Prophet Pearls #38 – Korach (1 Samuel 11:14-12:22)

In this episode of Prophet Pearls, Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson discuss the Prophets portion for Korach covering 1 Samuel 11:14-12:22. Gordon and Johnson’s insight into the language, history, and context surrounding Samuel’s trip to Gilgal not only inform the portion at hand, but other passages in the Torah as well as extra-biblical sources from the times of the Judges. Gordon reveals the possible identities of Jerubbaal and Bedan. The name of the king of the Ammonites, Nahash (serpent) illustrates that metaphors need to be studied carefully. The study of the word-of-the-week, “witness/ed” (ayin-dalet), includes an explanation of hollow verbs—where not all letters of the root appear.

Gordon considers whether this portion provides a picture of the coming Messiah—rejected and then accepted after a great victory. In closing, he prays that Yehovah (like Saul) will have mercy on those who don’t recognize him—and that the day of Messiah will not be a day of wrath, but a day of honoring the Name.

Artwork for this week's episode is a painting by Mara Hofmann, artist.

"Here I am! Testify against me, in the presence of Yehovah and in the presence of His anointed one..." 1 Samuel 12:3

I look forward to reading your comments!

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Transcript
Prophet Pearls #38 - Korach (1 Samuel 11:14-12:22)

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 in Jerusalem. This is Keith Johnson, along with the number one reporter, the hottest reporter in Jerusalem, Nehemia Gordon. We just got back to Jerusalem, folks, from a major event where Nehemia had his really cool… I don’t even know what you call it here.

Nehemia: Recording device. The one we’re recording this episode on?

Keith: Absolutely. We got on a bus and a train and ended up in a very special spot, we’re going to talk a little bit about that. But we’re here in the land of Jerusalem doing whatever it takes to bring you the power and the pearls from the Prophets, and I have to tell you, it’s special to be here. One, you’re hearing this later in time, but in the time that we’re actually making the recordings, we went to three places today. Nehemia, I don’t know if I’m not going to be able to talk about it. I think I have to talk about it.

Nehemia: Go ahead and tell the people.

Keith: But we’re here, in Jerusalem…

Nehemia: It’s Purim today.

Keith: It’s Purim today, and we took a break to go out and be with the people, we went to three significant places. The first place we went to is actually the spot of a terrorist attack that took place this morning, just after we had recorded our second Prophet Pearls. We decided to get on the bus, the public transportation, to get over to that spot. We actually did a podcast from there. Now by the time folks are listening to this, how would they be able to hear the podcast, and what is it called, Nehemia?

Nehemia: Yes. So they can go to my website Nehemiaswall.com, and there are podcasts that come out, on… I actually can’t tell you if it’s every week, or it’s as I’m moved, I put out episodes of the podcast. But this episode is called The Scene of the Crime.

Keith: Yeah. I really want to invite people to do that. The date is...

Nehemia: March 6th today.

Keith: So that will be the date of the podcast. And that’s the title, you’ll hear exactly what happened. But it really is a special thing to be here. We’re going to be going over 1 Samuel Chapter 11, and I will say that this particular… It’s kind of interesting, we usually have people who are our Prophet Pearls Partners. We actually didn’t have anyone that sponsored this, and so we’re sponsoring it ourselves.

Nehemia: Really. We are! [laughing]

Keith: I want to thank our Prophet Pearls Partners, Makor Hebrew Foundation and Biblical Foundations Academy International. And you know it’s really interesting - people can kind of make assumptions like, “Yeah, you guys, things are, you know, you’re well known and people know you. And in fact, today, let me just say something, folks - we’re on a bus after we’ve gone and done three different podcasts… By the way, Nehemia can I charge you for those? Like, three podcasts?

Nehemia: I should charge you for what I’ve done.

Keith: You should charge me. [laughing] But listen, we’re on a bus, you guys, and we’re coming back from these interviews that we did, one at Damascus Gate, one at the spot of the terrorist attack, and also one across from the place where Yehovah set His name forever. Three really, really wonderful things. And we’re on a bus on our way back to do this recording, and a guy walks up to us on the bus. Neither of us… I don’t know the guy, and he says, “Aren’t you two supposed to be on a Harley Davidson?” And I’m like, wait a minute.

Nehemia: What?

Keith: This guy sees us on the bus and asked us this question because he had seen what you had sent out, and Nehemia, again, this is really amazing. You send out these newsletters and you had sent out an update about this video from the motorcycle. And it literally goes to thousands of people around the world…

Nehemia: And even in Jerusalem.

Keith: Including to a man in Jerusalem who was on a bus and sees us, and you had just sent it out that morning...

Nehemia: It’s incredible. It really is. [laughing] In the video, and if people haven’t seen it they can head over to my YouTube channel or to my Facebook page, and what we were saying in the video… basically that the message of the video is we’re willing to do whatever it takes to record these episodes. We originally were going to do it long-distance and then we realized we’re going to have to go on planes, trains, automobiles, and even Harley Davidsons. Absolutely. And he made me ride on a Harley to illustrate this point. Boy that was scary. So the guy sees it and says, “Shouldn't you be on a Harley?” No, we’re on Jerusalem municipal bus.

Keith: You know, it’s really interesting - we’re on the bus, and again, I know we talked a little bit about it the last time, but this week, for example, there is no Prophet Pearls partner, but yet, guess what? We still have to have it edited, we still have to take care of the things, and so in effect, we are sponsoring. What does that really mean? You know, we'll have to find out. And so maybe there are people listening now, whether it’s you visiting Nehemiaswall.com, or go to BFAinternational.com, really easy in both places, for you to make a donation of any amount that can support us. And really, beyond whether you’re on the Support Team or whether you’re part of the Premium Content Library, you can also go to either of those sites and give a one-time blessing, a one-time donation. It really does help us, so I really wanna encourage people to do that.

We’re going to be dealing with 1 Samuel, Nehemia, chapter 11. Again, I actually have a geographical question, and what I love about being able to do these Prophet Pearls with you, as we know, I’ve been here a number of times, we’re on our third tour with BFA International, but I’m still a rookie in terms of knowing exactly where things are and how it fits. But every time I run across one of these places and then I open my Bible and read it, it really is interesting, and so right away we’ve got an important place that we read about that has a real significance to it in terms of Scripture.

So in 1 Samuel chapter 11, verse 15, if I can go ahead and read that... I’m sorry, 1 Samuel 11 verse 14, the Prophet Samuel was saying to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there.” That’s what it says in the NASB, “to renew the kingdom there.” When he says that, you have to ask yourself the question, “renew” - so what was the past? I mean, isn’t that the point? You look at it and you ask yourself… he’s saying the significant place is Gilgal, and then again in the English, he uses the word to “renew there the kingdom”. I think that’s kind of interesting. It’s speaking of the kingdom, it makes me think to myself, “Is he talking about the covenant? Is he talking about something different?” And in context, we kind of find out the significance of that place. But I wanted to ask you - when you see Gilgal today, present day, is that a place that’s easy to go to, that you can say it’s here, or is there some debate about where that place is?

Nehemia: Yes, it’s not entirely clear, and part of the problem is there may be more than one Gilgal [laughing], and that’s where it gets confusing. So yes, I don’t know where it is.

Keith: It’s funny, because there’s the crossing of the Jordan and they talk about Gilgal...

Nehemia: Exactly. That would be the first one I would think of, but it sounds like that’s probably not what it’s talking about, because that’s in the Jordan Valley.

Keith: Exactly. So anyway, but they’re going to go to this place, and what are they going to do? He says “to renew the kingdom there”. Ah. So what is renewing the kingdom? Well, I guess we have to go in context because it...

Nehemia: Can we read verses 12 and 13? Because those give the context of the passage. Bevakasha.

Keith: Okay. I actually don’t have that pulled up, so you’re going to have to read it.

Nehemia: “And the people said to Shmuel…”

Keith: You know why I don’t have 12 and 13?

Nehemia: Because it’s not part of the portion.

Keith: Because the folks who selected this portion decided they didn’t want to give us those two verses.

Nehemia: They wanted to disembody it from the context.

