meaning of mikvah

The Finding Emet radio program aims to help listeners understand and live the truth of the Bible from a Hebrew perspective. The program features Brother Daniel Rendleman of Emet Ministries. The current teaching is called "The Meaning of Mikvah," which explores the Hebrew word for baptism and its significance. The teaching emphasizes that baptism is not solely a Christian event, but a practice found in Judaism as well. The main purpose of mikvah is not just physical cleanliness, but spiritual separation and being set apart unto God. 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 request. 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. There's a time to listen, there's a time to shout, there's a time to pray, now's the time to hear the word of Yahweh. As we know, the book of Romans says, faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Yahweh. And so we will begin our teaching called The Meaning of Mikvah. The Meaning of Mikvah, and that is the title of the teaching. We're going to talk about what the Hebrew word mikvah means, how it applies to you, why it's important to know, and what should you do with it. So when you leave here today, when you finish this teaching, you'll say, wow, I know what mikvah is. So we'll know what the meaning of mikvah is. Can I start out with a story? So start out with a story about a drunk. You've got to love stories about drunks, especially, right, Miss Nancy? So this drunk staggers into a baptismal service one Sunday afternoon down by the river. And he goes up there and he walks down and he goes into the water. He goes and stands right beside the preacher. And the minister looks at him, this old drunk that's there, and you could smell the alcohol on his breath. And and he says, mister, are you ready to find Jesus? Are you ready to find the Savior? So the drunk, of course, looks back and says, what? Yes, I am. I sure am, preacher. I'm ready to go. So the minister grabs a guy and he pushes him in the water. He dumps him in the water and pulls him right back up. He said, have you found him yet, brother? Are you ready to walk the faith? Have you found the redeemer, the savior of your sins? That's how the preachers talk, right? OK, and the drunk says, I ain't done it yet, pastor. I ain't done it. Not yet, he says. So guess what? The preacher dumps him again, throws him in the water. He holds him down a little bit longer, brings him back up. He says, brother, have you found them? Have you seen him? Have you found him? Isn't that how the preachers do? You know, they're called hiccup preachers. They hiccup between words. And I tell you, OK, so he says, he says, brother, have you found him? Are you born again? Did you find the Savior? Did you find Jesus? He said, no, I didn't, preacher. The drunk man says no again. So he takes him this time and he holds him down at least 30 seconds under the water. He starts flipping and a flopping and he brings him out of the water in a harsh tone. Now the preacher says, friend, are you sure you haven't found the Savior yet? Have you found him? The old drunk, he just wipes his eyes and he clears his throat. He says, preacher, are you sure this is where he fell in? That's what he said. Can you imagine that fella? I guess he'd be drunk, he'd be feller, didn't know what he got himself into, right? He stumbled upon a baptismal service and he didn't know what he'd gotten himself into. Well, guess what? Many of us are the same way when it comes to scriptural baptism. The drunk is not alone. There are many people who don't understand what mikvah or baptism is all about according to the scriptures. Yes, we know what the Baptist faith and message says. I once was Baptist, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. I know what the Baptist faith and message says about it. The purpose of this teaching, though, is to expose the truth of the scriptures about mikvah or baptism. So you could say that we're going to clear the waters about this topic. And I want to tell you something, Melanie, the well is much deeper than it appears. No pun intended. OK, now in our Western culture, what do we do when we need to understand the word? We turn to the what? The smartest person in the family. That's right. The dictionary. We pull out a dictionary and the American Heritage Dictionary found online at Dictionary dot com. Says that baptism is, quote, unquote, are you ready? Here's what baptism is, quote, unquote, a religious sacrament marked by the symbolic use of water resulting in admission of the recipient into the community of Christians. It is a ceremony, trial or experience by which one is initiated, purified or given a name. There you go. That settles it. Moshe, that settles it. The dictionary says it. That settles it. Is that a key chain, a bumper sticker? The dictionary says it. I believe it. That settles it. Something like that. OK, the dictionary said it's a Christian event, a sacrament with water. Scholars, pastors, educators, Western culture identifies Christianity with baptism. Now, the same dictionary dictionary dot com. If you go to look up the word sacrament, it says that a sacrament is, quote, unquote, a religious right ordained by the Roman Catholic Church. That gives sanctifying grace. So do you see here that Christianity is a cornerstone of all different religious faiths of Christianity? You've got the Methodists that do it this way. You've got the Baptists. You've got the Lutherans. All different types that say dunk or don't dunk or sprinkle or twinkle or, you know, I am all for, you know, baby baptism. You know, just throw the babies in the water, let them learn how to swim and get on with it. Never mind. Sorry about that. I'm all for that. We tried that once. It didn't work. Baptism. It's a cornerstone. Now, some people sprinkle, others immerse. Some people christen babies. But what does the scriptures teach? I'm sick and tired of hearing what man has to say. I mean, we want to hear what the Bible says. And let me ask you, is baptism just a Christian event? Is it just a solely a New Testament idea? Now, the word baptism comes to the English