Home » Zola TV » Video Archives » ZLM Video

Caption transcript for Revelation: Unveiling the Visions — “The Greater They Fall” (7/8)

• 00:03 David Hart: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots," with insightful Bible teaching by Dr. Jeffrey Seif.
• 00:11 ♪♪♪
• 00:21 ♪♪♪
• 00:28 David: We are so glad you've joined us today.
• 00:30 I am David Hart.
• 00:31 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 00:32 Jeffrey Seif: Jeffrey Seif here. Glad you're there.
• 00:35 And we're looking at the book today, guys and friends.
• 00:38 It starts off tough, real tough, but there's some good news
• 00:41 before we get out of the program so don't go click yet.
• 00:43 Kirsten: So in chapters 17, 18, 19 today, and it begins
• 00:46 with the fall of this great empire that's--
• 00:50 Jeffrey: It's hard to say the word.
• 00:52 The great whore, and this language that offends
• 00:55 the sensibilities for a variety of reasons,
• 00:58 but the language is striking.
• 01:01 It's designed to be that way, yes.
• 01:02 David: There's a word that sticks out in my mind.
• 01:04 You say, "finally," we're here in chapter 17.
• 01:07 Finally, after all the destruction
• 01:09 and all that's happened.
• 01:11 Jeffrey: Yes, now, all of a sudden, the destroyer is
• 01:13 starting to come unglued a little bit and that certainly
• 01:17 is good news.
• 01:18 If you're suffering you want to know it's coming to an end.
• 01:21 And you would gather that from the literature.
• 01:23 Kirsten: And Judgment Day.
• 01:25 We finally have, for everything in the past,
• 01:27 it's time to be judged for that.
• 01:29 Correct, we see that coming up?
• 01:30 Jeffrey: Yes.
• 01:32 Kirsten: Okay, more teaching from Dr. Jeffrey Seif
• 01:33 as we go to his first segment on the book of Revelation.
• 01:37 ♪♪♪
• 01:42 Jeffrey: You ever heard the term hopping in bed
• 01:45 with the devil?
• 01:47 Well, we're going to see where that comes from
• 01:49 in biblical literature.
• 01:53 Yup, in the 17th chapter of the book, Revelation, the author
• 01:57 gives voice, a prophetic word, against those who hop in bed
• 02:02 with the devil.
• 02:04 Here, there is a place that's likened to a great prostitute.
• 02:12 The place: Roma, Rome.
• 02:17 We see in chapter 17: "Come," or we hear.
• 02:21 "I will show you the sentencing of the great prostitute,"
• 02:27 judgment has come, "who sits on the many waters."
• 02:32 And there she is.
• 02:34 There's various seas here, and she sits central to them.
• 02:37 In fact, Rome became an empire because she conquered the seas.
• 02:43 She beat the Carthaginians in North Africa, and she controlled
• 02:47 the waters and then named it what we call the Mediterranean,
• 02:51 Mare Nostrum in Latin, our sea.
• 02:55 Well, there's this prostitute who sits on many waters,
• 02:58 and we're told that the kings of the earth committed sexual
• 03:02 immorality with her, and those who dwell on the earth got drunk
• 03:07 with the wine of her immorality.
• 03:11 I want to reflect on that for a moment but pivot
• 03:13 to a previous text.
• 03:15 In chapter 14, verse 4, previously the author, you know,
• 03:21 just spoke in kind terms of those who didn't defile
• 03:25 themselves with women, and I imagine if I was, you know,
• 03:30 a woman reading that, I'd go, "Wait a minute, why is it
• 03:32 defiling for one who has relationships with me?"
• 03:37 The term can be misleading and speaking of defiling with women,
• 03:43 it's not having just an appropriate sexual relations
• 03:46 within the contract of marriage but rather,
• 03:49 it's immorality that's an issue.
• 03:53 The Revelation author, as with others, give voice to the
• 03:56 premium that's placed on us being faithful in marriage.
• 04:01 And those who were faithless in marriage commit immorality.
• 04:06 It's not that sexual acts within marriage are adjudged
• 04:09 to be problematic.
• 04:11 What's extolled here isn't celibacy over sexual experience.
• 04:17 I mention that because here in the literature voice is given
• 04:20 to those who hop in bed with the devil.
