Shabbat Shalom, everyone. I would like you please to open your Bibles to the 10th chapter of the book of Nehemiah, chapter 10. And we can see how the theme of this book of Nehemiah is to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, to rebuild the walls that were broken down, to rebuild the gates that was burnt with fire. And it's really representing for us the importance that God has for you and I to rebuild broken lives, broken conditions in our life. God does care for his people and he wants us to rebuild the broken lives that sometimes we experience as we walk here in this world. Now, I would like to read today, beginning from the last verse of chapter 9, verse 38, which is actually the first verse of chapter 10 in the Hebrew Masoretic text.

So, I'm reading Nehemiah, chapter 9, verse 38, and I'm going to read most of the verses of chapter 10, and just simply eliminating reading the list of the names that are found from verse 1 to verse 27. So, I'm reading, and because of all this, we make a sure covenant and write it, and our princes, Levites, and priests sealed unto it. Chapter 10, chapter 10, and verse 1. Now, those that sealed were Nehemiah, the Tarshatah, the son of Chakiliah, and Tzedakiah. And I'm not going to read from verse 2 all the way to verse 27, the beautiful Hebrew names, which is the list of the priests, the Levites, and the chief of the Jewish fathers.

Continuing for verse 28. And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Netanim, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the land unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone having knowledge and having understanding, they clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse and into an oath to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord, our Lord, and his judgment, and his statutes. And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons.

And if the people of the land, and if the people of the land bring wear or any victuals on the Shabbat day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the Shabbat or on the holy day, and that we would leave the seventh year and the exception of every debt. But also, we made ordinance for us to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God, For the showbread, and for the continual meal offering, and for the continual burnt offering, of the Shabbat, of the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy thing, and for the sin offering to make an atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.

And we cast the lot among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, A times appointed year by year to burn upon the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the law, and to bring the firstfruits of our ground, and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year unto the house of the Lord. And also the firstborn, also the firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the firstborn of our herds, and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, and to the priests that minister in the house of our God.

And that we should bring the firstfruits of our hearts, and the firstfruits of all manner of trees, of wine, and of oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God, and the tithe of our ground unto the Levites, that the same Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithe in all the cities of our tillage, and the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take tithe, and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithe unto the house of our God, to the chamber into the treasure house for the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering of the

corn of the new wine and the oil unto the chambers where are the vessels of the sanctuary and the priests that minister and the porters and the singers and we will not forsake the house of our God this is the word of the Lord we read the 10 chapters I just eliminated to read these beautiful names Hebrew names that you have here in that list of the priests Hakohanim the Levites Halevim and the head of the houses the heads of Israel but beloved brothers and sisters let us remember that in the study of the book of Nehemia the thought that always rises up before us is really the thought of restoration here the Jewish people

were in Bavell first later on the middle Persian the time it passes by finally Israel is returned back to the land the remnant returned to the land of Israel to the city of Yerushalayim Nehemia built the walls Nehemia set up the gates now the people of Israel are in the land of Israel the Jewish remnant many of them living in the city of Yerushalayim and then if you remember in the ninth chapter even though they celebrated the feast of Sukkot and they were so thankful and they rejoiced as we read in chapter 8 the joy of the Lord is our strength yet in chapter 9 we found that the people of Israel have taken you

might say a serious time of repentance before the Lord and we find out that throughout the ninth chapter they cried unto the Lord and they repented before him because they are looking back and they see that even though many of them are back in the land still things are not the same as they used to be in the past and also as God has intended for them to enjoy because things are still not as they ought to be you remember we closed chapter 9 with verse 37 we left verse 38 because it belonged to chapter 10 and you remember what we read in the last verse of chapter 9 let me read it they said

in their confession verse 36 and 37 behold we are servants this day and for the land that you have gave us unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the goods thereof behold we are servant in that land because there were still servants to the nations around them notice verse 37 and it yielded much increase unto the kings whom thou has set over us even though Israel the Jewish government were back in the land yet the middle Persian empire was still ruling and they really didn't have the freedom as a nation as God have intended for our nation the nation of Israel and notice the last expressions here why were they in this condition

