Shechem: Its importance and purpose

This transcription discusses the significance of Shechem, Hebron, and Anathoth in the context of blessings and curses as outlined in Deuteronomy 11. It emphasizes the importance of obeying God's commandments to receive blessings and the consequences of turning away from Him. The text connects biblical narratives, such as Abraham's journey and the establishment of the nation of Israel, to the present purpose of Healing to the Nations in South Australia. It stresses the need to follow God's plan and serve His kingdom faithfully. I want to share on what I've called Shechem. It's important and purpose, the blessings and the curses. I want to focus a little on the blessing side of things today and the curses tomorrow. What is God saying to us as a people for his kingdom, at this time in history, in this corner of his vineyard, and why are we here? What is he doing? Where is he taking us? What is he asking of us, etc.? This place is called Shechem, and it's called Shechem for a reason. Hebron is called Hebron for a reason. Mildura-Anathoth is Anathoth for a reason. It tells a story. It paints a picture. It reveals something of what God is saying and doing in our midst. Deuteronomy 11, from verse 13, Moses speaking to Israel as they stand near the shores of Jordan, getting ready to enter into the land of promise. Now if you listen obediently to my commandment that I am commanding you today to love Jehovah, your Elohim, and to serve him with all your heart and soul, then I will give rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, so that you may gather in your grain new wine and olive oil. I will give grass in your field for your livestock. You will eat and be satisfied. Watch yourselves so your heart is not deceived, and you turn aside and you serve other gods and worship them. Then the anger of Jehovah will be kindled against you. So he will shut up the sky so that there will be no rain, the soil will not yield its produce, then you will perish quickly from the good land that Jehovah is giving you. You are to set these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. You are to bind them as a sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes. You are to teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. You are to write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied on the land Jehovah swore to give to your fathers, as long as the heavens are above the earth. For if you will diligently keep all these commands that I am commanding you today, or commanding you to do, to love Jehovah your Elohim, to walk in all his ways and to cling to him, then Jehovah will drive out all these nations from before you and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours. From the wilderness to the Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea, will be your border. No one will be able to stand against you. Jehovah your Elohim will put the fear and the dread of you upon all the land where you tread, just as he promised you. See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing, if you obey or listen to the mitzvot of Jehovah your Elohim that I am commanding you today, but the curse, if you do not listen to the mitzvot, the commandments I am commanding you today, and you go after other gods you have not known. Now when Jehovah your Elohim brings you into the land you are going in to possess, you are to set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are they not across the Jordan toward the west in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the Oaks of Moreh, or Shechem? For you are about to cross over the Jordan to go in to possess the land Jehovah your Elohim is giving you. You will possess it and dwell in it, and you will take care to do all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today. This is about us. This is about HTTN, Healing to the Nations. This is about Father's purpose for us here at Shechem, and now Good News at Mildura. So I want to share today something of the purposes of why we exist. Why does Healing to the Nations live here at Salem in this part of Australia? And why we are called Shechem? And so, and now of course we have the Good News Messianic community in Mildura. And Healing to the Nations is the umbrella power source and covering for every community that we establish in this nation. Did you get that? Healing to the Nations is the umbrella, the power source, the covering for every community that we establish in this nation. Wherever it takes us, to whatever town or city Jehovah sends us, Healing to the Nations will be that covering, that group of people that Jehovah will use to set up another community here, here, here and here. Wherever Jehovah opens the door, Healing to the Nations will be there to make it happen and to establish it. Jehovah has a purpose and a plan for us and our location here in South Australia. And we've been on the road for 26 years. We've been doing messianics for over 20 years. Jehovah is saying this is the time, this is the moment, this is the era when I'm beginning to enlarge what I have established in this place. And as we read in our scripture, we too are situated here in this valley called Bremer Valley and we are between Mount Gerizim and Mount Evel. And you have to cross the Bremer River if you're coming off the freeway to get to Shechem. And then we are also situated in this place called Salem. Practically nobody knows that Salem even exists. Even people that just live a few k's down the road in Mount Barker or Murray Bridge have never heard of Salem, yet Jehovah put us here and we're caught on this a number of times. Abraham met Jehovah at Salem. And Salem, of course, is the city of peace under the authority of the King of Righteousness, Melchizedek. But Salem, representative of Jerusalem, is the place of Jehovah's presence. The place where Jehovah situates himself and where he places his name. And Jehovah's presence, purpose, was central for Israel's reason for being in existence. If Jehovah wasn't front and centre, they had no right to exist. They never served him and his purposes, then that was their reason for being. They weren't living for themselves, they were living for the Almighty. They were raised up as a nation that they would represent the Almighty God and the Heavenly Kingdom. They were there to be a nation like no other nation on planet earth. They were the channel through which Jehovah would reveal himself and his laws and his rules and his kingdom. He wanted the kingdom of heaven situated down here on earth in this nation called Israel, in the land of promise. And that was the kingdom of heaven being established here on earth. That Jehovah may use them to reveal himself to the nations. We know that they lost their way and things went wrong. But I will be focusing on Gerizim and evil. And today primarily it will be the blessings associated with Gerizim. Tomorrow