language from a Greek word called baptizos. Baptizos. Now, I don't know a lot of Greek, but I know this Greek word because Strong says, right? Strong says it's baptizos, which means to wash or immerse. And guess what? This Greek word is derived from a Hebrew phrase, tevila, T-V-I-L-A-H. Tevila. What does that mean? It sounds a little bit like tikvah, which is the Hebrew word for hope. Sounds a little bit like teshuva, which is to repent. Sounds a little bit like tefilah, which is praise or prayer. Tevila. Does this mean, because there's a Hebrew word for baptism, that baptism is a Hebrew concept? Think about this. Before John the Baptist started preaching, repent and be baptized, immersion into water was already practiced, was already an accepted part of the biblical faith. As John the Baptist stood on the Jordan River, he wasn't doing anything radical. He wasn't doing anything new. Tevila, or that's Hebrew for immersion, was part of the biblical faith that Mashiach or Messiah came into. In Judaism today, did you know that Judaism today continues to use immersion? So, this proves that baptism is not just a sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church. The dictionary is actually wrong here. It's an action commanded by the Scriptures. So, today we're going to learn that tevila is a gateway to being set apart. It's part of Judaism. Even today, with Judaism, when a group gets together and they decide they're going to build a synagogue, they don't make the rabbi's office first. They don't make the sanctuary and they don't pull out their blueprints and say, well, this is how big this is going to be and the pews go here. The first thing they do is build a baptismal pool. And they build the synagogue around the baptismal pool. That's a picture, that is a picture of how mikvah is the center, should be the center of our life. And everything should center around the meaning of mikvah. So, that's the topic today. So, if the world goes to dictionary.com to learn what a word means, what baptism means, what's our dictionary? Bible believers, as believers in the Scriptures, believers in Yeshua, Nazarene Israelites, Messianics, whatever you want to call us, what would be our dictionary? The Torah. As Hebrews, we look to the Torah to understand what the word means. Now, the word here is called tevila. And it's found first in the book of Genesis, the book of Bereshit. Now, there's another word that's used together and it's the word mikvah. And the teaching is called the meaning of mikvah. We're going to learn that mikvah or tevila, tevila is the word to immerse. Mikvah actually means the pool or to go into the waters. Mikvah is not just a once-in-a-lifetime event. Nor should it be, you know, like, what is it, some of the Pentecostals, they get saved every other week, so they go down. Okay, come on now, it used to be one, so I know how that was. We're going to learn that the power of immersion cleanses the spiritually unclean. It's pretty interesting today. Powerful insight. So, the main purpose of mikvah, this Hebrew word mikvah, to go into the water is not physical cleanliness, though it does play a part in scriptural baptism. The most important reason we've been called to immerse or to go into the water is to reinforce the message of separation. Everybody say separation. Separation. As Hebrews, as Israelites, we've been called out of darkness into the light of Yahweh. Amen? 1 Peter chapter 2. We are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, to declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. And we are to set ourselves apart and be set apart unto Him. 2 Corinthians says, come out from among them and be ye separate. Does it not? Be set apart, touch not the unclean thing. Well, immersion or mikvah is a process or a procedure in which we are set apart. We undergo physical, this act in the physical realm, and it's to validate our spiritual decisions that we've made in life. Mikvah, it is spelled in Hebrew, mem, kuf, vav, he. Mem, kuf, vav, he. And the first mikvah or baptism occurs in the book of Genesis. But I'm telling you something, if all we read is English, we'll never see it. We have got to learn to read and speak and write and live the Hebrew language. So turn with me to the book of Bereshit. That's not in King James, is it? Turn with me to Genesis, Bereshit chapter 1, and there is a mikvah here. There is a baptism here. Again, the Hebrew word for mikvah or baptism is mikvah or tevila. So turn with me to Bereshit chapter 1, and we're going to see a mikvah occurring. The earth was immersed in the beginning. As part of creation, the Almighty immersed the world in water. Amen? So let's look at verse 8, reading from the Restoration Scriptures, it says, And Elohim Yahweh called the firmament Shemayim, or heavens, and the evening and morning were Yom Shani. And Elohim Yahweh said, Let the water, Mayim, under the Shemayim, under the heavens, be gathered together in one place. So all the water is getting together in one place, verse 9. And let the dry land appear, and it was so. And Elohim called the dry land earth, and gathered together of the Mayim of waters, he called the seas. And Elohim saw that it was tov, it was good. And Elohim said, Let the earth bring out grass, the herb yielding seeds Zerah, and the fruit etz, yielding fruit after its own kind, or the fruit tree yielding fruit after its own kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And it was so. Believe it or not, in these verses I just read to you is a baptism, the first baptism, a mikvah. We don't see it because we read it in English, in your King James. Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 9, it says, that Yahweh will restore to the people a clean language, a pure tongue, a kadosh lashon, and we will serve him with one consent. We need to understand that Yahweh is restoring the Hebrew language today, and it's through the Hebrew that we can understand the scriptures. The Hebrew word in verse 9, where it says, gathered the waters. Gathered together. Yahweh said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together in one place. It actually says mikvah. It actually says mikvah. It says, let the waters be mikvah, be a mikvah. Let them be the purpose of the waters upon the earth was to mikvah, was to immerse his world, immerse his people with his glory. The place where the waters gathered was a mikvah. It is a mikvah. And guess what? Take a look at what happens after the mikvah. It says that after the mikvah, that's when the earth came out with herb yielding seed and fruit trees that had seed and had fruit. After mikvah, after immersion, after baptism should come fruit. What did Yeshua say? It is my desire that you bear fruit and your fruit would remain. That's what mikvah is all about. It's about maturing so that we could bring forth fruit. It occurred first in Beersheet and it occurs over and over again as we come to Yeshua. We allow him to impregnate us with his seed. New life came forward after the waters were gathered. Remember it says that the spirit of Elohim moved upon the face of the waters. In Genesis chapter 1, the spirit of Yahweh moved upon the waters. Now the sages of Judaism, the rabbis teach us that when Yahweh hovered over the waters, he impregnated the waters and creation was birthed in this type of hovering. The book of Job chapter 38 shows this. It says, out of whose womb came the ice? And the frost of heaven, who gendered it? The waters are hid as with the stone. The face of the deep is frozen. That shows us the basis of this imagery. Water is a picture of a womb. The word mikvah begins with the letter mem. Not em, but mem. And the mem is a picture of a womb. There are two versions of a mem. There's the mem and the mem, mem sofit, amen, thank you, back row badness. There's I'm sorry. We've got the mem and the mem sofit. The mem is an open letter, but the mem sofit is a closed letter. It comes at the end of a word or the end of a sentence. So with this, with this mem, we see that it's a picture of a womb and the rabbis tell us that there is an open womb and a closed womb. And in the beginning, as of now, when we obey the Torah, the scriptures, Yahweh hovers over us and brings forth spiritual light and we come out of the water born again, born anew. Amen. Isn't this what happened to Yeshua? Doesn't it say that the spirit hovered over Miriam or Mary and she became impregnated and she brought forth a child? And what happened? With childbirth, waters flowed, right? The angel spoke to Miriam. Luke chapter one, verse thirty five. The ruach ha-kodesh, Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. That word for overshadow literally means hover over you and the Holy One will be called Son of Yahweh. So the pattern is hovering, immersion, impregnation, and it continues today. Now we know that immersion or baptism follows repentance, don't we? That's where most of us come into this. We know that there are those that baptize at the beginning of birth, will christen this child. But there are those that baptize after, you know, you get saved, you go down to the altar, you have a religious experience. That's a good point because in the beginning there's another baptism. When Adam and Kava, Eve, allowed sin to corrupt them, they were cast from Yahweh's presence. They were exiled. That's the punishment of sin. The wages of sin is death. That's the separation from Yahweh. Well the Midrash, which is part of the Talmud, which is interesting information, okay? We don't build our theology on Talmud, amen? It's good to look at. It's something to consider. Well the Midrash says that after Adam was banished, that he went to look for the Garden of Eden. It doesn't say that there were four rivers flowing out of the Garden of Eden, the Ganedon. But he went and it said that he sat in a river that flowed from the Garden. This shows a type of immersion after sin. He was saying, I want to get back to the Garden. I want to get back. And as Adam sat in the moving waters, he mourned the loss of his relationship with Yahweh. Now the next mikvah, or baptism in the Scriptures, we're actually going to see is in Bereshi Genesis chapter 7. Mikvah does not just bring forth new life, but guess what? It washes away old life. Everybody say old life. Old life is gone. Mikvah, baptism, washes away the old evil and allows life to start anew. So after creation, wickedness increases in the world. Yahweh decides to destroy the world with what? Water. A flood. A what? A mikvah. A mikvah. Only the righteous were saved. In Bereshi, in Genesis chapter 7, we read that they were in essence what? They were drowned, were they not? The wicked were drowned. The lives of sin were totally destroyed. Noah and his family had to repopulate the world with the righteous seed. Let me tell you, it's interesting that after Noah came off the ark, what did Yahweh say to him? He said, be fruitful and multiply. Isn't that what happens after a mikvah? You're impregnated and then new life comes forward. They were spiritually cleansed. The world was spiritually cleansed after Noah. Acts chapter 2, verse 38. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Yeshua for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh, Holy Spirit. So the meaning of mikvah is found all throughout the Tanakh, the Old Testament. We find it with the Hebrews and the Passover story, Pesach. Israel is enslaved to bondage to Pharaoh. They cry out to Yahweh in prayer, Yahweh hears them, he delivers the nation through the ten plagues. We know the story. However, as the nation flees the evil ruler, they come to a dead end. Pharaoh is pursuing them from behind and in front of them is this massive, what, waters. So behind them is Pharaoh, in front of them is what, waters, the Red Sea. What's going to happen? The Torah tells us that the immense waters of the Red Sea did what, they parted and our ancestors walked through the waters on dry land. There was water on one side, water on the other side, guess what, that was a type of mikvah. Don't believe me? 1 Corinthians, Corinthians 10, verse 1 and 2, it says, Our fathers were under a cloud and passed through the sea and were all baptized under Moshe in the cloud and in the sea. They were baptized as they went