Keith: All right, let’s break tradition.

Nehemia: Okay, let’s… yeah - we’re not bound by tradition, especially me. So we’re looking at 1 Samuel Chapter 14… no, chapter 11, sorry, chapter 11 verses 12 to 13. I’m going to read you this in the JPS.

Keith: Awesome.

Nehemia: And it says, “The people then said to Samuel, ‘Who was it that said, Shall Shaul be king over us? Hand them over and we will put them to death.’ But Saul replied, ‘No man shall be put to death this day, for this day Yehovah has brought victory to Israel.’”

So it’s an interesting picture, and we have a similar picture with David. Saul is anointed king over Israel by Samuel, which means he comes and he pours oil on his head, and he kind of is king, but he’s not really truly recognized by the people as king. Then this event happens and then they say, “Okay, who are those people who didn't say that you were king?” and probably it’s…

Keith: And when he says the event happens, they had victory.

Nehemia: Right, they had a battle and a victory. I suspect that some of the people who were saying, “Yeah, turn over those people who didn’t recognize him as king,” I bet those were some of the people who said, “He’s not really our king,” and they were kind of deflecting. But Saul decides, “Look, today is not going to be a day for those who didn’t believe me, who didn’t have faith. Today is a day to glorify Yehovah, and how are we going to glorify Yehovah? We’re going to not only proclaim me king, we’re going to renew the kingdom.” And that’s a pretty cool scene. And I have to wonder… I’m going to hold this thought.

Keith: What hit me was just the wording, “renewing the kingdom”. I mean, I have to be honest with you, I immediately think about the times that the covenant is renewed, or when there’s time for people to come back and say, “Let’s again decide we are going to follow Yehovah with our hearts and mind. We’re to do those things that He’s called us to do.” And so that’s kind of what, as I was reading that, I was thinking about that, and we have many examples that we could go to.

But then it says “All the people went to Gilgal and there they made Saul king before Yehovah in Gilgal. There they also offered sacrifices of peace offerings before Yehovah, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.” So you’re right, it’s like here’s the first act, and then after the first act, they had kind of like a test, a little war, a little battle - not a little - but there’s victory. Now we’re like, “Okay, let’s do this for real,” and they bring all the people together.

Nehemia: I just want to share my thought here, and this is me completely stepping out on a limb. You’ve criticized me about this before, and I completely accept that criticism.

Keith: Well, I’m not used to it. It’s not something that you normally would have done.

Nehemia: Well, look, this is me thinking out loud as I read the Scripture, and there are a few passages that I read about, and here I wonder if this isn’t a picture of the Messiah. What I mean by that is there are certain passages that I’ve read in Scripture that the way I read them - and other people read them very differently - but the way I read them is they describe the situation where the Messiah will come and he won’t initially be accepted. He’ll kind of be rejected, in fact, and… [laughing] Keith has this look on his face. Haven’t you read Isaiah 53, where it sounds like the Messiah will be rejected? I wonder if this isn’t a picture of this end time situation with the Messiah, where the Messiah will come and initially he’ll have been rejected by the people of Israel, and after this great victory takes place, then he’ll come back and they’ll say, “Okay, now it’s time to renew the kingdom.”

And then I love verse 12 of Isaiah 53, where it ends with them dividing up the spoils among the many, I mean, by that point everyone’s going to say, “Okay, this is really the guy. Now we’ve got to go defeat our enemies and bring victory.” So that’s just… like I said, I’m stepping out on a limb, I’m completely off the reservation, I’m speculating about what may be, but I wonder if this isn’t a picture of the coming of the Messiah.

Keith: So when you say the picture, so again, why is that the case? Because we have like a two-step process. We have Saul first, where there clearly were people who said, “He ain’t it.” Then there’s this victory, and now they’re saying, “Oh, he is it.”

Nehemia: I love Saul. Instead, he could have legitimately said, “Those people have rebelled against me by not believing in me, by rejecting me.” And instead, he said, “No. Today it’s not about me, it’s about glorifying Yehovah.” Can I get an amen?

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: Hallelujah. I’m excited. All right.

Keith: “Then Samuel said to all of Israel, ‘Behold, I have listened to your voice and all that you said to me, and I have appointed a king over you.’” And those who don’t know the background, here’s the homework - go to the first part of Samuel where this whole issue comes up with them saying, “give us a king”, and that process, and in that process we get Saul, and we didn’t actually have a section where we talked about it, but it really is important. And what he does in this passage actually reminds...

Nehemia: That’s homework, go read the context, please guys.

Keith: It really is. “And now here is the king walking before you. But I am old and gray,” and now it’s like… And I have to tell you a story. Well, I’ll wait until we do that. So he says, “Here’s the king walking before you, but I am old and gray, and behold, my sons are with you,” though I’m not sure that was a really good thing, “and I have walked before you from my youth even to this day.” Great story reading about Samuel, 1 Samuel – man, one of my favorite passages, 1 Samuel chapter 3, where we just deal with the issue of Samuel and the process he went through of tuning his ear to hearing the voice of Yehovah, and he says, “I’ve walked before you from my youth even to this day.” Then he says in verse 3, “Here I am.” So there’s a shift, Nehemia.

Nehemia: Wait, we were talking about Saul who’s king, and now all of a sudden we’re talking about Samuel.

Keith: And the shift is, like I said, that we’ve dealt with Saul, and he says, “Okay, we’re going to do this. You guys rejoice. Here’s your king. Now I’ve got an announcement - I’m retiring.” [laughing] In other words, “it’s been a good run”. And I almost wonder if Samuel doesn’t kind of look at Saul and say, “Okay, I gave you your guy.” I mean, I’m not saying that he could see the future, but it’s like, “Okay, I gave you your guy and now I’m washing my hands. He’s your guy.” This is my opinion, because when I look at the story of Saul and what Saul and Samuel’s interactions are, clearly Samuel and Saul have a falling out.

But Samuel says to Israel...

Nehemia: So he thought he was done, but he’s not. [laughing]

Keith: I think Samuel knew that he wasn’t the real deal, that’s just my opinion.

Nehemia: Oh, really?

Keith: Then Samuel says to all of Israel, “Behold, I've listened to your voice and all that you have said to me. Now here’s the king walking before you. Okay, I’m old and I’ve done what I’ve done. Bear witness against me before Yehovah, and…” and I love what it says - the next two words - could this be the Word of the Week?

Nehemia: No.

Keith: You won’t do it?

Nehemia: No.

Keith: 12:3?

Nehemia: You can make it the Word of the Week. We’ve done that, come on. Let’s do something more unique.

Keith: “And his anointed, his Mashiach. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with? I will restore it to you.”

Do you have any response to that? Are we okay?

Nehemia: Well, absolutely. So first of all, Moses says a very similar thing during the rebellion of Korach. Actually, I have the verse here, but it doesn’t… I’ve quoted the verse here, but I don’t have the reference.

Keith: And we talked about it in the Original Torah Pearls.

Nehemia: We talked about it in the Original Torah Pearls, it says, “And Moses was very angry, and he said to Yehovah ‘Do not turn to their offering.’” And here it’s interesting - he’s speaking to Yehovah, and Samuel’s speaking to the people. He says, “Not one donkey have I taken from them and I have not done any evil to even one of them.” So he’s saying, “Look, I haven’t done anything to anybody. Why are they rejecting me?” It’s interesting, the parallel. So both in Korach - who remember, that’s in the Original Torah Pearls, that’s the name of the portion, actually - both Korach and the people of Samuel’s time, they were rejecting God’s chosen prophet as the representative of Yehovah. Korach wanted to be the representative himself. Remember that? In other words, his point was like, “Whoa, Moses? Why is he so special? We should all be…?”

Keith: Yes, he wasn’t going for it.

Nehemia: Right. And the people of Samuel’s time, what they wanted was a king instead of the prophet. So in both cases there’s this feeling like you’re rejecting the prophet. Now there’s a big difference though - Korach was an anarchist, maybe you could call him an egalitarian, but really I think he was an anarchist, meaning his position was that everybody should be equal. Everybody should be the same. There shouldn’t be one person who God deals with more than others. Well, God doesn’t decide that or didn’t decide that - God had a different plan Korach.