• 04:23 We're told again in verse 5 that
• 04:25 Babylon the Great is the mother of prostitutes.
• 04:31 She's adjudged to be the source of all things wicked.
• 04:36 In a Hebrew world over here it's construed that this is
• 04:39 the Holy Land and it's made holy because of the temple,
• 04:45 and the God who dwells in the temple.
• 04:47 By way of contradistinction, there's another city that's not
• 04:52 so sacred a city here in Rome and there's a palace therein and
• 04:58 there's someone who dwells there.
• 05:01 There have been wars and Jerusalem has been bested.
• 05:06 The Jewish world has fallen, the temple has been destroyed.
• 05:10 And it seems like everyone who is anyone is thinking the real
• 05:14 locus of world power is over here.
• 05:17 This author thinks not.
• 05:20 He gives voice to the fact that they're going to have their day.
• 05:26 The evil empire will fail.
• 05:30 And from his perspective in century 1, again,
• 05:33 Rome was the evil empire.
• 05:36 Licentiousness, wickedness, have come from Rome.
• 05:39 In fact, it was celebrated therein.
• 05:42 But he sees an eventual triumph of God in human history and by
• 05:47 the way, he sees it at a time when no one
• 05:49 would have bet on it.
• 05:51 I mention that because Rome is so very powerful and no one
• 05:56 would have thought that this group is going to be able to get
• 06:00 the better of Rome at the end of days.
• 06:04 But we're told in verse 14 that this wicked empire "makes war
• 06:10 against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them--
• 06:14 because he is Lord of lords and King of kings,
• 06:18 and those with him are called chosen and faithful."
• 06:24 This author sees an arising.
• 06:27 He sees a rebellion.
• 06:29 He sees that the wicked empire is going to be thrown off at
• 06:33 day's end, that the slain, that the crucified one, will prevail.
• 06:39 And those with him similarly, though it might seem they
• 06:42 prevail not just now, nevertheless, victory is theirs
• 06:48 at the ragged edge of time.
• 06:50 More to come.
• 06:53 ♪♪♪
• 07:03 Jeffrey: I've long observed, and I'm mentioning this someone
• 07:06 with experience in criminal justice more so than in church
• 07:10 work, in pastoral ministry.
• 07:13 I've observed that people that have been injured,
• 07:17 there's something internal.
• 07:19 You want the day in court and you want to see justice served
• 07:23 on the malefactor.
• 07:25 That is, people are unrested.
• 07:27 Something's wrong in the world that needs to be made right and
• 07:31 there's an understanding in some kind of psychological sense that
• 07:34 it's righted when they have their day in court, when the
• 07:38 person is judged and sentenced appropriately.
• 07:43 Never mind--don't read too much into that.
• 07:45 I'm not saying it's right, I'm not saying that it's wrong,
• 07:48 but I'm saying that it is.
• 07:50 And I'm mentioning that as a backdrop to what we're looking
• 07:52 at here in this program so far and again in chapter 18 where
• 07:57 there's this prophetic invictive--invective that's
• 08:00 given voice to: "Judgment, she's fallen, she's going down,
• 08:05 finally she's got her just deserve."
• 08:08 Now, this wouldn't necessarily comport with the sensibilities
• 08:13 of an understanding that, well, we're always supposed to forgive
• 08:16 and overlook and just kind of bear with it.
• 08:19 There's a sense in which something is wrong in the world,
• 08:22 and it has to be righted.
• 08:25 And therein, we get to the story of Revelation.
• 08:30 You look at the end of the Bible in Revelation and you look at
• 08:33 the beginning, something has gone horribly wrong.
• 08:36 In Genesis sin has made its entrance onto the stage
• 08:39 of the human drama.
• 08:41 Well, guess what?
• 08:43 God wants his planet back.
• 08:44 And finally, there's a judgment on the thief in chapter 18:2:
• 08:50 "Fallen is Babylon the great."
• 08:54 Now, truth of the matter is, when this author speaks,
• 08:57 Babylon is--Babylon has long since been gone.
• 09:00 But if you can understand it, they supplemented
• 09:03 the word "Rome" with Babylon in antiquity.
