Welcome to Torah Today Ministries and the beginning of a new series called Two Things Have I Heard. This is going to be a very short series. I’m only planning four teachings. So, this is going to be embedded in the special teachings section. But this is probably one of the most important teachings I’ll be doing in the special teachings because it describes a principle that’s found throughout scripture. In fact, the scriptures themselves are arranged by God himself according to this principle.
Now this phrase two things have I heard comes from Psalm 62:11 which says,
“One thing God has spoken. Two things have I heard “— Psalm 62:11
One thing God has spoken. Two things have I heard. What does this mean? Well, it seems that whenever God speaks, whatever comes out comes out in pairs. It’s experienced and received by us in twos. For example, even the way God made our bodies, he’s made us in his image. And you’ll notice we have one mouth. So, one thing God speaks, but we have two ears, two things we hear.
And when we look at the scriptures, we’re going to find that whenever God speaks, when he communicates something, it comes out in this—well, what I call a menorah (מְנוֹרָה) pattern. Let’s look at a menorah (מְנוֹרָה). We’ll see what I’m talking about.
In the tabernacle and later in the temple, God gave instructions to Moses that the light source for the tabernacle is to be a menorah (מְנוֹרָה). And he gives great detail into how it’s to be made. And he’s very specific that there’s going to be a central stalk and from that central stalk a branch comes out to one side and a balancing branch to the other. And a menorah (מְנוֹרָה) can have any number of branches as long as there’s the same number on one side as the other. Of course, the menorah (מְנוֹרָה) in the tabernacle had seven branches and all. But you can make a menorah (מְנוֹרָה) has any number of branches. But the rule always is for everything that comes out one side, there must be one that comes out the other.
And we’re going to find that this menorah (מְנוֹרָה) is God’s motif for bringing spiritual light into the world through his word, through Messiah, even through us. Everything comes in pairs. God speaks, but it’s received in pairs.
In fact, if we look at the very first verse of the Bible, this is Genesis 1:1, the way it appears in a Torah (תּוֹרָה) scroll. B’reishit bara Elohim (בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים). In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now, I want to draw your attention to the very first letter. This very first letter of the Bible. It’s the letter beit (ב). Let’s get a better look at it. This is the letter beit (ב) all by itself. Now, what’s interesting about the letter beit (ב) is that it is the second letter of the alphabet. And it has a numerical value of, you guessed it, two. It’s almost as if God is shouting at us. Everything that follows from this point on in the scriptures is going to be in pairs. Look for the pairs.
And if you look at the letter beit (ב), you’ll notice it’s made out of a pair of wide brush strokes. There’s a thick horizontal line at the top. There’s a thick horizontal line at the bottom. And then this little skinny line that connects the two. Again, two things that are in balance, but they’re connected. The rabbis see in the letter beit (ב) a picture of creation itself. When God separated the waters above from the waters below, these would be the waters above. These are the waters below. Then here’s the firmament, the the open area in between. be that as it may, I don’t know. But it is a kind of a clever picture. But you’ll notice that the letter beit (ב) even looks somewhat like our Arabic numeral two, which we’re all familiar with.
But it doesn’t stop there. The word of God begins with letter beit (ב). But let’s look at the word word because the Bible is God’s word. And there is the Hebrew word for word. It’s the word davar (דָּבָר). Davar (דָּבָר). It’s spelled dalet (ד) beit (ב) resh (ר). And of course in the middle of the word davar (דָּבָר) is our letter beit (ב) which as we mentioned has a numerical value of two. So that’s at the very heart of the word for word.
But if we look at the first letter the letter dalet (ד), it’s the fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So it has a numerical value of four which is 2 squared. And then this last letter which is resh (ר), it comes near the end of the alphabet and it has a numerical value of 200. Again I think God is trying to speak something to us here that his word comes in pairs and in it comes in components of two. Everything’s doubled.
