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Caption transcript for Divine Deliverance: “Jacob” (3/12)

• 00:01 Kirsten Hart: Even in the midst of a very dysfunctional family,
• 00:06 God can still work. This program today should give you and your family hope.
• 00:09 Here's "Zola Levitt Presents."
• 00:12 ♪♪♪
• 00:15 ♪♪♪
• 00:18 male announcer: From the beginning, our Creator
• 00:20 revealed his will to the common man.
• 00:24 Individuals listened to his call and responded in obedience,
• 00:29 from the first Hebrew Avraham to the culmination of salvation
• 00:33 in Messiah himself, the Lord faithfully intervenes
• 00:38 with his divine deliverance.
• 00:44 ♪♪♪
• 00:51 David Hart: Thank you for joining us today
• 00:52 on "Zola Levitt Presents."
• 00:54 I'm David Hart.
• 00:55 Kirsten: I'm Kirsten Hart. Jeffrey Seif: Jeffrey Seif.
• 00:56 David: We are in our series, "Divine Deliverance."
• 01:00 Kirsten: And today's person that we're talking about,
• 01:03 Jacob, I have a little bit of a problem with because
• 01:06 he was very deceitful to his dad.
• 01:08 Jeffrey: Yes, it's like, "Deliver us from ourselves.
• 01:11 Deliver us from this family."
• 01:13 Kirsten: Right, and I think we think, and maybe you think
• 01:16 also, that the people that made it into the Bible were these
• 01:19 wonderful heroes that were just perfect in God's sight and
• 01:23 his eyes, but not in the beginning.
• 01:26 Jeffrey: We're used to looking at biblical personalities
• 01:30 through stained glass.
• 01:31 You know, Saint So-and-so, Saint So-and-so.
• 01:33 Maybe they were just real people.
• 01:35 Maybe what's really beautiful is a beautiful and gracious God,
• 01:38 not a beautiful and perfect person.
• 01:40 Kirsten: Ooh, that's good. I like that.
• 01:42 David: Right now, let's go to our dramatic reenactment
• 01:44 and find out more about Jacob's journey.
• 01:46 Also, teaching on location from Dr. Seif.
• 01:50 ♪♪♪
• 02:02 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 02:39 [speaking in Hebrew]
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• 02:59 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 03:01 ♪♪♪
• 03:06 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 03:27 [speaking in Hebrew]
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• 03:55 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 04:11 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 04:32 [speaking in Hebrew]
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• 05:02 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 05:14 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 05:29 [speaking in Hebrew]
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• 05:52 ♪♪♪
• 05:56 Jeffrey: I get it. We get hungry, it happens.
• 05:59 And certainly Isaac's at a place in his life where he's
• 06:02 at the end of life, and I get wanting to get that last supper.
• 06:09 With all that, there's a problem with all this.
• 06:12 Here I'm holding this venison in my hand.
• 06:15 And you know what, there was a son who brought it by
• 06:18 his hand to his father's, but there was deceit in the mix.
• 06:22 Oh, it troubles me.
• 06:24 I don't like to see brothers pit against brothers,
• 06:27 but I raised boys.
• 06:28 I know what happens. There's family and tree here.
• 06:31 The mother pivots away from one toward the other.
• 06:34 That's problematic.
• 06:37 A brother who--a son who lies to his father, who
• 06:41 stealthily deceives him in order to gain something
• 06:44 from him, that bothers me.
• 06:47 Like I said, there are a number of problems in this text.
• 06:51 There are a number of possibilities as well.
• 06:53 And when God put the story in the Bible, he wasn't looking for
• 06:56 my permission and he wasn't necessarily looking for
• 07:00 my understanding, but I'm left to make sense of it.
• 07:05 In as much as I find problems with the story, I at one
• 07:09 level shouldn't be too surprised because there's
• 07:11 a problem when you look at Genesis.
• 07:13 You know, five minutes into the reading,
• 07:15 you realize something has gone horribly wrong.
• 07:18 Case in point here, we're looking at biblical literature's
• 07:22 major dysfunctional family.
• 07:26 Now, that's contemporary language, but when you look at
• 07:28 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Jacob's brother, and what have
• 07:32 you, there's all this family intrigue, everything you don't
• 07:36 want, and it really is a dysfunctional family.
