Holy Scriptures and Israel

Guest (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 6. Nehemiah responds and he says, "Really, Sanballat, Tobiah, this is coming out of your own imagination. This is not true what you are saying." And you see, there are many times we can be accused because we are many times not living the way we ought to be.

But when we do the right thing, when Nehemiah did the right thing and sought really to please the Lord, to build the wall, and to be a blessing to the people of Israel, by Sanballat and Tobiah blaming him and accusing him, he had a clean conscience. And he says, "Listen, this is nothing but coming out of your own heart. There is nothing here that I have any intention to force myself to be the king of Israel. You feign these things out of your own heart."

And you know that the Bible does say that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. The Lord said it through the prophet Jeremiah. In fact, long before the flood came, God saw the wickedness of man upon the face of the earth, so wicked that the imagination of the thoughts of their heart was evil all the day long.

Genesis chapter 5. That's how wicked man is able to harm somebody else, never mind, just as long that this person will not be successful in doing what the Lord have done for him. So you notice what Nehemiah does. It says in verse 9, Nehemiah knew the purpose of the enemy, and you notice what he began to do. He's praying again: "Oh God, strengthen my hands."

Now the word "Oh God" is not found in the Hebrew text. It just simply means "Strengthen my hand." He was not talking to Sanballat, he was not talking to anybody, he was actually talking to God. And you can see another thing that I think is very important to learn from Nehemiah is that he was a man of prayer.

How is your life of prayer? Do we start the day by talking to the Lord in prayer? Do we get up as we go on doing the day, do we honestly pray and take the time to say, "Lord, you know my weaknesses, you know my needs, you know my problems. Help my wife, help my children, help my husband, help my friend, help the brothers and sisters in the local fellowship," and so on. Do we pray?

See, Nehemiah was a man that prayed. He took it seriously. And you can see that the very fact in the King James they put "Oh God," even though it is not mentioned in the Hebrew text, understanding that he was naturally talking with the Lord, like 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, "Pray without ceasing."

Can you imagine to have such an attitude of prayer? If you just again go back to chapter 1 of Nehemiah, verse 5, you find the first time that he prayed: "And said, 'I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth the covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: Let thine ear now be attentive unto me and hear my prayer,'" he said in chapter 1.

Notice in chapter 2 and verse 4, we find Nehemiah again praying. It says, "Then the king said unto me, 'For what dost thou make request?' So I prayed." We never read what he said in this, in verse 4, but when he prays, he says, "God help me to know how to answer the king." He was praying. Beloved brothers and sisters, you can see that he was a man of prayer.

Turn to chapter 4 of Nehemiah. Again, notice there in verses 4 and 5: "Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity: And cover not their iniquity," and so on. He was praying to the Lord even though he was praying, you might say, under the Old Testament law, praying against those who sought to oppose him, but you can see that he was praying to the God of heaven. He was consistently praying.

Chapter 5 and verse 19, he says, "Think upon me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people." He was a man of prayer. In Hebrew we say *Tefilah* or *Lehitpalel*. It's a person who expresses dependence upon God. And we need, brothers and sisters, to pray without ceasing. Yeshua says, "Watch and pray." Why? Because our adversary constantly seeks to devour the people of God, and we are to pray. We need to pray for each other.

Why do you think every time when we come to meeting we pray? We have a public prayer, when we pray for general prayer, some individuals and their need. We need to pray. We have a book of prayer, you know, you can open and you can find out some answers to prayer that we have been praying at the meeting. We need to pray, beloved brothers and sisters, but not only at the meeting. There is an individual prayer, there is a family prayer, there is a collective prayer, there is a public prayer that we are taught in the scripture, various times in which we are exhorted to pray. Here is Nehemiah in chapter 6 and verse 9, again he's praying. He was a man of prayer.

