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Caption transcript for Kings and Kingdoms: “Israel’s Omri and Ahab” (3/8)

• 00:02 David Hart: Welcome to, "Our Jewish Roots,"
• 00:04 with insightful Bible teaching from Israel by Dr. Jeffrey Seif.
• 00:07 This week, a mutiny in the palace leads
• 00:10 to the king of Israel who was the worst of the worst,
• 00:13 coming up on, "Kings and Kingdoms."
• 00:15 ♪♪♪
• 00:25 ♪♪♪
• 00:35 ♪♪♪
• 00:45 ♪♪♪
• 00:56 ♪♪♪
• 01:07 David: We're so glad you've joined us today.
• 01:08 I'm David Hart.
• 01:09 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 01:11 Jeffrey Seif: I'm Jeffrey Seif.
• 01:12 And I'm aware most people watch TV,
• 01:14 they wanna get their mind off their problems.
• 01:16 We'll do it today by looking at somebody else's.
• 01:18 This world is a mess.
• 01:21 Kirsten: It is but our world is a mess too.
• 01:23 Jeffrey: Yes, we're gonna look at political intrigue
• 01:25 and really bad characters.
• 01:27 Kirsten: And where political intrigue and bad characters,
• 01:29 there's nothing new under the sun, is there?
• 01:31 Jeffrey: It's in the Book.
• 01:32 Kirsten: It's right there.
• 01:34 Jeffrey: See what we can learn.
• 01:35 David: Right, Professor Seif is in Israel right now, teaching.
• 01:37 Let's go there now.
• 01:38 ♪♪♪
• 01:48 Jeffrey: I come from a culture that places a premium
• 01:52 on following commands, for working under command structure.
• 01:58 I remember one time, at a dinner,
• 02:00 I pointed out to my wife, "You see that man there?
• 02:04 That's Lieutenant Leverance."
• 02:05 This is when I was a firefighter.
• 02:07 I said, "Every time you see him, be nice to him
• 02:09 because my life is in his hands.
• 02:12 Most people are smart enough to run from fire,
• 02:14 some are dumb enough to run to 'em.
• 02:16 And I'm gonna follow orders when I go there."
• 02:19 Same is true in police culture.
• 02:21 You follow orders and things can become inherently dangerous
• 02:24 but you work under command.
• 02:26 Insubordination is adjudged to be a problem.
• 02:29 Mutiny is the unforgivable sin.
• 02:33 I mention that because we're entering into a world
• 02:36 where mutiny was the order of the day.
• 02:40 Well, I'm leaning up against sticks and bricks right now,
• 02:43 bricks particularly, but there's sticks too.
• 02:45 You don't see 'em.
• 02:47 When this fortress was built, the architects responsible
• 02:51 for it didn't follow the plans associated with it,
• 02:54 with the net result is they were killed,
• 02:56 they were beheaded.
• 02:58 This goes back to an Islamic day.
• 02:59 These forts round about here are built atop the ruins
• 03:05 of David's fortification.
• 03:07 Actually, there's been a lot of up and down.
• 03:09 In military culture, people know about
• 03:12 following orders but sometimes things get out of hand.
• 03:16 I mention that because I'm interested in someone
• 03:19 named Omri.
• 03:22 It's a word meaning my darling, my loved one.
• 03:25 But, as we'll see when I open up the Book,
• 03:27 he is not very lovely.
• 03:34 Omri is a little-known personality.
• 03:37 There's not much said about him.
• 03:39 When you look in biblical literature,
• 03:42 he's the progenitor of the horrible, that is to say,
• 03:46 Israel's, the northern kingdom's, most infamous
• 03:50 king comes from him, Ahab, and people know the story
• 03:54 of Ahab and Jezebel.
• 03:56 Here I wanna look and see how the apple of Ahab
• 03:59 didn't fall far from the tree of Omri, my beloved,
• 04:04 who wasn't very lovely.