And you know, we’ve been reading about the tabernacle and our Torah (תּוֹרָה) portions in Exodus and and Leviticus. And you’ll recall that everything in the tabernacle, all the pieces of furniture would be carried by two poles. So there were loops in the sides of the various objects, the Ark of the Covenant, and the golden incense altar, the table of showbread, the the bronze altar. They would have loops and there would be two badim (בַּדִּים) two poles that carried everything. It’s almost as if God is trying to tell us my presence, my home in the world makes progress in balance through twos.
In fact, we ourselves are to be God’s epistles of the world. We are to be his word lived out. And how has he made us? He’s made us symmetrical. Two ears, two eyes, two nostrils, two arms, two hands, two legs. He’s made us symmetrical. And we walk left, right, left, right. And um we too are to be like a menorah (מְנוֹרָה). So that everything we do and say and how we express ourselves in the physical world and in the spiritual world should be in balance.
Going back to this word for pole, if we look at it, it’s the word bad (בַּד). There it is. And you’ll notice again, here’s our letter beit (בֵּית), which has numerical value of two. And the letter dalet (ד), which is 2 squared, 4. Even the word for pole that is used to carry the furniture reflects the word for word.
And you know, if you think about the word of God, how did God send it into the world? Well, we have the Hebrew scriptures or what is often called the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures, and then what is often called the New Testament, Greek scriptures. He uses two languages, two bodies of writings.
And if we look at another way God brings his word into the world, he brought it the word in print, but also the word made flesh through Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ). How does Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) come into the world? Well, he comes in the first advent 2,000 years ago, but he’s going to come a second time. And he came the first time as a lamb and he returns as a lion. And we have to keep in mind that he is both of these. One thing God spoke, one messiah he brings but at two times and in two roles. One as a suffering servant, next time as a king. First time as a lamb, next time as a lion.
And then when God gave us uh the Torah (תּוֹרָה) on Mount Sinai (סִינַי), we’re approaching Shavuot (שָׁבוּעוֹת) in about another week at Pentecost where we celebrate the giving of God’s word, God’s Torah (תּוֹרָה). When he gave the ten commandments to Moses, how did he do it? Two tablets, five on this, five on that. The commandments that deal with our relationship with God and the commandments that deal with our relationship to man. And when Messiah was asked, “What is the greatest commandment?” What did Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) reply? Well, there’s two. Love God with all your heart, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Again, you starting to see a pattern here. Everything comes in twos.
Now, not only do we find these small details, not they’re not all so small, are they? But we find that stories as well come in pairs. Let’s take some examples.
we’ve recently read, if you following the Torah (תּוֹרָה) portions, I’m recording this near the end of May in 2025. And um in last week’s Torah (תּוֹרָה) portion, we read about one of the two dramatic events in the book of Leviticus. And in chapter 25, we read about the a man being stoned to death because he pronounced God’s name and he did it in a way that was cursing. You think, well, where’s the other story? There has to be a matching story. And if you go back to I think it’s chapter 10 of Leviticus, we find the other dramatic event. There only two dramatic events in the whole book of Leviticus.
And in chapter 10, we read about the deaths of Aaron’s two oldest sons, Nadav (נָדָב) and Avihu (אֲבִיהוּא). So, as you read through Leviticus, we have these two dramatic events, both involving a death, what would seem to be an unnecessary death.
And when you think about the first one in chapter 10, it’s Nadav and Avihu (נָדָב וַאֲבִיהוּא). These are the two oldest sons of Aaron the high priest. These are holy men. These are men who in Exodus were on Mount Sinai (סִינַי) when God had his covenant meal with Moses and the elders and Aaron and Nadav and Avihu (נָדָב וַאֲבִיהוּא). And it says they saw God and under his feet were a paving work like sapphire. I mean these were two of uh God’s top men. But what did they do? They acted presumptuously. They decided, let’s go burn some incense before God. And it would seem, and I don’t want to get distracted with this, but it would seem they did three things wrong. First of all, they it looks like they might have been drinking. So, they were a little inebriated. Second, they didn’t take holy fire. They brought eish zara (אֵשׁ זָרָה) uh which is alien fire. They should have taken fire from the bronze altar to ignite their incense. And third, it looks like they went into the holy of holies, which they were not to do. So they went in presumptuously, good intentions, but they were struck dead.
