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Caption transcript for Divine Deliverance (2020): “Isaac” (2/11)

• 00:03 male announcer: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots"
• 00:05 with insightful Bible teaching by Dr. Jeffrey Seif.
• 00:08 In this program, the birth of a child
• 00:10 leads to a test of faith.
• 00:12 Our focus is on Isaac today on divine deliverance.
• 00:20 male announcer: From the beginning,
• 00:22 our Creator revealed his will to the common man.
• 00:26 Individuals listened to his call and responded in obedience.
• 00:32 From the first Hebrew Avraham to the culmination of salvation
• 00:36 in Messiah himself, the Lord faithfully intervenes
• 00:41 with his divine deliverance.
• 00:53 David Hart: We are so glad you've joined us today.
• 00:55 I'm David Hart.
• 00:56 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 00:57 Jeffrey Seif: I am Jeffrey Seif,
• 00:59 and we are going on a journey.
• 01:01 It continues from Abraham to Isaac and on into the future.
• 01:06 Kirsten: Last week was Isaac's father, Abraham.
• 01:09 And this week is kind of about the relationship
• 01:11 between the two of them.
• 01:12 We're focused on Isaac, but it's also
• 01:15 that father-son relationship.
• 01:18 Jeffrey: You get some of that going.
• 01:19 Now, the Bible doesn't give us a lot of information save the fact
• 01:21 his father was going to kill him once upon a time.
• 01:24 It's a little bit traumatic, what do you think?
• 01:26 Would've called the police in today's era.
• 01:27 Kirsten: See, my mouth is open.
• 01:29 Could you imagine being Isaac and here's your,
• 01:32 you know, dad saying--
• 01:33 Jeffrey: What did I do?
• 01:35 Kirsten: Right, why are you binding me up?
• 01:37 It's an interesting dynamic and relationship
• 01:39 that we see God deliver through Isaac.
• 01:42 Jeffrey: It's a strange story, it's enigmatic,
• 01:46 it's mysterious, and it's related to the cross.
• 01:50 Fascinating.
• 01:52 'Cause we know a Father who so loved the world
• 01:54 that he did sacrifice his Son, now don't we?
• 01:56 David: That's right.
• 01:58 We're going to hear about that right now
• 01:59 in our dramatic reenactment.
• 02:00 Let's go there now.
• 02:04 male announcer: And the Lord appeared unto Abraham
• 02:06 in the plains of Mamre.
• 02:08 ♪♪♪
• 02:18 ♪♪♪
• 02:28 ♪♪♪
• 02:38 Abraham: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 03:17 male: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 03:20 Abraham: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 03:25 male: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 03:29 Sarah: [laughing]
• 03:35 male: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 03:56 Jeffrey: The word in Hebrew for angel is the word "malakh."
• 04:01 Comes from the Ugaritic verb "lak," which means to send.
• 04:06 The word "angel" and the word "messenger" are the same
• 04:10 in the Hebrew Bible and in Greek, angolos,
• 04:13 the same word, messenger and angel.
• 04:15 Why is that?
• 04:17 Because we're looking at the delivering of messages.
• 04:21 And oh, what a message we have here.
• 04:26 Nevermind the word.
• 04:28 Now, let's take a look at the moment in the book.
• 04:32 We get to the story in chapter 18 of Bereshit, Genesis.
• 04:39 It's worth considering what comes before.
• 04:42 Avraham was just circumcised.
• 04:45 I don't want to speak in a way that could be construed
• 04:48 as inappropriate for television or for religious audience,
• 04:51 but he was in pain considering he just had
• 04:54 a surgical operation.
• 04:55 And the way the story is set up, it is the heat of the day.
• 05:00 I mention that because Jews alight upon the fact
• 05:03 that Avraham was particularly discomforted.
• 05:08 And you know what it's like when you're uncomfortable,
• 05:11 you don't want to reach out to others because
• 05:14 we tend to turn inward.
