Prophet Pearls #18 – Mishpatim (Jeremiah 34:8-22; 33:25-26)

In this episode of Prophet Pearls,  Mishpatim Jeremiah 34:8-22; 33:25-26, ever obedient servants of context, Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson begin at the beginning—with two verses moved to the end of this Portion by the Rabbis.  In these two verses … Continue reading →

The post Prophet Pearls #18 – Mishpatim (Jeremiah 34:8-22; 33:25-26) appeared first on Nehemia's Wall.

In this episode of Prophet Pearls,  Mishpatim Jeremiah 34:8-22; 33:25-26, ever obedient servants of context, Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson begin at the beginning—with two verses moved to the end of this Portion by the Rabbis.  In these two verses in which the unfailing laws of nature are equated with God’s promises to Israel, Gordon makes a connection between the theories of physicists and the views of pundits regarding the land of Israel.  Gordon and Johnson further explore why these two verses (and eight others) are missing from the Septuagint and why the spelling of Isaac differs here from elsewhere in the Tanakh.

Gordon gives Torah definitions for slavery and indentured servitude and compares current U.S. penal policies to the slavery of which Jeremiah spoke. We learn the concrete and abstract meanings of the word-of-the-week, “liberty-deror” (dalet-reish-vav-reish) and through a classic example of Hebrew word play we learn the consequences of denying “deror” to others. In closing, Johnson prays that love of neighbor will grow from hearts that receive the ancient and relevant words of the prophet.

"...As surely as I have established My covenant with day and night... so I will never reject the offspring of Jacob and My servant David..." (Jeremiah 33:25-26)

I look forward to reading your comments!

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Transcript

Prophet Pearls #18 - Mishpatim (Jeremiah 34:8-22; 33:25-26)

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

Nehemia: Scripture, the final frontier. These are the discussions of the Prophet Pearls podcast. Its one-year mission; to explore challenging verses, to seek out common ground and understanding, to boldly go where no Methodist and Karaite have gone before.

That’s it.

Keith: You wanted to add the…?

Nehemia: Wait, can we add in that music?

Keith: Absolutely. Do you think about this stuff, Nehemia?

Nehemia: I do.

Keith: Like, do you sit down and write this?

Nehemia: Well, no, I was driving in the car somewhere and this came to me. I’m like, “This is it. This is my intro. Keith has, “Shalom chaverim sheli.” That’s your thing.

Keith: Yes. Now, this is your thing. Well, it’s good. And you get this for a few more weeks, and then after that, we can go back and forth because we’re going to be together again. Why are we going to be together? Because we’re taking the chance…

Nehemia: Thank God.

Keith: Let’s see. Today I think we started an hour ago. It’s about, well, about 45 minutes in.

Nehemia: Actually, oh, yes, it was an hour ago, 45 minutes.

Keith: About an hour ago. So folks, please bear with us. We’re trying to put this together. We’re trying to do our recordings. Then for those who don’t know, we’re going to be meeting together in the Land of the Prophets in Israel so that we can be together like we were for the first ten episodes and record Prophet Pearls together. I think it’s significant that we’re going to be at the place where the prophets spoke, where a lot of the prophets spoke.

Nehemia: Isn’t this a picture of Amos 3:3, the verse that’s translated in the King James, “Can two walk together…” how is it in the King James?

Keith: “Unless they agree.” Yes.

Nehemia: “Unless they agree.” Right. In the Hebrew, it’s, “Can two walk together without having met one another?” We just can’t even have this conversation unless we meet on the common ground of the internet and Skype. The government where you are isn’t having it, and the internet infrastructure where I am is… I’m actually right now on the Olympic Peninsula, as far as I understand, this is the only non-tropical rainforest in the world, and it doesn’t have the best internet where I am in a place called Sequim.

Keith: Wow. So you’re in Sequim…

Nehemia: Where are you? I’m in Sequim. I’m Sequiming around.

Keith: Yes, I’m in China. Actually, right now, this week while you all are listening to this, I am still in the bush of Africa and on my way back to China. It’s interesting - we’re doing what’s called a Far East-Middle East - I don’t like to use the word mission - I would say it’s an initiative, and the doors are flinging open. We’ll talk about that later. But I’m actually in this part of the world, you’re in that part of the world, and now, we’re going to try to look into the book of Jeremiah.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: Which I’ve been looking forward to this. This is an interesting section that we’re going to look at. But I do have a question before we get started.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: Now I’m just checking on this. Is it your understanding that it’s Jeremiah 34:8 through 22, and then Jeremiah 33:25 and 26? Is that your understanding?

Nehemia: That’s correct. Yes.

Keith: And so, do we get to start with 33:25 through 26?

Nehemia: We should end with it. I think we’ve talked about this in the past, and here it’s actually really…

Keith: So you’re telling me we’re going to go backward? We’re going to read the first part and then go backwards and jump back and forth?

Nehemia: Ken. Betach. Of course.

Keith: Okay. All right.

Nehemia: But why did they do that? We’ve talked about in the past that you have this situation… and we can talk about it in general, meaning, why is it that… In the past what we had was they plucked two verses a few chapters later, and it was so they could end on a good note. Here they chose the last two verses, which actually should be the first two verses. In other words, chronologically, like you’re saying, it goes Jeremiah 33:25 and 26, and then the following verse is Jeremiah 34:1, and what they did is put the last two verses at the end, to end on a good note, because the end of 34 isn’t really a good note.

Keith: I’m not buying this whole thing anymore. I mean this whole thing about switching and grabbing certain verses and putting certain… Look, we’re doing this, we’re going by what the reading is, but I have to tell you, it’s a little frustrating, like when you’re in a passage and then they cut that part and go to another part. I mean that’s what they do, this is for the year, and we’re going to do that. But, for me, what I love about reading Scripture in context, and I think that’s, I would say, by far, in terms of interpretation, it is probably short of the language, the context has got to be right there as far as the most important issue. If you don’t have context and you can just pull a verse here and put it there and how do you want it to... It just gets really confusing, and I think that’s the whole point of Scripture - that it’s written in context and what was the situation Jeremiah was versus Isaiah versus Ezekiel versus in Kings when we’re reading? We have to add that to the mix.

Nehemia: Yes. Well, context is obviously key. That’s what I’ve been talking about for decades, which is understanding Scripture based on the history, the language, and the context, the cultural context, the historical context, the language. I mean, that’s really from my earliest interaction with the whole Oral Law thing. My problem with the Rabbis that I had is that they were taking things out of context and simply reading them in context. So here’s an example - it was probably perhaps rabbis who came up with this section and put these last two… So I’ll accept that. If you want to start with verses 25 and 26 of Jeremiah, I accept that. Let’s do it. You’ve convinced me!

Keith: Can I read 33:25 and 26?

Nehemia: Beseder.

