Behar – Torah with Joseph

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom, my name is Joseph Shulam and we are continuing with Brad TV to go through the five books of Moses according to the reading schedule of all the synagogues in the world on the Sabbath day.

And today we are in a very short portion. It’s called Behar in Hebrew which means in the mountain, referring to Mount Sinai. And it’s a short portion, but it has a lot of very important things that we need to learn.

So it starts with the following words.

This phrase, “when you come into the land,” is a formula. It’s a formula that in the book of Leviticus appears several times. It appears in chapter seven, verse 38. I’m going to say it here in Hebrew. “And God commanded Moses in Mount Sinai.”

Again, like the same situation as this, “and commanded him, command the children of Israel to offer their sacrifices to the Lord in the Sinai Desert.” It appears again in chapter 25, where they’re now, and then in the next chapter, chapter 26, it appears, again. “These are the laws and the judgements on the instructions that God gave between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai.” And again, it appears, these are in chapter 27, verse 34. “These are the commandment that God commanded to Moses to children of Israel in Mount Sinai.”

This idea is that when God commands the location, Mount Sinai is connected with the promise of God of bringing the children of Israel back to the land that God gave to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob as an eternal possession. There is no promise repeated more in the whole Bible than the promise of God to give this land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan river, from Dan to Beersheba, to the children of Israel, as an everlasting eternal inheritance.

But repeating this in Mount Sinai so many times in the book of Leviticus, indicates the importance of the promise and the importance of the location of Mount Sinai. Why is Mount Sinai so important? Because that is where God met with Moses for 40 days and 40 nights on top of the mountain.

But this is also in chapter 20 of the book of Exodus, the place that God met with the children of Israel and everybody heard the voice of God speak the Ten Commandment from Mount Sinai and the law that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai.

So, the location is important for the authority of God’s commands. That’s when all of Israel heard His voice and every anybody understood His voice in the language that they were understanding. Just like in the book of acts. We spoke about this earlier when we talked about Exodus chapter 20. And now this very interesting, curious thing that happens.

We know that in the book of Exodus, or right in the book of Genesis chapter two, God commanded to sanctify the Sabbath day, the seventh day and in the book of Exodus more than one time, that command appears. But now in a very strange way, it appears again.

Ah, that’s a strange thing for most Christians; it’s a very strange thing. We’re not only commanded for the human beings to rest; your servants, your maid servants, your children, your animal, farm animals. They all get to rest on the Sabbath day, the seventh day. The way God rested on the seventh day after the six days of creation in the book of Genesis.

But now the land, what are we talking about? We are talking about the dirt, the mud, the field. That’s what we are talking about. You would think, why does the land need any rest; and the trees don’t need any rest. No, according to God’s word, they need rest. And if you talk to farmers that know what they’re doing they will tell you, yes, you have to let the land rest.

Today, we use all kinds of synthetic fertilizers and chemicals and hormones to make the plants give more yield and give more fruit of the trees, but in nature, no. What you suck out of the land by over planting it, by over working it, will not return unless you let the land rest. And God said, “you will plant six years, and on the seventh year, you will let the land rest.” Yes, the land needs rest and modern agriculture and agriculture experts will tell you that the land needs rest. Especially without all the synthetic chemical fertilizers that people put into the land these days to make the crops bigger.

But how could you let the land rest? And there’s no refrigeration. There’s no way to keep the crops from rotting. And where are you going to get the food for that one year? That, actually is more than one year. Because, if the land rests a year, then it’ll take several months to plant it again, to plow it again, to turn it over again. And until it ripens again, it’ll be at least a year and a half, if not closer to two years; but you see, God took provision.

God made provision in this situation. And He says,

It’s a miracle.

