Prophet Pearls #52 – Vayelech (Isaiah 55:6-56:8)

In this episode of Prophet Pearls, Vayelech (Isaiah 55:6-56:8), Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson rejoice in this portion that heralds good news for the wicked, the unrighteous, the outcasts of Israel, the eunuch and the foreigner. And if none of these describe you, feel free to check “other.”

The portion begins with a play on words with nothing less than God’s name and the promise that he “will be found” by whoever seeks him. This inclusive statement is supported by the word-of-the-week lavah/joined—the concept of non-Jews joining themselves to Yehovah—a persistent and straightforward biblical concept often muddied by the metaphysical idea of a “Jewish soul.” Gordon compares other scriptures about God’s great big umbrella, explains why the words “yad vashem” appear in this portion, and provides four rabbinical interpretations of the “everlasting name” that shall not be cut off. In closing, Johnson thanks Yehovah for welcoming the foreigner and choosing to place his name on his holy mountain in Jerusalem.
"For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." Isaiah 56:7 I look forward to reading your comments! Download Prophet Pearls Vayelech Transcript
Prophet Pearls #52 - Vayelech (Isaiah 55:6-56:8)

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.

Nehemia: Shalom from the Holy city of Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people, where Yehovah put His name forever. This is Nehemia Gordon, down under in the safe house with Keith Johnson. We are in the safest place that we could possibly be in the entire universe, at the center of God’s will.

Keith: I love that, Nehemia. That’s the safest place to be and you hear all sorts of things going on in Jerusalem, should it be safe, and the State Department’s got mixed statements. I tell you what, just last week we were in what I call the safest place in all of Israel, which happened to be the Temple Mount. And... that’s not safe at all, I think it’s exactly the place to be, the place where He caused His name to dwell forever. So, that’s where we were.

I want to say this: thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you to Warren and Joyce in Washington, you are our Prophet Pearl Partner, and we really do appreciate everything that you’ve done, and also to my friends – I’m just going to say thank you to you guys for being our Prophet Pearls Partners. We only have a couple of these left, Nehemia, so this is a great passage - we’re in Isaiah chapter 55:6, and is there a connection?

Nehemia: Look, this is one of our favourite passages in the entire Tanakh.

Keith: Yes. And I would say, this one is honestly “our,” it really is. I would say together, that both of us, this is one of our favourite passages.

Nehemia: It’s one of my top ten.

Keith: Did you hear me say “our,” Nehemia?

Nehemia: Beseder. Okay, I accept that.

Keith: All right. So, we’re at 6 though, we’re starting at 6.

Nehemia: 55:6. And we’re just chomping at the bit to get to 56, but there are actually some really interesting things in 55.

Keith: Whenever it says something about seeking the Father, it says, “Seek Him, while He may be found, call upon Him while He’s near.” And I also kind of put that side by side with that fact that sometimes, like I say, it’s not a game of hide-and-seek, but there is a process, you know, if you’re really going to seek Him, you’re going to find Him, but if you’re just sitting around and saying, “He’ll just come to me whenever, I mean, you know,” that’s possible, certainly it is. But what an honour it’s to seek Him.

Nehemia: Right. And there is a little bit of a play on words in Hebrew, it says, “Dirshu Yehovah behimatzo, kra’uhu, behi’oto karov.” Behi’oto is kind of a little bit of an unusual way of expressing it, but it means “in that He will be” or “in that He is,” and that’s from the same root as His name, Haya, Hoveh, Ihiyeh.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: So, this is Behi’oto. So, there is something going on there with the play on words, and then I just have to bring a reference here to 2 Chronicles 15, verses 1 through 7, I’m not going to read the whole thing, it’s homework, but I do want to read… this is a Prophecy of Azariah, the son of Oded, a very little known prophecy or a little known prophet. And in verse 2 it says, “Yehovah imakhem behi’otkhem imo,” - “Yehovah is with you when you are with Him.” And there is that same play on words, bihi’ot, from the root Haya, Hoveh, Ihiyeh, “ve’im tidreshuhu imatzeh lakhem,” “and if you seek Him, He will be found to you,” “ve’im ta’azvuhu ya’azov etkhem,” - “and if you leave Him or abandon Him, He will leave or abandon you.” I love this prophecy.

Verse 3, I’m just going to read this. It says, “In many days for Israel without the true God and without the teaching priest, and without the Torah.” And in many translations, they translate this in the past tense, but in the Hebrew it’s not past tense, it’s actually timeless. I believe we’re in this era of the many days, the many years, without the true God and without the teaching priest and without the Torah. And maybe we’ve got the true God, but we’ve misunderstood Him and misrepresented Him, and completely kind of twisted His message, and in that sense, He is not the God that actually speaks in Scripture, but the God we have created out of our own hearts. I love this teaching priest, the High priest with the urim and turim, the anointed priest, and without the Torah, and it goes on and on. That’s homework.

Keith: I’m not going to accept that, Nehemia. You said, “without the Torah,” and yet, here we are teaching the Torah, the Torah is going forth from Zion.

Nehemia: Right, but the people of Israel had been many years without the Torah, without the true God, and definitely without the teaching priest.

Keith: You believe that people of Israel, so you think they’re without the Torah? They’re just...

Nehemia: They had a form of the Torah, but they didn’t have the true Torah. They superimposed, they said, “This is what God said in the Torah, here’s what God really meant.” Then they put words in God's mouth, and in that respect He is not the true God, the one they claim to worship, and…

Keith: I have a big question for you then. So, when we talked about this, people parading around, streets being closed down, the new Torah scroll going to the synagogue, and I had an interaction about 12 years ago that really shocked me, and I just don’t know if this is the case, and I don’t want to make an assumption. But I was asking a person who considered themselves a secular Jew, I said, “Listen, the holiday is coming, tell me what you think about the holiday,” and they said, “Oh it’s tradition.” I said, “Well, okay, what about when it says this about Moses?” and he said, “I really don’t read it that much.” And this really shocked me because I thought, “Wait a minute, so you mean you honor the Torah, you see the Torah,” I’m not saying this for religious people, but for many people in Israel they say, “Yes, we see the Torah...” So, are you saying to me that the Torah might be there in form but not function?

Nehemia: Well, that’s a good way of saying it.

Keith: Yes, because I think they see the Torah.

Nehemia: But I think it’s partially there in function, but the point is, if you go even to a religious Jew and he says, “I’m studying Torah,” he may not actually be studying Torah, he may actually be preaching the words of rabbis, and saying, “these were revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai.”

Keith: Is the Torah open, do they read it, Nehemia?

Nehemia: And the true God did not say those words on Mount Sinai, that’s the point. Is the Torah open? Yes, but they read a verse, they read what the rabbi says, read the verse, read what the rabbi says, to the point where they have the Torah, it’s right there in front of them, but they’re not really interacting with it. And, maybe, they are, I don’t know, this is what the prophecy says, it’s hard to look at this and say “Oh, that’s not… yeah, that was just something in ancient times.” I think it applies today as well.

Over in your New Testament, Keith, you’ve got Matthew, chapter 7 verse 7, “And it shall be given you, ‘Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you,’” and this is clearly based on the two passages that we just read, and probably some others, but the mainly Isaiah, 55:6 and 2 Chronicles 15, verse 2.

Keith: Okay. “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.” The next verse is really the key for me. “And let him return to Yehovah, and He will have compassion on him, to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Literally saying, again, this is what it’s saying in English, “if he forsakes his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,” I would be interested to see here, I’m just looking at 56:7…

Nehemia: And the word “thoughts” is sometimes translated as “plans.”

Keith: Yes, I was just getting ready to say. So, anyway, He does this.

Nehemia: Something you think about doing.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: You plot to do it.

Keith: You know what’s really funny? I have to just tell you something. One of the reasons… you know, we had a big debate, you and I, 13 years ago. I keep bringing it back because I’m thinking about the past, and last week we were up on the Temple Mount, bla-bla. But one of the things I would talk to you about is I said, “You know, Nehemia, I want to learn a little bit of modern Hebrew,” and you would never ever talk to me in modern Hebrew. You just didn’t have the patience for me, and I used to say to people, “Ein lo savlanut!” “He does not have patience!” You’d say to me, “Ein li savlanut!” - “I don’t have patience!” But you know, I have to tell you something about this that really makes the Scripture come alive sometimes. And this is just an example - and you did a great job of explaining the difference between biblical and modern Hebrew. I said, “Which one should we start with?” And you said, “You must start with biblical, you must end with biblical Hebrew. If you have never learned any modern Hebrew. You have got to do that.”

Nehemia: It depends on your objective.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: If you want to go to the shuk and buy fruit, learn modern Hebrew. If you want to read Scripture, learn biblical Hebrew.