Keith: Before we get started, I’m really excited about this. Our Prophet Pearls partner is Sven Brown. Sven was in Germany, actually, when we did this; now he’s in Colorado. I’m giving his whole name, and the reason I’m giving his whole name is that this guy, he and his wife, Tina, have been so significant not only to this process, but to so many things that have been going on. And the idea was that he would be able to give us comments and questions, and we’d be able to respond to them. I’ve reached out to him. He happens to be a pilot who flies around the world, so he might even be in this part of the world. And so he hasn’t been able to get back to us. And so what I’m going to ask him to do, as we’ve asked a number of people to do, because of this logistic, technical problem - we’re not within the schedule, we’re ahead of schedule - hopefully to be able to get something recorded so that it’ll be available on the date that it comes up. So I’m going to ask him to do what we asked some other folks to do, and that’s to write in our comments sections at nehemiaswall.com, and bfainternational.com his comments regarding this passage. It was a passage that he selected, he was excited about, and it’s supposed to be recorded in mid-February, but it’s January because we’re going to see if we can even get it done. So Sven, be patient with us, but we want to hear your comments and your questions. Thank you for being a partner, and for all those that are doing that. But he did pick this section so let’s look at 33:25 and 26. Can I read it from the NIV, Nehemia?

Nehemia: Please.

Keith: Okay. “This is what the Lord,” capital L-O-R-D, “Yehovah says, ‘If I have not established My covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth,’” man, I love this verse. Can I steal one of your lines here?

Nehemia: I’m sure you can.

Keith: This really is - the next verse - this really is one of my favorite verses just because of what it says.

Nehemia: “We’ve already heard our 50 favorite verses. I don’t understand!”

Keith: I’m just saying this is one… “…not established My covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth, then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes,” and I think it says here, “and bring them back from…”

Nehemia: That’s what you have, “I will restore their fortunes”?

Keith: No, no. They have a note here in the NIV. It also says, “Or will bring them back from captivity.”

Nehemia: “And I will bring back their captivity,” not “or.” It says that “ashiv et shvutam,” “I will bring back their captivity.” So you’re saying the NIV didn’t want the Jews coming back to Israel because that’s not politically correct.

Keith: No, no. They put the note there. They put the note there saying...

Nehemia: They did that in the footnote.

Keith: Yes, it’s in the footnote.

Nehemia: Come on. Give me a break.

Keith: “I will restore their fortunes or will bring them back from captivity and have compassion on them.” Now, why is this one of my favorite verses?

Nehemia: Why?

Keith: Just because I think sometimes it’s circumstance, whether I’m here or over the years, and I look at the news and I hear about what’s happening, sometimes it is overwhelming in negativity, and it’s overwhelming. And I guess I can understand why you always want to finish on a good note. But I say let’s start on a good note, and the good note here in Scripture is that this is something that He’s going to do. He says, “I’ve got to deal with the heavens and the earth,” we have an understanding. He says, “If I have not established My covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth.” In other words, as those fixed laws work, that’s a situation where...

Nehemia: What fixed laws are we talking about?

Keith: I’m looking at the fixed laws of how the laws of the universe work.

Nehemia: Right.

Keith: I mean, whether it’s the sun that rises or the way that the planets and the Earth go around the sun.

Nehemia: The reason I ask that, and the reason I think it’s important to state, is that there are definitely some people historically, and even today, who have said there are no laws of nature. In fact, every time you throw a rock up in the air and it comes back down, that’s a miracle that God is performing. That’s kind of true, but the miracle is that He’s sustaining the universe by establishing these laws and keeping them in force. So there are definitely laws of nature, but He created those laws of nature, and it’s really interesting that today there are physicists, and I know your son, who’s a science guy, probably knows more about this than I do, but there are physicists today who have looked at the universe, the laws of physics, and they say that these laws are too eloquent, they work too well. They say, “What are the odds that the universe would have these laws? It makes no sense.” So they’ve come up with this theory that there’s an infinite number of universes and we just by coincidence happen to be sitting in the universe where the laws of nature allow for life to exist and for the laws of physics to work. But all the other universes don’t work so well.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: So it seems to me like we have this worldwide movement today to deny Israel’s right to their land, to deny Israel’s covenant with the Creator of the universe, and I think that goes hand-in-hand with people denying that He is the Creator of the universe, that He has established these laws. If you deny His... and that’s exactly what these verses are saying, just as true as He establishes these laws, and these laws will continue forever and as long as the universe exists, so too, will His covenant with Israel continue, and He will restore their captivity and have mercy upon them.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: And isn’t this a great example…?

Keith: You know what’s interesting, too…?

Nehemia: Go ahead. Yes.

Keith: No, what I was going to say is it sometimes they focus on the end… For example, you talked about the covenant with Israel and Israel’s right to a God-given promised land, so people would focus on that and say, “Well, that can’t be because of this, this, this…” But really, I think you tapped into something really interesting. You touched a nerve, and the nerve is, “Well, we can’t take that seriously because that promise is based on this God who we don’t want to acknowledge, who’s given His word, and His will, and His way. We can’t acknowledge that. So we can’t acknowledge Israel’s covenant with this God because we can’t acknowledge this God because we…” I mean, it goes deeper and deeper and deeper. But ultimately, isn’t it all about: Is there a God, a Creator of the universe, who did what you just talked about? Designed this amazing universe. And to acknowledge that design is to acknowledge Him, and we can’t acknowledge Him. It’s like denial of Him, and that’s why the whole issue with Israel is so important. Sometimes people focus on the political issue and say, “Well, here’s why that can’t be. There’s got to be a two-state solution because of this, that, and the other.” We don’t want to hear about covenants and promises and creators and our Father. That’s not something that we want to focus on.

Nehemia: Right. Then one of the things I’ll hear from these people who are against Israel, they’ll say, “Oh, you people, you came from Russia.” In my case, legitimately, you can say my great-grandfather came from Lithuania, but that wasn’t his homeland. His homeland was Israel, and that’s why I’ve come back. That’s what it means here when it says, “I will return their captivity.” My great grandfather, he was a captive in Lithuania. So God brought us back from captivity, and now people are saying, “Oh, no, get back to captivity. that’s where you belong!” That’s why they want us in captivity. They can’t stomach this, that the Jews have been restored to their land and that the covenant still stands, just as the stars and heaven are there, and then the sun rises and sets.

And we were talking about context - Jeremiah 33:26 is a great verse, especially in the NIV, if we wanted to illustrate what it means to take something out of context. So obviously, verse 25 sets it up and then verse 26 opens with, “Then.” Let’s take out the word “then.” If we take out the word “then,” we can read the verse, “I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!” I mean, you could do that if you wanted to take things out of context. This is why context is so important.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: Someone once pointed out that it says in the Bible, “There is no God.” Of course, the full verse says, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’ ” But I can show you those words, “There is no God,” in the Bible if I take it out of context. And this is what people like to do.