You know, one brother told me, a good friend of mine, he says, "Brother Gideon, don't be ashamed and afraid to ask the brethren to pray for you." So I'll take the opportunity to ask you to pray for me. We need to pray for each other that the Lord will help us in our life as we walk with the Lord. So you can find that Nehemiah responds to this false accusation: "You brought it out of your heart, there is nothing of a sort and I am going to look to the Lord in prayer."

And indeed he asks the Lord to help him in prayer. So let's move along now. Notice from verse 10 to verse 14, now here's the beguiling of Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem and all those enemies of Israel, of the Jewish people and Nehemiah. Look at now how they are seeking to tempt him to hide in the temple. Now we find out the man who was an informer now. Notice that. It says here in verse 10, "Afterward," you see a little bit of time passed by, but the one who tricks him does not stop because "I came into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabel." This man, his name actually as it says is Shemaiah. He was the son of Delaiah and he was also the son of Mehetabel.

He went to the house of this man and this man was shut up. Shut up, he was held in his home. And then notice what it says here in verse 10b: "And he said," this man by the name of Shemaiah, "'Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee; yea, in the night will they come to slay thee.'" Apparently, look what Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, the enemies of Israel, the enemies of the Jewish people, what they do right now. They gather around them individuals that maybe from within they infiltrate and they sway others to cause Nehemiah to stop the work and to cause him, "Let's go and hide together because they're going to come and kill you."

Now let me tell you, when somebody is warning you that you are going to be killed by someone, the natural inclination is to save one's life and to say, "Listen, I don't want to be killed, maybe I should listen to what this man by the name of Shemaiah is saying unto me." But you see, again you can see how this person was actually influenced by those from without. And so we find out in verse 11 Nehemiah's response, he says, "And I said, 'Should such a man as I flee? And who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.'"

Now maybe he didn't know immediately that this Shemaiah was actually an informer who made an agreement with the others from without to trick him, but it sound kind of great when some of the brothers and said, "You know what, let me help you and let's go together and hide in the temple." By the way, you notice that the temple was in existence by now. Why? Because earlier Zerubbabel came already with over 50,000 people to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.

And then Ezra came later on to beautify the temple. So the temple was in existence, but the walls were not yet built and the gates were burned with fire, and that was the ministry of Nehemiah to do about 445 BC when he came to Jerusalem. So now they are telling him, "You know what, let's go and hide in the temple in the house of God." Notice at the end he says, "Let's go in the house of God within the temple and let us shut the doors of the temple."

Now first of all, we know very well that the ones that are to go into the innermost place of the temple are only the Levites, the *Levi'im*. Secondly, and the *Kohanim*, the priests, and not everyone could get in just like that. But Nehemiah is kind of being swayed to go and hide in the temple to save his life and the life of this man by the name of Shemaiah. But you see, Shemaiah, it's interesting, he was not for Nehemiah even though he was from among the brethren, from among the people of Judah. Because immediately it says here, notice that in verse 12 Nehemiah discerned Shemaiah's words. He was actually hired. You see?

He says, "And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him." Look at the extent that we are capable to go in order to harm someone else's work and we are able to buy someone just to do this evil work. How terrible this is. You know, it reminds me of the apostle Paul. Again I'm mentioning Sha'ul Paul because he had experienced so much persecution and he had experienced those who were what you call false brethren, those who were part of the people of God but they were falsely seeking to harm the work of the Lord.

But in this case, it could be one from the nation, from among the people, but he was bought. He was hired. You know, when you hire somebody, you have to give him something in exchange. "You do this and I give you that." That was the arrangement. He was hired, you notice that, and you see, this is sad. In Hebrew we call it *Achei Sheker*, false brethren.

Turn with me again to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. The apostle Paul with all his experiences and his suffering, he says in verse 22, "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they of the seed of Abraham? So am I." But then notice further down in verse 26, he says that he have experienced suffering: "In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, and," notice that, "in perils among false brethren."

