Shabbat Shalom

Candace Long: Good morning and welcome to Shabbat Shalom. I'm Candace Long, your host and producer. I'm a bit reflective this morning as I write the opening monologue. Today marks the 40th week of Shabbat Shalom, and it's hard to believe how fast time is going.

If you've been studying the Torah with us every week, this means we are on our final page of our weekly Torah schedule. Now for those who are new to this program, we're on page four, which you can download at ShabbatShalomRadio.com. You see, I began the program on August 9th, 2025, which was the second Torah portion of Deuteronomy. I did that because, according to my research, I did not believe and still don't that we could finish a year's worth of Torah study before Messiah comes.

Now two comments I need to make. First of all, it bears repeating as a disclaimer that I could be wrong in my analysis. If I am, what I have been teaching does not make me a false prophet, for I consider my calling as a chronicler who has been memorializing on radio since 2021 the end-of-days prophecies that I see being fulfilled.

Secondly, after we have aired live the 50th week, my programming contract with WEZE Salem Boston will be over. But do not worry. I will roll back the scroll of our Torah programming, so to speak, and make it available on Salem's digital streaming platform at OnePlace.com. You'll still be able to study the Torah each week there. The link to that site is on our main page, so you won't miss a beat.

Now if you've followed my teachings for some time, you may recall that every January, I review my dreams from the year before to make sure I have done what the Lord showed me that year in dreams. If you go to my main podcast page at CandaceLong.com/podcast, you will find examples of this. I did a seer's dream review in 2023 and a two-part review in 2024.

So you might wonder what happened to my 2025 review, especially if we're so close to the end. It's not that I didn't have any dreams. On the contrary, I had 69 of them. But I held back from writing a review because quite frankly, the dreams last year were different from previous years in that the emphasis was to begin to bring closure to my assignment.

A large part of that was the strategy that he gave me to create Shabbat Shalom and offer believers one year of Torah study to prepare them to enter a Jewish kingdom. He specifically impressed on me the timing, how to find the right teachers, and how to end my time on earth. My instructions were threefold.

Number one, do a series on the call of the Levites, because he is waiting to impart things to those that he has inviting to serve him in the kingdom as Levites. I hope you listened to that series. Number two, prepare listeners in how to get their affairs in order. And number three, he gave me the directive to upload Shabbat Shalom to Salem's One Place for after I'm gone.

I have completed those directives, and I feel a definite shift in my spirit that I'm on my final leg home. One key dream that I may share with you at a later date was called "Rehearsal for the Convocation." As you know, the word convocation means a graduation, where degrees are conferred and we celebrate the completion of the course that we were given to take. It was an exciting dream, so 2025 confirmed to me how close we are and that I was about to graduate.

Now by way of practical application, this means that I only have so many programming segments left to pass on to listeners what I want to leave behind before I go. Let's recite the Shema together.

Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Baruch shem kavod malchuto l'olam va'ed. Blessed is the name of his glorious kingdom for all eternity.

And the last section: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I set up for you this day shall be upon your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the way, when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your arm and as frontlets between your eyes, and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and in your gates.

Pastor Matt McKeown: Good morning, my friends, and welcome once again to Shabbat Shalom. The radio program where we explore the Jewish roots of our Christian faith and discover how the Torah still speaks life, truth, and transformation into our lives today.

This week we come to a powerful double portion, B'har and B'chukotai, found in Leviticus chapters 25 through 27. And right from the very beginning, we are introduced to something that challenges us at a very deep level. It's not just about laws, it's about trust. Because in B'har, God gives instructions to Israel about something called the Sabbatical year, or in Hebrew, the Shmita.

Here's what he says: For six years you can sow your fields, for six years you can prune your vineyards, for six years you can gather your harvest, but in the seventh year you stop. You don't plant, you don't harvest in the normal way. You let the land rest.

Now let that sink in. This, after all, is an agricultural society. Their survival depends upon the land. And God is telling them: take a year off. Not just a day, not just a week, a year. And the immediate question is obvious: How are we going to survive? What are we going to eat? What happens if the crops don't come in?

