#32 Torah Parashah B'har - Rest and Redemption for the Land through the Shemittah and Jubilee

[Music] you [Music] you this morning's Torah portion is called Bihar and you can find it in your Bibles in Leviticus 25 and it is only one chapter it's one of the smallest Torah portions only being one chapter oftentimes we're reading three chapters and we love to read through the scriptures because then you don't miss any details we're not just summarizing a thought or a theme but we're gonna read through Behar and learn about the shemitah year and how the shemitah and the jubilee are like Shabbat in that God desires rest for all his creation and through that rest we experience freedom and it's only the free that can experience true rest because those that are slaves never experienced any rest and so God desires to truly set us free so that we can enter into his rest and these little glimpses of rest through the weekly Shabbat and the seven-year shemitah cycles prepares us for the millennium of rest their little glimpses of his kingdom when it is set up on this earth after we read the Torah portion we will then parallel it with the story of Jeremiah redeeming the land and following this principle of the shemitah years and redeeming the land even though israel didn't keep these Commandments and this is why they were exiled from the land but there's an amazing prophecy that we're gonna end with today that tells about jeremiah in the days of Nebuchadnezzar having captured Jerusalem taking the King away taking all the people away he is told to redeem a cousin's property and he's of the Levitical tribe which the commandments for the redeeming land for the Levites is in our torah portion so this is where the parallels drawn but can you imagine if we had an invader in our country and you know that everybody's being taken out and everything's becoming worthless and then somebody comes and says hey before I get go to Babylon which you might bind my property and you're thinking why do I want to buy anything at this stage everything's gonna be lost but God gave Jeremiah a prophetic vision that he's gonna redeem the land for us in the future and for the Levites in the future and for his descendants in the future because God is going to not leave Israel exiled forever but return them to the land and so in this way he has got a rightful deed to return for his descendants to that inheritance which the Levites inheritance was in the tribe of Benjamin so we're going to see this beautiful parallel and apply it to our own lives as we realize that God desires for us to have freedom and freedom truly comes from Torah observance slavery comes from sin and the definition of sin is lawlessness first John 3:4 says sin is the transgression of the Torah and it is through transgression of God's laws of love that we lose our freedom and we lose our blessings we lose our protection we lose our health and so we want to write tour upon our hearts so all of those things return in the very first verse it's interesting that it says Hashem or in Hebrew you can see via the VAR album il mache bahar seen a lay-oh man Hashem spoke to Moshe and this word bahar which I have written up here gets translated as on the mountain what it's letting you know is that God has given these instructions back when he gave the Ten Commandments and he gave the book of Jubilees and he gave all of the Torah and all of the mitzvot and now just now we're being introduced to the idea of a shemitah year but here they've been in the wilderness for quite a while why are we only hearing about it now the reason this verse starts off this way is so that you know that this isn't something new that ad and I is just revealing to Israel about the shmita years this was something given back at the Sinai experience but the bait in Hebrew is a prefix har the hay and the race is the word for mount so any mountain would be a har Behar is like in this prefix bei is like better a sheet in the beginning so it's so interesting I find these little anomalies that it's not actually on the mountain it's almost like Asham speaking to moshe in the mountain and you know when the glory the Shekinah of God came down to the mountain it melted that granite on the top of the mountain imagine that intense glory and yet Moses was in the midst of that so much that the granite has melted to this day if you zoomed in on Google Earth you would see in Arabic it's called Jabal al lawz but the mountain of the law where the law was given that granite is turned to black working class it's melted sand and rock imagine Moshe being in the midst of that it's like he's being one with this mountain and this glory and this fire and the people of Israel were so afraid and there's another interesting anomaly which I'm going to share with you in in Song of Solomon 2:14 it alludes to Moshe a being in the actual rock being in this mountain or Israel through this experience of getting being put in the cleft of the rock the Song of Solomon talks about this analogy between God and his beloved just like Solomon and the Shulamite woman and Solomon calls this woman my dove because it's a reflection of how God so affectionately cares for Israel and he says my dove I hid you in the cleft of the rock in the very cleft of the rock and so we see this little anomaly that it's a very personal experience most shades right there in the myths getting these instructions these Commandments from yah there's another anomaly in Deuteronomy 4:11 where imagine Moshe he's like in the mountain or God and him are one at the top everything's merging so there's this connotation I'm not just being on the mountain but like in the mountain while Israel is at the base and we oftentimes think of Israel as being around the base of the mountain there was an actual fence a perimeter put up to keep Israel from even touching the mount because the mountain was vibrating at such a high frequency it was God would have been like a consuming fire to Israel who was harboring darkness and it is said by our sages that the mountain actually started to levitate because this thunder and this lightning was scaring the people and it was almost like God lifted the mountain to be a covering to be like a protection and Israel stood underneath it not just at the foot when you read it in Hebrew the word is the hot which means Israel's under the mountain as it's levitating now imagine Moses in the mountain it's just hidden it's hinted at and Israel's under the mountain pretty amazing as this fire and this thunder is happening God's voice to those who are not holy it sounds like thunder they don't discern it so they tell Moses don't have him speak to us anymore it's too scary just have them speak to you and then you can tell us what he says and this is what Moshe is doing he's telling them now what yah has said about the shemitah because they didn't hear it it just sounded like thunder and lightning and the Jubilee and Shabbat because God wants his dove his beloved to have rest and freedom and he doesn't want anybody to be exempt