The People of Samuel’s times, they were monarchists. It’s very different, but in both cases, the Prophet represented what today might be called in my view, a libertarian government. The idea is to obey God, treat your neighbor decently and the government’s only role is to enforce God’s law and defend you from foreign invasion. Can I get an amen? Hallelujah.

Keith: Amen. But basically he stands before them and he goes down this list and they said - because he asked the question, he says, “Now here I am, bear witness against me.” And they said, “You have not defrauded us, you have not oppressed us, you’ve not taken anything from any man’s hand.” He said to them, “Yehovah is witness against you.” In other words, it came out of your mouth, “and His anointed is witness this day, his Mashiach,” that’s who Saul was, he was the anointed.

Nehemia: So you’re going to force me to make this the Word of the Week, aren’t you?

Keith: I’m going to have to make you.

Nehemia: I guess it’s the Word of the Week.

Keith: I don’t know how you couldn’t.

Nehemia: Alright, can we finish the verse?

Keith: Yeah. “And His anointed is witness this day that you have found nothing in my hand.’ And they said, ‘Witness.’”

Nehemia: “Witness,” maybe that should be the word - witness.

Keith: Witness has got to be it. We’ve done Mashiach before.

Nehemia: The word here is “ed”, Ayin-Daled.

Keith: This is not an easy situation, come on.

Nehemia: Well I think it’s actually quite easy… what’s the problem?

Keith: Well, okay, go ahead and do your normal shpiel, Mr Smarty. “Every word has three roots.” Go ahead, do your shpiel.

Nehemia: Every word has a three-letter root, and what is the three-letter root of Ayin-Daled?

Keith: That’s what I’d like to know.

Nehemia: Okay. And there’s some question about what that is and that’s why…

Keith: You’ll say the Vav is there, come on here’s the Vav. Come on Nehemia. Explain it to us! I’m a rookie, I’m looking at it, I don’t see it.

Nehemia: So we have this concept called hollow verbs.

Keith: That’s right.

Nehemia: Hollow verbs are verbs that not all three letters appear in every form of the word. A very easy example is the word, banah is he built, or let’s take an example of “to give”. So we have Netanyahu - the root is natan, he gave, yahu is Yehovah. So Nun-Tav-Nun is the root. Very easy – Netanyahu. And I can say natan, he gave me. Okay, natan li, he gave me something. But then if I say ten, give, as a command. So what happened to the first Nun? The answer is it drops. And then I can say natati, I gave, the second Nun drops. So in these hollow verbs...

Keith: Nun is tricksy, Nehemia. It’s so funny, it hides the other letters and shows up as little dots.

Nehemia: Nun is wily, I’ll give you that. Okay. But isn’t that interesting? There’s Nun-Tav-Nun, and in some situations, the first Nun disappears and in other situations the second disappears, and in some situations both Nuns disappear. For example, latet is the infinitive to give. So there’s only one letter from the root, the letter Tav, in the middle. So all right, those are hollow verbs, and they get complicated, and hollow verbs are not rare. In fact, I haven’t done this, but I imagine if you took statistics of how many verbs appear in the Tanakh, if we made a list of all the verbs, I bet you it’d be 25 to 50% are hollow verbs. That’d be my guess. But they’re all over the place. You’d be hard pressed to find a page of the Bible in Hebrew that doesn’t have a whole bunch of hollow verbs. Maybe if it was a list of names, you wouldn’t find many hollow verbs.

So ed is a hollow verb, and the question then becomes, and it means witness. Ayin-Daled are obviously part of the root. What’s the missing letter? We could have a discussion, is it Vav? Is it possibly Yud? For example, you say to testify is leha’eed, but maybe that’s the Yud of hif’eel so, possibly it’s a Vav, and that's a whole question about Vav and Yud switching places.

Keith: Like you said, it’s so easy, Hebrew is such an easy language.

Nehemia: It is a very easy language.

Keith: These hollow verbs drive me nuts.

Nehemia: By the way, an example of hollow verb is the root of the name Yehovah, where the root is Hey-Yud-Hey, well, where’s the Yud in Yehovah? It’s not there, it’s a hollow verb.

Keith: If you don’t know any Hebrew, you’d say, “Well no, it’s the first letter of their name,” and then they wouldn’t understand that…

Nehemia: What would they say?

Keith: No, I’m saying if you don’t know anything, and you say, “So where’s the Yud, what’s the first letter?”

Nehemia: So it’s either Ayin-Vav-Daled or Ayin-Yud-Daled, and it’s difficult to determine which one it is. But yes, meaning that those Vav and Yud are sometimes a little bit complicated.

Keith: You actually would battle against those who would say it’s a Vav? You’d argue against that? Why can’t we accept it? It’s a Vav.

Nehemia: What’s the proof that it’s a Vav?

Keith: They say it, that’s what they say.

Nehemia: Oh, they say it?

Keith: [laughing] Well, either way, that’s the word for witness.

Nehemia: What makes things even more complicated is that we have a guttural letter here. So you’ve got an Ayin as the first letter. So what you normally you do is you look at the pattern of the vowels for Ayin-Yud-Daled, or let’s say a three-letter word where Vav is the middle letter, and you’d say which one does this verb follow? Then you’d be able to determine if it’s a Vav or a Yud. But here we have a situation where you have an Ayin which messes things up.

The other thing is you never have it in the kal conjugation. We have seven conjugations. I don’t think this root is ever in kal, or if it is, it’s rare. Whereas, let’s say a word like lashuv, to return, I know that’s a Vav even though that Vav drops in certain situations versus other words that have a Yud. What’s an example of a word that might have a Yud? There's haya is an example. Okay. But there it’s complicated because of other gutturals.

Anyway, Ayin-Daled, ed, witness, leha’eed, to testify, to bear testimony. That is our Word of the Week. That’s the short answer.

Keith: Okay, awesome. And they answered? “Witness.”

Nehemia: “Witness.”

Keith: Wow.

Nehemia: Ed.

Keith: I’m not going to throw another bone that would just…

Nehemia: Would you testify here, Keith?

Keith: Yes. I really would. And actually, what I would like to tell is I’d like to tell you a story, because this was such an amazing story to me, because the first time I ever read it, it really struck me deeply that it goes further than him just putting out a list. This is Samuel standing before a group of people saying, “I’ve been in a position of power and authority. I’ve been in a position where I’m the one that could do these very things that I’m asking you if I did. Have I oppressed you as a leader, have I taken from you? Have I used my authority to pad my pockets?”

In fact, we were driving in Jerusalem and Nehemia, this is really funny, this happened today. We’re driving in Jerusalem and not far from Bubby Dina’s house there’s this building, and every time I’ve come to Jerusalem I look at this building and it’s completely out of the flow of the architecture of the place. It looks like… we call it the Transformer Building.

Nehemia: [singing] “Transformers, more than meets the eye.”

Keith: This building was built and this building was based on the fact that a leader actually did some of the things that Samuel says he didn’t do. He took a bribe.

Nehemia: The prime minister of Israel took a bribe.

Keith: This is not the present prime minister of Israel, this is a past prime minister of Israel. I was telling Nehemia I had been in the airport and I saw this man.

Nehemia: Netanyahu never got caught. I don’t know that he’s ever done anything wrong.

Keith: How could you say something like that?

Nehemia: He’s a politician, this is what they do.

Keith: No. So anyway, but my point is that… what was his name again?

Nehemia: Ehud Olmert. He was put on trial and...

Keith: And they asked him a question and they said, “Look, did you take money in a brown paper bag?”

Nehemia: Oh no, it wasn’t, “Did you take money?” There were witnesses saying that…

Keith: And he admitted that the money came in a brown paper bag…

Nehemia: Well, his argument, he said, “It wasn’t a bribe - it was for my campaign. I just didn’t want to pay campaign taxes on it.” You took money in a brown paper bag, what are you talking about? [laughing] Ehud Olmert.