• 04:06 We see in 1 Kings chapter 16 that he came to power
• 04:11 through mutiny.
• 04:13 He seized an opportunity.
• 04:16 I think there's something within the males of the species,
• 04:18 part of it's testosterone driven,
• 04:20 we're competitive, we can be assertive.
• 04:22 I get that.
• 04:24 You add a sinful nature to that, what Hebrews call loshon hara,
• 04:28 the evil inclination.
• 04:30 And this drive for success can get out of hand
• 04:34 in reasonably short order.
• 04:36 The author of James in the Newer Testament says,
• 04:38 "What causes wars among you?
• 04:40 It's passions that are at war in your members,
• 04:43 and they propel people forward in not a very good way."
• 04:47 Well, we're told here in the 16th chapter of 1 Kings
• 04:51 that Omri seized the moment.
• 04:54 In verse 16, "[speaking in a foreign language]
• 05:01 And all Israel made Omri," described then as a,
• 05:05 [speaking in a foreign language]
• 05:08 who was captain of the host, that is he's a military leader.
• 05:10 He's not a king, but he's not content
• 05:14 just to be a military leader, to be a captain.
• 05:16 No, that he seizes an opportunity and he usurps.
• 05:20 It says that it was then [speaking in a foreign language]
• 05:27 that they made him king then over all of Israel.
• 05:33 Short story, short reign, this political intrigue then.
• 05:38 They make him king in the military camp.
• 05:40 Someone else contends for it.
• 05:42 They fight, someone dies, he has hold of power.
• 05:47 It underscores for my money how precarious it is
• 05:51 when people seize power.
• 05:53 And I think of it in antiquity here they fought for it,
• 05:56 it's with knives and spears.
• 05:59 Today, happily, when there's a power vacuum,
• 06:02 an election comes up, people fight with words.
• 06:05 Sometimes, the words are very dastardly but better
• 06:09 with words than swords.
• 06:11 Here at the end of the day, they seize it and they do
• 06:14 bad things with it.
• 06:16 I mention that because when we read on in verse 25,
• 06:20 once in power, the author tells us,
• 06:24 "[speaking in a foreign language]."
• 06:28 And we hear this over and again, that Omri,
• 06:31 "did evil in the eyes of the Lord.
• 06:35 [speaking in a foreign language],"
• 06:39 and that he dealt wickedly, that he was just a tragedy,
• 06:43 that "he did evil in the sight of the Lord and dealt wickedly
• 06:46 above all."
• 06:47 He was a bad actor.
• 06:50 I mention that term because when I speak of an actor
• 06:54 or a bad actor, I'm not talking about movies,
• 06:57 actually, in police culture someone who breaks the law
• 07:00 is referred to as a bad actor.
• 07:03 And the reason why it is in police culture and I have that
• 07:05 as another life, by the way, another world,
• 07:08 arrests aren't made on the basis of thoughts.
• 07:12 People can think whatever they want and basically say
• 07:13 whatever they want.
• 07:15 It's actions that are problematic.
• 07:17 And the way this man came to power,
• 07:19 the actions associated with it were problematic
• 07:23 and what he does in power is problematic.
• 07:27 I mention that because as we look around and we see
• 07:31 how people jockey for position, they're looking for power,
• 07:35 I want you to be thinking about those that are more noble at the
• 07:39 end of the day, that people can be deceitful with their words,
• 07:44 they can be manipulative.
• 07:45 People can be stealthy and that's how Omri came to power.
• 07:49 It's unacceptable to my way of thinking and one would expect
• 07:53 better from biblical people in the biblical drama but,
• 07:56 interestingly, the Bible gives voice to the fact.
• 07:59 Now people come to power in all the wrong ways.
• 08:01 You get all the wrong people coming to power
• 08:03 in all the wrong ways and the effects are devastating.
