Anne Elliott 1 2026 Torah Sisters Retreat “When Yeshua Came Near”

This was the third session of the 2026 Torah Sisters Retreat.

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Transcript

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So I don't have a huge introduction except to say this has been quite a year. When Amy asks you to speak, you're you're always a little bit like, oh no, now I know what the year's gonna be like. Um, because she asks really hard topics, like last year was courage, so we needed courage the whole year. Um this year, over the last year, we've studied in detail at our house uh Yeshua. And it wasn't because of this, it was partly because of this, but my husband and I have been writing a book, and that's you're like, I know you write a lot of books, but it's unique to get to write with my husband. That was a really, really special thing. It took us about a year and a half and many, many, many date nights. Um, he would be like more talk it out, and I would record it, and then I'd have to type it in. And and so it was it was really cool. We had it done about a year ago, maybe a little bit more, and then we got to this chapter about Yeshua. And you'd think that'd be easy. Uh I grew up in church. I my dad was a pastor, I went to Bible college, went to Christian school. You'd think it would be easy to write about Yeshua, and that chapter took us a year. And we just felt compelled to really understand why he came, why he died, why he rose again. And I know that sounds really easy, but we actually started hitting snags, and it's kind of like what they've been talking about with the anti-missionaries. Only we weren't talking to anti-missionaries, it was just our own heads. You know how your head gets in your way and it starts to get you confused. And I, more than my husband, I'm that's just the facts. Um, I'd be like, honey, um, I'm not typing that until I understand it. Um, I just can't put my name on that book if I don't agree with you. And um, and and so we I found it really interesting because when we came to Torah, and that was about 20 years ago that we started asking questions. It wasn't we came to Torah 20 years ago, but we started learning about Torah. I spread out all over my dining room table, and maybe some of you can relate, spiral notebooks and filled them with at first, it was all the arguments about why we shouldn't keep Torah, and I was gonna convince everyone that they shouldn't. And then it switches, and you're just learning so much, and you just keep filling another one and another one and another one, and you're you're like, this is so amazing. I just want to keep learning and learning. And this year has been the same, except for it wasn't spiral notebooks. I don't have as many of those anymore because my kids are more old. Um, but now it's three by five cards, and you can ask some of my students. I would spread them across my living room, no, sorry, my bedroom floor, and pray that we didn't have a gust of wind come through the room. But like there were stacks about his birth and stacks about his miracles and stacks about um his baptism, stacks about just all of these things, and lay them out, and I would just sit there and go. Joni said it, it's like a puzzle. And I'm not sure how to figure that puzzle out. And I know I'm just being honest with you guys, because then Amy asks, hey Ann, you want to talk about the gospel in Yeshua? Sure. But I have to have this figured out before then. So I'm just being honest with all of you. And it was really interesting in January. I was stressing out pretty bad about it because my I have a to-do list and I want everything done on time, and never is. And this book was not getting done on time. And and every I would go to Shabbat every week and I'd be like, I have a prayer request. Please help us finish this book by Friday. And another Friday would come, and another Friday it wouldn't be done. Because we were stuck with these three by five cards. And um I had, I I know you you know things are waking you up. I know you're in your 50s, things wake you up in the middle of the night just because it's hormones. But I was waking up with like almost like a panic attack. Like, I can't write this book. There's a guy in our congregation, and I was like, I'm gonna have to go to him and tell him we're not gonna write this book. And then he'd be like, okay, just go downstairs and drink a glass of milk, okay, go back to bed, it'll be fine. And um, so one night I woke up with a dream, and in the dream, it was like God told me to go to the book of Luke and open it up to chapter three and start reading again. Like, I've read it, I've been reading it for a year. So I told my husband, and he's like, Well, did you? I'm like, Really? My husband's not a dream kind of guy, he's pretty just down to earth. And I'm like, okay. So we did. But anyway, it was just that Yah was with us, and this was a really cool year, and I do not claim to have all the answers. I just don't. But we can just keep mining and mining and mining. And so we're gonna start in. I forgot to put the first slide up. That was supposed to be the first slide. Okay, we'll go to the next one. Hebrews 6, verses 1 and 2 says, Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Messiah, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And the writer of Hebrews says, these are the elementary principles repentance, faith, cleansing from sin, atonement, the resurrection, judgment. These are the basic things, but I'm telling you guys, throughout this year, I feel like I'm in kindergarten. If these are the elementary things, wow, there's so many things we have yet to know. I don't even know what he was saying was harder than that. Those are hard things. So close to 30 years ago, my husband and I were preparing to