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. But not only this, beloved brothers and sisters, Malachi is challenging the people of Judah, the people of Israel. The second thing that he said to them in Malachi, chapter 2 and verse 10, he said, "Has not one God created us?" This is fascinating. Israel, the nation, all humanity have been created by God. Genesis 1:1 said, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," and later on, he created Adam out of the dust of the ground, and then he put him to sleep, and then out of his rib, he built a woman, Isha, and he performed this marriage union. He created the whole universe, all humanity has been created by God.

But there is another aspect of creation in which God created a nation for himself. Out of all the population of the world, God created Jacob-Israel as a nation to be unique, that belonged to him upon the face of this earth, that they will serve as a testimony to a world that need to hear about the true and living God. So we read in Isaiah 43, "But now thus says the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine." God created a nation called Israel, called Ya'akov, who became Israel, and he created this nation for himself.

It is not that he did not create all humanity and all mankind, but specifically, he created this nation, Israel, for himself, to be his servants in the world in which we live. In Isaiah chapter 43 and verse 7, we also read, "Everyone that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory." God created Israel to be his glory, his honor as a nation that will give him honor. "I have formed him; yea, I have made him." God said in Isaiah 43 and verse 7. And further on in verse 21 of the same 43rd chapter of Isaiah, God declared a declaration to the world about Israel, his people. He said, "This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise."

But now look at that. If Israel is called to show forth his praise, and if Israel is a nation whom God created for his own pleasure, and if Israel is a nation that he, God, is their father, why Malachi is asking in verse 10 of Malachi chapter 2, why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? God made a covenant with the fathers of the nation, and the covenant was an unconditional covenant of blessing with the forefathers of the people of Israel. Do you think he expected them to behave in the way that they behave right now? Malachi is saying to the people of Israel, look at the way you conduct yourselves.

Your leaders have dishonored the name of the Lord. Your leaders are violating the covenant that I made with Levi. They have allowed all kinds of things to happen. And now, beloved brothers and sisters, he is showing to them the wrongdoing that happened in their midst during those days, about 450 years before the coming of the Messiah. Notice what he said to them in verse 11 of our very same second chapter of Malachi. Malachi points to Judah's doing. They married the daughters of pagan gods. In other words, just imagine, if you believe in the true and living God, and you tell him, wait a minute, I do not want to obey you, but I want to do things my way, and now I am going to embrace the daughters of pagan gods who do not want to believe in you. Can you imagine how God is feeling when something like that has happened?

Again, to mention to you that it is not because Israel is better. If a Gentile woman would have said, I embrace the God of Israel, there would not be any problem. I give you an example: Rahab the prostitute. When the people of Israel, the spies, came to Jericho, she said, "I have heard about your God," and she believed that the God of the Hebrews, of the people of Israel. She hid the spies. When Joshua entered to possess the land, in Joshua chapter 6, guess who he kept alive and kept alive her and her family? According to Joshua chapter 6, Joshua kept alive Rahab the harlot and her father's household and all that she had, and she dwelt in Israel even unto this day, because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

Rahab remained to live among the people of Israel, and if you read Matthew chapter 1, she is part of the genealogy of Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah. It is not an issue of being just a non-Jewish individual. The issue here is that when you marry someone who will lead you astray to believe in other gods, then what you are doing is that you are ending up violating the covenant that God made with their forefathers. So it is not an issue of superiority, but to have established a home with two gods just does not work. It just does not work. But it is not only Rahab. What about Ruth the Moabitish woman?

You find out that Ruth, as we read of her in the scripture, Ruth in chapter 4, Boaz took Ruth the Moabitish woman, who were not supposed to enter into the congregation of Israel. But what Ruth said to Naomi? "Your God is my God, your people are my people. Where you go, I will go. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried also." Ruth the Moabitish woman believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the God of Israel, and she entered into the nation of Israel. In fact, she was a great-grandmother of King David, through whom the Messiah eventually, Yeshua, entered into this world. So it is not an issue of superiority, but to have two gods, it just does not work.