• 08:07 Said all that to say this: when you have opportunity
• 08:10 and we have it all the time as, in our democracy,
• 08:13 the world cycles and people go to the ballot box and
• 08:16 they vote for a leader, not with a sword but with a lever,
• 08:20 I want you to be looking for people who you construe to be
• 08:24 the more noble, to be the more virtuous.
• 08:27 I want you, similarly, to look for people that seem to reflect
• 08:30 biblical faith and virtue.
• 08:32 I say it over and again, but it's an--it's a story that's
• 08:35 told over and again as we go into the annals of biblical
• 08:39 literature and we explore the story of kings and kingdoms.
• 08:44 Let's take pains to ensure that we get the right kind of leaders
• 08:48 in the right kind of place.
• 08:51 ♪♪♪
• 08:58 Jeffrey: There's an old saying that behind every good man
• 09:01 is a good woman.
• 09:03 Now, I believe that personally.
• 09:05 My wife, Barrie, I say of her, she's the way,
• 09:07 the truth, and the wife.
• 09:10 Wonder if when I get to heaven the Lord's gonna discipline me
• 09:12 a little on that, based on the fact that he was--
• 09:14 that's a verse that's talking about him.
• 09:17 The point is I adore her, and I follow her.
• 09:21 She has an influence on me.
• 09:24 So, why am I telling you about my wife?
• 09:26 Well, I wanna pivot to another story.
• 09:28 It's not only true that behind every good man is a good woman.
• 09:32 There's a story here today behind a bad man is a really,
• 09:36 really bad woman.
• 09:39 Now, a Hebrew king, Ahab, who's gonna marry a woman
• 09:45 named Jezebel.
• 09:48 You already know you're in trouble if you have a woman
• 09:50 whose name is Baal.
• 09:53 We read, by the way, her father's name
• 09:55 was Ithobaal, that is "with Baal."
• 09:58 You know you're marrying into the wrong family.
• 10:03 And I mention that because I'm coming to you from a site that
• 10:07 was built up as a--some kind of replication of the tabernacle
• 10:13 of Moses and, right behind me, there's a hill.
• 10:17 They built altars to Baal all over the northern kingdom of
• 10:22 Israel, Samaria, dozens of them.
• 10:26 It's tragic.
• 10:28 Here you have the pretense of Israelite religion and that just
• 10:33 leads to the disregard of it entirely as evidenced by a place
• 10:38 we're gonna look at a little more closely
• 10:40 and we're gonna open up the Word to do just that.
• 10:43 Come with me.
• 10:45 Let's look at the Bible yesterday and see
• 10:47 how it might apply today, c'mon.
• 10:50 ♪♪♪
• 11:00 ♪♪♪
• 11:08 Jeffrey: There's something rather tasteless
• 11:10 about talking about a guy's wife.
• 11:12 I get that.
• 11:14 But I'm not saying anything that the Bible doesn't say and more,
• 11:17 to tell you the truth.
• 11:18 And the question here, to my way of thinking,
• 11:21 is you have a leader, I don't care if it's a king,
• 11:24 a president, whatever, the question is who's advising
• 11:27 that person and what kind of world view are they drawing
• 11:31 from when tendering advice?
• 11:34 That was important in antiquity; it's important in modernity.
• 11:37 The Bible straight up seems to represent Ahab
• 11:41 as something of a simpleton.
• 11:44 His wife, however, was very, very spirited
• 11:47 and she was made of all of the wrong stuff.
• 11:51 And it had a bad consequence.
• 11:54 I'm looking in chapter 16 of 1 Kings, I'm reading it,
• 11:58 in my version we're told in verse 31:
• 12:03 "[speaking in a foreign language]
• 12:06 and he took a wife [speaking in a foreign language]
• 12:10 that is, Jezebel, [speaking in a foreign language]
• 12:14 Baal."
• 12:16 Now, the daughter, as I mentioned just
• 12:17 on the other side of this shrine here where I'm sitting.
• 12:20 It doesn't look like a shrine, just looks like a bunch of rocks
• 12:22 but they built altars to Baal all over Samaria.
