Living Letters Vav

The Finding Emet radio program is focused on understanding and living the truth of the Bible from a Hebrew perspective. Brother Daniel Rendleman of Emet Ministries teaches on the Hebrew Aleph Bet, specifically the sixth letter, the Vav. The Vav is a connecting letter and symbolizes the Torah, Yahweh, and Messiah Yeshua. It is not an evil number, despite the superstitions surrounding it. The Vav is a bridge between heaven and earth and is significant in the Hebrew language and alphabet. Hello, and welcome to the Finding Emet radio program. Emet is the Hebrew word for truth. This program will help you understand and live the truth of the Bible from a Hebrew perspective. The Finding Emet radio program features the teaching ministry of Brother Daniel Rendleman of Emet Ministries. Prepare your heart to receive the Emet, the truth of the scriptures. More audio lessons and teaching articles are available at the www.emetministries.com website. Please visit our site to find all things spiritual, including a free online Bible search program, or submit your prayer requests. That's www.emetministries.com or www.findemet.com. CD copies of this teaching are available for free by submitting a request at the website. Let's welcome our teacher, Daniel Rendleman, as he helps us find the Emet. We're going to continue our series today on the Living Letters of the Hebrew Aleph Bet with the letter, the sixth letter, the Vav. Who's ready to learn about the Vav? Who else is ready to learn about the Vav? All right, very cool, very good, okay. This is the sixth letter, this is continuing our series on the Hebrew letters called the Living Letters. Now, this teaching today, we're going to talk about a lot. We're going to go through about the letter. We're going to talk about the truth behind the number six. We're going to uncover the mark of the beast. We're going to explain how Torah connects us to Yahweh. We're going to examine the ministry of reconciliation, discuss the importance of unity, worship, and love, and finally look at a secret code in Yahweh's name. So, this is our topic for discussion, the sixth letter of the Hebrew Aleph Bet, which is the Vav, and this is our discussion of the Ruachs leading today, and again, through these letters, we can learn a lot about faith, about life, about purpose. How many know that it tells us in the book of Yochanan, the book of John, it says that the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The word was made flesh. What word? That would have to be, we know that it was Yeshua was made flesh and dwelt among us, but let's go back. The word was made flesh. That would be the Tanakh, or the Old Testament word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The Torah was made flesh and dwelt among us. What language was that written in? English or German? No, it was in Hebrew, the Hebrew language, so we could actually say the Hebrew language was made flesh and dwelt among us. The Hebrew letters were made flesh and dwelt among us. So, what does that mean? It means that a study of the Hebrew language, a study of the Hebrew letters, is indeed a study about Messiah, Yeshua, and we're going to learn today that the Vav is the letter of connection. We're going to examine and talk about how we can get connected with Yahweh as we learn through his letters. His letters are powerful tools that Yahweh uses to speak to us, to reach us, to connect to us, and sadly, the Western church, much of churchianity, has left the Hebrew language behind in the dust of the Torah scrolls and of the synagogue. The menorahs have been kicked aside, and so much meaning, so much understanding has been lost because of ignorance to the Hebrew language, and we've lost connections to Yahweh. So through the study, through learning and reading and praying and singing in Hebrew, we can restore that connection, and we can have our hearts and our eyes open to what Yahweh would show us in his letters. Now today, we're going to discuss the Vav. The Vav, this is the sixth letter, and in ancient times, in the Paleo-Hebrew and in times past, this was pronounced with a W sound, and it was actually the Wah, you could almost say, the Wah. Now, and in modern Hebrew, it's a V sound, as in victor, or victory, as in Vav. Now to keep it simple, during this teaching, we're going to refer to it as the Vav, but understand when the language was originally given, it was the W sound, and perhaps we should call it by that name, perhaps we should implement that W sound more in our study of the Hebrew language and alphabet. So this is the sixth letter, and this is a letter, of course, in the name of Yahweh, Yod-Heh-Wah-Heh, or Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, and what's interesting here is that this letter was once a picture of a hook, or a nail. It stands straight, like a man, and the first Vav appears in Genesis chapter one, and if you were to pick up your Bible, and were to read in Genesis chapter one, verse one, it would tell you this very clearly, very plainly, it says in Genesis one, verse one, In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth. How many heard of Vav there, or a Wah there? Nobody, because we read it in English, and therefore we miss out. But in Hebrew, it's Bereshit Barah Elohim, Alef-Tav Hashemayim V'et Ha-Eretz. Again, that's Bereshit Barah Elohim, Alef-Tav Hashemayim V'et Ha-Eretz. The twenty-second letter in the Torah scroll, in our scriptures, is the Vav. If you were to count the Hebrew letters, you would find that the first letter is the Bet, we've talked about that, and you can find that teaching on the www.findemetministries.com about the living letters of the Bet, and how Yahweh began the Torah with the Bet, showing it's a Beit of Yahweh, it's a house of Yahweh. And the twenty-second letter is the Vav, is the Vav, and it's in the word V'et. Bereshit Barah Elohim, Alef-Tav Hashemayim V'et Ha-Eretz, which is, in the beginning, Bereshit Barah Elohim, Yahweh created, Alef-Tav, the heavens, Hashemayim, and the earth. And the word for and is the word V'et, V'et, which begins with a Vav. Now, why is this important? Which one of the great things that we can understand from Judaism is the rabbis have studied the Torah for so long, they know the inwards and