from that in this chapter we're actually gonna see him addressing the wealthy landowners as well as the hired workers and then the lowest even the lowest person in the slave class is taken care of by God's designed for everybody to be set free I had a nice book Tim O'Shea on Mount Sinai and he said tell the people of Israel when you enter the land I am giving you the land itself is to observe a Shabbat so there's a rest not just for his people but for his land everything deserves a rest that he has created and it is a rest for who just like Leviticus 23 it doesn't say that these are the Shabbat so the Jews or these are the rests of Israel this is his holy times are the the moa team of yo Dave Ave they're his Modine they're his holy times for rest even here and you probably see it in your translation it says the land itself is to observe a Shabbat rest for who for Adonai for the Lord so this rest even though it's for the land it's also for the Lord the Lord derives pleasure by setting not just his people free but all of his creation the animals God takes care of the plants God takes care of the very earth that Adam was formed from is taken care of everything deserves a rest six years you will sow your field six years you will prune your grapevines and gather their produce but in the seventh year it is to be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land so the land has a cycle of seven just like man does man has every seventh day the land has every seventh year and that's called a shemitah it says in that Shabbat once again it says it's for Adonai you will neither sow your field nor prune your grapevines you are not to harvest what grows by itself from the seeds left by your previous harvest and you're not to gather the graves of your own ended vine it is to be a year of complete rest for the land but what the land produces during the year of Shabbat it will be for food for you so in essence you're not supposed to collect the food light as you do normally for storage for the next year and you're not supposed to sell it for a profit but God allows you to eat of it because this fruit is going to fall from the tree anyways so he doesn't desire anything to be wasted and he desires everybody to be taken care of and when this this land is receiving a rest and these trees are naturally producing on their own everybody has access to it it's not like just one person owns it the foreigner and the land the poor everybody can just go and eat what they need but you're not supposed to collect more than you need and this is a great way for everybody to be taken care of while the trees and the land to rest but what the land produces during the year of Shabbat will be for food for all of you you your servant your maid your employee anyone living near you your livestock even and the wild animals on your land everything in the land produces everything that the land produces may be used for food your to count seven Sabbath's of years seven times seven that is 49 years then on the tenth day of the seventh month on Yom Kippur you are to sound a blast of the shofar you are to sound the shofar all through your land and you are to consecrate the 50th year proclaiming freedom throughout the land to all its inhabitants it will be a Yeovil for you this is the Ebru word for Jubilees so this shemitah you're doing this every seven years in the fall when you're collecting and gathering all the produce of the land if you do this God says you will receive a triple harvest now this is something that proves that these Commandments come from God because imagine if a man wrote the Bible would he come up with a law like this - not so your land for three years - let the land have a rest the shemitah year and if you would plant you would eat what you get a triple harvest in the sixth year which would carry you through the shemitah year and the year that you replant in the eighth year until you harvest three years later this defies human logic only God can bless the land this way which proves that this commandment is from God because this actually happened year after year there's a couple interesting commentaries that I want to read but speaking of the shemitah imagine you have seven years every seventh ear is a shemitah and you do seven of those and that's going to lead you to 49 years okay the first seventh year the 14th year the 21st year the 35th year the 42nd year and the 49th year are all shemitah years then the year following your starting this cycle from year one we will put the 50th 50th is called a Yeovil which is the word for jubilee it is year number one there's this cycle that the first year after the 49th year or the seventh shemitah they call the 50th year but it's also the first year of the next cycle again so the 50th year the jubilee cycle is actually 49 years it's not 50th year because they're calling the first year of the next cycle the 50th year so 50 and the first are one in the same so when you read the book of Jubilees and it's telling you the chronology of Earth from creation to like when Israel entered the land and it says that they entered the land exactly on the fiftieth the Jubilee to know how many years that is you would have to multiply 50 Jubilees by 49 and that's two thousand four hundred and fifty years from creation that Israel entered into the land after the Exodus after their 40 years of wilderness or it might describe in terms of Jubilees because God thinks in terms of Jubilee so the whole book of Jubilee is showing chronologies from his perspective it might talk about Adam who died at 930 years being so many Jubilees old and so many weeks of years a week of years would be seven years and then so many years in within the next week before that week is completed and you add all of those up the only way that it works is if you divide it by 49 so we are confirmed by the book of Jubilees that Jubilee is a cycle of 49 not 50 years and many people mistake that and especially in their calculations of prophecy will divide or multiply 50 years to try to figure things out and this is why they're always coming up slightly now there's some interesting things that our previous sages have written about this introduction to Behar it says on Mount Sinai when the connection what is the connection between the shemitah and Mount Sinai this reference teaches that not only the broad outlines but the details of all the Commandments were given at Sinai as were those of the shemitah even the commandments that the torah recorded many years after the revelation at Sinai this is meant to indicate that all the commandments are of the Sinai origin so it's not that they're given later that these all these things there was a wealth of knowledge that Moshe received not all of it got written much of it was passed down orally to the 70 judges that helped him officiate over Israel and then it wasn't until thousands of years later that they started to codify that and write that but even these shemitah laws he revealed in their wilderness sojourn when the time was right this