So he is challenging them. Malachi is saying to them, "Look what you have done." He is speaking for the people of Israel. You have dealt treacherously and committed abomination in Israel and in Jerusalem. Notice the name Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem linked in one verse here. Verse 11: "Judah has committed a dealt treacherously" (number one), "and an abomination committed in Israel" (number two), "and in Jerusalem." Judah, Israel, Jerusalem linked together. When you speak about Jerusalem, you speak about Judah. When you speak about Judah, you speak about Israel. It is the same nation. But unfortunately, what we see here is that in verse 11, they violated, as he says here, they married the daughters of strange gods.

Notice the word for God is Elohim, same like the Hebrew word, but in the English put it in a small 'g' because the idols, the gods of the nations of the world, the idols, they are the ones to whom these Jewish men, these Israeli men, have adopted for themselves by marrying the daughters of a strange god. Now what happened here? If you may please turn with me to the book of Exodus for a moment. In the book of Exodus in chapter 34, when God gave the law to Israel, God had already there and then gave Israel warning. Exodus chapter 34 and verse 14: "For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a-whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice," which of course was offering to their god.

"And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a-whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a-whoring after their gods. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods." In other words, he gave Israel warning just after Israel came out of the land of Egypt. That was one of the instructions that God gave to the people of Israel. It is repeated in Deuteronomy chapter 7, and it happened in Israel's history, which led many to follow after other gods. It is amazing when you think about some of the belief that existed by people who should have never been in that state, believing in all kind of idols, believing in all kind of man-made idols, all kind of Hinduism and Buddhism, and all kind of idols which God want to win God's people from.

And yet when one is intermarried with one who is believing in the false god, just think of what happened to family in such a situation. So there is a warning, and that happened by the way, brothers and sisters, it happened in Israel. The temple was going on in its system. The worship was continue on. The sacrifice system was established. The land was there and the Jewish people were restored to the land. So Malachi is not speaking to some people who live somewhere in another land. He is speaking to the people of Israel who lived in the land of Israel, who was worshipping in the temple in Jerusalem, who going through the sacrificial system, and look what was going on during those days that Malachi dealt with them in such a strong way.

Now you and I might say, well, how does that apply to us today? Not every one of us is Jewish, but we are all believers in Yeshua the Messiah. We have embraced Yeshua, accepted him as our Messiah and as our Lord and our Savior. How does that apply to us as believers today? Does a believer in the Lord Jesus the Messiah today have the liberty to marry outside of those who believe that Yeshua indeed is the Messiah? Does a believer in the Lord Jesus the Messiah have the freedom or the liberty to say, listen, I don't have any responsibility to what Israel had in past days? What does the New Testament teach us today for those of us who are believers now in the church age in which we live today?

I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians for a moment with me and look what the Apostle Shaul (Paul) said to the Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians chapter 6, he said to them in verse 11: "O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels." He is speaking to them and he is saying to them, I want you to understand, my heart is going out to you. You are living in a place that has so much idolatry around you, but you have embraced the Lord Yeshua (Jesus the Messiah). Then he said to them in verse 14: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." Then he explained to them why you should not be unequally yoked with those who do not believe in God.

It is because you are only bringing upon yourself that which you will regret later on. Then he said to them, "For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Messiah with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with he that believeth not? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Then he said in verse 17: "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

The principle apply in the same way as it was in Israel history to us today as believers in Yeshua the Messiah. And why is it? It's not because God thinks that you are better and the ones out there are not better, and that Israel is superior to the Gentile world or the church is better than the unbelieving world. Not at all. But God want to bless his people. And how can two walk together except they agree? That's why it is such a blessing to make a decision to say, God, I would love to be married, but I want you to help me to find the right person that you will choose for me because I want to build a home that will be a blessing.

When an unbeliever and a believer live together, unless God comes in in grace, and he does, nevertheless, there is a mess that happened because Israel and because believers do not listen to the voice of the Lord. So what happened, beloved brothers and sisters, in our forefathers' days in the time of Malachi, that the people of Judah have profaned the covenant of their fathers by entering into marriages with the daughters of the nations of the world who did not believe in the God of Israel and led them further and further and further from the truth of the word of God. You can see it very clearly in the time of Solomon, Shlomo, who married 700 wives and 300 concubine, and his heart was further.