Keith: So, here’s what was interesting to me, and I’m going to just give you an example. You just said something, and this is just a perfect example. You said, “Oh, no, no, no. This could also be thoughts.” And I went to the word...

Nehemia: Plans.

Keith: Plans, I’m sorry, and so I go to the word, and then I think about modern Hebrew. It says, “Ma ata khoshev?” “What do you think?”

Nehemia: Right.

Keith: I want people to know this, because this is really cool to me, we talked a little bit about this a couple of weeks ago. When they were creating modern Hebrew, Nehemia, do you remember the conversation we had about this? How did they do it? In other words, you’re creating modern Hebrew, there’s an entire Academy, an entire group of people…

Nehemia: Well, today there’s an academy. Back then there was one man, Eliezer Ben Yehuda.

Keith: Right. But how…?

Nehemia: And he said, “I’m going to make it so that I can speak Hebrew and my wife can speak Hebrew to me, and our children will speak Hebrew to us and each other.” And the problem was there were a lot of things that there wasn’t a word for. Hebrew never completely died out, meaning it was used in prayers, it was used in the synagogue, it was used for Scripture study and for Talmud study and Rabbinical study, but it was a dead language in that it wasn’t someone’s native language. In other words, people grew up speaking Yiddish or Arabic or Ladino or some language, and maybe then they as a second language learned Hebrew the way that priests of the Vatican learn Latin. Hebrew was never forgotten, but the point was it was being used for a very specific purpose, which was the religious purpose, and if you have something really simple like you know, “I have a hole in my sock, I need someone to darn it.” Well, how do you say that in biblical Hebrew? Whereas, if you say, “We need to bring the sacrifice and cut out the lobe of the liver,” well, we know exactly how to say that. That’s really easy. But if we’re talking about really daily things, in the 1800s, in the 1880s, where he was dealing with this, he didn’t know.

And, so, one of the things Ben Yehuda did, which is unbelievable, is he combed through Jewish books and manuscripts looking for words. Words that had been forgotten, or maybe they were known, but it was very obscure, the average Jew didn’t know these words. And he found thousands of words, but then he got to other cases where he said, “We don’t have a word for something as simple as ‘spring’, as the season of spring.” What is spring called in the ancient Jewish sources in the Talmud? It’s called tkufat Nisan, which really means the equinox of Nisan, or the period from the equinox of Nisan to the equinox of Tammuz or the solstice of Tammuz. And this is a great example, because we are about to do the Aviv Search, we’re pre-recording this, and so he took the word aviv, which referred to the ripening barley, and he said “Okay, nobody cares about barley anymore in the 1880s, we’re not farmers, we’re living in cities, and the aviv, the barley would come aviv around the time of spring, let’s use that word aviv to refer to spring.”

And he actually did this, and they call this “the secularization of the language.” And one of my favorite examples is that in biblical Hebrew the word lekhateh means “to remove sin”. Eliezer Ben Yehuda wasn’t so concerned with removing sin. So, instead, in modern Hebrew lekhateh means to “cleanse a wound”. And what are you removing? You’re not removing sin, you’re removing microorganisms, whatever. That’s a great example of the secularization of the language. You take a word that existed and you give it a new meaning. And the word khashav - “to plan”, is an example of that - in modern Hebrew it means “to think”.

Keith: And that’s the reason I brought that up, is that sometimes people get a little confused because they’ll actually hear some modern Hebrew and they’ll say, “Oh, this is what the meaning is based on what is going on in modern Israel.” But I think that one of the powers of it, and I have to say this, I did do it the way that you said. Basically, starting with biblical Hebrew, and little by little, kzat, kzat, little by little learning a little bit of modern Hebrew, but where it helps is that sometimes I know enough to know that even though I might see a word that has been used in modern Hebrew, the fact that I can see that word and know how that word, maybe, is pronounced, helps as far as maybe finding sometimes roots or something like that. But I just have to say, it really is a phenomenal thing, that you had a language that was not being used in public life.

Nehemia: Daily life.

Keith: Daily life, and now you’ve got all the stuff, so now what do they do in modern Hebrew for Google? Google.

Nehemia: “Googehl”.

Keith: Googehl. So, there’s no hidden word for Googehl.

Nehemia: Well, there are a bunch of words, like recently there was this advertisement that Netanyahu put on about how he was going to watch the children, and it was called the “Bibisitter”, and they said “Bibi,” that’s Netanyahu’s name, “is the babysitter?” And people were surprised, “Why is babysitter the word in Hebrew for a babysitter?” But there are a lot of words like that. And you know what? There are words in English that came from Hebrew. So, you don’t laugh in English when you have the word “camel” for camel, even though that’s a Hebrew word, gamal, because we don’t have another word for it in English.

Keith: We don’t have another word for it.

Nehemia: Because it’s an animal that comes from Israel, from the Middle East.

Keith: So there are English words that sometimes are from the Hebrew language.

Nehemia: Yes, and vice versa.

Keith: Absolutely. Now, I will tell you, I have actually two sections that really are powerful for me.

Nehemia: Okay, let’s jump to those.

Keith: And one of them is four verses I’d like to talk about for a second.

Nehemia: Oh wow, which ones?

Keith: I can’t tell you, otherwise you’ll…

Nehemia: Because I might have something before that.

Keith: Oh, really? I don’t think you do. Because it’s the next one.

Nehemia: Oh, okay. There we go.

Keith: It says this... I want to read this in English… And I guess part of the reason that I’m bringing it up is you said it’s the word for planning or something like that.

Nehemia: “To plan, to devise.” It means to think, but it’s not just an intellectual abstract thought, it’s “I’m thinking about doing something and how to do it”.

Keith: So here’s what’s interesting. In English it says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,” it’s using the same word. “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares Yehovah.” And then I’m going to show you why or how. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My plans, My thoughts, My intentions,” whatever you want to say, “are higher than your thoughts.”

This is the verse that I love. Because now, it says, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater.” Application. “So will My word, which goes forth from My mouth; it’s not going to return to me,” and I think there’s got to be, I don’t know, “empty”.

Nehemia: Empty...

Keith: So, “it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” And I go back to that image of thoughts not being thoughts, and all the things of the rain and the snow coming down from heaven, and thinking about His word and saying when the rain or the snow comes down in the land of Israel, what does it do? In fact, two weeks ago someone just brought this up, Nehemia, as it pertains to the Aviv Search. They said, “Oh, my goodness! There’s not going to be Aviv because it’s snowed.” I’m telling you. And then guess what happened? The weather changed just like that. What did the snow become? Water. It’s water.

Nehemia: It melted. Before I got here.

Keith: Yes. So there’s water, and the point is you never know what’s going on in Israel. Before, we were talking about the weather, “We’re going to go do this thing on Sunday. The weather is going to be...” and Nehemia says, “You never know what the weather is going to be.” You can’t know, it doesn’t matter what the weatherman says.

But the point is, in this situation God’s word is seen in the image of rain and snow that comes down, and it accomplishes what it was sent to do – it’s bearing, it’s sprouting. So, “bread for the eater, seed for the sower, sow My word which goes forth from My mouth,” and I think that’s the thing that I get most excited about, is that it really is about His word. If He spoke it, that means it’s going to happen, it’s not a matter of discussion or debate, it’s going to happen, and that’s, you know, I just love the whole image of that.

Nehemia: I think the context here is verse 7, where, you know, basically in plain old English, he says, “Repent and God will forgive you.” And the people hear this - we saw this before in Ezekiel 18, Ezekiel 33 - and they say, “Wait a minute. No, the guy’s got to be punished. He can’t just get away scot free just because he repented. He’s got to be punished. The way of the Lord is not fair,” you know it’s in Ezekiel 18, we did some teachings on that.

So, here He’s kind of with that in mind, I think, saying, “Look, My ways aren’t your ways, and My thoughts, My plans… what I’ve got planned isn’t what you’ve got planned. You want to punish this person, you want to kick him, and he’s repented. I’m accepting his repentance. I’m going to have mercy on him.” And why is that? “He repented because I sent My word to accomplish something, and it accomplished it. Why do you have a hard time with that? Don’t think of it in your terms.” You know, we bear a grudge, God forgives… true repentance.

Keith: That’s why we can sing the song, “For you’ll go out with joy, be led forth with peace, the mountains and hills will break forth, da da da da.”

Nehemia: I have never heard this song in my life. What is that song? Is it a Christian song? Is it a Methodist song?

Keith: “And all the trees of the fields will clap their hands, the trees of the fields will clap their hands, the trees of the field will clap their hands.” You don’t… you’ve never heard that song?

Nehemia: I think I heard the clap your hands part once.

