PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 276: God Loves Togethering, Part 6
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 276: God Loves Togethering, Part 6
We look at another Hebrew word for "assembling" today, discovering many more examples of how God loves to assemble His people, and how He wants the whole family included, from the oldest to the youngest -- even the toddlers! Wow, what do we do with these little ones?
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies, and children, and anyone else who is listening! We’re still continuing our sharing about the assembling of God’s people. Another Hebrew word today, one of 15.
QAHAL
My Lexical Aid says that this noun is one of the most important terms in the entire Old Testament! It is a convocation. It can be a congregation, an assembly, an assemblage, a crowd, a multitude, an army, a community. It mainly refers to the congregation of the people of Israel. I’ll share a few Scriptures with you, just a wee few of the many with this word.
OK, Exodus 12:6 talks about “the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel.” When we’re reading these Scriptures about assembly, you find the word “all” in the Scriptures so many times. God doesn’t want some of the people to gather together. He wants all of the people. It comes in all the time.
Numbers 20:10: “And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock.”
Deuteronomy 5:22: “These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire.”
1 Kings 8:14: “And the king” (it was King Solomon), “turned his face about, and blessed all the congregation of Israel: (and all the congregation stood).” They didn’t stay sitting down.
1 Kings 8:22: “And Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven,” and prayed for the next 31 verses. You can read them if you would like to.
SEVEN TIMES
Now, let’s look at this Scripture. Leviticus 8:3-4. In this little passage, the words meaning “assembly” occur seven times! Seven times this time. See if you can pick them out. “And gather thou all the congregation together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Moses did as the LORD commanded him; and the assembly was gathered together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.”
That’s just a little passage, isn’t it? And yet, seven times, seven Hebrew words. Qahal is used three times. There are some other Hebrew words. Edah is used two times, and moed is used two times. Shall I give them to you so you can see? “And gather” (qahal) “thou all the congregation” (edah) “together,” (qahal) “unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation” (moed). “And Moses did as the LORD commanded him; and the assembly” (edah) “was gathered together” (qahal) “unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation” (moed). Wow! Can you believe it? Seven times God is using that word “assembly” in different ways.
UNTIL THE END
Deuteronomy 31:30: “And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended.” Let me look here again at Deuteronomy 31:30. That is the last verse in that chapter. I’m going to talk about some other verses in a moment, but there’s a little thing I noticed there. Did you notice it says: “until they were ended”?
I caught onto that because I notice that many times when we assemble together as the people of God, that many times people can’t wait until the end. They’re looking at their watches. If the preacher goes a bit too long, well, they’re not so happy about that. They’ve got to get out, because maybe they’re going to the beach, or they’re going to do some sport, or something like that. They can’t even wait until the end. Oh my.
And then, have you noticed, I don’t know whether you notice such things, but I have been in the church for so many years. But it’s amazing how people have to go to the toilet more often when they come to church than any other time! I can’t believe it, how people go in and out of the toilet during the service! They will do other things. They’ll go to a sports meeting, and they won’t need to go to the toilet until the end. They’ll go to a movie, and they don’t need to go to the toilet until the end.
How is it that many people have to keep running out? What is it? I just think it’s the enemy of our souls.
God wants us to stay to the end! Did you get it? Until the end. I believe that we learn from every word in Scripture. I believe this is another principle that God gives, so when we come together, we stay to the end.
Now, of course if you’ve got little toddlers, and they’re screaming and making a noise, you’re going to take them out. You don’t want people to be disturbed in the service. But they can settle down, and you can come back again. You’re going to be part of that assembly until the end. I think that’s part of character.
I think we have become such a wimpy people. I know some people who say, “Oh, well, I can’t even sit that long. The service is too long. I can’t sit that long” Goodness me! What a pathetic speech! I think we need a lot more stamina and stickability in our day, don’t you? I really do. I think that’s an important little point there that God brings out in His Word. He doesn’t waste any words. He doesn’t put them there for a joke. They’re there for our learning. So, we stay until things are completed, finished, accomplished, done.