become missionaries to France. And no, this is the guy's not from France, but while we were becoming um going through our training, we heard about um some missionaries to Papua New Guinea, and they had such a cool story. They first went to Papua New Guinea as Bible translators, and they thought they were gonna preach them the gospel. Okay, what's the gospel? And they went there and they it was like hitting their head against the wall. They could not explain the gospel in another language to these people in Papua New Guinea, and um they went back home to the United States, um, went on furlough, raised some more support, and pray about what to do. And one of their issues is as they would translate the Bible, they would come across words in their language that did not exist, but they were in the Bible. For instance, a lamb. They had no word for lamb. So how do you explain Yeshua? And another problem they were having, which I'm sure you'll recognize, is that they would start in the book of John. And these people at Papua New Guinea just didn't understand the gospel. So they did a novel thing. They went back a second time and they started in Genesis. Okay, and they took their time. It's a really cool story. You can look it up on YouTube as well. And and week by week they would meet, and the entire village would gather around them, and they would just tell a little bit more of what happened in the Old Testament, and they would go, you know, through all the patriarchs, and then they got to Egypt, and then they went through, and eventually they're building the tabernacle. They, of course, spent time there and explained all the things. They had pictures so that people would understand the gospel. And they finally got to Yeshua, and you know, just like Heidi was saying this morning, they were prepared because they had had the entire Old Testament to help them understand. And when they got to the gospels, and and and they they heard about Yeshua, and they're like, Oh, I think this is the Messiah. They were so excited, and it's such a cool story. They went and and week by week these people would come back, and then so mean, they killed the Messiah. And these people don't have a Bible, okay? They don't know what's coming. And you know, they're sitting there watching. I don't think we appreciate. And they I've seen the video, I've I've talked to the missionaries, and these people were just sobbing. And those cruel missionaries made them wait a whole nother week to find out what happened next. Yes. And then you've got to see this, and and then they come back and Yeshua rises again. And the whole and this, by the way, is taken from the website, so it's probably a pretty authentic picture. And they just start jumping up and down and rejoicing and shouting, and I can't put it into words. But that is the gospel that I have heard my entire life, from Sunday school, children's church, and all of the child evangelism fellowship, the flannograph stories, um, just all of the ways that the gospel would try to be explained to children. And as children, I don't think we had an appreciation of the Old Testament. We didn't understand the gospel, but we still understood how much he loved us. We were taught to share the gospel through evangelism. I don't know if you guys have heard of the Romans Road. How many of you have heard of the Romans Road? All right. Um, praying a prayer. I'm gonna actually read. I got the Romans Road from gotquestions.org, and I just want to read it to you exactly as it is from their website, okay? I'm not gonna change anything. The first verse on the Romans Road to Salvation is Romans 3.23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We have all sinned, we have all done things that are displeasing to God. There is no one who is innocent. Romans 3 10 through 18 gives a detailed picture of what sin looks like in our lives. Pause. Yes, as a child, I knew what sin was. I disobeyed my mom, punched my brother, things like that. But I didn't have a grasp of how awful sin was. Okay. All right, back to this. The second scripture on the Romans Road to Salvation, Romans 6.23, teaches us about the consequences of sin. For the wages of sin is death. The punishment that we have earned for our sins is death, not just physical death, but eternal death. And that is true. Sin separates. Um, if we sin, we are not allowed into the presence of an Almighty God who is our life. So that's true. The third verse on the Romans Road to Salvation picks up in the middle of Romans 6.23. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But that's all they say. And they never tell us how. How did that happen? How did he save us? And that's what I've been wrestling with this year, so I'm gonna go back. Romans 5.8 declares, but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus Christ died for us, Jesus' death paid for the price of our sins, Jesus' resurrection proves that God accepted Jesus' death as the payment for our sins. There's so much more to the story, guys. There's so much more. The fourth step on the Romans road to salvation is Romans 10, 9. That if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Because of Jesus' death on our behalf, all we have to do is believe, trusting his death as the payment for our sins, and we will be saved. What do you guys think? All you have to do is believe. Romans 5 1 has this wonderful message. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ we can have a relationship of peace with God. And Romans 8.1 says, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because of Jesus' death on our behalf, we will never be condemned for our sins. And finally, we have this precious promise of God from Romans 8, for I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Would you like to follow the Romans' road to salvation? If so, here is a simple prayer. You can pray. Saying this prayer is a way to declare to God that you are relying on Jesus Christ for your salvation. The words themselves will not save you. Only faith in Jesus Christ can provide salvation. God, I know I have sinned against you, I'm deserving of punishment. By the way, I did this when I was five. Okay? But Jesus Christ took the punishment that I deserve so that through faith in him I could be forgiven. With your help, I place my trust in you for salvation. Thank you for your wonderful grace and forgiveness, the gift of eternal life. Amen. And if you have made a decision for Christ, because what have you learned through the Romans road to salvation, please click on the I trusted Christ as my Savior today, and you'll go to heaven. I don't want to completely diss it. I just read scripture. But what I didn't read was all the verses around and all the Old Testament that came before, and a few things that were maybe taken a bit out of context. And again, you could study all of those contexts for a long time and make a puzzle on the floor. And how can you understand the depth of what he did for us? So I want to take you back 20 years to when a friend of mine came to tell me about Torah. I was not receptive, and she told me to read the book of Hosea. So I'm gonna have my Bible out, so I've been holding off all this time. I'm gonna turn to the book of Hosea, and you're welcome to do that too. And I had never read the book of Hosea. Yes, I went to Bible college. Yes, my dad's a pastor. Yes, I had gone to Christian school, but I had never read those old little tiny books in the middle that don't make sense. No, I hadn't had time for that. I read John in Proverbs and stuff. And um, so I'm like, okay. I knew the basic gist because I'd read a romance novel that was based on the book of Hosea. I don't know if some of you have read that. So I knew what Hosea was. I didn't really actually need to read the book. And um the basic gist is that there was a prophet who was told to go and marry a harlot. She was a woman who made a good living by being intimate with any man who would pay. And the more men, the more money. So poor Hosea, the prophet, obeyed and married Gomer, and for a while she loved him. And they had children together. They had a son and a daughter and then another son. But then she went back to her old ways. Maybe it was the money, good money. Maybe that it was she liked being desired by more than one man. That would get boring. Now my friend told me, and this is tricky. She told me that this book was all about me. She said, the father loved me and he had paid money to buy me back so that I could be married to him again. And I said, Oh, no, no, no, no, not so fast. This book is written to the house of Israel. You can check it if you're there in Hosea 1, verse 4. House of Israel. Yeah, no, that's not about me. I'm not Israel. I'm American. I'm a Christian. No, that's written to Israel. We are not to be taking things out of context. They apply to Israel. And she said, Ann, don't you know what the gospel is? We've been grafted into Israel. We're no longer Gentiles. This book was written about you. Like, you're weird. My friend did not know, however, that I had a secret wish. From the time I was very little, I just had this secret wish that I could be in the Bible. Anyone else have that? Please, somebody else raised their hand. I'm like, I wish I could be in the Bible, and there could be a story written about me. So, you know, like Hezekiah 6.4, and it says, um, little girl named Anne, she was climbing a tree in her backyard one day, and lo, an angel of the Lord appeared and said, Rejoice, Anne, highly favored one. You are blessed among women. Okay, that'd be cool, wouldn't it? But um, no, we're not that important. We aren't in the Bible like Mary and Anna, but they're not that important. Does that ever bug you? Like, why am I not in the Bible? Like, they're not that great, right? And then my my friend patiently reminded me about Israel's history. Um, as I I knew this, but it had never connected the dots. She said, after King David died, his son Solomon became king over all twelve tribes of Israel, and Solomon built an amazing house for Jehovah. But it was not enough for Solomon to build a temple for the Holy One of Israel. He had a lot of wives, and he had to build a house for all of them too. High places and amazing structures. And as a result, we read in 1 Kings 9, if you want to turn, I don't know, 1 Kings 11. Sorry, 1 Kings 11, 9 through 13. So Yehovah became angry with Solomon because his heart turned from Yehovah, Elohim of Israel. And therefore Yehovah said to Solomon, Because you have done this and have not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. Nevertheless, I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away the whole kingdom, I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. And so after Solomon died, the kingdom was divided. Solomon's son Rehoboam became king over the southern kingdom, and that became known as the house of Judah. But ten tribes in the north followed another king, Jeroboam, and they became known as the house of Israel, or sometimes Ephraim. So we read in Hosea, and Yehovah speaks against in verse 4, 1 verse 4, the house of Israel. Huh. So he's primarily speaking to the ten northern tribes. They were like Gomer, the harlot. Jeroboam immediately led the northern kingdom into idolatry. He set up golden calves for worship so the people would not return to Jerusalem. He made Samaria the capital instead of Jerusalem. He changed the dates of the feast. Does this sound familiar? He changed the dates of the feasts of tabernacles to the eighth month instead of the seventh month. And over time the northern kingdom became more and more unfaithful to