Now let’s compare to the other story, which comes near the end of the book of Leviticus where you’ve got this person who’s a half Jew. His mother is Jewish. His father was Egyptian and we don’t know if his father came out of Egypt during the Exodus or if he stayed behind. So here you have what you might call a half breed. He would be the lowliest of the low because he has a Jewish mother but an Egyptian father. He gets into a fight with a Jewish man and he pronounces God’s name and that’s the word that’s used, pronounced. But it also uses the word cursed. So he cursed the man, pronounced God’s name, and when people heard this, it’s like, what do we do with this guy? He just blasphemed. And so they went to Moses. Moses approached God. God said, you take him out and you have to stone him to death. So here we have these two deaths that were penalties for error.
Now, when you take the two stories, put them side by side, we get a bigger picture. You see, if you just have the story of Nadav and Avihu (נָדָב וַאֲבִיהוּא) you might think, wow, I don’t want to get that close to God. I’m glad I’m not a priest because that’s a dangerous job because if they step out of line, they do something a bit wrong, God can strike him dead. I’m glad I’m just a common person, a common Joe, and not having to do all that stuff in the tabernacle.
Well, we have this other story about a common Joe, somebody who was at the very opposite end of the spectrum from Nadav and Avihu (נָדָב וַאֲבִיהוּא) and he did something that was even easier to do. He just spoke words. Those words cost him his life. So, when you put these two stories together, you see God driving home a very important point. No matter whether you’re at the top or at the bottom, you must treat God with holiness, with respect, with awe. Because you may think, it’s dangerous up there. God’s saying it’s dangerous down here. You must approach me and treat me with all respect. I am holy. You be holy as well.
You see what happens when you take these two stories which God designed for them to be in the book of Leviticus and he designed for us to take these two things and put them together so we can see a bigger picture.
Now I’m not going to spend that much time on these other examples but you can also take words, for example we read about Noah’s ark in Genesis and he tells Noah to make a tevah (תֵּבָה), an ark.
Now, if I ask you, what is the other ark we find in the Bible? Because there’s only two arks in the Bible. You probably say, “Well, the ark of the covenant.” Uh, that’s not the case. We’re using the words, the English words for ark. But in Hebrew, the ark of the covenant is not a tevah (תֵּבָה). The ark of the covenant is an aron (אָרוֹן). So, they’re two completely different words in Hebrew.
But the word tevah (תֵּבָה) is used for Noah’s ark, and it’s used only for one other item in the Bible. And that other item is the basket that Moses’ mother placed the baby Moses in and put him in the Nile River. That’s called a tevah (תֵּבָה). Now if we take these two instances of the word tevah (תֵּבָה), one to make this enormous boat that saved Noah and his family, these eight people and then pairs of the animals and this huge boat that saved mankind, and then you compare it to this little basket, you’ll find some similarities. They’re both covered with pitch on the inside and outside to make them waterproof. But that’s about where the similarity begins and ends.
But there’s only one soul that was saved in this other tevah (תֵּבָה). Or was there? This other tevah (תֵּבָה) which contained just this infant baby boy, this little boy Moses. God used him to bring salvation to all of Israel and to a great mixed multitude, and through him to prophesy of the coming of the Messiah. And the words that God gave us through Moses are impacting and bringing salvation to lives even today. So we could say God saved the world through this huge tevah (תֵּבָה) that had these eight people and these animals in it. But he saved the world through this little tevah (תֵּבָה) that contained the infant Moses. Amazing picture. There’s so much here we could, you could talk about. But when you’re aware of these two things, you bring them together. Then you get a bigger picture.