• 05:18 This man was different.
• 05:22 Discomforted though he was, he sees these messengers.
• 05:26 He doesn't know they're angels, and he comes
• 05:28 and extends hospitality to them, refreshment, food,
• 05:33 the pouring on of water.
• 05:35 You know, the word "hospitality" and the word "hospital"
• 05:38 are cut from the same cloth.
• 05:40 That is to say there's a kind of healing when we're hospitable.
• 05:43 It's all related.
• 05:45 What's worthy of note here is the fact that the one
• 05:48 who's extending hospitality is suffering in the process.
• 05:53 We read in the newer testament, "Do not neglect to show
• 05:57 hospitality, for some have entertained angels unaware."
• 06:02 Not only did they entertain angels,
• 06:04 they did something else.
• 06:07 They inaugurate their own ultimate deliverance.
• 06:13 It's a fascinating story that Avraham
• 06:15 and his wife were vexed for years.
• 06:20 Not all trials go our way with,
• 06:22 "In the name of Jesus be healed."
• 06:24 Well, I want to go to a church that can really make
• 06:25 the mad man stop.
• 06:27 You know, truth be known, some things linger.
• 06:29 It doesn't mean there isn't a breakthrough,
• 06:31 it doesn't mean there's no deliverance to come,
• 06:34 but there is suffering.
• 06:35 And there's a biblical promise about those who,
• 06:37 through faith and patience, inherit a promise.
• 06:43 Seemed to me that Sarah was a little--she had lost patience
• 06:47 a little sooner in the game, and so when she first hears
• 06:50 of that she's going to be pregnant, she laughs.
• 06:56 The word Isaac or Yishaq comes from the word meaning to laugh.
• 07:03 We live in a world today when many think that deliverance,
• 07:07 biblical deliverance, is in fact laughable.
• 07:10 Not so.
• 07:13 I read the text and read stories of God breaking through.
• 07:19 And by the way, the word "breakthrough,"
• 07:20 as in waiting for the breakthrough, means just that.
• 07:23 There's something that, for all intents and purposes,
• 07:26 is impenetrable.
• 07:29 And you know what happens, God breaks through.
• 07:34 Is it just for the Jew, or is it for you?
• 07:37 It's a reasonable question.
• 07:38 It's a rhetorical one because the answer is for all.
• 07:41 Well, you say, "Yeah, maybe that's from the Jewish people."
• 07:44 It's for those who walk by faith.
• 07:50 There is a great reward.
• 07:52 And after a series, a sequence of sufferings,
• 07:56 after being tested by time and circumstance,
• 07:59 finally the miracle child is going to be born.
• 08:04 It's not just good news coming to these ancient Jews.
• 08:07 All of us are reminded that there's good things to come
• 08:10 when we walk by faith.
• 08:16 male announcer: And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said.
• 08:19 And the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken.
• 08:23 For Sarah conceived and bear Abraham a son in his old age,
• 08:28 at the set time of which God has spoken to him.
• 08:35 Sarah: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 08:37 Abraham: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 08:57 Sarah [speaking in Hebrew]
• 08:59 Abraham: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 09:16 Abraham: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 09:23 Sarah: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 09:30 Sarah: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 09:49 Jeffrey: When you get a professor type or a theologian
• 09:53 to talk about childbirth, it really is the potential
• 09:58 of missing the moment by a long shot, you know?
• 10:03 The intellectual jargon, there's a certain kind of tenderness.
• 10:07 There's a certain experience that the movie captures,
• 10:12 that gentle moment, that mother with child.
• 10:17 I think it's hard for a male to understand that,
• 10:20 and it's easy for a theologian just to dive into the text
• 10:22 and the contents and-- context and word studies,
• 10:25 and just miss the tenderness of the moment entirely.
• 10:30 I don't want to apologize for who I am, I got to run with it,
• 10:34 but there's something about seeing it.
• 10:37 There is a kind of soulish beauty there.