And God answers that question directly. He says, "I will command my blessing in the sixth year so that it will produce enough for three years." Now this is where it gets real, because this is not just about farming, it's about faith. This is about whether the people of God will trust him, not just in what they say, but in how they live.

And this speaks directly to us today, because we may not be farmers, but we all have areas of our lives where we feel the pressure to produce, to strive, to control outcomes, to make sure everything works. And God comes into that space and says, "Do you trust me enough to let go? Do you trust me enough to rest? Do you trust me enough to believe that I am your provider?"

Now let's be honest. That's hard, because everything in us wants to stay in control. We think, if I don't do it, it won't happen. If I don't keep pushing, things will fall apart. If I don't provide, no one will. But Parashat B'har confronts that mindset directly. It says, "God is the provider, not you." And the Sabbatical year becomes a living demonstration of that truth.

Now there's something deeper here, because the land itself is also part of the equation. God says, "The land is mine. You are strangers and sojourners with me." In other words, you don't own this. You are stewards, you are caretakers, you are entrusted with something that ultimately belongs to God. And that changes the perspective, because when you realize that everything you have, your resources, your time, your opportunities, your life itself belongs to God, you begin to hold it differently.

Now this idea expands even further with something that we call the Year of Jubilee, the Yovel, every 50th year. After seven cycles of seven years, something extraordinary happens. Debts are forgiven, land is returned to its original families, slaves are set free. Everything resets. Think about that. Every 50 years there's a complete economic and social reset.

Why? Because God is establishing something important. No one is meant to be permanently trapped, not in debt, not in loss, not in bondage. This is a radical concept because it means that God's system is designed for restoration, not just survival. Restoration.

Now let's connect this to the bigger picture, because both the Sabbatical year and the Year of Jubilee are pointing to something even deeper. They're pointing to a reality where trust replaces fear, provision replaces striving, freedom replaces bondage, restoration replaces loss. And if you're a follower of Yeshua, this should sound very familiar to you.

Because when Yeshua began his ministry, he stands up and reads from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue. He declares, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to proclaim liberty to the captives, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." That language is Jubilee language. In other words, Jesus, Yeshua, is saying, "I am the fulfillment of Jubilee. I am the one who brings release, I am the one who restores, I am the one who resets what has been broken."

Now let's bring this back to our lives today, because this is not just about ancient Israel, this is about us. Where are the areas in your life that you are holding on to too tightly? Where are the places where you are striving instead of trusting? Where are the situations where you feel like everything depends on you?

And what would it look like to trust God there? To believe that he is your provider, to release control, and to step into rest? Because that's the invitation of B'har. Not just to follow a rule, but to live in trust.

As we continue in Parashat B'har, we move from the idea of trusting God with provision into something just as important: how we treat people. Because one of the most powerful aspects of this portion is that God just doesn't care about your faith in him, he cares about how that faith shows up in your relationships.

After introducing the Sabbatical year and the Year of Jubilee, the Torah begins to lay out a series of instructions about economic and social life, and at the center of it is this idea: God's people are called to reflect his character in the way they treat one another.

Now let's walk through a few of these principles. First, God speaks about buying and selling land. But he makes something very clear: the land is not permanently sold. Why? Because in the Year of Jubilee, it returns to its original owner. So when someone sells land, they're really leasing it based on the number of years until Jubilee. And this creates a system that prevents permanent loss. It prevents generational poverty. It ensures that no family is completely cut off from their inheritance.

Now think about that. God is building a system where restoration is always possible. When loss is not final, where there's always a path back. And then the Torah takes it even further because it addresses what happens when someone becomes poor, when someone falls on hard times, when someone is struggling. God says, "Don't take advantage of them. Don't charge them interest. Support them so that they can continue to live among you."