The Holman Translation says: “Moses recited aloud every single word of this song to the entire assembly of Israel.” That would include, of course, moms and dads and children, and the little ones, and the nursing babies. Today, when most people come to church, they rely on the nursery and the Sunday school. In fact, most churches have Sunday school.
Back when we started our pastoring, we also had Sunday school. In fact, after worship, and it was time for the message, all the children went out to what we called “Children’s Church.” In some churches, even the young people will go out to their special thing. It’s the saddest thing in the whole world! Suddenly you see the whole church emptying. Help! All these empty spaces, and then it’s just the adults left. I beg your pardon. That never happened once in the Bible. Never once. It is not Bible practice at all.
When God calls His people, He calls them all. Yes, everyone, the whole family. I don’t believe we’re meant to have Sunday schools in the middle of church. No, God’s message is for all the people, even the children. And children can hear truth and revelation from the pastor, from the minister.
Sometimes we dumb down our children. We have to send them to a little Sunday school class where they do coloring-in and have a little wee Bible story. Often the person who’s doing it, there are some very, very diligent Sunday school teachers, I know. But then there are others who are just doing it to entertain the children.
I believe that our children are meant to be with us in church. I have a little article on my webpage called “Should Children Be in Church?” You can go to that. Go to “Articles and Stories,” then go to “Family and Church.” You’ll pick it up there, and you can read it.
There was a time when we did what everybody else did. We had Children’s Church, and we had all the separation, until one day, we were reading the Word, and began to find all these Scriptures where God wants the whole family. When He assembles His people, He doesn’t want anyone missing. And He never intends us to be all separated up into our different age levels. No, that is not God’s heart at all.
In fact, Sunday schools, did you know their origin? They began in England back in the 1780’s. They actually began as an outreach to the very poor who weren’t even educated. There were these wonderful people who believed the poor needed to learn to read and to write. The Bible was their textbook. They learned to read from the Bible. They learned to write by copying passages from the Bible.
Then it became even more of an outreach from churches to go out into the streets and bring in all these children who never went near a church door, to give the gospel and teach them truth and values and doctrine. That was the vision of Sunday schools in the very beginning, which is a wonderful outreach. To reach out to the non-churched children of our society. Such a wonderful vision!
But now, it’s become so part of church life that now God’s people themselves rely upon it. Many think, “Well, that’s where my children will get their learning and their understanding of God and the gospel.” But no, no, Sunday schools aren’t for God’s people. No, the home is where we teach our children. God gives the responsibility to the father and to the mother, not to the Sunday school teacher. No, it’s to the father and the mother.
And then even when we come to church as a family, God wants us to be together. Children can be blessed. I think children can come up to the revelation of God’s truth as they hear it. Little by little, as the Word says: ` “Line upon line, precept upon precept. Here a little, there a little” (Isaiah 28:10, 13. They get a little. They may not get everything that is said, but they’ll get a little glimpse of something that goes into their spirit. Every week that will be built upon.
I must tell you about this. Do you know how many times the children of Israel had to listen to the whole law of God? Anyone know?
It was every seven years. God told His people that, especially when they went into the land of Israel, every seven years, during the Feast of Tabernacles, which was a feast for seven days, that they were to read the whole of the law.
Let’s go to it here. Deuteronomy 31:10-13: “And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which He shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel.” Did you notice? Not some of them, not just the adults.
No, all Israel, from the grandparents to the littlest baby. “. . . this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law: And that their children, which have not known anything, may hear, and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.” That was a command from the Lord.
Some commentaries say that that was the whole of Deuteronomy. There are other commentators of the Word who believe it is the whole of the Torah, that is, the first five books of the Old Testament. I believe, as I’ve looked into Scripture, I believe that God intended the whole Torah to be read. That’s the first five books.
You say, “Wow! Did they have to listen to the first five books? Help? I haven’t even read them through myself!” Well, I hope you have. But let’s look at it. They wouldn’t have had to hear it in just one standing, or one sitting, because sometimes they stood when the Word of God was being read.