• 07:41 If you look in your own family system and you consider dynamics
• 07:44 and you find problems with it,
• 07:47 don't think for a minute that all is lost.
• 07:50 And I say that never mind the bad news, never mind casting
• 07:53 negativity of what I'm looking at, the story here
• 07:58 is fascinating because God still comes through.
• 08:02 He comes to and works through flawed humanity.
• 08:08 And by the way, that's a testimony to God's grace,
• 08:11 his graciousness, that he is so very inclined to do that.
• 08:15 That's good news for modern man.
• 08:18 The truth of the matter is a little of deceit,
• 08:20 a little bit of manipulation, a little bit of hustle,
• 08:23 that unfortunately is part of the human condition.
• 08:29 Speaking of the human condition and going negative,
• 08:31 it's interesting.
• 08:33 When Dad beckons the son forward, when Yitzhak calls
• 08:39 forth his son thinking it's Esau, Isaac said to his son,
• 08:44 "How in the world were you able to find this meal so quickly?"
• 08:48 in chapter 27, verse 20.
• 08:54 He said, and listen to the son's response.
• 08:57 It's so telling to my way of thinking.
• 08:59 He said, "Because Adonai your God facilitated it
• 09:05 happening for me."
• 09:08 Key, "Ki hikrah Adonai eloheicha," your God.
• 09:12 It wasn't "My God."
• 09:15 And I mention that because when it comes to religion,
• 09:18 a lot of people, "That's your religion.
• 09:20 It's Dad's religion.
• 09:22 It's Mom's religion," but there's no personal experience.
• 09:28 This fellow Jacob is gonna experience a transformation.
• 09:32 He won't be performing like this forever.
• 09:35 And again, for my money,
• 09:36 manipulating a dad is inexcusable.
• 09:40 He is going to reform, as you'll see as we walk through this,
• 09:45 because he's going to experience deliverance, and he is going to
• 09:49 have a change of constitution, and he who was "your God,"
• 09:55 he will become "my God."
• 10:00 ♪♪♪
• 10:06 announcer: And Jacob left his mother and father in Beersheba
• 10:09 and journeyed toward Haran.
• 10:19 Finding a suitable stone for a pillow,
• 10:22 he laid down and fell asleep.
• 10:28 And Jacob dreamed there was a ladder
• 10:30 that reached up into heaven.
• 10:34 He saw angels of God ascending and descending.
• 10:38 And the Lord said, "I am the Lord,
• 10:42 the God of your grandfather Abraham.
• 10:45 I am the God of Isaac.
• 10:47 I will give you the land that you're relying upon.
• 10:51 I will give this land to you and to your seed.
• 10:55 And your seed will be like the dust of the earth and you shall
• 10:58 expand to the west and east, to the north and to the south.
• 11:03 All the families of the earth shall be blessed because
• 11:07 of you and your descendants.
• 11:10 I am with you, and will protect you wherever you go,
• 11:14 and will bring you back to this land.
• 11:17 I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised."
• 11:23 ♪♪♪
• 11:27 Jeffrey: One of the reasons why I am unimpressed by Jacob
• 11:30 is because he, in effect, was a mama's boy.
• 11:33 I'll probably get some mail for saying that, but his brother
• 11:36 Esau was the, you know, quarterback of the football
• 11:39 team, most likely to succeed, and Jacob's always hanging
• 11:42 around with his mother, helping out in the kitchen.
• 11:44 I mention this because he's on the road.
• 11:47 He's on his own now.
• 11:48 And you know, it's the first time in his life.
• 11:52 He is, in effect, the prodigal son.
• 11:53 He's on the run. He's running for his wife.
• 11:58 Ostensibly, truth be known, he's running for his life.
• 12:01 Mother knew we needed to get this boy out of here
• 12:03 'cause his brother's gonna kill him, and off he goes alone.
• 12:06 Doesn't have two nickels to rub together.
• 12:08 Now, the family had some means, but Mother wasn't able
• 12:11 to fill his pockets with an American Express card and cash.
• 12:15 He's on his own.
• 12:16 In as much as we want our children to experience
• 12:19 God in church, sometimes they have to
• 12:21 go out on their own and find him on the road.