That is powerful because let's be honest, the natural human tendency is often the opposite. When someone is weak, it can be tempting to take advantage, to gain something, to protect yourself at their expense. But God says, "No, my people don't operate that way." And here's a key phrase that appears again and again: "Fear your God." In other words, how you treat people is directly connected to your relationship with Almighty God.

You can't say, "I love God," and then exploit people. You can't claim faith and then act without compassion, because true faith always shows up in how we treat others. Now let's go even deeper because the Torah also addresses a situation where someone becomes so poor that they sell themselves into servitude. And even here, God sets boundaries. He says they are not to be treated as slaves, they're to be treated as hired workers, and they are to be released at Jubilee.

Why is this? Because God reminds the people that they are "my servants whom I brought out of Egypt." In other words, no one owns them but me. That's a powerful statement because it means that every person has inherent value. Every person belongs to God and every person matters.

And this is where the heart of God becomes very clear. God is not just concerned with rituals and laws, he's deeply concerned with justice, dignity, and compassion. And this connects directly to the message of Yeshua, because when you look at his ministry, what do you see? You see him moving toward the broken, toward the poor, toward the marginalized, toward those who have been overlooked or pushed aside. Because he in that moment is reflecting the heart of God, and that's the same heart we see here in Parashat B'har.

Now let's bring this into our lives because this is where it becomes real. How do we treat people when they're struggling? How do we respond when someone is in need? How do we handle situations where we have the upper hand? Do we act with compassion or do we protect ourselves first? Do we reflect generosity or do we hold back? Do we see people as valuable or as opportunities?

These are the kinds of questions that B'har is asking us. Because it's not enough to say we trust God as our provider, we must also reflect him as our Father, reflect his heart to people. And here's the connection: when you truly trust God, you don't have to take advantage of others. When you believe that God will provide, you don't have to manipulate situations. When you understand that everything comes from him and belongs to him, you can live with open hands, and that changes how you treat people.

Now here's something powerful: the entire system in B'har is built on this idea: freedom is the goal. Not control, not accumulation, not domination. Freedom. Freedom from debt, freedom from oppression, freedom from permanent loss. And again, this points directly to the gospel. Because what does Yeshua come to bring? Freedom. Freedom from sin, freedom from bondage, freedom from everything that holds us back from the life that God intended. And when you experience that kind of freedom, it changes how you live. It changes how you see people. It changes how you treat others because now you're not just living for yourself, you're reflecting something greater.

As we continue in this double portion of B'har and B'chukotai, we now step into the second half of the double portion. And here the tone shifts a bit. Up to this point we've talked about trust, we've talked about provision, we've talked about treating people with compassion and dignity. But now God brings it all together with something very clear: your choices matter.

Leviticus 26 opens with these words: "If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments and do them..." and then God begins to describe what follows: blessing, provision, peace, security, fruitfulness. Rain in its season, crops that flourish, a land that produces, enemies that are defeated. A life marked by stability and abundance. And at the center of all this is this promise: "I will walk among you, I will be your God, and you will be my people."

Now don't miss that, because that's the greatest blessing. And it's not just provision, it's presence. The greatest blessing is God's presence. Yes, he promises material blessing. Yes, he promises peace and security, but the ultimate promise is relationship. God with his people. And that's always been the goal. Presence. From the Garden of Eden to the Tabernacle to the Temple to the coming of the Messiah, the desire of God has always been to dwell with his people.

Here's something that's important to understand. These blessings are connected to obedience. Not as a way of earning God's love, but as a way of aligning with his design. Because when you live according to God's ways, life works in the way that it was meant to. There's order, there is peace, there is fruitfulness.

But then the passage shifts, because God doesn't stop with blessing, he also describes what happens if his people choose a different path. He says, "But if you do not listen to me," and what follows is a series of consequences. Now this part can feel heavy because the language is strong. It talks about fear, lack, confusion, drought, defeat, disruption.