• 10:40 Certainly it's the story of a mother with a child,
• 10:43 but in conjunction with that, if not beyond that,
• 10:46 it's the story of a dream come true, a miracle
• 10:51 that's happened, the end of a journey, a long wait.
• 10:56 There's a sense of fulfillment.
• 10:59 When I think of fulfillment, I think of being full
• 11:04 and being filled.
• 11:06 There's biblical language, "My cup runneth over,"
• 11:10 to use the old classical King James talk.
• 11:12 And that certainly is Sarah's feeling,
• 11:16 it's her mind on the matter.
• 11:18 In chapter 21, we're told, "Adonai visited Sarah
• 11:23 just as he had said."
• 11:26 There's that moment of deliverance
• 11:29 when it all comes clear, the sacredness of a moment.
• 11:34 The Hebrew "paqad," as in the Lord visited,
• 11:38 it's also the Lord remembered.
• 11:42 And this speaks to me of a question that we ask,
• 11:47 if not verbally, at the feeling level.
• 11:50 Sometimes we wonder, "Does God really remember?"
• 11:57 It's a question we ask as sometimes we're in a wilderness.
• 12:01 We can go to church and it's always preached that
• 12:04 walking with God is the oasis, and the oasis is here.
• 12:07 I'm not to say there's no watering holes to speak of,
• 12:10 but sometimes it's a long journey.
• 12:13 But God watches over his Word to performance,
• 12:16 and he brings about a great deliverance.
• 12:19 In this case, a woman who could not bear a child.
• 12:23 And deliverance would come through this womb
• 12:27 that wouldn't open.
• 12:29 And there's a child who would come, who then,
• 12:31 as we'll see, is going to be offered up to be sacrificed.
• 12:35 This is a story about a woman's struggle,
• 12:38 this is a story about God's plan,
• 12:40 but it's a story that points to another story,
• 12:43 when the Father of us all, through a woman who couldn't
• 12:46 bear a child, is going to bring forth a great deliverer.
• 12:58 announcer: If you only watch us on television,
• 13:00 you're missing additional content available only
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• 13:08 You can always visit our website,
• 13:09 which is home base for all of our ministry activities
• 13:12 and information.
• 13:14 There you can sign up for our free monthly newsletter,
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• 13:33 Kirsten: We would love to connect with you
• 13:35 on our social media sites.
• 13:37 Now, here's Abraham's toughest test.
• 13:43 announcer: And it came to pass after these things
• 13:47 that God tested Abraham.
• 13:52 Abraham: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 13:54 Isaac: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 14:02 Abraham: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 14:11 male announcer: And God said, "Take now thy son,
• 14:14 thine only son, Isaac whom thou lovest,
• 14:18 and get thee unto the land of Moriah.
• 14:21 And offer him there for a burnt offering upon
• 14:24 one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."
• 14:28 Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes
• 14:32 and saw the place afar off.
• 14:47 Abraham: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 14:59 Isaac: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 15:06 Abraham: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 16:06 Abraham: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 16:43 Jeffrey: I find it very interesting that Avraham,
• 16:47 when he heard God tell him to go sacrifice Yishaq or Isaac,
• 16:52 there's no record of him telling Sarah on the front end.
• 16:56 After the fact when the boy's brought back,
• 16:58 then you can tell the story.
• 17:01 But on the front end, I think not.
• 17:06 I mention that because I was pleased to develop
• 17:09 the story of the tender moment between a mother and child.
• 17:12 After all that she had been through,
• 17:15 if her husband came around and said,
• 17:17 "Honey, I heard the voice of the Lord.
• 17:19 I'm going to go kill Junior," I think she would've taken the
• 17:22 knife and stuck it in him and would've been forgiven for it.
• 17:27 Well, nevermind my conjecture.
• 17:29 Sometimes, God beckons us to do things that don't comport
• 17:33 with sensibilities.