commandment proves that only God is the author of the Torah because this chapter guarantees that the year before the shemitah will produce a crop large enough to last for three years until the next available crop is harvested three years later if a human being were inventing such a commandment he would have to be foolhardy indeed to make such a prediction only God could make such a statement and that beautiful to have a confirmation it's something simple like the shemitah years to realize that this is of divine origins Rambam comments that the comparison between the shemitah and the sabbath is both to bear testimony to God's creation in the beginning because that's when Sabbath rest was instituted for all mankind before there was ever a Jewish nation and to point to the Millennium and I think this is so cool that Ron bond realized that there was a millennium rest awaiting in the age of Mishima shock would come they were looking forward to the Millennium he says that this was why only shemitah not any of the festivals is specifically likened to the sabbath the seven years of the shemitah cycle allude to the 6,000 years of history of sin that will be climaxed by the seventh millennium in which mashiac is reigning as high priest and king which will be a period of peace and tranquility pretty cool to see some of these ancient sages having this realization so it's not something new or unique to our era based on the Safra Behar Meshach coma compares the years of the shemitah cycle to the days of creation just as the third in six days of creation are distinguished in that phase that it was good was stated twice so in the third and sixth years of the tithe of the poor is given providing good to others so did you know in the creation account it says it was good two times in the third and the sixth day and it's in those days that God tells us to do good to others and take care of the poor and to provide for the poor through these shemitah laws so just fascinating little glimpses into deeper revelations that have been with our people for thousands of years yes Daniel very few there was a couple of them that were kept and then Israel's punishment was 390 years for the 390 times that they missed the shemitah's and this is the punishment god said they would be exiled from the land and if they didn't start keeping the shemitah and the Jubilees they'd be punished seven times moreover if they didn't repent from their idol worship and not keeping this law and what did Israel do they forgot their identity when Assyria captured him and took him north of the Euphrates they just started migrating and it was just kind of like survival mode and they didn't return to Tora so that punishment in Leviticus 26 2010 and that 390 years did become seven times more over punish men which ended up being two thousand seven hundred and thirty years when calculated from the time that Assyria took them captive in 721 BC led up to Israel not knowing who they were until 2008 and that's why there's been a huge revival of people coming out of the churches saying we don't know why but we want the truth we're no longer happy with the tickling of ears of our false shepherds we want to return to Torah we're not Jewish we don't know why but we're gonna follow Torah if it's the last thing we do and when that started happening that's like the dry bones arising in Ezekiel 37 they didn't even know that they were the lost house of Israel they didn't know why their DNA was starting to vibrate to return to Torah so that this punishment would be ended and we could be returned to the land because the very thing that spit us out of the land unless we're prepared to repent and keep that come we won't be prepared to even be returned by Messiah right no it's meant for Israel definitely that's right so this will be reinstituted when Messiah returns the Exile to Israel in the Millennial Kingdom but it's not going to be able to be kept up in Alaska where you have a different growing season or down in South America or different places God had that perfect land for his children's inheritance where the it's very close to the equator and the growing season is perfect and the same amount of light and darkness and all of these things that's unique to Israel that can't be duplicated in other lands but the main thing for us right now is to be learning these principles so that a heart is receptive when we are returned to the land and only father knows whose heart is truly receptive and serious about returning to Torah when we return to the land we will be very quick to implement this and we will have help because we will have the Levitical priesthood the Lion of Zadok reinstituted we will have the Jewish people helping facilitate that and the Jewish people are looking forward to the lost ten tribes coming home their brothers and sisters they just want to make sure that when they do they're not bringing the paganism of the Gentile nations with them that they're truly serious about observing the Torah so we left off at the Jubilee in verse 11 he actually says on every one to the land he owns and every one is to return to his family that fiftieth year will be a jubilee a Yeovil for you in that year you are not to sow harvest what grows by itself or gather the grapes of untended vines because it is a Jubilee it will be holy for you whatever the fields produce will be food for all of you in this year of Jubilee every one of you is to return to the land he owns this is so that your inheritance in that particular area of your tribal lineage will never be lost will never be usurped by a foreign nation or by an even another tribe and we will see this example in Jeremiah how they were keeping track of who owned what so that the inheritance could be passed down through the generations and ultimately when we observe this it helps remind us that we really own nothing God has given us an inheritance in the land but he owns the land and you know what's interesting the Scriptures say that his inheritance God has an inheritance also and you know what godson he says his inheritances that he's looking forward to receiving us that's right amen good you guys you haven't forgotten I'm proud of you you are his inheritance you are the apple of his eye he's looking forward to receiving you back to himself he says and it's alludes to that in verse 23 this land is not to be sold in perpetuity because the land belongs to me so there's your proof text it's not we're just speculating the land belongs to him and were to be faithful stewards of it he says you're only foreigners and temporary residents with me that puts us in our place thank you Father for entrusting me with anything may I be a good steward of it I own nothing it's all his for his good and for his use verse 14 says if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy anything from him neither of you is to exploit the other person rather you are to take into account the number of years after the jubilee when you buy the land from your neighbor and he is to sell to you according to the