• 09:07 "She's become a den of demons, a haunt of every unclean spirit,
• 09:13 every unclean bird, every unclean and detestable beast."
• 09:17 You know, everything that's not kosher in the world
• 09:19 comes from there.
• 09:21 "And all nations have drunk the wine," we're told.
• 09:24 "The kings of the earth commit sexual immorality."
• 09:27 This is a prophetic way of giving voice to the centrality
• 09:31 of this wicked world empire.
• 09:36 In century 1 they would have understood it as Rome.
• 09:40 And readers would have understood since then that
• 09:43 eventually the devil, though he seems to have his day,
• 09:49 he will not have his way.
• 09:51 There is a judgment that's forthcoming and God's going
• 09:54 to get his planet back.
• 09:56 In verse 16 of the same chapter, "Alas, O great city--
• 10:03 clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet."
• 10:08 And the imagery here in century 1 speaks of royalty.
• 10:13 If you look at the costs associated with the dyes
• 10:16 for the manufacture of purple and so forth, it's--
• 10:19 this is the wealthy.
• 10:22 "Woe to those that not only adorned with fine fabrics but
• 10:26 similarly with gold, stones, pearls from the sea."
• 10:30 And he says something here that's repeated as we go on
• 10:34 from here that, to me, is strikingly significant.
• 10:39 He says the judgment will come "in a single hour."
• 10:45 It comes on the quick.
• 10:48 And that sense in which it's coming on the quick is
• 10:53 reiterated elsewhere.
• 10:54 Jesus is said to come like a thief in the night,
• 10:57 on the quick.
• 10:59 When people say peace and security, boom, it hits.
• 11:04 And by the way, the unexpected nature of a coming judgment was
• 11:10 brought to my awareness recently, and I'm not saying
• 11:14 this is the Lord.
• 11:16 You know, when I open up the Bible, I'm saying this is the
• 11:19 Lord but you know, I'm allowed to give my own opinion,
• 11:21 if you'll just permit.
• 11:23 When thinking of pandemic, plague, I mean, goodness, you
• 11:28 know, countries build up their arsenal, spend fortunes to do
• 11:31 all that, and the threat of a bomb, irrespective of the type,
• 11:36 granted, it's significant.
• 11:39 But there are threats that come from disease that don't cost
• 11:42 the money and they're much more devastating.
• 11:45 A kind of judgment that can just wipe out on the quick and bring
• 11:50 a system to a halt.
• 11:53 You with me are aware, we can think of the world grinding
• 11:58 to a half because of a disease from a bat.
• 12:03 The bubonic plague from a flea.
• 12:05 You know, I'm not one to say how God can do his business,
• 12:09 but I can say that people can be all proud and pompous.
• 12:14 In this literature it ends quickly, in an hour.
• 12:17 And again, in verse 19, in a single hour
• 12:21 she has been ruined.
• 12:26 Boy, that's not a very easy word, is it?
• 12:29 No, and we've all felt the, you know, association with the
• 12:32 ravage of disease and tension and certainly we're at a place
• 12:37 in the literature where the tension is kind of bearing down.
• 12:41 It's one of the reasons I say we need to read the Bible
• 12:44 as a whole story.
• 12:46 You know, I'm not at a good place right now but you know,
• 12:49 this is a series, and we're going to continue on in
• 12:52 Revelation, and we'll see there really is some good news
• 12:55 from ancient Jews.
• 12:57 We'll get away from this motif but not yet.
• 12:59 We're going to carry on as we look at Revelation,
• 13:03 and we unveil the visions.
• 13:06 ♪♪♪
• 13:13 David: Our resource this week: the series
• 13:15 "Revelation: Unveiling the Visions" on DVD.
• 13:19 Dr. Jeffrey Seif walks through all 22 chapters of the book of
• 13:23 Revelation from glorious visions and angelic visitations to
• 13:27 darkness and judgment.
• 13:29 Release your fear of the future and focus on God's plan
• 13:32 of salvation and ultimate restoration.
• 13:35 Get your own copy by contacting us and asking for the DVD
• 13:39 series, "Revelation: Unveiling the Visions."
• 13:45 David: If you only watch us on television, you're missing
• 13:47 additional content available only on our social media sites:
• 13:51 Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
• 13:53 You can always visit our website which is home base for all
• 13:57 of our ministry activities and information.