outwards and frontways and backways and sideways. When they look at that Vav, they say, oh, that's the twenty-second letter in the Torah. And that letter is symbolic of the whole Torah, because there are twenty-two letters in the Hebrew Aleph-Bet. So, they teach us that the Vav is a picture of the whole Aleph-Bet. If you look at the Vav, you should be able to think of the whole Aleph-Bet. Now, this is also important because it shows us connection, which is the connection, the purpose of the Torah. The purpose of the Hebrew letters was to connect us with Yahweh. That's why Yahweh gave us Hebrew, so we could connect with Him. There are twenty-two letters in the Hebrew Aleph-Bet, and there are twenty-two letters, the twenty-second letter in the Torah is the Vav. And that, of course, speaks to us that this is a picture of Yahshua. Yahshua. The Vav is the number six, and the number six is the number of man. Man was created on the sixth day of creation. Yahshua came as Ben Adom, or Bar Elohim, the Son of Man, in the likeness of a man. He came, and so this Vav is a picture of His life, of His glory. And the Torah, and the Aleph-Bet, and even Yahshua are bridges. These are bridges between heaven and earth. So when you think of the Vav, think of a connecting letter. But the Vav, really, there are not many words that start with the Vav. Instead, the Vav is used as a conjecture, to connect, like we use the word and. The Vav is used with that. Now, in all the Hebrew letters, they are connections for us. And it's amazing because each of the Hebrew letters are made up of other Hebrew letters. The Vav is symbolic for us because it is a picture of the number six again, a picture of Yahshua. The sixth book in the Bible is what? Yahshua. Yahoshua in Hebrew. The very name of our Messiah is the sixth book of the Bible. And also the book of Romans, which speaks clearly about the work of man, the greatness of Yahweh's power to circumcise our hearts and to minister to us. Now let's go ahead and clarify that the number six is not evil. Everybody knows everybody say not evil, not evil. You know, there are people that won't go on an elevator to the 13th floor or many times they make elevators without the number 13. And in the same way that people are scared or superstitious of the number 13, people are scared and superstitious of the number six and even the number what? Six, six, six. Now we've been told that the number six is evil. We've been told to be scared of that number. I remember I was working one day and I was working for a company activating telephones for customers and a customer came up and they got a new phone. They were so excited to get a new phone, a new phone number and her number was 803-940-5666. And when I told her that, she literally screamed, slammed her hand down and said, I'm not taking that number. I said, ma'am, what's the matter with it? I'm not taking that number. That's a number of the devil. That's a number of the Antichrist. That's an evil number. I don't want that. I don't want that. I calmed her down. I said, well, ma'am, this is the number that's been generated by the system. Will you change it? Change it right now. I don't want it. So I, of course, went through the whole number changing and took an extra 15 minutes to get her a better number, which only included 16 and not 3. Well, let's be honest. I mean, you don't really want to see 666 in your social security number. You don't want to find it on the back of somebody's head if you're shaving their hair or cutting their hair, do we? We don't want that to happen either. But we've been told it's a bad number, a number of anti-Messiah. It's a number of the beast. Ladies and gentlemen, we've allowed Hollywood to determine our theology regarding 666, regarding the number 6, and it even includes the VAV, because it's gone around on the Internet. I'm sure you've seen this, that WWW, the Internet, is the beast. Because in Hebrew, that would be VAV, VAV, VAV. WWW, which would be 666. So whoever invented the Internet must be the beast, which would be Al Gore. We all know Al Gore invented the Internet, right? So evidently, he's the beast. Now, he might be working for the beast, but I don't think he is the beast. So what about this number? Let me tell you something. There is nothing special about the number 6 except for the fact that it points to Yahshua. 6 is the number of man, but it is not evil. Don't be scared of 666. I'm not saying go change your phone number to 940-5666, but don't be scared of it. Haven't we heard, oh, that's the mark of the beast, the microchip. I swear, I was working one day. It was kind of funny, and a guy came in, and I was there at the cell phone company, and I showed him. I said, we've got this great new phone that has Internet on it. And I showed it to him, and he looked at it, and he said, I don't want that. That's a sign of Antichrist. Those evil cell phones. I'm like, well, sir, why are you here if you don't want a cell phone? I just wanted to see how we're doing. I guess he thought we were a cult selling cell phones. People are scared of anything now, aren't they? Microchips. Haven't you heard that? Or are you going to get a microchip and plant it into your arm? The 666. Take the mark of the beast. You're going to open up a package that's at your store and shows up at your house. That's the mark of the beast. You're going to do this. You're going to do that. The Vav and the number six point to the Messiah, not the anti-Messiah. Get that? Now, how can I say that and be so secure? Because it's scriptural. So let's take a look at a few scripture verses regarding the mark of the beast and go ahead and let you know, because we can't go any farther. I can't teach you about the Vav and the number six until you get your stinking thinking out and understand that it's not an evil, bad number. So let's look at a few verses regarding this concept. So it turns me to the book of Gilead, the book of Revelation. We'll begin here in Revelation chapter 13, and it says in verse 8, Revelation 13, verse 8. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, the beast whose names are not written in the book of life and the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. So they are worshiping this beast. In verse 17, it tells us, and no man might buy or sell, save unless he had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. So see this, but there's coming a time that unless you have the mark of the beast, you will not be able to buy or sell unless you have that mark. And it says, or the name of the beast or the number of his name. So notice here, it says that the mark is the name of the beast or the number of his name. Mark, number, name, all used together. Verse 18, here is wisdom. But him that hath understanding, count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. That's Revelation 13, verse 18. Let's turn to Revelation 14, verse 9. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast in his image and receive his mark on his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of Yahweh, which is poured out without mixture to the cup of indignation. So if you take this mark, you are uniting yourself with the beast, and you are going to receive the wrath of Elohim. Look at verse 11. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, and they have no rest, nor day or night, who worship the beast or his image, whoever receiveth the mark of his name. Those who have received the mark of his name don't rest, do they? They are worshiping day and night, and the smoke of their torment ascends, where? Up, forever. Of course, verse 12, Revelation 14, 12, here is the endurance of the saints, those that keep the commandments and have the testimony of Yeshua. We're not going to have the mark of the beast. We're not going to take the name of the beast or look at the number of the beast. We're going to have the testimony of Yeshua and guard the commandments. There are those that are hoping they make it through the end of days, and they just have the testimony of Yeshua. They don't guard the commandments, do they? Then there are those that guard the commandments, and that's all they have. They don't have Yeshua. You've got to have both. Let's look at Revelation 19, verse 20, talking about the mark, talking about the beast. And the beast was taken with him, the false prophet who brought miracles before him, and he deceived them. And whoever had received the mark of the beast, those that worshiped his image, and they were cast alive into the lake of fire with brimstone. So if you take the mark of the beast, not only are you going to receive the wrath of Elohim, but it says here, you're going to be cast alive, or you're going to die, and you're going to receive the beast's punishment. Revelation 20, verse 4, And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them which were beheaded for the witness of Yeshua and the word of Elohim, which did not worship the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands. They lived and reigned with Messiah a thousand years. So here you go. You have a choice. You can receive the mark of the beast, receive the punishment of the beast, receive the wrath of Elohim, be cast into the lake of fire, or in verse 4, you don't receive the mark of the beast, and guess what? You may be beheaded because you don't. Good news there, isn't it? However, it says that you will live with Yeshua for a thousand years, those who do not receive the beast. Now, look at this verse for a moment, and it says, those who had received the beast worshiped the beast for his image and received the mark on the foreheads. So I want you to get this, that in this verse, we see that worship and reception of the number of the beast go along together. You're not going to wake up one day and realize, oh my goodness, I've taken the mark of the beast. It involves worship. It involves bowing down. Let's go back and look at a few of these verses. In Revelation 13, 8, it says that David dwelt upon the earth, shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life, slain from the foundation of the world. So is your name written in the book of life? Are you born again if you receive Yeshua? Are you following after him? Then you will not take the mark of the beast. You've already taken a mark. You've taken the mark of Yahweh, which is Shabbat, which is the name Yahweh, Yeshua. Now look at this. It says in Revelation 13, verse 18, count the number of the beast, for it is 666. Now if you were to count that, that'd be 6 plus 6 plus 6. That'd be 18, wouldn't it? Maybe that's the mark of the beast. Maybe that's the number we should be scared of. I don't think so. A little bit of sarcasm there. Look at Revelation 14, 11 again. And the smoke of their torment ascended up forever, and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast, whoever receives the mark of his name. Circle that, highlight it, underline it. Take a look. The mark is his name. It says here, those have no rest who worship the beast, whoever receives the mark of his name. The mark of the beast is called the mark of his name. Do you see that? I'm not making it up. I'm reading it right out of here. So the mark of the beast is the mark of his name. In Revelation 13, 17, it says, and no man might buy or sell unless he had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. So here, we see that the mark is a name, and a name is a mark. In Revelation 14, 9, it says those who worship the beast received the image and the mark. Now there are those that say, oh, the beast, 666, that is Prince Charles. Have you heard that? Have you heard that? Well, let me just say something about that. The oldest manuscripts we have of Revelation are in Greek. They're not in Aramaic. They're not in Hebrew. The concept of gematria, of adding up the letters and finding a meaning and then assigning a name or assigning connection, can only be done with Hebrew. You cannot do gematria with English or Spanish or German or French or Australian. It can only be done with Hebrew. So if you take the Greek lettering, 666, you add it together and it comes up to Prince Charles, it's null and void, because you can't do it with Greek. It's a Hebrew concept. It's a Hebraic concept. I submit to you today that there is a variance in the manuscripts. But there is a variance in the manuscripts. Indeed, the oldest surviving text of the book of Revelation does not show 666. The oldest surviving text shows 646. That might add up to mean Barack Obama. You know? It might add up to mean George W. Bush. Who knows? Several older manuscripts show 615. Do you see people changing the area code? No, I can't have a 615 area code. Some manuscripts show 616. I submit to you today that there is a variance in the documents. It doesn't mean Yahweh's word is incorrect. It means something else. It doesn't mean there are mistakes. It means that evidently it's not the exact number 666. It's not Prince Charles of Wales. That it means the multitude. It means, wow, look at the number, the multitude. It's not the actual number of any man. You can't do a gematria in English. You can't add up, my name's Daniel, D-A-N-I-E-L. I'll assign it. Okay, the D's for the dialects, I'll give it a 4. The A's for the Aleph, I'll give it a 1. The N's for the Nun, I'll give it a 50 or whatever it is. The I's for the Yod, I'll give it a 10. The E's for this. That doesn't work. Gematria can only be done in Hebrew. 