number of years that the crops can be raised in it leading up to the next shemitah or the next Jubilee if the number of years remaining is large you will have a larger price if the if it's few years that remain you will lower it because what he is really selling you is the number of crops that can pre produced on it since you don't own the land you're not actually selling the land now see how America has gotten away from that even though they're the descendants of Israel look at how much land possession is important and the government is the biggest land holder and they really have usurped the laws of God by saying when they've enacted property tax so you never really can retire and just eat what you produce it's almost as if the government is putting themselves in the place of God and saying you always owe me a tax for using the land to produce crops on or to live on pretty interesting when we start thinking through God's lens thus you are not to take advantage of one another but you are to fear your God for I am Yoda hey Bob hey you're God rather you are to keep my regulations and rulings and act accordingly if you do you will live securely in the land the land will yield its produce you will eat it until you have enough and you will live there securely so you will have prosperity and you will have protection these are the two things he's saying if you do what there's a it's an if-then statement if you keep my regulations and his regulations are not burdensome and they're not rules and restrictions that are arbitrary he's a loving father telling his children how to receive blessings of prosperity and protection and this is what his regulations are he is telling us how to live in harmony with the eternal principles of the universe there are laws for everything in our lives there's laws mentally that bring mental health you know you can practice certain things like the study of Torah that enhance your mind or mathematics or music or there's so many different things that if you live in harmony with it you will have good mental health physical health the same way nutrition proper water exercise all of these things there's laws that govern those the spiritual laws there's emotional laws for our heart health there's relationship laws for our marriages and our friendships and there is laws for our prosperity for our wealth there's laws that we don't have any control over like gravity we call them universal laws so there's several different areas of our life that end up comprising everything that you could possibly think of and each of those seven areas have seven different laws if we had wisdom we would learned how to live in harmony with those and the blessings would return to us and the prosperity and the protection and the health and we would have life more abundantly as Yeshua said he came to give we would be the head and not the tail as God said he desired for Israel as we are amongst the nations you are to keep my regulations and rulings and act accordingly if you do you will live securely the land will yield its produce and you will eat until you've had enough and live securely if you ask if we aren't allowed to sow seed or harvest what our land produces what are we going to eat in the seventh year then I will order my blessing on you during the sixth year so they're basically saying how are we going to provide for ourselves if we don't plant a crop one year then that means we have to replant the next year and we don't get any produce this year or this year until the harvest of the third year but God is saying if you'll trust me I will give you a triple harvest I'll take care of you for enough for all of those years I will order my blessing on you during the sixth year so the land brings forth enough produce for all three years the eighth year you will sow seed so I wrote your eight underneath here this is when you sow your new seed you replant the eighth year you'll sow seed but you'll still be eating the old stored produce until the ninth year from this triple harvest so he's laid it out very beautifully it's very organized the only thing is this is supernatural this doesn't normally happen talk about an act of faith if trusting God and you skip a year harvesting you collect that triple harvest in the sixth year the land is blessed you're blessed everybody's blessed when you follow Yahweh's you will eat this old stored produce until the ninth year that is until the produce of the eighth year comes in you will eat the old stored food the land is not to be sold in perpetuity because the land belongs to me you are only foreigners and temporary residents with me therefore when you sell your property you must include what's called a right of redemption and this is where our haftorah is going to parallel the tour portion we're gonna be reading about jeremiah being asked to fulfill the right of redemption from his brothers his father's brother's son so it's basically his cousin of the Levitical lion and he says cousin will you buy this piece of property so it doesn't get lost from our inheritance and Jeremiah even though he knows everybody's getting exiled fulfills the commandment and he actually gets witnesses and produces a deed which we will read about therefore when you sell your property you must include the right of redemption that if one of you becomes poor and sells some of his property his next of kin can come and buy it back from his relative if the seller has no one to redeem it but becomes rich enough to redeem it himself he will calculate the number of years the land was sold for refund the excess to its buyer and return his property if he hasn't sufficient means to get it back himself then what he sold will remain in the hands of the buyer until the year of the Jubilee and in the year of the Jubilee the buyer will vacate it and the seller can return to his property if someone sells a dwelling in a walled city he has one year after the date of sale in which to redeem in' for a full year he will have the right of redemption but if he has not redeemed the dwelling in the walled city within the year then title in perpetuity passes to the buyer through all his generations it will not revert in the Jubilee however houses and villages not surrounded by walls are to be dealt with like the fields in the countryside they may be redeemed before the UFL and they revert in the oval so the Levites had no inheritance in the land but they were given land in other tribal areas and they were even allowed the right of redemption to retain those or hold on to those we know the Temple Mount is in the tribe of who where most of the priests would be residing in the tribe of juda that's right but there was many cities of refuge in other tribal areas and the Levites had lands where the priests could live and officiate in those areas one of these places in which Jeremiah's family had land was just north of Jerusalem where been German in German and Judah because of Judah's desire to protect his younger brother even from the days when they went down to Egypt they