Keith: This is our conversation today. And so here we’ve got Samuel, a man of integrity, a man of God, he’s been selected. He says, “I’ve walked before you since my youth.” That’s a long time. He’s old and gray now. And he stood before the people and he said, “Look, have I done this?” And no one said anything.

And when I read this, Nehemia, it really, really struck me hard. It really struck me really deeply. I was the head of a ministry, I founded a ministry called Christian Athletes United for Spiritual Empowerment. We were a ministry that the people involved in the ministry, the high percentage of them, were multimillionaires. Multimillionaires. And this ministry drew a lot of attention, and I was the leader of this ministry, and as I had gone through a bit of a transition as a result of visiting Israel and having an encounter with Yehovah in a way that radically changed my life, I knew that there was coming a time for the end of my ministry, and I decided to do something really radical. I actually read this verse in front of these multimillionaires, as I knew it was the end of my time as being the leader of the ministry, and there was going to be a transition. So I stood before them and I said, “I want to read a story and I want to read this story and I want to then put it in the present context.” I stood before them and I said, “Listen, here I am, bear witness against me before Yehovah.” And I said, “here’s the list. Have I taken anybody's money? Have I cheated? Have I done…?” I kind of I used some other phrases, and you know...

Nehemia: There was the issue with that basketball player’s donkey, right? [laughing]

Keith: No, no, no, no. I went through the entire list with them and I added some other things for them, and I said, “Now, can anyone…” and publicly to do this. I want to say this. So he’s in front of who knows how many people. At that point, I was in front of a hundred people - husbands, wives, children, et cetera. And I said, “Now listen, I'm about to move on into something else. I’m about to do the BFA, this is coming to an end. Is there anyone that would say that I’ve done anything that’s not been integral regarding resources, regarding relationships, anything like that?” And it was really a blessing. They said, “We are witness, you have not done that.” It really allowed me to transition into this next ministry.

You know, the BFA Ministry, we started from scratch. Literally from scratch. But it was birthed as I was as the other end of this ministry with these multimillionaires. I’ve got to just tell you, it was a blessing because when there’s money involved, and I’m telling you that any given day - you know this, Nehemia, because I introduced you to my friend Reggie White, who was a multimillionaire himself, and when there’s money...

Nehemia: He was part of the ministry.

Keith: Yes, he was one of the founders of our ministry. And when money is involved, it draws a lot of attention - good and bad. But one of the blessings for me was to be able to walk away from that and have them say that that has not been the case. I continually say that, that even for the people now that are listening as part of BFA - I want to be sure that whatever it is that we do, that we do it in integrity, because I always want to this passage to stand before people and say, “Now, is there anybody that can say that we’ve done anything wrong?” By God’s grace, and I hope prayerfully that we’ll stay in this place, that they can’t do that.

So, anyway, but that phrase that Samuel is doing I think it’s really interesting, because I’m not sure that some of the present leaders, politicians could stand before the people and say that. I mean, I don’t know if there are a lot of Samuels anymore, and I’m talking about at a really high level now. You mentioned in passing, as a politician the understanding is that you almost can’t be a politician without… I’m not sure if that’s the case or not.

Nehemia: I’m sure there are some honest politicians out there, but my suspicion is that they’re few and far between.

Keith: Okay. But the people said that they are witness, “and then Samuel said to the people, ‘It is Yehovah who appointed Moses…’” And now we’re going to go through this history, and Nehemia, to be honest with you, I don’t know how much you want to deal with this. What he’s doing is he basically does what a lot of the prophets do and a lot of things that happened in Scripture, he goes back and says, “Now let me remind you.” Moses did the same thing. Deuteronomy…

Nehemia: Right. Here’s the history lesson. This is who we’re dealing with – Yehovah, these are the things He’s done.

Keith: And so I want to know how you want to deal with this. I mean, I’m open.

Nehemia: I mean, let’s read it.

Keith: Okay, go ahead. Go ahead.

Nehemia: No, you go ahead.

Keith: No, you read it. You want to read it, go ahead and read their history.

Nehemia: Or we could skip ahead if you don’t want to. What are you saying?

Keith: Well, I’m saying I think it’s good homework for people. I’m not sure that we need to do that whole thing.

Nehemia: Okay. We can save some time here. He says, “Now stand and I will enter into judgment with you before Yehovah.” Is that what you have?

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: That’s an interesting word, it’s the nifal of shafat, to enter into judgment. It’s interesting, he’s the judge. He’s the shophet, that’s his title, he’s a judge. But instead of him judging, he’s entering into judgment not as the judge, but as a party of conflict before God, him and the people, that’s interesting, that caught my attention. And if you don’t want to read all the verses, if we want to skip ahead, I think we should skip ahead to verse 11.

Keith: Yes. That is really verse 11. I’m actually hoping that...

Nehemia: That’s what you’re going for, huh? Okay.

Keith: Yeah, absolutely. Again, it does talk about a lot of things that we’ve talked about - how they served the Baals and Ashtoret, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Then verse 11, and I’m just reading it in the NASB if that’s okay.

Nehemia: Sure.

Keith: It says, “Then Yehovah sent Jerubavel…”

Nehemia: Jerubbaal.

Keith: Yes, I guess it's Jerubbaal,and Bedan and Jephthah and Samuel.” Now when he says that, he’s talking…

Nehemia: About himself. [laughing]

Keith: [laughing] I just wanted to be sure I’m not missing anything here. It’s like athletes say, “We really feel like we are able to do such and such...” they talk about themselves.

Nehemia: Oh, do they? Seriously?

Keith: Oh, all the time.

Nehemia: In the third person.

Keith: In the third person. So Samuel is doing the athlete thing here, he’s saying, “Then Yehovah sent...”

Nehemia: I should point out, in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah we have this first-person address where the person says, “Remember me for good, and I did this...” That’s very unusual in the Tanakh, in fact in most of the Tanakh, we have people referring to themselves in the third person. You have Moses writing in the Torah, “And Yehovah spoke unto Moses saying…” well, who wrote that? Moses wrote it, it’s the Torah of Moses.

And there was nothing unusual about that. In fact, this style doesn’t show up really until Second Temple Times, with Ezra and Nehemiah, and arguably with Daniel.

Keith: Wow. Well, do you want to say anything…

Nehemia: Can we talk about Yerubal? Who’s Yerubaal?

Keith: I don’t know.

Nehemia: So Yerubal is called in Judges 6:32, Gideon is given the name Yerubaal, which means “he will strive with Baal”. But then in 2 Samuel 11:21, he’s called Yerubeshet. What they’ve done there is they’ve taken the word Baal, which is the name of a Pagan deity, and replaced it with the word beshet, or boshet, which means shame.

And that’s interesting. So why does 2 Samuel 11:21 have a different name for this figure, for Yerubaal? Or why is he called Yerubeshet in 2 Samuel 11:21, and here he’s called Yerubaal?

Keith: We see this happen.

Nehemia: In the same book?

Keith: No, I’m saying where a person’s name is… yes.

Nehemia: Well one possibility is, and I’m looking at...

Keith: You’re going down the road again.

Nehemia: Well, here I’m going to suggest that possibly 1 Samuel Chapter 12, what we’re reading here perhaps was written by a different author than 2 Samuel Chapter 11, and this one author calls him Yerubaal, the other calls him Yerubeshet. It’s a possibility.

What would support that is 1 Chronicles 29:29, it says, “The acts of King David, early and late, are recorded in the history of Samuel the Seer, the history of Nathan the Prophet and the history of Gad the Seer.” So we’ve got these three different prophetic histories, and maybe when we look at the book of Samuel, and possibly the opening chapters of Kings, those are different sections of these prophetic histories written by different authors. I’m suggesting this is a possibility, I can’t prove it.

Keith: I’m glad that you brought that verse, because that basically gives us an example where if I ask you, “Hey, let’s open up the book of the history of Gad the Seer…”

Nehemia: Well, we don’t have that book.

Keith: We don’t have that book? Or maybe we do. [laughing]

Nehemia: Or maybe we do, and it’s just called Samuel, and this actually makes a lot of sense. If we think about it, the Book of Samuel or 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel in English, Samuel’s dead halfway through the book. So wait a minute, he couldn’t have written the last chapters.