because of our sins also they have dominion over our bodies and over our cattle it said at their pleasure and at the end of verse 37 it says we are in great distress that's how we concluded chapter 9 of nechemya the Hebrew word we are in distress anachnu betzara gdola great distress you know the Hebrew word tsarot in Yiddish it says soros but in Hebrew it comes from the Hebrew word tsarot it means many troubles even though they were in the land still they experienced many many many troubles we can say clearly today even in the land of Israel today there are nearly seven and seven and a half million of our own Jewish people

but there are many many many troubles tsarot gdolot throughout the land of Israel and if we will apply it to us today as believers in the body of Messiah even though we might gather together and be seeking to soundly gather around the Lord Yeshua the Messiah learn from his word but in reality brothers and sisters we know very well the condition that existing in the body of Messiah many of the believers around the world are going through trials and some are persecuted some are being under distress trouble on every hand and so what do you do when you have troubles in your life you turn to God in prayer and this is exactly what nechemya

have done and the leaders of Israel they turn to God in prayer and confession and repentance because the Lord is able to help us you remember the verse that was read to us just earlier now for we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose Romans 8 and verse 28 we have trouble in our life but every situation in our life if we lean hard on the Lord if we wait on him and let him use this situation he will bless us even though there are trials around our life family problems all kind of health issues all kind of situation

job situation financial situation all kind of problems that we experience if we cast our cares before the Lord he is able to sustain us and to help us and you know really the only time that we will not have problems and the only time that Israel will not have problems is when we are going to be with him when Yeshua is going to come and reign and rule heaven's rightful place over his own people whether it is the body of Messiah the ecclesia the church or whether it is Israel in the future days so now we are in chapter 10 but chapter 10 began with chapter 9 verse 38 in the English text in the

Hebrew Masoretic text we are really reading verse 1 and hear how it began I want you to notice now in this 10th chapter that first of all there was a decision made to make a covenant with God by the people of Israel yes there were problems in the past yes we have been wrong in the past yes we have had many trouble in the past because of our failure and our sins God we are going to make a commitment to you this is very important for us as believers we really need to make decisions in our lives to say I have decided to follow Yeshua the Messiah so they are making a decision and notice

chapter 9 verse 38 and because of all this what all this?

all the distress that we experience all the tzarot that we have all the problems that we have because of this we make a sure covenant and write it and our princes Levites and priests sealed unto it because of this trouble the leadership of Israel made a decision because of the fact that we have trouble we are realized we had to change our direction we are not going to continue in the way we used to go that caused us to stumble and to fall and be astray away from the Lord no no no we are making a decision to follow the Lord so what did they do?

they made a covenant in Hebrew we call it amana it's a word that we often use it's like making an agreement with the Lord now of course we often make an agreement with the Lord many times and we don't succeed to fulfill those agreements you remember that?

we sometimes say we're new year coming I'll turn a new leaf I'm going to start everything afresh and we're turning the leaf the new year coming and we find out that we continue on to do the very same old things we used to do in the past and that's why you have to be careful when you make an agreement with the Lord you ask the Lord we ask the Lord to give us grace to help us to be faithful in a commitment that we have made but you see they made a covenant they made an agreement and you notice that brothers and sisters that this is beginning at the top with the leadership number one

we find out the princess in verse 38b number two we find out the Leviim and number three we find out the Kohanim the priest in other words they signed it says here chatmu in Hebrew lachtom to sign it they wrote a big list of a covenant with the Lord and then they have signed that covenant with the leadership of Israel namely the princes the Levites and the priests now you notice immediately if you go to the next verse this is chapter 10 and verse 1 in the English text you notice that the first one to sign this was none else but Nehemiah himself you can see that he really meant business he is the one

who takes leadership notice verse 1 now those that sealed were Nehemiah de Tirshata the word Tirshata it's a Persian word it's Aramit really it speaks about the governor he was a governor there in the city of Jerusalem he signed this first and from verse 1b all the way to verse 27 we have a list of Jewish names beginning with you notice at the end verse 1 Tzidkiah verse 2 Seraiah and Azariah and Yirmiah notice the Hebrew name are so beautiful because every name that we have been given as Jewish people among our own people link us with the living God Yirmiah Jehovah will be exalted Tzidkiah Jehovah is righteous Seraiah Jehovah is a sar a

