Love Israel

Guest (Male): Shalom and welcome to V'ahavta Yisrael, a Hebrew phrase which means "You Shall Love Israel." We hope you'll stay with us for the next 30 minutes as our teacher, Dr. Baruch, shares his expository teaching from the Bible. Dr. Baruch is the senior lecturer at the Zera Avraham Institute based in Israel. Although all courses are taught in Hebrew at the Institute, Dr. Baruch is pleased to share this weekly address in English. To find out more about our work in Israel, please visit us on the web at loveisrael.org. That's one word: loveisrael.org. Now, here's Baruch with today's lesson.

Dr. Baruch Korman: Well, again, we're going to see God's faithfulness to accomplish His will. What specifically am I talking about? Well, we have seen that there is a call and an edict that has been given by the king. I'm talking about kings that are not just Jewish, but rather kings that come from the nations.

Of course, we're talking about three kings in particular, beginning with Koresh, that is Cyrus. Then we see his successor, I'm speaking about Daryavesh or Darius the king. Then the third one that's going to be mentioned is Artashashta, which is another king that ruled over the same empire, commonly referred to as Persia.

So with that said, take out your Bible and look with me to the book of Ezra and chapter 6. Now, we have completed the first 12 verses. Now, in this second part, we're going to complete the rest of this chapter. And again, what is going to be accomplished? We're going to see without any uncertainty God's faithfulness in order to accomplish what He has called the children of Israel to do through the prophetic word of first, Haggai the prophet, and then later on, Zechariah the prophet, who is called the son of Iddo.

So let's begin. Look with me, as I made mention of, Ezra chapter 6 beginning with verse 13 where it says, "Then," and we're going to again focus in on these enemies. "Then Tatnai, a governor on the other side of the river, and Shethar Boznai and their colleagues, according to that the king Daryavesh sent, thusly." And notice it says they diligently did. So we see faithfulness of God in order to bring about a change among these enemies, and we'll see even a greater change later on.

Look now to verse 14. "And the elders of the Jews built and succeeded in the prophecy of Haggai." That could mean during the prophecy of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. "And he built and finished from the decree of the God of Israel and from the decree of Koresh and Daryavesh." And here's the third king, "Artashashta, the king of Persia." And notice what happens. It says here, "And they finished this house." When did they do so? "On the third day of the month of Adar. That is in the sixth year of his kingdom, the kingdom of King Daryavesh."

So we see something. The number three is significant because it's a number of revealing or documenting. And what's being done? Well, we see something very specific. We see that God has moved among these kings, first Koresh or Cyrus, and then Daryavesh or Darius, and then Artashashta, these three kings of Persia. We see that God moved each of them to do something. He moved them to give this edict, which is emphasized, about building the temple. What temple? Rebuilding the one that was in Jerusalem.

Now, over and over we see in most English translations the phrase "rebuilt," but when you look at it in the biblical language, and in this case, we're talking about Aramaic, it's simply the word "built." So there's no "rebuilt," although it was destroyed and from a logical standpoint it's being rebuilt, but it simply says "built." And this is to show the authority of God to keep His word and to bring about a change even when there was great opposition to what God was bringing about, this change that God was doing.

Well, let's press on. Look now if you would to verse 15 where it says, "And they finished this house unto the third day of the month of Adar. That is in the sixth year of the kingdom of Daryavesh the king." Look now to verse 16. "And the children of Israel made the priests and the Levites and the rest of the sons of the exile," and what did they do? Notice, "they dedicated this house of God, this house of God." And they did so how? Notice this, "b'chedvah," which means "and with joy."

So this work that the children of Israel were completing, it brought about joy. Now, we need to see it in the proper order. When we do the commandments of God, those commandments are going to be instruments or vessels that produce joy within our hearts. That's what we're seeking. We're seeking to be glad, to be joyful people because the joy of the Lord, as it says in Nehemiah chapter 8, that joy brings about strength—a strength to persevere, a strength to endure, a strength to overcome. That's what we're called to do in the midst of difficult times.

So they had this same joy and, by the way, it is the same word when we look at these two phrases. The first here in what we talked about at the end of verse 16, this word "chedvah," we see that same word being taught in the book of Nehemiah. We'll just turn there. If you look, for example, at Nehemiah chapter 8 and verse 10, we see that same thing where we read in the scripture this same phrase being told to us about the "chedvah," that is the joy of the Lord who becomes that strength. That's what we're seeking. So understand how precise God is in His language.

Well, let's press on. Let's go back to Ezra chapter 6 and look with me to verse 17 where it says, "And they sacrificed for the dedication of this house of God." And what did they sacrifice? Well, we see 100 bulls, and then we see 200 rams, and then 400 lambs. And then we have another term which relates to goats, male goats for a sin offering according to all Israel. And we find when we speak about all of Israel, we find the number two and ten, which is 12, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.