Keith: Folks. These are the kinds of things - language, history and context.

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: I guarantee you, there are people that heard that and said, “Wait a minute, what did you just say?” Even though you’re reading the book and you don’t think of it, but that’s an example where we could say those other three books could definitely be a part of what was happening.

Nehemia: Right. That’s my suggestion, that perhaps 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel and the opening chapters of Kings were written respectively by Samuel, Nathan and Gad. And was understood in Chronicles, you know, he’s talking about the Book of Samuel here, I think. So that’s pretty cool.

Keith: Now I will say something… I don’t know how you want to do this?

Nehemia: Oh, what about Bedan? Who dat?

Keith: Who dat? [laughing]

Nehemia: Who is Bedan? Who is he? So we know who Yerubaal is, that’s Gideon. We know who Jephtach, we know who Samuel is - he’s the one speaking. Who on earth is Bedan? Do you have any thought about it?

Keith: 1 Chronicles 7:17, “The son of Olam was Bedan.”

Nehemia: And he was a judge? What did he do? What? All right, you found it.

Keith: [laughing] I found it, 1 Chronicles 7:17. “The son of Olam was Bedan.”

Nehemia: Oh, so that tells me nothing. But isn’t that interesting? Here we have in the Book of Judges and then in the opening chapters of Samuel, we’ve got these stories of the judges, and here it’s referencing back sort of retrospectively, Yerubaal and Samuel and Yiftach, Jephtah and Bedan, as if we’re supposed to know who that is. So he doesn’t appear to be mentioned in the Book of Judges or Samuel, except for this one verse. Unless, according to the rabbis, it’s possible, that Bedan refers to Samson, not in Chronicles, but here in Samuel.

Keith: You’re going with that?

Nehemia: No, but I’m suggesting it as a possibility. I don’t think it’s correct, but it’s possible. How did they get Samson out of Bedan? Because Samson was from the tribe of Dan, and “be’Dan” would be “in Dan” or “through Dan” or “with Dan”. Unless his name was Bedan, and I tend to think, “Look, we don’t have to read into this a character that we don’t recognize or force an identity on Bedan.”

This is actually really exciting to me. What it tells me is that the prophets, when they wrote the history, they weren’t telling us everything. This is not the type of history you might read, a history book today in America, which is supposed to… and even that doesn’t cover everything, obviously. But this was not an exhaustive history. This is a prophetic history, and that’s why it’s in the Prophets, because I believe that this is in the Prophets, a prophetic history, because there are certain lessons and morals and concepts that it’s trying to teach us, and maybe pictures it’s trying to give us. And Bedan, for whatever reason, we weren’t taught about who Bedan was or what he did, but there was a lot that went on in the time of the judges and in biblical times that we don’t know about.

This is really encouraging to me because, when I studied at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, they would pull out open some, like, Assyrian text and they’d say, “Hey look, there was this major war going on, and the Bible doesn’t mention it,” and they were kind of doing this to put the Bible down. I read this and I’m like, “Wait, so there’s a lot that went on…”

Keith: Could you not take away my love and respect for the Hebrew University?

Nehemia: Oh, there are some great things that Hebrew University…

Keith: Because you remind me of these things, and I just don’t want to hear them.

Nehemia: No, the Hebrew University is one of the best schools in the world when it comes to teaching biblical language, but their entire “historical critical approach” is something I don’t agree with, which is basically ripping Scripture apart and deconstructing it to where it’s no longer the Word of God. That’s the part I don’t accept and never accepted, and that’s why I didn’t become a professor there.

But the part where they’re teaching language… wow, they’re some of the best in the world, the best in the world. So it’s a matter like with anything, and I hope people who approach this podcast, this program, take the parts that make sense to you... What is that expression about eating the meat and spitting out the bones? That’s what we have to do with anything in life - use your discernment to do that.

Keith: Okay. Awesome. Well, the next verse is really interesting. I think it’s really interesting, because I could read it this way. “When you saw that Satan, the king of the sons of Ammon came against you, you said to me…” “Keith, now how did you get that?”

Nehemia: What verse are you reading?

Keith: 1 Samuel 12, verse 12. I’m backing into something. “When you saw that Satan, the king of the sons of Ammon, came against you, you said to Me,” wow, where would I get that? Well, if I look at this word nachash, I find out that hanachash is the word that’s used in Genesis chapter 3, and many people interpret that the serpent in Genesis chapter 3 was really Satan. In fact, we hear this many times, people say, “And this was Satan who went to Adam and Eve,” and it doesn’t say Satan, it says hanachash, the snake, and we have a man, a king who was actually called...

Nehemia: Nachash, whose name is snake.

Keith: But again, if I’m not reading it and not looking at it, and just kind of looking through maybe some historical traditional thoughts about what was going on in Genesis chapter 3, I would translate that and say, “Well, this is when you saw that nachash, and his real name was Satan.” I could do a whole teaching about that, except if I actually look at the words and see how the words are used, the teaching kind of goes out the door. So I really cannot translate that.

Nehemia: Could we say this? Can I kind of flesh this out a little bit?

Keith: Okay.

Nehemia: Is it possible to use the snake in Genesis 3 as a symbol? As maybe a picture of what Satan is like?

Keith: Yes, we could, and then we’d also have to say that maybe that snake is also when Moses is raising up the snake. Catch me on this if I’m right or wrong.

Nehemia: Uh-oh, stop. [laughing]

Keith: No, no, no. You want to go down that road? [laughing]

Nehemia: So the snake on the pole could be Satan, then, if we can be consistent.

Keith: Exactly, you have to be consistent. And the reason I’m bringing this up, Nehemia, in all seriousness, this is very freeing to me, very freeing to me. Last week’s episode, if you didn’t listen to it, folks, you really need to, because we talked in that episode about ha Satan, and we did a really good job in terms of looking through how that word was actually used. And many times it would say an English, it will give Satan as a capital S, that Satan is a name, a proper name, but actually in the Hebrew...

Nehemia: Or the role of an angel.

Keith: Yes, role of an angel, but in English, they’ll say, Satan with a capital S. If you didn’t listen to last week, please go ahead and do that. I’m now kind of connecting it to this week, just because when I come across this word nachash I’m immediately reminded of HaNachash.

Nehemia: You know what this reminds me of? I’ve had this discussion with people coming from the Hebrew roots perspective and messianic perspective, and they’ll say, “Oh, we’re coming to Passover. There’s leaven, and leaven represents sin, and leaven is a bad thing.” And I’ve even met people, believe it or not, who have established an entire diet where there’s no leaven in their diet.

Keith: Based on the fact that it’s sin?

Nehemia: That leaven is sin. And I say, “Well, what about, I think it’s Matthew 24, maybe somewhere around there, were Yeshua talks about, he says, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven,’ and there leaven is a good thing.” [laughing] So you’ve got to be careful with these metaphors and these symbols.

Keith: Exactly. You know, that’s the perfect reason why I did that.

Nehemia: One of the verses I want to bring where I think nachash is maybe Satan, is or definitely some evil figure, is Isaiah 27 verse 1, “In that day Yehovah will punish with his great, cruel, mighty sword, Leviathan, the elusive serpent,” in Hebrew Nachash, “Leviathan, the twisting serpent,” again nachash, “he will slay the dragon of the sea.”

And the symbolism here in Isaiah 27, as I understand it, is God is going to defeat death and there’ll be eternal life. So the snake there is this symbol of what’s killing us. And maybe that does tie into Genesis 3 as a symbolism, perhaps.

Keith: I guess the point that I was trying to make is how the power of the words, first knowing…

Nehemia: Doesn’t mean every snake is Satan. That’s the point.

Keith: That’s the point.

Nehemia: Otherwise you get into trouble with holding up the pole...

Keith: In other words…

Nehemia: “Look at Satan and you will live!” [laughing]

Keith: I could do a whole teaching on this.

Nehemia: Oy vey.

