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 Nehemiah Chapter 13. God remembered that. God knows this very well, and that's why God gave a command to Moses and the people of Israel in Deuteronomy Chapter 23. He says to them, "Listen, Israel, no Ammonite and no Moabite will ever enter to be among the people of Israel for the 10th generation," and he added, "And forever."

Of course, you and I immediately ask the question, "Wait a minute, wasn't Ruth a Moabitish woman?" Of course she was. But Ruth rejected the false gods, and Ruth said to Naomi, "Your God shall be my God, your people shall be my people." Ruth really, truly became a woman of God who loved the God of Israel. Therefore, she could have come into the congregation of Israel.

Let me make an application for a moment. I would like you to turn with me to Genesis Chapter 19. Remember what happened in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, where Lot went to Sodom, lived there, and raised his family. It didn't take too long that he became one of the leaders of Sodom, sitting at the gate. Then God sent these angels of His to go to Sodom to give warning to Lot to come out. Sodom is a picture of the world and its system who reject God.

Lot's family, in a sense, laughed at him. His sons-in-law did not accept what he had to say. When those two angels came, they appeared as men. They went into Lot's house, and the whole men of Sodom wanted to take these men and have sexual relations with them. Those angels blinded all the people of Sodom and took Lot out and immediately told them, "Listen, take your family and run out of the way. Run out because we are going to judge the city of Sodom and Gomorrah."

Finally, he went out. His two daughters went out with him, but there was his wife. She looked back and instead of running and fleeing out, she felt like, "I don't want to leave. I'm leaving all that I have there in Sodom." She turned into a pillar, and she ended up to be fixed in one location because she simply rejected the invitation to leave and she looked backwards. At the end of Chapter 19, Lot's daughters had caused their father to be drunk, and both of them had a relationship with him.

Guess who are the two nations that were born as children of Lot? The two nations, Moab and Ammon. These are the very two nations that God gave a warning to our people Israel. A Moabite and an Ammonite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord. There is an amazing lesson, beloved brothers and sisters. The Moabite and an Ammonite are a picture of our own sinful nature. You remember what the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus in John Chapter 3? "Except a man be born again, he shall not enter into the kingdom of God."

The Moabite and the Ammonite is a picture and a type of the human nature that we have. The closest enemy to ourselves is our very own old nature. Even though we became born from above, born again, and we belong to the Lord, we experience in our life how often this old sinful nature constantly seeking to pull us down and turn us away from the things of the Lord. No wonder the apostle Paul said, "I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing."

This is a picture of our very own nature. How often times we are struggling with it. Notice what happened exactly here in the history of our people. Israel often times struggled when they allowed themselves to carry on in their own path, in their own direction, just like you and I many times in our very own life. And that's why God gave to Israel these warnings. "Israel, listen to me. A Moabite and an Ammonite shall not enter into the congregation of Israel."

Here is the reason. Number one, they harmed you, and number two, they seek to curse you when they raised that man by the name of Balaam. He was a false prophet. Turn with me to the book of Numbers for a moment, Chapter 22, and see what happened with that man Balaam, that Moab and Ammon raised him to come against the people of Israel.

Guest (Male): And the children of Israel set forward, and they pitched in the plain of Moab on this side of Jordan by Jericho. And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. And Moab was sore afraid of the people because they were many, and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel. And Moab said unto the elders of Midian, "Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field."

Gideon Levytam: Balak the son of Zippor was the king of the Moabites at that time. And look what he does. Verse 5 and on.

Guest (Male): He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of Beor to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, "Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt. Behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me. Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me."

Gideon Levytam: Balaam sought to curse the people of Israel four times. And you notice what it said if you just turn the page to Chapter 23.

Guest (Male): And Balaam said unto Balak, "Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven oxen and seven rams." And Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock and a ram. And Balaam said unto Balak, "Stand by thy burnt offering, and I will go. Peradventure the Lord will come to meet me. And whatsoever he showeth me, I will tell thee." And he went to an high place. And God met Balaam. And he said unto him, "I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered upon every altar a bullock and a ram." And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, "Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak."

Gideon Levytam: Look how beautiful how the Lord worked in Balaam. He said, "How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I defy whom the Lord has not defied? How can I do that? God did not curse these people. I'm not going to be able to curse these people." God put a word in his mouth, and notice what it said in the end of verse 9.

Guest (Male): "For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him. Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations."