So we see something very significant here and that is this: God is moving among the tribes of Israel, all 12 tribes. And what is He doing? Positioning them for this renewal. Now, why do I say renewal? Because this house of God, which was destroyed, now is being built. And we see over and over this is an outcome of God's leadership in moving these three kings, again Koresh or Cyrus, Daryavesh or Darius, and Artashashta. All three of these kings of Persia came from a pagan background but came to faith in the God of Israel and wanted and mandated through an edict that this temple would once again be built. And that's what we're seeing being done in this passage of scripture.

Look now at verse 18. It says here, "And they established the priests in," and we have a word for "their division," "and the Levites in their portions." So we have two different words. When I was going over this passage with my wife, her Bible has the entirely same word, but when we look at it in the biblical language, we find two different words, so they ought not be translated the same way. "Concerning," notice what it says, "the work of God that is in Jerusalem according to what is written in the book of Moses."

So again, this is this element of restoration, this renewal of the spiritual truth. That temple that was destroyed is now being re-established, being built, how? According to the book of Moses, meaning they are doing it in exactly the way that they were commanded to do the first time. So there's this restoration. Look now to verse 19. Now, what we're talking about here is a spiritual renewal and whenever we think about renewal or restoration, there's a word that should come into our mind and that is redemption.

We'll see a reference to that in this next verse. Look if you would to verse 19. It says, "And the children of the exile, they did the Passover." Now, why is this mentioned? Because Passover is the festival of redemption. So we see this redemption being poured out during a specific time. When? The day of Passover. And again, Passover is the festival of redemption and redemption is the solution for exile. So that's why we have here, look again at verse 19, "And the children of the exile, they did the Passover." When did they do it? Exactly as the law of Moses required: on the 14th day of the first month. Look at verse 20. "For the priests and the Levites, they did something."

And again, when I looked at this with my wife, it said something entirely different. It had the word "together," but the word "together" is not there. If we read it, look at verse 20: "For the priests and the Levites, they purified themselves as one." That's what's important: one. Now, this word "one" frequently relates to God. And what's it saying here? That this people, through redemption, they became one. Now, "one" can speak about uniqueness. "One" can speak about God, or "one" can speak about this unique ministry of God in re-establishing His people and making them one people, a unified people.

For it says all of them had purified themselves. And what else? "And they sacrificed the Passover for all the children of the exile and for their brethren and the priests and for themselves." So again, we see this change is happening and what is this change? It comes about through redemption. And again, I want us to understand that redemption is superior to atonement. Now, both of these things are biblical but, again, redemption is better. Why? Well, the word for atonement in Hebrew is "kapara" and it simply means a covering. Through atonement, our sins are covered up but those sins are still there. They're only concealed, but the judgment remains.

But when we look at redemption, redemption is superior. Why? Because redemption eradicates or destroys or causes that sin to be removed and it's no longer there. So redemption has a better outcome because it just doesn't delay the punishment of God, it removes the need for that punishment altogether. So it's better; it is superior. Look at verse 20 where it says again: "For the priests and the Levites, they purified themselves as one. All of them purified themselves and they sacrificed the Passover for all the children of the exile and for their brethren and the priests and for themselves."

Verse 21: "And the children of Israel, the ones who returned from exile, what did they do? They ate," meaning they ate the Passover, "for they all had separated themselves from the contamination or that which is unclean of the people of the land." Now, we're speaking here about the people of the land or the people of the earth. And then it says, "and unto them," meaning by this change, this redemption that came about, what were they able to do? Very important word: "lidrosh," which means to seek or to inquire of the Lord the God of Israel.

So we see here this wonderful change happening because of the work of redemption. They were able to seek and this word "lidrosh" is a very strong word. Now, we have a relationship between another phrase. We have "bet knesset," which means a synagogue, but there's also another institution called "bet midrash." And a "midrash" comes from that same word "lidrosh," which means to seek. And we find something very important. A "bet midrash" is where scripture is studied. It is where the word of God is used in order to experience God.

So we experience God, if we look at Judaism historically or, better yet, Judaism biblically. What do we find? We find that the word of God was used in order for the people to seek God or, we could use a different phrase, in order to inquire of God, in order to hear from God, in order that they might know the truth and—here's what's important—in order to implement the truth into their life. What is the foundation of this? The word of God.

Well, let's look at one more verse, our last verse, verse 22 where it says, and again, we need to remember something that the Passover sacrifice is not partaken of on Passover. Rather, we eat the Passover when? On the first day of unleavened bread. What is that first day? The 15th day of that first month. That is the first day of unleavened bread. And we see the relationship here between the Passover being sacrificed and the people becoming unique. What do I mean by unique? The people becoming in that status of unleavened.