• 12:27 And that's our story here. It's his first night out.
• 12:30 You know, scared as a cat I'd imagine.
• 12:33 He lays down. It's a restless night.
• 12:35 You know what it's like when you're up
• 12:37 against uncertain circumstances.
• 12:39 But guess what?
• 12:40 Amidst the turbulence of his trying times,
• 12:43 God shows up for him.
• 12:45 And the Word in chapter 28 in Genesis is striking.
• 12:50 The Word in verse 13, I am Adonai,
• 12:53 the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac."
• 12:58 Yeah, you know, I'm the guy--you know, your God, his God.
• 13:02 Yeah, I am that guy.
• 13:04 And he goes on to say, "Guess what?"
• 13:07 in verse 15, "I'm gonna be your God too."
• 13:13 "Behold, I am with you, and I will watch over you
• 13:18 wherever you go."
• 13:24 Listen, I'm a dad.
• 13:25 I've raised sons, and you know, they're under your tutelage when
• 13:28 they're little and off they go into this scary world.
• 13:32 Off they go into the wild blue yonder.
• 13:35 When I read this, I retroject back to the moment.
• 13:41 And I've experienced in my children's life a God who
• 13:45 is watching over his Word to perform it and who is with them.
• 13:51 That this boy has an experience where heaven opens up
• 13:56 and he sees coming down from heaven and going into heaven.
• 14:00 And let me say, a flash like that is what our children need.
• 14:10 Like I said, it's a great story.
• 14:12 It's not just reading about those people back then, but it's
• 14:14 a story about redemption and deliverance unfolding.
• 14:19 Deliverance is here coming to a young man and we're going
• 14:24 to see deliverance coming through that young man.
• 14:28 But here we experience him experiencing God and saying,
• 14:33 "Truly, this is a stairway to heaven.
• 14:36 This is a place," and he names it the House of God.
• 14:42 If you're at a place in your life where you're ready
• 14:45 to give up on your kids, don't because they too
• 14:49 might find a stairway to heaven.
• 14:56 announcer: Our resource on this program,
• 14:57 "Sons of Promise" on DVD.
• 15:00 For your donation of $65 or more, you'll receive
• 15:03 all eight programs which recount the history
• 15:05 of Abraham's family through Isaac and Jacob.
• 15:08 God's eternal covenant with the children of Israel is revealed
• 15:11 and proved faithful against the backdrop
• 15:13 of the modern miracle of Israel.
• 15:16 Call 1-800-WONDERS and ask for the
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• 15:25 male: Hi, thanks for watching "Zola Levitt Presents."
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• 15:53 ♪♪♪
• 15:56 David: Through your support, you're literally helping us
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• 16:01 We just wanna say thank you for that.
• 16:03 Right now, let's go back to our dramatic reenactment.
• 16:11 announcer: Thinking it best that he appease his brother,
• 16:13 Jacob met with his servants, saying, "Maybe Esau will forgive
• 16:18 me and accept me if I present him gifts.
• 16:22 Specially-selected herds of animals would be
• 16:24 gathered and sent ahead of their personal meeting.
• 16:28 His wives, maids, and children would also precede Jacob.
• 16:32 But first, that very evening, there would be a remarkable
• 16:37 encounter with the divine.
• 16:39 It would change Jacob's life forever.
• 16:44 ♪♪♪
• 16:54 ♪♪♪
• 16:56 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 17:16 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 17:28 ♪♪♪
• 17:33 Jeffrey: I've raised boys, and to be gut-level honest,
• 17:36 there have been times when I felt they've wrestled
• 17:38 with me and even wrestled with religious issues, and
• 17:43 it's been rather unpleasant to behold.
• 17:45 Now, there's an argument I shouldn't say this on
• 17:47 national TV, and of course my boys aren't here to defend
• 17:50 themselves, but I think if we're honest, part of growing up
• 17:53 and moving on, kids do that normally.
• 17:56 It's not even a critique, it's more of an observation.
• 17:58 This guy did it. This guy did it.
• 18:02 If you look at Jacob, he's transformed.
• 18:06 In fact, we say, "Come with us to Israel."
• 18:10 Why don't we say, "Come with us to Jacob"?