• 17:35 This story in the book Bereshit in Genesis in the Hebrew world
• 17:40 is called the Akedah, which means the binding,
• 17:45 particularly the binding of Isaac.
• 17:48 And what a story it is that this man who's the father
• 17:52 of the nation is going to take a miracle born son and have him
• 17:58 carry the wood up to a place where he is then intended to be
• 18:03 sacrificed, only to be stopped in mid act and told that God
• 18:10 will himself provide a lamb.
• 18:14 There's a few things at play here.
• 18:16 One, in chapter 22, we're told that the Lord
• 18:19 tested Abraham in this way.
• 18:23 And it can be said that if there isn't a test,
• 18:25 there ain't a testimony.
• 18:28 There are tests.
• 18:29 I wouldn't suggest you endeavor to do this with your own.
• 18:33 One of the upshots of all this is clarifying in no uncertain
• 18:37 terms that God does not want child sacrifice.
• 18:41 I mention that because in antiquity in North Africa
• 18:44 and in the ancient Near East, there are many examples
• 18:48 of the ancients offering up child sacrifices, the firstborn,
• 18:53 it's to placate a deity.
• 18:54 If you look in the Hebrew Bible, individuals are beckoned
• 18:57 to offer the firstfruits.
• 18:59 There's grain products, there's animals,
• 19:01 not your own children.
• 19:03 But offering up children was part and parcel
• 19:06 to ancient religion.
• 19:09 This certainly offers a challenge to that
• 19:11 in no uncertain terms in the biblical economy.
• 19:13 But more than that, there's a picture here
• 19:16 of the ultimate redemption.
• 19:18 Why do I say that?
• 19:20 Again, to repeat there is the father,
• 19:24 who is working with the woman who cannot conceive.
• 19:29 It takes divine agency, it takes miracle,
• 19:33 subsequent to which she gives birth.
• 19:37 In the wake of this special son, who is the carrier
• 19:42 of the promise of redemption through Abraham,
• 19:46 blessing to the world, this son is going to be taken
• 19:49 and sacrificed, only to be stopped.
• 19:53 It begs the question, what's at play here?
• 19:57 Beyond offering a corrective to a sacrificial practice that
• 20:02 existed in antiquity, there's something here
• 20:05 that telescopes into the future to my way of thinking,
• 20:09 that beckons an individual to understand something about
• 20:12 the redemption to come, when God the Father will effect a miracle
• 20:18 through a woman who cannot bear a child.
• 20:22 And by the way, messengers come and speak to her and Joseph
• 20:25 and say as much, that a miracle child will be born,
• 20:28 and you're going to name him Yeshua or Jesus.
• 20:32 And by the way, the word "Jesus" is a word meaning to save,
• 20:35 to deliver, or to redeem.
• 20:39 To me, it's tragic the word "deliverance" has been hijacked.
• 20:43 There's a famous movie "Deliverance," and it has themes
• 20:46 that aren't really appropriate for a biblical audience,
• 20:49 so we have to preface by saying divine deliverance.
• 20:53 This, friends, is a picture of divine deliverance,
• 20:57 and we find it in the Hebrew Bible.
• 21:00 It's at play in this text, and I hope it's at play
• 21:04 in your own life.
• 21:06 That is to say there is this God the Father who so loved
• 21:09 the world that he sent his only begotten Son,
• 21:13 who carried his wood to a cross, and in so doing became
• 21:18 the sacrifice and the deliverer for us all.
• 21:25 Kirsten: This series is titled "Divine Deliverance."
• 21:28 And today, we see the divine delivering Isaac
• 21:34 from being a sacrificial child.
• 21:38 I mean, a sacrifice on the altar, that's intense.
• 21:41 Jeffrey: Yeah, and I can tell just in the total inflection
• 21:44 and the facial expression, mom, what do you think about that,
• 21:47 you know, putting your kid on an altar like that?
• 21:49 Kirsten: I got to tell you, this is horrible to say,
• 21:50 if God told me to sacrifice one of my sons, I'd be like,
• 21:53 "Okay, thank you, bye bye. No thanks."