• 14:00 There you can sign up for our free monthly newsletter, watch
• 14:03 the TV program, or visit the online store.
• 14:07 You can sign up for a tour of Israel and Petra or a cruise
• 14:11 to Greece and Ephesus.
• 14:13 Please contact us for more information.
• 14:19 Kirsten: There's a wealth of extra information that we put
• 14:22 out on our social media sites above and beyond what you have
• 14:27 right here on the television program, so we will see you
• 14:29 there, and we'll meet you on social media.
• 14:31 David: In our next segment, Dr. Seif will be teaching on
• 14:33 heavenly worship.
• 14:35 When we take you to Israel, you'll feel like you're in
• 14:37 heaven as we worship at the Garden Tomb.
• 14:41 I love to get on a boat on the Sea of Galilee
• 14:43 and worship together.
• 14:45 We would love for you to join us.
• 14:46 You can find all the information on levitt.com.
• 14:48 Kirsten: There's a saying that says you vote
• 14:50 with your dollar.
• 14:52 And if you want to vote to keep this program on the air that
• 14:56 vitally teaches the Word of God through Jewish eyes,
• 15:01 vote for us.
• 15:03 We will accept different kinds of donations.
• 15:05 It's very interesting.
• 15:07 You can be creative, but we thank you ahead of time
• 15:10 for keeping us here.
• 15:12 David: Open your Bible now to chapter 19 in Revelation
• 15:14 as we study worship in heaven.
• 15:18 ♪♪♪
• 15:23 Jeffrey: There's a Jewish expression, tsuris.
• 15:26 It means aggravation.
• 15:28 You ever get to a place, bad news, bad news, bad news.
• 15:33 You're looking for something good.
• 15:36 Why do I mention that?
• 15:38 Because Revelation is full of darkness but all of a sudden,
• 15:42 pfft, there's some brightness.
• 15:44 Why do I say that?
• 15:46 In chapter 19, verse 1: "After these things,
• 15:51 I heard something like the great multitude in heaven,
• 15:55 shouting, 'hallelujah.'"
• 15:58 I mean hallelujah.
• 16:00 That's where you get praise the Lord.
• 16:01 And this is one of a few hallelujahs in the literature,
• 16:05 praise the Lord.
• 16:06 Finally, this author can be a happy camper.
• 16:12 There's some--something encouragement breaking through
• 16:16 the darkness.
• 16:18 And they're singing, "Salvation and glory and power
• 16:22 belong to our God."
• 16:25 That's what we want and by the way, we expect it.
• 16:28 And faith demands it because of a belief that we, because we are
• 16:33 children of the King, that there is a triumph that goes along
• 16:40 with that designation.
• 16:42 So finally, there's a hallelujah,
• 16:44 there's a praise the Lord, and in verse 6 and on,
• 16:48 there's the third "Hallelujah!
• 16:50 For the Lord Almighty reigns!"
• 16:54 Or the Lord powerful reigns, that is, with might,
• 16:59 Adonai Tzva'ot.
• 17:01 Tzva'ot of the armies.
• 17:03 "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to him!"
• 17:10 There's tensions and life, never mind the ragged edge of time,
• 17:15 just our own time as we make our journey through time,
• 17:19 there are rough bumps.
• 17:21 It happens.
• 17:23 But we persevere, we press on.
• 17:27 And that's what's at play here.
• 17:29 This person sees a new day dawning.
• 17:32 In verse 7: "Let us rejoice and be glad."
• 17:36 And this gladness is at a time when gladness has been in very
• 17:41 high demand and very short supply.
• 17:44 But we see things changing here now.
• 17:47 "The wedding of the Lamb has come, and the bride
• 17:51 has made herself ready."
• 17:55 It's an interesting kind of meal, however.
• 17:58 I mention that because there's one final battle, and here
• 18:05 the author says in verse 11: "I saw heaven opened."
• 18:10 By the way, Revelation speaks of unveiling.
• 18:16 That is to say, there's a mystery, and we're unveiling
• 18:20 to take a look behind.
• 18:22 Finally, there's been fog, smoke, you know,
• 18:26 tension, confusion.
• 18:28 Finally, it's all ripped away, and the Lord shows up.