we'll highlight something of who represents evil and the mountain of curses. And so, but first just a little emphasis on Shechem's place in history. In Genesis chapter 12, and we know the story very, very well, of Abram, and in verse 1 of chapter 12, then Jehovah said to Abram, get going out from your land. And from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you. My heart's desire is to make you into a great nation, to bless you, to make your name great, so that you may be a blessing. Isn't that wonderful? To make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, but whoever curses you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. So Abram went, just as Jehovah had spoken to him, and also Lot went with him. Now Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran, and Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his nephew, and all their possessions that they had acquired, and the people that they acquired in Haran, and they left to go to the land of Canaan, and they entered the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land as far as the place of Shechem, as far as Moreh's big tree, the oak, as usually translated. The Canaanites were in the land then. Then Jehovah appeared to Abram and said, I will give this land to your seed. So there he built an altar to Jehovah, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the mountain to the east of Bethel, and erected his tent with Bethel to the west, and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to Jehovah and called on the name of Jehovah. So Abram kept on journeying southward. Abram changed his name to Abraham. He moved out from home, from country, from family, from friends, and he went to the place that Jehovah led him to in Canaan. A land, a country he had never been to before in his life, and he didn't even know where he was going. He said, just go where I tell you, just follow my directions. And so he crosses the border, and his first stop is Shechem. The purposes of Jehovah, the importance of establishing that for which he was there, which of course was of Jehovah, was cemented when Abram built an altar there and called on the name of Jehovah. He goes to Shechem, he builds an altar in that place and he calls on the name of Jehovah, makes his sacrifices, first stop. Jehovah is cementing and establishing something right there in the purposes for sending him to that place. So from there he went on to the mountain east of Bethel and built an altar there as well, and he's on his way to Hebron. Hebron, Bethel is not far from Shechem. Ai and Bethel are close together, and Shechem is right there in that area. Jehovah has established his purposes for this man and his journey. Shechem is the place where everything that is important to Israel and its future purposes takes place and begins. Jehovah has a plan and a message for this man Abram. He said, I've sent you to this land to establish you as a great nation and I will make your name great and I will give you a nation will come forth from your loins and it will begin at Shechem. This is the place where I want you to take ownership of the journey that lies ahead of you. You don't know what lies ahead of you Abram. You don't know how I'm going to take you from one end to the other, from side to side and every place your feet set, it will belong to you. And he establishes this promise at Shechem. And so we read in Genesis chapter 33 and verse 18 will continue on this little history. So Jacob arrived in Shalom, peace and blessing and prospering to the city of Shechem which is in the land of Canaan. When he came from Paddan Aram and camped right in front of the city, he purchased a portion of the field there where he had pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, for 100 pieces of money, silver, whatever. There he set up an altar and he called it El is Israel's God. Jacob has fled from his brother Esau and he's gone and he's now married two women, Rebecca and Leah, where he was to see Rachel and Leah. And so now he's returning from there, from Haran, with his wives and his sons. And he buys a parcel of land and he begins his life there, the place where his grandfather Abraham first arrived and built an altar. Isn't it amazing? That's where he stops, that's where he establishes, he buys a plot of land at Shechem. This is where I will establish myself. Then we go across to Genesis 35 and verse 1. Then God said to Jacob, get up, go up to Bethel and stay there. Make an altar there to the Elohim appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau. We know the story. Abraham's also built an altar there at Bethel. And we know that Jacob had an encounter with God there when he was fleeing. And he wrestled with the angel, Jehovah himself, all night. And he called that place the house of God, Bethel. So Jacob said to his household and to everyone who was with him, because he's having to leave, Shechem, get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Cleanse yourselves and change your clothes. Now let's get up and go up to Bethel so that I can make an altar there to God. Who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way that I have gone. So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods in their hand and the rings in their ears. And Jacob hid them under the oak tree near Shechem. Then they journeyed and the terror of God was on the cities that were around them. So they did not pursue Jacob's sons. Jacob's sons had just brought disgrace and opposition to their name there. And they have to leave for safety's sake. Because Shechem, the son of Hamel, after whom the city was named, the area was run or owned by Hamel and he had a son called Shechem. And so they named the township in that district of Hamel, Shechem. And he raped Dinah, Jacob's daughter, his son's sister. And so we know what happened. They slaughter the men in that city by subterfuge. And Jacob says to his household and his servants, get rid of your foreign gods and this includes the earrings that they were wearing. They would have picked up these foreign beliefs on their journey, living in Haran. And earrings, very often in that era, resembled the image of the gods that they worshipped. You just cleanse yourself and change your clothes. This is telling us something of an act of repentance and dealing with false gods and belief systems that were among his sons and families and whoever they had connected themselves to over their life's journey. And Jacob then buried them under the oak tree at Shechem. And he went to Bethel. Let me just say, Shechem is the place where paganism and idolatry is dealt with. And I'm talking about here as well as there. Shechem is the place where we deal with paganism and idolatry. And the message will be strong and it will be true to the word. And we will say, get rid of your foreign gods. Get rid of anything that represents that which is not the word of