Holy Scriptures and Israel

Guest (Male): Shalom. Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now, teaching God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective, here is Gideon Levytam.

Gideon Levytam: The study of the book of Malachi, chapter 2. And all these blessings, notice the word blessing, in Hebrew the word "berakha" or "berakhot" in plural. All these berakhot, blessings, shall come on thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Verse 3, "Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field." Verse 4, "Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep." Verse 5, "Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store." Verse 6, "Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out."

Look at the blessing that God promised to the people of Israel just before they entered to the land of Canaan to possess the land of Israel. It is all depended upon the fact that they will hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord the God of our fathers, the God of Israel. But on the other hand, beloved brothers and sisters, look a little bit further down in verse 15 of Deuteronomy chapter 28. In Deuteronomy chapter 28 from verse 15 to verse 19, he reverses that if they will not hearken unto the voice of the Lord.

Listen to verse 15, "But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses," the Hebrew word "arur," all these "klalot" in Hebrew, all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee. And he continues, notice verse 16, 17, 18, 19. Just listen to this: "Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out."

You see, beloved brothers and sisters, these are the people of God to whom God said, even though you came out of the land of Egypt, you were under the blood, you are just now ready, the new generation is ready to enter into the Promised Land, but you can be sure that even though you are the chosen people, I will have to deal with you as a father dealeth with his own children. I will discipline you if you will disobey me, and I will bless you if you will obey me.

Now, time passes by, and Israel now is on the other side of their history, you might say. They are now in the land, and now they're in the last days before the 450 or 430 years of silence. And now the Lord is speaking to the leadership of Israel and He's saying to them in verse 2, "If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart."

Let me remind you, beloved brothers and sisters, that God is a sovereign God. What is a sovereign God? A sovereign God is a God who is in full control over the affairs of this world. Nothing is hidden from Him, not your life, neither my life. Not your thoughts, neither my thoughts. Nor your ways, neither my ways. God knows everybody's situation in their lives. And God yet wants to save us, of course, but He wants to bless His own people.

But if His people live the kind of a life that dishonors Him, as a sovereign God, He can send... and you notice this expression as it says here, "I will send a curse upon you." What does that mean, "I will send"? Because God is sovereign and He's in full control, He can send, you might say as we read it here in verse 2, as a sovereign God, He is divine, He can send supernatural hindrances to one's life. When He blesses someone, He sends, you might say, a divine blessing to aid in the life of an individual. That's why we sometimes say, "This person has been blessed by the Lord."

What do we mean by that? That God has sent along to his life situations, circumstances, and people in his life that will help him, bless him, and reward him, whether it is physically or spiritually as well. But at the same time, God is able as a sovereign God to send judgment upon those who refuse to obey His word. That's why He used this expression, "If you will not lay it to heart to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings."

Some immediately come to my mind, if you remember Jonah, Jonah the prophet of Israel. When God sent him to preach the message of the gospel to this gentile world, to tell them about the God of Israel, Jonah did not want to obey the Lord. He didn't go. Instead of going to where he should have gone, he went to a boat in the city of Jaffa. He went down and he went all the way to another direction. And you remember what we read in the book of Jonah, that God sent a strong wind.

As He sent the strong wind, the whole ship was in chaos there, in turmoil. They were tossed to and fro. And then God allowed Jonah to be cast into the water, and then He sent a fish to swallow Jonah. And then after that, He told the fish to spew out Jonah on shore. And then God sent a gourd and He raised a gourd. And then He sent the sun so that the sun would scorch the gourd, the plant, and the plant would die. God was in full control over the life of Jonah.

He was His servant, and when he disobeyed Him, the Lord allowed him to experience challenges such as these. And He's saying to the priests of Israel, "Listen, if you will not hear what I am saying to you, if you will not lay it to your heart, I'm telling you, if you will not give glory to me, I'm going to send your way a curse." And He says, "I will curse your blessings." In other words, He will reverse the blessing that He intended for the tribe of Levi.

The priests were supposed to enjoy serving our people, Israel, to be ministering to the people of God, to be a blessing to God's people. But when they turned away and they did not honor God, they were offering the blind and the lame and the sick upon an altar, and they were not giving glory to the name of the Lord. God was going to judge His very own people whom He loved and wanted to bless so much.