through the same waters that receded for the Israelites, look at this, it flooded Pharaoh and his evil army. The same waters that bring life also bring death, that's what mikvah is all about. In Exodus chapter 15, verse 4, Shemot 15, verse 4 it says, Pharaoh's Mirkavot chariots, let's look at verse 3, you ready, Exodus 15, verse 3, Yahweh is a man of war, Yahweh is his name, verse 4, Pharaoh's Mirkavot chariot and his army he cast into the sea, he has chosen captains, also he drowned in the sea of reeds. The word here for drowned is the word mikvah, how about that, like it or not, drunk or Pharaoh, you're going down in the water, you're going to come out different. Pharaoh and his goons were in essence immersed and then killed by the waters. Do you know that Pharaoh is a picture of the flesh, it's a picture of fleshly desires of the yetzer hara, this is a picture that when we are immersed continually that our yetzer hara, our fleshly human desires, guess what, they go down and they die, and we come out victorious. Now shortly after this mikvah, they get baptized again, now how many times do they get baptized? Several. The Hebrews go through another tevila, turn with me to Exodus chapter 19, and in Exodus Shemot chapter 19 we see here the chapter dealing with Shavuot, or our Christian friends call it Pentecost, Shavuot in Hebrew, the festival of weeks, and in Exodus chapter 19 we see what happens as they prepare for the giving of Torah, this is Shavuot, and in Exodus chapter 19, Exodus 19, Shavuot 19 verse 10, And Yahweh said to Moshe, Go to the people, set them apart today and tomorrow, let them wash their clothing, and that they would be ready for the third day. From the third day Yahweh will come down in the sight of all people upon Mount Sinai. Verse 14, And Moshe went down to the mount to the people, and set apart the people, and they washed their clothes, and he said to the people, Be ready for the third day, come not at your wives in intimacy. Now remember a couple things. Number one, remember they already have been baptized once. Number two, he said prepare and get ready to receive from Yahweh and be cleansed, be clean by mikvah, by immersion. Notice also it says come not to your wives in intimacy, that's called nidah, we'll talk about that in a few minutes. For Israel to continue in intimacy with Yahweh they had to wash themselves. They had to separate themselves, and they had to prepare themselves. This is after they'd already been baptized in the Red Sea. They went through it again. This time immersion's purpose was so that they could be closer to Yahweh. Guess what? The Torah continues to give other references of mikvah. Again, this teaching is called the meaning of mikvah. The goal of mikvah was to be set apart. In temple worship, when they worshiped in the Mishkan, the Beit HaMikdash, the priest had to go through many washings. Do you remember the story of the high priest in preparation for Yom Kippurim, the Day of Atonement? They'd have to wash and wash again, and they'd have to be zestfully clean to be able to do what they needed. That was supposed to be a joke. Thank you for your laughing. All right, thank you. Many of the washings in the temple times, remember, this took place before they could come before Yahweh. A person could only approach the holy place if they were ritually clean. Ritually clean. The unclean were cut off from worship until their condition had been dealt with. A leper, if he was contagious, was considered to be ritually unclean. But if a leper was uncontagious, or not contagious, or couldn't pass his leprosy on to others, then he was considered ritually clean, even if he looked like he was a leper. He could still approach the Beit HaMikdash and the holy place. There are many ways that we today can become unclean. However, I'll give you this phrase, tevila mikvamayim, tevila mikvamayim, which is Hebrew for immersion in a collection of water, was and is the way of dealing with this. Again, if you read Leviticus 14, it talks about the leper who had to go through his cleansing. Not for physical cleansing, but spiritual cleansing. He went through them after he was healed. Do you remember that? Think about Naaman. He went down seven times, and he was healed. Mikvah completed the healing process of leprosy. The priest went through immersions. You can read about that in Leviticus 16. Now, throughout Torah, we see that mikvah is vital. So when they built the temple, they built ritual baths, or mikvah pools, all around it. People who became unclean were not allowed to approach Yahweh without first immersing themselves. Only those who were cleansed could come to the temple. Leviticus 15, 31, you must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean so that they will not die in their uncleanliness by defiling my dwelling place, which is among them. You know, I believe that one thing that's happened because of exile is that we have very little to no reverence for Yahweh's dwelling place anymore. No reverence for the building where His spirit dwells, where we gather together, and no reverence for the body, the Ruach HaKodesh. We can discern again from the Torah the main purpose is that of separation. You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean. Separation is the calling of all believers. It's the reason why we were called out. Come forward to Yahweh. Leviticus 10, verse 10, you shall distinguish between the clean and the unclean, between the holy and the profane. All believers have been called to holiness. Everybody say all. All believers have been called to cleanliness. Not just the preacher, not just the rabbi, the deacons and the elders. We've all been called to walk as Kedoshim. We become unclean when we cross the line that Yahweh has set forth in His Torah. Amen? Now there are three degrees of uncleanliness I want to talk about real quick. Three degrees of uncleanliness. Is that okay? Because you've got to deal with uncleanliness when you're dealing with Mikvah. Three degrees of uncleanliness. Number one is temporary. In the Scriptures you can become temporarily unclean if you touch something