God and bury it. Change your clothes. Change your ideals. Change your belief systems. Change who you put your trust in. That's what changing your clothes means. Take off the old and put on the new. Take off the unrighteous and put on the righteous. That's what Shechem stands for. Shechem has important spiritual history and prophetic purpose. From Abram's day to our day and beyond. But we need also to get Moses and the story of Joshua, just as important in this historical account. Moses and the children of Israel had travelled the Negev, the southern wilderness area, for 40 years. They had been given the Torah commandments. They'd made a covenant with Elohim at Mount Sinai. And now they were ready to cross over the Jordan and into the land of promise. Deuteronomy chapter 11. Let's just go back to that. Verse 26. This is what Moses is saying to the people as they get ready to just go across the river. And as he gives them his teachings on what to expect when they get there, how to behave when they get there. So we'll read again what he says to them in verse 26. See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Jehovah your Elohim that I am commanding you today. But the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Jehovah your Elohim, but turn from the way I am commanding you today, to go after other gods you have not known. Now when Jehovah your Elohim brings you into the land you are going into possess, you are to set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are they not across the Jordan toward the west in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah opposite Gilgal beside the Oaks of Moray, Shechem. For you are about to cross over the Jordan to go into possess the land of Jehovah your Elohim is giving you. You will possess it and you will dwell in it. You will take care to do all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today. Moses had received instructions from Jehovah. They are to go to the mountains of Gerizim and Ebal after entering the land. They have to take out Jericho and they have to take out Ai to get there. But from that point on they are to go absolutely nowhere until they have set or put or proclaimed or pronounced the blessings on Mount Gerizim and the curses on Mount Ebal. You cannot go anywhere in this land of promise until you go to Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal and pronounce blessings on this one and curses on that one. Deuteronomy 12, let's go down to verse 1 in the next passage. These are the statutes and the ordinances, Moses continues to tell them, that you are to make sure to do in the land that Jehovah, the Elohim of your fathers, has given you to possess. All the days that you live on the earth you must utterly destroy all the places where the nations that you will dispossess serve their gods. On the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. It's taught on this a number of times. You are to tear down their altars. You are to smash their pillars. You are to burn their Asherah poles. In the fire you are to cut down their carved images of their gods and you are to obliterate their name from that place. Wow, that's some mandate. You go to Ebal, you go to Gerizim and then when you start to move through this land this is what you have to do. You have to obliterate anything false was the mandate. They had to make a covenant with Elohim and establish the basis on which you would bless them and the basis on which you would curse them. He said I will bless you and I will use you to take the land from the nations that live there. I'm going to give you their land. I'm going to wipe them out. They do not belong in the promised land. They are not part of my kingdom purposes. They cannot stay or remain or they will cause you to stumble. He was also establishing the basis on which they would bring cursing upon themselves and lose everything as their fathers had done over their 40 year journey in the wilderness. You cannot move into that land until you understand what I will bless and what I will curse. Until you understand what will make you successful and what will destroy you. The only way that they would be successful in this call on this journey would be to eliminate all false religious ideas, temples and nations and not follow them one iota. Do not get entangled in the beliefs and the systems of paganism and idolatry or I will destroy you instead of them. You will lose your inheritance if you do not listen to me. So, let's look at what he says in Deuteronomy chapter 27. Just to cross a little bit further. As we follow the instructions of Jehovah and the blessings he's talking about. From verse 1. Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people saying keep the whole commandment that I'm commanding you today. It's all based on his law, his Torah, his instructions. Because they are his righteousness. Now on the day when you cross over the Jordan to the land that Jehovah your Elohim is giving you, you are to set up large stones for yourselves, boulders and coat them with plaster. Then you are to write on them all the words of this Torah when you cross over. So that you may enter the land that Jehovah your Elohim is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey. Just as Jehovah the Elohim of your fathers promised you. Now when you cross over the Jordan, you are to set up those stones about which I'm commanding you today on Mount Ebal and coat them with plaster. There also you will build an altar to Jehovah your Elohim, an altar of stones. You are not to use an iron tool on any of them. You are to build the altar of Jehovah your Elohim of whole stones and you are to offer up burnt offerings on it to Jehovah your God. You are to sacrifice fellowship offerings and eat there. And you will rejoice before Jehovah your God. How many people rejoice? I mean truly, truly, honestly rejoice. Paul said rejoice and again I say rejoice. Didn't matter how many times they beat him. How many times they stoned him. How many times he was shipwrecked. Didn't matter how many times they threw him in prison. He said rejoice, rejoice. Jehovah wants us to rejoice. No matter what we are involved in. No matter what we are confronted with. No matter what we are going through. No matter what comes against us. Rejoice. What are you rejoicing in? Jehovah your God. The unfailing almighty King of Kings. He who never changes. He who is always with us in prison and out of prison. In death and in life. He is with us. I will never forsake you. I will never leave you. Rejoice. You are to write on the stones all the words of this Torah very clearly. Then Moses said to the Levitical Kohenim, the priests. Moses and the Levitical Kohenim spoke to all Israel saying be silent and listen O Israel. How often it is that people don't listen. They like to tell us how to run our church, how to live our lives and where we are wrong and they are not very good at