Hebrew Gospel Pearls #23 – This Little Light of Mine

Dr. Nehemia Gordon - Bible Scholar at NehemiasWall.com

English - February 02, 2022 12:00 - 34 minutes - 32.8 MB - ★★★★★ - 313 ratings
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Previous Episode: Prophet Pearls #19 – Terumah (1 Kings 5:12[26]-6:13)

Next Episode: Torah Pearls #20 – Tetzaveh (Exodus 27:20-30:10)

In Hebrew Gospel Pearls #23, This Little Light of Mine, Nehemia and Keith expound upon Yeshua’s proverb by considering two types of light that God created in Genesis. They also delve into a Talmudic murder mystery with an intriguing twist … Continue reading →

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Hebrew Gospel Pearls #23 – This Little Light of Mine

You are listening to Hebrew Gospel Pearls with Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Keith: The only time he uses this particular word is when he’s talking about men. “You are.” And when you said the difference between light, and being a light giver, it kind of got me a little bit excited.

“This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. Come on now! This little light of mine, I’m going let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!”

Now, welcome to Hebrew Gospel Pearls, episode number 23; Matthew chapter 5:14-16. Whatever you do, don't mess with my campfire song! I’ve been singing that song since age 14.

Nehemia: Have you?

Keith: This is the song, “This Little Light of Mine,” and at the end, you’re going to sing it with me!

Nehemia: I am?

Keith: According to the language, history and context of the Hebrew gospel of Matthew. Folks, we’re in Matthew 5:14-16, we have already done the Biblical Beatitude Series, that’s already available at NehemiasWall, BFA International, with an interlinear, its available.

Last episode, episode 5, Salt…

Nehemia: 5:13.

Keith: And we ended in a controversial way, Nehemia, because he’s talking about the you, but he does it again, here comes the pronoun pearl. He again is going to do it. So what I want you to do before we get started, I want you to read it in Hebrew and translate it to English, and we're going to get into my lovely little campfire song verse.

Nehemia: All right. He says, “Maor atem bolam, ir bnuya al hahar, lo tochal lahistater,” “You are light in the world, a city built on a mountain cannot be hidden.”

Verse 15, “Lo yadliku ner lehasim oto bamakom nistar, shelo tair, rak mesimim oto el hamenorah lahair lekhol bnei habait,” “they don’t light a lamp to place it in a hidden place, where it cannot give light, they only place it upon a menorah, a lampstand, to give light for all the children of the house.”

Verse 16, “Ken yair meorchem lifnei chol adam, leharotam ma’ahsechem hatovim, hameshubachot, umechabdot le’avichem sheh bashamiim,” “your light will give light before every man, to show them your good deeds that give praise and honour your Father in heaven.”

Keith: Now the first three words.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: The first three words can be the entire episode, I’m telling you, the first three words! And I know you’ve got all your notes… notes and notes and notes. But Nehemia, before we get started can we just deal with the first of the first three words?

Nehemia: Okay.

Keith: What is the first word? Now, when I see the word light, I’m like okay, I’m thinking light. When you read that first word, what do you see, what does it mean?

Nehemia: Maor.

Keith: Maor.

Nehemia: Maor is that which gives light, or sheds light. So this is actually an interesting distinction we see in Genesis 1. On the first day, He said yehi or, which is Alef-Vav-Resh, let there be light, "vayehi or”, “and there was light”. And on the fourth day He said “let there be lights” but it’s a different word for light, from the same root. Instead of or, it’s ma-or, and there it was plural meorot, and then there was maor hagadol, maor hakatan, the big light, and the little light.

So the light of day four is the light giver, that which sheds light, that which gives light, and it’s interesting - what is the difference between the first day and the fourth day of creation? In one of them, He says “let there be light”, He makes light, and in the other, on the fourth day He makes light. On the first day, what He creates is not a specific source of light, but just the entity of light, the concept of light, the physics substance called light.