prince every Hebrew name has a meaning in biblical time when a Jewish mother would give a name to her son or her daughter is always linked with for example Emmanuel Gavriel everything has to do with the living God of Israel you remember the name of the three Jewish boys Hananiah Azariah Mishael all these names connect with God Hananiah Jehovah had grace Azariah Jehovah have helped me Mishael who is like unto God the Hebrew name has meanings and if we're going to go through a list you'll see almost every name has a meaning but those lists here in verses 1b to verse 27 is a list of Hebrew Israeli Jewish men that signed that agreement that

covenant verses 1b to verse 8 it is the names of the priests of Israel Hakuhanim verses 9 to 13 we have the names of the Levites of Israel Hal-Levi'im and verses 14 to 27 we have the names of the chiefs of Israel we call it in Hebrew Rachei the heads of the nation Rachei Ha'am and all of these leaders of Israel signed it now again I would like to mention beloved brothers and sisters it is important to make a commitment to the Lord but we always have to qualify that and I tell you why because many times we make decisions to say Lord I'm going to follow you and I'm going to do everything for

you I promise you I'm going to get up in the morning I'm going to pray every day I promise you I'm going to get up in the morning I'm going to read my Bible I read the scriptures every morning I promise you I'm going to go every week to the meeting I'm going to be in the Bible class and I'm going to be in a Saturday or a Sunday ministry meeting I'll be there Lord I promise you I'm committing myself to that and time passes by we find out that we are not as committed as we have made promises to the Lord it's best to say Lord help me to do so Lord I need

you to help me you know my weakness you know my failure the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak the apostle Shaul Paul taught us that we did the spirit we have a new man we have a new heart because we are believers but beloved brothers and sisters the flesh is weak and we cannot trust our flesh we make commitment we say I'm going to do this for the Lord and you know that those of us that became new believers we promise to God we're going to go after you in the fire in the water wherever it's going to be I'm going to follow you but when tests come we find ourselves failing on

our faces and that's why it's so important to say Lord help me you know my weakness Paul said Shaul said the things that I want to do these I do not do and the things that I do not want to do these things I do and then he said at the end of Romans 7 all wretched men that I am and then he said who shall deliver me from this body of humiliation you notice he doesn't say what but he says who because he direct himself to the person of Yeshua the Messiah he's the only one who can help us to do the right thing and to walk in the right way it's not what

we say but who we follow it's a person that is able to sustain us and help us so from verse 28 on is what I would like to speak about specifically the people of Israel not only the leaders now now the people themselves followed the leaders notice verse 28 we read and the rest of the people the priests the Levite the porters and the singers and the and all they that separated themselves from the people of the land unto the law of God their wives their sons and their daughters everyone having knowledge and having understanding they clave to their brethren their nobles and entered into a curse and into an oath to walk in God's

law which was given by Moshe Moses the servant of God and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his judgment and his statutes now pause here for a moment you notice that now the people of Israel enter into what it calls here a curse and into an oath to walk in God's law now that immediately remind us that long before our nation Israel entered into the promised land there was those two mountains one of them was a mountain that talked about blessings and one of them was a mountain that talked about cursing in other words if you will submit to my authority and you will submit to what I

say to you here is the list of blessings this is Deuteronomy 27 28 29 30 and then if you will not submit to my authority and you will not listen to my voice here is the list of cursing curse you be in the land curse that you be before your enemies and so on there is a blessing and there is a cursing in a sense beloved brothers and sisters they now agreed and they followed their leaders by making this commitment and notice it says verse 28 those that separate themselves from notice that the people of the lands and then unto the living God in other word we learn here that they had to first of

all separate themselves from the peoples of the lands and then draw unto the God of Israel you see separation is very important now again let me qualify that separation is to be distinguished from isolation we are not to isolate ourselves like go to a monastery shut the door and just stay inside the monastery says I don't want to hear anything about the world this is isolation that is not separation separation means that when a person makes a decision in his or her life to separate themselves from but they also need to separate themselves unto not only to say well I'm going to separate from these individuals or this kind of lifestyle but I'm going to