Keith: All the places we have been, all the times people have sung, you don’t remember if you’ve heard this song? Man, that’s a great song! But it comes from this verse.

But, you know, here’s the point, we are going to get to 56, and this is where the big battle is going to take place.

Nehemia: It is. But we’re not there yet.

Keith: I know we’re not.

Nehemia: Can we talk about verse 13?

Keith: That’s what I was going to say, would you please talk about 13?

Nehemia: Okay. It says, “Vehaya la Yehovah, leshem le’ot olam lo ikaret, “And it shall become for Yehovah a name and eternal sign, it shall not be cut off.” What is this eternal sign and name for God?

Keith: Wow.

Nehemia: What is this talking about?

Keith: Here’s what it says in the NASB, “And it will be.” Now when you say “and”, I have to go back to the first two phrases. Okay. “Instead of the thorn bush, the cypress will come up, and instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, and it will be.” “It”.

Nehemia: Yes. Read it, “and it will be…”

Keith: “And it will be a memorial to Yehovah for an everlasting sign,” an ot, “which will not be cut off.” Something’s going to happen.

Nehemia: So what is going to be?

Keith: Something’s going to happen.

Nehemia: So here’s where I went to the ancient Jewish sources, because I looked at this, and I’m like, “I have no idea. I’m not really sure, what’s the ‘it’?”

Keith: Can I just say something, to throw you a little something here? So there are times where you really, can I put this way? You need an “amen”, a little help, a little something, a little other perspective just to see what’s going on.

Nehemia: And I want to make this really clear. This is very important. People say, “Oh, you just read the Scripture, you don’t interpret it.” No, any reading of Scripture is by definition an interpretation.

Keith: Okay.

Nehemia: If I tell you, lo tirzakh means “you shall not kill, you shall not murder,” that’s an interpretation, because in Hebrew you can actually read it - and this is a famous example - you can read it “lo tirzakh?” “Shall you not kill?”

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: And the answer would be, “Of course, you’ll kill.” And, obviously, that’s not what that means. Obviously, lo tirzakh is “you must not kill”. It’s an interpretation based on common sense, but still an interpretation. And I have no problem with commentaries as giving different perspectives. What I have a problem with is when we say, “Well, you can’t say that, it’s not in the commentary.” Really? If that’s what it says in the text, I don’t need the commentary. I’m not bound by the commentary, the commentary gives me good perspective.

And I think it’s actually very valuable to go, once you’ve read the text and say, “Okay, what does this mean? Maybe I understand, maybe I don’t.” Then go and look at the commentaries and say, “Oh, wow, I didn’t think of it that way.” So, I have four different interpretations here in the commentaries, Jewish commentaries. Number 1 is that this name and eternal sign is the miracle of the desert being replaced with vegetation, which is really interesting, because we see that in modern Israel, where they went into the desert and the desert bloomed. Number 2 is the miracle of evil being replaced with good, there it’s being interpreted allegorically. Number 3 is the events of the festival of Purim. Can you tell me, Keith, where they got the festival of Purim out of this verse 13?

Keith: “And it will be a memorial to the Lord, for an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.”

Nehemia: So they got it from the word “myrtle”, which in Hebrew is hadas. And the name of Esther was Hadassa. So there, if you ask me, that’s rabbis grasping at straws, like, “We don’t know what this means.”

Keith: It’s a beautiful thought.

Nehemia: It’s a beautiful thought, but it’s not what the prophet’s talking about. Number 4 is prophetic about God’s name being hidden. Interesting. God’s name will be revealed in the end times, the thorn will be replaced. The thorn, in this case, being Hashem or replacement, being replaced with the fur tree, the actual name of Yehovah, and the briar Adonai with the myrtle, which is the real name of Yehovah. Titles being replaced with the real eternal name. I don’t know if that’s what the prophet is saying, but I like it.

Keith: I like that, too. And you know what’s funny, Nehemia? You’ve talked about this, we’ve talked about this before - when I thought the word memorial, I thought they are going to say like this issue of the same thing that it says in Exodus 20:24 where they’ll say it’s a memorial, or it’s a remembrance, but it’s actually here the word...

Nehemia: Here is the word shem, which means name and the last explanation isn’t so far-fetched. That right now we’re in the period of thorn, of the briar, which is these titles that just stick in our side, and one day it will be replaced by the beautiful bloom tree plant in the name of Yehovah.

Keith: I have to be honest with you, brother. I have seen thirteen years, in our lifetime, in our walk together, I have honestly, Nehemia, and I can say this in humility but with excitement, I have actually seen a shift with the use of God’s name. In other words, from the first time that I was looking and asking you, “What is His name?” I could not find anyone that was addressing it from the perspective of the text. I could find people that would tell me, “This is what the tradition is.” I could pick up people who tell me, “We know this,” but never having any access…

Nehemia: “The scholars and the elders have proclaimed it to be Yahweh.”

Keith: No. And I’m going to bring up something very controversial here, you’re going to probably edit it about.

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: So, I want to say something. I’ve watched actually, and I’m now getting a little older in my age, but I’ve watched from the first time that I had the encounter in 2002 until now, and I’ve seen this really, really big shift. Now we just had a situation happen that is absolutely hilarious, and I’m going to say it. It’s absolutely hilarious. So, there was a man, who is from a well-known ministry, and he comes out with this video and it was impressive. In fact, I want to get the link to this video and put it at this show. “This video,” he says, “after deep research,” and you probably can quote it better than me because you can remember things - you know, you have a memory like an elephant sometimes. I’m dead serious.

Nehemia: He said, “After reading some things.”

Keith: And after reading certain things he goes on, and I think the name of his ministry has got something to do with truth or something, I can’t remember, and he says, “And after reading and after discernment,” and he might as well have said he had a revelation. He says, “You know what? His name is…,” and here it comes, folks, and he says it like this, “His name is... Yehovah.” He doesn’t say, “His name is Jehovah” or “Yahovah,” he says it, and I’ve got to give this guy a lot of credit - he says it like it is in the text, accents and vowels. He says, “You know what? I’ve read some things.” I’m convinced it was His Hallowed Name Revealed Again. I’m just kidding, it was probably…

Nehemia: He may have read your book!

Keith: And in dead seriousness, and you know what it probably was? It probably had to do with Nehemia's book Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence, because there was some… let me just get to the point.

Nehemia: Please get to the point.

Keith: I’m going to get to the point. No, I want to take my time. The guy puts out this video, and I’m telling you I was impressed. I listened to the video, and I thought, “You’ve got to be kidding me, this is kind of like mainline-ish, this guy is saying ‘Yehovah’.” I think it was less than a week, I might be wrong. Maybe it was two weeks, he puts out an update video. And I’m laughing, because in the update video he might as well have said this, “After I put out this information, they took me into the back room and took me and kicked me up from one end of the room to the other and said, ‘You must not say that.’” And he literally goes on to say that he has a very good friend who wrote a book and basically took him into the back room and said, “Recant. Recant based on your pronunciation of the name.” And he puts out another video and says, "Well, folks, I’m back, baby. I fell off the….” He literally says, “I’m back, baby,” and you know, he fell off and bumped his head for just a little while.

Nehemia: Should have stuck with what I knew, even though it was wrong.

Keith: And they literally came in like a flood, and it reminds me - heck I might as well say it - it reminds me of what happened, and I can talk about this now, reminds me what happened with this television station that I was on. I was doing this series, a 12-part series on the name. They begged me to do it. They asked me to do it, and I said to them ahead of time, “Listen, you are asking me to do this. This is very controversial.” They said “We own this station. We’ve read the information, it’s touched our lives, we testify to it, and they went on and on and on…” And they said “you must do it.” So, I went and I recorded it.

And then the people came and they took them in the back room, and they said, “You must not let that pronunciation of the name be put out,” and it had nothing to do with the real manuscripts or the information, they just threw a bunch of stuff against the wall to see what would fit. Now what I want to say, Nehemia, is that I feel like in the last 12 years, I’ve seen a real shift. I’ve seen many, many people go through the arduous task of trying to figure out consonants, vowels, accents, understanding what it is and to be able to say, “Here’s the text, here’s what it says, and here’s how it’s pronounced.” So I’m going to go with the interpretation that this phrase is absolutely about His name coming forth.

Nehemia: Well, since it says “name”, that’s a good reason to think of that.

Keith: Well, right after the name Yehovah.

Nehemia: Yes. It says, “And it shall be for Yehovah a name and eternal sign, it shall not be cut off.” We’re going to get rid of the thorns and briars, these replacements, and we’re going to have the beautiful...

Keith: Yes. Absolutely.

Nehemia: I love the myrtle because the myrtle - I have one in front of my apartment in Jerusalem, a myrtle tree. You put your hand over the myrtle tree and you smell this beautiful citrus smell, it’s just so beautiful. It tastes so good, the smell. And that’s Yehovah’s name, it’s this beautiful beautiful thing.