I want to point out two really interesting things about this passage. One is that we have the name Isaac here, is unique. It doesn’t appear this way anywhere else in the Bible. It’s Itzhak with a tzadi, and here it’s Ishak with a sin. Those are two different letters in Hebrew. They sound a little bit similar. They’re made from a similar part of the mouth, but they are different, and it’s interesting here that he says Ishak, and is there something to that? Itzhak is “he will laugh.” Ishak is “he will play.” I don’t know that there’s anything to it, but maybe somebody can come to the website, nehemiaswall.com, or your website, Keith, and they can share in the comments maybe an explanation of why the name would be here “he will play,” instead of “he will laugh.”

Keith: Wow. You don’t have a theory for that?

Nehemia: Yes. One more thing about this passage. One of the controversies I’ll hear a lot about - especially from Christians and Messianics and Hebrew Roots people, not all of them, but there’s a certain segment of them who they’re just not comfortable with the Hebrew Bible. There is this Greek translation of the Tanakh called the Septuagint, and they’re much more comfortable with that. They don’t really want to acknowledge the Hebrew Bible. We’ve even encountered some of these people who, I think, probably are extreme. But they’ve actually said, “That Hebrew Bible is anti-Yeshua.” You know who I’m talking about, right? That there are people who have said that, and then we’re like, “Okay, so you’re rejecting the Word of God?” “No, I accept the Word of God,” they’ll say, “But we want to use the Greek text.” Oh, okay. Do you have a Septuagint there, Keith, by any chance?

Keith: I really don’t.

Nehemia: You don’t?

Keith: I’m actually in this part of the world where I have limited ability to carry all my library, Nehemia. Are you seriously asking me that question?

Nehemia: I’ve got it on my laptop. So I want to invite people to look at the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of Jeremiah 33 verses 25-26 and see how it differs in the Hebrew. I’ll just give you the answer, because I know some people won’t look it up: It’s not there. Those two verses do not exist in the Septuagint. In fact, you can go all the way back to Jeremiah 33:14 and then read through 26 and that entire section does not exist in the Greek. You’ve got to wonder, is this a Greek agenda or is the Greek text just completely corrupt and inadequate to the point where it’s missing, what is that, like over 10 verses? Good question. Yes.

Keith: It’s something. If you do what I really do love when I can, at least, for me, when I’m sitting in my little office, and I have all my books and library and all that stuff, and you can take a look at things and you can ask these kinds of questions, which I think are phenomenal questions, because it gives you a chance to understand the significance of Scripture, the Hebrew texts, and how important it is and how reliable, comparatively, it is. I think that’s a great example of what you just brought up, as a place of reference, man, helpful. But as a place of ultimate authority, the original Scriptures, that’s just got to be where we start. We have to start there.

Nehemia: But isn’t that interesting that the church embraced - certainly the Greek Orthodox Church - embraced this Greek Septuagint that doesn’t even have this promise to Jacob? Of course, there are other verses, so I don’t know that that was the exact agenda, but they’re definitely much more comfortable with their version of Jeremiah 33:25 to 26, which doesn’t exist, than they are with, “We’ve got to deal with the Jews. They’ve got a legitimate claim here.”

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: Exactly. Well, now, if we can go to 34… and partly, I’m going to be honest with you, I want to make a confession right away.

Nehemia: What’s that?

Keith: People probably don’t understand the stress of not being able to get a recording, and you and I, there are some funny things that we catch as far as what we say during all of that stuff. But one of the things that for me is that I’m a little bit nervous because when we’re in the same room together, and we’re sitting together, and we’ve got our little recording device, and we can talk back and forth, it seems that there’s a little bit more flexibility. But I don’t know any phrase, any sentence, any period, any exclamation mark where you’re just going to say, “Hello? Hello, are you there?”

Nehemia: Right. It’s frustrating.

Keith: I just have to tell I’m under a bit of stress. It’s like a witness under certain stress, they put a gun to their head and say, “Now, tell us; did you say this?” You know it’s like I’m a witness under duress right now.

Nehemia: Testify, brother! Jeremiah 34:1.

Keith: Well, actually, Nehemia, just so you know, it’s not 34:1, and I want you to know it’s not going to start at Jeremiah 34:1.

Nehemia: It’s not?

Keith: It starts at Jeremiah 34:8. I did an in-depth study on what the...

Nehemia: Oh, okay. Sorry.

Keith: The Prophet Pearl passage is!

Nehemia: You’re right. I know you’re right.

Keith: Okay. I’m just kidding. But the reason I came to the section with a little trepidation is that we’re going to talk about this issue of slaves.

Nehemia: Okay.

Keith: This is one where context to me is really important. Let’s just jump right into it, can we?

Nehemia: Sure.

Keith: In verse 8, I’m going to read a little bit, then you can read, I’ll read up to 11 and then you read 12 if that’s okay.

Nehemia: Sure.

Keith: “The word came to Jeremiah from Yehovah after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves.” So we’ve got to stop.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: Because the question that I had, right away when I read this, when he says he decided to proclaim freedom for the slaves. I’m asking - is this because he’s proclaiming freedom to the slaves… specifically, is this a Jubilee issue? Is he doing it because he realizes that they’ve gone beyond the time period of when they’re supposed to have slaves? Has he been convicted, has he fallen under conviction? Is there some political reason? Is there a military reason? Like, when you read that, when you see that, this proclamation of freedom for the slaves, certainly, you’ve got to know what the answer is for that. Why is he doing that?

Nehemia: Yes. Do you have a thought on that or…?

Keith: Well, no. For me, when I read it, the first thing I did is what we always do - we go into context and say, “Where can we find out what’s happening here? Of course, we can go to Exodus, the parallel passage, in the Original Torah Pearls, in Exodus 21 happens to be the passage which we already did talk about, obviously, in the Original Torah Pearls, and I encourage people to listen to that on both bfainternational.com and nehemiaswall.com, where we talked about this specific passage and didn’t cross over into the prophets very much.

But that’s the first place where there is this clear instruction about what’s supposed to happen to slaves. But what hit me was - and we can talk about it a little bit later - but what hit me was that context in Exodus 21, and in Deuteronomy 15 it seemed different. But when I heard, “proclaiming freedom for the slaves,” I’m like, well, is this a Jubilee proclamation?

Nehemia: Here we’ve got to really dig into what’s called the distant context, the broad context. The broad context here doesn’t start in Jeremiah. If we start it in Jeremiah, we might be left with maybe not an answer, or not as clear an answer. So we’ve got Exodus 21 verses 2 through 11 - and I apologize to those reading in English, it might be one verse off, I’m reading in the Hebrew. I’m not going to read the passage - but Exodus 21:2 through 11, that has the section on male and female slaves, and then Leviticus 25:39 to 55 has another section on slaves, and then Deuteronomy 15:12 to 18. So we’ve got three different passages in three different books, and the truth is that the Exodus passage and the Deuteronomy passage are virtually identical. There are some significant differences we talked about in the Original Torah Pearls, I believe.