In fact, some ancient Jewish commentator said it was this mystical light, the light that gave life to the world, or something like this, and then some people said, that light was the Torah. Then on the fourth day, He's making specific lights. He makes the sun, He makes the moon, He makes the stars. Now, today we can say the moon doesn't produce light of its own, it reflects light of the sun - and also light of the earth to some extent - but mostly of the sun. So maor is that which gives light, and it can even be reflecting light, so it doesn’t have to be the source of light, it can be reflecting light. So when he says, “you’re the light to the world,” “maor atem ba’olam,” “you’re a light in the world,” he’s saying “you’re the givers of light in the world”.

Keith: Stop Nehemia. Find that word anywhere else in the Hebrew gospel of Matthew. You’re not going to find it Nehemia. Go ahead, search!

Nehemia: Is it unique to there?

Keith: It’s unique! And this is what I said, and this is what I love about our study process ahead of time.

Nehemia: That’s it. Verses 14 and 16.

Keith: The only time he uses this particular word is when he’s talking about them, “you are”. And when you said the difference between light and being a light giver, it kind of got me a little bit excited. So this is what he’s saying that they are right now, and what does that mean? He says, “You are a light giver.”

You know what I love about this passage? He not only gives information, he starts to give application. So we’re going to find the application. But “you are light in the world right now”.

What does it mean? I'm a light giver in the world. What does that mean? Back then, what would that mean?

Nehemia: I think we know what it means from the context by what it continues with, in other words, your people see what you do, and based on what they see that you do… We have this idea in the Torah where God says to Israel, “You’re going to be an example for the world, it could be a good example or a bad example. If you’re good example people will look upon you and say, ‘Wow, what a wise nation, they must have a very wise God who gave them wise commandments.’ And if you’re a bad example and God punishes you, you will be,” it says “mashal ushnina”, “a proverb, and a byword”. People will look at you and say “Wow, that’s what happens when you sin against God.”

So when he says that they will be a light to the world, he means to be a good example to the world, and the purpose of being a light isn’t to be hidden, it’s for people to see it. I feel like we’ve completed the passage and we can end the episode.

Keith: Oh no, because it gets better.

Nehemia: That’s the moneyball right? That’s the takeaway. When he says to them “You are a light to the world, your actions are seen by others, and it's your opportunity to do honor to God.”

Keith: Now, can you do me a favor quickly, because you mentioned it, but you didn't give a verse. “Light to the nations” - can you go to that verse?

Nehemia: Absolutely. Before we go to that, I want to talk about this general idea that light in the Tanakh has different functions - and in the New Testament - because I've talked to people who say “Well, every time we deal with light that's Jesus, that’s Yeshua, because Yeshua is the light of the world.”

Okay, I understand that concept, and in the New Testament we definitely have those kinds of statements, for example John 8:12, “Again Yeshua spoke to them saying, ‘I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” So you could say we have a contradiction here, if you want to be hyper literal and say, “Wait a minute. Is Yeshua the light? Or are the disciples the light?” So, in the Tanakh itself we have light as having different functions.

Keith: Okay.

Nehemia: Being used metaphorically, and this is actually a really important concept Keith, that people get hung up on and say there is a certain metaphor, used in a certain way, somewhere in the New Testament, or the Tanakh, or somewhere, and they will say it has to always mean that, like leaven. I've met people who have decided never to eat leaven in their lives, because leaven is sin.

Keith: Right.

Nehemia: And I think, well okay, leaven is sin according to the New Testament in some verses, but in other verses, leaven is actually a positive thing. Meaning you could have a metaphor that’s used in different ways, it’s used in a positive way, and a negative way, so it all depends on the context. In the last episode we talked about salt. Salt can mean destruction.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: But salt could also mean preservation, the opposite of destruction. “You are the salt in the world,” means you are preserving the world by living righteously, by living in accordance with what he’s about to teach, that brings us preservation to the world. Salt in the world could also be destruction depending on the context. So what I think is worth looking at is the different ways that the metaphor is used; in some its positive and some its negative.

