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 4. There is an expression that we have in the book of Esther: Tsoreir haYehudim, the enemy of the Jews. There was a man in the time of Esther, and he was the enemy of the Jewish people, the same root word. Tsoreir haYehudim, the adversary of the Jews. His name was Haman. He opposed the Jewish people. Twice we read about him as the enemy of the Jews in Esther Chapter 3 and verse 10 and Esther Chapter 8 and verse 1. Here we have additional enemies. All of them were ready to come into the midst of the people of Israel and notice they wanted to slay them, number one. Number two, they wanted to cause the work of the building of the walls of Jerusalem to stop.

And isn't it the same thing, beloved brothers and sisters, in the life of the people of God, the body of Messiah? We also have enemies that are trying to stop us from building, from progressing, to stop us from glorifying our Lord Yeshua the Messiah in the midst of his own people. And so he is seeking to attack. He can never take the salvation of a true believer away from him, but he can sure allow us to experience lack of joy and lack of enjoyment of what Yeshua have done for us. And why I'm saying that he can never take away the salvation of anyone who is a true believer is because the Lord Yeshua himself said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and I'll give unto them eternal life. And they shall never perish, and no one is able to pluck them out of my hand."

Once you and I became children of God, we are belonged to him for eternity. Not because you are good, not because I am good, not because of your work, not because of my work. It's because of the work that Yeshua have done for us on the tree. But he sure, the enemy of the people of God, can cause us a lot of havoc in the midst of our walk with the Lord. And sometimes, beloved brothers and sisters, I want to say that some of the things that become like an enemy to us in our lives are things that are very fundamental. Let me give you an example. Things that become the enemies in the life of the people of God are false teachings. If somebody come and teaches us false teaching, it becomes an animosity to the spiritual growth of the people of God.

What about worldliness? John said to us, "Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, it is not of the Father, it is of the world." What about legalism? Things that are not biblical, but sound very religious, but not sound, not comes from the word of God. What about liberalism? Everything goes, as if we don't have the Bible to teach us the truth of God. What about the fact that coldness in our hearts, no affection towards the Lord? We are so cold. We are so indifferent to the things of the Lord. "Oh yes, we are saved, I got my place in heaven, I'm going to be there," but never spiritual growth and never appreciation of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

What about divisions? The body of Messiah is often been divided in so many ways because we haven't submitted to the will of the Lord and we allow ourselves to be those source of divisions among the people of God. These are some of the enemies that you and I experience today. And what about closed Bible? You know, we go to church meeting, but we don't need a Bible. We belong to Yeshua, but we don't need a Bible. You notice that every time that we come to our meeting, we read the Bible. We open the word of God, the Tanakh, the Brit Hadasha, because the word of God is the source of instruction to the people of God. The prophets of Israel spoke about the word of God. The psalmist of Israel spoke about the word of God. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path," we read in Psalm 119.

And we can just go on and on. It's not only persons who become as an enemies of the people of God, but certain things in our lives, as I mentioned, false teaching, worldliness, legalism, liberalism, coldness, divisions, and a Bible not read and not taught. This is exactly what is endangering us today. We don't build the wall with cement and stones and sand. The house of God is a spiritual house today. And we are to build that spiritual house and to be used by the Lord for the glory of the Lord and for the blessing of the people of God.

The Apostle said to Timothy in 1st Timothy Chapter 3 and verse 15, "If I tarry long, that thou mayest know how you ought to behave in the house of God." What is the house of God? Paul gives us: "Which is the church or the assembly of the living God, the Ecclesia. This is the pillar and the ground of the truth." That is the house of God. And we are responsible today to participate in the building of the house of God, the Ecclesia, the assembly, the believers, the body of Messiah. And so here are those enemies coming and you see they said, "We are going to come against them," and you see they are aware of it. "We are going to slay them." This is verse 11, "And we are going to stop the work" in verse 11.

Now, what's happening usually when the work is stopping? The people are scattered and there is no progress. People are not developed spiritually. There is no service among the believers. The gospel is not being preached, therefore there is not new people come to know the Lord and a growth among the people of God. That's what happened. That was the plan of the enemy of the people of Judah in the days of Nehemiah. And that is the plan of the enemy of the people of God today in our days of age, of the Ecclesia days. The enemy wants to destroy the work of the Lord, and we need to be aware of it, beloved brothers and sisters.

And I just wanted to mention that sometimes the enemy will try to destroy the people of God, but God has a plan and he is going to fulfill his promises to Israel, the nation, and to the body of Messiah, as Yeshua said in Matthew 16:18, "The gates of Hades shall not prevail against the assembly, the church." And when God says through the prophet Jeremiah about Israel that even if you can measure the heights from the heaven to earth, then I will cast Israel from being a nation, but we can't measure, and therefore God has a plan to restore Israel back to himself, even though the enemies will seek to attack.