• 18:13 The word "Yakov" has a name that kind of implies a kind
• 18:16 of craftiness and deceitfulness, but his name was changed
• 18:21 and it was changed to "Yisrael."
• 18:24 "Srael" arguably is "Prince of God."
• 18:28 This guy didn't just have a change of name, he had a change
• 18:32 of perspective and it came through a wrestling match.
• 18:37 Now, let me just say, I think if God was wrestling with man,
• 18:42 it wouldn't last all night.
• 18:43 It wouldn't last for a split second never mind.
• 18:44 I think God would win it on the quick.
• 18:47 There's a prolonged struggle here, and you know, you're not
• 18:51 gonna just wrestle with God and the only injury
• 18:54 you're gonna sustain is something with a hip.
• 18:57 You're gonna get crushed like an ant.
• 19:00 But God lets this play work its way out in order that people
• 19:06 can be transformed on the out.
• 19:09 And by the way, the word "transformed," "trans"
• 19:12 is the Latin for "to cross over," and "form,"
• 19:15 you hear "metamorphosis."
• 19:17 "Meta" is change," "morphe" is form.
• 19:19 People undergo metamorphosis, metamorphe, a change of form,
• 19:24 and it happens internally.
• 19:27 You might know some that are wrestling with God.
• 19:29 I would pray 'em through.
• 19:31 When you look at this story, we're told in chapter 32,
• 19:35 verse 25 that Jacob is there wrestling.
• 19:39 Yakov is in the middle of a match and it's prolonged, in
• 19:44 the consequence of which, in 29 he says, "Your name
• 19:47 will no longer be called Jacob, but rather Israel."
• 19:54 Who within the sound of my voice has experienced a transformation
• 20:00 in their own life where you find that you're different
• 20:03 now than you were then?
• 20:06 And what separates you now from then is a wrestling match.
• 20:15 People wrestle with deliverance today.
• 20:19 They wrestle with the divine deliverer.
• 20:25 It's been known to happen.
• 20:26 When I read the New Testament, people are
• 20:28 wrestling with the Lord.
• 20:30 The saying's of Yeshua, "But he watches over his Word
• 20:35 to perform it," and somehow, some way, people are
• 20:41 transformed in the process.
• 20:43 It's good news for Jews here and it's good news
• 20:45 for me and you here.
• 20:48 God delivers.
• 20:50 He changes people and he changes circumstance.
• 20:57 Kirsten: I really don't wanna come across self-righteous or
• 21:00 holier than thou, but as a mom, I have a little bit of a problem
• 21:04 with Jacob fooling his father for this birthright.
• 21:08 I mean, it was not a good deal what he did, right?
• 21:11 Jeffrey: I think the bond between parent and child
• 21:13 should be sacrosanct, sacred, and there should
• 21:16 be honesty and truth flowing.
• 21:18 This gaming business doesn't abide with me either.
• 21:21 It's not just a problem in the pages, it's a
• 21:24 problem into the modern ages as well.
• 21:26 And I say that because I know a lot of people that
• 21:29 are just so disappointed in their kids.
• 21:31 You know, they look to raise 'em up right in the fear and
• 21:34 admonition of the Lord only to discover that it's like
• 21:38 they passed puberty and got demon-possessed.
• 21:41 It's like something else seems to have taken over.
• 21:43 Gone are the Sunday school lessons.
• 21:45 Gone is the virtue as they've broken away
• 21:47 to go another way in life.
• 21:49 David: We haven't experienced that with our children,
• 21:51 thank the Lord, but it happened early on in the Bible
• 21:56 and it still happens today.
• 21:57 But there is hope for all of us.
• 22:00 Kirsten: Right, God saw who he would be.
• 22:02 Jeffrey: Yes, God turned it around.
• 22:04 To your point, it pivots.
• 22:07 On the highway of life out there,
• 22:09 he has an experience with God.
• 22:12 He wrestles with him and he wrestles with himself
• 22:17 and his circumstance.
• 22:19 He does come out of it a new man.
• 22:20 I love it in the text.
• 22:22 It says that Jacob, subsequent to this match,
• 22:26 he names this place where he wrestles with God.
• 22:29 In Hebrew, Penuel.