This miracle that God is going to give you on the sixth year, enough crops to feed you during the sabbatical year, in which you will not farm and to continue feeding you until you plant and replant and replough and re-prepare the land, till the crops next year grow. What is it that teach us? A very, very important principle that when God tells you to do something, and you, out of a sincere heart and through faith, do it, He will provide your needs. He’s not going to ask you to do something that will damage your health and the health of your family and your children. And make you starve; a year is a long time. No, God is going to provide enough.

So, you fill your storehouses. So, you fill (there’s no refrigerators) your underground preservation places for fruit; (for potatoes, well, there’s no potatoes – potatoes came from America) for onions and leaks and agricultural products under the ground in a cold storage. Yes, God will provide you all of these things because He’s not going to ask you to do something that will damage either your health or the health of your family, or for that matter if I say in the modern terms, your bank account.

He knows what his commands are about. He knows what He is doing. And this law is called in Hebrew, “shmita”. It means you let the land sit, not being used for a year. Not being plowed, not being planted, not being harvested a year. And then you will have enough food, God will provide for you enough food for another year until you plow and you sow and you reap the crops.

Yes, when we are about to do God’s work, and He asks you to sacrifice. He asks you to give up certain human pleasures because He is sending you to somewhere in the Gobi Desert or in the middle of the Sahara, away from your family. And to preach the gospel, to some tribe, God will provide. If you do His will, He will do your will. And if He tells you, let the land lay fallow for a year, He also says, “I will give you enough food on the sixth year to tide over till you have a chance to work the land and reap the crops and enjoy them.”

This principle of the Sabbatical year for the land is a very, very big principle, very important principle for us as disciples of Yeshua. What is it important about? It’s important about this, dear brother and sisters, that when we are doing God’s work, sincerely from pure motives, with our hearts desire to please God and to accomplish the work of His kingdom in this world, on this earth, then, my dear brothers and sisters, God will take care of you. Take care of you and your family; and your needs.

He’s not going to send you somewhere that you’re going to damage your health and the health of your family. He’s going to provide for you your needs so that you can continue for many more years to do His work and His will.

So that is the first part of our Torah portion from chapter 25 of Leviticus. I’m going to read you verse six,

You know, you will have enough food, not only for yourself and your family, for your livestock, for your beasts, for your donkeys, for the oxen that plow the land, you will have enough food. The land will produce enough food to provide for your enterprise, for your farm, everything you need in order to live.

Through the seventh year, until the end of the shmita, the end of that seventh year. Seven times, in other words, seven shmita years, seven sabbatical years for the land. The 49th year will be seven times seven, but on the 50th year, it’ll be a year of Jubilee.

Notice the world was created in seven days. The first verse of the Bible in the Hebrew language is seven words. This unit seven is an indication of earthly, perfection, earthly things under the control of the creator Himself, including the land.

And so, when you have seven times seven sabbatical years, you have the year of Jubilee. And the year of Jubilee is a very, very important year. It starts when you proclaim the Jubilee with trumpets. On the seventh month, on the first day of the seventh month, which now is what we call Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah. The biblical new year is in the month of Nisan, which means usually at the end of March beginning of April. But the seventh month is usually in September, October.

On that Jubilee, after seven times seven-year sabbatical years, you will have a Jubilee. What does it mean? It’ll be a year of liberty, not only for the land but for your slaves and for the debtors and for all the things that are not given to you by God as your private inheritance. Debts will be forgiven. If you sold the land that God gave you, the land in the land Canaan, your tribal land, your family inheritance, because you were in debt, it will return to you the sabbatical year.

In the year of Jubilee, the property will return to you. Your slaves will be free. Your Hebrew slaves will be free. And the original order of God’s division of the land will return its place. That’s how it should be. That’s how God designed it to be. But we have been in exile for 2000 years and we’re returning to the land. And our process of return is not finished. And also, our restoration of the biblical order of things has not been restored yet. Maybe it will be, and God willing, it should be soon.

“For it is that Jubilee, it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its produce from the field. In this Jubilee, each you shall return to his possession,” to his inheritance, to the land that God gave a him.