Yehovah. And they began to worship all the gods of the Canaanites, Baal and Asherah, and they even burned their children in the fires to Moloch. And so eventually judgment came. Around 722 BC, Assyrian Empire, which was incredibly cruel, conquered the northern kingdoms and scattered the house of Israel. Oh, I took the map down. House of Israel among the nations. And that is the backdrop for Hosea. Sin separated the house of Israel from the presence of Elohim. So when Hosea marries Gomer, the woman who keeps running around after other lovers, it's a parable of how Yehovah loved the house of Israel. He sought after them, he came into covenant with them, but they wandered away after all those other lovers they used to have, the gods of the nations around them. And those of the house of Israel became known as Lo Ami, that's Hebrew for not my people. In Hosea 8, verse 8, it says, Can I get there? Israel is swallowed up. They are among the Gentiles. And my friend said, See, I told you you're in the Bible. You're a Gentile. So this is when, okay, this goes back to all my spiral notebooks. I'm not the house of Israel, I am not, and studying and studying to try to prove her wrong. But um the story does not end with Israel being scattered. Yehovah had already spoken through Hosea that one day he would call those people back, those people who were not my people. In Hosea 2, verse 23, he says, Let me get back there. I put sticky notes in here, but it doesn't really help when you're up here. Hosea 223 says, Then I will sow her from myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy, and I will say to those who were not my people, you are my people. And they will say, You are my God. So centuries later, Paul, in the context of the Romans Road, quotes Hosea and a lot of other prophets. Why? Because they were scattered Israelites and they had become mixed up among all the nations to the point where they are not identified and they married in who knows where we've come from. I don't know if I've descended from one of those. But those people don't even know if they're one of those. The prophets said they would forget who they were, but Jehovah had not forgotten them. So Paul says something astonishing in Romans 11. He says, Israel is like an olive tree. Olive tree represents Israel. Natural branches were broken off because of sin, because of unbelief, it says in that passage, but let's define unbelief properly. Unbelief is an act, a belief up here is always acted out. So in other words, they were broken off because they sinned. They disobeyed his covenant. But the wild branches, the Gentiles, were grafted in. I think I missed a picture. I'm going to go back. Yeah, let's do that one. So do you see what this means? The Bible is not talking the whole time about a little strip of land in the Middle East that has a lot of wars fought about it. It's actually talking about a story about Yehovah pursuing a people that he loves all over the world. He scattered them there because it cannot be in his presence when they sin. But he loves them. Just like Hosea loved a woman who didn't deserve it. We don't deserve it. But he's the kind of God who comes near the people who are far away. The people that are the outsiders. And we know. I'll do it his way tomorrow. And he says, no, don't wander away. Because then I can't be in your presence. And then you can't be my people. But he says, I want you to be my people. We don't know our identity. And he says, I know who you are. I know you're actually mine, even though if you don't remember it. And I'm not losing track of you. Even if you get mixed all the way to Michigan, very far away from where we're supposed to be. He says, I have not lost you. I know who you are. So this brings me back to the question I wrestled with all year long. How did Jehovah make a way to restore his people? The gospel is bigger than just saying, I believe you, Jesus. I believe you existed. And it's more than just having someone pay a penalty for my sin. But the story is about Yehovah pursuing his scattered and estranged people that he loves. And the problem he is solving is very clear. Um, the gospel is about bringing us back. And when most of us think of the gospel, we think about our guilt. We say, I sinned, and it is true. I'm guilty. I need forgiveness, and that is so true. I don't want judgment. That's also true. That was my five-year-old version. But as you begin to study the Torah, the prophets, the writings of the apostles, you notice that the central problem of Scripture is that we are separated from the one who loves us. And there is no way back. I want you to think about getting cut off of a tree. Put your hand up. You use this hand for so many things. It is absolutely useful to you. It is a it's a marvel. Our creator made it. Now cut off. No, let's put you up in the UP, far away from a hospital, far, far away. Cut off your hand. Cut it off. Take a few hours to get to the hospital. Are you gonna get it back? And even if you did, it's so broken. And most of us are very broken. So the story of the scripture is a story of Jehovah having to make a way for me to draw near to him because he loves me. And I can't do it. It's not possible for me to put my hand back on. I can't do it. So this is fun. The gospel, I like etymology. I think I say that every year. Uh the word gospel means good news. It comes from old German, good, good spiel. Amy said it in her first session. I told you she stole all my points. She said spiel, I don't even know how many times I was counting, but I I think at least five times you said, this is my spiel. I'm trying to do it like her. And she'll say that. She does it in her announcements. A spiel is a story. I got a good spiel for you. Okay? It's a German word, you know, and this is my good spiel. The spiel