

And there’s this beautiful statement of a rabbi, and here I can say this is the most beautiful statement any rabbi ever spoke, definitely the number one statement. They came to the Rabbi and they said, “What is…” Actually, here’s the phrase, he said, “Teach me the entire Torah standing on one foot.” Meaning, the amount of time you can balance on one foot teach me the entire Torah. And he quoted – and you’ll love this – he said, “Ve’ahavta lere’acha kamocha.” “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” And he says, “The rest is commentary, go out and learn it.” And that’s so profound. That really is a pretty profound statement. I believe that was Rabbi Hillel, who lived around 30 B.C. And I’m probably misquoting it, go look it up and post in the comments of nehemiaswall.com and bfainternational.com. Someone find that and please post it. But it really is a beautiful concept.

The point here is, this is what God wants from us, and it’s really simple. We make it complicated, but it really is simple.

Keith: Amen. And so that’s Nehemia’s top 50, it’s my top 10. All I can say is… I don’t even know what to say.

Nehemia: It’s beautiful.

Keith: It’s beautiful.

Nehemia: Absolutely beautiful. And I love the context here, verses 6 to 7, which again was the homework. But the point was, you think what you have to do is perform these different rituals and bring this sacrifice and sprinkle this blood and burn this flour. Come on guys – this is not what it’s about. You could bring me thousands of rams and tens of thousands of rivers of oil. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about serving Yehovah, walking humbly with Him. Can I get an Amen?

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: I’m going to end here with prayer. Yehovah, avinu shebashamayim. Yehovah our Father in heaven. Go’alenu, our redeemer. Yehovah, I’m so thankful that we’ve had the opportunity to come here in this city that You put Your name on forever and speak about Your word, Yehovah. And I’ve had the opportunity, Yehovah, to come back from China and share with people about Your word. That’s such a blessing for me.

I know when I went off on that boat to Tarshish, to China, I thought that was the end of the ministry, and I’d put in a good 15-20 years, and that was it. But Yehovah, You had plans for me. And I know I was over in China, and I struggled, and I was on my face and I was asking You, “Yehovah, what is it You want from me? What do You have planned for me? What are You doing with me? Because this isn’t going the way I thought it was supposed to go, Yehovah.”

But I’ve been trusting in Yehovah. I know that You have a plan for me. I know that You have a path for me, and all I have to do is walk humbly, and You will lead me, and I will do my best to follow You, Yehovah.

Yehovah, I ask for peace for the city Jerusalem and for Your people Israel. And Yehovah, it is written, “Karov Yehovah lechol kor’av vechol asher ikrehu be’emet.” “Yehovah is close to all who call Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.” Yehovah, I ask You to have mercy today upon everyone who calls upon You in truth, Yehovah, whether they are those who know Your name, Yehovah, or maybe those who mispronounced Your name or don’t even know Your name at all, who call upon the name of another God, as it says in Psalm 44, “A foreign god in a foreign land.” And they think they’re calling upon You, but they don’t know any better, Yehovah. It says that You will examine their hearts and You will know their spirit and You will have mercy on them because You’re that merciful. You have that much chesed for mankind, for your creations, for those who You have formed and fashioned. And You love us. I know You love us, Yehovah.

I’m so thankful for these words, these love letters that were written by Your prophets, that were written with Your words. These prophets came and wrote these words, and now we can open them up and read them and see how much You love us. I’m grateful for that, Yehovah. I ask that You continue to guide us as we share the Prophet Pearls and we continue about in our ministries. In Your holy name, Yehovah. Amen.

Keith: Amen.

You have been listening to Prophet Pearls with Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

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