Messianic Perspectives

Guest (Female): Stay tuned as we talk about Jehovah, God of the Valleys, today, right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Liz Aiello: Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the Scriptures from a distinct first-century Jewish point of view. I'm Liz Aiello.

Today, Dr. Gary Hedrick will be talking about how we can trust the Lord, not only when we're enjoying those mountain experiences, but also when we're trying to find our way through the valleys of life. I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. Now with today's study, here is Dr. Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: Thank you and welcome, listening friend. It's good to have you with us today as we continue this series of studies entitled "Jehovah: God of the Valleys." On the last program, we were talking about that interesting episode in 1 Kings Chapter 20, where the Syrians came against the Israelites in the hills of Samaria. In that battle, even though they were vastly outnumbered, the Israelites won a resounding victory.

So later, the Syrians came up with another plan. They thought that Jehovah, the God of Israel, was God of the mountains, and that was why the Israelites had won, because they were fighting in the mountain country, in the hills of Samaria. So the Syrians decided that they would attack Israel down in the valley of Jezreel, where the God of the mountain couldn't help them, or at least that's what they thought.

So the Syrians went for a change of venue. They came against Israel this time in the valley of Jezreel at the city of Aphek. But again, in spite of the odds, the Lord gave Israel a tremendous victory and the Bible says 127,000 Syrian soldiers died in one day, because Jehovah wanted them to know that He is not only God of the mountains and the hills, but He is also God of the valleys.

And Jehovah is God of the valleys. When we look at the Scriptures, we find that there are seven valleys mentioned, and each of those valleys in Scripture symbolizes some unique aspect of God's plan for His people. Now let's look at the first valley. It's found in Deuteronomy Chapter 1. It's the valley of Eshcol, near Hebron.

And what we have here in Deuteronomy are the words of Moses. This is the man who is revered by the Jewish people as their greatest prophet. And no wonder; he was the founder of the Jewish nation. He was the mediator of the covenant at Sinai and he spoke for God. Some people think Abraham was the founder of the nation Israel, but he really wasn't.

Technically, Israel didn't even exist as a nation until long after the time of Abraham. Moses is the one who is generally credited with the founding of the nation, and I think rightly so. In some branches of Orthodox Judaism, the rabbis measure spirituality in ten levels. They'll say someone is at level two, level three, or level five, but Moses is always the standard by which everyone else is judged. He's a level ten.

So he's highly revered among the Jewish people. And when Moses spoke, it was like God speaking. It's interesting that one of the most important Messianic prophecies in the entire Old Testament was written by Moses. It's right here in Deuteronomy, over in Chapter 18 and verse 15, and here's what he said: "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken."

And Jesus Christ, of course, was that prophet like unto Moses. Moses was the Old Testament type and Christ is the New Testament fulfillment. And did you know that Jesus and Moses met each other? You say, "How could they have met? They lived almost 1,500 years apart." Well, they met at the Mount of Transfiguration.

In Mark Chapter 9, Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James, and John, and they saw Him in His glory, the glory that He had with the Father before the world was. His clothing was radiant with the Shekinah presence of God, like a blinding light. And it says that Elijah and Moses appeared there on the Mount of Transfiguration, and they were talking with Jesus.

So it's easy to see why Moses is honored and revered by the Jewish people, and it's easy to see why Moses is quoted more frequently in the New Testament than any other Old Testament source. But what we have here in Deuteronomy Chapter 1 is probably the beginning of a series of sermons that Moses delivered to the congregation of Israel.

These are powerful sermons where he uses examples from Israel's history to teach them about the providence and promises of God. He also uses some of Israel's failures to teach them about the importance of obeying God. And what he's doing here in the first sermon in Chapter 1 is recalling the events leading up to the conquest of Canaan.

He reminds the children of Israel about how 40 years before, they had come to Kadesh Barnea and they had to make a choice. The choice was whether or not to go in and possess the land, and more than that, the choice was whether or not to trust and obey God. Because God had promised them the land.

So they had to choose whether or not they would obey God and claim His promise and act on their faith and march in there and possess the land. So they sent out 12 spies. Deuteronomy 1:24 says they turned and went up into the mountain and came unto the valley of Eshcol and searched it out.

And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down unto us, Moses says, and brought us word again and said, "It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us." The corresponding passage in Numbers Chapter 13 says they came to the valley of Eshcol and there cut down a branch with one—and the Hebrew word there is *echad*, one—one cluster of grapes.

They carried it between two of them on a pole. Now can you imagine a cluster of grapes so big it would take two men to carry it? And it says they also brought some of the pomegranates and figs. The place was called the valley of Eshcol because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there.