starts out with Eve. It didn't start out so good for her back in Genesis chapter one. She was separated from God and kicked out of the garden. That's not a good spiel. And she could not enjoy his presence every day. She could not walk with him in the cool of the day. That would be amazing. So God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden and he placed a cherubim, which is not a sweet little cherub in a Christmas thing. Okay, a cherubim is a dangerous, dangerous warrior. And he placed it at the east entrance of the Garden of Eden. And he had a flaming sword that turned everyone, turned every witch way to guard that she could not come into the presence of Yah again. So over the next 2,000 years, we have a handful of stories of people who were privileged to talk with God. Some of them often. That's not been me, not really. When I was a little girl, I used to like to go in the back of my closet because it had like it was above the stairs and it had this ramp that kind of went up the back, and my mom didn't really put anything in there. And so I would go in there. I have a weird imagination and I would pretend that it was a cathedral. And I would like sit in there and like, oh, because I could think it went up a little bit. I'm closer to God now. And I would just sit in there and I, if I really wanted something important, if I wanted to pray and wanted him to hear me, I'd go in my closet into that little spot in this cathedral and like tell him what I wanted. But I was not actually any closer to the presence of God right there. God was not coming like Abraham or like Moses or like Joshua and speaking to me. I was all in my imagination. I was not that close to him. Because for most of us, we do not have that privilege. Um, it is fascinating to me that when they built a tabernacle in the wilderness and later the temple, Yehovah did provide a way for a priest to come into the presence of Elohim, and he could intercede for all the people. He would go in through the east entrance and into the holy place to the cherubim that still guarded the way to his presence, and they had to come through blood. And it's not fair that Eve was separated from God because she simply ate a piece of fruit. That's not fair. I mean, seriously, I can't stick to a diet that long. And but later in the tabernacle, it's physical uncleanness that separates us from God and made God not able to dwell with them. Is that fair that blood or any bodily fluid would not allow me to have a relationship with my creator? What is this? Is this fair? But back 20 years ago, we had a dog named Penny. Some of my girls will remember him, her, of course. And Penny, she's a sweet lab, but she loved nothing better. We lived in the country, loved nothing better to go across to the neighbor's house and roll around in some good cow pies. And then expect to come home and march right in through my front door into my living room, white carpet back in the early 2000s. No, I don't think so. You're not coming into my presence with that nasty smell on you. You may not do it. And if I wouldn't let my dog in my living room with that, then who do we think we are? That we can go into the presence of the creator of the universe with poo or blood or any other gross thing. But it's way bigger than that because it pictures what our sin is like. Our sin stinks. It's awful. It's disease-carrying and it eventually kills us. And no, you cannot come in my house with that nasty thing on. Now, my you can take a bath, and trying to give a lab a bath isn't it's a fun thing. And we can take a bath and we can come into the presence of Yah, maybe once a year, the high priest could on the Day of Atonement, but still doesn't take care of the sin. I can wash away the poo. And I can't wash away the thing I did when I was 16, right? So it's more like the physical laws in the Torah are just teaching tools. They illustrate that God's holiness makes him completely set apart. And ritual impurity is just telling me that I have an inner problem. Just like my hand can't be put back on, I cannot wash away the thing I did that one day, that one mistake, that one day. I didn't need to do that one bad thing, but I did, and then you pay the consequences for years, and you cannot wash it away. You can try to forget it, not talk about it, go on with your life and make it better, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, but you can't wash away the sin. Psalm 24, verses 3 and 4. Who may ascend the hill of Yehovah? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. Raise your hand if you can tick all those boxes. Ever. I mean, you never ever messed up. So what's the purpose of the feasts? The feasts are to help us to understand the predicament that we're in. And I let talk for a second again about the Day of Atonement. Let me take a drink for a second. Um Yom Kippur is that pinnacle moment once a year when all the barriers, moral and physical, both are dealt with by the blood. I don't really understand how that works, but I'm gonna take it on faith because I've been studying it this whole year and I'm still not quite sure why it has to be this way. Please explain the why. And he doesn't. He just says, do it. And I don't really get it. I mean, you're lots of pictures, and every feast that we celebrate, we'll get a little bit more glimpse, and maybe someday when Yeshua can explain it face to face, we'll understand it better. But this is what he said to do. So the high priest, the Kohen Gadol, would take blood into the holiest place and make atonement for the people to intercede on their behalf. That's what atonement is. Atonement means I can come near. Jehovah's Spirit can come near me. And it's like a reset button, both for my heart and for the entire community who is completely together corporately kicked out. And