666 is not the number of any man. Several older manuscripts show different numbers. So what is it? What is it? The mark is a name. The mark is a beast. We said the mark is an image. We went through and showed you this. So what if when Yochanan, when John was writing the book of Revelation, and he wrote out 666 or he wrote out 616, whatever it happened to be that he wrote out, he was not writing the number that he heard or the number that he saw. Because again, you've got to understand something. John was writing what he saw. Isn't that right? He was writing what he saw. What if instead of seeing 666 or this number floating above somebody's head, what if he was writing out a picture? What if he actually saw a picture, an Arabic picture? Because if you look in the Greek manuscript in the Codex Vaticanus, A.D. 350, 666 looks like this. What if instead of writing out that number, he actually just drew what he saw? The symbol in the Greek of 666, if you take a look at it, it actually reveals something. It is actually a picture that is used on the headbands and in documents by Islamic fundamentalists, fanatics, and terrorists. You can actually go and read it. And if you were to read that 666 in the Greek, it looks like it's Arabic and it says, Basim Allah in the name of Allah. I'll explain this to you a little bit more. The oldest surviving manuscript of Revelation has on the far left of the 666, it looks like an X or two swords crossed. It's not really an X. It looks like two swords crossed. Then to the right of that is some squiggly lines and then another squiggly line and then a dot. If you were to take those squiggly lines, turn them 90 degrees, this is the name of Allah. Clearly and plainly you can see it. Turn 90 degrees and then read in Arabic, it actually says Allah. And of course, the X or the symbols, it looks like two swords crossing is one of the most famous symbols of Islam on many of their flags, on many of their documents. Because what do they say? Kill the infidels. We read that those who didn't worship the beast were going to have their heads cut off, didn't we? Does the Catholic Church behead anybody? Who can you think of that's beheaded anyone in your memory or your mind? Islam. Islam. Those who come against the beast. It tells us in Revelation 18.3 that all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. What does the Catholic Church have to sell us besides crucifixes? Nothing. What does it say here? It says in Revelation 18.3, all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. Oil. All the nations. For the kings of the earth have committed adultery with her, Revelation 18.3. Everything goes through the sheikhs. Arabian oil sheikhs. We always read it said they took them out to Babylon. We always thought that was another type of place. It was actually real Babylon. And many other teachings that go along with this. Who knows what country that they behead people or they kill people because they accept Yeshua. Where even United States soldiers are not allowed to wear a cross or star David while they're on installation basis. Saudi Arabia. Which, what town is in Saudi Arabia? Mecca. The religious capital part of Islam. The title was written on her forehead, Revelation 17. Mystery Babylon, the great, the mother of prostitutes and the abominations of the earth. I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Yeshua. Who kills more believers than Islam today? Much more that could be said about this. Much more can be said if you go to the ministry's website. There's a teaching Israel end times and you. But we see that the mark of the beast is not the number six, is not 666. It is a mark, it is a worship, it is a name. The vav is a picture of our master Yeshua. Amen? Thank goodness. I can get along for number six now. It doesn't point to the Antichrist, it points to the real Messiah, Yeshua. Remember that the vav was a picture of a hook, of a pillar, of a man standing, of a nail. It's pretty easy to write. It's pretty much a straight line with a little hook to the left. It's amazing that the word vav. The word vav, which is spelled vav, vav actually appears 13 times in the book of Exodus. 13 times, you just find it as a word. These aren't just letters. And in Exodus 36, 36, it is used a few times in this verse. Listen to this. And let's see if you can find the word vav. Exodus 36, 36. Their hooks were of gold, verse 38. And the five pillars of it were their hooks. And He overlaid their chapters and their fillets with gold. And their five sockets were of brass. So again, speaking of hooks, you heard hooks of gold. The word vav, or vavim, plural for vav, appears in these verses as hooks. Now again, the English describes emetz, the truth. But the Hebrew uncovers it. Amen? We can see the truth in this. Now let's just picture this here for a moment. You're looking at the tabernacle. Do you see the Shekinah glory? No. Do you see the mercy seat? No. Do you even see the menorah unless you're looking straight in? No. Do you see the showbread? No. What do you see? You see the curtains. When you looked at the temple, when you looked at the tabernacle, you didn't see the great things inside. You saw what was on the outside. You saw the curtains. And more importantly, you saw the hooks of gold holding up the curtains. You actually saw the vavim. When the people looked at the