Now, remember something and I can give you a scripture. If you look sometime, 1 Corinthians chapter 5, we find there that Messiah is our Passover Lamb. He is the one that has been slain in order for us to be completely redeemed and, not just completely, but if you look at Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12, that we are redeemed for eternity. What great news! Our redemption is not temporal; it is an eternal redemption. This gives us assurance; this gives us a hope that will not ever disappoint us.

Now, something else we see. Let's look again, look if you would to verse 22. It says, "And they did the feast of unleavened bread." Now, again, my wife's Bible says they kept, but it's not the word "kept." That would be a different word. It would be the word "shamru." But this is not the word "shamru," this is the word "vayasuh," which means "and they did the feast of unleavened bread." How did they do it? They did it biblically for seven days.

And because they did this when we are displaying this unleavened state—now, if you look, as I said, in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, it talks about things that relate to leaven. What is that? Pride, malice, and bad feelings towards others. When we are in the state of leaven—meaning that there is pride and malice and sin within us—we're not going to behave in an appropriate way. But when we are children who are redeemed by the blood of Messiah and we experience the redemption that He provides, notice what we're going to have.

Look again at verse 22: "And they did the feast of unleavened bread seven days," and notice what's emphasized. They did it for seven days "with gladness," and that's the best way to translate this word "simcha," "with gladness for the Lord did something. He made them glad." Notice something else. God is at work here through His redemptive work. So what does He do? He turns the heart of the king of Assyria and remember something: the king of Assyria, for the most part, was an enemy to the children of Israel.

We find that the northern kingdom was taken into exile by the king of Assyria. But now, what do we find? Notice what the scripture says: because they had kept this feast of unleavened bread seven days with gladness, for the Lord had did something—it's an intensive word—He had made them glad and He had turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them miraculously. This enemy now was turned unto the children of Israel. And notice what it says: what did this king of Assyria do? In order to strengthen their hands for what purpose? In the work of the house of God.

This house of God is indeed the temple. So we see something. This enemy and remember when we talk about the enemy, we're speaking about those who were on the other side. Remember who we talked about earlier on? We talked about Tatnai, who is a governor from the other side of the river, and we have another man, Shethar Boznai, and their colleagues. All of these are enemies, but God brought about a wonderful change. He turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them to strengthen their hands in regard to the work of the house of God. And notice how it speaks of here the house of God and then it says "the God of Israel."

Now, again, we need to understand. We talked about this earlier. When we speak about God, there is one God but, again, let's understand biblical truth: this one God, He is unique. This word for God and we talk about "Shema Israel, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad." Now, "echad" means one but we also find "echad" speaks about unity. If we speak about the term "achdut," it comes from that same word "echad," one. So we find unity not in what we want, what we desire, what is pleasing to us. We find unity in one thing and what is that? "Emet." What is "emet"? Truth.

If we're going to follow God, we must follow Him according to His truth. Where do we find the truth of God? Only one place: in this book. So if we're going to have unity in the congregation of the redeemed, among the church, how do we do that? We do that by embracing the truth of God, what we see in the scripture. Let me just simply say this: we are called to always recognize the authority of God over us. His authority is an absolute authority. When do we demonstrate that we're under His authority? When we are embracing and implementing His truth in our lives. That's what we're called to do.

So when we experience God's grace—that's how we're saved, we're saved by grace—that grace is going to work in our life to do several different things. The first thing that the grace of God does is to prepare us and change us in order that we might be brought into God's will. Now, what are we going to do when we get into God's will? We're going to do His will. We're going to submit and recognize His authority over our lives. Why do we do that? Not because we have to, but because we are that new creation. We have been changed. We have been, as theologians speak of, we have been regenerated.

We're no longer who we were. We are that new creation or we can say we have been born again. Through this new birth, we are different. The old things have passed away. We no longer are operating based upon the sin in our life, but we are that new man, that kingdom man, that kingdom woman, and therefore we think differently. We think according to kingdom truth. Now, we know something. We know, for example, in Zechariah chapter 14 there's a wonderful change that is coming into this world when the kingdom of God is established.

It's established first in that millennial kingdom where we see something. In fact, we'll just turn there very briefly. Turn if you would to the book of Zechariah, Zechariah chapter 14. We see something that is really emphasized in the word of God. Again, Zechariah chapter 14, I want us to see what is said in that final chapter of the book. Look if you would beginning to verse 9 where it says, Zechariah 14 and verse 9, it says, "And it came about, the Lord for King over the land," meaning the land of Israel. "On that day, the Lord will be one and His name one."