you and I are no different than the house of Israel. We have broken his commandments, and for that, he has kicked us out of his presence, and we feel that broken relationship. And sometimes, though, in our rebellion, we get busy with life and we just, I don't care. I don't care, I'm tired of it. I don't care if I have a relationship with him, I can do it on my own. And then we like, you know, I can't. I need him. And we have this, we have this desire, I believe we are born with it, to have this relationship with him. And he longs to wash us clean, he longs to help us follow his instructions. But we have to repent. We have to, that's all. We have to say, and we have to say it many times, probably. I don't want to do that anymore. I want your presence more than I want that. And all atonement does is just takes care of the cleaning. But we don't get that if we don't have the intention to repent. And I'm gonna say that again, that we have to do it again and again. I don't believe that that's what I disagree with on the Romans Road. It's not click the button on the website, because what happens tomorrow if I do something awful? Where's my where's my forgiveness of sins? And then what happens tomorrow? And I'm not saying that we should continue to sin, of course not, but we are still descendants, you could say, of the house of Israel with those rebellious hearts and those lovers will pull us away. And we have to say, I'm so sorry. So let's talk about what cleanses us again. Um, let's go to all of that was the introduction, and I promised the rest of it's really short. Okay. This passage, there's so much good stuff here. So I'm gonna read for a second from Isaiah 59, verses 1 through 15. Actually, I go here. Yeah, follow along with me if you can. I'm gonna start in verse 1. Behold, Yehovah's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor is his ear heavy that it cannot hear. I'm gonna go to the next one. There we go. But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood. Guys, as I read these, I want you to play back the life you've lived. If you're anything like me, you you can probably fit somewhere. Your hands are defiled with blood, your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity, no one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies. They conceive evil, that just means worthlessness, and they bring forth iniquity. They hatch vipers' eggs and weave the spider's web. That means we make plans, and it just falls apart when we move, because it's just a spider's web. He who eats of their eggs dies, and from that which is crushed a viper breaks out. Their webs will not become garments, nor will they cover themselves with their works. Their works of works of iniquity and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they have not known. Amen. And there is no justice in their ways. They have made themselves crooked paths. Whoever takes that way shall not know peace. Therefore, justice is far from us. Does that ever feel like that? 2026, justice is so far from our culture and our world. Nor does righteousness overtake us. We look for light, but there is darkness, for brightness, but we walk in blackness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noonday as at twilight. We are as dead men in desolate places. We all growl like bears and moan sadly like doves. We look for salvation, but there is none. For salvation, but it is far from us, for our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them. In transgressing and lying against Yehovah, and departing from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood, justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off, and truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. But then Yehovah saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and he wondered that there was no intercessor. And then they chased after stupid things that did nothing for them. And he's up there and he's looking down at the things, the people he had made, his children, and he's like, if you kids don't shape up down there, I'm gonna have to come down there. And that's what he did. But he didn't come down here to judge or harm us, he had an idea to restore us. He saw there was no man, he wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore, his own arm brought salvation for him. His own righteousness, it sustained him. Let's look at that. I like Hebrew. His own arm brought, this is the root word. If you're a Hebrew scholar in the room, I didn't conjugate it. This is the root word, it's yeshua. Let's keep going. Therefore his own arm brought for him, and his own righteousness it sustained him, for he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of Yeshua on his head. Makes me want to like tell Cameron to put some worship music on, right? Like right there. He said, I'm gonna come down there and find out what's going on with you guys. And the only way I can do that, because I'm bigger than that container and I can't fit, I'll just put Yeshua on, and then I can go. That's what it says. So my iniquities have separated me from God, my sins have hidden me, or hidden his face from me, my hands are defiled with blood, my fingers are stained with iniquity, my lips have spoken lies, my tongue has muttered perversity, but when Yehovah saw that there was no man to rescue me, no one that, no human that could intercede, so that I could be cleansed and enter his presence, he came near himself. He came himself, his own arm brought salvation. Hebrews 7 25 says it beautifully. Yeshua, oops, Yeshua always lives to make intercession for us. First Peter one, verses 18 and 19 says, Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of the Messiah, as of a lamb without Blemish and without a spot. He redeemed us. That means he purchased us. What do you mean he