tabernacle, they saw the vavim. They actually saw Yeshua. Now think about it. When you saw Yeshua walking the face of this earth, did you see all the glory and the power of Yahweh? No. Where was it? On the inside. At any time, He could have called angels down. He could have done great miracles. He could have snapped His fingers and made everybody sing like Elvis Presley. Wouldn't that have been a blessing? Anyway, all you saw was His outward body in the form of a man. So where was the power of the Mishkan? What made Yeshua special? It wasn't what was on the outside, but what was on the inside. Get this. The outside of Torah is like a garment. What does a garment do? It conceals, doesn't it? It conceals. Garments conceal and cover things. When we just read in the pashat level, we're actually covering up levels and levels and hundreds, maybe thousands of understandings. That's why we have to study and dig deeper and go deeper into the Word. That the Torah is actually a garment, concealing as much as it reveals. That's why we must learn to study and apply the Word. That the vav, the hooks on the tabernacle, concealed the power of Yahweh. That the body that Yeshua was in concealed the power of Yahweh. This vav is a picture of Yeshua. Now over the years, it has changed in the way it looked. Originally, in the paleo-Hebrew, it looked more like a Y. A taller Y. Almost like a slingshot. And it's changed into what we have as the modern hook. Remember we said this is the word and? This is the connection? That the vav is used to connect. What does it connect? What does the Torah connect? What did Yeshua connect? The heavens and the earth. It connects the Shammayim and the Aarons. For there is one Yahweh, Elohim, Echad. And one mediator between Yahweh and man. The man, Yeshua, Hamashiach. So let's read that with the vav. There is one Yahweh, Echad, and one mediator. One vav, one hook, one connection between Yahweh and men. The man, the number six, the vav himself, Yeshua, Hamashiach. That's the concept. Now, the aleph is an amazing letter. Because it's made up of the yod and the vav. Now, get this. Every single Hebrew letter is made up of other Hebrew letters. The aleph gives us a point of salvation through using the vav and the yod. Now, the yod is like, you could tell, like a comma. It's the first letter in Yahweh's name. And if you look at the aleph and you split it, you've got a yod above you, you've got a vav in the middle, and a yod below. The yod above reminds us that Father Yahweh loves the world. But we are separated because of our sin. Sinful man is separated. We're the yod below. But the vav, Yeshua was the mediator. Now, get this. Yeshua was the mediator that took these broken letters, a broken life, and made it one together. Yeshua took the broken aleph, our broken life, and made it one together through the vav, through the nails. Yeshua's ministry was the mediator. He was a minister of reconciliation. I mean, isn't that what a priest should do? Think about it. We've got a problem with the Catholic Church today. They say you can't go to Yahweh yourself. You have to go through a priest. Some of that's in some of these other sects of Christianity. Don't study the Word yourself. Get your preacher to do it. You ask somebody, what does this mean to you? I don't know. You have to ask the preacher about that. Have you heard that before? I know I have. But like the vav, like Yeshua, we have all been called into the ministry of reconciliation. Did you know that? Yahweh's called you, Maggie, Gregory, to the ministry of reconciliation. It tells us in the book of John, it says, you did not choose me, but I chose you and ordained you that you would go and bear fruit, and your fruit would remain, that whatever he asked the Father, he would give to you. He has ordained you, Dean, in the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians, Corinthians 5.18. Can we read it together? Yahweh has done all this. He has restored our relationship with Him through Mashiach and has given us this ministry of restoring relationships or the ministry of reconciliation. You've been ordained. So after hearing this message, you can now say you've been ordained. Ordained into what? Into the ministry of not breaking up relationships, cussing and fighting and cussing and dividing, but in restoring relationships and bringing together and being a peacemaker. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who walk out this ministry. Now what's interesting is in Genesis 29, 34, Leah gives birth to one of her sons. It tells us, she conceived again and bore a son and said, now this time my husband will become joined to me because I have borne him three sons. Therefore his name was Levi. I'm not talking about the genes here. I'm talking about the son of Leah, Levi. Now look at this verse again. She conceived again and bore a son and said, now this time my husband will be joined to me. He was named Levi prophetically because the meaning of his name was to join with the husband, to bring the bride and the husband together. Do you understand that? Do you see that? Then Levi, as the son was prophesied, you're going to bring the husband and the wife together. Join together. Nail together. As the bride of Messiah, our desire should be the same as Levi. We should desire to fulfill that name prophetically as the Levites did. As Levi did. To be joined with Yahweh. The two shall become one flesh. And when Yahweh is put together, let no man tear apart. To be joined with Yahweh. Turn with me to Devarim chapter 10. The book of Deuteronomy chapter 10. And in Devarim 10 verse 8, we see the purpose of the tribe of Levi. Fulfilling what Leah said. Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi. To carry the Ark of the Covenant. To stand before Yahweh. To serve Him and to bless His name until this day. The Levaiim were totally dedicated to the service of Yahweh. You know, there are those out there that say, Oh, I'm from the tribe of Gad. I'm from the tribe of Asher. I'm from the tribe of Daniel. And they're ready to go back to the land of Israel. Ready to go ahead and make Aliyah. Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know what tribe I'm from. My desire is to be from the tribe of Levi. Even though Levi didn't have a land inheritance, did they? No claim to the land. I'm not worried about going to Israel. I'll make it there one day when the time is right. But my desire would be from the tribe of Levi. Do you know why? Because this is the tribe that was dedicated and connected to Yahweh. He was their inheritance. He was their passion. He was their desire. Now, yes, my father was Jewish. I might be from the tribe of Judah. I might be from the tribe of Benjamin. I might be from the tribe of Levi. You don't know because those three were in the southern kingdom, right? But I want to be joined. Look at this. In Devarim 10.8, He set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the Covenant. To carry Yahweh's presence. To stand before Yahweh. To serve Him. To be a mediator and to bless His name. To be joined. To be connected. To be hooked. To be Vav'd to Yahweh. So every time we see the Vav, We need to be reminded of its message and purpose. Even in Hebrew grammar, The Vav is used to connect words. You've heard this before. Be'ahavta l'recha chamoka. Be'ahavta l'recha chamoka. Be'ahavta l'recha chamoka. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Not just you shall love, But and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. They came to Yeshua and they said, What's the greatest commandment? They said, Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad. And then He gave them the most famous prayer, Which is the Shema in Hebrew. But included with the Shema is what's called the Be'ahavta prayer. The Be'ahavta prayer. Be'ahavta et Yahweh, Le'vachah be'chol, le'vachol le'vachol, le'vashachah, Uv'kol modechah. Be'ahavta et Yahweh, Le'vachah be'chol, le'vachol le'vachol, le'vashachah, Uv'kol modechah. Be'ahavta et Yahweh, Le'vachah be'chol, le'vachol le'vachol, le'vashachah, Uv'kol modechah. Be'ahavta et Yahweh, Le'vachah be'chol, le'vachol le'vachol, le'vashachah, Uv'kol modechah. Be'ahavta et Yahweh, Le'vachol le'vachol, le'vashachah, Uv'kol modechah. Be'ahavta et Yahweh, Le'vachol le'vachol, le'vashachah, Uv'kol modechah. Be'ahavta et Yahweh, Le'vachol le'vachol, le'vashachah, Uv'kol modechah. Be'ahavta et Yahweh, Le'vachol le'vachol, le'vashachah, Uv'kol modechah. Be'ahavta et Yahweh, Be'ahavta et Yahweh, Le'vachol le'vachol, le'vashachah. Be'ahavta et Yahweh, Le'vachol le'vachol, le'vashachah. Be'ahavta et Yahweh, Le'vachol le'vachol, le'vashachah. Be'ahavta et Yahweh, Le'vachol le'vachol, le'vashachah. Be'ahavta et Yahweh, Le'vachol le'vachol, le'vashachah. Be'ahavta et Yahweh, Le'vachol le'vachol, le'vashachah. Be'ahavta et Yahweh, Le'vachol le'vachol, le'vashachah. It's used to connect. To connect. The Vav is used to connect. Be'ahavta. Vav alef-hei bet-tav. So are we connected? Are we plugged in? You know, I said I work for a cell phone company and told you about some horror stories. Interesting thing about a cell phone is if you don't plug it in and charge it, it doesn't work, does it? You've got to have power. And the only way that cell phone is going to have power is if it is connected. Well, guess what? We've got to be connected or we will not have any power, we will not have any life, we'll be a dead battery. So two questions to ask you today. Number one, are we joined to Yahweh and are we joined to each other? Are we joined to Yahweh? Are we connected? Have we been nailed to Yahweh with the Vav? And have we been connected to each other? Hear me now. These questions are important to understand, important to think about, important to ponder. Our connection with Yahweh and our connection with each other. We've said before that in the spiritual realm, closeness is equal to similarity. That the more you are like Yahweh, the closer you are to Him. Remember Moshe when he went on the mountain and he came down, his face was glowing with the kavod and the glory of Yahweh. And remember when you walk in the flesh and when you act in the flesh, what happens? You're not acting like Yahweh, are you? Romans chapter 6 tells us, Don't you know that to whom you yield yourselves slaves to obey, His servant you become, whether a slave of sin unto death or obedience to righteousness. The most important thing in this teaching today is this next statement. The most important statement I'm going to make today is this. Our closeness to Yahweh is directly connected to our closeness to each other. Our closeness to Yahweh is directly connected to our closeness to each other. You can't say you love Yahweh and not love your brother, your sister in the faith. Those who aren't in the faith. Yeshua said, How can you love Yahweh whom you don't see if you don't love Joe and Bill whom you do see? Our closeness to Yahweh is directly connected to our closeness to each other. And if you're not showing love and spending time with each other, then that's going to show that we can't love Yahweh. So let me ask you a few things. How do you love Yahweh? You can't see him. You can't hug him. You can't kiss him. You can't shower, oh, just flowers on him. How do you serve Yahweh? How do you fellowship with Yahweh? You could be like Benny Hinn, what I like to call Benny Ha Ha, and wake up in the morning and fix you a cup of coffee and say, Good morning, Holy Spirit, Yahweh. That's what he does. He'll read his book, Good Morning, Holy Spirit, and have a conversation across the table. What's the latest news today? You know, you could do that, I guess. And I believe our relationship with Yahweh should be very close, but how do we love Yahweh? How do we serve Yahweh? How do we fellowship with him? How do you love Yahweh? You've got to love his body. My wife and I have been married going on 11 years. And if I only loved her face or her head, you know, that wouldn't be very nice, would it? Oh, baby, you have a beautiful face. I love your head, your hair, your highlights, your new haircut, your eyes, your nostrils, they're so nice, your lips, your ears, your freckles, your eyebrows. Let me tell you, your eyebrows are nice. That would kind of get old, wouldn't it? What about the rest of her body? Doesn't she want me to say, you look nice today. Oh, I like those fingernails. Your toes are pretty, let me tell you. Your toes are pretty, you know what I'm saying? There's the whole body. Yahweh doesn't want us just loving the head, Messiah