Keith: Amen. So, that’s what we are talking about.

Nehemia: Isaiah 56.

Keith: Now, how do you want to do this?

Nehemia: Well, first of all, I want to refer people to our teaching, The Open Door Series, you can watch it actually for free on Nehemiaswall.com. I think you probably have it on your website, too. It’s on YouTube. There we actually talk about this passage, Isaiah 56:1 through 8, we preach it. Let’s take it away and preach it.

Keith: Okay. So, I want to know if we go right to 56:3? Can we just go ahead and do it?

Nehemia: Ma pitom! Why wouldn’t we do 1 through 2?

Keith: No, I’m saying, you said, 56:3, let’s preach it...

Nehemia: No, 1 through 8. 1 and 2 are talking... and I’ll just give the summary. I’ll read it. Isaiah is preaching in the public square saying, “Thus saith Yehovah,” I’m reading this from the Hebrew, “keep judgement and do righteousness; for my salvation, my yeshuah, is close to coming, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who grabs hold of it; he who keeps the Shabbat from desecrating it, and keeps his hands from doing all evil.”

Now, and I have said it before, Isaiah’s in the public square, and the gentiles hear him say this, they’ve got to stop in their tracks and say, “I know this Hebrew prophet is not talking to me.” And how do they know that? Because they read, or maybe they heard about, in the Book of Exodus, where God says about the Shabbat, “Oti beini ubein b’nei Israel,” and that’s in Exodus 31:13. “And you speak to the children of Israel saying, ‘Akh et shabtotai tishmoru,’” “but you will keep my Shabbats,” “ki’ot hi beini ubeinekhem ledorotiekhem,” “for it’s a sign between Me and between you for your generations,” “lada’at,” “to know,” “ki ani Yehovah mekadishkhem,” “for I am Yehovah who sanctifies you.”

And imagine if you’re a gentile - and then it gets in 31:13 of Exodus. You’re a gentile and you hear this, and you say, “Well, you know, God doesn’t sanctify me, I’m a gentile, I’m a goy. This isn’t about me, the prophet isn’t speaking to me. I’m separate from God’s people.” And what I love about it, is in verse 3 Isaiah then addresses those gentiles. He said… and I’ll let you take this away.

Keith: I want to say something, you know, Nehemia, you always say this, you go back and forth, and I’m just quiet, I just listen to you, and you’ll say, “You know, Keith, over in your book.” And I think what partly you’re saying is, you’re like, “That’s the book that you read.” And I want to confess something.

Nehemia: Well, it’s the book of your traditional heritage.

Keith: Let me tell you where you're right. So, do you know what I like about that part of the book? Because I’d always see myself in that book. I would always see myself in the New Testament. I would say, “You know what? I’m convinced that I would have been one of those people that would have been like, ‘You know, he could be a good disciple.’” Because when I would hear about all that was going on with the Romans and everything that was happening at that time, and someone is coming along and saying, “The Kingdom of God is at hand,” and I’d be like, “Boy, I need that, tell me about that.” I would be the kind of person to be like, “Tell me more,” and when he goes on in Isaiah and Matthew chapter 5:17, “Not one jot or one tittle is going to be removed,” I’d be like, “Oh, man!” That would be me, and so, for the most part, I can always see myself in that book.

When I’m reading in the Tanakh, you know, sometimes, we are having conversations, and you’ll say, “You know, our people and our Torah and the Tanakh, and you know, in the synagogue,” and all that, and I kinda sit there and I think, “Man, that’s not me, I’m not Jewish,” and you know, with big laughs and conversations about this, I’m not interested in being Jewish! I don’t see me until I get to a verse like this. When I see this verse, I think of me, and we have this story again, folks bear with me, it says, “Let not the foreigner,” and I love this word, and I don’t know if we did it before, but I just love this word when you explain it…

Nehemia: Hanilvah.

Keith: “Who has joined himself to Yehovah say,” let's stop. Can we make this word the Word of the Week?

Nehemia: I’m pretty sure we had this word, but we’ll do it again. Nilva – the root is Lamed-Vav-Hei, it’s the same root as the word Levite, and it means to join. And hanilva is “he who joins himself,” and it appears twice in this passage, hanilva in verse 3, and in verse 6 it’s hanilvim, which is the plural, the verse 3 is “he, who joins himself,” and in verse 6, it’s “those who joined themselves,” in the plural, hanilvim.

Keith: And what I love about it is I can go back all the way into Genesis and I can see this the first time it’s used and this is a Leah’s son, and she says, “I know for sure my husband is going to join himself to me so I’m going to call my son ‘joined’.”

Nehemia: Genesis 29:34

Keith: Literally Levite. You know, I’m livayt. And so, for me...

Nehemia: And then Numbers 18:2.

Keith: Yeah.

Nehemia: And 18:4 we have the Levites then joining the Kohanim, joining the service of Yehovah, and we have the same word, veyilavu venilvu, which is nilvu, it’s the same form as the nif’al of lava, so you could translate this as… this is a literal translation, “Let not the son of the gentile who Levites himself to Yehovah say… ”

Keith: Yes. “That Yehovah will surely separate me from his people.” And I’m going to pass it off to the next part of the verse, and we go back and forth, but I have to say, when I say I didn’t see myself, this is one of these verses that really has captivated me in practicality, because I will go to people and I will say, and I have this story, and I’m going to tell it again. I will go to people and I will say, “Look, I have joined myself to Yehovah, and therefore…”

And so we have this famous story, it’s now an international story, where I was so excited about this verse, that Nehemia’s father, Rabbi Gordon, who has since passed on, I talked to him on the phone a couple of times, but I was really looking forward to hearing him, because Nehemia would always talk about him, and he’s this Orthodox Rabbi, and I’m thinking, “You know what? I’m going to test this matter. I’m really going to test this matter.”

So, I’ve been invited for Shabbat, I go to Rabbi Gordon, and I say, “Rabbi Gordon, I’d like to talk to you about something that I really want to share with you,” and then, of course, Nehemia being the jokester that he is, and sometimes he makes jokes that really put me in a tough spot, like when we were at the Egyptian border and he said that I loved Mubarak. More on that later. He says to his father, “He wants to share some good news with you.” “I don’t want to hear it.”

Nehemia: My father’s response was, “Oh, no, it’s about Jesus. I don’t want to hear it.”

Keith: Well, I want to be nice about it, so, okay.

Nehemia: It was not about Jesus. What was it about?

Keith: It was not. It was about this verse. And the application of this was we were sitting at Shabbat, just like I told you a few weeks ago, about the blessing after the meal, there was this opportunity for there to be a group of people that would be able to...

Nehemia: And specifically you have to have three Jewish males.

Keith: Yes. And there were three there, but one of them was not going to participate.

Nehemia: So, Keith wanted to be the third.

Keith: I wanted to be the third, though I wasn’t saying I’m Jewish, let me say this again, I’m not Jewish, Rabbi, but I’ve joined myself to Yehovah.

Nehemia: And you read him Isaiah 56.

Keith: And I read this Isaiah 56, and I said to him, “So can I be one of the people?” And what did he say, Nehemia?

Nehemia: “You don’t count.”

Keith: I don’t count.

Nehemia: Yes. And in a very literal sense, meaning we have to count three...

Keith: Look, he was serious, he was not joking.

Nehemia: You don’t count, because you didn’t appear… And he explained - if you want to count, you have to appear before a panel of three rabbis, you have to be immersed in water in a mikvah, under their supervision after having studied and passing a test, and proclaiming yourself to accept the authority and the yolk of the rabbis, and you have to be as a man recircumcised. And you didn’t do any of these things, and so you don’t count, as he said.

And it’s interesting. A few weeks ago I posted something on Facebook and I had this Christian guy or Messianic guy come and he says, “Well, you’re not a believer anyway so you don’t count.” He literally said that.

Keith: And he said that to me. Yes. And the point for me was that probably was a very important moment, because I looked at the Scripture, I clearly looked at it, both in Hebrew, I looked at it in the Septuagint in Greek, and I looked at it in English, I looked everywhere I could. And it was pretty clear that there was an idea that for those of us who are foreigners, we shook the family tree and there are no Jews falling out. I’m telling you, as far as I can tell, maybe somewhere way back deep, who knows, there could have been some, but I didn’t need that. I really looked at this verse and said, “Okay, wow, I find myself in Isaiah,” and I’m sure that many people listening also find themselves and then the temptation becomes, “Well, I need man’s approval.” So, you know what, I’ll go ahead and go through the process just so I’ve got their approval.