Then notice something else that the scripture talks about. It speaks here about something that is unique. Look if you would to verse 6. We see that same phrase, "And it came about on that day," meaning a day of judgment, "that there will not be light," and it says here, "rather there's going to be something that is frozen that takes place." Now, this frozenness is a change and it says, look at verse 7, "And it will come about one day that is known to the Lord," and then it says, "it will not be day and night, but rather it says it shall come about in the time of the evening." What do you expect at evening? There to be darkness.

When nighttime comes, the evening, there's darkness, but notice what it says: "Yehi or," which means "there will be light." So what is that light? Well, remember the word that has dominated: "echad," meaning one. It's going to be a unique day. Remember "achdut" relates to one or something that is unique. It's going to be a unique time and here's the important thing: the light that is going to be seen is going to be similar to the light that God made on the first day when He says, "Vayehi or," "let there be light" and there was light.

That light was not a normal light. What was that light? It was the glory of God because the sun and the moon and the stars were not created until the fourth day. So we have light but this light reflects the glory of God. That's why it's called "yom echad," "one day," a unique day where God's glory is seen. This is the unique characteristic of the kingdom of God: that in that kingdom, God's glory is going to be manifested. And God's glory is the outcome from redemption.

This is a biblical truth. The reason why God's glory is going to be seen in His kingdom is because of God's redemptive work that He completed through His Son's work. Let's be more specific: His Son's sacrifice. When Messiah laid down His life, when He shed His blood in order that there will be this manifestation of glory. So whenever we talk about the kingdom of God, realize it is a kingdom of light, meaning a kingdom where the manifestation of God's glory is going to be the unique characteristic of the kingdom of God.

This is true for the millennial kingdom and it will be especially true in the new Jerusalem, that final state of the kingdom of God. So God is going to work mightily to bring about a change and what type of change? A glorious change. So when we enter by God's grace through the redemptive work of Messiah Yeshua—that is Jesus of Nazareth—when we will enter into the kingdom, we are stepping into the glory of God.

And the wonderful change that is going to happen, when is it going to happen? At the time of the Rapture. That is when we're going to be changed. Remember the scripture from Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6: "The good work that God has begun, He will complete when? In the day of Messiah." And what is that day? We're speaking about the Rapture.

And one of the outcomes of the Rapture is when we're going to receive that new body. And remember what the scripture says: there are different types of bodies. For example, birds that fly in the sky have one type of body, but fish that swim in the sea, they have a different type of body and every body is perfectly designed for their habitation. Where is going to be our eternal habitation? Ultimately in the kingdom of God.

And we're going to have a body that is perfectly designed for eternity in the kingdom of God. And that body is going to be glorious. That body is going to reflect the characteristic of the kingdom of God. What does that speak of? A change, a redemptive change that will happen to every believer because of the authority of God. What is that change? We are going to manifest God's glory not only in thought but also in word and also in action. We are going to reflect perfectly the holiness and the glory of the kingdom of God.

That's what we're called to do and by God's grace, He is going to bring that about. Let me conclude with just one more statement about the grace of God. God's grace saves us, but that same grace continues to work in our life to bring about a wonderful change. And what is that change? Is this: that the grace of God who saves us also works in our life to teach us to deny ungodliness and to live righteously and soberly where? In this present age.

Why? So that we can manifest now in this body—we're getting a new body but even right now under the leadership of the Holy Spirit—we're able to manifest God's glory in obedience to His word. And when we are committed to His truth, when we recognize this book as scripture and manifesting the truth of God, we are going to be changed by it and we will have access to the anointing of the Holy Spirit who will cause us to manifest the righteousness of God.

And I'll close with this. There is an inherent relationship between righteousness and God's glory. How do we know this? Because when we look at Hebrew poetry for that word "righteousness," what's parallel to it? That's what Hebrew poetry is about; it's parallelism. What's parallel to righteousness? The answer is glory. So righteous behavior manifests the glory of God. This is what we're called to do beginning now from the moment that we have been saved. Well, important truth that we need to receive and we need to demonstrate in our life, why? Because we're not who we were; we are that new creation through the blood of Messiah. I'll close with that. Until next time, shalom from Israel.

Guest (Male): Well, we hope you will benefit from today's message and share it with others. Please plan to join us each week at this time and on this channel for our broadcast of loveisrael.org. Again, to find out more about us, please visit our website loveisrael.org. There you will find articles and numerous other lectures by Baruch. These teachings are in video form. You may download them or watch them in streaming video. Until next week, may the Lord bless you in our Messiah Yeshua, that is Jesus, as you walk with Him. Shalom from Israel.