Yeshua. We've got to love his body. Turn with me, please, to the book of John. The book of John, chapter 13. Just as a cell phone will not work unless it's connected to a power source, we will not work, our faith will not work unless we're connected to Yahweh Yeshua. And in Yochanan, chapter 13, it tells us in verse 34. A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, so also love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my Talmudim, my disciples, if you have love for one another. We've got to love the body. Yes, the body might have odor sometimes, that's called body odor. Yes, the body might get on our nerves sometimes. Yes, there are differences, but we've got to love each other. And how do you love each other? By serving each other and fellowshipping with each other. It does not say, in verse 35, By this, all men will know that you are my disciples. By how you tie your zitzit. By how you blow your shofar. By how you pass the pushkey and collect the money in the tzedakah box. It doesn't say that all men will know you are my disciples by how much Torah you know, does it? It says by how you love one another. How do you love Yahweh? You love His body. How do you serve Yahweh? Guess what? You serve His body. Verse 13. Same chapter. Yochanan 13, verse 13. You call me teacher, rabbi, and master. And you say, well, for so I am. Verse 14. If I then am your master and your rabbi, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. I am giving you an example that you should do as I have done to you. We have been called to serve each other. We have been called to wash each other's feet. Now, symbolically sometimes we do that. Maybe at Passover, different times of the year, we'll pull out a basin, wash somebody's feet. If you're going to wash mine, you usually use a steel brush. But, you know, we do the foot washing thing. It's greater than just doing it that way. He means every day. He means every opportunity you have, you serve. What's that song? If we are the body, why aren't His hands reaching? That's what we're supposed to be doing. We are the body. And yet, what do we do most of the time? We fold up our hands. We put them in our pockets. We sit at our house. We sit at the shul. How's it going? Hey, shalom. Hey, bless here. Shalom. I'm hungry. When are you going to finish? Shalom. Bless Yahweh, oh my soul. You know, we've got to serve. We've got to love. And, so let me ask you again. How do you fellowship with Yahweh? Do you have tea time with the Ruach HaKodesh at two o'clock every day? Or do you fellowship with the body? We've got to come together. John 13, verse 15. I give you an example that you should do. You can't wash somebody's feet if you're not around them. That would have been a great time for a big amen. You can't wash somebody's feet unless you're around them. That would have been a great time for a big amen. Alright, hallelujah. We've got to come together. We've got to be together. Vayikra, Leviticus 23, verse 3, shows us that it is a commandment if we can to gather together. It says, six days shall work be done, especially the Shabbat of rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work. It is the Sabbath of Yahweh in your dwellings. These are the feasts of Yahweh, even the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their seasons. The feast days, and especially the Shabbat, it says, are a day of holy convocation, a day of coming together, a day of worship, a day of fellowship. I can't serve you unless we spend time together. I can't bless you unless we do that. The Vav should teach us to connect with each other. We need each other. And the world outside us needs us. Let me tell you something. As we grow and mature in the faith, we have to believe that Yahweh will reach us, will use us to reach others. And as we are faithful to those who are in our synagogue now, we know that Yahweh will bring more people that we can join to, we can connect to, we can serve. Now, our desire is to return to the first century faith. Amen? Amen? Jude chapter 1 verse 3 says, Let us contend for the most holy faith that was delivered to the saints once for all time. But the true faith was handed down once for all time. It was never meant to be changed. But what does it say? It says, Let us contend for the faith. We've got to contend for it. We've got to fight for it. We've got to study for it. We've got to do that in doctrine, in belief, in practice, and in fellowship. In belief. In the sacred names. In the feast days. In things that we can agree on and things that we can come together with. In practice. In walking out the Torah every day and encouraging one another. And in fellowship. Sharing the ministry. Caring for one another. But you don't have a local fellowship. So what can they do? What should they do? My suggestion is to open their homes for a meeting of Yahweh. Turn with me to Acts chapter 4. We look at what happens when the Vav is connecting each other. When the Vav is used to connect us. So again, are we joined to Yahweh? Are we joined to each other? And even if you say, yes, I'm joined. I'm here whenever the doors are open. It's greater than that. It's bigger than that. It's better than that. Acts chapter 4 verse 22. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any of them that ought to their things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. Great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of Messiah Yeshua. And great chesed was upon them all. Neither was there among them any that lacked. For as many as were possessors of lands or houses, they sold them. And they brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them at the apostles' feet. And the distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. I'm praying for the day when we can come together and say, I have a need and the body of Messiah can come together and meet that need. That's how the body is supposed to work. And it says they had all things as of God. They had unity. And notice how this works. They were unified. Then it says they had great power. Then it says that they had no need and the conversions came. Unity brings love, brings power, brings converts. Many people think, oh, we'll be unified when we love. No, you've got a purpose in your