purchased me? He bought me? That makes no sense. I don't even understand what that's talking about. So back, you don't have to turn, but in well, you could. Um, Yehovah says to Hosea, he says, Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of Yehovah for the children of Israel, who look to the gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans. So Hosea bought her for himself with fifteen shekels of silver, that's a lot of money, and especially for a prophet, and one and a half omers of barley. And Hosea said to her, You shall stay with me. I want you in my presence for many days. You shall not play the harlot, you shall not have any other man. I my face will be the same towards you. And so, just as the children of Israel would abide for many days, and I know you guys know your prophecy, a day with Jehovah is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is a day for many days. The house of Israel has been out of the presence of Yah. But they will abide. They won't have a king on the throne or prince, they won't be able to make sacrifices, they won't be able to come in the day of atonement with the blood, they will not have ephod or teraphim or anything. They are separated from his presence. But afterward, it says in Hosea chapter 3, the children of Israel shall return. Torah sisters, and they will seek Yehovah, their God, and David their king, which is a reference to Yeshua, and they shall fear Yehovah and his goodness in the latter days. That's where we are, where the Torah sisters, many days after those things happened, being put back in, because he set Yeshua, came himself in the form of Yeshua. He came after us, he chased after us. Philippians 2, verse 6 says, Then the Messiah, Yeshua, who being in the form of Elohim, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. He was out there bigger than the container of the universe we live in. He made the container of the universe we live in. But being but made he made himself of no reputation, and he took on the form of a bondservant, and he came in the likeness of a man, Yeshua. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself. God Almighty, Creator, humbled himself like the prophet chasing after the harlot. And he became obedient to the point of death, even the death of a cross. You see, each one of us has been trafficked. We have been made slaves to sin, and we cannot escape. We are unable to get away from the life we willingly put ourselves into. And even though we were his to begin with, he we we just took his love and we trampled it. It was like letting the dog in the house. And that's what we we we didn't care. But he willingly bought us back, and the price was huge. It was his own life and his own blood. And this time I can return to him and I can seek him. And this time he can be the only one for me. No other gods, no other loves. And the gutspiel isn't over yet. We have more good news coming because he intends to restore all of the previous beauty, to bring us back into his house. He's preparing a meal for us. He's going to whisper promises to us. He's going to make a covenant with us. So in the ancient Near East, a covenant is usually between a greater and a lesser, like a king and his servants, but it can also be a wedding where you make a covenant meal together. So when Jehovah makes a covenant, he's binding himself to, he's committing himself to take care of us, to protect us, and to be loyal to us. And we also look to him and say, You came after me, you rescued me. I want to come back into your covenant. I will be loyal to you. I will commit myself to you like a marriage. It's a mutual bond. And then you have the wedding meal, the covenant. In Hebrew, that's zivak shalamim, comes from the word shalom. It's a peace offering. And it symbolizes that both sides want to have fellowship. They want to be married to each other. They want to love on each other. There's peace between them and they can enjoy each other's company again. They can come back into the garden and have this amazing meal. But here's what's interesting. When you eat meat at a meal, maybe you had the fatted calf. Maybe you had a roasted lamb. Maybe you had a nice steak. What had to die so that you could eat that meal? You had to have a zavak. You had to slaughter an animal so that you could have a covenant meal with the person you've made peace with. So it's not without a price, especially in 2026, the cost of beef. So that price is extremely valuable. The price was so high for the final covenant, though. It wasn't an animal that died. It was the God of the universe inserted into a human body who died for us so that we could eat a covenant meal and have fellowship with him again. And our master Yeshua, it says, God in the flesh, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat, have a covenant meal with me. Because tomorrow I'm going to shed my this will be my body. It will be broken for you. So do this in remembrance of me. And in the same manner, he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup, it represents the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. So how do we take part in this amazing covenant? I'm going to go back to Isaiah 59, verse 20. It says, First of all, I want you to know He initiated everything. I cannot put my hand back on. He looked down and saw our need, and He initiated, not me. The Redeemer. Whoops, wrong picture. I was supposed to show you that one before. The Redeemer will come to Zion. It is not because of any work that we have done. He chases after us. He loves us. We're filthy and rebellious. We're dirty sheep. But he left everything. And he came near to us. And there's that day. You've got your spiral notebooks out, or your three five five cards, or you're just at the store and you see someone's tassels, and you're like, huh.