always lived close together so Benjamin lives right next to our defender Mundson heritance is right next to Judah's just to the north and if you go to Jerusalem with me you could literally walk out of Jerusalem to the north and see Ramallah Ramallah is in the tribe of Benjamin to this day what's interesting is the prophecy God promises Jeremiah that because he bought this right of redemption in the age of mashiac it will be returned to him even though other people will try to inhabit in between them and be in days so right now who's occupying a lot of been Germans land is the Palestinians and yet it's Jeremiah's he has the rightful deed he actually preserved it he put it in an earthen vessel and he has witnesses and a contract and documents and all of these things so you this is just answer the question you might ask yourself what's the Levi doing in the land of in German in the inheritance of Benjamin and the Levites had these different little areas that they were allotted land and here in verse 32 it explains concerning the Levites concerning the cities of the leave of them the Levites and the houses in the cities they possess the Levites are to have a permanent right of redemption if someone purchases a house from one of the Levites then the house he sold in the city where he owns property will still revert to him in the Jubilee because the houses in the cities of the Levites are their tribes possession among the people of Israel the fields in the open land around their cities may not be sold because that is their permanent possession and this is where our haftorah draws its parallel but the tour portion goes on a couple verses if a member of your people has become poor because God doesn't want to just talk about the wealthy landowners he also cares about the poor and he wants to make sure that they're taken care of so he says if a person can't support himself among you your to assist him as you would a foreigner or a temporary resident this is actually a commandment to take care of the poor into the foreigners to the widows and to the orphans so that he can continue living with you we are not to charge him interest or otherwise profit from the poor but fear your God so that your brother can continue living with you do not take interest when you loan him money or take a profit when you sell him food I am a deny your God so of course his Raley's being great legal minds find loopholes in everything and they said well this commandment is for our brother and it's for in the land so when they went out of the land and they migrated to the north and to the west through Europe do you know many countries who were suffering economic woes invited the Lost Tribes to their land gave him free land to be merchants and to be moneylenders because Israel realized we can lend to the and find a loophole in this they're not necessarily our brothers when Yeshua came on the scene he says who's your neighbor who's your brother you know anyone who's in need he took it a little bit further this but until then this is how many of the Jews became very wealthy throughout Europe they became the moneylenders with interest to the Gentiles but if they were to lend to one of their own they still wouldn't lend with interest we still observe that to this day you will find in Israel one Jew loaning to another without any interest so it's just interesting to understand history and what who's that in the lands of their exile well the Christian countries were not allowed to lend to one another with interest because they're also reading the scripture and they're trying to apply it amongst themselves so what's interesting and around 1100 many of these countries opened up their doors and gave free land to Jews and lost ten tribes to set up as moneylenders because they needed for to boost their economy money to be lended what's interesting is that once the Jews became wealthy from this practice then those same people that gave them free land in their countries turned against them and they became you know they received the ire of all of these nations who are jealous then of their prosperity and that's a whole other subject but you can see how it got there all starting from these Commandments verse 37 says do not take interest when you loan him money or take a profit when you sell him food I am a denied your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt in order to give you the land of Canaan and be your God this land that the Canaanites were inhabiting was originally given to the line of Shem and all of his descendants but the Canaanites had usurped that inheritance forcefully taking that land which Noah had given to his son Shem Canaan was a descendant of ham who had an inheritance further south in Africa but this is why the Canaanites were there they were basically going against what God gave to Israel through Noah verse 39 says if a member of your people has become poor among you and sells himself to you this is called indentured servitude rather than me starve or my children starve I could sell myself to your service for enough money to take care of my family for those years until the Jubilee in which case I would be set free God has a plan so that everybody is provided for but you always have a way to get out of that indentured servitude and be free so nobody's a permanently rather you are to treat him well first he says do not make him do the work of a slave somebody that he sells himself to you rather you're to treat him like an employee or a tenant he will work for you until the year of Jubilee then he will leave you he and his children with him and return to his own family and regained possession of his ancestral land for they are my slaves whom I brought out of the land of Egypt so don't ever think that just like the land is don't think it's yours don't think that these slaves are yours very interesting is changing our mentality we don't own anything and we definitely don't own another person who God who belongs to God do not treat him harshly but fear which means have holy awe for your God concerning the men and women you may have as slaves you are to buy men and women slaves from the nations surrounding you you may also buy the children of foreigners living with you and members of their families born in your land you may own these so he's saying Israel is mine you can't own your brothers and sisters in the Israel these other people if you know you would take the land back oftentimes countries would just kill everybody who is inhabiting that land it's actually showing mercy to leave them alive and to let them work as slaves if they want to stay in that land now the term slave is not like it is today or not like it was in our country God's people always took good care of those who worked for them like family and they treated them like family it's nothing to be associated with like the slavery that happened in America with all the injustice there so we don't want anybody to think that God is advocating slavery like we have experienced slavery in our country but as far as your