heart to be one and then to have love and then to flow in Yahweh's power. We'll finish the teaching today in Tehillim, Psalm 119. So turn with me here. As we look through the Psalm 119, every eight verses or so, start with a different Hebrew letter. The first starts with the aleph, then the bet, then the gimel, the dalet, the he, the vav, which is verses 41. Let your mercies come also to me, O Yahweh, your salvation according to your word. So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in your word. Take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I have hoped in your ordinances. So I shall keep your law continually forever and ever. I will walk at liberty for I seek your precepts. I will speak of your testimonies also before kings and will not be ashamed. I will delight myself in your commandments, which I love. My hands also will I lift up to your commandments, which I love. I will meditate on your statutes. That is Tehillim, Psalm 119, verses 41 through 48. It speaks of mercy. It talks about trusting Yahweh, looking to the Torah for an answer. You've got a question? The Torah's got answers. It speaks of hope, tikvah, of keeping the Torah. Notice here, it speaks of liberty. Liberty. Verse 45, and I will walk at liberty for I seek your precepts. We think, oh, the Torah weighs us down and binds us up and holds us back. No, it sets us free to walk in liberty, to speak of the testimonies before kings. What did Yeshua say? If you confess Me before men, then I will confess you before My Father who is in heaven. Do not be ashamed. It says, I will delight Myself in the commandments which I have loved. Do we love the commandments? Do we delight in them? And then finally, the last verse, verse 48, it says, My hands also will I lift up unto Thy commandments which I have loved. I will meditate in Thy statutes. How do you hold up your hands to the commandments? Think about that. It says here, with My hands I will hold up the commandments. One way to do that is to hold the Bible in your hands as you're reading. Wouldn't we also think that when Moshe received the tablets, that he got them with his hands? He received them with his hands? But I also want to believe that this verse is a prophecy. It's a messianic prophecy of Yeshua. Because it says, My hands also will I lift up to Thy commandments which I have loved. I will meditate on Thy statutes. It tells us in Tehillim, chapter 22, verse 16, Psalm 22, 16, They pierced My hands and My feet. Then when it says in Psalm 119, My hands I lift up unto Thy commandments, that He was there taking the curse of disobedience. Our curses upon His hands. He was paying the price for our disobedience. He was lifting up His hands unto the commandments. And there He was meditating on My statutes. There on the tree He quoted Psalm 22. Psalm 68, 4. It says, Sing unto Elohim. Sing praises to His name. Extol Him that rideth upon the heavens by His name in the King James. Jah, or Yah. Rejoice before Him. Want to teach the Hebrew name to your Christian friends or family? Tell them about Psalm 68, 4. Ask them to pull out their King James version. It says, Extol Him that rides upon the heavens by His name, Jah. Say, who is this? Jah Jah Binks? Who is Jah? A Jamaican God? Jah? Who's Jah? Yah? Yah? It's Yahweh. Poetic form of His name is Yod-Heh. Now in Hebrew, we know that the Yod is a symbol of the hand. We've studied the Hey. We know it means to behold. So Yah literally means to behold the hand. What's so special about that? What happened to the hands? Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh spells His name. It actually means, behold the hands that were hooked, that were nailed, that were scarred with the Vav. Today, if you go to Israel and say, I need to buy some nails, you go into the H2 hardware, whatever it is you need, go into the hardware store. Say, I need to buy some nails. You're going to say to them, I need some Vavim. Hebrew for Vav. That's the word for nails. Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh says, behold the hand, the scarred hands, the hands that were pierced for us. Prophesied in Psalm 119, which says, My hands I will lift up unto Thy commandments. He was lifting His hands and spreading them forward for us. He was nailed to that tree for us. He connected Himself to that curse so we could be connected to Him. So the Torah was made flesh and dwelt among us to connect us to Yahweh, which is exactly what the Vav is, which is exactly what the Vav does. So we end this teaching again considering, are we connected to Yahweh? And are we connected to His body? How do you love Yahweh? How do you serve Yahweh? How do you fellowship with Yahweh? That our closeness with Yahweh is directly connected to our closeness with one another. Father Yahweh, we pray that this day Your word would pierce our hearts like a nail, like a Vav. Teaching us first, correcting us, showing us that there is hope in Your Torah. Forgive us. Show us Your ways. Help us to connect to one another, to love one another, to serve one another, and to fellowship. To be connected with Your journey, with Your vision, with Your might. Father, we pray that our eyes would be opened to the beast, not some superstitious idea, but an enemy that seeks to steal, kill, and destroy. Father, we want to take Your mark for Shabbat in Your name. Father, we thank You for Yeshua who stretched out His arms, lifted up His hands to Your commandments, and was cursed, because Your word says, cursed is any man that hangs on a tree. He did that for us. Give us a greater revelation of those nail-scarred hands. Give us a greater love and admiration for Your house, for Your body. Not just that we would love the head, but we would love the whole body. Father, we thank You. Father, we bless You. Father, we praise You this day for Your word, Your living letters, the Abba's bed. Through Yeshua we pray. B'Shem Yeshua. Amen. E-met.com CD copies of this teaching are available for free by submitting a request at the website. Or write to us at E-met Ministries 1310 Trent Street Newberry, SC 29108 That's E-met Ministries 1310 Trent Street Newberry, SC 29108 Thank you again for listening to Finding E-met with Daniel Rentalman. May you find the E-met. And may the E-met, may the truth set you free.