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Huh.

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That's weird. Huh. I think I should follow Yeshua. And maybe I should do the Torah. And maybe I should rest on Sabbath, and maybe I should stop doing Christmas. And oh, I'm so smart. I thought of this myself. And no, he pursued you. He knew your name from before the foundations of the earth and he came after you. And that was just the day that the light switch turned on because he allowed it. So have patience with the other ones he's still pursuing. He is pursuing, God so loved the world. He gave his only begotten son. Whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Secondly, whoops, secondly, we have to turn from our transgression. And as John wrote in the first century, he says, Beloved, we are the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him. We will see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. Whoever commits sin commits lawlessness. And sin is lawlessness. And you know that he was made known to take away our sins. In him there is no sin. And when we turn from our transgressions, Yehovah says, As for me, this is my covenant with them. My spirit who is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, this is still Isaiah 59, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants, says Yehovah from this. This is a cool thing. That do you have children? He's covenanted with you. If you will repent and turn from your sin and cleanse your life from that, he will make this covenant with you. It's a mutual covenant. I cannot promise you anything unless you do your side of the covenant. You have to turn from your transgressions and your sins, but the Redeemer has come to Zion already. And he says, I want to make a covenant with you, and not just with you, but with your descendants and your descendants' descendants from this time and forevermore. Hallelujah. Is there any woman here who doesn't want this? But the covenant just gets better. Let me give you the gut spiel. Behold, the days are coming, says Yehovah, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says Yehovah. But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yehovah. I will put my Torah on their minds. This is still coming, and I will write it on their hearts. Hallelujah. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Still coming. More. Gutspiel. No more shall every man teach his neighbor. You won't have to sit through long things anymore. He can just know it. And every man will not, you won't have to teach his neighbor or every man his brother, saying, No, Yehovah, they shall all know me, from my littlest granddaughter to the greatest scholars, says Yehovah. For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. I will. And forget not his benefits. That's why Amy chose this topic. She doesn't want us to forget what he's done for us. He's forgiven all your iniquities. He's healed all your diseases. He redeems your life from destruction. He crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. He satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like eagles. Yehovah executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses. He acts to the children of Israel. Yehovah is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. And as a father pities his children, so Yehovah pities those who fear him, for he knows our frames. He remembers. We are dust. And as for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes, and the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But the mercy of Yehovah is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to such as keep his covenant, and to those who remember his commandments to do them. Yeah has established his throne in heaven, his kingdom rules over all. Bless Yehovah, you his angels, who excel in strength, who do his word, heeding the voice of his word. Bless Yehovah, all you his hosts, his armies, his Torah sisters, you ministers of his who do his pleasures. Bless Yehovah, all his works in all places of his dominion. Bless Yehovah. Oh my soul. Hallelujah. Tomorrow, come back and we're gonna flush it out. That was pretty heavy. Tomorrow we're gonna try to make it practical. Back, I've had cookies on my table. Hope you've had some cookies. And if you don't like cookies, on the back of these cards, the front is all about the cookies, but on the back is bless Yehovah, oh my soul. That's for you. Put it in your Bible. And if you don't feel loved, look at those verses and remember what he did for you because he chases after you. Amen.