Nehemia: Because if I don’t then God is separating me from His people. And he’s saying in Isaiah 56 that you shouldn’t say that. You don’t need to say that. Now, can I share something controversial? So, we were meeting with this rabbi, the two of us, it was a three-way meeting, and the rabbi, a very famous rabbi, I won’t say his name, he looked at Keith and he heard his story, and he said, “Wow, Keith, you love the Jewish people, and you love the Torah, you must have a Jewish soul.”

I think a lot of people hearing this, their response would be, “Oh! The rabbi said I have a Jewish soul.” And without even realizing it, I think what would end up happening is they would put themselves then under that rabbi’s authority, and I will be honest with you, sitting there hearing you two have this conversation, I thought, “What a manipulative thing to say to you, that you have this Jewish soul, rather than saying ‘You know what, Keith? You don’t need to have some…’” I don’t even know what a Jewish soul is, I don’t find that concept in the Tanakh, it comes from the Kabbalah. But rather than saying “Oh, really you’re a long lost Jew,” to say, “You know what, Keith? I don’t need you to be a long lost Jew. You’re a fulfilment of prophecy, you are the fulfilment of Isaiah 2 of the gentiles who come and flow like a river to the city of Jerusalem. You’re the fulfilment of the prophecy of Zakaria 8:23 of the gentiles who grab hold of the Jew, and say ‘We hear God is with you.’”

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: You’re a fulfilment of Isaiah 56… we don’t need to make up some story and tell some fiction about you having a Jewish soul, something which could never be proven and isn’t even a Biblical concept. Rather than do that, let’s focus on what we know for a fact – you’re a gentile who has joined yourself to Yehovah, and you must not say, “Yehovah has surely separated me from His people,” so you don’t need to come under the authority of some rabbi, you don’t need to invent some past for yourself, I think that’s far more powerful and far more beautiful, and far more biblical than this fantasy about, “I have a Jewish soul, I shook the family tree and my great-great-great-grandfather, 33 generations back, his name was whatever… His name was Joseph, so he must be a Jew, because that’s a name from the Bible.” Like, really guys?

Keith: I do feel bad for people. Listen, there are a lot of people who really do have blood lines, et cetera, and that’s awesome.

Nehemia: And that’s fine.

Keith: And there’s a lot of people who desperately are looking for an identity, and so they hop from group to group looking for that connection, and someone comes along and says “Okay, you’ve got the soul,” and he says, “Okay, what do I need to do?” “Well, just these ten steps.” And the next thing you know they’re in worse shape than they were ...

Nehemia: 12 months later you’re in the conversion program getting your second circumcision...

Keth: Yeah, I don’t know about that stuff. But let me ask this question, Nehemia, because there is something that happens in this passage and I find really interesting, and maybe you can address it. So, here we’ve got this connection of 56:3, “Let not the foreigner who has joined himself…” Then it goes 4, 5 and in 6 again, also the foreigners. So, what’s happening?

Nehemia: I don't want to skip to 6.

Keith: I don’t want to skip. No, that’s why I’m bringing it up.

Nehemia: I want to talk about 3 through 5.

Keith: That’s why I did it. I said, “So, what is happening in between when it’s saying that there…?”

Nehemia: So, there he’s talking to the eunuch and you could argue that this is a eunuch who is a gentile, maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. Even if he’s not a gentile, the verse that comes to mind that I think Isaiah is explaining and interpreting is Deuteronomy 23:2 where it says... I don’t know which translation to read. Let me read the King James. “He that is wounded in the stones,” that’s not what it says in the Hebrew, but you know what it means, “He that is wounded in the stones or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.”

And people even in ancient Israel have read this and said, “Oh, those eunuchs can’t be Israelites, they are gentiles, and they can never be Israelites, cause they can’t even be circumcised, because they don’t have the equipment necessary to be circumcised.” And I think those are the people he’s talking about, and what comes to mind for me, is, for example, Jeremiah 38:12. Can I read that? I’m not going to read the whole thing, but Jeremiah 38:12, it says, “And Eved-Melech the Kushite said to Jeremiah,” et cetera, actually it’s before that - we have this figure named Eved Melech, the servant of the king, who is from Kush, he is from what today would be northeastern Sudan or northwestern Ethiopia, and over in the beginning of the story here somewhere he is referred to as a… Here, it’s in verse 7. “And Eved Melech the Kushite heard…” Jeremiah 38:7, “ish saris” - a man who is eunuch. And he is in the House of the king, et cetera, and he’s the one who ends up freeing Jeremiah from prison through his intervention.

This foreigner, he’s a foreigner, he’s from Kush, and he’s a eunuch, and imagine if you are Eved Melech, the Kushite, and you are a righteous man, you’re the one of all people in the city of Jerusalem who saves the prophet, all the ones are thinking, “I’m worrying about my skin,” or “I want him in that dungeon, we need him in that dungeon, because he is telling us that we’re sinners and we’re going to be destroyed by the enemy. Let’s get rid of that guy.” And Eved Melech the Kushite comes along and says, “Look, this is a prophet of God, we have got to get him out of here before he starves to death in prison during the siege.” And I think that’s that kind of person that here Isaiah 56 is addressing. These eunuchs, maybe they are foreigners, maybe they are not, but they feel like, “I’ve got no part in God’s covenant. I can’t come into the congregation of God, and I can’t have children, so even if I can, what good is it?”

Because definitely the blessing in Scripture from the very beginning is “be fruitful and multiply”, is to have children, and this eunuch is hearing this. And remember, why did they have eunuchs in ancient times? So what the foreign kings would do is they would make their top officials eunuchs. Why is that? Because let’s say you’re the emperor of Babylon, and you have got this very trusted official. Well, how do you know he’s not going to take over from you and make his son king after you? Well, there’s a way to fix that.

All right, so let’s read this now. So, we read verse 3, the first half. The second half says, “Ve’al yomar hasaris hen ani etz yavesh,”- “And let not the eunuchs say: ‘Behold, I’m a dry tree.’ For thus says Yehovah, ‘To the eunuchs who keep My Shabbats, and choose that which I desire, and who grab hold of My covenant. I will give them in My house and in My walls…’” I love this phrase, “Yad va-shem,” which is the name of Israel’s Holocaust museum, Yad Va-Shem, “a memorial and a name,” “tov mibanim ubanot,” “which is even better than sons and daughters. An eternal name I will give him, that he will not be cut off.”

And so that eunuch who cannot have children sees this and says, “You know what? What is the point, I can’t do what all the other Israelites, I can’t be blessed in the way they’re going to be blessed through my children, what is the point of any of this?” And He’s saying, “You’re going to get something, you will come into My temple, what you read in Deuteronomy 23, isn’t saying, you can’t, you misunderstood that passage. And you will be part of My congregation, you will be part of My covenant, and if you keep My Shabbat and you grab hold on My covenant, you’ll have a yad va-shem, you’ll have something that’s even better than sons and daughters.”

That’s by the way, why the Holocaust Memorial is called Yad Va-Shem. You had all these people who were cut off, an entire generation was murdered in Europe, and they don’t have descendants, many of them, most of them, because their whole families were wiped out. And so that’s why they called Yad Va-Shem, the Holocaust Memorial, after this verse.

Keith: You know, I will say something, I want to combine something actually with verse 6, if it’s ok. I want to combine kind of like a little bit of a Ministry Minute here, because not only was 56:3 something that was so important, when I read then about the eunuchs I thought, “Well, okay, this is talking about the eunuchs. I’m not a eunuch.” Then he comes back in 56:6 and says this, and the reason it caught my attention, is because of three things. I want to share these three things. “Also, the foreigners,” in case you missed it, “who Levite themselves to Yehovah, to minister Him,” how? Loving His name, “to love the name Yehovah,” is what it says. “To be His servants,” how? “Everyone who keeps from profaning the Shabbat and holds fast the covenant.”

And I looked at these three things and I thought, “Wow, all those years ago we started this ministry and I said there were three things that I encountered here: God’s time, God’s Torah, God’s Tetragrammaton, His four-letter name, and in this verse I see those things: the name, the Tetragrammaton, Yehovah, His time, the Sabbath, which has to do with God’s time, keeping His time, and His Torah, the covenant.” And I look at those things, and I think, “Man, is it not amazing that we even have the opportunity?”