So we are moving along. The people of Judah began to be discouraged, verses 10, 11. Notice what it says in verse 12. The Jews who dwelt by the enemies, they came and they appealed to Nehemiah. It says in verse 12, "And it came to pass that when the Jews which dwelt by the adversary, by them, when they came, they said unto us ten times, from all the places whence ye shall return unto us they will be upon us." Apparently some of the Jewish community, of course, lived outside of Jerusalem, Judea, and the area of Samaria. And so they were neighbors to Sanballat, to Tobiah, to the Arabians, to the Ammonites, the Ashdodites. And they hear them say, "Oh, we're going to make a plan, we're going to come to destroy the people of Judah, we're going to stop their job of the building of the walls."

So they came ten times unto Nehemiah and the leaders of Judah and they said to them, "Listen, everywhere wherever you are going to live, they're going to come there and attack." And you notice that what happens usually, it is like that. When the Lord raises up leaders, when the leaders are not around, then the enemy finds that opportunity to attack those that are the sheep that are without a shepherd, you might say. And that's why we need to depend upon the Lord, but we should never depend only on one man. We should all grow together and all mature, so we will be alert in case some false things are coming in the midst of God's people.

And that's why Nehemiah, he could not be everywhere. Imagine the walls of Jerusalem, the many gates that are there. He couldn't be everywhere standing there and observing and watching. He couldn't do so. He was one single man. But he sought to instruct the people of Israel to protect themselves and to beware of the enemy that will seek to attack. And so we read now, beloved brothers and sisters, we continue down in verses 13, 14, and 15. Nehemiah has a plan to protect the people of Judah and to progress in the building of the walls of Jerusalem. He has his own plan. He trusts the Lord, of course, but he introduced this to the people of Judah. And it's so nice to see, first of all, you notice he's arranging them by their families.

It says in verse 13, "Therefore set I the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places, I even set the people after their family with their swords, with their spears, and with their bows." First of all, he put them behind the wall, not on the outside but on the inside of the wall of Jerusalem. Maybe there was an area that there was very low, it was not rise high above so much, but he put them on the inside in order for them to be not exposed to the enemies that are planning to come and to attack. You notice that he also put the people after their families. So you have the mother, the father, the children, the grandparents, all together in one area where they are building the wall of Jerusalem, close to their homes and close to their family, so they can watch each other and protect each other.

And then notice it says every one of them with their swords, this is in Hebrew charavot, with their spears, in Hebrew remachim, and with their bows, in Hebrew is kashtot, like bow and arrow. So every one of them was behind the wall, on the inside, with their families together, and also they have those ammunition to protect themselves in case the enemy will come to seek to destroy them. Now, there's a great lesson in these things. You see, we also are called to be ready in case the enemy will seek to attack us. In fact, turn with me to Ephesians 6. You and I are not called to fight with carnal weapons. We are not to fight, for example, with a sword like Peter cut the ear of Malchus, the servant of the high priest, when the religious leaders came to take Yeshua at the time that he was in the garden of Gethsemane.

We are not to fight with swords. We are not to fight with bow and arrow. We are not to fight in such a way, but we do have a warfare. And so the Apostle Paul said to the believers at the city of Ephesus in verse 10 of Ephesians 6, he says, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on," here is the armor that you and I have today. "Put on the whole armor of God." Why, Paul? "In order that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." You see, the devil is very wily. He has a plan, he has an agenda to attack the redeemed people. And so the redeemed people are to put upon them the whole armor in order to protect ourselves from the harm which Satan intends to place upon his people.

And then he said, he continues in verse 12, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but we wrestle against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." See, you and I also have a battle, and we need to defend ourselves from the enemy who is trying to attack us with his wiles, plans against the people of God. We are not wrestling against flesh and blood like we have here those men such as Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabians, the Ammonites, the Ashdodites, and so on. But we wrestle against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness. See, it's a spiritual battle. And we need, as we have been exhorted, to put upon ourselves the whole armor of God.

And this armor is involved so much. It says in verse 13, "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God." And he gives us a list here. He begins to tell us that we are to put upon ourselves as it says here, "Stand therefore," verse 14, "having your loin girt about with truth." We need to learn the truth of the word of God. We also need to be truthful in our conduct. He continues and he is speaking about the breastplate of righteousness. We are to seek to live a life that is just. And then he says, "Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." The shoes that we put on our feet is the truth of the gospel, which we can share with the world around us.

And then, above all, the shield of faith. Faith, believing in God and God's word that he is able to sustain us and so on. And he continues on, he's talking about the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Now, you can see when they were holding these spears and they were ready to protect themselves against their enemy, for you and I as believers in Yeshua the Messiah, it's not that we're going to take a sword in our hand and harm somebody. We are to take the word of God and apply it in a proper way as we minister to others, as we are being attacked by those who oppose us. And therefore in those things that we have before us, those three things, the swords, the spears, and the bows, all those things really speak to us about the word of God, to know how to handle the word of God, to know how to answer through the word of God, to know how to live in subjection to the word of God.

