Holy Scriptures and Israel

Announcer (Female): 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. Look at verse three. "Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Shabbat day." It was not a suggestion for Israel of old, it was a command. If one does not keep the Shabbat to do any manner of work, he is going to be put to death. One could not even light a fire on a Shabbat day. In Numbers chapter 15 tells us that he was stoned when he did such a thing on the Shabbat day. That was even long before the rabbis gave interpretation to this. This was a biblical instruction by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so Nehemiah is acting upon it. He says, "Listen, this is the command from the Lord, you cannot do so."

And so we read in verse 16 that it was not only that the Israelis have done so, but at that time they were mingling and affiliating with the nations around them. And so in verse 16, we find out that some men from a place called Tyre, or Tzor in Hebrew—this is present-day Lebanon—it says they came and they knew that they could do so. And so what did they do? Verse 16: "There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish and all manner of ware, and sold on the Shabbat unto the children of Judah and in Jerusalem."

Can you imagine? They say, "Okay, well if the people of Judah themselves are buying and selling and working and so on, well we can do business also. So we're going to bring fish from Tyre, from Tzor, from Lebanon, and we're going to bring also all manner of ware, all kind of things to sell, and we're going to sell them on a Shabbat day." So they bring it to the city of Yerushalayim and they were selling it to the people of Judah, to the people of Israel.

Now of course, beloved brothers and sisters, if the people of Israel violate God's law, God's word, well the people of the nations around them would do so the same. For them it doesn't matter because it didn't apply to them. They say, "Well we're going to make some business with the people of Judah and we're going to bring the stuff and we can sell it to them in the city of Yerushalayim." Now I want to remind you that earlier before Nechemiah had gone to Persia for a while to the king, they already made a commitment that they are not going to violate God's word. But they did it again.

If you just go back in Nechemiah to chapter 10 and notice what it says in verse 31. In those days the people, the priest, and the Levites already made a covenant with God. And we read here in verse 31: "And if the people of the land bring ware or victuals on a Shabbat day to sell, we would not buy it of them on the Shabbat or on a holy day. That we would leave the seventh year and the exaction of every debt." In other words they were saying to them, "Listen, they made a commitment already to God." Like you and I many times make a commitment to the Lord. "Lord, I'm not going to do so. I promise you, I'm going to commit myself, I'm going to be faithful in doing so."

But it doesn't take too long and we break our commitment to the Lord. The priests and the Levites and the people of Israel already a few years earlier devoted themselves. They said, "We will not buy and sell from the people of the land who are going to come from Tyre and elsewhere. We are not going to do so." But they violated God's way. It didn't take too long. Now are we any better? Are we superior to them? We know very well how often times we as believers in Yeshua the Messiah in this present-day dispensation fail the Lord many, many times.

How often times we are not submitting to his authority and we are not better. We just can see what Israel had done in the past, we too do so in this present day. And that's why the apostle Paul said, "All these things happened unto them as an example for you and I." First Corinthians 10, Romans chapter 15, verse four: "Whatsoever things happened aforetime were written for our learning." We can learn from their experience and apply this to ourselves.

So in verse 15, some of our Jewish people have done so. In verse 16, some of the Goyim of the Gentiles from Tyre have done so on a Shabbat day. Now in verse 17 and 18, Nechemiah contended with the nobles of Judah. And so we read, "And I contended with the nobles of Judah and I said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do to profane the Shabbat day?" You know it became an evil, in Hebrew we call it Ra or Raah. They are doing in violating maintaining the Shabbat day.

That's why sometimes, brothers and sisters, some of our Jewish people, and I remember that in my life with my grandfather, who was so strong in keeping the Shabbat day to the extent that he will not allow any one of us that was within his area to violate this. Shabbat day, you are not working. Shabbat day, you are going to the synagogue. Shabbat day, you are keeping to the Lord. Shabbat day, you cannot do certain things that you do on the six days of the week. And he was so strong in that. My grandmother as well was preparing the Shabbat. The Shabbat is like a bride that was coming to be accepted by our Jewish people. Over the years it had been introduced in such a way.