• 21:55 Jeffrey: Wouldn't happen, yeah--
• 21:57 Kirsten: I don't think so.
• 21:58 Jeffrey: Here, there's so much riding in that promised son.
• 22:00 God had promised a son and Abraham waited so long.
• 22:03 And that willingness to offer, you know,
• 22:05 it really says something about Abraham.
• 22:07 And it says something about Isaac,
• 22:09 he was willing to go along with the program.
• 22:11 David: So, there was a vision from God.
• 22:12 It makes me think as we're sitting here how many times
• 22:14 maybe all of us have missed that vision that God had for us.
• 22:19 Jeffrey: Yes, and sometimes it's a trying vision.
• 22:21 It's not an easy piece of demand, you know?
• 22:23 That--and it's a testing moment here.
• 22:26 And if you're going to have a testimony,
• 22:27 you got to have a test.
• 22:29 And you know, Abraham passed, and so did Isaac.
• 22:31 And praise God, divine deliverance
• 22:34 has gone on through the ages.
• 22:35 Kirsten: And at the last minute.
• 22:38 I mean, you see this whole scenario in your mind
• 22:41 with Abraham with this--the knife up here just ready,
• 22:44 and then there's the ram and the thicket kind of thing.
• 22:47 Jeffrey: You know, and if there's a complaint box in
• 22:49 heaven, it's going to be filled with a lot of people that say,
• 22:51 "God, why do you wait to come through
• 22:52 just in the last minute?"
• 22:54 He seems to have a habit of that.
• 22:56 You know, we all wish trials would go away on the quick.
• 22:59 God does come through, sometimes it's the 11th hour to be sure.
• 23:03 Kirsten: And I was just going to say the flip side,
• 23:06 but if we look down history, there was a Son, God's own Son,
• 23:12 on that supposed same spot, that there was not
• 23:17 a sacrificial lamb, it was actually him.
• 23:19 He went through and the sacrifice was made.
• 23:22 Jeffrey: It's quite the picture.
• 23:23 I endeavor to tell the story and it's worth telling.
• 23:25 We see it in Genesis, we see it in the New Testament,
• 23:28 God giving up his Son.
• 23:30 David: I think in this whole series,
• 23:31 there's a lot of last minute answers not just
• 23:35 with this character, but in many of them.
• 23:37 Jeffrey: Well, the nature of deliverance.
• 23:39 You know, we cry out and, you know, God delivers.
• 23:43 But sometimes, you know, we can just be in a pinch
• 23:46 and be there for a while.
• 23:47 And it's a testing moment, it's a sifting moment.
• 23:51 Some of you may be going through it, tell you the truth.
• 23:53 I mean, right now, it's a reasonably good season
• 23:55 in my life, all things considered.
• 23:57 But there's mountains and valleys and desserts,
• 23:59 and we go through all of it.
• 24:01 And if you're feeling that pinch, keep on looking
• 24:03 to the Lord because he is the divine deliverer.
• 24:06 Just like David said, he does come through.
• 24:08 David: That's right.
• 24:10 Thank you so much for that insight today.
• 24:11 More to come, we'll be right back.
• 24:14 ♪♪♪
• 24:34 ♪♪♪
• 24:43 ♪♪♪
• 24:47 Jeffrey: Around 35 years ago, I, a young intern,
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• 25:48 Kirsten: Can I just do a quick applause?
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• 26:18 We end our program today with a song from our founder,
• 26:20 Zola Levitt, "A Thousand Years.
• 26:23 Jeffrey: And a word till then, sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim.
• 26:27 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 26:30 ♪♪♪
• 26:34 [singing in Hebrew]
• 26:45 ♪ You're king who came before ♪
• 26:50 ♪ You're king forevermore ♪
• 26:54 ♪ A thousand years, a thousand years ♪
• 27:00 ♪ you're king forevermore ♪♪
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