• 12:26 I don't mind sitting on one.
• 12:28 You know, I don't like desecrating holy sites
• 12:30 but this isn't very holy to my way of thinking.
• 12:33 Once upon a time, people thought it was because of this woman.
• 12:37 I don't know why a Hebrew king is marrying someone
• 12:41 with the name "Baal."
• 12:43 I've made the point, I don't wanna beat it to death.
• 12:45 But we're told that he married her and before we get out
• 12:49 of the verse, that he follows her and worships Baal.
• 12:52 It can happen.
• 12:54 My wife personally has a lot of leverage over me.
• 12:57 I just worship the ground she walks on.
• 12:58 I've already said that.
• 13:00 And who's in your inner world?
• 13:02 It's important when we look in verse 33,
• 13:07 I'll give it to you in mine and translate:
• 13:09 "[speaking in a foreign language]
• 13:17 This Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel."
• 13:23 Now, that's not something you wanna do.
• 13:27 I wonder, by the way, personally to what extent God is provoked
• 13:33 by executive decisions that have made in judicial and executive
• 13:38 and congressional branches in the United States of America.
• 13:43 I think, when I look over history, I think this--
• 13:47 there are things that are odious, personally.
• 13:51 Well, here, never mind today, yesterday, we're told that
• 13:54 this man influenced as he was by that woman,
• 13:58 did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel,
• 14:01 [speaking in a foreign language]
• 14:05 than all the kings of Israel that were before him."
• 14:09 In other words, the worst of the worst of the worst,
• 14:12 and it was plenty bad before he got there.
• 14:15 I mention that because when I think of business
• 14:18 in my own country, I think there's been plenty done
• 14:24 that provokes the God of Israel.
• 14:26 I'm looking for a turnaround.
• 14:29 I'm looking for change and I'm not--
• 14:33 don't construe that as dissatisfaction.
• 14:36 I mean, this program airs on different times in years to come
• 14:42 and I don't know who's gonna be the president then and when,
• 14:44 who's going to lead.
• 14:47 But the point is that one of the things that I'm hoping for
• 14:50 in my waning days is for America to be on a trajectory
• 14:55 to recover lost religion.
• 14:58 I mention that because here I am,
• 15:00 disrespecting a site to Baal.
• 15:04 There's some quasi-Jewish Hebrew site not far from here,
• 15:09 a facsimile of the Mishkan, Mosaic worship space,
• 15:12 but that was just a fake.
• 15:14 Fake Jews, fake news.
• 15:15 But I'm coming to you from the Holy Land here in a major city
• 15:19 in the northern kingdom of Israel that broke away.
• 15:22 I'm interested in what's over yonder hill, Jerusalem.
• 15:25 I wanna see people turn back to the God of Avraham,
• 15:31 Yitzchak, and Ya'aqov: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
• 15:35 And I believe, by the way, that Yeshua HaMashiach,
• 15:38 Jesus the Messiah, is the principal turnaround agent
• 15:43 with the net result, as a result of experiencing him,
• 15:47 people can get good government in their own head.
• 15:50 It can affect their own lives.
• 15:52 They can utilize that influence to be life in the world
• 15:55 and light in the world and change the world.
• 15:58 Let it be so.
• 16:01 male announcer: Our resource this week:
• 16:03 The "Grafted-In Necklace."
• 16:05 Wearing this lovely sterling silver rendition of a classic
• 16:09 Messianic symbol shows you recognize the Jewish roots
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• 16:21 the Lord, and abundant love.
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• 17:06 Kirsten: I am not ashamed to admit this: I love social media.
• 17:10 David: It's true.
• 17:12 Kirsten: I do.
• 17:13 And the reason is because it connects us with so many people
• 17:15 across the world.
• 17:16 And that's what we wanna do through our social media sites
• 17:19 here on "Our Jewish Roots" is connect with you and,
• 17:23 right now, I wanna connect with you and say a special thank you
• 17:27 for keeping us on the air and keeping this ministry going.