When they divided the land by lots. In the days of Joshua, after they entered the land of Canaan crossed, the Jordan came to the land, they did cast lots and the tribal inheritances were by lots from God, “by the amount of God,” it says. So, in that year of Jubilee every land will be restored to its original owners. Very powerful thing.

And here, I want to summarize the principle. The principles are here. Number one, when God tells you to do something He will provide you with the means to do it. He’s not going to tell you to do something that there’s no way that you can do it, alone. He will provide you with the means to do it. And if it has to be miraculously provisioned, He will do it.

He’s not going to ask you to do something that you can’t do, He’s not going to give you a command that you can’t keep. He might give you a command that you think you can’t keep; but if you are dedicated to His work and you do your best you to keep it, God will give you the means to do it and the word for doing it. This is the principle of the shmita of the sabbatical year.

One more thing that we have in this portion. It’s a very famous statement, rabbinical statement, but very famous. “What does Mount Sinai have to do with the sabbatical year and with the shmita?” These children of Israel arrived in Mount Sinai two months after they left Egypt. They encamped in Mount Sinai two years and they had another 37 years to wonder in the wilderness.

And He already is giving him the command about what and how to behave with the land of the Canaan that was given to Abraham and to them 37 years before that was applicable. The law of the Jubilee, the law of the sabbatical year was not applicable because they were wondering in the Sinai Desert, dear brothers and the rabbis rightly ask this question.

What does Mount Sinai have to do with the sabbatical year, with the shmita? Here is the answer. God is not leaving things to the last minute. He is giving us warnings, instructions, teachings, leadership that prepares us for what is to come. You can’t keep these commandments from today. This is something you need to prepare for. And almost every valuable command that God gave, whether through Moses or through the prophets or through Yeshua himself through Jesus himself and through the apostles, is something that He is giving us with warning and with commands and instructions to prepare.

The most important thing that we are all waiting for. The return of our Lords, the real New World Order. That the most important thing that He’s given us and He’s warned us thousands of years earlier. He’s told us what is going to happen, how it’s going to happen, and where, more or less, when it’s going to happen.

Yes, dear brothers and sisters, even the return of the Lord carries with it warnings; carries with it instructions of how to start preparing for it. Not arguing as pathological speculations, but getting our lives together. Being ready now, because the Lord is going to return like a thief in the night, like thundering on a sunny day in a time when we don’t expect Him. In a time when we are doing other things like sleeping in the bed or plowing or harvesting our field or working on our job or on a trip or on a vacation. We don’t know when He’s coming.

That’s why, like the sabbatical year, God has given us instructions of how to live now, so that when He comes, He doesn’t catch us not ready.

And He’s given us Yeshua, who has given us more than one parable, teaching us about how to be ready.

The parable of the 10 maidens; that five had extra oil because they were waiting for the bright groom to come. And he was late. Why was he late? Because he’s a Middle Eastern, he’s a Jew, or an Arab from the Middle East. And we are always late. It’s okay. They should have known that a bride groom is coming with a big party; and following him, dancing and drums, and he could be late. Normally it’s late. There’s no wedding that I’ve been, or that I’ve performed that has ever been on time. Always late.

Those girls should have known, they should’ve been prepared. Then there was the guy who said, “ah, you know, I have when I see action going on around the house of the king, I will have time to go home, take a shower and dress up.” No, he didn’t, and he went with his dirty clothes from his job in the garage, greasy to the wedding of the prince. And the owner said, “take him, throw him out, into outer darkness.” He wasn’t ready.

The shmita is a good example of how God told us to be ready. And He said, “when I ask you to do something I will give you the means to get it done.” Yes, dear folks read Parashat Behar, the portion of “in the mountain” from Leviticus 25:1 to Leviticus 26:2 a short portion, but full of very, very important instructions. And may God bless you, and keep you, and make his face to shine upon you, Amen.