brothers the people of Israel are concerned he or not to treat them harshly if a foreigner living with you has grown rich and a member of your people has become poor and sells himself to this foreigner living with you or to a member of the foreigners family he may be redeemed after he has been sold one of his brothers may redeem him or his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him or any near relative of his may redeem him or if he becomes rich he may redeem him he will calculate what the person who bought him the time from the year he sold himself to the time of the year of Jubilee and the amount to be paid will be according to the number of years and his time had an employee's wage if many years remain imagine you're in the first year of the next cycle and you got 49 years to be set free according to them will he refund the amount for his Redemption from the amount he was bought for if there remain only a few years until the year of Jubilee then he will calculate with him according to his years and he will refund him the amount for his Redemption he will be like a worker hired year by year you will see to it that he is not treated harshly so this is a commandment we're to make sure that people are not treated harshly if he's been redeemed by any of these procedures nevertheless he will go free in the year of Jubilee he and his children with him for to me the people of Israel are slaves they are my slaves you know Israel is like a little slave girl from Egypt that God saw and he says you know I see her heart she's got a beautiful character I'm in love with her she's my dove like Song of Solomon says and he actually redeemed Israel from slavery from Egypt so he thinks of Israel as his slave girl not anybody else's so don't treat her harshly don't treat anybody and we talked about this bride corporately the whole house of Israel he says for they are mine they're the ones I brought out of the land of Egypt I am yo Dave of hey you're God now what's amazing is you would think that this tour court had only been one chapter would in there but God divinely inspired mow shade - in the chapter two verses later into chapter 26 which is about the weekly Sabbath because he wants to correlate the significance he wants to take our minds to the deeper meaning of the shemitah and the Jubilees with the weekly sabbath so that we understand the cycle of seven when we intern to Shabbat he says this is my sign between me and my people those that keep my Sabbath's when we do that we are no longer slaves of the world or slaves of sin we begin to enter into his rest and we experience freedom because it's only a free person that can take a day off a slave can never take a day off so it's really beautiful how God has shown how he desires to give rest and freedom to his people and so this torah portion ends with the first two verses of chapter 26 envy acara saying you are not to make yourself any idols why would it say that out of the shemitah and the jubilee and the shabbat theme all of a sudden you're introducing idols again because through idol worship we become a slave to licentiousness to sin to self focus and this is what deprives us of the blessings that God intends for us along with the rest and the freedom he says you're not to erect a carved statue or a standing stone or place any carved stone anywhere in your land in order to bow down to it I am I deny your God keep my Shabazz and revere my sanctuary I am yo Dave Ave and that's how it ends keep my sure BOTS and Revere my sanctuary it's so neat how God connects his Shabbat with his sanctuary because it's a place where he dwells He desires to dwell in us Shabbat is set apart from time and space it's unique and when we enter into it were actually meeting him there this is the day he is set aside as a divine date with his beloved so he says keep my shahboz and revere my sanctuary and when you realize your body is the temple of God you will take good care of it and you will make sure that it has its rest on the seventh day Sabbath in accordance with the fourth commandment 32:21 in that unit that's right Judah that's right and that's why both went into exile the only difference is Judah repented and returned to Torah so their exile was only 70 years where Israel was 390 and in 390 years what did they do they still didn't repent so God's prophecy that he would punish him seven times more over because he punishes those when I say punishment I mean discipline he never arbitrarily punishes we punish ourselves through the cause and effect of our actions but he says he disciplines any chaste honest those said he loves so he's like Israel I'm so sorry you didn't learn your lesson after three hundred and ninety years okay you're gonna be outside the land for seven times that amount and that brought us right up to two thousand eight in the meantime we've assimilated into Christianity and different religions and in been in different nations but what is the unique qualifier of the house of Israel is no matter where they are all the descendents around the world their Awakening and returning to Torah it's not just in America wherever they've been scattered and there the brother who had helped give the land back to Judah in 1948 exactly and this is why Ephraim got the firstborn blessing because the firstborn always has a double portion and so through the wealth of Ephraim taking care of Israel they were able to have enough control to in the Ottoman Empire in 1917 and then prepare the way for giving the land back in 1948 you're exactly right Mary Ellen and that's so beautiful that's you know the rest of the story that makes it so rich this plan of salvation is much more than just somebody dying so that you can continue sinning no he's showing you the way back to the land through Torah observance how to be an overcomer through self-denial and that's the beautiful thing about you sure now turn with me to Jeremiah and we will see a little example of this right of redemption in Jeremiah chapter 32 first and the tour the hot car is from verse 6 through 22 this week's haftorah discusses the purchase of a field by jeremiah echoing one of the themes of this week's torah portion the purchase and redemption of real estate jeremiah was confined in king Zedekiah's royal compound for having prophesied the destruction of jerusalem Zedekiah did not believe it how dare you say that Nebuchadnezzar is going to come and take this kingdom and so he imprisoned them until Nebuchadnezzar came and took over the nation and then guess who got to stay in the land Zedekiah was taken away and his eyes were put out Jeremiah was set free and he was able to travel to the lost house of Israel he went down through Egypt and across the Mediterranean to Spain and Sardinia and up to the British Isles and to Ireland and that's where Jeremiah's grave is to this day so it's interesting when God gives a word through his prophets nobody wants to hear the negative news they only want people that tickle their ears Oh God Destin's good things for you yes God essence