Um let’s go to the Greek scriptures because we find this principle alive and well there also.
One I just discovered recently is— I’m reading through the Gospel of Luke and John. I’m always in John just reading it over and over. And I notice that there are two times where Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) disrobes. He takes off his robe. And the first time we find in John, I think it’s chapter 12. Let me just double check…— Chapter 13 here. He takes off his outer garment so that he washes his disciples’ feet.
But then about six chapters later in chapter 19, we see the Roman soldiers taking off his garment so they can crucify him. These are only two occasions where Yeshua’s (יֵשׁוּעַ) robe is removed. That’s recorded. Now if we take these two stories where he voluntarily takes off his robe to cleanse his disciples’ feet and then involuntarily his robe is removed so that he can wash away our sins and you begin to look at the similarities and the differences. You begin to see another menorah (מְנוֹרָה) pattern. They’re in balance. They’re similar but they’re opposite.
So look for these stories. They’re all through the Hebrew scriptures, all through the Greek scriptures. They’re just everywhere. But let me give another example. Let’s take a story that’s found in the Hebrew scriptures and let’s find one that’s also in the apostolic scriptures. So here’s the story. Some men are in a boat. There’s a storm at sea. They’re all afraid they’re going to die. And in the bottom of the boat is someone who’s asleep. And that sleeping individual is the key to being rescued from the storm.
What are the stories that I’m talking about? Well, of course, we know the story of Jonah, who’s in rebellion against God. He goes the opposite direction. He’s supposed to go to Nineveh, and he goes the other way. There’s a storm and finally they wake up Jonah in the bottom of the boat. And when they throw him overboard, it just becomes calm again.
And the other story is when Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) is in the boat with his disciples crossing the Sea of Galilee and a storm comes up. They’re all afraid we’re going to die. Yeshua’s (יֵשׁוּעַ) asleep in the boat. They wake him up and he says, “Why are you so afraid?” And then he just says, “Peace, be still.” And everything becomes quiet.
You take the two stories and put them together. What’s the big picture? We all are in a boat and we all go through storms. And the key to surviving the storm is to wake up whatever is asleep in the bottom of our boat. And we each have two in the bottom of our boat. One’s a Jonah and rebellion and one’s Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ). Make sure you throw the right one overboard. Too many times we embrace the Jonah and we throw Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) over the side. Let’s get rid of our rebellion and let’s embrace the son of God and then we experience peace in our lives.
Now, that’s just an example where you have a story in the Hebrew scriptures and its counterpart is in the Greek scriptures.
So, here’s what we’re going to do. I’ve just introduced this topic to you. But what we’re going to do is over the next three episodes the next where we’re going to look at just stories in the Hebrew scriptures. We’re going to look at pairs of words that align. We’re going to look at stories that align and just kind of hopefully give you some practice and a heads up to where you begin to recognize this and begin to look for balancing stories.
Then in session three, what we’ll do is look at stories just in the New Testament scriptures, and they’re everywhere in there. You’re going to find events in Yeshua’s (יֵשׁוּעַ) life that come in pairs, like the disrobing, and uh events where he does teachings that are in pairs. Um how many times does he feed a multitude miraculously? Two times. What’s the difference between these two events? And we’re going to look at a bunch of these things.
Then in the fourth episode, we’re going to look at places where you have something in the Old Testament scriptures that pairs up with something in the New Testament scriptures like with the two storms at sea, the boats and the men asleep in the bottom of the boat. We’ll look at a bunch of those and uh so hopefully that’ll whet your appetite and help to focus your eyes to look for these things through the Bible. It will really enrich your study.
But there’s something else it will do. I meet a lot of people whose menorahs (מְנוֹרוֹת) are like this. They look at one side of a thing and one extreme and they’re missing the balancing side. You know, if a menorah (מְנוֹרָה) is in balance, it sits on its own bottom without any effort from you and me.