And so Nechemiah said to the nobles, "Why are you doing this evil thing? You profaning the Shabbat." And by the way, those nobles, it's called Chorei Yehudah. These are the leaders of Israel, the nobles. They did not set the example. And the word contended come from the word Lariv or Arivah. He was fighting and arguing with them because he took the word of God for what it says and he challenged them. And so he reminded them. You know, brothers and sisters, again in Israel's history and in the body of Messiah's history it's the same old story. All the time when things happen to us in our lives that lead us astray from God, it happened before. And if we haven't learned from the past, the Lord will allow us to learn from experience.

And he said to them in verse 18, "Did not your fathers thus? Didn't they do the same thing? And did not our God bring all this evil upon us and upon this city? Yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Shabbat." He says, "Don't you remember, brethren," he's saying to them, "the reason that we were in Bavel, the reason that God brought Nebuchadnezzar and send us to Bavel for 70 years, our fathers, is because the very same thing: disobedience to the word of God."

And we you and I can say this as believers in the body of Messiah, believers in Yeshua the Messiah, how many times when we disobey the word of the Lord, whether it is in one area or another that he gave us instruction in a Brit Chadasha, he allow us to experience the consequence of this disobedience. And when we don't obey we know that in our own life, when we don't obey and we don't learn from mistakes that our fathers have done or other believers have done in the past, we repeat the very same thing and then later on we say, "Lord, I should have not done that. I should have thought before, I should have prayed before, I should have waited on you, I should have submitted to your authority." You remember King Saul, Shmuel had to tell him, "Obedience is better than sacrifice."

Saul, if you would obey the word of the Lord you would have not lose the kingdom. But he didn't obey and he lost the kingdom. He played the fool. He thought he knew better than God. And unfortunately we are not different than this. Turn to the prophet Jeremiah with me for a second. He reminded Israel about the fact that our fathers have done so in the past. And that's the reason why they found themselves in Bavel because God have judged the people of Judah when they disobey his word.

Look at Jeremiah chapter 17 in verse 21. He says those words, "Thus says the Lord: Israel, take heed to yourself and bear no burden on a Shabbat day, nor bring it in by the gates of Yerushalayim. Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Shabbat day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Shabbat day as I commanded your fathers. But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction. And it shall come to pass if ye diligently hearken unto me, says the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on a Shabbat day, but hallow the Shabbat day to do no work therein, then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim and this city shall remain forever."

But brothers and sisters, they didn't obey. Their city was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. The temple was burned by Nebuchadnezzar. Our Jewish people of old were carried to Bavel by Nebuchadnezzar. Look where it says in verse 26: "And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from the places about Jerusalem and from the land of Benjamin and from the plain and from the mountains and from the south, bringing burnt offering and sacrifice and meal offering and incense and bringing sacrifices of praise unto the house of the Lord. But if ye shall not hearken unto me to hallow the Shabbat day and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Yerushalayim on a Shabbat day, then will I kindle," listen to that, "a fire in the gates thereof and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched." Well, in 586 BC it did happen. Jerusalem was burned with fire. Our Jewish people end up to be in Bavel because they violated the word of the Lord.

And so listen, the Shabbat day in biblical days were commanded by the Lord to be kept. And Israel as a nation was obliged to submit to the authority of the Lord. But when they didn't, the judgment of God came. Now again, I know we live in the last days of the church age and there are many views about the Shabbat. Should the Shabbat be applied to the believers today or not? And all these things. Every one of us have our own view.

I'm going to tell you just what I understand from scripture. Had this applied to us today in the body of Messiah, do you think the Lord will not judge us as he said it to the people of Israel in those days? Anyone who will do any manner of work on a Shabbat day shall be destroyed, shall be killed. And so there is no if and but in those days when the Lord gave this command to the people of Israel. God did judge his people and ultimately they found themselves by the rivers of Babylon.

But if we will just listen to these situation, understand its application to Israel as a nation and ask the Lord, "What apply to us? How can we learn from that?" We understand that when we disobey the Lord, whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and he scourgeth every son whom he received. The Lord will discipline us in various areas that we have clear instruction in the Brit Chadasha, in the new covenant. When we violate it, he will deal with us as well.