You know, Paul knew what Nehemiah had gone through. And it's so sad, you know, when some seems to make it their business to cause harm to the work of the Lord and they allow themselves to harm their own brethren just so they will get some gain out of it. Knowing that Tobiah and knowing that Sanballat is opposing the work of the Lord, yet allowing these to come into the surface.

Go to Galatians chapter 2. Paul again writing now to the Galatians, and he said to them, "Listen, because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privately to spy out our liberty which we have in Messiah Yeshua, that they might bring us into bondage." You see, it's not new. It happened in Nehemiah's time, it happened before Nehemiah's time, it happened in the time when our Lord Yeshua the Messiah was here on earth, it happened when the apostles began the, founded the early church age, the assembly age, and it's happening today.

But we need God to help us not to participate in this, but to be a blessing to the people of God. And so in verse 13, Nehemiah noted that Shemaiah was hired so to cause Nehemiah to sin and to stumble. He says, "Therefore was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me." You see, they hired Shemaiah in order that he would cause Nehemiah to stumble, and he called it to sin. Amazing.

He looked at the ceasing of the work of the Lord that God had given to him and hiding as a sin before God. Can you imagine what a devoted man he was? You and I might say, "Well listen, I'm not going to continue because I have to take care of myself, you know, why should I continue on? I'm just going to go hide in the temple, make sure the work stops as long that I save my life." But look at Nehemiah, he looks at this as a sin, *Chet*. I mean, he was a man of spiritual caliber very high in his attitude towards the things of the Lord.

So again, beloved brothers and sisters, verse 14, he prays again. Now he says, "My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear." Now when I read this verse, I want you to notice that he zero in on a woman by the name of Noadiah who was a prophetess. Why does he say "Noadiah the prophetess" and the rest of the prophets? Why doesn't he zero in on one of the names of the other prophets or those who claim to be prophets who are men? Why does he zero upon a woman?

Now it is interesting. Now I was just thinking again, I'm just comparing scripture with scripture. God gave the place of leadership in the assembly, in the church, among the people of Israel to the man. It's not because I said it, it's because God said it. The head of every woman is the man. The head of the man is the Messiah. The head of the Messiah is God. That's the order that had been given to us by divine instruction.

And when these reversing of the roles happen, and when the sisters do not take the place in the right way as God had given it, problems rises up to the surface. You see, the woman Deborah was also a prophetess, but she was a mother in Israel. She loved Israel. She was building the people of Israel. She did not want to take the front place when she could take the public place and the leadership. She said, if you remember to the other judge, she says, "You will be the one that will take leadership and if you will not, the enemies of Israel will be given into the hand of a woman."

And you see, we learn that it is so important to take our place as before the Lord. Not because somebody said it, not because a preacher said it, because the Bible says it. And we can read many verses, the woman ought not to usurp authority. Timothy teaches us this, 1 Timothy chapter 2. And so all of a sudden, out of nowhere, all of a sudden her name is mentioned. She was a prophetess.

But you notice what it says about her: "My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me to fear." In other words, she was now used by Tobiah, Sanballat, and Geshem to seek to put Nehemiah to fear. Now do you remember Jezebel? You remember what Jezebel have done to the prophet Elijah when he was afraid of her and he ran away. She was the wife of the wickedest king of Israel, Ahab.

And instead of him leading her, she led him. And instead of him being king and reigning over Israel in a godly way, he allowed her to influence him to follow other idols that caused and brought about the judgment of God upon the people of Israel. But Elijah fled from her. And you see, here is another one who want to cause fear upon Nehemiah, so he will flee and he will not build the work of the Lord.

It's sad, but yet you can see the pattern. You see, a sister can be a blessing to God's people and she is called to be a blessing to God's people. You and I as the body of Messiah called the bride of the Messiah, of Christ. Israel as a woman is called the wife of Jehovah. But when the woman Israel or the woman the church or the woman in a personal way don't take her place in a God-ordained way, that's only going to lead into more and more problems.