good things for you but you're not going to receive them if you are not living in harmony with his laws and so Jeremiah was speaking the truth but the King didn't want to hear it yes mm-hm that's right last week what Mary Ellen is referring to when I taught on the secret of the tzaddik priesthood and how Yeshua was both from Judah as well as from the Levitical line of Zadok Jeremiah may have been in a similar position where that Akaya was the last remaining king of the line of David through the line of Judah Jeremiah is of the tribe of Levi but it is said that he was possible that he was like a grandfather to Zedekiah's two granddaughters our two daughters it was those two daughters that he preserved from exile by Nebuchadnezzar he took these daughters down to Egypt where one got married to a prince and had a great palace the other one he continued to take across the Mediterranean and married her off to the other line of Judah in Ireland who was from zoara's Lion of cow Hall who had gone there years before even before the Exodus and so it's very interesting to see Levi and Judah and this intermingling even at the time of Jeremiah God revealed himself to the Prophet and it informs him that he will be approached by his cousin animal with an offer to purchase his ancestral lands God instructs Jeremiah to accept this offer in accordance with the Torah right of redemption and amel sure enough then arrived in the compound with the offer in Jeremiah accepted money was transferred and a document of purchase was pinned in the presence of witnesses the Prophet then gave the heed to his disciple Baruch son of Neriah for safekeeping and instructed him to store it in an earthenware vessel where it would remain for many years hint hint when God tells him it will remain there for many years that means it's still there it's hidden somewhere but it will be revealed in the last days so this land can be returned jeremiah then conveys god's message the symbolism inherent in this transaction so says the lord of hosts the God of Israel houses and fields and vineyards shall be purchased again in this land this is a messianic prophecy thus conveying a message of hope even on the eve of destruction and exile so imagine Jeremiah is able to share this message from the Lord that don't worry Judah you're getting taken exile and everybody's getting taken out of land remember Daniel was taken out of the land his three friends all of these princes and they're wondering how long will we be out of the land and God gives them a message of hope that lookit I'm having Jeremiah buy this land because I'm going to return you to this land and you're gonna have proof that it's your land and then the haftorah ends with the prophets prayer of exaltation to the Lord so while I'm reading this I'll put up this map and because you can see here is Jerusalem and Jerusalem is actually right on in the yellow it's not a perfect map this small but this yellow is all the tribe of Judah with Simeon in the in the midst of Judah Benjamin is this little area here he's the youngest brother and he's right next to brother Judah and just north of Jerusalem you have Ramallah and here it's probably the most well known city for you guys so Jeremiah is actually buying land right here in Ramallah basically and it's gonna be returned to the Levites in the age of Messiah in the Millennial Kingdom so this is where we're talking about as we read this verse 6 we'll start in Jeremiah said the word of the Lord came to me and told me Hanna Mel the son of your uncle shaloom will approach now many people that read this unless they know these lineages they won't realize that this is talking about a Levitical family in accordance with the Torah the right of redemption for a Levite Jeremiah was a Levite he was the son of a priest so this is his cousin so he would that he's actually officiating Helen like Yochanan was for Zechariah you know he's the next in line for the priest but he's God gives him the spirit of prophecy and God tells him your cousin's gonna come basically and approach you and ask you to buy his field at Ana Toth you have the next of right redeemed to redeem it with in accordance with Torah Leviticus 25 which we just read so by it basically be an example of Torah observance even though your people are being taken out of the land this is going to give him hope to know that you own the land and I'm gonna return them back to it as that a knight has said my cousin Hanna Mel came to me in the guards quarters and said please buy my field at Ana Toth in the territory of Binyamin because you will inherit it and you have next of kin right to redeem it so please buy it for yourself then I was certain that this was at a nice word so I bought the field at Ana tote which belonged to my cousin Mel and wait out the money for him seven ounces of silver shekels I signed on the purchase contract I sealed it I called witnesses and weighed out money for him on a balance scale I took the purchase contract both the sealed copy with the terms and conditions and the unsealed copy and gave the purchase contract to Peru now baroque is his scribe Baruch actually went all the way to Ireland with him and he wrote an account of this amazing journey but all of these Scrolls of Jeremiah's journey on the returning ship that was supposed to give the account of what had happened where Jeremiah had gone that ships sank in the Mediterranean in a storm so a lot of Peru's records were lost but we have books in the suffer from baroque which Brooke has one of the most beautiful prayers I encourage you to read the book of Baruch anyways Baruch was his scribe so imagine Jeremiah's Levitical priest and prophet and whenever if you need something written you know the word of the Lord comes through him and he speaks it out and Brooke is there quickly reciting everything so as he's doing this transaction to buy this deal he's using Baruch also and he instructs him here is what out of nines off of owed which means Lord of hosts the God of Israel says take these contracts both the sealed and the unsealed copies and place them in a clay jar so that they can be preserved for a long time this is looking forward to the levitical people having their right in that exact land once again when Messiah comes and redeems it as the kinsman redeemer from the Palestinians who are not right rightfully claiming it very interesting for a long time preserve it for the Lord of hosts the God of Israel says that one day homes and fields and vineyards will once again be bought in this land after giving the purchase contract to Baruch son of Neriah I prayed to Adonai Adonai Elohim you made heaven and earth by your great power and outstretched arm nothing is too hard for you you display your grace to thousands but you also repay the guilt of the father's into the lap of their children's who follow them great powerful God whose name is out of night save owed great and counsel mighty indeed your eyes are open to all the ways of human beings in order to repay each one according to his