And it intensifies as the passage goes on. Not because God is harsh, but because he's trying to get their attention. And this is something that we need to understand clearly. These are not random punishments. These are consequences of disconnection. When you step out of alignment with God's design, things begin to break down. Not because God wants to harm you, but because life outside of his design simply doesn't function properly.

Think about it this way: if you remove yourself from a source of light, you experience darkness. Not because the light is angry, but because you're no longer in it. And that's what's happening here. God is showing his people there's a path that leads to life, and there's a path that leads away from it.

And here's something important: even in the middle of the warnings, there's mercy. Because God just doesn't list consequences and stop there, he leaves the door open. He says that if people turn back, if they humble themselves, if they return to him, then he will remember the covenant.

That is powerful because the word "remember" is not about forgetting and then recalling. In this case, it's about acting on a promise. It's about stepping in to restore what was broken. God says, "I will remember my covenant with Jacob, with Isaac, with Abraham." In other words, I will go back to what I promised. I will restore what has been lost.

And this is one of the most powerful truths in the Torah: God's covenant is stronger than our failure. Even when his people drift, even when they fall short, even when they walk away, God does not abandon his promise. This is incredibly important for us because there are times in our lives when we know we haven't walked closely with God. Times when we've made choices that pulled us away, times when we feel like we've missed it.

And in those moments, the temptation is to think, I've gone too far. I've messed up too much. I don't know if I can come back. But B'chukotai says something very different. It says return is always possible. Not because we deserve it, but because God is faithful. And this is exactly what we see in the New Testament. The call to repentance is not a call to shame, it's a call to return.

In fact, the Hebrew word for repentance, Teshuvah, is related to this word, "shuv," which means to return or to be restored. Yeshua tells the story of the prodigal son, a son who walks away, who wastes everything, who ends up in a place of brokenness. But when he decides to return, the father runs to meet him. That's the heart of God. And that's what we see here in B'chukotai. We see a God who's ready to restore, a God who's waiting for the turn, a God who honors his covenant even when we struggle to honor ours.

And here's something powerful. The passage says that even when the people are in exile, even when they are far away, God will not reject them. God will not destroy them completely. He will not break his covenant. That is incredible because it means that no matter how far someone feels from God, they are never beyond his reach. And this gives us hope, because it means that our story is not defined by our worst moment.

So the question now comes: how will you walk? Will you walk in trust or in striving? Will you walk in alignment or in your own direction? Will you walk in compassion or in self-protection? Will you walk in relationship or at a distance? Because every day we are choosing. And here's the encouragement: we don't have to get it all right. You don't have to have it all figured out. You just have to keep walking. Step by step and day by day, in freedom, in alignment, and in the presence of the God who walks with you. Shabbat Shalom.

Candace Long: You can hear Pastor Matt teach the Torah every Saturday morning from 6:00 to 6:30. This week we complete Leviticus, which has given very specific personal instructions for those of us who will be taken soon and invited to function as priests and ministers in the Messianic Kingdom.

Next week we begin the book of Numbers, which is a historical overview of the journey to the kingdom itself. Lessons on what God's people went through, the temptations that threw them off course, the few who got it right, and why so many never made it. You're going to learn how to find your place, what your ancestral destiny is all about, and everything you need to know to be part of the Commonwealth of Israel.

Now our regular program "Families Under Attack" will return in three more weeks. Coming up next is part two of my short "Kingdom Ready Pastor" series, where we hear from pastors who have been led to become Torah-observant. Let's welcome back Pastor Matt McKeown.

I'm Candace Long, welcome back to the Kingdom Ready Pastor series to answer needs that pastors and ministry leaders may be having who also have been sensing the Lord leading them to return to the Torah in some way or fashion. And I've asked Pastor Matt McKeown to answer questions that these leaders may be facing. First of all to be obedient to the leading of the Lord to return to the faith of our Jewish forefathers, but also how to handle the transition within their church and a sense of loyalty to their congregation.