continue to stay in a vacuum no what we learn here that they separate themselves from the nations that were surrounding them but unto the law of God this is so beautiful to see that it's not only being a sectarian but it's going towards the Lord it reminds me what we read in 1st Thessalonians chapter 1 Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in verse 9 and 10 of chapter 1 he said for they themselves show of us what manner of entering we had unto you and how listen to these brothers and sisters you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from

the dead even Yeshua which delivered us from the wrath to come you see what the Thessalonians did they turned to God from idols the wording is a little bit different because here it says they turn from the nations of the world then to God or to God's law but the point is really the same simply it is if we are going to leave the world and its system and its ways and its behavior we must turn our hearts to the living God to our Lord Yeshua the Messiah who is able to help us to walk with the Lord so really you can see that they made a decision and the second thing that I want

you to understand in verse 28 it says not only that they themselves the men but also as it said their wives their sons their daughters and now notice sometimes we talk about the age of understanding what is the age of accountability here it is verse 28b everyone having knowledge and having understanding you see they had to be able to understand in order in order to make a commitment to say this is the direction that I am going and so we often talk about in the we ask the question what is the age of accountability for which a person is going to be accountable before the Lord for his personal soul how will he or she

be accountable what age is it five years old is it 10 years old is it 15 years old well it is no age only everyone having knowledge and having understanding one might have understanding at the age of 10 and another one have an understanding at the age of 5 but all those that have clear understanding from the word of God they were the one that have committed themselves and they followed with understanding what their leaders have decided to do now notice brothers and sisters we continue on in chapter 10 and from verses 30 to the end of the chapter verse 39 they have the six fold commitments that the people of Israel promised to God

to the God of Israel I want you to notice that and I will highlight them to you as I'm sharing with you in this ministry you notice the first of the commitment is separation from the people of the land this is verse 30 and I'm reading notice the word we mentioned and that we should not give our daughters unto the people of the land nor take their daughters for our sons that's the first commitment they have now why they had to make this decision because God knew what the people of the lands around especially the land of Canaan the surrounding nation what they believe in and who they believe in those nations were pagan nations

they were idol worshippers they have ended up leading many of our Jewish people who have intermarried with them away from the God of Israel they end up ultimately living a life that is away from the Lord like for example look what happened to the king of Israel Shlomo Solomon he married 700 wives he had 300 concubines and the vast majority of them were women from the nations around him and you remember what Shlomo have done he built altars to their gods he end up to offer sacrifices to his wives gods and he lost the kingdom because of this condition in his life he started well and he ended up in a very poor condition though

he was a man that was chosen by God and you see what we learn from that that there is a reason that God warned the people of Israel to be a separated nation I want you to read with me for a moment Deuteronomy chapter 7 and verses 1 2 and 3 there it says there notice it and I'm reading when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it and has cast out many nations before thee the Chittites and the Girgassites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Chivites and the Jebusites seven nations greater and mightier than thou and when the Lord thy God

shall deliver them before thee thou shall smite them and utterly destroy them thou shall make no covenant with them nor show them mercy and notice it says in verse three neither shall thou make marriage with them thy daughters thou shall not give unto his son nor his daughter shall thou take unto thy son and here are for for they will turn away thy son from following me that they may serve other gods Elohim Akherim so will the anger of the Lord kindle against you and destroy you suddenly see God gave this instruction to our forefathers for a reason and that's why brothers and sisters you often find that in our Jewish community many times they

would not marry with non-Jew and biblically speaking it's correct but there's another issue of course they did not accept the Mashiach they have another problem it's not sufficient enough to say well I was taught this way and therefore I do so but at the same time you reject the word of the Lord for every other area in life they needed to accept the Messiah they need to turn their heart to the God of Israel and they needed to commit themselves to the word of God and so you can see these people made a decision and they say wait a minute wait a minute we are going to separate ourselves this is verse 30 not give

our daughters to the people of the land not take our sons to their daughters and again I would like to say and I mentioned it already in our previous ministry meeting 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 we read this passage already last time with our apostle Paul made a reference the importance of separating from what a believer has to do with an unbeliever you remember what he said in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 14 be ye not unequally ought with unbelievers why because what fellowship have a righteousness with unrighteousness and then he says and what communion has light with darkness and what conquer has the messiah with bleial and what part has he that believeth with