We have Yeshua as light in the New Testament, we have Israel as light in the Tanakh, we have the disciples as light, which is our verse, we have the Torah as light. So there are different uses of the same metaphor. For example, leaven as sin is 1 Corinthians 5:6 and Galatians 5:9, but then Yeshua in Matthew 16:12 is talking about leaven, and what does he say? And it's interesting… there he’s talking about the leaven as the teaching of the Pharisees; so it’s not sin, it’s the teaching of the Pharisees.

But Matthew 13:33, and I have spoken to Christians who are like, “How come nobody ever told me this verse?” And I think “Well, it’s right there in your Bible.” I don’t know why they don’t preach it, and maybe they do some. “He told them in another parable, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast,’” this is NRSV, but the word is leaven, “that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened.” What does that mean, that the Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast? Yeast spreads, it infects - and I don’t mean in a bad way, because yeast consists of a type of fungus. It's a complicated sort of thing, but you put it in a piece of dough, and that spreads throughout the dough, it’s infecting all the dough – and he’s saying that the Kingdom of Heaven spreads like that as well. And that’s a positive type thing “the Kingdom of Heaven”, it’s not a bad thing.

So light, similarly, can also be used in different ways, and I think that’s very important. So let’s look at the different ways it can be used. Can we do that?

Keith: Sure.

Nehemia: So, you wanted to start with Israel, so let’s do that. Isaiah 42:6, “I, Yehovah, in My grace, have summoned you, and I have grasped you by the hand. I created you and appointed you a covenant people.”

And it says in Hebrew, “le’or goyim”, “as a light for the nations”. What does it mean that God appointed Israel as a light for the nations? What it means there, is that Israel is supposed to be an example for the peoples, and it'll be a good example or bad example. He wants us here to be a good example in Isaiah 42:6, “Be a good example so that the world looks upon you and says, ‘Okay that is the type of person who lives in accordance with the word of God, that's a righteous person.’”

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: “That does honor to God, that glorifies Him.” Isaiah 49:6, “For He has said, ‘It is too little that you should be My servant, and that I raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel. I will also make you a light of nations, that My salvation may reach the ends of the Earth.’”

So what is the message here in Isaiah 49:6? He’s explicitly talking about the remnant of Jacob, the people who are from the twelve tribes of Israel, that they will be a light to the nations, and the purpose of them being a light to the nations is that “yeshuati”, my yeshua, my salvation, will reach the end of the Earth. How does his salvation reach the end of the Earth?

Well, if we are living as God's people and living as sinners, people will be say, “Well yes, that’s those people who follow Yehovah, the people who follow the God of Israel, they’re nasty people.” Or we live a righteous lifestyle and people will see that and say, “Wow, I want what those people have, I want to emulate that. That is righteousness.” I think that’s what Yeshua is saying in Matthew 5 to the people listening to his sermon. That you can be light in the world, and people will see your light, and it will give honor to your Father in Heaven. People will see that example and live in accordance with that. As opposed to if you’re a bad person, they will say “Oh, that’s what those Christians do, that’s what those Jews do.” Then you’re dishonoring God.

And that’s a really important concept that has been developed in Judaism, and it’s called “mar’it ayin,” which means “the appearance of the eye.” And the idea is that there are certain things that, while they may technically be permitted, if somebody saw you do them, he might think they’re forbidden and say, “That’s one of those religious Jews. That’s a bad thing he’s doing,” without realizing that what you’re doing is actually okay.

The example I was taught as a kid is if you go into McDonald’s and you pull out the hamburger that you have brought with you, and it’s kosher, and you start eating it, people will think you’re eating the BLT - the bacon, lettuce, and tomato. They might not know any better and might think, “Okay, here is a guy who looks Jewish, he’s eating the BLT, so it must be okay to eat the BLT.” Or, “Those Jews don’t really follow the Torah anyway, they eat bacon.” The point is that there are things that you can do that may not be forbidden, but they dishonor God, and in that sense they’re contrary, I would say, to the spirit of the Torah.