Gideon Levytam: Israel is a unique nation that God had set them to dwell alone. Not because they are better or because they are superior than other nations of the world, but because they are an elect nation. God in His wisdom sought to have them as a separated nation that will be a blessing to the nations of the world. But did Israel fulfill what God had intended for them? The answer is no, because Israel had failed to submit to the authority of the Lord. Therefore, we find out what happened over the generations to our very own nation, the nation of Israel.

A Moabite and an Ammonite shall not enter into the congregation of Israel. It is a picture of our own sinful nature, which we need to judge on an ongoing basis. That's why at times we have problems in our church congregations and assemblies and fellowship, because we don't judge the flesh. We allow the flesh to rise up, and we go with it to school, and we go to work, and we go home. We come to the meeting, and wherever we go, this old sinful nature is always with us.

That's why, as we read Colossians Chapter 3, it says to mortify that, to put it to death. As long as we allow it to have its own course, we will always lose out. In the first three verses, Israel needed to separate themselves from the Moabites and the Ammonites. Notice what it says here in verse 3: "Israel acted now by separating from that which was contrary to the will of God."

Guest (Male): Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude.

Gideon Levytam: Again, I would like to make an application here for us. The mixed multitude is a problem. Not because they are mixed multitude, but because they always seem to draw Israel further from the Lord. It's one thing if they've been brought closer to the God of Israel, but it is another thing if the ordinary Israeli is being pulled away from the God of Israel. As believers today in Yeshua the Messiah, we are also called to separate from that which is not consistent with the will of God.

We want to reach with the gospel and bring people to Yeshua the Messiah. It's one thing to lead a person to the Lord and have him part of the family of God, but it is altogether another story when that unbelieving individual pulls away the people of God from being in fellowship with the Lord. This lesson is really important for us to learn. How many a time we failed the Lord by not submitting to His authority.

Notice that it's not only this, because immediately in verses 4 and 5, you can see there's another reason here that brought about this sad condition among the people of Israel. That was a wrong alliance of the high priest with an enemy of Israel. Look at this, and I'm reading verses 4 and 5.

Guest (Male): And before this, Eliashib the priest, having the oversight of the chamber of the house of our God, was allied unto Tobiah. And he had prepared for him a great chamber, where aforetime they laid the meat offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the corn, the new wine, and the oil, which was commanded to be given to the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the offerings of the priests.

Gideon Levytam: Look what happened now. Here is a big problem because now the high priest of Israel, his name was Eliashib. Eli means "God," ashib means "will return back" or "will return us back." What a beautiful name. His name was "God will turn us back to Himself, He will restore us." But even he, because he was not submissive to the word of the Lord, was allied with Tobiah. And who was Tobiah? We have read this many times in our study of this book of Nehemiah. Tobiah was an enemy of Israel.

Go back to Nehemiah Chapter 2 with me, verse 10. When Nehemiah came to rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem, this man by the name of Tobiah, who was an Ammonite, it grieved him. He was not happy that the Jewish people came to rebuild the wall and to set up the gates in Jerusalem. Just the same, like many who are opposing the gospel, he was not happy to see when the body of Messiah is growing and people come in to become part of the family of God.

Therefore, he was not happy. Notice a little bit further in Chapter 2 and verse 19. When Israel was coming to be ready to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, they were mocking those Jewish people. Tobiah was not a friend of Israel. Sometime when we are not careful, we allow ourselves to have others who oppose the gospel, and oppose Yeshua Ha-Mashiach, and oppose the word of God. We make alliances with them and we end up, instead of drawing them to the Lord, they end up to draw the people of God away from the Lord.

This is exactly what happened here and how this Tobiah managed to be a friend with the high priest and draw him away. The high priest should have been the one who would give instruction to the people of Israel, but instead of doing so, the opposite happened. Tobiah is mentioned many times in the book of Nehemiah as the enemy of the people of God. Therefore, it was wrong by the high priest to make an agreement with him.

He put him right in the house of God and prepared for him a chamber, a room where all the things that belong to the work of the Lord used to be there. The meal offering, the frankincense, the vessels, the tithes, the corn, the wine, the oil. What belonged to the Levites, he set it aside and he placed Tobiah right in the midst of the people of Israel in the temple in the city of Jerusalem. No wonder the condition in Israel had been so bad because Tobiah was successful in influencing the people of Israel against the ways of the Lord.

Guest (Male): For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Gideon Levytam: It's exactly the same and we know very well that in church history, it happened the very same way. Many a time when we fail, it's our own fault when we are not on guard, when we're not submitting to the word of God. We allow this to happen in the midst of the assembly. In the first three verses, we find out the separation from the Moabites and the Ammonites. In verses 4 and 5, we find out the wrong alliance between the high priest of Israel and Tobiah.