• 22:32 "Punim" is the word for face, the face of God.
• 22:35 He saw God and that made all the difference.
• 22:39 Would that you saw him today.
• 22:42 And I know as worship leaders, you're all about bringing
• 22:44 people into God's presence, yes?
• 22:46 David: Right, I think wrestling with God,
• 22:48 I've been through that.
• 22:50 I think maybe you've been through that
• 22:51 in your life early on.
• 22:53 And it's something that we have to deal with ourselves,
• 22:55 not our parents getting us through this.
• 22:59 It's something that we have to deal with ourselves.
• 23:01 Jeffrey: It's very up close and personal, yes.
• 23:04 We need to have our own existential encounter,
• 23:07 our own experience.
• 23:09 In fact, to know something in Hebrew, "yodea."
• 23:13 It's from the word "to touch, to experience."
• 23:16 That's the real knowing, when we experience God
• 23:19 and come to him face-to-face.
• 23:21 David: That's right. We will be right back.
• 23:25 Jeffrey: Our Creator chose certain places on the
• 23:27 planet to reveal himself and his message of redemption to us.
• 23:33 Mount Sinai, Moriah, Olives, the Mount of Beatitudes,
• 23:37 as well as various seas, rivers, and deserts.
• 23:40 These were the places.
• 23:42 Some are now only ruins, yet they continue to tell
• 23:45 of the Lord's faithfulness and love.
• 23:49 These sacred backdrops have been beautifully captured
• 23:52 in our resource this week, the book, "Heaven and Earth:
• 23:57 Landmarks of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation."
• 24:02 Our producer and director Ken Berg has assembled some of
• 24:05 his favorite photographs taken during his four decades
• 24:10 of travel through the lands of the Bible.
• 24:14 Contact us and ask for the book, "Heaven and Earth."
• 24:21 announcer: For insightful perspectives on Israel and Bible
• 24:24 prophecy, ask for our free monthly newsletter,
• 24:27 "The Levitt Letter."
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• 24:32 watch the TV program, or visit our online store.
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• 24:40 Come with us on a tour of Israel or Petra,
• 24:43 or a cruise to Greece and Ephesus.
• 24:46 Please contact us for more information.
• 24:51 Kirsten: Of course, a tour to Israel is about the land and
• 24:54 the biblical sites, but I've gotta be honest with you,
• 24:57 one of the first questions I get,
• 24:59 especially by the girls and women that go on tour is,
• 25:02 "Will we have time to shop?"
• 25:04 My answer is yes.
• 25:06 We go to wonderful shops, places where you can get
• 25:09 Dead Sea products, where you can get jewelry of the holy land.
• 25:13 We will have those stops for you, so fear not.
• 25:16 Go with us, see the sights of the holy land,
• 25:19 and we'll have fun shopping too.
• 25:22 Now let's go to some music by our founder, Zola Levitt.
• 25:26 ♪♪♪
• 25:37 ♪♪♪
• 25:47 ♪♪♪
• 25:57 ♪♪♪
• 26:07 ♪♪♪
• 26:16 Jeffrey: It's great to hear Zola's music.
• 26:19 It's also great to hear the story of Jacob.
• 26:22 It's interesting to say that because he's not
• 26:26 a magnificent human being at one level.
• 26:30 So, Jeffrey, what's so great about it?
• 26:32 It's great to see the grace of God that reaches
• 26:36 into that man's life and transforms it.
• 26:39 It's not only good for Jacob, it's good for me,
• 26:41 it's good for you.
• 26:42 What say you?
• 26:44 Kirsten: If you don't mind me using this term, he made
• 26:47 the trifecta of God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
• 26:51 He made that, and even though he wrestled and even though he
• 26:55 deceived his dad, God still loved him so much.
• 26:59 That's the grace.
• 27:00 Jeffrey: He had to become the God of, to your point, personal.
• 27:03 Kirsten: That's good.
• 27:05 David: Thankful for grace, amen.
• 27:07 Kirsten: We have more of our series next week, come back.
• 27:09 Tell your friends and family to watch us here
• 27:11 on "Zola Levitt Presents."
• 27:13 Jeffrey: And until you go, sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim.
• 27:17 David: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
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