So Pastor Matt, I welcome you back to this special Kingdom Ready Pastor series. Now for those of you who missed part one, please listen to last week's episode where Pastor Matt shared his journey of how the Lord led him to return to Torah study, and this week we're going to go a little bit deeper. Pastor Matt, what would you advise pastors who are feeling this pull and they don't know what to do? Maybe they're seeing some of their congregation that are leaving because they want deeper Torah study, and their sense of, "Wait a minute, where are you going?" and, "Lord, what are you doing in me?" So what do you say to them?

Pastor Matt McKeown: Thank you, and thank you for having me once again. I think it's interesting that you use this word "pull." And there's a concept in Judaism that's in the Bible. It's not really a part of modern-day Judaism, but there's a Torah concept of something called a Ger.

So a Goy is a Gentile, but typically theologically speaking, a Goy normally would refer to someone maybe like a godless person, like a godless pagan. And then you have, you know, an Ivri, a Jew, and we know what a Jew is. But there was a status, a classification of someone called a Ger that really doesn't exist today. Today if you're a Ger, you're really a convert to Judaism, but there was this concept in the Torah of what's called a Ger Toshav, someone who is known as a sojourner in English, or a resident alien, someone who went along with Israel.

And this word "Ger" comes from the word "Gerar," which means to pull or to drag, to lead. And many Christians today are feeling that pull, that Gerar, that pull of the Spirit to go into more of a Jewish expression of their faith, even though they may not be ethnically Jewish. There also are people that come from a Jewish background ethnically, but have been in the Christian church and haven't really studied much about their Jewish background or haven't really practiced Judaism.

And so the Messianic movement is full of these two groups of people, Jews and Gentiles that feel a call, feel a pull back. The first advice that I would give to a pastor is go slow. Go slow. We as pastors, we love to research and we love to dig and it's in our nature, we love to study. But Judaism is about putting into practice what you have really learned and mastered the concept.

If you've only learned this much, then only practice that much. I think the trouble that people get into nowadays is they find something online or the joke that Rabbi Shapira and I like to use is people have learned from Rabbi Google. You know, you can Google something and say, "Oh, I'm learning about this Jewish practice or this Jewish thing or this Hebrew concept and I want to just put everything into practice." There really is a propensity to bite off more than you can chew if you're not careful.

So I would say start slow, take little baby steps, and the other thing I would say to pastors is—and this one, can I just be very forward with my fellow pastors? Do I have your permission? Okay, pastors, put your toes out there, I'm just going to step on them just gently. We pastors can be territorial. And we can get personally upset or maybe even hurt, maybe even offended, if somebody wants to go to a place to hear teaching where they're getting maybe more of a Torah perspective. We may feel threatened if someone in our church wants to go to a Messianic synagogue.

What I think is so beautiful about the Shabbat is that since it is observed on the seventh day, on Saturday, there's no conflict with me being in the synagogue on Shabbat, getting all filled up with the spirit and with that teaching, and then coming to my church on Sunday and in that fired-up state give a message on Sunday. So there's no problem with people in my church, and about half a dozen of them now go with me to the synagogue, to the Messianic synagogue on Shabbat.

So the beauty is they can do both. There can be a bridge. You know, there needs to be correction in the church. I really think the modern Christian church is getting some things wrong. However, they're getting some things right. And I think the church has Messiah and the Jewish people have the Torah. And I think we need both. The Messiah is the Torah made flesh.

And I think for us to look at each other, these two communities, the Christian church and the Jewish community, to be able to learn from each other. I'm very involved in the local Jewish community, and not just the Messianic community. I do quite a bit of recording work for the local Chabad. They are Orthodox Jews, Hasidic Jews, and I am in fact in a play right now that is in rehearsal at the local Reform Temple.

So they're more on the liberal side of Judaism, and of course the Hasidic group is way more conservative than that. I do a lot of work with the local Jewish Federation. I'm known in the Jewish community as a non-Jew and as a pastor. And I think there are things that we can learn from one another. So go slow, don't be territorial, and maybe go on the journey with them. Learn a little bit of Torah, it's good for you.