So they’re very similar, but the one in Leviticus 25 kind of stands out, and it’s interesting, because which one of these three passages does Jeremiah go back to? The only conclusion I can come to is it goes back to all three, and the reason I say that is it uses language that is clearly lifted out of Leviticus, and it uses language that’s clearly lifted out of Deuteronomy and Exodus. The language that’s lifted out of Leviticus, that may answer your question or at least suggest a possibility here. So the passage in Leviticus, and we don’t have to read the whole thing, but basically, there it uses that phrase, “To call freedom,” “likro dror,” and that’s a great word in Hebrew, “dror.” Maybe that should be the Word of the Week, dalet, resh, vav, resh. It’s from the root dalet, resh, resh, and it means “freedom,” “liberty.” That’s actually the word that is translated out of Isaiah 61 and then plastered across the Liberty Bell in Jerusalem. You do know the original Liberty Bell is in Jerusalem, not Philadelphia, right?

Keith: Yes. That’s what you say, yes.

Nehemia: Liberty Bell Park, you know, it’s a copy. The real one is in Philadelphia. Anyway, so it says, “To call liberty,” “To proclaim freedom,” I forget how it’s translated on the Liberty Bell. But it’s a quote from Isaiah 61 I believe. You know what I’m talking about there? Let me read that verse, Isaiah 61 verse 1. I believe this appears somewhere in the New Testament, in the Gospel of Luke, as well. But here in Isaiah 61:1 it says, “The spirit of Lord Yehovah is upon me, because Yehovah has anointed me; He has sent me as a herald of joy to the humble, to bind up the wounded of heart, to proclaim release to the captives, liberty to the imprisoned.” That’s from the JPS, and there the word they translate as “release” is “dror.” It’s the same word. In the King James, it is “to proclaim liberty to the captives,” it translates as liberty, “and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”

So if we look back at the first time that word appears - well, we’ve got in Exodus but that’s not actually connected - but Leviticus 25:10 says, “And you shall,” this is the King James, “And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty,” dror, “throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you, and you shall return every man unto his possession, and you shall return every man unto his family.” If you read in Leviticus 25 and compare it to Exodus 21 and Deuteronomy 15 - which again, we don’t have time to go into great detail - but basically, Exodus and Deuteronomy, when they talk about the Hebrew slave, they’re speaking about the six-year period of slavery and freedom on the seventh. Leviticus is actually not talking about that. It’s talking about the slave who continues in servitude after the sixth year because he decides to, and then he is released at the fiftieth year. When it describes that fiftieth-year release, there it uses this word “dror,” this word “liberty,” there in Leviticus 25.

So I’ve got to believe that these aren’t the six-year servants only that we’re dealing with, but that they were continuing beyond the sixth year and even beyond the fiftieth year. Then they came along and said, “Well, wait a minute, we’re not following Torah. We’ve actually turned people into slaves.” And this is an important point, which is that slavery in the Tanakh is not like slavery was in the south, in the Confederacy in the United States. It’s more parallel to something we actually did have early in the days of the United States before it was the U.S. I learned about this in history class in eighth grade, and tell me what you know about this, Keith. There were people who wanted to come from England but didn’t have the money to do so and what they did is they sold themselves as what was called “indentured servitude.”

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: They would work for six years and pay off the debt and then the seventh year they were - in the early colonies of the U.S. before it was the U.S., the colonies. The seventh year they would go free and they would owe no more debt to anybody. They’d be a free person just as if they’re just like anybody else. That’s more parallel to what we’re describing in the Bible - people who go into debt and to pay off their debt they sell themselves into indentured servitude. What was happening in the time of Zedekiah and Jeremiah is that they were keeping these people. They were saying, “Yes, you worked for six years, you’re mine now. You’re going to be mine forever.” Then they felt bad at some point and said, “We know we’re supposed to free these slaves as it is written in the Word of God,” but then they reneged on their promise.

Keith: You know it’s something. When I was studying this issue of indentured servitude, and that people would be there and they would make this deal and they’d say, “I owe this amount and so I’m going to do this to get it paid.” Then they had this issue where they said, “I’m not going to be able to make it the whole time so I’m going to try to get out of the deal,” and then getting out of the deal - what people really don’t realize is that the people that were in Europe who were becoming indentured servants, what they could decide to do was say, “Okay, I’m not going to be a servant anymore, and so I’m going to ‘break the deal,’ and kind of go and be a part of the population.” And no one would be able to tell one way or the other whether this was a person that used to be a slave, indentured servant, or not. So that became a real big issue in the United States...

Nehemia: Did they have to pay for that, or did they just break the word?

Keith: Just imagine this, okay?

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: This is a little off topic, but just imagine - someone comes over to the United States, they’re going to sell themself, they’re going to make themself an indentured servant, and then halfway through, they say, “You know what? This is not all it’s cracked up to be. I don’t want to do this anymore, but I want to stay in the United States. I want to be,” you know, at that point, “I want to be in the colonies.” Then they say one day, “I’m not going to be an indentured servant anymore.” So what do they do?

Nehemia: Well, I don’t know what they do.

Keith: They go to another town.

Nehemia: Oh! Okay.

Keith: No one knows, are they a servant?

Nehemia: I see.

Keith: You see what I’m saying? So that ended up being a really a big issue.

Nehemia: I didn’t know.

Keith: So they had to try to find out how can you tell the difference. Anyways, that’s another discussion.

Nehemia: So how would they tell the difference? What’s the answer?

Keith: They couldn’t tell the difference.

Nehemia: Oh. Okay.

Keith: Yes. Then they had to find a different group of people where they could tell the difference.

Nehemia: Oh, okay. I was not aware of that aspect of it.

Keith: See, so it’s really interesting. Yes. It’s a little something to discuss. Anyway, but I want to ask this question. From your perspective, you used the Word of the Week, but you pulled that word from a different passage, am I correct?

Nehemia: No, it’s from verse 8.

Keith: No, when you were saying...

Nehemia: It’s Jeremiah 34:8, “dror.” “To call for themselves dror.” “To call for themselves liberty.” So they proclaimed liberty.

Keith: Ah, okay. Now, can you explain this?

Nehemia: Then he repeats that later in the passage, as well. He also says it in verse 15. It says… let me read you the JPS, it says in verse 15, “Lately you turned about and did what is proper in My sight, and each of you proclaimed a release to his countrymen,” you called dror to his countrymen, “and you made a covenant accordingly before Me in the House which bears My name.” Again in verse 17, it says… oh, I’m going to hold that for 17, though. He says it a third time. It’s three times it appears. There it has a different meaning, or the same meaning but a different context.

Keith: All right. But you said maybe it should be the Word of the Week.

Nehemia: No, it should definitely be the Word of the Week.

Keith: I’m saying, do you want it?

Nehemia: Absolutely.

Keith: Okay, can you give it little bit slower, tell them what the Word of the Week is?

Nehemia: So it’s the word “dror,” dalet, resh, vav, resh. It’s made up of the root dalet, resh, resh, and it means “liberty,” or “release.”

Keith: What kind of word is it?

Nehemia: What kind of word is it? A Hebrew word.

Keith: You’re not going to give them any more technical…? You’ve really gone soft on us.

Nehemia: I don’t know. It’s obviously a noun.