Let’s look at this here. The Feast of Tabernacles is for seven days, so they had seven days. If we were reading the Torah in English, it takes . . .
3-1/2 hours to read Genesis,
3 hours to read Exodus,
2 hours to read Leviticus,
2-1/2 hours to read Numbers,
and 2-1/2 hours to read Deuteronomy.
If we add all that up, it comes to 13-1/2 hours.
Well, I’ve got seven days, so in just under two hours a day, I can read the whole of the Torah. Isn’t that amazing? I’m sure that’s what they did.
Let’s have a look at some other Scriptures to see. We can go to Joshua 8:35. This was when the children of Israel went into the Promised Land. They’ve been in the wilderness for 40 years and now they’ve crossed the Jordan. They’ve come into the Promised Land.
We don’t know how soon they did this, whether it was immediately or sometime later, but now Joshua is fulfilling the command that Moses gave.
Joshua 8:35: “There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.”
We see an example there of them doing that. Once again, we read, and God, as I keep saying, lovely ladies, God doesn’t put words in the Bible just to fill it up. Every word is there for a reason.
So again, as He says again and again, they were all there, with the women, with the little ones. Yes, that’s that word taph, which means “the tripping gait of little children.” It’s the toddlers, yes, those ones who we think, “Oh goodness me! They’re just too impossible to look after in church.” But no, God wanted them there, even for the reading of the whole of the Torah. That would be nearly two hours each day. But there they were.
OK, let’s go over again to Nehemiah. This is when the people of Judah had come back from Babylon, after being in Babylon for 70 years. Nehemiah 8:1-3: “And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday.” Wow! They read for a long time that day! “Before the men and the women, and those that could understand.”
OK, but then, we go down to verse 13, and it says, “on the second day.” So, once again, on the second day, they are reading. But they’ve got seven days. On the second day they were gathered together, the chief of the fathers of all the people and so on.
Verse 14: “And they found written in the law which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month.”
It goes on to tell them what they were meant to do, and how they were to make the booths. It’s interesting, ladies, that in Deuteronomy, it doesn’t tell us how to make the booths. But that is all written in Leviticus 23. Therefore, they weren’t only reading Deuteronomy, were they? They were only up to Leviticus when they were going to read on the second day.
That sounds about right, because they would have been reading Genesis on the first day. Well, they’ve got Exodus. They were reading from morning to midday, so they read a lot on that first day. Now they’re up to Leviticus, and they read, “Wow! This is what we’re meant to be doing! And we’re not doing it!” I think they must have got out of the habit when they were up in Babylon.
The Bible tells us that they then began to do what the Bible says, and they took notice of it. But it’s interesting that when we read these passages, we get the understanding that, yes, they were obviously reading through the whole of the Torah. I think, “What a beautiful thing, that God gave them do.”
This was only every seven years. But think about it. A new little baby is born. Maybe a few months old. They’re not really understanding. But that word is going into their spirit. A mother is there, nursing her baby as she listens to the Word. But it’s going to be read again in seven years’ time.
By this time, this little baby is seven, or maybe eight. This little one can begin to pick up more. In fact, in a true conservative orthodox Hebrew home, they would already have memorized many passages from the Torah. Many would be familiar with them. They would even remember them as they’re being read.
But, then in another seven years, they’d be about 14 or 15 or so. By this time, some of them would have memorized the whole of the Torah themselves. That was often part of their education in their early years. In the time of Jesus, many finished their education round about that time, 13 to 15 years. By that time, many of them did know the whole of the Torah. But even if they didn’t, they would be familiar.
So, they’re listening to it again, as they’re entering into this time of moving from childhood into adulthood, hearing that word, that law again, that God wants them to have and be filled with. What does it say in Joshua 1:8? “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night . . . for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”
Then the next seven years, they’d be about 21. Most probably they’re married by now, because most Jewish young men were married about the time of 18 years of age. They’re married, and they’re now starting a new family. Of course, they need that word to remind them again of how God wants them to live, and how they’re going to train their new family. What a beautiful thing! Every seven years.