Keith: No, no. But again, it’s really powerful. So make sure you check last week. “When you saw that nachash was actually a man, the king of the sons of Aman came against you. You said to me, no, but a King…” And then here’s what he’s doing - he’s bringing us back, if you didn’t do your homework, that this was the reason that they decided, “Look, we need a king. We need a king to reign over us. Although Yehovah is your God, was your king.” And Man, I wish we could talk about that.

Nehemia: Can we please talk about Yehovah being king?

Keith: We can, but there’s a really sad story. There’s a sad story.

Nehemia: What’s the sad story? I don’t know the sad story.

Keith: There’s too many things I could say. Let’s focus on the fact that we’re talking about him as king; as we’re on the bus, on our way to come and do this session, what was the sign that was in the back of the car?

Nehemia: Oh, 'Hashem Hu HaMelech'. Yehovah is the king.

Keith: He is the king. And this was on this car.

Nehemia: A bumper sticker.

Keith: “Although Yehovah was your king.” Wow.

Nehemia: So here we have this, I don’t know what the word is. There’s this tension. On the one hand, Saul is the king, he’s the anointed. On the other hand we have Yehovah as the king, and I think this is a tension that comes with us throughout the Tanakh. God is the king versus the human king.

One of the verses that comes to mind is Zachariah Chapter 14 verse 9, one of my favorite verses, “Vehaya Yehovah lemelech al kol ha’aretz,” and “Yehovah shall be,” and this is the end times, “it shall come to pass Yehovah shall be king over the entire earth. And on that day He will be one and His name will be one,” Zachariah 14:9.

But then we have Ezekiel 37:24, “My servant David will be king over them. And they will all have one shepherd,” we talked about this recently “and they will follow My laws and be careful to keep My decrees.” So in this end times you have Yehovah as the king and you have David as the king, and that’s this like this...

Now in Hebrew University, they call this a sibatiut hakfula, or dual causality. And that’s the idea that you can have a man as king and you can have God as king, and there’s no contradiction in the Hebrew way of thinking there. Just like we could see one of the judges will say he was the savior of Israel, and then Yehovah is the savior of Israel. Yehovah did it through the judge. Some people want to call that “agency;” at Hebrew U they like to call it dual causality.

Hosea chapter 3, verse 5, “Afterwards, the Israelites will return and seek Yehovah their God and David their king.” That ties the two in together. “They will come trembling to Yehovah unto His blessings in the last day.” So we don’t have a problem in the Hebrew thought with this dual causality, with sibatiut hakfula - Yehovah is king and then there’s a man on earth who represents Him and is also king.

Keith: Wow.

Nehemia: That’s the situation here. But his point was, “Look, wasn’t I good enough as your king?” There’s definitely a certain amount of tension despite all that.

Keith: Okay. Well, I’m not trying to go the easy way out here, but once again, we have a little section, and the question is, do we want to go verse-by-verse?

Nehemia: Can we read verse 14?

Keith: We can go to 14, and then I want us to take a look at 16 as a phrase that is… Go ahead. 14.

Nehemia: Go ahead.

Keith: 14. “So if you will fear Yehovah and serve Him and listen to His voice and not… and not rebel against the command of Yehovah then both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow Yehovah your God.”

Nehemia: Yes, and verse 15?

Keith: “If you will not listen to the voice of Yehovah, but rebel against the command of Yehovah, then the hand of Yehovah will be against you as it was against your fathers.”

Nehemia: What translation was that, out of curiosity?

Keith: NASB.

Nehemia: Let me read you from the NIV or the JPS. So that is verse 14. This is 1 Samuel Chapter 12, verse 14. It says, “If you revere the LORD, worship Him and obey Him and will not flout the LORD’s command, that both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the LORD your God well and good.” Do you have that? So he adds the words “well and good”. We have a situation here where we have… there’s an oath formula, and I think the JPS has misunderstood that. But that’s complicated. Let’s move on.

Keith: You’re kidding, right?

Nehemia: The word “good” is not there in the Hebrew.

Keith: I don’t see it anywhere.

Nehemia: It’s not there in the Hebrew. Here’s the way it has to really be read. So basically, the idea here is that if you obey, you will be after Yehovah. But if you disobey, the hand of Yehovah will be against you. In other words, they read it as, “If you obey and you go after Yehovah, then that’s good.” But then they had to add the word “good”. In other words, the way we’re looking at it here, the way I read it is, if you obey, then you will be following Yehovah. And that in itself is the blessing.

Keith: That’s what the NASB has… has that; it says, “both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow Yehovah your God.”

Nehemia: Okay. So I like the NASB. They got it right.

Keith: Awesome.

Nehemia: Absolutely wonderful; but beware that, those who are reading other translations.

Keith: “So, take your stand. Even now, take your stand. Even now, take your stand and see this great thing which Yehovah will do before your eyes.” And then He does this miracle. I mean, verse 17, like Samuel is on a roll. He gives them history. He’s told them his ministry is coming to an end. He’s telling them, “Listen, I've not done anything wrong.” And then at the end he says, “Now take your stand and see this great thing which Yehovah will do before your eyes. It is not the wheat harvest today? I will call to Yehovah that He may send thunder and rain. Then you will know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight…”

Wait, hold on here. He says, “Now, I’m telling you all these things, this is what’s going on with me. I’ve given you your king. Here’s what He’s told you,” and then this verse comes. So I want to ask you a question. Why does he say, “is it not the wheat harvest today?” What’s the connection?

Nehemia: So it doesn’t rain in the summer in Israel, and by the time you have a wheat harvest, there should not be any rain. If there is, it will damage the wheat, which hasn’t been harvested yet.

Keith: So all of a sudden he does this and he says, “Now it’s not the time for rain. I will call Yehovah that He may send thunder and rain, the voice, that loud thunder and the rain. Then you will know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of Yehovah king.” What’s the wickedness? “By asking for yourselves a king.” Wow.

I will tell you, do your homework on this, folks, and go back and see what the response was once they went to Samuel and said, “please give us a king,” and what Yehovah said. It’s a sad story to me. It really is. It’s like when I hear Him respond, in the Scripture, it’s a sad story. It’s like, “Okay, they don’t want Me to be their king. Here’s your king.” I mean, of course the kingship is where we get the whole idea of the Mashiach coming, but that initial interchange between the people and Him - it’s a sad story. I really think it is.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: “So Samuel called unto Yehovah and Yehovah sent thunder and rain that day and all the people greatly feared…” two things - they feared Samuel and they feared Yehovah. Kind of reminds me of what happened with Moses. How they talk about… they see Moses and they understand it’s Yehovah and also how they look at Moses.

But 19, “All the people said to Samuel, ‘Pray for your servants to Yehovah your God that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins by asking ourselves for a king.’ ‘Do not fear’ he says, ‘you have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following Yehovah, but serve Him with all your heart. You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which cannot profit or deliver because they are futile, for Yehovah will not abandon His people on account of His great name.’” What a beautiful phrase, “Because Yehovah has been pleased to make you, even though you are hard-headed, stiff-necked, evil and frustrating,” he says. This is, again, this statement of grace and good news. “He’s been pleased to make a people for Himself.”

Nehemia: I just have to assign some homework to some people. Please go look at Deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 14, where it talks about when Israel will ask for a king, and there is a little mystery here in this passage, because on the one hand He gave permission for them to have a king. On the other hand, when they go and they asked for the king, He says, “Well, you’ve rejected Me.” So it’s a little confusing, and I understand it.

Keith: A little?

Nehemia: Yes. I understand it, but on the other hand, He gave them permission to ask for a king, or He says, “When they asked for a king,” Look at it. Deuteronomy 17:14, and… it’s interesting.

Keith: Well, Nehemia it’s your turn. Oh! You know what? I will say something. Let me just say something, Nehemia. Actually, we do need to do a Ministry Minute for a couple of reasons. Not only because we haven’t done it, but also, we don’t have anyone to support us for next week. So Prophet Pearls is over. We had no one for this week. We have no one for next week. It’s over unless you can do a great Ministry Minute and give people an understanding of how them helping us actually helps them also learn and can go forward.