Keith: Okay.

Nehemia: You need me to tell them it’s a noun? Liberty in English is a noun, too.

Keith: Look, I think we’re having an issue, because you’re our Hebrew expert and you were doing the reading of the Hebrew and come to find out that you did the Hebrew reading and it was the wrong passage, Nehemia. But you fixed that situation, and yet, I didn’t fix it because I just put it up, and I find out a week later it’s the wrong passage. So I’m pushing you on your technical… you’re our in-house Hebrew expert.

But the reason I asked that - “Is there anything else about the word?” - is that sometimes, and I’ve noticed this more and more, people love to get… It doesn’t have to be overwhelming, it doesn’t have to go into great depth, but they like to find out what something is and they can go and check and see what it is.

Nehemia: All right. You’re pushing me, so now I’ll give you a little bit more of a tidbit. So the word “dror” also is a name of a certain type of bird. For example, it appears in Psalm 84:4, where it says, “Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself in which to set her young,” and that word where they’re translating as “swallow” is “dror.” It’s a type of bird. Then again in Proverbs 26:2 it has the same word referring to some type of a bird. Again, it’s translated in the JPS as “swallow.” In the King James, they also translate it as “swallow.” Of course, we don’t actually know what kind of bird it is. It’s some kind of bird that has a nest.

Keith: It’s got freedom, we know that.

Nehemia: Right. So that’s the point that; it becomes this image of the bird flying free. It’s no longer a captive. Here we have to ask the question; what came first - the name of the bird or the concept of liberty and freedom? That’s difficult to answer.

Keith: The name of the bird came first.

Nehemia: My guess would be the name of the bird, because…

Keith: Of course, it was the name of the bird.

Nehemia: Hebrew tends to have concrete terms first and then abstract terms afterward. A bird is concrete, you can see it, you can touch it; liberty is kind of an abstract term.

Nehemia: Of course it was the bird, Nehemia. Adam was the one that first named the bird, and then they… to the bird. What are you talking about? Of course, it’s the bird.

Nehemia: Maybe.

Keith: I like it.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: So we were talking about this, and then it says here in the next verse, “Everyone was to free his Hebrew slave, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Jew in bondage. So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed and set them free.” It says it three different times, they agreed, they set them free, there’s a covenant just so we’re clear now, everybody agreed. And then it says, “But afterward,” they did something really quite radical, “they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.” What does that picture look like? I mean, “took back,” in English seemed kind of casual, but I mean how do you “take back”, unless it becomes a little bit more...

Nehemia: I’m sure it involves chains and whips…

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: … and intimidation and beating people up, no question about that. Yes. People don’t go willingly into slavery, especially when the indentured servant in a sense was kind of like a contract worker today. He said, “Here’s what you’re going to give me if I do what for six years? Okay, I’ll agree to that.” But once the six years is up, he’s not going to stay as a slave willingly. Here they’re basically forcing people into… and this is really slavery. Can I say this? I hope this isn’t politically incorrect. If it is, I don’t care. But this is slavery in the African sense. Meaning, this is what happened in Africa. There’d be somebody out in the bush of the Kalahari and he was walking around preaching the Word of God and then he was just kidnapped, and then before he knew it, he was on a boat. I mean, I don’t have to tell you this. You know this history better than I do. It wasn’t that he said, “Oh, yes, I would like to work for your plantation.” It didn’t work that way, right?

Keith: No.

Nehemia: Are we agreed? That there’s a completely different ballgame, and so now we’re actually dealing with something very different, which is not what it was intended to be. Here I’ve got to go to the verse in Leviticus. Can I bring up the verse?

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: It actually appears twice in Leviticus, where he’s talking about this idea of slavery isn’t supposed to be permanent - it’s for a limited period of time. You’ve got the six years, and the seventh, and if he wants to stay longer then there’s the 50 years. That’s all talked about Leviticus 25. We don’t have to go into that. But then it says in verse 39 of Leviticus 25, “When your brother is impoverished among you and he will be sold to you, you shall not serve him according to the service of a slave.” Meaning, he can work for you, but don’t treat him like a slave. Then it says, “Like a hired worker and like a resident,” meaning like a landless resident, “he shall be with you, until the year of the jubilee he shall serve you.” That’s in verse 40 of Leviticus 25.

So we’ve got this idea that, yes, he’s going to be your slave officially, but you’re going to treat him like you would any hired worker who could walk off as soon as he wants to, even though he can’t walk off. And then verse 42, I’ll skip ahead, he says, “ki avadai hem,” “for they Are my slaves - or My servants - I took them out from the land of Egypt.” “Lo imachru mimkeret avad,” “they shall not be sold as the selling of slaves.” Even though there’s a man who’s impoverished, he needs to pay his debt for whatever reason, and he agrees to go into this indentured servitude, do not treat him like a slave, treat him like a hired worker. And why? Because we are Yehovah’s slaves, we’re his servants.

Keith: Something that did catch my attention is in Exodus 21, it says, “If you buy a servant.” In Deuteronomy 15 it says, “If a servant sells himself.” So it’s almost like there - and I don’t want to go too far into this - but it was like the entire range was covered, whether it’s buying or selling.

Nehemia: Right. Well, there is one scenario in the Torah where a person is forcibly sold into slavery, and that is when a person steals and can’t pay back for his debt.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: I know some people listening to this are saying, “That’s so backward, so primitive. The Torah forced people who stole into slavery. What do we do in America? We send them to prison.” And what I’m going to say now is really controversial, but it’s true. Look it up. In the U.S. Constitution, slavery has not been abolished. There are 3 million slaves today in the United States. That’s a fact. Look it up. In the Constitution, it says, when it comes to abolished slavery, it says something to the effect of, “except as a punishment.” If you go to prisons where people are forced to work, and certainly are denied their freedom to leave, it’s a form of slavery, and it’s acknowledged as such in the U.S. Constitution.

So think about it, you’ve got someone who committed a crime, and he is not sold into slavery, he’s sent off into slavery based on the judge’s ruling. I’m not saying that’s wrong. I don’t know what the solution is. If someone has a fair trial, and maybe that’s the key point, that it’s a fair trial, and society decides to do that, okay, what are you going to do with someone who’s out there murdering and doing other things? But let’s not be so sanctimonious and say, “We’re not doing that today. That’s what they did in ancient times.” We have actually more slaves today in the United States per capita than they did at the time of Zedekiah. And they’re kept in worse conditions than the slaves were in the time of Zedekiah. Do you have anything you want to say about that, Keith?

Keith: They’re kept in worse conditions than in the time of Zedekiah?

Nehemia: Oh, yes. Have you been to a U.S. prison? I know you have. You’ve done prison ministry.

Keith: Yes, I was just… yes. Okay.