Candace Long: Well, I love that you consider yourself a bridge between the world of Christianity and the world of Judaism. That is a very interesting concept because there are other pastors who have felt the pull and they felt like they either had to be one or the other. When Jacob and Esau were in the womb and the Lord told them you're struggling eternally and this struggle will be eternal, so are you trying to reunite with Esau and Jacob kind of thing? Is that kind of where you consider part of your calling?

Pastor Matt McKeown: I think that's a wonderful way to put that. I think it's a reconciliation between Jacob and Esau because, you know, Esau is also known as Edom, and in Jewish literature, Edom is sort of shorthand for Gentile Christianity. And there's an interesting teaching in the more mystical forms of Judaism that the Messiah today—if you were to ask an Orthodox Jew, where is the Messiah today, the phrase that they use is, "He's standing at the gates of Rome."

Rome is also kind of a code word for Christianity. Even though we're not all Roman Catholic, but that's the idea in Judaism, is that Rome is associated with Christianity. So there is a sort of a mystical hidden teaching in Judaism that the Messiah is sort of hidden inside Christianity today, and there needs to be a reconciliation of Jacob, Israel, the Jewish people, and Esau or Edom, the Gentiles, the ones that have the Messiah, the Christians.

And I think this needs to take place. And it's interesting you bring up being a bridge. It was in 2017 in January that I called Rabbi Shapira and I said, "Rabbi, I really think other pastors need to learn from you, but if I'm being honest, they may either be resistant or even intimidated to learn from a Jewish rabbi. What if I could take your teachings and be a translator for you? What if I could be an interpreter, because I speak Christianese and you don't?"

Candace Long: Well, I do a lot of the same way with Rabbi Michael Washer, because a lot of times he will get so deep that I know that he's losing people. And when he's on his 19th verse to prove a particular point in the Torah, I've lost it and I'm saying, "Wait a minute!" You know, so I think that they are so deep and have so many layers and I have been learning that there are five levels of interpreting the Torah.

I consider myself very much a baby Jew, even though my dream showed me that I am part Jewish. And I think the Lord was reclaiming that because the rabbi had told me with the fingernail dream that fingernails are the last part of the body to die. They keep on growing. So the Lord was saying, "You are Jewish." And there are a lot of people out there that are part, have some Jewish blood in them, and so the Lord is, as you said last time, fulfilling biblical prophecy by calling back his people to return to him.

You know, the thing that is always struck me is that the kingdom of God is not going to be Christian with pews in it, it is going to be Jewish. And the Lord is doing something to say, "Wake up, my people who have Jesus but they threw away Moses, and vice versa with the other side." So we do need each other. We need both the head and the body. I've read Rabbi Shapira—well, I say I've read, I tried to read *The Kosher Pig*. And it is so deep, I'm like, "Oh Lord, help me to read that."

But there's coming a time when like Joseph, who was shielded and unrecognizable to his brothers, and he came out and showed them that he was the Messiah—that he will like Joseph reintroduce himself as the Jewish Messiah. And that's what I'm working to help believers come to understand, and I know Rabbi Shapira is too. So I'm all for this. You said that as you were growing in Judaism, you are helping your flock to quit doing some things that were—that you were dealing with replacement theology. How are you doing that?

Pastor Matt McKeown: So I think one of the best things that we can do is simply present Scripture the way that it is supposed to be interpreted. I think the problem that we get into is if we're not looking at—and this is going to seem like I'm splitting hairs, but I'm not. I think most of the time Christian pastors teach their flocks to see the Old Testament through the lens of the New, when really we need to look at the New Testament through the lens of the Old, and there's a big difference.

Because if we come with our pre-packaged theology with a preconceived notion of what we know what this means in the New Testament and then we apply it to the Old, we're going to do some things that just aren't theologically correct. And the thing that I have to keep reminding people of is we must remember that we as Gentiles are grafted into the tree of Israel and not the other way around.