that you shouldn't have touched, like a dead carcass. Does that make sense? You're unclean until usually sundown or until you go through Mikvah if you do some of these things. You are ritually unclean. So there's temporary uncleanliness. There's also punishment. You're unclean because you're being punished. You're sent outside to camp. A type of uncleanliness. And finally, you can become unclean by natural body functions. Now we're not going to have an essay on ritual purity, that's for another teaching. But we still need to deal with these issues. We still need to study being ritually clean or unclean. For example, you become ritually unclean by eating unclean foods. The Torah says you become ritually unclean by going to a medium, a spiritualist, by reading a horoscope. It says you are unclean by sinning. Yeshua did not abolish uncleanliness from the world. He said, think not that I have come to destroy the Torah or the law, but to fulfill. He dealt with the uncleanliness. His blood paid our price, amen, so that we could approach Him. But we still have to deal with it, just like we still have to deal with sin. Thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not, you know, eat unclean foods. Which brings us to nidah, nidah, everybody say nidah. There are many commandments in the Scripture. Now we know there are what, 613 in the Torah, but when it comes down to it, Brother Eric, at any given time, there's probably only 100 to 150 that apply to you. Now they say we're under legalism, because of what? Out of 613, over half deal with the priesthood, with the Levites, with being in the land of Israel. Then, many of the commandments deal with women, deal with the holy days, deal with certain issues. During a time of nidah is the woman's menstrual cycle, it's a time of uncleanliness, and it's been ignored for thousands of years by many, many people. Orthodox Jewish believers follow nidah very carefully. The Torah says that a woman is unclean during her cycle, until she immerses in a mikvah. So during this time, man and woman are not to have relations. Now Judaism teaches, you've got to add two more weeks to that, because it's not good enough to do what Torah says, you've got to add to it. That's what, I mean, come on, there's tractates in the Mishnah all about nidah, and they say, well, if the woman stops bleeding on the first, you need to wait two more weeks, which would be the what, the 15th, to make sure she's done bleeding. Yahweh doesn't say that. So we need to be careful, amen, we don't add to His Word. Rivka Slonin wrote that immersion in the mikvah is the culmination of family purity. That in many ways, this is how we set ourselves apart. Simply put, when you are immersed in a mikvah, it signals a change in your status. Get this. More correctly, she wrote, when you go through mikvah, it is an elevation in your status. Its unparalleled function is the power to transform your spirit, an ability to affect metamorphosis. A woman who, on the onset of her menses, was in a state of nidah, was separated from her husband, may, after immersion, be reunited to him in intimacy. What does she have to do? She has to go through immersion first. I got to show you this. If you've ever studied Shavuot, we are told that Shavuot, in Exodus chapter 19, is a picture of what? A wedding ceremony. There's a ketubah. There are vows that are said. Go through and read Exodus chapter 19, compare it to a Hebrew wedding ceremony. Yahweh was preparing to wed Israel this day. He gave them his ketubah, his Torah, but what did they have to do before they could be intimate with Yahweh? They had to immerse. Didn't it say they had to wash their clothing? Then it said what? Do not go near a woman, because being near the woman would have made them ritually unclean, number one, and number two, they would have been elevating their fleshly desires over Yahweh, and number three, they would have had the wrong groom. They would have had the wrong groom. That just as a woman goes through mikvah and then can be intimate with her husband, we go through mikvah for intimacy. She wrote that, this is continuing, she wrote that women or men in simple times could not go to services because of ritual defilement, could, after immersion, go straight to the Temple Mount, enter the house of Yahweh, and involve themselves in sacrifices. She says that the case of the convert is most dramatic. Did you know, Bill, if you're going to convert to Judaism, you've got to go through two things. Number one is circumcision, number two is mikvah. She wrote here that the individual who goes down into the mikvah as a Gentile emerges from its waters as an Israelite. That is powerful. That's a Jew, a Jewish lady, writing about mikvah who said that the individual who goes into the water as a Gentile emerges out as a Hebrew or an Israelite. Isn't that what we just read in Ephesians chapter two, that we were once Gentiles? We went into the water as a Gentile, but as we were converted and called upon the name of Yeshua, we came out as Israelites in the commonwealth of Israel? Baruch Hashem Yahweh, amen. Mikvah, or going down in the water, is not new to Christianity. It began with Judaism, continues. The Encyclopedia Judaica says that one of two paths of a convert must take to enter Judaism is brit milah, or circumcision, or mikvah. Well, guess what? Paul, or Rabbi Shaul, compared the two a lot in his writings. When we go through mikvah, or we go through circumcision, it's the connotation of drawing near. Yochanan the Baptist said what? John the Baptist, repent, teshuvah, for the kingdom of heaven is near. He was urging his listeners to stop the Torah breaking and return to Yahweh. Let's turn to Hebrews chapter 10, verse 22. Ibrahim 10, verse 22. Let us draw near with a true heart, live in full assurance of faith, emunah, having our hearts levine, sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure Mayan water. The word picture is beautiful. Let us draw near with a true heart. Before we were born again, we were sinners, alienated from Yahweh. You could say we were of the nations, we were pagans, we were heathens, we