Nehemia: All right. Verse 55 of Leviticus 25 goes on, and it says, “Ki li bnei Israel avadim,” “For the children of Israel are slaves belonging to me. They are my slaves who I took out from the land of Egypt. I am Yehovah your God.” So in a sense, the slavery that we talk about and we see here in the time of Zedekiah is defying Yehovah’s kingship. I think that’s why they brought those two verses that you insisted on reading at the beginning, that should’ve been at the end. I think the reason they took those two verses is if you enslave another person against his will, unjustly, then you are denying Yehovah’s kingship and that He is the master. You’re making yourself the master. You’re making yourself God and treating Him as your servant, when really we are all servants of the Most High God, and so too, are you denying His kingship, His Godship if you deny His covenant with Israel.

So those two are parallel. I think that’s why - so a part of it was, we’ve got to end with a feel-good message. We’ve got to end on a positive note. But also part of it was… I mean, because they could have chosen any two verses to end on a positive note. Why did they choose those two verses? Because there was a covenant here that Zedekiah made. The covenant was that we’re going to keep God’s covenant that he made in the first place that we’re not going to enslave our fellow human being against his will, unjustly, and instead, they violated that. God’s covenant with Israel is a similar sort of covenant. If you deny that covenant, the you’re denying His Godship, and if you enslave people you’re denying His Godship.

Keith: Well, I’m going to tell you what I appreciated about it…

Nehemia: Is that a word “Godship”?

Keith: Yes, no.

Nehemia: Is it divinity? I don’t know.

Keith: It’s a new Prophet Pearls word.

Nehemia: “G-O-D, the root is G-D.”

Keith: When we go on, though - and this is where I think your point is really driven home - because it says, “Then the word of Yehovah came to Jeremiah: ‘This is what Yehovah, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your forefathers when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. And I said, Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrew who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free.’” Excuse my blundering. “Your fathers, however, did not listen to Me or pay attention to Me. Recently you repented,” He’s saying, you did this, you repented, “and did what is right in my sight. Each of you proclaimed freedom to his countrymen.” And again, Nehemia, when I see that phrase, I’m immediately thinking again...

Nehemia: Yes, “dror.”

Keith: Yes, exactly.

Nehemia: The bird flying free.

Keith: Yes, the bird flying free. “You even made a covenant before Me in the house that bears My name.” Wow.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: So in other words... I mean, you even went so far as to say, I’m going to go before you. I’m going to go before the great Creator of the universe, and I’m going to make this covenant. That covenant was acknowledged and accepted and everyone’s agreed. “But now you have turned around and profaned My name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.”

I want to ask this question. Don’t you think... at least for me, when I read that phrase, I thought to myself, here’s a perfect example where you read over and over again, and maybe you can go on the computer real quick and ask how many times the phrase “to profane My name,” or “profaning My name,” or “My name was profaned.”

Nehemia: Oh, boy. Yes.

Keith: While you’re doing that tap, tap, tap, maybe put the two words together, put a little wild card in there, see what you can find as that phrase. That’s technical talk for those who don’t understand. No, I’m just kidding.

Nehemia: So I’ve got approximately 52 instances, or I’m sorry, half of that, 26 instances.

Keith: 26 instances?

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: Here’s what’s so interesting, Nehemia, is that He says, He puts the issue of slavery and going against this covenant as a clear example of, “Therefore, you’ve profaned My name.” And you can go through… this is a great study. It’s a great study, folks that are listening, to go and find the places where the profaning of His name, or His name being profaned, and what the issue is around it. It’s a phenomenal study. But this is a verse where it clearly comes off the page and says, “This is what you did. You went against what you said you were going to do, and now you’ve profaned My name.”

Nehemia: So how did they profane His name in this verse?

Keith: This is what I want to do - I want to look at this because it says, it went before them and the house that bears His name. So it seems that in that situation they would have probably… well, we find out later as we’re reading about the covenant.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: But the idea of them vowing in His name, making a promise in His name, swearing in His name, “This is what we’re going to do.” He says, “It’s like you used My name to make this covenant and then you profaned My name by breaking it.”

Nehemia: Right. We really have two usages of that term, and they’re really the same. I don’t like the word “profane” in this context. I prefer to translate this as “to desecrate”, because that’s the reading of the word, “lechalel.” “Lechalel” is to desecrate, so to desecrate His name. It’s more than just to profane. So to desecrate His name, they do that in two ways. One is they made an oath in His name and then didn’t actually keep the oath, and so they spoke falsely in His name. Number two is we have this concept in many places in the Tanakh, in the 26 or however many verses, where your actions can desecrate His name.

For example, one of the first times, Leviticus 18:21 says, “And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shall you profane the name of thy God: I am Yehovah.” So burning your child in fire as a sacrifice to Molech is desecrating the name of Yehovah. Now, what does that mean? They didn’t say His name while they were burning their child alive. But by doing so… they represent His name. What you do as Israelites, as God’s people, people look at you and say, “Oh, that’s one of those Jewish people. That’s one of those Israelites. That’s one of those people who believes in the Word of God, in the Torah, and this is how they’re behaving?” That’s a desecration of His name.

So there’s actually taking His name in a false oath, like in Leviticus 19:12, it says, “You shall not swear falsely by My name, profaning the name of your God: I am Yehovah.” But it’s also through your actions, which maybe even don’t actually speak the name, but you bear that name through your actions. Everybody who claims to live in accordance to the Word of God, and behaves that way is desecrating His name.

Then Leviticus 21:6 kind of wraps up that section, it says, “They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God; for they offer Yehovah’s offerings by fire,” this is the priests, “the food of their God, and so must be holy.” So if a priest, a Kohen, does something that’s unrighteous, even if it has nothing to do, literally, specifically, with the name of Yehovah, he desecrates that name.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: You know, I’ve got to tell you something. I was reading this and I did something, because there’s always been this issue, and you really brought it up earlier as far as what it meant to be a slave in that situation, whether it was buying or selling, it was according to Torah. The Tanakh is clear about how they’re to be treated. I just thought it was interesting that some people would say, “Well, this is not a main issue. This is a side issue. This is just one of the many issues that took place.” But as we’re reading, we find out that this - whether it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, or the reason that the camel’s back was broken - it’s really a big deal. It really is a major issue, and you said it was parallel to the fact that by not living according to this understanding of what He says and how we treat our fellow, their neighbor, their person, their friend, their brother, their sister, ended up being the issue that finally said, “That’s it. It’s over. You guys are done.”

I know we’re going to get to that, but it was hard for me when I was reading this. It was like, “Wow, is it by chance that it’s this one? And how deep does this subject go? How deep does it go in terms of striking at the core of what it means to be under the kingship of the great king? And how deep does it go as far as covenant and promise and swearing?” I mean, it seems like it goes pretty darn deep.

Nehemia: Yes. Did we read verse 17 yet? Can we talk about verse 17?

Keith: No, you’re going to get - it’s your turn to read.