Well, of course, we don’t do that in our society today. But we can bring it down to the times that we do assemble together as the people of God. Remember that this is how God wants us to do it, as a whole family, the mothers and the fathers and the children, and the little toddlers, and the nursing babies.
Now I know that in some churches, if they were to say, “OK, just bring all your children,” it could be bedlam, because today so many people have not trained their children how to sit. Their children don’t know how to sit for more than five minutes or ten minutes.
You see, it starts with training at home, doesn’t it? It starts with the family meal table, sitting at the meal table. We gather. That’s another gathering place. I’ve told you about that, how this is the very beginning of where we gather. The beginning is where we gather together at the table.
As our children are growing, we’re teaching them how to sit. They don’t jump up every five minutes. They don’t have to go to the toilet every ten minutes like some children want to do. They don’t have to run up and down for everything. No, we teach them, “We sit at the table until the meal is ended, and until we have had family devotions.”
Now, of course, with little toddlers, they may be getting tired, and they’re a little scratchy. You come to family devotion time, and you don’t have to expect them to sit up straight in their chair. By that time, maybe Mother’s holding a little baby. Dad can take a little toddler in his arms as he’s reading the Word.
In big families, there are teenagers, there are young men and young ladies who are in their teens. They can be holding a little toddler, or another little, bigger toddler, so that they are feeling comfortable as they listen to the Word. But they are getting the understanding that we are there. We stay to hear the Word.
Really, the training begins at home. This is where we first train our children to sit. I know there are some families who will even have church training. “OK, children, we’re going to have training for church!” And they’ll get them all seated on the sofa, and maybe give them some little books to read, or even have a little time with them. Maybe it could be memory verse time, or maybe even a story time, but where they just learn to sit for a certain time.
That is good for children. In fact, often, when I was raising our children, and my little ones would begin to start bouncing off the walls and going crazy, I’d think, “Oh, OK, just let me get them all together.” It’s easy to just start screaming at the children. Of course, that only makes them worse.
I would say, “Come, children! Let’s come and have a story.” And so, we would sit. There’s something about sitting with your children. Also getting them to sit. You have a story. You don’t get them to sit doing nothing. They would be bored. They wouldn’t do it! So, you have story time together. And they want another one, so you do another one. They’re getting blessed, but they’re also learning to sit at the same time.
Now, I have another little thing. Oh, there’s another thing I’d like to share with you about this word, qahal. We find this in Nehemiah chapter 5 also. In this chapter, Nehemiah discovered that many of the Jews were charging interest on their fellow Israelites. They ended up having to mortgage their lands to survive. Nehemiah was so angry with them, that they would even think of doing such a thing.
He rebuked them. Nehemiah 5:7-11: “. . . And I set a great assembly against them,” qahal, but this time it wasn’t really an assembly coming to bless the Lord. It was an assembly to get his people back into order. He said, “I set a great assembly against them. And I said unto them, . . . will ye even sell your brethren? . . . Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses.”
And then in verse 12: “Then said they, we will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest.” And the next verse says: “. . . And all the congregation said, Amen, and praised the LORD.” Not some of them, but all of them. But they said “amen” together.
This is another wonderful thing that God loves us to do in the congregation of His people. We see this in other Scriptures. Psalm 41:13 and repeated again in Psalm 106:48: “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people” (all the people, not some of them) “Let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the LORD.”
Psalm 72:19: “And blessed be His glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with His glory; Amen, and Amen.” Two times.
Psalm 89:52: “Blessed be the Lord forevermore. Amen and Amen.” We see here that God wants us to “amen” when we are in the congregation of the Lord.
Some people will say, “Well, that’s very Pentecostal.” No, it’s not! It’s biblical! It’s what the Scripture says. When everyone is praising the Lord, well, don’t we believe that He is worthy to be worshipped? We will say “amen.” When we’re in a prayer meeting, and someone is praying, and we’re with them in spirit, and it’s the prayer that we want to pray, we’re agreeing with them. We can say “amen.” Yes, there is such power in unity.