Keith: Let me ask you this; when you’re reading this verse and it says, “light giver you are in the world,” that’s a fact. And then when it says, “you’re light”, now I think in my English Bible, I’m so used to looking at Hebrew Matthew, I’m losing my campfire song. It says here “you are”, and then it uses one little English word, “the light”, that's what it says in 14 in English. Here it just says, “you are light”. Now, when you hear the difference between that, anything hits you? In other words, when I thought about the “you are the light”, I’m like, “Okay, that must mean that I’m different.” I didn't know about Israel being light, I didn’t know about the Torah being light. This is “the light”, that's what it says in English.

Nehemia: Yes, so I don't know if that's necessarily significant, and I'll tell you why. The way that different languages use the word, “the”, can vary. For example, in American English you’ll say, “I went to the hospital.” Well, which hospital did you go to?

Keith: Right.

Nehemia: Normally if I say “the” it’s something that’s known, “well, just any old hospital”. No, why did you say “the hospital”? In England they say, “I went to hospital”.

Keith: Right.

Nehemia: They don't say the word “the”. So the word “the” there is a bit tricky.

Keith: Well, I'm asking, in English it says “the light,” so in my mind I am thinking if Yeshua is saying this then I’m it. I am the light.

Nehemia: Well, you disciples are light.

Keith: Okay.

Nehemia: In other words, if you look here at the Greek, it has the plural pronoun, hymeis, which is equivalent to “atem”, which is “all y’all”, it's the plural, and so it says, “you are” not, “you is”, again plural.

Keith: Right.

Nehemia: “To phos”, “the light”. In Hebrew it didn't say, “the light”, “maor atem ba’olam”, it could mean “you’re a light in the world”, but I am trying to thing here, it said, “hamaor atem ba’olam”. No, if it was going to say, “the light”, it probably also would have said it without the Hey, without the “the”. So I don't know if that it’s necessarily significant.

Keith: Here is what happened for me. The second part of it, based on the conversation we just had, is that whether these are good things or bad things, DNA, your light, it’s going to shine.

Nehemia: Right.

Keith: In other words, is it good or bad?

Nehemia: I am saying good or bad based on Deuteronomy and Leviticus. He’s saying, “be good.” In other words, it’s just like saying the salt; the purpose of salt is to have flavor, to preserve. If you lose your flavor what good are you? Your purpose as light isn’t to be hidden.

Keith: Right.

Nehemia: The purpose of your light, of your actions, reflecting your obedience to God, is for people to see it.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: So if you do everything in secret and nobody ever sees your righteousness, than you’re not fulfilling your function, you’re not filling your duty.

Keith: You’re feeding right into the verse. Because it says this, “a city on a hill”.

Nehemia: I'm getting it from the verse. I’m not feeding into the verse; I'm being nourished by the verse!

Keith: Amen. “A city built upon a hill”, a mountain, in your translation you said on a mountain. By the way, in Israel, you guys talk about mountains in Israel - I think there’s one mountain.

Nehemia: Well… You mean Mount Hermon?

Keith: Mount Hermon. The rest of these are big hills Nehemia.

Nehemia: Keith, I was in Nepal seven or eight years ago. I was in an area that we were hiking up and down 5,000 feet every day, and I said something about hiking through the mountains, and my guide, who was a local Nepalese guy, he said, “By law, anything below 20,000 feet is not categorized as a mountain in Nepal.” I said, “Well can I say that this is the foothills of the Himalayas?” He said, “You can say whatever you want, but technically these aren’t even considered the foothills. The foothills are 20,000 feet and above.” And we were going between 5,000-10,000 feet up and down, what I would call mountains, coming from Israel, and he said, “those aren’t mountains”.

In Israel, we bring this in the book A Prayer to Our Father, talking about the Mount of the Beatitudes. There is a mountain today called Mount of the Beatitudes. Do you remember how many meters above sea level it is? It's 60 meters, so like 180 to 200 feet below sea level. The top of the Mount of Beatitudes, it’s towering over the Sea of Galilee, which is 220 meters or so meters below sea level, it’s something like 700 feet above the surrounding countryside, and that’s called a mountain in Israel. So you’re right, the word “mountain” probably translates into Western terms better as “hill”.