And that's why we can see here how the Spirit of God bring it to the surface. And he is all of a sudden mentioning this out of nowhere, you and I might say, he's mentioning this prophetess by the name of Noadiah, though the other prophets, oh, they probably under her authority and supervision, and she took the place that was not given to her. If she had taken the place, she could have been like Deborah, a prophetess in Israel, a mother in Israel, a blessing to the people of God.

And so now, brothers and sisters, in verses 15 and 16, we find out that finally the wall was completed. It says, "And the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month of Elul, in fifty and two days. And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God." The wall was finally finished in only 52 days in the Hebrew month of Elul, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elul. This is about September.

The whole wall was finished, only 52 days to build that big wall around the city of Jerusalem, which was nearly humanly speaking impossible to do. This hard labor from the time that they start to build until the time that they finished, the whole wall was finished. And now you notice that what it says here, that the enemies realized that this must be in a work from God. That is not a work for man. It said at the end, "This work was wrought of our God."

It was not only that the Jewish people build the wall on their own, it was done by God who assisted them to build, and they were much cast down, the enemies of Israel. We tried to harm her, we tried to stop it, we tried this way, we tried this way, and still the wall was brought up and everything is finished in 52 days. Now this is also a great lesson to learn from this, beloved. You know God's plan will surely come to pass. Nothing will stop the plan that God had for Israel our nation and for the body of Messiah, the church as well.

Nothing will stop. Yeshua said in Matthew chapter 16, "The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will build my assembly; upon this rock I will build my assembly; and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." And when it come to our people Israel, he says, "This people have I chosen for myself that they may show forth my glory." God is yet going to restore Israel, and Israel ultimately is going to be a nation of a blessing here in this world, and the body of Messiah will continue without ceasing because God has a plan. It is a work of God, he wrought it, it's not that man does it.

And what we learn from this that doesn't matter what happen, how much enemies we will have, we should continue on pressing forward. Even if there are discouragement, we are to continue on, all of us in our personal life, in our family life, in a congregation life, in a public life, we are to press forward, to continue on because the Lord wrought it. Psalm 126 is really connected with Nehemiah chapter 6 because these people, the Jewish people who came to the city of Jerusalem in the songs of ascents, he said in Psalm 126, "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then they said they among the heathen, 'The Lord has done great things for them.' The Lord has done great things for us; whereof we are glad. Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."

In other words, when we sow in tears, ultimately we will reap with gladness. Here we see the conclusion of the building of the wall. Now back to Nehemiah, the last verses 17, 18, and 19. Here is again the wrong that is now done between some of the people of Israel and some of the enemies, and this is also show us how even though things are building up, still a mixture always happen that brings about always problems. And I'm going to just read those last three verses.

Verse 17, "Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came unto them. For there were many in Judah sworn unto him, because he was the son in law of Shechaniah the son of Arah; and his son Johanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah. Also they reported his good deeds before me, and uttered my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear."

So in conclusion, you find out that even though the walls were built and they were successful in building the wall in Jerusalem, well apparently some of the nobles of Judah married some of the Samaritans. There was a relationship now which brought about again problem for the people of Judah. And when we finish the book of Nehemiah, you will see that Nehemiah is telling them they should not have had a mixture of marriage with those from without who are unbelievers, who ultimately led them astray. You see, many in Judah sworn unto him because there was Tobiah and some of his family member married some of the nobles of the people of Israel.

And we learn this very much that a believer with an unbeliever mixed together, it just doesn't work. Not because the believer is better, it's because they don't have a common path to walk together. That's why the apostle Paul says, "Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers," because ultimately that will lead us, will lead the people of God away from the Lord. Well, brothers and sisters, may the Lord help us to learn from Nehemiah and continuing to build the house of God.

Guest (Female): You have been listening to the 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 a.m. and 7 p.m. and Saturdays at 1 p.m. 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.