But if your theology is unbalanced, for example, some people see God only as the lion. He’s very judgmental and he’s very strict and he’s looking to catch you doing something wrong. And when they read the Bible, this is what they see. Well, their menorahs (מְנוֹרוֹת) are out of balance and they have to really strut, grunt, and strain to keep their menorahs (מְנוֹרוֹת) upright because they only have half a menorah (מְנוֹרָה).
On the other hand, I meet people like this. They’re missing the other side of the menorah (מְנוֹרָה). They see Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) only as the lamb. They see him only as the baby in the manger. They see him as the suffering servant. And it’s grace, grace, grace. And I cannot express enough how gracious God is. But the thing is, God has sent us a Messiah who is a lamb and a lion. He came to allow us to do to him whatever we wanted to do. But when he returns, he will do with the world what he wants to do. He is the one who forgives our sins, but he will also judge our works. And you see both of these taught in scripture.
Here’s another one. This is one that you may often find yourself in the midst of. You’ve got Calvinism and Arminianism. Calvinism teaches that everything is determined by God and you have no free will and your salvation is already determined before you’re even born. You’re either destined for eternity in heaven or eternity in hell. There’s nothing you can do about it. Well, that’s pretty depressing. But the thing is, if you look in the scriptures, you’ll find verses that support that viewpoint. But it’s half of menorah (מְנוֹרָה). It’s out of balance.
On the other hand, you have Arminianism where God is not sovereign at all. Everything depends on you. Everything’s just on you. And so you better do it right because it’s all on you. God does not determine the outcome of anything. That’s kind of depressing as well. And you can find scriptures that also support that view.
What are we to do? Well, it’s like the rabbis say that all is determined by God and yet we have free will. In other words, God is absolutely sovereign, but we are still responsible for every decision we make. Now, our Greek thinking says, “well, if the one is true, the other can’t be.” But in Hebraic thought, it’s like if this is true and if this is true, they can both be true. I don’t have to understand how they’re both true.
But I do know that God runs the world and that he is in control and we can trust him because the story has a very happy ending. But I am also responsible for the decisions I make. And I need to be, need to be wise and skillful in how I live out this life because I will give an accounting for the things that I’ve done in my body as the scriptures say. I have to give an account for my deeds whether they’re good or bad. I have to do that. My salvation is based on his grace but my reward is based on my works. So we find that if we embrace all the scriptures that have to do with God’s sovereignty and also our free will that we have a balanced menorah (מְנוֹרָה) that sits on its bottom and I don’t have to strain like the guy in the picture here to hold up my theology.
So here’s an image I want you to keep in mind for those of you who are just listening to the audio. It’s a picture of a tightrope walker and he has one of these long poles he’s holding horizontally to help keep his balance.
Think of that pole. That pole is the word of God. That word of God which is balanced where God speaks one thing but we hear two. But let’s make sure we hear both things he’s saying because these two things God says that he’s a lion, he’s a lamb, he’s sovereign, that we have free will, and we can go through a lot of other things as well, and we hold on to the balance, the balancing truths, then we can walk the tightrope of this life without fear of falling off. But you can’t walk a tightrope very well just holding a stick out to one side. We need a balanced pole, a balancing pole so we can keep our balance in this world.
The word of God is incredibly balanced and everything is balanced with everything else. And so again, as we go through this series, I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I enjoy talking about these things and discovering, making new discoveries where we find these pairs of insights and stories and words and theologies that will help bring completion.
So, one thing God has spoken, let’s make sure we’re hearing with both ears so we can hear the depth and the fullness and the richness of what God is speaking to us. So, I’ll see you back here for episode two in a week or two and we’ll look at some of these balancing stories and words and principles in the Hebrew scriptures. So, until then, I wish you shalom (שָׁלוֹם) and may God bless.
Open All Scripture in Bible Gateway