Keith: Okay, here is what I am saying though, when it says, “you are a light giver,” that's what you are in the world.

Nehemia: Yeah.

Keith: “A city on the hill,” or upon a hill, “is not able to be hidden.” So in other words, whatever I do, we're going to get the good, but whatever I do, like you said, you gave the idea that if they walked into McDonald's and they had the sandwich and they were eating it, it can be interpreted, because what they do…

Nehemia: Well look, looks can be deceiving, and it's important to be careful. There’s a statement that I think comes from the Catholic church, about not even having the appearance of impropriety, and I think that is kind of what Yeshua is saying here, “Look, you have the opportunity to give honor to your Father in heaven.”

Keith: Because this is who you are.

Nehemia: “Your purpose is to be a light for people to see and to learn what righteousness is, and if you don't live according to that purpose, then you won't be fulfilling that purpose, and you'll be dishonoring God.” And I think that’s what he’s saying here, this idea of living in accordance with righteousness, not in order to rack up brownie points in heaven, but to honor God, that people around will say, “Okay, this is how a righteous person behaves.”

Keith: Now, I want to push you just a little bit more on the last word of verse 14. “Because you are a light giver, a city on a hill cannot be hidden… is not able to be hidden.” So the hidden aspect that no matter what’s done in the dark will be brought to the light… is there anything in this that we could say - before we get to the to the next verses - that there is something about who you are that there's no choice, there is no hiding, there is no “Well, no one will know, nothing will happen, who I am is light, wherever I go I am light, whether I’m doing good or evil…”

Nehemia: I don’t know, I think there is a choice. Meaning… so what does he say here? He says, “The purpose of light isn't to hide it, so you don't put it in a place where it cannot give light, in a hidden place,” in verse 15, “the only place the candelabrum, the menorah, in a place that all the children of the house can see it.” But you can hide it, ultimately there is a choice. This is one of the key principles in the Torah, that I think is being reflected here.

So I want to jump to this, it’s in Deuteronomy, it’s one of my favorite passages the whole Tanakh, I know I always say that. I had this conversation with someone, a very devout Christian lady, and she was telling me that she interprets everything in existence through John 3:16. So anything that happens, anything she ever reads, everything is interpreted through John 3:16. And I thought that was very profound, because I had to stop and think, “Okay well what is the passage that I interpret everything through?” And I knew exactly what the answer was, meaning there is a prism through which I interpret everything, and obviously it's not going to be John 3:16, it’s in Deuteronomy, chapter 30.

And I think it’s actually profound that this woman was able to say, “Hey, I interpret everything, doesn't matter what verse you bring to me, what thing in reality you bring to me, I know how I’m interpreting things, that I have this prism.” A lot of people aren't aware of what their prism is, they have one, or they pretend that they don't have one, but they do have one. So I don't think there is anything wrong with that, it’s just important to be aware of it.

Let's start in verse 15 of Deuteronomy 30, “See I set before you today life and prosperity,” this is the NIV, “death and destruction.” In Hebrew it says, “See I place before you, hachaim ve et hatov, “life and good,” “ve at hamavet ve at harah,” “and death and evil, for I command you today, to love Yehovah, your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His commands, decrees and laws, then you will live and increase, and Yehovah, your God, will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you’re not obedient, and if you were drawn away to bow down to other gods, and worship them, I declare you this day, that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land that you're crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call Heaven and Earth as witnesses against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.”

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: These are the most profound words maybe that have ever been spoken, some of the most profound words. “Now choose life that you and your children may live.” And it goes on, “That you may love Yehovah, your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him, for Yehovah is your life.”

Keith: Is your life.

Nehemia: “Yehovah is your life, and He will give you many years in the land He swore to give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” That statement, “choose life that you and your children may live, that you may live, you and your descendants.” You do have a choice. You can be light, but the purpose of light is not to be hidden, the purpose of light… And look, this is actually kind of a debate that Jews have had with Christians for centuries, particularly the mainline medieval denominations of Greek Orthodox and the Catholics. They had this idea that if you really wanted to be righteous, what you needed to do is go into a monastery on a hillside somewhere and live in a cave, and by living in a cave you would never gossip, you would never hate your brother in your heart, you would never commit slander, you would never offend anybody, because you're by yourself in a cave.