Matthew 18:19-20, that wonderful Scripture: “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Yes, God says, “if two of you shall agree on earth,” Wow!
What about more than two? What about a family with six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve children agreeing together and saying “amen”! What about a whole church of God’s people saying “amen.” I think it’s time we really began to be biblical and do what the Bible says.
Another passage. This was where Ezra opened the book in sight of all the people. I’ve read this before. That was when they were reading in the time of Nehemiah. They were reading at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. He opened it, and all the people stood up. Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” two times again. “Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands.” This is so biblical.
In Deuteronomy 27, God gives all the curses that were read out, and the people had to say, “Amen” after them. This was when they all gathered together on Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. Mount Gerizim was the mount of blessing, and Mount Ebal the mount of cursing. On that mount, they read the cursings.
I’ll just read you one of them, but you can read the whole chapter in Deuteronomy 27. Verse 15: “Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the LORD . . . And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.”
And after every curse, it says the same words: “And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.” This is a good thing to do.
There’s a little story in the Bible about Benaiah. Benaiah was one of David’s mighty men. I’ll just go to this story. I wonder whether you know it. It’s an amazing story. 1 Kings 1, and I’ll finish with this.
The story is . . . this is when one of King David’s sons was trying to take over his kingdom and become king. The high priest, Zadok, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, who was one of David’s mighty men, the three of them came to David. They said, “Do you know what’s happening, David? Your son is trying to be king! Didn’t you say that Solomon would be king?”
And David at this time was sick in bed. He was just lying in bed, and he was out. But when they came in, somehow, he began to rise up, and he said, “Well, yes, that is true.” David, well, something came upon him, and he rose up! He said, “OK, this is what you’ll do.”
1 Kings 1:33-36: “The king also said unto them, Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon: And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over Israel: and blow ye with the trumpet, and say, God save king Solomon. Then ye shall come up after him, that he may come and sit upon my throne; for he shall be king in my stead: and I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah. And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said, Amen,”
But then he said something else. This is quite amazing. “The LORD God of my lord the king say so too.” In other words, he said, “Amen! And let God say amen too!” Isn’t that amazing? I love that! I do believe that God amens with us. When we’re standing for His truth, when we’re on His side, when we’re doing His will, He is saying “Amen” with us. I believe when we are in prayer, and we say, “Amen,” God is saying “Amen” with us. I love that Scripture.
It's getting time to finish here, but I think it would be good for us to have a little try at saying “Amen.” Who have you got in your house? Is it just you? Maybe you’re walking along as you’re listening to this. Maybe you’re doing the dishes or ironing. But maybe your children are around. Just grab them. OK, whoever’s around.
I’m going to pray some little prayers, and I want you, and if you’ve got your children with you . . . are you listening, children? At the end, would you all say a big, loud “Amen” together? OK? Because this is what we’re meant to do. This is biblical. It doesn’t matter whether you belong to a very conservative church or maybe you belong to some Pentecostal church. That doesn’t matter.
This is a biblical thing. This is what God wants His people to do. OK, I’m going to have a little prayer, and then you’re going to say “Amen.” Now, girls recording today, you can be the amen-ers! OK!
“Dear Father, we thank You that You chose for us to live together as families. Please help us to become strong and godly families, and everyone says “AMEN!”
“Dear Father, we pray against all sex trafficking. We pray that all perpetrators will be brought to justice, and everyone says “AMEN!”
“Dear God, we pray against the evil of abortion in our society, and the murdering of precious lives in the womb. We pray that every state will make tight laws against this evil. And everyone says “AMEN!”
“We pray against the abomination of transgenderism. We pray that people will rise up in horror of it. We pray that politicians in every state will make laws to not allow any doctors to give hormone blockers or to do surgery on any child to change their gender. And everyone says “AMEN!”
“Dear Father, we pray for a great revival of turning back to You and Your ways. And the turning back of the hearts of the fathers and the mothers to their homes, and to their families. In the Name of Jesus, and everyone says, “AMEN and AMEN!”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.