listening at what we have to say. People come here to tell us that would be the job instead of listening what we've got to give them. It doesn't mean that people don't have something to offer. We've got two ears and one mouth. Solomon the Proverb said speak little and listen much. That's wisdom. We've always got a lot of learning. We've always got a lot of changes to make even when we think we don't have any. And so here we find that Moses and the priesthood are saying guys just listen to what we've got to say. Stop asking questions of why you're here. What are we putting these boulders up there for? Why are we putting them on this mountain and not that mountain? Just listen to what we have to say. This day you have become a people for Jehovah your Elohim. Therefore listen to the voice of Jehovah your Elohim and do his mitzvahs and statutes that I am commanding you today. Did you know there's passages in the scriptures that says if you don't listen to the prophets you're not listening to God. God uses men to sound out his voice and hopefully the true words. Moses commanded the people on that day saying when you have crossed over the Jordan these are to stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people. There's Simeon, there's Levi, there's Judah, there's Ithaca, there's Joseph and there's Benjamin. Those tribes must stand on Mount Gerizim. For the curse these are to stand on Mount Ebal, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali. Very good reasons why they're divided into those two lots. Then the Levites, sorry we'll leave it there. So here we have the instructions of what they must do when they reach Shechem and stand on the mountains. The tribes as we read were listed for each mountain who were to agree to the blessings and the curses as they were being read out. On Mount Ebal, the mountain of curse, they had to take 12 large boulders, stack them into a pillar, coat them with plaster and then write on them the Torah commandments. Then they had to build an altar there of stones on the mountain of curses, uncut, unshaped, untouched by human hands to make them other than what they are. Then they had to offer up burnt sacrifices and fellowship offerings and be there from it. I want you to remember that this generation, these people standing there at Shechem in front of these two mountains had not cut a covenant with their God based on the commands of the Torah as their fathers did. Jehovah was now requiring them to swear allegiance to him and his Torah without compromise or change. What your fathers did at Mount Sinai, you now have to do here. All your fathers are dead, buried in the wilderness. So as I said, because of their disobedience, rebellion, they will not enter into the land of promise. Now you have to make the same commitment of covenant to me as your fathers did. And we are going to have the Torah, the commandments of Jehovah read out to you and you must say amen to every blessing and amen to every curse. So that you understand and know what kind of covenant relationship you are having with me and what kind of God I am. I am a God of anger and fury and wrath and judgement. I am a God of love and kindness and gentleness and goodness. I am a God of mercy and blessing and cursing. He is everything this world needs and everything we need. And you say, make a covenant with me. So, let's have a little look at Joshua. Does he obey Moses at Shechem? Joshua chapter 8, verse 1. We know the story very well, so we know that Joshua was another Moses. Joshua, Yehoshua, a type of Yeshua, bringing people into the kingdom of God and the promised land. Then Jehovah said to Joshua, do not be afraid or dismayed. Take all the people of war with you and arise. Go up to Ai. Behold, I have given the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land into your hand. Then you will do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except you will take its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it. Verse 25. After Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wilderness where they had pursued them, and all of them were fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword. And all who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000, all the people of Ai. For Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took as their plunder according to the word of Jehovah which he had commanded Joshua. So Joshua burnt Ai and made it a permanent heap of desolation to this day. Then he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. At sunset Joshua commanded that they take his carcass down from the tree, cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city and piled over it a great heap of stones which remains to this day. Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah, Elohim of Israel, on Mount Ebal as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded the children of Israel, as written in the scroll of the Torah of Moses, an altar of uncut stones on which no man had wielded any iron tool. They offered on it burnt offerings to Jehovah and sacrificed fellowship offerings. And there on the stones he wrote a copy of the Torah of Moses which he had written in the presence of B'nai Israel. Then all Israel with their elders and officials and their judges were standing on both sides of the ark facing the Levitical priesthood carrying the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, the outsider as well as the native born. Half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal just as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded before in order to bless the people of Israel. Then afterward he read all the words of the Torah, the blessing and the curse according to all that is written in the book of the Torah. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel including the women and the little ones and the outsiders walking among them. Wow, amazing story. The journey has begun in taking the land for Jehovah, making it the promised land, a land of milk and honey, making it the kingdom of heaven here on earth for that nation at that time in their history. AI is destroyed. You know AI to Hebron is our registered charity name with the government. Hebron is known or registered as AI to Hebron Charitable Trust. We did that 20 years ago, 16, however long we've had Hebron. 