The Jewish mentality is, “Well no, our purpose isn't to live in a cave somewhere, it’s to live in the world, the world that God saw, and He said it was good, that He created.” Now, it’s full of evil people, we’re told that the thoughts of man are evil from his youth, in Genesis. So the ultimate objective isn't to live in a cave somewhere and thereby be “righteous”, the ultimate objective is to live in the universe, to live in the world with other people, and despite that, choose good and not bad, and then your light will shine before people. Then people will look and say, “Okay, wow, it's not easy living with people, it’s not easy interacting with people and not sinning, and yet these people still live a righteous lifestyle.” That is the objective, I think that’s how Jews look at it, and I think that’s what Yeshua is expressing here, because if you're living in a cave somewhere, you are on a mountain hidden, you’re the lamp that has been lit to be hidden in a cave somewhere? That's your objective? That ain’t it.

Keith: I’ll tell you this, Nehemia, when I read this, it says here, “Listen, you can't hide a city built on a hill, whatever you do.”

Nehemia: We have to remember, they didn't have streetlights back then, and highway lights. It’s interesting, in Israel I would look out my window often, and I would see off in the distance these really bright lights, and they were in the Kingdom of Jordan, 30 miles away.

Keith: That’s cool.

Nehemia: And the guy’s driving down the highway, in the Kingdom of Jordan, as he turns, his lights are looking directly into my window, when I lived in north Jerusalem. They didn’t live in that world. In the world of the time of Yeshua, really up until 150-200 years ago, if you went into the countryside, there was nothing. Let's say there was no moon out, about half the month there’s no moon out, you’re walking in complete darkness, the closest thing you can see is a city off in the distance, and it's full of light. That's what this means, a city on a hill. Now, if the city’s in a valley, I might not see it, but if I am walking in the countryside, and there's a city up on the hill, at night there's going to be a whole bunch of light. Now, they didn’t have streetlights even in the city, but there were people who had their cook fires going, and there were people who had lamps going, and you would see off in the distance, you're surrounded by darkness, and out there in the distance is this light shining. I think that's what Yeshua is saying - we live in this world surrounded by darkness, surrounded by sin, iniquity, depravity, cruelty, and the objective that you should strive for, is to be that light, that city on the hill, that light that shines and people can say, “Wow, there is goodness in this world.”

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: There are people who live according to righteousness, there are people who exemplify what it means to walk in accordance with the will of God, and not this sin and iniquity and depravity. I think that's what he means when he says you’re a light in the world, and your objective, your purpose is to be that city on the hill.

Keith: Yes. What’s interesting Nehemia, is that he takes two more verses, and I think that these next two verses are really interesting, those are things that we found, things that we discussed, that I think make it even more clear. So we're almost at, believe it or not, right now. Right now…

Nehemia: Are we getting ready for the PLUS section? But I want to share about the Menorah, and about the different meanings of light, there’s so much more that we have to talk about.

Keith: We’ve got two more verses that we need to talk about, and here is the good news, I want to take a personal privilege right now. Can I? Take a personal privilege? Folks, everything that we’re doing right now, we’re not doing this in a way to leave you out on your own, at NehemiasWall… Nehemia I want you to do me a favor.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: Talk about your light, talk about some light that’s at NehemiasWall right now. You are a light, you are light there, there’s light that is at NehemiasWall. I want you to take a minute and talk about some of the things that you do, some of the things that you’re excited about, some of the things that are shining all over the world. Can you do that?

Nehemia: My mandate, my objective for my ministry, is to empower people with information. In the last episode we talked about Dr. Mark, and he shared about how textual criticism sometimes undermines people’s faith. That’s not my objective. My objective is to empower people with information so that when they encounter things that challenge their faith, they have that solid foundation, that solid bedrock, and on top of the bedrock they have those solid stones that are really set, they’re not just going to topple over.