• 17:30 It's all because of our viewers and donations sent
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• 17:36 We take the good news around the world because of you.
• 17:38 Thank you.
• 17:40 David: Thank you so much.
• 17:41 God deserves your praise. He deserves our praise.
• 17:43 Our Hebrew lesson today is all about praise and worship.
• 17:46 Let's go to Sarah Liberman now.
• 17:48 ♪♪♪
• 17:54 Sarah Liberman: Shalom haverim.
• 17:56 Welcome to our series on worship words in Hebrew.
• 17:59 I am so excited as a worship leader to be able to show you
• 18:04 the beauty of the Hebrew language when it comes
• 18:07 to this word, "praise."
• 18:08 Because so many times in our Bible in English when it says
• 18:11 the word "praise," in Hebrew there is
• 18:14 an entirely different word.
• 18:16 Today's word is the word "l'varech,"
• 18:19 which comes from the root word "barak" which means blessing.
• 18:23 Now, you might find that interesting when worship comes
• 18:28 into play with the word "blessing."
• 18:30 But if you look at the book of Job,
• 18:32 Job says this incredible statement: he says,
• 18:35 "God has given, God has taken away;
• 18:38 let the name of the Lord be praised."
• 18:40 Well, in Hebrew it actually says,
• 18:42 "Let the name of the Lord be blessed."
• 18:45 You see, blessing the Lord is something that
• 18:48 we do that blesses his heart.
• 18:51 It's willingly offering ourselves to the Lord
• 18:54 in any and every situation, no matter what is going on.
• 18:58 The word "blessing" in Hebrew comes from the root of knee,
• 19:02 which also implies kneeling down before the Lord in reverence,
• 19:08 in thanksgiving, in surrender.
• 19:11 So when we say this: "Bless the Lord O my soul,
• 19:15 and all that is within me.
• 19:17 Bless his holy name," that word again is "Barak l'varech."
• 19:22 I kneel down before the Lord, I worship you,
• 19:25 I bless you, Lord.
• 19:27 I want to bless your heart.
• 19:30 ♪♪♪
• 19:32 ♪ --mercy will be with me every day ♪
• 19:39 ♪ And I dwell in the house of my Lord forevermore ♪
• 19:50 ♪ I know my own and my own know me ♪
• 19:56 ♪ Though the voice of a stranger may call ♪
• 20:02 ♪ the Father's hand is stronger than he ♪
• 20:08 ♪ who leads astray ♪
• 20:15 ♪ I followed by still waters ♪
• 20:20 ♪ You were leading the way ♪
• 20:26 ♪ I drank deeply-- ♪
• 20:29 ♪ and there I rested on the shore forevermore ♪♪
• 20:39 ♪♪♪
• 20:45 David: Beautiful Messianic music by Marty Goetz.
• 20:47 Thank you, Marty.
• 20:49 Kirsten: Thank you, Marty.
• 20:50 Marty's been a friend of our ministry for a long time,
• 20:52 as well as Avi Lipkin and Jeff recently met up with him to
• 20:57 have a conversation about King Ahab and the infamous Jezebel.
• 21:01 Here's that conversation.
• 21:05 Jeffrey: Avi, Ahab, not so good, yes?
• 21:10 Avi Lipkin: I would say it like this.
• 21:11 He was a simpleton in his own way and
• 21:13 he was married to Isabel who--
• 21:16 Jeffrey: He definitely married wrong.
• 21:18 Avi: Yes, and Isabel was the daughter
• 21:19 of the king of Lebanon of that time, of Tire.
• 21:23 And if you remember the story of Naboth,
• 21:25 with his vineyard and, guess what,
• 21:28 "I want that vineyard," and-- but he didn't know
• 21:30 how to get it away from Naboth and so Isabel came,
• 21:33 "Leave it to me."