Nehemia: Can I share something that happened just today with my ministry? So I put out this study for my Support Team, and I got this email from someone and he was very upset. He’s upset. He says, “For years, everything you’ve taught has been for free. Why all of a sudden are you saying that I’ve got to be part of your Support Team and support your ministry in order to get access to this teaching?” That’s a completely valid question.

Let me share some of the history and the thought process of what happened. I went to China.

Keith: When did you go to China?

Nehemia: That was, what year are we in now, 2015? So it was the summer of 2013, and part of the reason I went to China was I needed a break from ministry, but also I needed to eat. I went there to work, and I was working there teaching English in a high school, and I actually really liked it. They paid me, not a lot of money, but it was enough for me to live, and I was very happy there.

Keith: They even gave you a place to live.

Nehemia: They gave me a free place to live. They gave me free utilities. I was living a good life there. It was good. I wasn’t making a huge amount of money, but it was enough where I really didn’t have to worry about utilities and didn't have to worry about the electrical bill. It was a good shtick. And I like teaching the kids. I like teaching high school. I was a good high school teacher. It was fun.

But as I was there over in China, I had people contacting me, and they said, “Look, you’re teaching these Chinese high school kids. What about us?” I had people who said to me, “Look, I’ll pay you. I’ll pay you just to teach me personally, I’ll pay you more than you make your entire month there in China to work a full-time job.” I prayed about that and I decided I wasn’t going to do that particular situation, but I decided this is what I’ve been called to do - I’ve got to be teaching people, this is what Yehovah has called me to do. But I also got to pay the bills and I’ve got to live.

So I decided I was going to leave China, and actually even sort of the tail end of China, I said, “Look, so there have been people who’ve supported my ministry, and that’s going to allow me to, if they continue to do that, I’ll be able to leave China and continue to do what I’m doing and to teach the word of God.” But I wanted to give a sort of special teaching as a thank you for those who were supporting my ministry, because they allowed me to teach everybody else. And if you look at what I put out there, I would say, I don’t know, 75 to 90% of it, I don’t know the number, is free to everybody, no questions asked. They don’t have to sign up for anything. They just show up. They download whatever they want. And look, I think that’s how it should be.

But for those who have allowed me and enabled me and given me the ability, to have joined me in this process so that I can share for everybody else, I want to give them a little extra to share with them, and that allows me to keep going. And so, if you’ve got a problem with that, okay. I mean, I could go back, I suppose and teach English in China again, but I really feel like this is what I’m supposed to be doing.

Keith: Wow. That’s something. So how can people support?

Nehemia: So they can go to Nehemiaswall.com and make a donation, or you can contact Deb. There’s a 1-800 number in all the newsletters, or you can actually go to the contact form at Nehemiaswall.com and contact us and find out how you can be part of the Support Team.

Keith: Awesome. Well, I will say, Nehemia, I think we’re going to probably, about week four or five of the summer, I’m not sure what the dates are right now, but for the last few weeks, by faith, presently it’s not completed right now as I’m here in Jerusalem, but by the time you’re listening to this, by God’s grace, a lot of time and energy and resources will have gone into giving people a chance to one, learn the basics of biblical Hebrew. That’s going to be an audio course.

There are so many other things that are available on our website. I always talk about the Premium Content Library, and I will say that that has really been a place where it’s giving us the chance to produce other things, and there are a lot of things to produce.

But I have to say, just right now what I want to challenge people to do, if only 10% of those that were listening would simply, at the end of this, go to BFAinternational.com, make a donation of any amount, and you can even designate for certain things that we have there. There are things that you can do in regard to production, things that you can do as far as other people being able to listen, to hear.

What I mostly love about what’s happening with BFA right now is that we’ve got a group of people around the world… I was just in Namibia, met with 50 pastors. I just have to be… wow. I just cannot tell you - 50 pastors from Namibia that are saying, “We really want to understand more about the Hebrew roots of our faith. We want to understand the language and we want to understand the history and the context, and we want to bring this information to Namibia.” It’s a country that really only has about 2 million people, and what I like to say is I’ve actually prayed and done a teaching on this by now. Hopefully this summer you’ll be able to get a chance to see the teaching, the Namibia series out of the Biblical Brick teaching series, which is also going to be made available to people so that they can see it.

But I really asked the Father for a chance to reach an entire country, and here you have 50 pastors that have a whole bunch of access to other pastors who are saying, “We want to learn more about the language, history and context of Scripture.” So that’s what we’re doing right now. Just one example, BFAinternational.com, go there today definitely and do something to help us.

Next week we don’t have a sponsor, so we need someone for this week, next week, and there’s a couple of other slots also. They can go to our site and do that. You can even designate it, and Nehemia and I will be able to both see that.

But again, I just want to thank people, and you do it best, Nehemia, for those that are standing with you. Thanks for those that are already doing it, and I think there are people that are listening right now that will do this, that they will get on board with us at BFAinternational.com and help us. You know, God gives vision, He always gives provision, He’s going to provide, and He uses his people to do it. So if you’re listening and you feel moved, we really would appreciate your support at any level.

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: So that’s the really the end of this section, Nehemia, and we’ve got so much more that we’re going to be doing over the next few weeks. I can’t believe what we’ve already done. And we took a break in the middle of all that and did what I call a hat trick - three different audio blogs, or three different, I think you’re calling them podcasts. I will say, Nehemia...

Nehemia: What’s the difference between an audio blog and a podcast? [laughing]

Keith: I don’t think there is a difference. We call it an audio blog just because it is, and is a podcast, but in both cases people need a chance to hear. And we’ll continue to talk and share with each other and sharpen one another so that we continue to do Prophet Pearls.

Nehemia: Amen. I want to end it here with prayer. Yehovah… Yehovah our king. I ask, Yehovah, that You continue to guide us. I know that You guided me in China and You set me up with an opportunity to teach Your word even to my Chinese students. I feel like You’ve called me to teach people around the world, and I ask You to guide me in this ministry. Please, Yehovah, guide Keith in his ministry, so that we always do what honors Your name.

And Yehovah, I am so thankful for all those who are standing with me on the wall, and I’m thankful to them because they allow me to continue to share Your word with everybody. This is no small thing, Yehovah. I know this is a great blessing that You’ve given me and given them to be part of this as well, so I thank you for that, Yehovah. And for all those who are standing with Keith, standing with him next to the Biblical Foundations down there in the tunnel, those giant foundations helping him establish those for people, Yehovah, that’s no small thing either. That’s a huge thing. I’m so thankful to You for all of this, Yehovah.

Yehovah, I ask that as we continue to do these Prophet Pearls, that You guide us, that You put Your words in our mouths and in our hearts so that we will always honor You, Yehovah. And Yehovah, I ask that when the time comes and Your Messiah comes here to Earth, that You have mercy on those who don’t recognize him when he first comes and who don’t see it, and let him have the same heart as Saul in this situation, his heart of mercy, Yehovah, and on that day when they finally do see that he is Your chosen anointed one, Yehovah, and they turn to him, that he accepts their belief in him as the king and doesn’t make that a day of wrath and judgment, but a day of honoring You, and You above all, Yehovah. In Your holy name, 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.

We hope the above transcript has proven to be a helpful resource in your study. While much effort has been taken to provide you with this transcript, it should be noted that the text has not been reviewed by the speakers and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. If you would like to support our efforts to transcribe the teachings on NehemiasWall.com, please visit our support page. All donations are tax-deductible (501c3) and help us empower people around the world with the Hebrew sources of their faith!

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  • Tracy says:

    Thank you Nehemiah and Keith, I appreciate a lot of scripture read and discussed from different viewpoints but emphasizing that which is shared not the differences.
    In this episode I have a comment.
    At about 39minutes in the discussion about Nahash, Nehemiah says about Isaiah 27, the symbolism, “is God is going to defeat death and there will be eternal life. And so the snake there is a symbol of what is killing us.“ but then Keith and Nehemiah see that as a different meaning than the snake on the pole. Couldn’t it also tie into Genesis 3? In that looking at the snake to live is seeing God has defeated death and they will live in spite of the poisonous snake bite. The serpent brought Adam and Eve to a decision for death, but God in Isaiah 27 is prophesying His defeat of death and the snake on the pole could have also been picturing that defeat of death.
    And this Nahash named king of Ammon could also tie into this because he brought the people to the decision to demand a king instead of God.
    And as Nehemiah read for us, Zechariah 14:9 brings Yehovah back as king.
    The fear of the power of the serpent and his sneakiness brings us to a decision leading to death. To believe God is our King, and know His ability and plan to restore life, is always the best choice 🙂

    • Julie says:

      Good point as I have often wondered why looking at a serpent on a pole would cause them to live, especially when it is Yehovah who gives us life and we are always to look to Him.