What do you think Nehemiah is going to do? Nehemiah could say, "What's the use? I'm doing my own thing, they have gone wrong. I've been away for a while, I did my best," and he could have washed his hands and said, "I don't care, let them have their own consequences. I was trying my best, I did the thing, and therefore, I'll just leave them alone." He could have gone on back to Persia and left these Jewish people with their wrongdoing to carry on in their own merry way.

But Nehemiah was not so. Nehemiah was a man that was raised by God. That's why his name called the Comfort of Jehovah. He was a man that said, "I have decided I'm going to use my life here for the God of Israel, for the people of Israel. I want to be a blessing to the people of God." So he acted upon it. He took a decision. In verse 6 on, look at this. Nehemiah began to cleanse the temple.

Guest (Male): But in all this time was not I at Jerusalem: for in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon came I unto the king, and after certain days obtained I leave of the king.

Gideon Levytam: In other words, all these things that occurred then and there were when Nehemiah was not there. It's always like that, isn't it? That's why God raised godly men and women to assist our own people and to care for the flock of God. But when the shepherd is not there, the sheep go astray. Isaiah said in Chapter 53 about Israel, "All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way." That's the way we are; we are like sheep.

I didn't point to that, but here is Jerusalem and Israel, the land of Israel, and you notice the kingdom of Moab and the kingdom of Ammon. When Israel came from Egypt to enter into the Promised Land, they didn't let them enter in. They had to pass through the land of Moab and Ammon, but they didn't let them cross in an easy way, and they had those issues that gave them problems. When Nehemiah left the city of Jerusalem, he went back for a little while to the king of Persia because he gave him some time.

All the time when he was not there, trouble happened. I thank God for godly men that I sat under over the years, that you can see how they watch over their flock, how they care for sound teaching in the midst of the congregation, and how they care for the welfare of the brothers and sisters. When they are away, they are concerned how the brethren are doing. Thank God for these people that the Lord put into our life to help us because we are all like sheep that are inclined to go astray from the Lord.

Nehemiah began by dealing with the problems. He come back, and what does he see? The Ammonite and the Moabite have crept in. Tobiah is now living in the temple. The high priest made an alliance with him. The people of Israel are in disarray. The Lord's law and commandments are not obeyed, and the people of Israel are in a bad state. He says, "I'm going to do something about that." Upon his return, Nehemiah now understood all that evil, and I want you to notice the Bible calls it evil.

Guest (Male): And I came to Jerusalem, and understood of the evil that Eliashib did for Tobiah, in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.

Gideon Levytam: Eliashib, you allowed Tobiah, who was our enemy all along and didn't want us to build the walls of Jerusalem, now to be right in the house of God. You give him a chamber, a room right there, when all the things that belong to God, the tithing and so on, do not even have a place to be there, but Tobiah has a place to be there. So he was not happy whatsoever. Notice what he did, brothers and sisters.

Guest (Male): And it grieved me sore: therefore I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber. Then I commanded, and they cleansed the chambers: and thither brought I again the vessels of the house of God, with the meat offering and the frankincense.

Gideon Levytam: First of all, you notice that it grieved him in his heart. He was a spiritual man. He was a man who wanted to honor the Lord, and it hurt him in his heart when he saw what was going on. God was not honored and the people of God were not living for the Lord. This is what you call in biblical terminology righteous indignation. Sometimes we get angry because somebody hurt us or told something bad about us, but that is very selfish anger.

Here, Nehemiah had righteous indignation. He was very much sad because of what went on here in the temple in Jerusalem. He cast off the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber, and he commanded that they will cleanse the chambers. Can you imagine what Israel did? They take the vessels that were supposed to serve God, put them outside the temple, and bring Tobiah and set him with a nice chamber right in the temple. What a condition had existed there among the people of Israel. Turn with me, please, to John Chapter 2.

Guest (Male): And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: and when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, "Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise."

You've been listening to Holy Scriptures and Israel with Gideon Levytam. Gideon teaches God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective. For more information about this ministry, write to Holy Scriptures and Israel, Box 1411, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, L0S 1J0, or visit our website at holyscripturesandisrael.com. You are also invited to Gideon's weekly Bible teaching on Fridays at 11:00 AM and 7:00 PM and Saturdays at 1:00 PM at Willowdale Christian Assembly Hall, 28 Martin Ross Avenue in Toronto. Holy Scriptures and Israel is made possible by your prayers and financial support. If you would like to support the program, visit holyscripturesandisrael.com. God bless you. Shalom, shalom.