• 21:34 And she basically framed Naboth, had him killed,
• 21:36 and that's when the prophet, you know,
• 21:39 Elijah came and said, "You killed and you inherited."
• 21:43 In other words, they killed Naboth.
• 21:45 So, he wasn't a good guy.
• 21:46 Jeffrey: Yeah, I don't like political people
• 21:48 that gobble and seize.
• 21:50 We see that in the geopolitical world today, don't we?
• 21:54 Avi: Very correct and the Bible,
• 21:56 it's so valid for us today because it teaches us things
• 22:00 that were happening in the human world thousands of years ago
• 22:04 and are happening today also.
• 22:06 The Bible is very alive.
• 22:07 It's not something mythical.
• 22:09 It's something that really happened.
• 22:10 Jeffrey: Yes, that acquisitive nature,
• 22:13 that vile cruelty, pillaging and plundering,
• 22:16 it exists in modernity just like antiquity.
• 22:18 Avi: A very important point in the contest
• 22:20 between Elijah the prophet and the 450 priests of Baal,
• 22:25 he let them go first.
• 22:26 And he said, "If God doesn't take your offering,
• 22:29 then I'll do mine."
• 22:30 Then, of course, God took Elijah's offering.
• 22:32 The 450 priests of Baal were executed,
• 22:35 they were beheaded, and so this teaches us
• 22:39 the High Priests of Baal, when they were enchanting Baal
• 22:45 to come and take their offering and he didn't, they started
• 22:47 cutting their foreheads with knives and bleeding.
• 22:50 And this is the origin of the ashura,
• 22:53 self-mutilation ceremony, of the Shiites.
• 22:59 So the Shiite Islam has this ceremony going
• 23:03 all the way back to the pagans of Lebanon.
• 23:05 Jeffrey: Fascinating story. A little scary too, yes?
• 23:10 Avi: Indeed, like I said before,
• 23:11 the Bible shares things which on the surface you would think,
• 23:15 "Oh, that happened 3000 years ago."
• 23:16 No, this happened today.
• 23:18 Jeffrey: We're looking at kings and kingdoms
• 23:20 and we're seeing yesterday manifest today.
• 23:24 What a great point, good closing point.
• 23:26 Last word's of yours.
• 23:27 Avi: We are now living in a time in which
• 23:30 our opponents are-- I don't wanna say our enemies.
• 23:33 I hate to use the word "enemies," because, you know,
• 23:35 we are supposed to love our enemies.
• 23:36 But our enemies follow the same evil course as the enemies
• 23:41 who were destroyed by God 3000 years ago.
• 23:44 And God has the victory.
• 23:49 Kirsten: So we have this divided kingdom.
• 23:51 It's like the north versus the south.
• 23:53 And is one better than the other?
• 23:55 Jeffrey: Yeah, we don't have any divisions in our kingdom
• 23:57 today, of course.
• 23:58 It's just back then.
• 24:00 Now, we're looking at these leaders and I'm telling you,
• 24:01 unimpressive.
• 24:03 I've got a scorecard here and you're gonna say I'm a--
• 24:04 Kirsten: I see that.
• 24:06 Jeffrey: You're gonna say I'm a tough teacher.
• 24:07 You've glad you didn't have me in college.
• 24:08 David: From the beginning, doesn't look so good.
• 24:10 Jeffrey: Saul gets an "F."
• 24:11 I mean, I was just unimpressed by him from the get-go.
• 24:12 I loved David in the start; I didn't like his finish.
• 24:15 Solomon, I liked him at the start a little but then,
• 24:19 oh my word, I mean, I just give them "Ds"
• 24:21 and I think I'm gracious.
• 24:22 Maybe other professors there in the audience that are watching
• 24:25 would be a little more gracious.
• 24:26 Kirsten: You're right, I'm glad I wasn't in your class.
• 24:29 Jeffrey: But I'm a tough teacher.
• 24:31 Now, Solomon's son, Rehoboam,
• 24:32 was a worthless piece of human wreckage.