And I would suggest, beloved brothers and sisters, that it is the same in our very own lives. Whether we are in leadership or not in leadership, God is sovereign. We cannot live a life that dishonors Him willfully without Him intervening in our lives. As we read in Galatians, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." "Be sure your sin will find you out." God has said it to our own people, Israel, years ago.

And that is a principle that is carried on to this present day. The Lord disciplines the people whom He loves. "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth," we read in the book of Hebrews. So He is telling the Kohanim, the leaders of Israel, "Listen, if you are not going to take it to heart, if you are not going to listen to what I am saying to you and give glory to me, I will curse the very blessings that I have given to you. I will reverse them, and instead of giving you a blessing, I will curse you, I will judge you."

And then notice what He said at the end in verse 2, "And yes," He said, "I have cursed them already." You know why? Because they did not hearken unto the voice of the Lord. That is an amazing lesson that every believer ought to take to heart in every generation. Before Israel was a nation, during the time that Israel as a nation was called by the Lord, after the assembly, the church, was born, and during our present day, this is applicable in every generation for the people of God who need to learn to lay things to their hearts and take seriously the things of the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah.

So He continues now in these next verses. And after He said, "I will curse your blessings," He showed them that He is sovereign, that everything that He does, He is in full control. Nothing is hid from the eyes of the Lord. Listen to this verse in Psalm 115, verse 3. The Psalmist of Israel said, "But our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased." Our God, the God of Israel, is in heaven. And whatever He does, He does as He pleases.

In Proverbs chapter 16, we read these words in verse 9, "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps." Even though we make plans and we try to have all kinds of things in our own mind that we plan before the Lord, eventually the Lord is the one who is sovereign and He directs the steps of any man, anyone here in this world.

Listen to another verse in 2 Chronicles chapter 20 and verse 6. This is Jehoshaphat, he was the King of Judah. Look what he said: "O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?" You see, God is the creator of the universe. No one can withstand Him. He's sovereign.

Even though we see things that are messed up here in the world in which we live, yet God is sovereign and He chooses and allows things to happen and sends along the ways for those who disobey Him. He does send discipline upon even His very own people. In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 11, we read about Yeshua, the Messiah, in a New Testament passage, the New Covenant. It says, "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."

God works all things after the counsel of His own will. No one can change God's plan and program. Chapter 3 of Ephesians and verse 20: "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." He is the one who is in control over the affairs of man.

And so He gave warning to the priests of Israel through the prophet Malachi. And He tells them, "Listen, you better take it to heart because if you will not take it to heart, I will curse your blessings. And yes, I'm telling you, I have already cursed you because you did not lay it to heart." This is speaking to us because we also want the blessing of the Lord. And if we want the blessing of the Lord, we need to submit to His authority. Therefore, He will bless us and lead us on in our life.

Now notice, I'm back to Malachi chapter 2 and verse 3. In verse 3, we find out that God will rebuke the seed of these priests. And God will spread dung upon them, and eventually He will remove them out of their ministry. Notice chapter 2 and verse 3: "Behold, I will corrupt," or, "I will rebuke your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it."

You see what He's saying to them? Priests, you were privileged to serve me. You were privileged to be in the temple, in the house of the Lord, but you abused your privileges. And if you don't take it to heart, what I'm going to do, I will rebuke your seed. And I will spread dung upon your faces. The thought of rebuking their seed is that, can you imagine you sow the seeds? Because the Levites received a portion of the land, a little portion to receive for themselves to be fed by that. So you will spread the seed, but nothing will grow.

And then not only that, He says, "I will spread dung," the Hebrew word is "peresh." He will spread dung upon your faces. He says, "even the dung upon your solemn feasts." They were celebrating the feasts, but celebrating the feasts with their hearts away from the Lord, going through the routine without their hearts really being pricked and doing it as unto the Lord, this became unacceptable to God.

And that's why He's saying to them, "I will spread dung upon your faces, and even the dung upon your solemn feasts, and one shall take you away with it." You remember in earlier chapter 1, He says, "Is there anyone here to close the doors? I don't need you to come to worship me anymore." Here He says, "I'm going to remove you completely after I took away from you the ability to grow any seed. And I will judge you and I will discipline you priests because you did not honor me and you did not exalt my name."

So these are the first three verses of Malachi chapter 2, verses 1 to 3, the warning to the unfaithful priests. And again, I just think of us today. Those of us that have a privilege of teaching the Bible and preaching the word, many times we know our own hearts, how we fail the Lord. How we dishonor Him many times in our own lives and how much we need to be careful.