And so the first verses, 15, 16, 17, and 18, we find out the violation of the Shabbat day by the people of Israel. And listen, these are the return remnant. It's not only the one who came in when they came out of Egypt, these are the return remnant who already came in, they rebuilt the wall, they set up the gates, the temple was there, and now they are already in this high point of enjoyment of the things of the Lord, and yet quickly decline comes.

And you know why? Because they have a sin nature the same way like you and I have. And unless we are close to the Lord, to Yeshua the Messiah, the sinful nature that we have is capable of leading us astray just like it led them astray. And so beloved brothers and sisters, there is so many lessons to learn. And let me just read you a verse from the book of Colossians, how the Lord through Paul encourages us to set our affection on the Lord and his word.

Notice that in Colossians chapter three, Paul said in the first verses: "If ye then be risen with the Messiah, seek those things which are above, where the Messiah sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above and not on the things on the earth. For ye are dead and your life is hid with the Mashiach, with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." In other words, the only way that the believer in Yeshua the Messiah can maintain some measure of separation and a life that is pleasing to him is only dependent where our affection are.

See, they set their affection far away from the Lord, from the God of Israel, and they end up to be led back to the same old habit, like you and I when we are setting our affection on other things rather than on our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. Well brothers and sisters, look what we read now. We are back to Nechemiah chapter 13, verses 19 to 22. Now Nechemiah is acting in promoting the observance of the Shabbat by the Jewish community.

And so we read in verse 19. Notice what he does, he first of all commands to close the gates when the Shabbat enters in. "It came to pass when the gates of Yerushalayim, of Jerusalem, began to be dark before the Shabbat, I commanded that the gates should be shut and charged that they should not be opened till after the Shabbat. And some of my servants set I at the gates that there should no burden be brought in on the Shabbat day."

The first thing that he does, Nechemiah, he first of all shut the doors to enter to the city of Jerusalem just when it get dark. You see, you know very well that from even to even Israel is to celebrate their Shabbat days. In other words Shabbat enters in not at midnight, Shabbat enters in already on Friday or the sixth day of the week when it's getting darker and the sun is down. That's when the Shabbat began.

And so you notice how carefully it's so beautiful to see in verse 19: "And it came to pass when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark." The Hebrew it says Ka'asher tzalelu sha'arei Yerushalayim. When the gates of Jerusalem all of a sudden became dark meaning that the sun was going down. And Nechemiah says, "Wait a minute, we are just in preparation for the Shabbat. Let shut the gates of Jerusalem."

You know it's so beautiful because there is a special feeling that you get in Israel again, especially in Yerushalayim when the Shabbat comes in. Not by everywhere, because not everyone specifically take this seriously, but you notice that. Everybody who work, leave work in afternoon. They go to the market, to the Shuk, they buy food for the Shabbat day. The wife in the house she already wash all the floors and she prepares because Shabbat is coming.

She sets up this nice white cloth on the table and the food is being prepared because Shabbat is coming. And you feel it, you sense it. Everybody quickly is in a rush because the Shabbat is coming, the sun is coming down. Let's prepare because God have instructed us to keep the Shabbat. Again it's very vivid for me in my personal life how my grandmother, my grandfather will prepare for the Shabbat and my parents and I will walk, you don't drive anymore.

We would walk to our grandparents for the Shabbat day. The table is set and we all are ready to come to welcome the Shabbat day. It has a very special feeling for us who experience this in our life. And the men taking their Torah in their hand and they are ready to go for the Friday night Shabbat meeting, and there they will sing the praises and welcome the Shabbat, and the Shabbat have entered in. But you see what happened, all of a sudden the Shabbat was not distinguished from the ordinary day.

And therefore Nechemiah did one thing: first of all, let's shut the gates. When the sun is down, the Shabbat is going to come in, we shut the gates and we will not allow anybody to go in and out on that Shabbat day. No selling, no buying. Jerusalem will be set apart for the God of Israel. Then notice in verse 20, the merchant still try to sell something. It says in verse 20, "So the merchants and the sellers of all kind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice."

You see, they still remember, "Hey listen, before Nechemiah was here, when he was away we were doing business with these Jewish people. We wait at the gates, the gates was open, we all buy and sell and everything was fine." So they still coming again. They sitting there waiting by the gate to see if some of the Jewish people will come and do business with them.