Nehemia: So I’ll read to you from the Hebrew, it says, “Therefore, thus says Yehovah,” “lachen,” “Therefore, thus says Yehovah: ‘You did not listen to me to call liberty,’” to call dror, “‘each man to his brother and each man to his fellow. Behold, I will call for you liberty,’ says Yehovah, ‘to the sword and to plague and to famine. And I will give you for a terror for all the kingdoms of the earth.’” This is kind of like this play on words - you won’t give liberty to your brothers? I’m going to set free the sword and the pestilence, this plague, disease, and famine. I’m going to set that free. I’m going to give that liberty, because you wouldn’t give liberty to your brothers. There will be liberty, and it won’t be a liberty that you like. It’ll be liberty for these things that I’ve held back, the sword, and the plague, and the famine.

But I think this is interesting in verse 17, because up until now as we were reading, and we were looking at the broad context, but if we’d only read Jeremiah, we might have said, “Wow, these are such benevolent people. They had the opportunity to hold slaves, and out of the goodness of their hearts they decided to set the slaves free.” You could read it that way, at least part of it. But here it makes it really clear, “I commanded you to call liberty.” So this was something that God had actually commanded. They weren’t doing something out of the goodness of their hearts. They were required to do this. And that’s why I go back to the Jubilee. Again, it’s a little confusing because he said six years and the seventh year set free.

So why are we saying it’s the Jubilee? Because this term we have in verse 17 of Jeremiah 34, “to call dror,” “to call liberty,” that is, again, taken from Leviticus 25 - it doesn’t appear in the Exodus or Deuteronomy passage, and that’s speaking about the liberty and the Jubilee year. So we’ve kind of got two issues here. One is the Jubilee, and one is the sabbatical year, the shmita year, when they would go free if they wanted to, and if they want to stay, they could stay longer, but then, eventually, they would be set free in the 50th year. So this one makes it clear that they were required to set them free. It wasn’t an option. It was something they were commanded to do. So why did they make a covenant? It’s interesting. Why make a covenant to do what God already commanded you to do? Can you talk about that, Keith?

Keith: That’s a great question. That’s a great question, Nehemia.

Nehemia: I think the answer is human nature. It’s kind of like this thing - God commands us to do something, but no one else is doing it? I’m not going to be a friar and go do it. You know, that’s this Hebrew concept of friar. I’m not going to be a sucker and go do what God commanded if nobody else is doing it. All right, if everybody comes together and we all agree at the same time, at the same time we agree we’re going to press the button and say, “dror,” “liberty,” then I’ll do it because everybody else is agreeing to do it.

I think that’s what happened - that you had the socioeconomic system that was inherently corrupt, it was based on holding these slaves, and one man may say, “I want to set my slaves free. Well, that means I’m going to be impoverished compared to my neighbors.” So what they did is they came together and they said, “We’re going to all set our slaves free because God commanded us to, and what we’re doing is unjust.” And, of course, then they reneged, and they took the slaves back. But this was something they were commanded to do.

Keith: You know something, I was reading this and I was thinking… it was kind of surprising, I have to tell you. It was kind of surprising as I was reading this because one, the image as I mentioned at the very beginning is like proclaiming, that sounds like a Jubilee. And then, of course, you brought up the language issue, and then going through those three passages. But then it goes further and says, “You made a covenant,” and then it says, “You made a covenant at the place that bears My Name.” So now, I’m getting that picture. Then it adds one more verse that even clarifies the picture more. It says, “The men have violated My covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before Me.” Then it says, “I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between the pieces.” Now, what does that make you think of? It makes you go back to Abraham.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: The covenant is made and he cuts the animals and he walks between the pieces. And we talked about that in the Original Torah Pearls. I just thought, “Man, this is…” I don’t know, Nehemia, I don’t know why, but it’s like the image just became 3D because this wasn’t like, “Okay, guys, we agreed. Tomorrow the law changes.” No - this was an entire…

Nehemia: It was a covenant.

Keith: It was a covenant.

Nehemia: So Genesis 15:10 is the passage you’re talking about, where it says, “And Abraham took for himself all these and he split them in the middle and he put each piece against the opposite, but the birds he did not cut in two.” And then it talks about how he walked between the pieces. So this was a covenant. And this raises an interesting possibility of why they’re doing this in the form of a covenant, specifically. And that’s because, first of all, a covenant is something that binds you. It really is. Once you make the covenant, you are bound by it.

But we also have this idea in a number of places in the Tanakh - and I think we talked about this in the Original Torah Pearls - that the covenant wasn’t a one-time thing at Mount Sinai and they were done with it. We actually see it in a number of places in history - they renew the covenant, and it may be something they renewed on a regular basis. Here, this might not be a new covenant that didn’t exist before, it might actually be a renewal of the covenant, and that explains why they took the animals and split them in half and walked between the pieces. They said, “Wait a minute; this is how Abraham made the covenant? This is not a new covenant. This is a renewal of the covenant of Abraham, of the covenant with Moses, and we must renew this covenant by doing what was done in the previous covenants.”

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: That may be the reason that they split these animals. Because that’s unique to two places – it’s not unique - it appears in two places in the Tanakh where they made a covenant by cutting an animal in half and walking between it. It’s Genesis 15 and this passage in Jeremiah 34. There’s got to be a connection there. It’s got to be that they were echoing back to that event in the time of Genesis.

Keith: Man, amazing. Well, we’ve got a couple verses, but I have to tell you, I’m kind of in a time machine because today is January, but by the time this comes up, if in fact we make it through, it’ll be February, in the middle of February. And then after that, within a couple of weeks, we will be meeting and trying to go over these passages, obviously, over a period of a couple of weeks. We’re really going to have to be prepared because we’re going to have to do a lot of work.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: We really do need people’s prayer, and we’ll talk more about that. But before we go to these two verses, Nehemia, so what are you doing in the middle of a rainforest that’s not a rainforest?

Nehemia: Yes. I’m in the northwest, in Washington State, and I originally came here to visit with my mother and my sister - my mother flew in from Israel, and my sister lives here. I thought, “I haven’t seen either of them in a very long time, I’ll fly over there.” Then I ended up, once it became known that I was here, I was contacted by various people who said, “Would you come in, would speak at our fellowship at this place? And would you come and talk to our congregation?” So I’ve actually done, by the time I’m done here, I’ll have done six different events.

Keith: Wonderful.

Nehemia: In a period of three weeks, that we never planned in the first place, it really was supposed to be kind of like some family time. I was kind of called to do this. I feel like I’ve been called to do this by Yehovah. When people come to me and ask me to come teach the Word of God, I respond. And so this is what I’m doing out in the rainforest, in the middle of nowhere, and I’ve got to wonder who's going to ever actually come out here, and I have no idea.

On top of that, it’s winter, and I don’t know if you know this, Keith, but before we started the recording, I had to turn off the refrigerator and the heater. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to hear me because I’m kind of in this little cabin here in the middle of nowhere and there’s ambient room noise. You know, my ministry is Makor Hebrew Foundation, my website is nehemiaswall.com, and people contact me through the website, and they say, “Would you come? And would you speak to our congregation? Would you speak to our fellowship? Would you speak at our church, our synagogue, or temple?” And if I’m able to do that, and the arrangement is possible, then I do it. I really feel that… what I want to do is set people free with information; empower people with information and set them free. Because we may not have slavery today, but we definitely have the spiritual bondage that I’ve seen… people all over the world are subjugated under the spiritual bondage, and it comes from not having knowledge and being forced to rely on other people. So what I want to do is not just teach people and give them information, but really to empower them with information. That's really what I’m about. That’s what my ministry is about.