He started well, but he ended up getting further from the things of the God of Israel, and eventually his son lost the kingdom to another. So that was the first thing that Malachi is charging them. And now in verses 12 and 13 of Malachi chapter 2, Malachi now pronounced the Lord's punishment for that sin. There is a punishment by the Lord, and he pronounced it. Notice what he says in verses 12 and 13: "The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob (the tent of Jacob), and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of host." In other words, God is going to cut off.

Now there are various views of what does it mean to cut off. Some believe that that person will be removed out of fellowship, will be removed out of the people of Israel because he cannot identify with the nation of Israel and their God until he repentance and change his ways and be restored to be among the nation of Israel. Others take the word to be to die, to cut off, like we have in Exodus 31 where the one who violated the Shabbat will either die or be cut off. The same words are mentioned there in Exodus chapter 31. But you see God will judge. And it's not only that he will judge directly, but look what happened when two people, a believer and unbeliever, getting married, and it doesn't take too long when the believer is being somehow drawn further and further from the things of the Lord.

They don't have agreement at home about many, many things. They can't enjoy and read a Bible together. They can't pray together, obviously, because one believe in the living God and the one do not. And there is no joy in a spiritual sense because that's what happened when there two gods in one home. And because God love his people, he wants them to be a blessing, to enjoy their life when there common ground upon which they can walk together. And you see what happened because in the next verse here, in verse 13, the people of Judah was coming to the altar to offer sacrifices. Notice it says here: "And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, in as much that he regardeth not the offering anymore, or receiveth it with good will at your hand."

In other words, they are wondering, so they come to the temple and they offering sacrifices, and they are crying with tears and they are weeping and so on, and God does not appreciate their sacrifices because they want to live like that but they want to continue to be religious and offer sacrifices. It just doesn't work. We cannot have two masters. What happen is many times that a believer who have gone away, gone astray from the Lord, he or she who violated the word of God and continue on and do not judge themselves, doesn't matter how many time we're going to go to the altar and we will offer sacrifices and we will have tears and weeping and crying, we will see that the Lord will not accept those offering because he simply does not receive it, the offering, because simply these individuals made their choice and they haven't departed from that and repented of that.

Thank God that there is always, God is always receive those that repentance and turn to him. If we confess our sins (1 John 1:9), he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But if we continue on in our own way, no matter how much religious activity we will do, it just not going to work. It just not going to work because the Bible teach us here: You are crying, you are shedding tears, you are weeping, but God is not regarding the offering anymore. He does not receive it with a good will at your hand. It just doesn't work. So can you imagine that happened in the time where the temple was in existence?

Israel was now back in the land. It seem to be, and I think we are just the same, that we learn that we never learn. And we repeat the same old story. It happened in Israel's history, it happens in church history. It happened after those in the last days of Israel's return from captivity. It happened now after the revival and the gospel is being preached and the restoration of the truth of the word of God. We learn that we never learn, and that we need God to help us to be reminded that his ways are always right and our ways, if we do it in our own way, we are always going to be wrong.

And so, beloved brothers and sisters, after the first point that Malachi mentioned to Israel, that they profane the covenant of their fathers by entering into marriage with the daughters of the idols, what happened now in verses 14 to 16, after he pronounced the judgment in verses 12 and 13? Do not receive their offerings because they continue on in that way. Now in verses 14, 15, and 16, Malachi point to the people of Judah who now profane not only God's ways by marrying the daughters of pagan gods, but now by divorcing their own Jewish wives. Here is the next verses that we have here in verse 14, 15, and 16, and notice what he said.

It says in verse 14 now, the rebellious people now ask God, "Why you not receiving our sacrifices?" You notice how it began in verse 14: "Yet ye say, Wherefore?" The word "wherefore" is the question, why? Israel is asking God, "God, wait a minute, why don't you receive our sacrifices? We are coming to the altar, we are praying there, we are weeping, we are crying, we shedding tear, we offer sacrifices, whether it is animal or whether it is Minchah (all kind of gifts to the things of the Lord), and still God does not receive them." So they wonder why, and they shouldn't have wonder why because they know very well that God have already commanded them in throughout the history of Israel not to identify themselves with the gods of the Gentile world.