• 18:33 He presents.
• 18:34 Finally, "I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse!"
• 18:40 You know, there's been other horses that have come
• 18:42 and brought miseries.
• 18:44 "A white horse, and the one riding it is called
• 18:47 Faithful and True."
• 18:49 His eyes are aflame.
• 18:51 There's this apocalyptic image that we saw at the beginning of
• 18:54 Revelation that harks back to imagery in Daniel of this Son
• 18:59 of man caricature, this figure here, coming triumphant
• 19:03 on a horse.
• 19:05 And behind him in verse 14, "The armies of heaven,
• 19:08 clothed in fine linen."
• 19:11 We know from previous readings in Revelation that the believers
• 19:16 are given these linen garments.
• 19:19 Some have died.
• 19:21 Many have died, but they come back with him
• 19:24 for this climactic battle.
• 19:27 It's a fascinating story, and it gives voice to the eventual
• 19:30 triumph of God in human history.
• 19:35 And this is likened to a wedding feast, if you will.
• 19:39 As these armies with the Lord come, there's this
• 19:43 climactic battle, the clash of titanic forces.
• 19:48 But here, those clothed in white with the Lord, these believers,
• 19:52 are not victims.
• 19:53 They're victors.
• 19:55 They're not the conquered as they were previously.
• 19:57 They're the conquerors.
• 19:59 They're the winners, not the losers in the conflict.
• 20:02 And you have this here.
• 20:04 It's language.
• 20:06 You know, one vulture says to another, come,
• 20:10 in verse 17 and 18.
• 20:12 "Come and eat.
• 20:14 There's going to be a supper."
• 20:17 There's this marriage supper of the Lamb, and here, the vultures
• 20:21 are saying, "Goody, goody, there's lots of meat
• 20:24 in the valley."
• 20:26 Now, that language doesn't necessarily comport with
• 20:27 the sensibilities of modern readers.
• 20:30 I get it.
• 20:31 But the point is the devil and his minions are going
• 20:34 to be bested.
• 20:36 They're finally going to be defeated and there's this,
• 20:39 "Okay, come now, and feast on all of that."
• 20:43 Again, the image doesn't comport with moderns, but ancients that
• 20:47 have been badgered, that have been hampered and oppressed,
• 20:51 it's a poetic image.
• 20:53 It gives voice to the fact that, yes, their oppressor
• 20:56 is going to fall.
• 20:58 And this is the theme as we're looking here in Revelation.
• 21:02 We're seeing this slide down to judgment when, finally,
• 21:06 the devil who's had his day finally has his judgment day.
• 21:13 More to come as we look at Revelation and consider the
• 21:17 mysteries to be unveiled as we take a look at the book.
• 21:23 ♪♪♪
• 21:33 ♪♪♪
• 21:43 ♪♪♪
• 21:53 ♪♪♪
• 22:03 ♪♪♪
• 22:13 ♪♪♪
• 22:23 ♪♪♪
• 22:33 ♪♪♪
• 22:43 ♪♪♪
• 22:53 ♪♪♪
• 23:03 ♪♪♪
• 23:13 ♪♪♪
• 23:23 ♪♪♪
• 23:33 ♪♪♪
• 23:42 David: We enjoy bringing you songs from our founder,
• 23:44 Zola Levitt.
• 23:45 We hope you enjoy it.
• 23:46 Our program today, good news, worship, heavenly worship.
• 23:51 I love it.
• 23:52 Jeffrey: There's some singing here, you know, and there's
• 23:53 a lot of crying in the book of Revelation.
• 23:55 There's a lot of crying in life.
• 23:56 There's a lot of pain, a lot of despair,
• 23:58 a lot of disorientation.
• 24:00 But here, we're coming out the other end,
• 24:02 and they're singing like happy campers.
• 24:04 David: Wow. Kirsten: Which we love.
• 24:06 David: Yes, I can't imagine.
• 24:07 We think we know what it's like here in a worship setting,
• 24:10 but heavenly worship, unbelievable.
• 24:13 Jeffrey: Well, that's what we have here in chapter 19:7:
• 24:16 "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to him."
• 24:20 I mean, we practice doing that when we gather together
• 24:22 as the people of God, don't we?
• 24:24 Kirsten: And we--it's vital.