Keith: Awesome. Well, it’s interesting, we're going to be… Today, by the time this comes up, I should be safely back upside down in the earth having traveled all the way down to Namibia, the southern part of Africa, where we’ll be able to share with people the opportunity just to meet with people, share with people, to speak, to teach, to preach, to do all sorts of things. But one of the things I’m going to do is I’m going to ask folks, those that are listening right now, rather than going into any great depth about it, I’ve decided what I want to do is an update from these different parts of the world. I’m going to make those available right on the front page of bfainternational.com. So you go on the front page of bfainternational.com, and it will say, “Catch up with Keith.” “Catch up with Keith,” you click it and it will take you to a post where I can actually share the information about it.

Those that are interested in why I would travel all the way to the Philippines. Why would I travel all the way to Shanghai? Why would I travel to Africa? Why would we travel to a couple other places that are definitely out there? And that’s because we want to inspire people around the world to build a biblical foundation for their faith. Sometimes they’ve got really good internet where people can go to the site. I was sitting down with a man here in this part of the world, I took out my iPad, I had my little WiFi, I clicked it and I went to the page bfainternational.com, and this man that was looking at this information, he was blown away that he had access to all that information just right on the internet.

Well, the place that I’m going down in Africa, the internet’s about like… Nehemia and I trying to record worse than this. I mean you can’t… it’s literally almost impossible to have any sort of an internet connection where you could download a video or anything like that. So in that situation, for the last couple of years, we’ve been in conversation about visiting there, and now the door is open. Hopefully, all of that’s worked out, there are still a few details.

But again, my hope is that people that are listening right now would just visit bfainternational.com, go to the front page, click on “Catch up with Keith”, and that’s going to give you a really good a smattering of information about what the ministry is about, what I’ve been doing, what’s been going on. Then hopefully, as I mentioned, by the time this comes up we’ll be a couple weeks away from then flying over to Israel. You’ll be flying from somewhere, you’re wandering. I’ll be flying from upside down in the Earth, and we’ll meet together and have a chance to iron sharpen iron with the Word of God. Ultimately, that’s what this whole ministry is about - inspiring people around the world to build a biblical foundation for their faith. So that is what we’re doing.

Now, we’ve got two more verses, Nehemia, and I don’t know if you want to do a slowdown, but I’m so happy we haven’t had to cut this off. I’m really jazzed. So you keep reading, because you seem to have the high hand.

Nehemia: You read the final couple of verses. Go ahead, Keith.

Keith: Okay. Awesome. It says here, “‘I will hand Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials over to their enemies who seek their lives, to the army of the king of Babylon which is withdrawn from you. I am going to give the order,’ declares Yehovah, ‘and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it and burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.’” Man, talk about accurate prophecy, oh my goodness. I mean, it happened that way, did it not?

Nehemia: Yes. We can say that in retrospect. At the time of Jeremiah, they’re thinking, “Oh, no, everything’s fine, we just got our slaves back, we got free workers. Why is he trying to spoil it with all this discussion? Come on. What are you making all this trouble for, Jeremiah?” What we have here is one of these examples - I’ve talked about this before, we talked about this in our book A Prayer to Our Father: Hebrew Origins of the Lord's Prayer - that one of the central principles in the entire Hebrew Bible is this idea of midah keneged midah, which is literally “measure for measure.” It’s usually translated as “reciprocal justice”, and what it means is the way you behave is the way God is going to treat you. You are enslaving people? God is going to hand you off as slaves to the Babylonians. You think you’re going to get away with this? You won’t. God will bring justice, and justice prevailed, justice happened. They wouldn’t let their people have liberty, so they lost their own liberty. That is midah keneged midah.

Keith: Reciprocal justice.

Nehemia: Reciprocal justice. Yes.

Keith: And it happened. Again, it’s phenomenal to read Scripture and the Prophets, I have to say, there’s a bit of trepidation sometimes when I open up the Prophets. Then when I dig in and start opening up the resources we have access to, the messages just come out, and they’re so beautiful, they’re powerful. There is good news in the midst of it, and there are positive things, but there’s also accountability. I think that that’s what we see over and over again - there’s this accountability, and then this opportunity, and this invitation that takes place.

I want to pray today, if we can at the end, just because I want people to read the Prophets and to be a part of this with us and then to ask the question, “What does that mean for me?” I know that’s what happens for me - I look at it and I say, “So what does this mean for me?” And that’s what I love about Prophet Pearls; it’s for yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Well, today, for me, how can I apply some aspect of this? So if you don’t have anything else, I’d like to pray.

Nehemia: Please.

Keith: Boy, I’m really thankful that we made it through. Father, I want to thank you so much for technology, the good and the challenge, and the fact that we were able to record this particular section of the Prophets. We thank you for our partners and those that have come alongside, and especially those that are listening. I pray that they would do as I’ve had to do and as Nehemia’s had to do, which is to take this word that You’ve given us and to turn it on ourselves and look at ourselves and ask, “What does it mean for me?”

Certainly, as I read this, I just think about the opportunity to continue to grab a hold of Your word and to apply it in our lives and everywhere that we can, to love You with our whole heart, mind, and soul, strength, and to love our neighbor. Certainly, this is the challenge here. And as a result of that not happening, the amazing things that took place and the accountability that came.

We pray for continued protection over us and grace and peace. And now as we go forward, we just look forward to another opportunity to open Your word and to see what it has to say for us today. In Your holy name, Amen.

Nehemia: Amen.

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

We hope the above transcript has proven to be a helpful resource in your study. While much effort has been taken to provide you with this transcript, it should be noted that the text has not been reviewed by the speakers and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. If you would like to support our efforts to transcribe the teachings on NehemiasWall.com, please visit our support page. All donations are tax-deductible (501c3) and help us empower people around the world with the Hebrew sources of their faith!

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The original artwork at the top of this page was made specially for this week's episode of Prophet Pearls by Katie Swamp of Huntsville, Alabama. Here is her explanation: "How wonderful our Heavenly Father is, that He would compare the covenant He has made with Israel (the offspring of Jacob and David) to the unbreakable laws of day and night, of heaven and of earth. As shown by the heart around Israel in the artwork, God’s love for His chosen people is steadfast and will never come to an end. A 12-pointed crown symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel is placed upon this special nation to represent the covenant God has made with them to take rulers from their offspring. The heavenly bodies look down upon this coronation, and they are ever a reminder to Israel of the promise in Lamentations 3:22-23, 'The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, His mercies never come to an end;...great is Your faithfulness.' "

The post Prophet Pearls #18 – Mishpatim (Jeremiah 34:8-22; 33:25-26) appeared first on Nehemia's Wall.