the unbeliever and what agreement has the temple of God with idols for ye are the temple of the living God the believer in Yeshua the Messiah is a child of God and he or she are to live a separated life not a sectarian life not a legal kind of life but separated unto the Lord and how many headaches we all have when we didn't follow those instructions we know that in our own personal life we know that very well and it is only the mercy of the Lord who bear with us and help us to continue on and he restore us and rebuild us back because we have gone astray so the first one is

separation from the people of the land verse 30 verse 31a is the second commitment that they have made the second one was that they were going to keep the Shabbat day and the holidays if the people of the land bring wear or any victuals on the Shabbat day to sell we would not buy it of them on the Shabbat or on the holy day now this is interesting now again remember brothers and sisters the Shabbat day was given to our nation Israel it's a sign of the covenant that God made with the nation of Israel and every time when Israel failed to keep Shabbat day Israel was disciplined by the Lord and it is so

interesting is that you see they were not to buy and sell on the Shabbat day as when and you see the commitment it says if any of the people of the land will bring anywhere anything or victual or anything anything that buy and selling he says we would not buy it of them on a Shabbat day on a holiday why because in a sense you learn from this that the Lord did not want Israel to you might say do business on a Shabbat day to devote to the Lord to devote to the God of Israel and therefore they were called in this verse to separate in such a way that Shabbat will be a special

unique day that Israel as a nation is to keep unto the Lord let me read to you a verse in Jeremiah chapter 17 please in verse 27 there we read listen listen to that but if ye will not hearken unto me and hallowed the Shabbat day and not to bear a burden even entering in at the gate of Jerusalem on a Shabbat day then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched Israel you had to keep the Shabbat God has said to our forefathers because by doing so you set apart this day to the Lord it is part and parcel

with the law that God had given to the nation of Israel as is clearly defined in Exodus chapter 20 God have commanded Israel to celebrate or to keep the Shabbat day you notice in Leviticus chapter 23 before you even read all the seven feasts of the Lord the first thing that is mentioned is thou shall keep the Shabbat day holy unto the Lord now of course again brothers we we can go around and we can discuss this issue and there are many convictions that people have about the Shabbat with respect to our present day dispensation and that's fine it's an individual conscience as far as I understand from scripture but there's a great lesson for

us there's a principle that we learn here in this passage because it shows us the important that Shabbat is spoke of the word Lashavet speaks of to sit down the word Lishbot means to strike down not to do anything and it speaks of rest and you know how wonderful it is for us who are believers in Yeshua the Messiah we have a rest that is embedded in the finished work of our Lord Yeshua Hamashiach we have a rest because of what he have done for us in salvation and as Hebrews 4 says the remaining yet a rest for the people of God there is still a future rest remaining for all believers in Yeshua the

Messiah in the future day you can read of it in Hebrews chapter 4 and verses 1 to verse 9 but they made a commitment that now not only they are going to separate from the people of the land number 1 verse 30 31a they will keep their Shabbat day holy unto the Lord and the holidays the feasts of Yehovah the feasts of the Lord now the third thing that they made commitment to do these Jewish remnant that returned to Israel is found in verse 31b of Nehemiah chapter 10 they committed themselves to observe not only the Shabbat day but also the seventh year Shabbat rest for the land itself now notice verse 31b it said

and that we would leave the seventh year and cancel every or all the debts now what does that mean that we will leave the seventh year you see brothers and sisters God gave to Israel not only to keep a daily Shabbat in relationship to the person to the individual Israeli but also God gave to Israel the Shabbat rest of the land you see everything the law and the commandments of God is linked with the land that God had given to our forefathers well what they had to do they had to work the ground for six years you have a property for example every tribe have its own property and the lands that they possess families

will possess a piece of land they will work the ground one year they will sow and reap the second year they will sow and reap reap the sixth year they will sow and reap but God says the seventh year you don't touch the ground you leave the ground as it is and let the ground not only you Hebrew Israeli Jewish individual but your property your land you will not work on that seventh year and I want to just show you this this is important in connection with the land turn to Exodus chapter 23 and 11 again the instruction is from the Lord through Moshe it says and six year you shall sow thy land and