were Gentiles, you could say. A Gentile is a foreigner. But it says here, having our hearts sprinkled of an evil conscience and our bodies washed, we can draw near to Yahweh. If you go down into the water a Gentile, you emerge from the water as a Hebrew. Colossians chapter 2, let's turn there. Colossae chapter 2, verse 12. Risen with him in Mikvah, by which also you are risen with him through faith in the operation of Yahweh, who has raised Yeshua from the dead. And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has he made alive together with Yeshua, having forgiven you all of your sins. Look at verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, was contrary to us, and took it out of the way. Yahweh, nailing it to his execution stake. We descend a Gentile, and ascend an Israelite. Galatians 3, 29. If you belong to Yeshua, you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. The apostles and early believers continued the Jewish practice of Mikvah as a symbol of conversion. We're going to spend some time in Acts chapter 9, Acts chapter, the book of Acts. We're going to spend some time in the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 19, verse 5, it says, upon hearing they were baptized in the name of the master Yeshua. Now, I've got to go there, so hang on. It says in Acts chapter 19, verse 5, upon hearing they were baptized in the name of Yeshua. Every single baptism from the book of Acts to the book of Revelation is done in the name of Yeshua. First Corinthians chapter 6, verse 11 says, you are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified in the name of the master Yeshua, and by the Spirit. The problem is, when I was a Bapticostal, that's a Baptist that was mixed with the Pentecostal, that's a Bapticostal, which by the way, breaks the laws of Sean Nance, cannot mix seed, that's a whole other discussion one day, Bapticostal, guess what? We baptize. Help me down. While I was in the water, I baptized you in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. When you read in the Newer Testament, that's not the formula that was used. In Matthew chapter 28, verse 19, in the King James version it says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. That's what King James says. What's interesting is, the word for name is not plural. Greek and Hebrew words are plural, just like in English, you've got tooth, my father has one tooth, or you've got teeth, that dog has many teeth, you follow me? Plural word, singular word. By the way, his one tooth is called Old Yeller, how do you like that? Okay. You've got plural words and you've got singular words. The word name is singular. It does not say baptizing them in the names, it says in the name. In the name. Now here in this Great Commission, we see that it says, baptizing them in the name. This is a Trinitarian formula that I believe was a later addition. Because if you read in the scriptures, every other time the Great Commission is mentioned, it's always in the name, Yeshua says in my name. Mark chapter 16, verse 15, go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, he who does not believe will be condemned, and these signs will follow those who believe in my name. Mark says the same thing. Luke says, Luke 24, 47, that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name to all the nations. So, repentance and remission of sins is to be preached in whose name? Yeshua's name. Acts 2, 38, Kepha or Peter said, repent, let every one of you be baptized in the name of Yeshua Hamashiach. He was most likely speaking Hebrew and Aramaic. He wasn't speaking Greek, he wasn't speaking Italiano, he wasn't speaking English. He said Yeshua. He didn't say Jesus Christos, he didn't say Jesus, he said Yeshua Hamashiach, amen? He said, be baptized in that name for the remissions of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh. Yeshua said in Matthew 28, 19, baptize them, the King James says, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Isn't that what the King James says? In Acts chapter 2, Peter said, baptizing them in the name of Yeshua. So we have one or two things, either Yeshua meant, baptize them in my singular name, or Peter got it wrong. I don't know about you, but I don't think Peter got it wrong. How can I say that? You can go back and study this, go back and read that Kepha and the whole congregation of the New Testament believers would have gotten it wrong, over and over and over and over again. The name of salvation is Yeshua. How do you say Savior? How do you say saved in Hebrew, Yeshu, Yeshua? Acts chapter 8, verse 12, when they believe Philip, as he preached these things concerning the kingdom of Yahweh, the name of Yeshua, both men and women were mikvah, they were baptized. Acts chapter 8, verse 6, for as yet he had fallen upon none of them, for they had only been baptized in the name of Yeshua. Acts chapter 10, verse 48, he commanded them, be baptized in the name of Yeshua. Acts chapter 19, verse 5, and when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of Yeshua. Acts chapter 22, verse 16, now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, wash away your sins, calling on the name of Yeshua. Respected historical references verify that the early Christian church did not use a threefold baptismal formula. It was not added until the second and third centuries, guess what, around the time of Constantine the Great, or not so great. The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics wrote the formula was used in the name of the Lord Jesus. There is no evidence of the use of a triune name. The earliest form represented in Acts was a simple immersion in the water. Otto Heck wrote a book, A History of Christian Thought. It says a first baptism was administered in the name of Jesus, but gradually in the name of the triune God. Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, you can still buy it today, it says the original form of the words was in the name of Jesus Christ. Baptism in the name of the Trinity was a later development. Willison Walker, who wrote in a book called The History of the Christian Church in 1947, the Trinitarian baptismal formula displaced the older baptism in the name of Yeshua. The new Scott Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Thought writes the New Testament knows only one baptism in the name of Yeshua, which still occurs in the second and third centuries. Cayney's Encyclopedia of Religion, published in 1970, says persons were baptized first in the name of Jesus. Afterwards, with the development of the doctrine of the Trinity, they were baptized in the name of the Father and the Holy Spirit. And finally, in the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Trinitarian formula and triune immersion were not uniformly used from the beginning. Baptism in the name of Yeshua was the normal formula of the New Testament. In the third century, baptism in the name of Yeshua only was so widespread that the Pope had to declare it invalid. Think about how we were baptized. In the scriptural times, you were to wash yourself first and make sure you were very clean. Then resources say, suggest two different ways of baptism. Number one, you would walk into the water by yourself. One of the ancient ways of doing this is to go into the water, walk into the water by yourself. No one's pushing you down, holding you down. And you squat down into the water into the fetal position. Many times this was done three times. This is how the Orthodox Jewish people do it. They walk into the water and they squat down and they open their eyes underwater saying, don't just make my feet wet, my back wet, my head wet, but every bit of me may be immersed in the glory of Yahweh. Isn't that powerful? Isn't that something? Tradition is that there would be someone standing by to witness the baptism who would then proclaim that this person is complete. He'd been mitzvahed in the name of Yeshua. Remember Yochanan, the baptizer? What did he say? I'm not worthy to baptize you, Yeshua. One reason that was, Yeshua would go down into the water himself and it wasn't a splish splash. He was taking a bath. He went all the way in, down into the water. Now why is it important to go all the way? Did you know that the human body is between 70 and 80 percent H2O water? Melanie, you may look like skin and bones, but you're actually a walking, talking water bottle. You are a wellspring of water. You ever heard the phrase, that's a tall drink of water? That's right. Think about it. Water is an integral part of our life. When we go into the water, we are reuniting with Yahweh. Scientists tell us that the world is mostly what? Two-thirds water. It's the most abundant resource in the world. And we know that many religions do include water in baptism. But what about us? Today, many Jews mitzvah. Many Jewish people only mitzvah once a year, maybe before they go to Yom Kippur. But Orthodox believers go down every Friday before Shabbat. It wouldn't hurt. What could it hurt? I mean, think about it. If you visited a mitzvah pool or a mitzvah before each holy day, before each Shabbat, what would that hurt? Wouldn't it just show you being made closer to Yahweh? Mitzvah is part of the repentance process, amen? We sin, and so we come near to Yahweh. It tells us in Isaiah chapter 1, verse 16. Yeshayahu 1. Wash yourself. Make yourself clean. Put away evil out of doing from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow. Come. Let us reason together, says Yahweh. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though your sins are as red like crimson, they shall be as white as wool. Just saying you're sorry isn't enough. We should also do mitzvah. It's an important part of salvation, amen, but it's not just for salvation. Jeremiah 4, verse 14 says, O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness that you may be saved. Immersion is part of our drawing near to Yahweh. It's the way we cling to Him. Did you know that when you go to a mitzvah, it's like going to a funeral? Your own funeral. When you dip into the water, it's like you're dying to yourself, being resurrected anew. First Peter chapter 3, verse 21. The water symbolizes baptism, but now saves you. Not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience towards Yahweh. It saves you by the resurrection of Yeshua, who has gone into heaven and is at Yahweh's right hand. When we immerse ourselves, we are following Yeshua's example. We are also clinging to our hope that His blood removes all sin from us. What does it say? That He is faithful and just to forgive us of all of our sins. So turn with me now to the book of Jeremiah chapter 14. Yirmeyahu chapter 14. Yirmeyahu, Jeremiah chapter 14. Now again we're at a disadvantage because we don't read Hebrew or speak Hebrew very fluently. But in Hebrew, Yirmeyahu 14, verses 7 through 8 says, although our sins testify against us, O Yahweh, do something for the sake of Your name. Our backsliding is great. We have sinned against You. O hope of Israel, its Savior in times of distress, why are You like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who stays only at night? Our sins give evidence that we are in desperate need of salvation. Amen? I don't know about you, but the more Torah I learn, the more I realize I need Yeshua's blood and His forgiveness. It doesn't make me feel like I'm earning my salvation, it makes me feel like I'm dis-earning my salvation. Because the more I read and study Torah, the more I realize how worthless I am and how great Yahweh's mercy is. We need a Redeemer. We need a Savior. We need Yeshua. But when you read this verse in the Hebrew, it says, although our sins testify against us, O Yahweh, do something for the sake of Your name. For our backsliding is great. We have sinned against You. O hope of Israel. In the Hebrew it says, our backsliding is great. We have sinned against You, O mikvah of Israel. The normal word for hope is tikvah. That is not used here. The translators have done a disservice. The word in the Hebrew here is mikvah. It reads mikvah, Yisrael, yashah. Let me say this again. It says, O hope of Israel, its Savior, mikvah, Yisrael, yashah. The literal correct translation of this verse would say, O the immersion of Israel is salvation, is Yahshua, mikvah, Yisrael, yashah. Our mikvah into Yahshua's blood and water is our salvation. Isn't that right? What happened? One of the soldiers pierced Yahshua's side with a spear and blood and water flowed. Blood and water flowed. Blood and water flowed. The baptism flowed from His side of blood and water. Do you know why? Not because to show that He was dead, but to show us that He is our mikvah, He is our immersion. To show us that Zechariah chapter 13 verse 1 is right. On that day, a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanliness. That's speaking about the day that Yahshua gave His life. The fountain was opened. The fountain was opened when they struck His side and blood and water flowed. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 22 says, Be immersed, be mikvahed into Him and be washed in His precious blood. Wow. When we are mikvahed, it gives us an opportunity to really experience who we are. Instead of in a bubble bath, it gives us a chance to go into the water and come out anew. Remember we said that we are 70 to 80 percent water, that Yahweh immersed the world at the very beginning. He immersed it with Noach. In Ezekiel chapter 36, listen to this, Ezekiel 36 starting in verse 24, For I, Yahweh, will take you out of the nations. He's speaking to the two houses of Israel. I will take you out of the nations. I will gather you from all the countries. I will bring you back to your own land. I will sprinkle water on you. I will mikvah you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all of your impurities, from your idols. I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you a heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my ruach in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my Torah. Yahweh is doing that today. He's drawing us out, He's mikvahing us, He's giving us His ruach. While we draw near to Him, we identify with Yeshua. We identify with Yeshua. Romans chapter 6, Romans, Romiah chapter 6 verses 1 through 4 shows us this. Start at verse 3, Romiah 6 verse 3, Don't you know that as many of us who were immersed into Yeshua, our Messiah, were immersed into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by mikvah into death, and like our Messiah who was raised up from the dead by the glory of Yahweh, even so we should also have our walk in His new life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall also be raised in the likeness of His resurrection. Verse 6, Knowing this, that our old man has been killed, has been impaled with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that from now on we should not serve sin. Israel is all about our life, so the more we are mikvahed, the more we are baptized, the more we are immersed, the more we can really experience who we are. Now who are we? We're Israelites, aren't we? We're the commonwealth of Israel. We are Hebrews. The word Yisraelite means one who rules and reigns with Yahweh, with Elohim. The word Hebrew is Evrim, Evrim. We are Evrim. The word for Evrim, do you know what Hebrew means, do you know what Evrim means? It means to cross over, it means to come over. It tells us in 1 Corinthians 16 that our forefathers were all under the cloud, passed through the sea, and were all baptized into Moshe and the cloud and the sea. We cross over from this world, agreement with Hasatan, into the world of Yahweh, into the spiritual realm when we are born again. We become Evrim, we are Evrim. We go down, what, a Gentile, we come up an Israelite. This is who we are, living, breathing, walking, talking, mikvah. Yeshua said go make disciples. Bringing mikvah upon them in my name, teaching them to guard all of my commandments. So when we do mikvah, we are returning to that. Now what's interesting about mikvah is that it's a command. We are commanded to be mikvahed. Now command is something that requires what? Obedience. There was this old man, and he had nine cats. And a friend came over to visit him one day, and he noticed that there were nine little kitty doors on the back door of his house. And the old man had nine kitty doors on his back door. So his friend said, he said, tell me, why in the world do you have nine kitty doors? Why can't all the cats use the same door? The old guy replied, well, when I say scat, I mean scat. When Yahweh says do it, he means do it, amen? He says do it. Mikvah is something we've been commanded to do. If a man loves me, Yeshua said, he will keep my words. John chapter 14. Now the method has been argued, there's all of it, like we talked about that earlier. It tells us in the book of John chapter 3 that Yochanan was baptizing at a certain spot because there was much water. So it takes a lot of water. In Acts chapter 8, verse 38, it says he commanded the chariot to stand still. They went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch. They went down together, so you've got to be able to go down. Now it's not the water that's magical. It's not the pronunciation that's magical. It's not, oh, well, this person is magical. It is the fact of faith, of setting ourselves apart. That is what mikvah, that is what the meaning of mikvah is all about. Now we began going over the dictionary, talking about the words of mikvah and what it means. And we said that mikvah is returning to Yahweh for separation. And we saw how it was in the temple times, they would be mikvah. We've seen it, the pattern in the book of Acts, how they did it. Now the rest is left up to us. Number one, will we find someone that can witness our mikvah? Will we be mikvah? And will we make it part of our life? Will we be clean? Because you can go down a dry center and come up a wet center, right? You can be baptized so many times that the tadpoles know you by your social security number. It's all about your heart, right? But your heart is going to do it. So I pray that we take from this the meaning of mikvah and we do something with it. That we recognize our experience with Yahweh. Thank you again for listening to Finding E-Med with Daniel Rendleman. May you find the E-Med and may the E-Med, may the truth set you free.