20 years, yeah of course, 20 years. AI to Hebron Charitable Trust is the name of our property and now present. Everything that was found in the defeat of AI, Jehovah said it belongs to you. At Jericho, they weren't allowed to take anything. Everything belonged to Jehovah. They could not touch anything there but it all had to be given to God, nothing for themselves. That belonged to Jehovah. Animals, cattle, gold, silver, whatever they found there was his and we know what happened. Aten thought he'd take some for himself and hid it. They go to AI to take out AI and this little nation of AI gets, defeats Israel. And so we know the story. Joshua and the elders fall down before him and God says, what are you on your face for, weeping? He said, get up and do something about this problem. Sort out why this has happened. There is sin in the camp. And of course we know then they dealt with the issue and then AI was then taken again. God gave them the plan, gave them the way in which to go about taking AI and they did. And now Jehovah said, now all the spoil belongs to you. All the animal, all the cattle, all the sheep, all the gold, all the silver, all the clothing, anything you find there, it's yours, it's yours. It was the spoils of war that was released to them by Jehovah. Do you remember their fathers, the original group from Egypt? They plundered the Egyptians. You know, just nice comparisons. And from that they built the tabernacle and took care of themselves. They had all necessary gold and silver and clothing and linen and threads, everything they needed. They fled from Egypt with what they had got from the Egyptians because of the fear of God upon them. They went out rich, they went out blessed and with it they built the tabernacle and with it they lived and existed in the blessing of Jehovah. Now this new generation was blessed with the same provision from the hand of Jehovah. It would get them started in a positive way. You know, our second attack on the Commonwealth Bank of Australia gave us the victory in the spoils of war. You might say I've got a good imagination but I know what we were preying into. I know what was happening and how it happened along with Darren. Our first approach to the Commonwealth Bank here to get a loan to buy the property in Mildura, they said no, not interested in funding you. We haven't got the funds. This structure is not our kind of structure. We don't like what we see. We're not lending you anything. So I went to the bank in Mildura, the same bank in the Commonwealth Bank of Mildura and I spoke to the business lenders there and I said we want to borrow some money. Told them the story and then the process starts all over again. God has given us favour a second time. Our AI was not going to stop us. Our AI has crumbled and given us the money we wanted and we will use the funds to move forward and establish something for the Kingdom of God in Mildura. I'll show you some pictures of Chetham and the mountains that we see in scripture. Here we have Mount Gerizim. There we have Ebel and there is the city of Chetham right there in the valley of those two mountains. Next one. Here we have again just another picture of the same. Mount Gerizim, the Mount of Blessings. Mount Ebel, the Mount of Curses and Chetham in the middle right between the valley. Next one. Gerizim, the same thing, the Mount of Blessings, stewardship, priesthood, Ebel, the Mount of Curses, the altar plastered over upon which Joshua wrote the law of Moses and of course the bricks upon which he plastered and wrote them as well. Is there another one there? Here at Chetham was the Ark of the Covenant and the Ark of the Covenant was between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebel in the city of Chetham. So as it says there, Chetham is a natural amphitheatre between the two mountains and you have a list of the names. You have a list of names of the tribes that were on Mount Gerizim and the tribes that were on Mount Ebel. Just a little so we get an understanding and appreciation of how it looked. Thanks Johanna. Just take notice of how Jehovah has this site set up for this momentous occasion and which spells out its importance and its purpose in the things of God. Between the two mountains you have a valley that you can walk between and this valley is an important roadway of travel from the Mediterranean Sea east across Israel and then you head down south to Hebron. So if you're over at the Mediterranean Sea then you'll walk between those mountains. It was a roadway, a pathway across the mountains of Israel and they walked through there into Chetham and from Chetham then you would go down through Ai, Bethel, Shiloh, Jerusalem, Hebron. You would travel through. It was a well-known route in the purposes of that nation and other nations travelling through, the merchants and all that kind of thing. So everybody went through Chetham on their journeys across and down. So the valley is an important roadway of travel from the Mediterranean Sea across Israel towards the Jordan River and down south to Hebron. Let me just say in shadows and typology, I'm pitching it as this valley is the narrow path that separates the blessed from the cursed. This is the narrow road that you have to make a decision about which mountain you're a part of as you walk through that valley, that narrow roadway, pathway. Set up at the entrance of these two mountains, which creates a natural amphitheatre, was the Ark of the Covenant with the priesthood and the Levites either side of it. Joshua would have stood before it as he read the Torah commands as they were given by Moses. There are thousands of people standing either side on this mountain slope. You know, we've got a nation. We've got all those that made it out of Egypt and all the families and children that were born on the journey. A couple of million or more come out of that Egypt. And now here we find that this nation is split in half and half of them are on Mount Gerizim and half of them on Mount Ebal. This is no small thing. This is a major event with these people standing on the slopes of these two mountains. Here is Joshua with the priesthood and the Levites and the Ark of the Covenant is right there between them, right there before the peoples. And so here we find that they represent on these mountains either the blessed or the cursed. They're representing both sides of God and his character, his nature, his righteousness. Jehovah chose Shechem and those two mountains to be the place where not only Israel but all peoples of all ages would be brought to this place to make a decision that would either bless them or curse them. Nothing has changed. People are still coming to Shechem either in the spiritual sense. I'm using it in the literal for us because of what Jehovah has done. But in the spiritual truth, everybody has to stand before the Ark of the Covenant and make a covenant with the Almighty based on what the Ark of the Covenant stands for and they will make a covenant with Jehovah to walk in his blessings and if they don't, if they rebel and be disobedient, the curses will come upon them. You can't change that. If you name his name, I don't care what brand of Christianity or belief system you've got, if you name his name, you're either going to be charged with blessings or cursings depending on what you do with Torah and the Ark of his Covenant. The wonderful and amazing thing, and I don't want to get sidetracked because I'll take up more time than I want to, but