• 24:26 We need to have that.
• 24:27 So many in the world walked through the coronavirus time,
• 24:30 and it was some hard days.
• 24:33 Maybe not as hard as what we're learning in Revelation but what
• 24:35 carries us through and what I've seen is we need hope.
• 24:39 We need that worship.
• 24:41 We need that time to commune with God.
• 24:44 Jeffrey: Right, and getting together with others and doing
• 24:45 it here, this is a group singing, not a solo.
• 24:49 And they're all participating together.
• 24:51 And we're told here before we get through it that these people
• 24:56 are wearing fine linen which in the text, is equated to
• 25:01 the righteous deeds of the kedoshim, of the saints.
• 25:05 And I'd like to speak to you about that for a moment,
• 25:09 simply because the imperative to do righteous deeds
• 25:13 in an unrighteous world gets particular notice.
• 25:18 There's kudos on that here in the literature and let me just
• 25:22 say if you find value in what we do, if you'd sow some seed
• 25:27 to help us to do it, that would be helpful.
• 25:30 I can promise you, it won't go into my bank personally.
• 25:33 It goes into the bank of heaven, and helps us get this heavenly
• 25:37 message to a world that isn't quite like Revelation in terms
• 25:42 of its despair and decay, but it borders on it and they need to
• 25:46 hear good news, and we give it through the eyes of the Jews.
• 25:50 David: Right, I think what I've taken away from this
• 25:51 program today is in the good times and even in the difficult
• 25:55 times, today, what we go through to press on, to always press on,
• 26:00 and just trust him.
• 26:02 Jeffrey: Yes, it's so important.
• 26:03 I think we give up too quick in our culture.
• 26:05 I think we're oriented that way.
• 26:07 People give up on relationships, friends, work, congregations.
• 26:12 People just--they just kind of disengage.
• 26:16 David: There's a light at the end of the tunnel, right?
• 26:17 Jeffrey: Yes.
• 26:19 Kirsten: Yeah, and I'm so-- I'm thankful that in this book
• 26:21 and through your teaching, that even though we can get low,
• 26:25 low, low, we have those peak moments where we see into the
• 26:30 future of what there is awaiting us if we don't get weary.
• 26:33 That's your favorite Bible verse, Galatians 6:9:
• 26:36 "Don't get weary and give up."
• 26:38 Good is coming.
• 26:40 And one day, and I know that's coming probably
• 26:42 next week, it's new.
• 26:45 There's going to be new and fresh.
• 26:46 David: And it happened from Genesis to Revelation,
• 26:48 the ups and downs.
• 26:50 It's been through the whole Bible.
• 26:51 Jeffrey: That's true, but here we're on the upward swing.
• 26:53 I mean, this program started off with castigation
• 26:56 against the unrighteous but there's a new day dawning.
• 26:59 Hope is coming. It's on the way.
• 27:01 Kirsten: That's good news and a good way to end our program
• 27:03 today with good news.
• 27:05 Jeffrey: It's good news indeed, and let's look at it
• 27:07 again next week.
• 27:08 As you go now, shaalu shalom Yerushalayim.
• 27:12 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 27:17 David: Join us right now for additional content that is only
• 27:20 available on our social media sites: Facebook, YouTube,
• 27:23 and Twitter.
• 27:25 Visit our website, levitt.com, for the current and past
• 27:28 programs, the television schedule, tour information,
• 27:32 and our free monthly newsletter, which is full of insightful
• 27:35 articles and news commentary.
• 27:37 View it online, or we can ship it directly to your mailbox
• 27:40 every month.
• 27:42 Also on our website is the online store.
• 27:45 There you can order this week's resource or you can always give
• 27:48 us a call at 1-800-WONDERS.
• 27:51 Your donations to "Our Jewish Roots" help us to support
• 27:55 these organizations as they bless Israel.
• 27:58 Please remember we depend on tax-deductible donations
• 28:01 from viewers like you.
• 28:04 ♪♪♪
• 28:14 ♪♪♪
• 28:20 CC BY ABERDEEN CAPTIONING 1-800-688-6621 WWW.ABERCAP.COM
• 28:25 David: This has been a paid program brought to you
• 28:27 by Zola Levitt Ministries.