shall gather in the fruits thereof but listen to verse 11 the seventh year thou shall let it rest and lay still that notice that the poor of the people may eat and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat in like manner thou shall deal with thy vineyard and with thy olive yard in other words Israel God says you don't work the ground in the seventh year you let it rest and the only people who will be able to glean from whatever is found there is your pool and the beast of the field and the people that have a need but you don't touch it not your vineyard not your olive yard nothing

you will let the land rest naturally speaking you and I would think about how are they going to eat if they are not going to glean on the seventh year nothing how are they going to eat God gave them an answer go to Leviticus 25 verse 20 21 and 22 and notice how God helps his people and God says to Israel and if ye shall say what shall we eat the seventh year God says behold we shall not sow we shall not gather in our increase so here is the answer then I will commend my blessing upon you in the sixth year notice verse 22 and you are worried what you are going to eat

in the seventh year don't worry he says I'm going to give you so much food so much gleaning so much crop on the sixth year that it's going to be sufficient for the sixth year for the seventh years for the eighth years on the ninth year you will eat from the eighth year in other words you will be eating three years with the amount of crop that you are going to have when you sow and you know it tells us a lot isn't it we often time don't trust the Lord to provide for us isn't it true we know very well there was one brother that said this like this he says we trust God

for our soul but we don't trust him for a piece of bread we trust God for our eternal soul where we will spend eternity but we don't trust him for a piece of bread it showed a lack of faith that we often have the man said to Yeshua Yeshua I believe but help my unbelief go back to Nehemiah chapter 10 we have three more thoughts that I want to present before you verses 32 and 33 we have the fourth commitment that the people of Israel in the days of Nehemiah have made to the Lord and the fourth commitment was to provide funds for the work of the Lord for the temple you see what he

said and we may need ordinances for us to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God verse 33 and for the show bread and for the continual meal offering and for the continual burnt offering offering and for the Shabbat and of the new moons and for the set feasts and for the holy things and for the sin offering to make an atonement for Israel and for all the work of the house of our God now you see beloved brothers and sisters in those days there was a temple in Jerusalem and a temple where you have sacrifice going and in order to have sacrifices and

to run the ministry and the service in the temple the Levites the priests and so on well how will they maintain it running how will they be able to provide bread on the table of the show bread how they will be able to offer meal offering and the Shabbat day to be kept and the new moon and the feast and the holy thing than the sin offering how will they be able to sustain and to maintain it if the Levites have no land no portion among the people of Israel well the people of Israel saw the responsibility to take care of the work of the Lord it is a natural responsibility that God have taught

his people Israel and this is so important I mean really even in present day dispensation do you know brothers and sisters that no minister of the gospel will be able to function and to carry on in preaching the gospel and serving the Lord if he has not the maintenance to be able to continue to do so Paul said in 1st Corinthians chapter 9 those that preach the gospel are to live of the gospel it is natural it is common sense see apparently they had to learn this responsibility themselves and they made a decision we are going to provide for and you notice it used twice the word the house of our God it said that

the answer verse 33 and for all the work of the house of our God to maintain it well even the sacrifices had to be brought to the altar how do you think the sin offering had to be offered well we had to have an animal to place him on the altar what about the burnt offering continual burnt offering there was ongoing continual burnt offering that had to be going on well if they couldn't provide for themselves for this they will never be able to do so and so there was a responsibility of the people of Israel that they took upon themselves they realized this is nothing new if you go back to Old Testament Exodus

chapter 30 God have already told them that they are to provide for the maintenance of the priests and the Levites in order for them to continue on the service of the Lord that is common sin number five number five is found in verse 34 the fifth thing that they made a commitment to do is they were committed to provide wood for the altar of the among the priests the Levites and the people for the wood offering to bring it into the house of our God after the house of our fathers at times appointed year by year to burn upon the altar of the Lord our God as it is written in the law now you

might say well here we go now in order for them to run the burnt offering remember there was a huge fire has to be running all the time you notice it used as expression here in this verse 34 it says there that it was an ongoing you notice that this is a wood to bring it to the house of our God after the house of our fathers at a time appointed year by year to burn on the altar of the Lord our God as it is written in the law of Moses now the fire was continuing on it is interesting I was looking at the Hebrew here and the Hebrew word here for wood and