So for me, I say, “You might live your whole life and get one revelation, just one.” And if I only get one revelation, it simply has been this for me - that God has time, God has His word, God has His name, and what I found, Nehemia, and we’ve talked about this so many times, that when foreign nations would come to Israel and they would take over, what would they say? “Okay, look, no more keeping God’s time. In other words, you guys keeping Shabbat, we’re going to cut that out. No more keeping God’s Torah, no more circumcision and all these things that have to do with the Torah, and certainly, no more speaking God’s name, because that gets you too intimate with Him, and we can’t have that, especially since we’re bringing all of these false gods,” et cetera. And this verse for me really is… I call it a verse that I could pin my hat on, because when I read this verse I think about the ministry and really giving people a chance to encounter God's time, to encounter God’s Torah and to encounter God’s Tetragrammaton, His name, brings you to a place for an encounter, what I say with Him. And that’s really what the BFA is all about - inspiring people around the world to build a biblical foundation of their faith, and how can you know that and let you open up His word and find out what that faith is based on. So, thank you so much.

Nehemia: Amen. Hallelujah. All right. Yes, that’s a powerful verse. So did you get the three T’s: time, Torah, Tetragrammaton based on this verse?

Keith: No, actually I didn’t.

Nehemia: Or did you get them before and then realize, “Wow, it fits this verse?”

Keith: No, I got them before, and didn’t know even about this verse. In fact, I have to be honest with you, not only did I not know about this verse, I didn’t even understand this idea… Not to bore people, I get the Torah scroll, I bring it back, there was a verse on the front, you said, “Yeah, that’s prophetic,” I’m like, “I don't even know what he’s talking about. I have no idea what he’s even talking about.” And it took time to realize, as I have seen Torah Pearls, the Original Torah Pearls, we have brought the Torah around the world from Zion. I’ve gotten a chance to play one little part of that. And I believe it comes from this encounter. So, go ahead. The next part is actually…

Nehemia: All right. “And I will bring them to My holy mountain and will make them…”

Keith: What holy mountain?

Nehemia: The Temple Mount.

Keith: No, I mean, there’s an actual mountain?

Nehemia: There’s an actual mountain. It’s a mountain. It’s called Har HaBayit, the Temple Mount.

Keith: Physical mountain? And you would say, we just came from the place that’s called the promenade, I asked if we could go there before we taped this, because I want to get this view again of Jerusalem. And I asked you about that cliff, and you look across the promenade, what is the valley? The valley from where we were, with the promenade, down to the Peace Forest, is that what it’s called?

Nehemia: Yes, Ya’ar HaShalom.

Keith: And you go up, and there’s the Temple Mount. So, you are telling me that’s the mountain?

Nehemia: That’s the mountain. There are actually two valleys there, but, whatever.

Keith: Okay.

Nehemia: “And I’ll bring them to My holy mountain and I will make them rejoice in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their peace offerings shall be accepted upon My altar, for My house will be called the house of prayer for all nations.”

Keith: Wait a minute! It’s for the Jewish people. Only.

Nehemia: No no wait. Hold on.

Keith: It’s for the Muslims only.

Nehemia: It’s for all Muslims. Is that what it says in the original Hebrew? No, it says for all peoples.

Keith: Does that mean peoples, nations? What does that mean?

Nehemia: Nations. Yes, absolutely.

Keith: So let’s just talk about this for a second, what does that look like?

Nehemia: What does that look like?

Keith: What does that look like? Compared to what we see now today.

Nehemia: Well, I mean, what you see now today… We were just actually not very long ago speaking to this expert on Islam, and he said, “Look, Islam is a militant religion.” This is a guy who studied Islam for the last 22 years, an Israeli scholar, and he said it’s a militant religion. And he says, “Not every form of Islam is militant, but…”

Keith: And in fact, he said Islams. He said there are different Islams.

Nehemia: Right. He said the one on the Temple Mount is extremely militant.

Keith: He says it’s militant and intimidating.

Nehemia: By design. Meaning, it’s not an accident that they’re behaving that way. So, here’s what it looks like. I’ll read you from Isaiah 2.

Keith: Okay.

Nehemia: “The word which Yeshayahu the son of Amoz saw concerning Judea and Jerusalem, and it will come to pass in the end of days, ba’aharit hayamim, the Mount of the house of Yehovah will be established at the head of the mountains, and it should be lifted up from the hills, venaharu elav kol hagoyim. And all the nations shall flow to it like a river,” in Hebrew it says. ”Vehalkhu amim rabim, and many peoples will come and they will say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yehovah, to the House of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us from His ways, and we will walk in His paths. Ki miZion tetzeh Torah, for from Zion shall go forth the Torah, udevar Yehovah miYerushalayim.’”

Keith: That’s on the front my Torah scroll. I love it. Say it again.

Nehemia: “And the word of Yehovah from Jerusalem, ki miZion tetzeh Torah, udevar Yehovah miYerushalayim. From Zion, that mountain, shall go forth the Torah and the word of Yehovah from Jerusalem, veshafat bein hagoyim, and He will judge between the nations, vehokhiakh le’amim rabim, and He will rebuke many nations, vekhitetu kharvotam…” These are the words that Netaniahu read to Obama when they went to the Shrine of the Book and stood before the Isaiah scroll, he read it from the Isaiah scroll, written 2,200 years ago, in Israel’s National Museum. “Vekhitetu kharvotam le’itim, Mr. President, and they will beat their swords into plowshares, vekhanitotihem lemazmerot, and their spears into pruning shears, lo isa goy el goy kherev, velo ilmedu od milhama, nations shall not lift up sword against nation, and they shall never again learn war.” And I love… did we ever read this passage in Micah? I don’t know if we did. As you say, Keith, in your terminology, we are coming to the end of a dispensation. Did I get that terminology right?

Keith: No question, you’re right about that.

Nehemia: We are coming to the end of this Prophet Pearls. We did Torah Pearls and we did Prophet Pearls, and I don’t think we ever got to this passage, the second witness, which is almost verbatim the same words in the book of Micah, and I want to read that if you’ll allow me to.

Keith: Please. Verse?

Nehemia: Let me find it. In Micah, it is chapter 4, in the Hebrew it’s verse 1, “And it shall come to pass at the end of days the Mount of Yehovah, the mount of the house of Yehovah shall be established above,” and it’s verbatim, the same thing, “shall be established above the hills .... and venaharu alav amim, and the peoples,” it’s slightly different, there it’s goyim, here it’s amim, here it’s switched, “and the people shall flow to it like a river, and many nations shall go and they will say, ‘Come, let us go up to the Mount of Yehovah and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will Torah us, He will teach us, says yore. Torah, He will Torah us from His ways, and we will walk in His paths, ki miZion tezeh Torah udevar Yehovah miYerushalayim.’” Second witness. Say, second witness.

Keith: Second witness.

Nehemia: “For from Zion shall go forth the Torah and the word of Yehovah from Jerusalem. Veshafat ben amim rabim, vehokhiyakh legoyim atzumim ad rakhok, and He shall judge between many peoples, and He shall rebuke many nations, even those far away,” even those in the Western hemisphere and in different continents. “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and no longer shall nation lift up the sword against nation, and they shall never again learn war.” And then it says, “And they shall sit each man under his vine, and each man under his fig tree, ve’ein makharid, and no one will be afraid, kifi Yehovah tzeva’ot diber, for the mouth of Yehovah of hosts has spoken.”

This is heartbreaking, verse 5. Now Yehovah has spoken, verse 5 is the people responding - they respond to it and they say, “No, no, no, no. This is for the Jews.” They say, “Surely, all the peoples shall go each in the name of His God, and we will walk in the name of Yehovah our God, forever.” Imagine that! Yehovah says this one thing, and the people come along and say, “Surely that’s not true, surely this is what we’re going to do, we’re going to have God, He will be our Yehovah, He’ll be our exclusive property, our exclusive God, our exclusive domain, and those gentiles, they can go worship their gods, they can go worship the god of the Muslims, they can worship the god of the Christians, we want nothing to do with them.” Imagine that! In ancient Israel they were saying the same things, “You don’t count.”

Keith: And actually, I want to tell you something, Nehemia. Sometimes I listen to you and you’ll talk about the gathering, the gathering, “You know, I have seen this, it’s a miracle, the gathering, the gathering,” and again I say to myself, “You know, I don’t know, unless I’m one of the lost tribes, I don’t know if I’m gathered.” And then this verse comes up, and I’m going to read it.

Nehemia: Verse 8, Isaiah 56:8.

Keith: “Yehovah, God who gathers the dispersed of Israel,” and that’s where Nehemia will start talking about, “You know, it’s amazing!” You know, he sticks his chest out, rightly so, and he says, “I’m watching prophecy right here, I’m on Emek Refa’im!” And he’s telling me this story over and over and over again. And I love this story because it’s prophecy fulfilled, but there’s a little part of me that says, “I want to be gathered!”

Nehemia: And you are.

Keith: And then the verse comes, “Yet others I will gather to those already gathered,” and I’m thinking to myself, “That’s got to be me! It’s got to be me!”

Nehemia: You are one of the others.

Keith: No, I’m an other now! Call me an other. Call me “Methodother”. A Methodother.