James said to the early believers of the assembly in James 3:1, "Brethren, be not many teachers, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation." We shall receive a greater condemnation. Yaakov said to the early Hebrew believers of the assembly of the church, giving them this warning. He said to them, "Be careful because you need to realize it is a privilege to serve the Lord, but privilege comes with responsibility."

And it's the same thing for the rest of the people of God. It is a privilege to be saved and forgiven and part of the people of God, but it also comes with responsibility. It's not merely Churchianity. It's not merely a form of religion. There has got to be a reality. The Apostle said to the leaders, "There has got to be a reality." I know we all come short in many ways, but nevertheless, you cannot willfully go ahead in your own way to the extent that God is set aside and you end up corrupting the truth of the word of God. That is unacceptable, and a judgment from the Lord will eventually come.

God is love, but He's also light. He's holy and He demands glory from His people. We didn't read Revelation 3:16 where Yeshua said to the church of Laodicea, "I will spue thee out of my mouth." We didn't read other passages that we could have read that show us what the Lord is saying to the assemblies, how God warned the assemblies when they were going astray and the leadership as well, as He has warned the people of Israel in days of old.

So in the first three verses of Malachi chapter 2, the Lord warns the unfaithful priests of judgment to come. But now from verses 4 to 9, the Lord is pointing to the contrast between Levi, the father of the priests, and the priests of those days in the days of Malachi. He's making a contrast. Look at the difference between the days of old, how it all began, and look at the way it is right now.

And so in verse 4, notice that, brothers and sisters, God sends a commandment and points to the covenant that He once made with the tribe of Levi. And He says in verse 4, "Ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts." I've sent this to you priests now to realize and to remember that my covenant that I made with the tribe of Levi years earlier. If you want to enjoy that covenant, you have to submit to me because I have made a covenant with the tribe of Levi.

I made an agreement, a covenant with the tribe of Levi. And in a sense, he takes the priests all the way back in their history and reminds them how God selected the tribe of Levi to be the tribe that serves God, ministering among the people of Israel. Now, let me just for a moment remind you that Levi was one of the sons of Jacob. Jacob, if you remember, had two wives, Leah and Rachel. The son Levi was one of the sons of Leah. He was the one born to Leah, one of the mothers of our people, the people of Israel.

Levi later on, if you remember when Levi's sister Dinah was taken by another man from the nations around, they violated Dinah. Levi and Shimon were so angry that they told the people of Chamor there that if they were going to be part of the nation of Israel, they all had to be circumcised.

And after they were willing to be circumcised, Levi and Shimon killed all those people because they violated their sister Dinah and they dishonored the God of Israel. Jacob, their father, was not happy with that. Jacob said to them, "You have put me to shame in what you have done," and he was not happy with them and their deeds at all. And they ended up fleeing from this area. We can find it in the book of Genesis in chapter 34 and on.

In chapter 49, when Jacob blessed them, he reminded Levi of what they had done, that they had killed all those descendants of Shechem and Chamor because they violated their sister Dinah. But time passes by, and Jacob ended up in Egypt, in Mitzrayim. Our forefathers had been in Egypt for 400 and so years. They were away from the Promised Land for over 400 years. And finally, God had brought the people of Israel outside of Egypt, and now they have arrived to the mountain that is called Mount Sinai.

There, by the time that they were at Mount Sinai, God gave the commandments, the law, to our forefathers, the people of Israel. While Moses went up to Mount Sinai and he delayed his coming, it took some time; he was 40 days and 40 nights there on the mount.

So now, because he did delay his coming, Israel was so anxious that they said to Aaron, "You know what? We have to build for ourselves a golden calf. We need a god. Make us a god." So Aaron took all the earrings and all that gold that they had and he formed for them and he made an idol, that golden calf.

By that time, God was saying to Moses, "Listen, look what your people have done," and then He sends him down. It says in verse 15 of Exodus 32: "And Moses turned, and he went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both of their sides; on the one side and on the other side were they written." And then we read in verse 19, when Moses came and saw what Israel had done, building a golden calf and saying, "This is the god that brought you out of Egypt."

It says that "it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hand, and he brake them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made, and he burnt it in fire, and he ground it to powder, and he strawed it upon the water, and he made the children of Israel to drink it."