the Ark of the Covenant curses the Christian church because they say grace has done away with law. But you cannot separate grace from law. The Ark of the Covenant has a mercy seat, the seat of atonement. And on it, once a year, the high priest would go in there and sprinkle the blood of the lamb on to the seat of atonement. Inside that Ark was what? The Ten Commandments, the tablets of Moses. So, they're both there in the most set-apart holy place. The set-apart holy place is a representation of the kingdom of heaven. And Yeshua opened the doorway into the heavenly, into the kingdom presence of the Almighty, into the truth of Yehovah's love for us. And you cannot come into his presence without Torah and without the blood. The blood is his grace, favour, free gift of forgiveness and life. And the Torah, which Yeshua's blood sits upon, are the commandments we must live by. The commandments are the fruits of righteousness, are the works. We live them, we walk in them, we stay true to them because we love Yeshua, because he has redeemed us, because he's shed his blood for us. And the only way that we can walk in the truth of Torah is through the blood of the lamb, Yeshua the Messiah. He confessed our sins, he forgives us our sins and he brings us into relationship with him through Ruach HaKadosh that comes to indwell us. And Ruach HaKadosh enables us to walk true to Torah. And they're all part of the Ark of the Covenant, they are part of Yehovah's goodness. And between the cherubim, the heavenlies, was the cloud of his presence, his voice, his name. You cannot enter into the presence of Yehovah without the blood of the lamb and obedience to Torah. It makes a mockery of what we were taught as Christians. It hasn't done away with the law, it's established the law. And keeping of the law are the fruits of righteousness. I am righteous in Yeshua my Messiah and I walk in the fruits of righteousness, which is obedience to his commands. And... Absolutely right, over and over again. Yes, yes. So we are blessed or cursed on the basis of it. And so here we find that the blessings that belong to the people of Shechem as they live by the principles of Gerizim, Shechemites, which is anyone who is a follower of Yeshua and obedience to Torah, Shechemites, who are living by the principles of Gerizim, true to Torah, are blessed people. And they make the covenant, the ark of the covenant, their spiritual dwelling place. It's in the heavenlies, it's in the relationship with Yehovah, it's in the kingdom of our God in which we rest. And a Gerizim, obedient and faithful people. Is this like a pathway to there? No, no, it's just the pathway through the two mountains. Is that where the parable comes from? The wide and the narrow? Yes, I'm very sure because when he speaks of those things, he says, he passed on me you lawless ones. I do not know you. Why? Because we're not walking the narrow path. Straight is the path and narrow is the way that leads to life eternal. And when people come to say, I want to be part of your kingdom because they think that they're going to be part of his kingdom, he says, depart from me, I don't know you, you are lawless. It's the narrow path and that's where the picture comes from. That's incredible. I didn't know that and that's why I'm in one. Yes, to obey, that's Mount Gerizim, is better than sacrifice, that's Mount Evil. Rebellion, disobedience, is as the sin of witchcraft. So, the question that was uppermost in my mind, going back some time when you first reflect on all these things, why put the altar on the Mountain of Curses? Why put the stones with plastered white and Torah written on them? Why would they put it on the Mountain of Curses? Because that's the only way you can get rid of rebellion and sin, is through repentance, through the sacrifice, through the blood of Yeshua. If there is rebellion and sin in our lives, which of course there is, it's the only way we can come. Mount Evil tells us we are sinners by nature. We are born with the, where we automatically sin easier than we do right. From the propensity, that's the one, Neil, thank you. I'm glad you're younger than me, you've still got a brain that thinks. So, we come and we say, Father, I'm a sinner. I'm living on Mount Evil. I am an unrighteous man. We make sacrifices. We come to the altar. You know, without getting too sidetracked, on the top of Mount Gerizim is the Tree of Life. On the top of Mount Evil is a cross with a snake on it. They are the symbolisms. Each of the Tree of Life don't touch the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, because Satan lives in that tree and you will be caused to live in sin and rebellion to God. The pictures are always there. The types and shadows are always there. Jehovah is always trying to get the message across. The cross is always a symbol of sin and death and judgement. Yeshua was nailed to that stake to pay for your sin and mine and to deal with Satan. He trampled on Satan's head. He destroyed the works of darkness represented by evil. It takes a long time for people to get their head around that and it shouldn't, because it's just straight scripture. But we finish today with John Chapter 4. Verse 1. John 4, Verse 1. Did I do Deuteronomy 28? No idea. No, Deuteronomy 28. I'll read Deuteronomy 28. Sorry, I missed it. I'll go back to Deuteronomy 28 just to finish that bit. Because it's here on the mountain that he is proclaiming the blessings and the cursings. 28, Verse 1. Now if you listen obediently to the voice of Jehovah your Elohim, taking care to do all his mitzvot, this is what Joshua is saying on the mount, or at Shechem, in front of the mountains. If you listen obediently to the voice of Jehovah your Elohim, taking care to do all his commandments that I am commanding you today, Jehovah your Elohim will set you on high above all the nations of the earth. Then all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you listen to the voice of Jehovah your Elohim. Blessed will you be in the city, blessed will you be in the field, wherever you go I will bless you. Blessed will be the fruit of your womb, the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the increase of your herds, and the young of your flock. Blessed will be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed will you be when you come in and blessed will you be when you go out. Jehovah will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck down before you. They will come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. Jehovah will command the blessing on you in your barns and in every undertaking of your hand. And he will bless you in the land Jehovah your Elohim has given you. Jehovah will establish you as a set apart people for himself just as he swore to you. If you keep the commandments of Jehovah your Elohim and walk in his ways then all the people on the earth will see that you are called by the name