Nehemia: You are one of the nilvim who has joined themselves to Yehovah.

Keith: Absolutely.

Nehemia: Let me read this directly from the Hebrew, “Ne’um Adonai Yehovah mekabetz nitkhey Israel, thus saith Lord Yehovah, Adonai Yehovah, He who gathereth in the dispersed of Israel.”

Keith: Declares.

Nehemia: “Od akabetz alav lenikpazav.”

Keith: Kibbutz! Kibbutz! Kibbutz!

Nehemia: “I will gather others, I will kibbutz others into those who I have gathered.”

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: So, there is the dispersed of Israel, ten lost tribes, and the two tribes, the dispersed of Israel, and then there are these others.

Keith: Two sticks. There are two sticks, hey give them the sticks!

Nehemia: And then they are the others.

Keith: And then there are the others. I would like to say, I feel like I’m an other, and I really like being an other, because I find myself… And you know, Nehemia, I had a lot of times we don’t always get into our personal testimonies and all of that, but I would say something, folks, if you are listening right now, there are a lot of people that are really frustrated with me, because they’ll say, “Keith, we just have to know what box it is. Is it going to be Christmas, is it going to be the pork, is it going to be this, that and the other? And I have to tell you something - probably, in the last five or six years, it’s been actually freeing to me not to have the box to find. If there is a box, I would like to say this is my box. My box is...

Nehemia: Check “other.”

Keith: Nope. My box is: show it to me in the word of God, show it to me in the Scriptures, language history and context, and you know what? You got my attention. And I can show people myself in Scripture, I have to tell you, my heart is just filled. And being here in Jerusalem, Nehemia, I have to be honest with you, I thought this was a crazy idea. Really, I thought it was a crazy idea. You call me up and you say, “Just speaking out loud now,” and this is how he does it, folks, “Just speaking out loud,” I think I have heard it about seven times this week, “Just speaking out loud,” and then he says, “I’ve got this idea!”

Nehemia: Thinking out loud.

Keith: I’m sorry. Thinking out loud. Then he drops the bomb, “You know, Keith, it’s either we’re going to have to do something radical or Prophet Pearls is canceled.” And I’m going to be honest with you, I literally thought - I’m not kidding - I literally thought we were going to [clapping] that was it. Because we couldn’t do it, the technology couldn’t be done. And it just so happens, and I’ve got this tour, and, by the way, I’ve got it on tape a couple of times when your internet didn’t work, and I actually got it on tape, I’ve got it to our editor.

So I’ve got this tour that’s going to be starting in just a couple of days, it’ll be our third a BFAInternational tour. And you said, “What would be the possibility of us coming in early?” And you know, what? The details of it, the costs of it, how it would work, where would we stay, what would be the circumstances, how we did…

Nehemia: We stepped out on faith.

Keith: We did, we really did step out on faith.

Nehemia: And I had the Aviv Search, and I said, “Look, I can come early for the Aviv Search and you can come early for the BFA tour, and if we put this together, like wow, we could actually spend two solid weeks, as long as we prepare in advance,” and man did we both… I know I spent a long time preparing...

Keith: We prepared. I want to tell you something folks. Actually, our last one is going to be really special. Not going to give it away, but the last one of the series is going to be really special. Another one of Nehemia’s great ideas. But I want to tell you something, it’s probably been a very painful thing. Now one, I’ve been physically sick, but in being sick, the other thing that’s been painful, is to be here and to know that really we have had limited time to leave this apartment, and on the other hand I want to say something. I feel like this has been a bit of a sacrifice. Can I say this? This is like bringing a sacrifice, a spiritual… this is spiritual to me that we would actually lay this out for people and let them know, and you said it so powerful, Nehemia, you have said, “Five years from now people may be listening to this. Six years from now…”

Nehemia: Fifty years from now people may be listening to this.

Keith: And it happened while we were here in the first ten, I want to just give a little background, the first ten we were in Charlotte together, and we had a fight, it was hilarious. It was a good fight. And the fight had to do with what we’re going to do, and how fast are we going to go, and it was creative tension, and then we separated, and I was in China, and Nehemia was in a couple of different places, and we tried to do it, and a couple of them worked, they actually worked okay, the technology was fine. And then it didn’t. Then we said this and we came here. Now I just want to say something - how many did we do so far? We’ve got two left. In the amount of days that we have been here, could you – no, the counting is hilarious - how many of these have we actually done?

Nehemia: You want to know how many episodes? 25. Well, this is the 26th.

Keith: I’d just like to say congratulations, Nehemia. We’ve got a couple more left, but folks, and those that have helped and supported us, thank you. Those that are willing to support us with the double schnitzel, we’re definitely excited. If you’re willing to stand on the wall, I know you have to talk about it, but I really want to say to people, I can say with a clear conscience, we’ve got two ministries here that we’re dealing with. But I feel like with a clear conscience we could say you can check us by our fruit. Amen?

Nehemia: Amen. My ministry, Makor Hebrew Foundation. Go to Nehemiaswall.com. Come stand with me on the wall and sign up for the free newsletter, sign up for the blog, the audioblog, the podcast, you’ll find information, all kinds of interesting things that I’ll be sharing. If you really want to get deeper into it, join the Support Team, and that allows me to get the information out to everybody else.

Keith: Amen. Awesome. I’m going to pray if it’s okay.

Nehemia: Please.

Keith: Father, thank you for the opportunity to be here where Your holy mountain is. You could have picked anywhere in the world, You could have picked anywhere in the world to place Your name forever, to call it Your holy mountain, Your house of prayer. And yet, You selected this place, Jerusalem. The meaning of it, both, Nehemia mentioned it, Father, the words that are already there, that define it, the words that in the future, what Jerusalem will be called. And to actually physically be here is just over overwhelming, humbling, exciting and encouraging and inspiring. So, we thank You for having an opportunity, I thank You for having an opportunity as a foreigner to join myself to You and to Your people, and to love Your name and to keep Your time and to walk out your word in a way that is just life changing for me. I thank You so much for the ministry that You’ve given for us by Your mercy, and ask that you would bless all of those who are listening, and help us over these next few days, even as Nehemia goes about his important work of finding out what time it is, and we have this tour with people from around the world. Just protect us, watch over us and keep us, and we will praise You, glorify You and give You all the praise. In Your name. Amen

Nehemia: 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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Related Posts: The Original Torah Pearls - Vayelech (Deuteronomy 31:1-31:30) Torah and Prophet Pearls
  • marilyn says:

    Coming back to Torah means you obey it. Num 10:8-10 says ONLY the Aaronic priests have authority to establish the lunar calendar for Yah’s people. No other tribe.

  • donald murphy says:

    Purim is not commanded to be celebrated.

  • amberlmunson says:

    To me, verse 55:13 is pretty plain. When it says, “it shall be,” it refers to verse 11– “So shall my word be….” He has all these miracles in mind (verse 12) that are beyond what we can fathom (verse 9), and the fulfillment of his plans will be to him a name.

  • Pam Burt says:

    Nehemiah and Keith!
    Great study and funny conversation between you both as always. I would just like to say that while I agree with the Torah and the words you both spoke on this topic I had a moment of realization.
    As a woman who used to be that Evangelical Christian , leaving it behind to become an “ official” Orthodox Jewish woman, even making Aliyah to Israel only to realize through YeHoVah the huge-deliberate errors in rabbinic rule that I had to change and follow the one true God and Torah, however seeing as so very much of Judaism as we know it is Tackanot I now have no where to go and no one to fellowship with. While I would never change my mind to go back to rabbinic rule in my life I find this beautiful roadbim on to also be a very lonely road as well.
    You both are busy teaching, studying and traveling but for the common man or woman it’s lonely out here. So while I agree a conversation is not necessary before YeHoVah but only obedience to what he says and joining myself to Him, I just want to say…. I can never go back to the way I once lived , again I say… it’s hard being alone with no community.
    Keep up the great teaching….. it’s changing lives!

    • Jean says:

      It is lonely indeed. Especially if family and friends just don’t see what you see or feel the change just isn’t worth the pain of admitting they were taught and believed lies.

    • Deidre Jamsen van Vuuren says:

      Pam, it is a very lonely road to all of us that follow Yehovah and His Torah. I understand your lonelyness so well. But to me, the lonely road got easier…. to a place where I am so satisfied in His presence “alone”… that it is now difficult for me to share my worship to Him with others. Hang in there, time and Yehovah will heal your lonelyness.

  • Ruth Smith says:

    Thank you so much for this great study. Those verses in Isaiah are definitely some of my very favorites as well, and when I first read them, my heart leapt for joy!