But Nechemiah in verse 21, what does he do? He warns those offenders that if they will do so, he will do something about it. And so he says, "And I testified against them." The word Aidah bahem. "And I said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? And if you do so again, I will lay hands on you." From that time forth they came no more on the Shabbat. You know he must have been such a strong man.

He says, "Listen, if you're going to come to try to sell to our own people here sending by the gate, if you're going to come I'm going to do something about it." He scared them. And apparently it says here that from that time on they came no more on the Shabbat day. Well, they could come on Yom Rishon, Sunday, on Yom Sheni, Monday, Yom Shlishi, Tuesday, Yom Revi'i, Wednesday, Yom Chamishi, Thursday, Yom Shishi, Friday until the sun is down they can make some business and buy and sell. But not on a Shabbat day. And he warned them as he said here in verse 21. He warned these offenders and apparently they got a hold of it, they took a stand.

And then finally we read in verse 22 that Nechemiah commanded the Levites and the priests to be cleansed and begin to serve. And so we read in verse 22, "I commanded the Levites that they should clean themselves and that they should come and keep the gates to sanctify the Shabbat day." See, the Levites themselves were not sanctified and ready for their service. And by doing so they themselves allow the rest of the nation to practice this and now he commanded them.

The Levites and so on, they cleansed themselves, that mean they set themselves apart, they sanctified themselves. You see, their responsibility was to open the gate, to close the gate, and to maintain order among the people of Yerushalayim. And so this time they cleansed themselves and they would keep and sanctify the Shabbat day by going to the gates, doing their business, the responsibility and the work that the Lord have called them to and maintain order among the people of Israel.

And so you notice, brothers and sisters, verses 15 to verse 22 how many times the word Shabbat is mentioned in those verses. Verse 15 twice the word Shabbat is mentioned. Verse 16 Shabbat, verse 17 Shabbat, verse 18 Shabbat, verse 19 three times the word Shabbat, verse 21 Shabbat, and verse 22 Shabbat. You could see that in these verses, verses 15 to 22, there was a violation of keeping the Shabbat day that was given to our people of old, the people of Israel, and Nechemiah set things in order.

And so in our present time in which we living, we also need these men and women of God who will help us to set things in order, everyone in their sphere. We need men of God that will rise up and help us all and encourage us and take us back to the word of God. So we also in these days seek to submit to the instruction that we have in the word of God, in the Brit Chadasha, that apply to us today.

Well now notice that, not only the Shabbat was a problem, there was a second problem that was very major among the people of Judah at that time. And in a sense it's kind of sad because this is the conclusion of the book of Nechemiah. You see what we read in verse 23 and 24, the Jewish people married wives of other nations.

It says here, "In those days." Again you remember how we began in verse 15, "In those days." Verse 23, "In those days." Bayamim ha'eileh. "Also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod and Ammon and Moab." Now again, I would like you to understand, this is the days in which Israel were commanded by God not to marry outside of the nation. And therefore they had a responsibility to marry within the nation of Israel.

And why is that? Not because of the Jewish people were better than the Goyim, the Gentiles. No, because the Jewish people, the people of Israel had the living and a true God. And because they have the living and a true God, they are to marry within the people that believe in the living God and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Because had they not married within the nation among those that are from the same nation and the same belief in a true and living God, they will be led astray.

And so the warning of God is so much for the benefit of God's people. But God's people think that they know better than God. And that's why they had so many problems. We know that from experience in our own life, isn't it? When we submit to the Lord and listen to his counsel, it is always for our blessing. But when we don't, we end up to pay the consequences. So look at this.

In these verses 23 and 24, it says very clearly, it says, "In those days I saw the Jews that had married wives," and notice, "of Ashdod and of Ammon and Moab." And then it says in verse 24, "And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod and they could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people." Now imagine the Jewish people were supposed to speak the Hebrew language and the Tanakh was given to us in the Hebrew language so we can worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But when they married wives from Ashdod, from Ammon, and from Moab, eventually they even didn't speak any longer the language that they should have been speaking. The word here "the Jews' language" come from the Hebrew word Yehudit, the Safah, the language of the Yehudim. They did not speak this anymore.

Announcer (Female): You have 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.