of Jehovah and they will stand in awe of you. Remember I am pitching this to us and our Shechem and our reason for being. I'm saying that God is our God of blessing because we're obedient to the truth of his word. We're standing on Mount Gerizim not on Mount Evil. We're obedient to the truth of Torah. And he says you are called then all the people on earth will see that you are called by the name of Jehovah. They will see that we elevate, exalt and uplift his name. Set apart, totally separated from the ways of the world. And they will stand in awe of you. Jehovah will do things for us and among us that will cause people to stand in awe and amazement. He's already given us Shechem. How on earth we got it I have no idea. God enabled it when we had no hope of such a place. He led us to this place. He enabled us to get this place. It was another AI battle and he blessed us with it. It's Brendan and Christina's place but it's our place of worship which we call Shechem. He gave us Hebron, a property that is now worth between one and a half and two million dollars. We are nobodies. We had no money. How did he enable it? We made sacrifices. We made commitments. We gave everything that we had to put down a deposit on that place and trusted Jehovah to get us through till we owned it. And now we own it and now on the basis of that we just bought a property in Mildura. Jehovah is blessing us. People of Shechem standing on Mount Gerizim will be blessed and not cursed. And people will stand in awe of you and what God has done with a little group of people which you can count on two hands. Double it when you'd say what some of us went to. Mildura. But we were a little group of nothings achieving things that cannot be achieved. God doesn't need a million people. He just needs people of the right heart and he says I will bless you. I will enable you to achieve the objectives for which I have established you and raised you up. I have raised you up and established you to make honour and glory and praise to my name. And when it's my name that's important and not you, I'll bless you. When it's walking in my ways, I will bless you. That's the truth of who we are and what we stand for and that which lies ahead of us. Jehovah will make you overflow in prosperity in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil, on the land that Jehovah swore to your fathers to give you. Jehovah will open for you his good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain for your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand. And you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow. Jehovah will make you the head and not the tail. You will be only above and not below. If you listen to the commandments of Jehovah your Elohim that I am commanding you today, be careful to do them. Do not turn aside from any of the words I am commanding you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods in order to serve them. And we will not. John chapter 4. Close with John chapter 4. Yeshua knew that the Pharisees heard that he was making and immersing more disciples than John. That's an amazing statement, isn't it? John the baptiser was immersing people by the thousands. They were coming from all over Israel, from Lebanon, across the Jordan, on the other side of the river. People were coming from everywhere to hear this amazing prophet under the anointing of the Spirit of God like no other man had ever had. There was no prophet greater than John, said Yeshua. And now here is Yeshua also in Jerusalem, Judea and around the area. And he is immersing and making more disciples than John. The Sanhedrin were beside themselves. What's happening to our city? Who has taken over our nation? Who is proclaiming the greatness of a God and throwing muck in our face? Challenging and calling us to an account. Although Yeshua himself was not immersing, his disciples were. So he left Judea and went back to the Galilee. Up into the Galilee is Samaria. But he needed to pass through Samaria. So he comes to a Samaritan town called Shechem. Different translations will have the more modern name for Shechem. Near the plot of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. So we know where he was, right there at the base of Mount Ebal. So Yeshua, exhausted from the journey, was sitting by the well. It was midday. A Samaritan woman comes to draw water. Give me a drink, Yeshua tells her, for his disciples have gone away to the town to buy food. Then the Samaritan woman tells him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink? The Jewish people don't deal with Samaritans, and women even less so. They would never be caught talking to a Samaritan woman, let alone a Samaritan man. Yeshua replied to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Sir, the woman tells him, you don't have a bucket and the well is deep. Then from where do you get this living water? You're not greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us this well. He drank out of it himself with his sons and his cattle. You know, that's kind of justification. I'm justifying my position. I'm justifying who I am as a Samaritan. I'm justifying my place here in Shechem and in these mountains. Because our father Jacob was here. Who are you Jews to tell us we're doing it wrong? Ah no. Yeshua replied to her, everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty. The water that I give him will become a fountain of water within him, springing up to eternal life. Sir, the woman tells him, give me this water so I won't get thirsty. Or have to come all the way here to draw water. He tells her, go call your husband and then come back. And then come back. Isn't that just like Yeshua? You know, she says, give me this water you're talking about so I never come back to this well. I want to drink from wherever you get your water so I don't have to come back here again. I mean, there's no understanding of spiritual truth at all. And this is the same for multitudes of people. And then Yeshua asks her a question designed to get attention and truth. Call your husband. I don't have a husband. You've said it right. I have no husband. You've had five husbands. And the man you have now isn't your husband. This he spoke truthfully. He's making a point here and he's getting her attention because he wants her to understand who I am and why I am here at Shechem. This is not just a happenstance journeying through. I'm here deliberately for a reason and a purpose to confront you and this town. So the woman tells him, I see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain. But you all say that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. Yeshua tells her, woman, believe me, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming. It's here now when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father is seeking such people as his worshippers. Elohim is spirit. Those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. And the woman tells him, I know that Messiah is coming. He who is called the Anointed One. When he comes he will explain everything to us. Yeshua tells her, I, the one speaking to you, I am. At this moment his disciples came back. They were amazed he was speaking to the woman. Yet no one said, what do you want or why are you speaking with her? So the woman left her water jar and went back to the town. She tells the people, come see a man who told me everything I ever did. He couldn't be the Messiah, could he? And the people left the town and began coming to him. Meanwhile, the disciples were pressing him, Rabbi, eat. Master, teacher, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you know nothing about. And so the disciples were saying to each other, no one brought him food to eat today. Yeshua tells them, my food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to accomplish his work. Don't you say four months and then comes the harvest? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields. They are white and ready for harvest. The reaper receives a reward and gathers fruit for eternal life so that the sower and reaper may rejoice together. For the saying is true, one sows, another reaps. I sent you to reap what you haven't worked for. Others have worked hard and you have joined in their work. Many of the Samaritans from that town put their trust in him because of the word of the woman testifying. He told me everything I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they kept asking him to stay with them and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They kept telling the woman, it's no longer because of your words that we believe. We've heard for ourselves. Now we know that this really is the saviour of the world. That's Shechem's purpose. That's why Yeshua went to Shechem. To show us the difference between what it means to be a Samaritan and what it means to be a servant of Yehovah, a disciple of Yeshua. And a believer in him. The past prophecies, or the past prophesies the present and leads us into the future. Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua. They're all prophesying something to us today that's just as important and as real today as it was then. Jacob's well, Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal was as important in Yeshua's day as it was in Abram's day. Hundreds and hundreds of years later, Yeshua is pursuing the same things as their forefathers. Shechem, Gerizim, Ebal is a message that all must hear and understand. Yeshua went to Shechem to explain the way of truth to that city and to tell them how they had lost their way and how it all came down to obedience to the Torah of Moses and the living Torah as found in Yeshua the Messiah. So, the importance of Shechem is seen in this visit of Yeshua and his message to the city and then to the apostles. So, we know that he said, look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields. They're white or ready for harvest. What are you doing talking to this Samaritan woman? Remember, James and John, they wanted to call down fire from heaven and consume them all. He said, what do you want to put up with these Samaritans for? Let's call fire from heaven and just get rid of them. And Yeshua said, no, I come for a different reason. I come to bring them life eternal. And so, he shut them down pretty fast. Shechem is about bringing the message of life. Yeshua said, you don't know, I have food that you know nothing about. My food, my joy, my purpose, my place is to do the will of the Father. And I have come to bring to this Samaritan city called Shechem and there's a big history of Shechem that we can't even look at. Shechem was an amazing place. Read 1 Kings. Solomon, King Solomon died. Dare I take an extra minute? King Solomon died. And his son, Rehoboam becomes king in his place. Rehoboam went to Shechem to get crowned as king. He didn't get crowned as king at Jerusalem. He went to Shechem. And all Israel gathered at Shechem to crown him king. There's a story in there. Lots of other things happened at Shechem. The five tribes that stood on Mount Gerizim, did you know that those five tribes were the sons of Jacob's two wives? The concubines, the children of the concubines stood on Mount Ebal. Tells its own story. Except for Reuben. Reuben was with those who stood on Mount Ebal even though he was one of the wives' children because he had done the wrong immoral thing with Jacob's wife or one of his concubines, still one of his women. And so he lost the birthright. He lost the first fruits of being the firstborn and he had to stand on Mount Ebal. Jehovah is telling a story about what is righteous and unrighteous, what he judges and how he judges and what he does. There are so many stories that play out on this Shechem and its purpose and place. And we call ourselves Shechem because we are a people who say the covenant truths of Jehovah must be honoured and obeyed. We will stand on Mount Gerizim and eat of the tree of life. And we will bring the message of Yeshua, the great I Am, to the peoples that have lost their way. Samaria, the Samaritans were the followers of Jeroboam who had an argument with Rehoboam and then they split. Talk about that tomorrow. And then we find that Assyria came and took over and captured the ten tribes of the northern area of which Shechem was a part. And how that then the king of Assyria sent people from all the other nations that he had captured to live there and mix and mingle with the Jews or the Hebrews that were left in the land there after their captivity. And they intermingled, intermarried, interrelated and they became Samaritans. And they become the people who said no we're following our Jacob, our father. We're following Rehoboam, Jeroboam. They built a temple for God on Mount Gerizim. They built a temple for false gods on Mount Gerizim. And they believe that we are the true people of God. We follow Jacob, our father. We follow Joshua. We follow all those that came before us that without understanding like this Samaritan woman know we're drinking from Jacob's well. No, this is the place where our fathers came. The whole nation of Israel came to this place where we live. You say you don't worship on this mountain, you worship at Jerusalem. They had no understanding. What we need to appreciate and value is that Yeshua said boys don't say there's four months to harvest. The harvest is now. There are people ready to be saved. There are people ready to come to the living water. And I have come to acquaint them with the difference between Gerizim and evil and to say that I am the true life, the living waters. The living waters. Take this message and you will reap what you have not sown. I will bring people your way. I will bless you and I will honor you. I will enlarge you and watch over you. I will keep you and fulfill my promises to you. Amen.