  • Stephanie Shiflet says:

    Live everyday to make it about glorifying Yehovah!

  • Renee Strand says:

    Shalom… a lot of bible translations has Barak instead of Bedan… with references to Judges 4:6 and Hebrews 11:32

  • Courtney Abrams says:

    Deuteronomy 17:14 seems to be in conflict with 1 Samuel 8:6-7. But to my mind the timing was the issue in 1 Samuel. The people didn’t wait for God to choose a king. (Deut. 17:15). Prior to this event in 1 Samuel God raised up all the leaders and judges for Israel with the exception of Abimelech. And for those of us who remember the story of Abimelech we know it didn’t turn out good. So, the idea of Deut. 17:14 was to wait until God raise up a king—let God initiate the setting up of leaders and kings. But the people couldn’t wait on God’s timing so they ask Samuel to set over them a king. Note they ask Samuel to set a king over them they didn’t ask God. Their action left God out of the picture. For this reason, God said to Samuel: “it is not you they have rejected; but they have rejected Me as their King—the One who is responsible for calling the shots. Proverbs say:

    “In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”
    (Proverbs 3:6 NKJV)

    The people didn’t seek God’s counsel in their decision. And even though Samuel warned them against desiring a king they refused to heed the warning. This is similar to when David ordered to count the people and Joab told him not to do it but David went ahead anyhow. And it is only afterwards David became conscience-stricken. It is not that counting the people is wrong but the time and condition were not right. The same thing happened in 1 Samuel. The prophet told them not to pursue the course of having a king at that time but they didn’t listen. And it is only afterwards the Israelites became conscience-stricken. (1 Samuel 12:17-19)

    Yehovah bless you!

  • UKJ says:

    Shalom,

    Deut 17:14 When you are come unto the land which the LORD your God gives you, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me,” like all the nations that are about me;”

    1Sam 8:5 And said unto him, Behold, you are old, and your sons walk not in your ways: “now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

    1Sam 8:19 But the people refused to heed Samuel’s warning. Instead they said, “No! There will be a king over us!

    1Sam 8:20 “We will be like all the other nations”. Our king will judge us and lead us and fight our battles.”

    The emphasis in Deuteronomy is such: “We will be like all the other nations”.” like all the nations that are about me;”

    The wish of the people in the book of Samuel is being granted.
    “We will be like all the other nations”.

    King Saul — from the tribe of Benjamin — symbolically represents all the nations..as this is what the people wanted — to be like all the other nations. To make this point, Saul eventually lost his way and his understanding , just like the nations even in todays world , (as a whole) lack the knowledge and understanding of Yehovah. To further the point, the house of Israel has been scattered into the nations.

    King David — from the tribe of Judah, is a king chosen by Yehovah — he is pictured in the foreshadow of the Messiah.( Solomon the son of David comes to mind )
    The people needed a shepherd to lead them, as they had rejected Yehovah as their king , so in his mercy and grace , he has given them David the shepherd boy.

    However, someone greater than Solomon has yet to come to redeem Israel and the world in the future….

    All in my understanding of scripture.

  • suzanholland says:

    The Day of the LORD is well described in the Tanakh–it is a day of darkness and great doom; a day of judgment and poured out wrath. The time to receive the Messiah is NOW for He has already come. Now is the time of mercy, Now is the time of deliverance. Those who have not been sealed before that Great Day will have no opportunity to repent. It is Written. If anyone has not returned to the LORD before His coming on that day, His name will not have been written in the Book of Life and there will be no chance for him. Today is the Day of Salvation. May the LORD God of Hosts open your eyes to see His wondrous provision in the Messiah, the Righteous Branch, or the root of Jesse, the suffering Servant, the Pessach Lamb of God slain for the sins of the World. May He finish what He has started in you Nehemia Gordon and bring you fully into His Light; the Light of the World, the Logos of God, Yeshua HaMashiach, Messiach benYosef. He is our only hope. Faith come by hearing and hearing by the WORD of God. The LOGOS of God; the WHOLE testimony of God–the Tanakh AND the Brit Hadasha. I love that you have been shown the err of “modern Judaism” and are a Karaite, trusting in Scripture alone, and that God has had you on this journey toward Truth. May it not remain veiled to you any longer if that has been the case–or if you have been willingly closing your eyes to it, may you have the courage to complete the course. He is waiting. He loves you. He can be trusted. He calls to you from every page of the Tanakh. Find Him there, and follow Him into the new Covenant promised through the prophet Jeremiah, through the blood of the one who was afflicted for YOU. He bore your stripes. He took your punishment. And He has been given the Name above all names. Praise His name forever!! You know what His name means. He IS the Salvation of Yah. Oh that Ephraim (lost Israel) would be grafted back into Covenant along with Judah (the already redemed of Israel), through the Righteous Branch, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and may the two sticks be restored echad…then, and only then will “all Israel be saved.” shalom

    • Linda R says:

      No words or plea for the soul have I ever heard. Now May YeHoVah grant the doing of all that you said (wrote) for our beloved Nehemia. May he never hear the gate words depart from me. May our Lord and Savior YeShua Ha Maschiach receive Nehemia on the basis of faith through his favor and grace. May He grant Him the Righteousness if Abraham this day. Abba Father, YAH thank you for Nehemia and the others. Open now the eyes of His understanding.

  • Anon says:

    Perhaps allowing a King over Israel is like allowing a divorce: permissible b/c of our hard hearts, but not ideal.

    • aurorekeath says:

      Exactly. Just because God sets up rules governing the administration of certain situations doesn’t mean he endorses, much less commands, their happening. Like taking multiple wives, divorce, indentured servitude–if everyone had Yehovah as their king, a central government becomes completely unnecessary. But as humans we are either hard-hearted or weak, and then there must be constraints and rules put in place to ensure we don’t go overboard with these situations, and our human solutions.

      • donald murphy says:

        we may have more then 1 wife, but u have to be rich enough to take care of her needs.

  • Joel Ensinia says:

    I love yall man! First off…secondly Nehemia I’d say the reason the king ship and king duties are in Deut. Are there because as you have taught me. The Torah is not in chronological order. So I believe that in 1 Sam 10:25, Sammy “wrote in a book then put it before the Lord” it was at this time Samuel added the new rules that were not there in duet. originally. Just my thought on it. God bless. I will be giving a love gift soon sorry to hear of the slow sorry lately! Thanks fur all you’ve done again! Peace!

  • Karen Powell says:

    Biblical concept from time of tent of the meeting or church pot lucks . The People brought.
    There was more than enough.

    13,211 people that like this site times $1,00=$13,211. 13,211 likes times $2.00=$26,422. That could produce a few shows.

    • Chris J. says:

      What ?????

      • Karen Powell says:

        Chris the discussion this week was pretty well covered and complete. No need to really cover anything for it. NG and KJ have addressed how they still have costs related to production of the studies that they are offering. Is a servant worth their hire? If you look up to the right that is the number listed for likes for NG. Not to mention KJ page. One dollar or two dollars from each person is all that may be needed to defer costs and maintain the services that they are providing. People do not have to come up with large numbers. or wait for one or two people to sponsor or cover for everyone else. This is a Biblical concept just as well as any other teaching offered. When Richard Nixon had the Swimming Pool removed from the White House. They said if people only sent in ten cents the entire pool could have been replace. Out of the small many great things happen. No excuses for why it can’t be done.

    • Lauran-Daniel says:

      An excellent idea

    • Karen Powell says:

      Exodus 35:4-5.Exodus35: 21-22 Ex 36:5-6(7)