• 24:33 I was very unimpressed. He got an "F."
• 24:35 He didn't even start off good.
• 24:36 At least his father and grandfather started off good.
• 24:39 Jeroboam, I give him an "F" because he's the one
• 24:42 that led the kingdom, the northern tribes,
• 24:46 into a rebellion.
• 24:47 I mean, Solomon's pathetic policies contributed
• 24:51 to why there was fermenting discontent.
• 24:53 Jeroboam was their spokesperson and leader,
• 24:56 but it went from bad to worse under him.
• 24:59 Omri, who follows Jeroboam, gets an "F."
• 25:03 Kirsten: He gets an "F" but--
• 25:04 and I studied Old Testament history.
• 25:06 So did you in college.
• 25:07 I don't even remember his name.
• 25:09 It's like a non-name, isn't that crazy?
• 25:10 Jeffrey: There's not a lot said about him.
• 25:12 What do you think of this guy, Ahab?
• 25:13 Kirsten: Yeah, we know about he and his wife.
• 25:14 Jeffrey: Everyone remembers him because of his wife.
• 25:16 Kirsten: [laughing] His wife.
• 25:17 Jeffrey: Any Hebrew king that marries a woman named Jezebaal,
• 25:21 with "Baal" as part of her name, you know he's married
• 25:24 into the wrong family.
• 25:25 Kirsten: But even now, we talk about people
• 25:27 with the Jezebel spirit.
• 25:28 I mean, her name goes down through history.
• 25:30 Jeffrey: Yeah, well, that's where that
• 25:32 Jezebel spirit thing came from and he was rather sheepish,
• 25:34 you know, didn't have a lot of spine.
• 25:36 Leaders, you know, have to be tough.
• 25:39 You have to stand up and it's not always easy.
• 25:42 But we see too much collapsing here.
• 25:44 You know, I go for political leaders.
• 25:46 I like some strength in all of that.
• 25:49 I know there's imperfection.
• 25:51 You wanna get to perfection, we'll get to the last one,
• 25:52 Jesus.
• 25:54 We'll get to him at the end of the series.
• 25:55 This is all God's got to work with here, were human beings.
• 25:58 Some performed better than others.
• 26:00 Here, we're on a bad stretch of highway and it's going to
• 26:04 get better but Ahab reminds me of being way too sheepish.
• 26:09 He didn't--no backbone, didn't stand up.
• 26:12 And I didn't like that.
• 26:13 David: Today's kings, wasn't there a mutiny in the palace?
• 26:16 Jeffrey: Yeah, Omri led a revolt and that happens
• 26:19 on a number of occasions in biblical literature.
• 26:22 It's interesting that the Bible, for a book that's called,
• 26:25 "Good news," gives a window into bad news.
• 26:28 You know, we're supposed to learn something from it.
• 26:30 Kirsten: Right, so what is our takeaway, Professor?
• 26:32 Our quick takeaway for the end of this?
• 26:34 Jeffrey: Well, personally, I kind of, you know,
• 26:36 gave it on the front end there.
• 26:37 I'm looking for leaders.
• 26:39 I don't expect perfection but I need people to stand up
• 26:42 to wickedness.
• 26:44 And Omri personified a kind of wickedness.
• 26:46 Ahab seemed too sheepish in the face of it,
• 26:49 thus he acquiesced to it.
• 26:51 I want more backbone.
• 26:52 Kirsten: That's good. Stand up.
• 26:54 Stand up and be strong. Have a good backbone.
• 26:57 I think that's a good takeaway, but a good spiritual backbone.
• 27:00 Jeffrey: Yes, the Hebrew word is chazak, be strong.
• 27:04 Kirsten: That's a good word.
• 27:05 Jeffrey: Well, be strong and stay strong 'til next week.
• 27:08 What do you say?
• 27:09 Look forward to seeing you again.
• 27:10 Until then, shaalu shalom Yerushalayim.
• 27:12 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
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