I think it’s important especially today in the Information Age, to get that kind of information, to get that kind of foundation, because sooner or later you’re going to encounter it, and what you don’t want is to be blindsided by someone who comes at you, and they throw a bunch of contradictions in the Bible and you don’t know how to answer it, because you’ve never encountered textual criticism, you have never heard of these problems before.

Instead, when they come at you with those things, I want you to have that solid defense that you can put up and say, “Nehemia taught me about that, Keith taught me about that. I’ve read ten books about that, that doesn’t faze me, it doesn’t even impress me, because I have solid, strong faith in the Creator of the universe.”

That’s what I am trying to do at my website NehemiasWall. We have hundreds of hours of teachings, of videos, of audio, Torah Pearls, Prophet Pearls, and what I call my Support Team Studies, where I’ve taught about all kinds of textual problems and textual issues, and things I’ve discovered. And all that’s for one objective. You know, there’s the old saying, I’ll give you the Arthur Fonzarelli version. Fonzie said, “You can give a man a tuna fish sandwich and you feed him for a day, or you can teach him to fish, and you feed him for life.” I want to teach people to fish, and that’s the objective of what I try to do at NehemiasWall.com.

Keith: Amen. And Nehemia, you guys do a great job, I’m telling you, something, you didn’t even mention Hebrew Voices. How many people have listened to Hebrew Voices? How many people in the last few years?

Nehemia: Millions, literally we get some 5-10 million every year, I don’t remember the numbers anymore.

Keith: So that’s an example of where there’s light. We have it at BFA, Biblical Foundations Academy International, right now what we’re doing, I’m actually about to make a pretty big decision, I’m not going to make it in this episode, I’ll make it in a couple, but right now you have an opportunity to go to BFA as a free member, you don’t even have to be a member, and there are more presentations. I think we should sit down some time and actually count how many things that we’ve done and just given away.

The other thing I wanted to say, there was a powerful thing we did some months ago for Yom Teruah, at A Rood Awakening International, and I felt so excited about doing that with you. And Nehemia, we’ve got radio shows, television, and remember when we did God’s Learning Channel together! I mean, light, light, light, and people get a chance to get that information.

And so, right now, we are going to transition, we’re at about 30 minutes, we’re going to transition to PLUS because there are two more verses Nehemia, and the next verse, there’s a word in the next verse that you blew me away on. At first, we had a fight about it, I mean, we argued! Remember we were arguing, and you know we have our research…

Nehemia: And our secret studies session.

Keith: But in the end you came on my side. Not really. You found something that I think is going to be really powerful. We’re going to go to the PLUS section, at BFA International, you can become a Premium Member, it’s $9.99 a month, and after 7 days you don’t like it, you can cancel if you want. But let me just say something to those that don’t do that, as a free member, there is so much information. In fact, we have a Red-Letter Series that goes even through this verse, where you can go and get that information. But when we get to the next episodes, all that’s going to change.

So at this point we’re going to invite you to that. Nehemia, let’s say a prayer for light. Again, if you only go for verse 14 you get the general idea, but if you want to go a little deeper and become a Study Partner, we’ve got to go through verses 15 and 16.

Nehemia: Yehovah, Father in Heaven, thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to come here and bask in the light of Your word, bask in the light of people who have studied Your word and shared Your word, and try to delve into the depths of the foundations of Your word. Father, let us have that strong foundation, let us be a positive light in the world, that shows people Your glory and Your honor. Amen.

Keith: Father thank you so much again, for this opportunity, thank you so much that we are, we’re not wannabe light, we are light, and that we have an opportunity to allow that light to shine all over the world, may it be Father, through this opportunity, Hebrew Gospel Pearls at NehemiasWall, BFA International, all the places, all the opportunities, all the platforms, where we can share Your good news. In Your name, amen.

You have been listening to Hebrew Gospel Pearls with Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

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The post Hebrew Gospel Pearls #23 – This Little Light of Mine appeared first on Nehemia's Wall.