There are many people that would love to put Messianic Judaism under the umbrella, the larger umbrella of the Christian church, and that's not biblical. The gospel is to the Jew first and also to the nations. That did not change. And unfortunately in these days where a lot of times our faith and politics are becoming sort of mixed, I've been very disappointed and a little upset and apprehensive at some of the things that I've heard politically conservative people that claim the name of Christ—they claim to be Christians—but are just saying things that are not biblical, that are complete replacement theology. That because of the New Covenant, Israel is no longer God's chosen people. These things are just not biblical.

And I had thought that the church had matured past these false theologies, but they are rearing their ugly heads again in just the last year or so. So we must be very careful. Remember we're grafted into their tree. We must not boast against the natural branch. That's what Paul says. So what I normally like to say, and I know you love a solid mission statement and good branding and things like that—what I really like to say to people when they ask me, "What is this that you do? Is it Christian? Is it Jewish? I can't really understand," and I say: "Think of it like this. I practice the religion that Jesus practiced, rather than the religion based on his life."

And I think that's really the crux of it. In practicing Messianic Judaism, I'm doing the things that Jesus and the apostles and those first believers did, because all those first Christians were observant Jews. So although I have no problem with people being Christian or going to Christian churches, we must at least—a statement that Rabbi Shapira made in one of his books is, "The Christianity that will survive the last days will be a Jewish Christianity. It will be one that is in touch with its root."

Candace Long: He—I did a two-part series and one of my sources was his book, *The Fall of Edom*. And the tremendous work that he did on interpreting the prophet Obadiah. And he said, "How can Christians go against Christianity?" And then he said very simply, "Because there is going to be a separation of those who are Torah-minded that have been brought up in the Christian understanding of things, and they will pull away from those that are not." Because we are in the book of Exodus still, as you know, and I think that it is very significant that we are in the period where 20% left at the Exodus and 80% did not leave. And we are in this period of separation of those that are more connected.

You know, I've been wrestling with the concept of the Commonwealth of Israel. For the first time in the last several years, I feel a part of the Commonwealth of Israel. I feel what they're feeling. I get furious when there's certain false teachings that say Jesus did away with the law and that we don't have to follow the law anymore and it's all—I was at a conference one time with about 200 ministry leaders from all over the country and a teacher got up there, a very well-known Bible teacher, and had everybody stand up and renounce our Levitical forefathers.

Now I wrote the book, *The Levitical Calling*, and I had just published the second printing of it. And he asked for everybody in the audience to stand up to renounce our Levitical forefathers, that we were part of the Melchizedek priesthood. Everybody stood up except me. Now, those are things that I come unglued, and that's what you're dealing with when you spot those areas that is the replacement theology, and that we forget that there was a betrothal that happened at Mount Sinai. And I think that Christians by and large built a church there after the Passover the Lamb and they didn't go to Mount Sinai. That's my own feeling.

Pastor Matt McKeown: I love the way you said that. And I think what's interesting though is even though we have these colleagues that will have this type of attitude, if you ask them, "Are you satisfied with where the church is now, or if we could somehow spiritually go back to those early chapters of the book of Acts, do you think we should be where we are now in our modernity, or theologically do you long for a time of going back to the book of Acts?" 99 out of 100, they'd say, "Oh yes, we long for those days of the book of Acts."

Well, look at what they were doing. They're going up to the temple every day, they're in the temple courts, they're with each other in their homes. They're not doing what later became known as Christian things. Even these Gentiles as they come in are doing their faith in a very Jewish way. And so I think if we can get people to understand that it's not about legalism—and I think that's the biggest misconception, is that people think that we're trying to talk about works-based salvation when we talk about the Law of Moses, the Torah, things like that, Jewish tradition.