ways according to the cause and effect of what he does you gave signs and performed miracles in the land of Egypt for our forefathers which continue to this day also in Israel and among other people thus you made yourself the reputation you have today you brought your people of Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and miracles with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror then you gave them this land which you had sworn to their ancestors because he had promised it to Abraham many years before 400 years before they actually possessed it that you would give them a land flowing with milk and honey beautiful prayer Jeremiah's praying they entered and took possession of it what is Jeremiah doing he's reminding God of his covenant with our forefathers he's we can use God's word in our prayers to great effect when we say God you said you would do this please let's see you you know and Daniel did the same thing we have many examples of people using God's Word not against God but kind of and God doesn't need to be reminded but God loves it when we show that we remember his word and we're saying we know you're gonna fulfill it he says you brought your people of Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and miracles then you gave them this land which you had sworn to their ancestors that you would give them a land flowing with milk and honey they entered and took possession of it but they didn't pay attention to your voice that voice all those beautiful laws that would bring blessings into their life from Sinai they didn't pay enough attention to it they got in the land and just like most people when things are good they forget the Lord they didn't live according to your Torah Jeremiah says and did nothing of all the things you ordered them to do like we read in Leviticus 25 therefore you made this complete disaster befall them the siege works are already there they have come to the city to capture it by means of sword famine and plague is being handed over to the because Deen fighting against it what you foretold is being fulfilled here you see it yourself imagine him looking at everybody being taken captive he's buying a piece of land that's gonna be worthless in his lifetime and yet God's using it as a promise to restore Israel back to the land and he's saying look at this Lord what you foretold is being fulfilled here you see it yourself yet you adonai elohim have said to me behind the field for money and call witnesses even as the city is being turned over to the Babylonians then this word of out and I came to hear me Yahoo I am I deny the God of every living creature is there anything too hard for me isn't that beautiful God just simply responds to his prayer and say look don't worry even though they're being taken away I'm gonna bring them back nothing's too difficult for me and that's where well we went a little bit beyond our 12 portion five verses but I think it's great to close with that knowledge that even in the midst of the worst tribulation with your country being taken over with your brothers and sister being killed right in front of you God says don't worry I have a plan for them he has a plan to resurrect them to return them to the land is anything too difficult for him well we think all is lost we might be discouraged but if we can remember God's Word will never return to Him void and we will receive the blessing that he intends for us if we will by faith keep his instructions his instructions are the instructions of a loving father in how to love him and how to love our fellow man it's that simple and so who wouldn't want to keep these things but the enemy has sown seeds of Lies to us telling them that they're burdensome telling us that they restrict us he says that God's law of love is like slavery he says it takes away your freedom when an act actuality it gives you true freedom yes a little bit further down that's in verse 41 is it 32 41 is one of the only places we're at and I says he will do something with his full heart and soul and strength he says prophetically looking down to our age the end of days where mashiac is recovering the Exile of Israel and he is bringing these two sticks these two houses back together making them one and replanting them in the land of their inheritance he says I will take joy in them and with them so as to do good for them I will plant them in this land truly with my whole heart and be my whole soul so it's the only place in scripture that says God's gonna do something with this whole heart and soul and that's to replant you back in the land of the inheritance of your forefathers this is the good news this is what the plan of salvation is all about and we have been missing 90% of it so let's be encouraged and keep walking this path that God has set before us to return in teshuva to his ways of love let's see to die daily to the self to live as living sacrifices and to follow you sure example of being living Torre's of and having God's character of selfless love flow in us and through us if you want to join me in that pledge please stand with me and we'll ask the Lord to empower us to do so Abba Father we thank you for revealing to us your plans of blessings your plans of prosperity your plans of health and protection if we will live out your character of selfless love it's that simple father your law is a law of love and we have been so blinded that we haven't seen it but now our hearts are pricked and we return to you in repentance seeking to be able to live out to the best of our ability your torah here in the lands of our dispersion the lands of our exile until you restore us back into the land of israel the land of our inheritance but we can even more fully live out these laws of love not just to our fellow man but to the agriculture to the soil to your holy temple and to your people we thank you Father we ask for your anointing from your rule to empower us to be living Torre's even after the example of yeshua who taught us to live devoid of self to fast and to pray and to feed ourselves with your word more than even with physical food for your word is spiritual food that takes care of us physically and spiritually mentally and emotionally and brings blessings in every area of our life so we thank you Father and we dedicate our lives to you this day and we rededicate our lives to you may we be vessels for your service may we be living sacrifices and living torez so that you can live in us and through us in every way exemplifying your selfless love this is our prayer in your holy name we pray amen you you

Channel: Assembly of Called-Out Believers

Views: 8,290

Rating: 4.9227052 out of 5

Keywords: Torah, Parashah, B'har, Behar, Haftarah, Leviticus 25, Jeremiah 32, Jeremiah, Sh'mittah, Shemittah, Yovel, Jubilee, Rest, Redemption, Right of redemption, Age of Moshiach, Milennial Kingdom, Rabbi Isaac, Assembly of Called-Out Beleviers, Torah Studies, Learn Torah

Id: P-pGB1Tou5s

Length: 66min 26sec (3986 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 03 2019