    So, this is a question for Keith, as he is coming from an NT-believing heritage. I am reading where Yeshua says, “For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it.” Matt.19:12. I’ve personally (and I know, no scripture is of private interpretation, but I’ve think being a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom might refer to someone who finds that they cannot control their unnatural or even, shall we say, perverse urges, who nevertheless wants to devote themselves to the keeping of the Lord’s commandments regarding sexual expression and decides that this member does not serve that well (and here I can imagine a thousand people, mostly men, cringing at this very thought)….perhaps “making themselves a eunuch” for a higher purpose – as surely the highest purpose of our lives is to serve God, and procreation is not necessarily the highest, although it is definitely very good… I think of how sex offenders are given a drug that reduces libido so much as to render them a type of eunuch, as well. But even so, I am also reminded of this verse in Deuteronomy 23:1, “”No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the [it reads, “the LORD”] – we shall say, “of Yehovah” as it is His true Name.

    It almost sounds as if Yeshua is saying if you are one of those to whom this scripture applies, and you have made yourself a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom, you CAN enter the assembly.

    Does Yeshua mean simply celibacy (the Biblical state of all those who are unmarried) or is he specifically referring to…..castration?

    It would seem to relate to the verse in Matthew 5:30, “…For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

    What would be your exegesis on this, Keith? Thank you in advance for any response.

  • JW Brakebill says:

    Shalom. Questions: Are not the obedience laws of the Torah expected to be the very same laws of YeHoVaH’s coming eternal Kingdom when Messiah comes? If so, does THAT not make it CRITICAL for ALL, regardless of Jew or Christian, lost tribe or Muslim, to question – is this life then not a testing ground for us to show YeHoVaH whether we are willing to obey or not?

    One other thing that I realized today, that within the word Shabbat or Sabbath, the middle of the word is “abba”, Father?

  • bigfaithgirl says:

    Thank you both for being this ages prophets in getting us educated on what the Torah says.Love you both

  • kaylened says:

    I’m all for Circumcision but I also know Abraham was counted Righteous before his circumcision, Romans 4:9, 10.

  • Carl and Bonnie Metzger says:

    This prophet pearl spoke to me and gave me Hope. My husband and I are fairly new to seeking the Hebrew roots of our Faith. We wondered where we ‘fit-in’. At times we have felt as if ‘Jews’ do not want we,’ gentiles’, to be joined together. This may be our own misunderstanding? Thanks to you both for your dedication, hard work, and sacrifices you’ve made to bring clarity to the whole Word of GOD/YHVH. Bless you both and your families. Come visit western NC !

  • Susan says:

    Susan
    July 2nd 2017 at 08.22 am

    Listening to the study yesterday just reminded me of a time many years ago when as a new Christian I went with my husband to Germany. The week before we had been at our church where we were “Saved”, with lots of “Happy Praise”. So on the next Sunday we went to the army church to find some other brothers and sisters in Christ and to praise GOD. What I found was all the “Tradition”, I didn’t like it at all and went out side to talk to GOD about it. That was when GOD spoke to me the verses from Isaiah 55:8-9. I really felt that my hand had been slapped and that GOD had His plans. I found in the two years that I was there, a deeper knowledge of the GOD that I said I worshipped and a deeper understanding of the people I worshipped with. That was in 1990 and now between 2015 till 2017 I have grown even more as I have spent time with Nehemia and Keith in their wonderful studies: keep it up, I really enjoy them and feel so uplifted. Well done to you Guys.

  • Jean says:

    Putting away a plastic glass the other day, I was reminded of the “rule” my grand children made concerning those glasses. There are three glasses, each with a very small number imprinted on the bottom, 4, 5, and 24. Because the oldest child was 5 they “ruled” that she had to use the one marked 5, the next oldest child had to use the one with the 4, and the youngest had to use the one marked 24 because none were 24 and she was the youngest. Humans seem to be intrinsic rule makers! Who made the rule that “You don’t count”? The same ones who made the rule that you have to have three Jewish men to say their special prayer. Those who have joined themselves to YHVH do not count by their rules, but they do not get to make the rules of the Kingdom. If it saddens us to be told we don’t count by others of Israel, how much more must it sadden the Father who has gathered us to Himself!! YHVH has said that He will not separate us from His people even though some think that the god they have created out of their own hearts would. Thank you Nehemia and Keith for for stating again what the scripture says and not trying to fabricate an exclusive group which keeps others out.

  • Shelley Brownw Cadd says:

    Wow, with all we are facing at this time, this Fall Feast season, what you are speaking is more appropriate now than it was the year you spoke it! N. said a little quip about Syria that I need to go back and listen to carefully – I’ll bet it may have more meaning right now. Who could have imagined the terrible mess the West is largely responsible for there and in other M.E countries today. We DESPERATELY need to repent. And, as Yair Davidy points out thousands of times at brit-am.com, most of the “lost tribes” are located in the West. So, this study has renewed my hope and given me a more positive vision of the not-so-far-off future – mass repentance after we finally understand how our stubborn arrogance and idolatry would ultimately impact millions of innocent men, women and children. It IS a confusing mess – and only Messiach ccan help us figure the way out of it. Ruach, work on our heats and minds now, and Yehovah – pease send Meshiach at the soonest possible moment!!!

    Keith, I love what you shared re: being a kIbbutzed/gathered in one. That is how I always related to the Word, too – just feeling so amazed that He let me know about the possibility, and His heart for ALL PEOPLE!!! MOST OF ALL, I JUST WANT TO BE A GRATEFUL DAUGHTER AND A DELIGHT TO H I S HEART &: >

    By the way … loads of Believers feel the same way here in my part of the world – which I cannot reveal. Please pray for us faithfully, and I do what I can to share your tidbits, too. Hugs, blessings prayers.

  • Erin says:

    I AM VERY THANKFUL TO YHWH THAT IN OUR DAY IS BEING EXPOUNDED TO LEARN TO BE JOINED IN HEART, SOUL AND MIND OF YHWH, FOR HIS PLAN IS, WAS AND ALWAYS WILL BE FULFILLED.
    MANY PROPHECIES ARE SHOWING THEMSELVES HE HAS PREDESTINED THE PLAN AND NOW WE CAN EARNESTLY BELIEVE, I PERSONALLY, HAVE REPENTANCE AND DEEPLY DESIRE HIS TRUTHS TO GROW OUR LIVES IN RIGHTEOUSNESS AS HE LEADS US ALL FORWARD.

    PRAISE BE TO ELOHIM FOR HIS EVERLASTING TRUTHS!!!

    SHALOM TO ALL!

  • Ilana says:

    As we prepare for Yom Kippur, how appropriate to remind us of the love of יהוה and how with repentance, forgiveness is assured.

  • Benyahmeen says:

    Thanks again for your dedication to the scriptures. One important thought that I would like to share… in the book of Revelation the Eunuchs are described as those that never leave from the presence of Yshua and the wall described in Isaiah 56:5 is a feminine active participle of an unused root meaning to join or to surround. My opinion is that the eunuchs of this verse and also in the book of Revelation dwell and maintain a semicircle before the heavenly throne and abide there and dwell forever there. Shalom from Benyahmeen.

  • Gina Bowman says:

    I am learning so much from your group. I just started listening to your teachings a short while ago and have started at the beginning. I love writing the corrections in my poor English translation and I understand the name of Yehovah from your Open Door Series. I listened to you in Jackson, Ohio in person and I am learning some Hebrew. I came from Sunday Keeping over a year ago and love the Torah, I am Israel and I love learning everyday. Keep up the good work and may Yehovah bless and keep you.

  • Yesha’Yahu 56: 8 brings to mind a book series by http://www.stevenmcollins.com a historian who shows the Empires of Israel and their history Biblically and meshes with the secular history. I’ve read his 4 books and I no longer wonder which category my wife and I are in…

  • Karen Powell says:

    This happens on Earth not in Heaven.All people and former governments are under YHVH. Not the other way around. One example of how he gathering out of other nations and makes them count is the book of Ruth. She was protected and she was elevated as she became the wife of a well respected man and then later the grandmother of David..

  • CJ Cotter says:

    Now that you’ve brought this subject up, would somebody please explain this to me? ALL religions throughout the ENTIRE world, describe their congregational building as a house of worship. Yet from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible calls it a house of prayer. It is a MAJOR functional difference between a house of worship and a house of prayer. Why does humanity look at an apple and call it an orange?

  • Hiltona Castleberry says:

    Good Sabbath from New Mexico, USA. Just wondering about you statement that God put His name on Jerusalem for the Jewish people? Why not for Israel? Blessings & hugs are you do the work of our Father.

    • Rebekah says:

      Wow absolutely the best prophet pearls yet. This was what I needed today. I love you guys! Dont ever stop working together for Yehovah. in whatever form, it will be blessed.