The word *eshcol* means cluster in Hebrew. And they returned from spying out the land after 40 days. That's Numbers Chapter 13 verses 23 through 25. You see, God had promised them this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land of beauty and abundance and blessing.

It was one of the provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant going all the way back to Genesis Chapter 12 and Genesis Chapter 17 and other places in the book of Genesis, where God promised to give all the land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as an everlasting possession.

It's interesting to note that the land in Hebrew, the *aretz*, the land, is a major theme of the book of Deuteronomy. That word occurs 200 times in the book of Deuteronomy. That's why the land is so important to the Jewish people today. The land is their inheritance.

But the Lord says the Jews will never possess the land permanently until they obey Him, Deuteronomy 4:30, until they fear Him, Deuteronomy 5:29, until they love Him, Deuteronomy 6:5, and until they hold fast to Him, Deuteronomy 10:20.

So we shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that the present Jewish occupation of the land is the fulfillment of the Palestinian Covenant, because it's not. The Palestinian Covenant is the promise of Almighty God that he will plant Israel in the land permanently, never again to be removed.

And we know the present occupation of Israel is only temporary because the Scriptures tell us that during the coming tribulation, Jerusalem will once again be trodden down of the Gentiles. But one thing is clear, my friend: God wants His people to have that land.

And when they came to Kadesh Barnea in the days of Moses after an 11-day journey through the wilderness, God wanted them to go in and possess it. He wanted them to take Him at His word. You see, there are two stages of faith. First, there's the promise stage, where you understand that God has promised you something and theoretically, at least, you believe it because God said it.

But then the second stage is the possession stage, where you're ready to take possession of what God has promised you. You're ready to act on your faith. And the valley of Eshcol is a beautiful type of the abundant, spirit-filled Christian life. A type is an Old Testament symbol of a New Testament truth.

And Jesus said that He came that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly. There's a valley of Eshcol for each of us, my friend, if we're willing to go in by faith and possess it. It's a place of plenty, a place of abundance, a place of blessing. The problem for the Israelites was that there were obstacles.

We want everything to be instant and easy, don't we? If it takes time and a little effort, we don't want it. And there were obstacles, you see, between Israel and the land. There were the Canaanites who inhabited the land at that time. The 12 spies came back from the valley of Eshcol and 10 of them said, "Hey, we can't go in there. Those Canaanites are huge. They'll squash us like bugs under their feet."

There were only two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, who said, "We can do it because God is with us." Well, we're not finished with the valley of Eshcol, but the rest will have to wait until next time. It was good to be with you today, listening friend. Take care. Bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary. And thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. You've been listening to Messianic Perspectives, the Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Gary Hedrick and CJF Ministries.

If you enjoyed today's study, you'll be glad to know that our special offer this week is the CD of this current series of studies on "Jehovah: God of the Valleys" by our Bible teacher, Dr. Gary Hedrick. It's available for a suggested contribution of just $6 or more.

The series is also available in booklet form. The title is "Jehovah: God of the Valleys" by our Bible teacher, Dr. Gary Hedrick. It's available for your gift of just $7 or more to help us keep this program here on your station. Just visit our secure online store at messianicspecialties.com to place your order.

If you would prefer to order by mail, just address your request to Messianic Perspectives, PO Box 345, San Antonio, Texas, 78292. To order by phone, use our toll-free order line. The number is 1-800-926-5397.

Have you enjoyed this edition of Messianic Perspectives? Why not continue to learn about the Jewish roots of your Christian faith by inviting a speaker from CJF Ministries? Call our toll-free number, 1-800-926-5397, and we'll be happy to handle all of the details.

By the way, listening friend, has it been a while since we've heard from you? It's very important that if you're listening, please let us know you're out there. You know, almost every time we drop a station from our network, we receive letters from people who say, "Why did you drop our station?"

But then we check our files and find out they never bothered to write while we were on their station. So don't wait until it's too late. If you enjoy the program, let us know. You see, we don't want to drop a station if people are listening and we're having a ministry in their lives.

But if no one is listening, we can take those funds and go on a station somewhere else. The only way we have of knowing whether or not you're listening is if you tell us. So we'll look forward to hearing from you.

Just drop us a line at Messianic Perspectives, PO Box 345, San Antonio, Texas, 78292, or email us at info@cjfm.org. And as always, when you're in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too.

I'm Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you, as Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series of studies on "Jehovah: God of the Valleys" right here on Messianic Perspectives.