in connection with the wood it was in Hebrew eshtamid it's an eternal fire the fire had to be constantly there why because the fire had to burn the sacrifice and the sacrifice had to deal with the sin of the people the blood had to be shed the sacrifice had to be laid on the altar so in order to have the wood has to be always running underneath so there would be constantly a burning of the sacrifice and you know brothers and sisters I was thinking about that this is so beautiful to see that as far as God's concerned it reminds him constantly of the sacrifice of his son the Mashiach Yeshua the Messiah died for

us on the tree God see the value of the blood of the Messiah it's ever before him it's like it says it always remind him of the value of the work of Yeshua the Messiah before him so you and I could have forgiveness of sins in other words when we stand now before the Lord should the Lord take us we know that our sins are forgiven because of the value of the sacrifice would have to be there so the sacrifice will be there and the blood will be shed and Israel will receive forgiveness of sins but you see they had to offer again and again and again and again and again animal after animal and

animal all the time continually but you see Yeshua have done it once he never need to die again for by one offering he sanctify forever them that are sanctified he does not need to repeat his work but the animals on the altar that our forefathers had to offer had to and again and by the way if you read in Exodus 27 verse 20 and 21 we have the eternal light when Aaron went to the holy place the menorah had to be always there we call it in Hebrew ner tamid if you would go to a synagogue today and you will look above the ark you will see that there is a light always representing the

light that will be always the eternal light representing the light for us in our understanding represents the Messiah who is the light of the world who is eternally in the presence of God accepted his work had been accepted his life his death his resurrection is accepted by God and it is eternally in the presence of God so his sacrifice represents his death on the altar and the menorah represents his perfection not as the seven fold lamps which we read today in Isaiah chapter 11 if you remember we read of the seven fold spirit of God that rested upon Yeshua the Messiah the spirit of the Lord the spirit of wisdom the spirit of understanding the

spirit of counsel the spirit of might the spirit of knowledge and the spirit of the fear of the Lord the seven fold spirit that rested upon the person of Yeshua the Messiah because of who he is and because of what he had done for us the eternal light his light is ever shining before the Lord his sacrifice is ever remained before the Lord it is an eternal fire and an eternal light nertamid and eshtamid and so brothers and sisters bear with me for the final commitment that our Jewish people of old have made before the Lord in Nehemiah chapter 10 and I'm just reading just to highlight the last commitment verses 35 to 39 this

is commitment number six and notice what we read they committed to bring to the Lord the first fruits of all that they have and I noticed that and I really look at how many times the first fruits is mentioned in verse 35 it says and to bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all the fruit of the all trees year by year unto the house of the Lord verse 36 also the first born of our sons and of our cattle as it is written in the law and the first born of our herds and of our flocks to bring it to the house of our God notice verse 37 and

that we should bring the first fruits of our dough and of our offerings and also in verse 37 be in our tithing verse 38 that the priest and the son of Aaron shall be with the Levites when the Levites take the tithe and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes unto the house of our God to the chambers into the treasure house in other words they have committed to themselves to give these tithing for the house of the Lord in order that the ministry and the service of the Lord will continue on and as they said that and I'm going to conclude with that notice verse 39 what we read I found

it extremely interesting it says in verse 39 B where are the vessels of the sanctuary and the priests that minister and the porters and the singers and we will not forsake the house of our God reading this verse remind me of the encouragement that the apostle who wrote to the Hebrews what he said to them in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 25 he encouraged the believers the early Hebrew believers he saying to them not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day is approaching those early believers already in the church age began to go through some challenges

and they forsook the meeting the gathering together as an assemblies in the earlier days and the apostle who wrote to the Hebrew believers said brothers and sisters let me encourage you and I would seek to do so for you and for myself not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together it is so important not to neglect the house of the Lord and of course we know that the house of we don't have the temple in Yerushalayim but the house of the Lord is every one of us that is a true child of God a believer in Yeshua the Messiah we are part of the house of God and we are to encourage each other to meet

together to study the word to sing praises to the Lord to learn from the word of God and to exalt the person