We must remember what I always say is what my grandpa taught, which was you can't clean a fish before you catch it. And I've mentioned that numerous times on Shabbat Shalom. What the Lord did is save the Israelites in the Exodus completely out of his mercy and grace. It was only after that, almost two months later, that he gave them the rules of how to live. They had that betrothal period. If he had said, "If you just follow these commandments, I will get you out of here," that would be legalism. That would be trying to earn salvation. But the Torah was never about earning salvation. It was about—in to use the language of the New Testament—in light of so great a salvation, how then shall we live? How should we live in gratitude for what the Lord has done for us?

Candace Long: That speaks to your sense of mercy and your pastoral gifting, my friend. You may be more prophetic than I am. I'm more of a shepherd, you're more of a prophet. Well, you know, the what we call the fivefold relates very much to filling up the omer and the five processes that the grain had to go through in order to qualify to be an offering to the Lord. And we had the evangelist, the pastor, the teacher, the prophet, and the apostle, and they all had to deal with the grain in a different way. And so you deal with the grain with a lot more mercy. I roast people over the fire.

Pastor Matt McKeown: And we need both. We do need both.

Candace Long: We need both. All right, so what would you say then to pastors that are listening to this and trying to find ways to be responsive to the Lord while being transparent before their flock? Or do you think that they're just—that maybe not as many of them are necessarily feeling the pull to study separately like Nicodemus? He was a member of the Sanhedrin, he was brilliant in the Torah, but yet he recognized something in Jesus that was so different.

And I think that the roles are now being reversed where we're seeing such depth that I'm seeing things with people in church that they're missing a depth. Because everything cannot be contained in the New Testament. The New Testament is like the CliffsNotes version of 20,000 years of understanding of the Torah that when Jesus spoke a paragraph, he was probably speaking 100 verses in the Old Testament. How would you encourage pastors to deal with this movement that is taking place?

Pastor Matt McKeown: I think there are probably two categories that a pastor could find themselves in, one of two. One is that they begin to study for their own spiritual edification and their education, at least starting just studying on their own before they try to change what they're doing in their church. Because I certainly wouldn't want to encourage a pastor to rock the boat, so to speak, and to get fired from their congregation for all of a sudden becoming very Jewish or whatever.

Also, I think—I know a lot of pastors that have taken their church to be completely a Messianic congregation. Like they've left the Christian structure and they've gone full-on Messianic. And that may be what God is calling some pastors who are listening today to do. And that's all well and good, what a blessing.

However, there are people like me that I will say this: in my practice of my faith in Messianic Judaism, it would be easier sometimes if I just did synagogue life. Because everyone in the synagogue, I don't have to explain why I do Jewish things in a synagogue, because everyone's doing those things. There's a shorthand that we have, there's an understanding that we have. So sometimes life maybe would be easier if I wasn't firmly in both worlds. But if all of us—to use maybe a negative phrase—if all of us jump ship, so to speak, if all of the pastors that begin to learn the Torah leave the Christian church and just go into synagogues, who's going to be left to teach these Gentile Christians who are becoming curious of this stuff?

And I do have to mention one dangerous and discouraging thing, and that is if you as a pastor aren't willing to learn some of these things if your flock is wanting to learn them, they will go find this teaching somewhere. And unfortunately, some Christians today are finding teachings from Orthodox people that get them then to renounce their faith in the Messiah and convert to Orthodox Judaism. We don't want that.

Candace Long: I cannot thank you enough for being with us because you've given us a good view, and I think you have such a heart for those who are in the church. You weren't willing to jump ship and you're not encouraging that. If you are a pastor or ministry leader who is listening and have a question for this segment, please go to our main page at ShabbatShalomRadio.com and look for the button at the top that says "Email the Show."

I'm Candace Long and next week I'll continue with the Kingdom Ready Pastor series. So join us next Saturday morning from 6:30 to 7:00. Shabbat Shalom.

Coming up in the next hour is "Ask the Rabbi" with Rabbi Michael Washer. Following him, I'll finish up "The Days of Noah" series, part six, which answers the question, "When to Separate from the Culture?" Stay tuned for the second hour on WEZE AM 590, our media partner for ShabbatShalomRadio.com.