That's the only way that we will be able to be protected as we continue on to follow Yeshua the Messiah. In a time when we don't submit to the word of God, we know very well how we end up to fall on our faces and dishonor the Lord. But you know, go back to our chapter, Nehemiah Chapter 4. The second thing that he tells them is also very interesting. Notice verse 14 now. There he says, "And I looked, and I rose up, and I said unto the nobles, unto the rulers, and unto the rest of the people, be not ye afraid of them. Remember the Lord." In Hebrew it says Zikhru et Adonai. "Remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, for your sons, for your daughters, for your wives, and for your houses."

Okay, you are taking the sword, the spears, and the bows, but you don't just take this in order to just attack and trust yourself. But you have to remember the Lord, the God of Israel, to remember what he have done for you in the past and what he is able to do for you in the present. Remember the one who loved you, the one who called you to be a nation, God is saying through Nehemiah to the Jewish people who were building the walls in the city of Jerusalem. Don't forget God. You cannot go without God and fight on your own. You need the Lord in your life, Nehemiah is saying to the Jewish people.

And how important to remember who God is, to remember what he have done for us, to remember how he saved us from slavery, to remember that he brought us into a relationship with him, to remember the price that our Lord Yeshua the Messiah have paid when he died for us on the tree. That's the only way that we're going to be able to gain a victory against those who opposing us. And fight on behalf of your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses. In fact, what he is really telling them is exactly what the Apostle Shaul, Paul, said to the brethren when he gave them the sixth chapter of Ephesians. He said, "Be strong in the Lord," Ephesians 6 and verse 10, "and in the power of his might." Not your own might, but in the power of his might.

We need to remember our blessed Lord and what he have done for us. In fact, I would like you for a second to turn to 2nd Timothy Chapter 2. And here is an encouragement that Shaul, Paul, gave to another younger brother by the name of Timothy. He said to him in 2nd Timothy and in Chapter 2 and in verse 8, "Remember Yeshua haMashiach, Yeshua the Messiah of the seed of David, who was raised from the dead according to my gospel." Timothy, remember Yeshua the Messiah because it was he who came of the seed of David. And it was he that died in accordance with the word of God. And it was he that was raised from among the dead according to my gospel.

You see, Timothy needed this encouragement as well because he was experiencing opposition. And Timothy needed to remember what the Lord have done for him. And don't you feel this, when we have problems and issues rise in our lives, what encourages us the most is when we look unto Yeshua and when we see what he have done for us. We see that his love for us have been so great and his care for us is so supreme. Remember what he have done for us when he died for us on the tree. He paid for every sin that we have committed. He paid a penalty which we could have never paid. And you remember when he cried on the tree and he says, "Eloi, Eloi, lama azavtani? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He was forsaken on our behalf. He was judged that you and I will never need to be judged.

And so when we experience opposition at times and we have discouragement, we can also look and remember what the Lord have done for us. You know, in Israel, when somebody passed away and he or she dies, there is a memorial service and it's oftentimes called the Yizkor, the remembrance. That Israel is called to remember God, to remember what the God of our fathers have done for the nation of Israel. Never to forget what the Lord have done for Israel the nation and never to forget what the Lord have done for all those have trusted in Yeshua the Messiah. Never to forget.

His love for us is so supreme. The work that he have done for us will benefit you and I for time and eternity. And even when we go through trials, we can stay close to him and we can lean hard on him. And he promised to never leave you, nor forsake you. You and I might forsake each other. You and I might disappoint each other, but the Lord says, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." I want to read another verse in the book of Romans in Chapter 8, if you will turn with me for a moment. Romans Chapter 8, verse 31. Paul encouraged the believers that he led to the Lord, and he is an encouragement to us. Romans Chapter 8 and verse 31, "What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth."

"Who is he that condemneth? It is the Messiah that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who maketh intercession for us." Do you know, brothers and sisters, that right now as we sit here at the meeting, Yeshua the Messiah is at the right hand of the Father interceding for any one of us with any trial that you and I experiencing in our life today, right this moment. You know, when we fail the Lord, he lifts up his holy hand and he says, "Father, this is my child. I paid for the price of his failure and sin." The Lord is interceding on behalf of his own people. He doesn't condone our sin, but he is interceding for our weakness, and as a lawyer representing us before God and he says, "I paid for the price of their failure and sins. For this sins I was judged."

Notice what it says here in verse 35 of Romans Chapter 8. "Who shall separate us from the love of the Messiah? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long." Notice what it says in verse 37. "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." Verse 38 and 39, he concludes with this encouraging word. He says, "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor power, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in the Messiah, Yeshua our Lord."

Guest (Male): 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.