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Bible teaching with an emphasis on Israel, prophecy and the Jewish roots of Christianity

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Episode: “Letters and Joshua preview”

Dr. Jeffrey Seif and the Harts answer letters from ZLMers and then preview our upcoming series.

Transcript

Caption transcript for “Letters and Joshua preview”

00:01 ♪♪♪ David Hart: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots," with insightful Bible teaching by
00:10 Dr. Jeffrey Seif. Today, we answer your letters and take a look at our new
00:13 series, "Joshua: More than a Conqueror."
00:18 David: Thank you so much for joining us today.
00:19 I am David Hart.
00:21 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
00:22 Jeffrey Seif: I am Jeffrey Seif.
00:24 And do you know that love is a two-way street,
00:26 that we do love you, in fact, and people respond back?
00:29 They write us and send letters, and we get the conversation
00:32 going, and what we have on the menu today is to do some
00:36 of those letters.
00:38 I have not seen one of them.
00:39 I don't know if these guys are gonna throw some curve balls at
00:41 me, but we'll find out.
00:43 David: We're gonna do that in a minute,
00:44 but let's talk real quick about the series that we
00:46 just finished, "Faith of Our Fathers."
00:48 David Barton, an amazing guy, the artifacts that he's brought
00:52 to the series has been incredible.
00:54 Jeffrey: Yes, yes.
00:55 David: Where's he from
00:56 Jeffrey: Well, he's from Texas.
00:58 David: I thought so.
00:59 Jeffrey: I don't know where he's from originally,
01:00 but he has deep roots here.
01:02 Kirsten: With WallBuilders, right?
01:03 That's his ministry.
01:04 Jeffrey: He started that, yes, and, really,
01:06 he's a librarian on steroids.
01:08 I mean, he's collected all of this primary-source data,
01:12 volumes of stuff to take us back to what they were sayin' and
01:15 doin' when this country got started,
01:18 and we've so lost sight of "The Faith of Our Fathers," and he
01:23 brought it to life.
01:24 Kirsten: I gotta be honest.
01:26 You know, when we watch these programs--
01:28 this is kind of a little bit more of a laid-back program
01:29 for all of you today.
01:31 We're gonna answer viewer mail and kind of talk about
01:33 the series that we were just in and what we're going into,
01:36 but to be honest, when you guys were on set together and David
01:40 had these books in front of him, I legit thought that they were
01:43 just kind of, props, and then he started saying,
01:45 "This is from 18-- or this is from 1700."
01:49 It's amazing what he had in front of them.
01:51 They were real books and documents.
01:55 Jeffrey: You weren't there when we filmed it,
01:57 but we had a number of people there with the crew.
01:59 He shocked everyone.
02:00 No one expected him to bring out all the heavy cannon.
02:02 David: Original.
02:04 Jeffrey: Yeah, and he did, and he really takes this
02:05 seriously, and his point--
02:07 you know, I've always been interested in the Jewish
02:09 roots of the Christian faith.
02:11 He's really interested in the Christian roots of America,
02:14 and we kind of juxtaposed those in that series, and,
02:18 you know, he brought forth the evidence, like you said.
02:21 Kirsten: Well, I love how you paralleled and you brought in
02:23 some of the founding fathers of our faith,
02:26 and he brought in Founding Fathers of America, and it's
02:29 very interesting how many of those lives kind of
02:31 paralleled each other.
02:33 Jeffrey: Yeah, but I'll tell you,
02:34 those Founding Fathers made it easy to do because they speak
02:36 so much about the Bible.
02:37 What you hear in today's culture,
02:40 the mantra is "separation of church and state."
02:42 No one told them, because the documents of our fathers are
02:47 just dripping with biblical language.
02:50 Kirsten: If you are just tuning in to this program,
02:52 to our program today, and you're thinking,
02:54 "What series are you talking about?"
02:55 We just finished an eight-segment series,
02:58 eight full weeks, all about the faith of our Founding Fathers
03:01 of America.
03:02 It is available to you.
03:04 You can watch it on our website.
03:06 You can purchase the DVDs.
03:08 It's a wonderful resource, especially for all of you
03:11 homeschoolers out there.
03:13 It'll teach your kids American history and Bible history.
03:16 Thank you for everything that you put into that.
03:18 Jeffrey: And, look, if I can weigh in,
03:19 you can see it for free on our website.
03:21 By all means, do it, but if you have a few extra dollars,
03:23 order the series, because what happens is it pays our bills.
03:27 We wanna give it to you free of charge.
03:29 If that's what it has to be, it's all good,
03:31 really is, but we don't get all this free of charge,
03:34 and we appreciate your help in advance.
03:36 Kirsten: Okay, you have some viewer--
03:38 what were you just gonna say?
03:39 David: I do.
03:40 I was gonna say somebody wrote in here about a question that
03:42 it sounds like something that I would write in, about to ask
03:44 you, so are you ready for this question?
03:46 Jeffrey: You go.
03:47 David: "Should you forgive someone
03:48 even if they are not sorry?"
03:51 Jeffrey: People have been hurt in this world.
03:53 There's a lot of hurt, and there are people that are
03:55 recalcitrant--that is to say, they refuse to bend subsequent
03:59 to that, so it's a reasonable question.
04:02 You know, Jesus is on record in the Matthean Gospel,
04:04 the Matityahu in Hebrew, the Gospel of Matthew,
04:08 in the Lord's Prayer, giving voice to "Forgive us our debts
04:12 as we forgive our debtors," and then he follows it up,
04:16 by the way, saying, "If we don't forgive others, then--"
04:19 I mean, so there certainly is a premium on it.
04:21 It's an interesting word, by the way.
04:23 There's different words for "forgive" in Hebrew.
04:25 You're walkin' down the street,
04:26 [speaking in Hebrew]
04:27 "excuse me," "pardon me."
04:29 There's another one,
04:30 [speaking in Hebrew]
04:31 which means "to absolve," "to pardon," "to forgive,"
04:36 and to be sure, biblical virtue beckons us to be
04:40 on the side of forgiving.
04:43 With that said, I only add to that
04:45 that we need to give people space to do
04:47 that at their own time.
04:49 In the immediate aftermath of a shock,
04:51 of a hurt, of a grievous insult to one's person,
04:55 they're gonna be disinclined to go,
04:57 "Oh, but that's okay. Forgive and forget."
04:59 They might wanna rage for a while,
05:01 and I think we need to give people space to do that.
05:04 Those with the Holy Spirit, with a biblical constitution
05:08 are gonna recover their equilibrium and learn
05:10 to let that go and learn to let that person go because the Lord
05:15 beckons us to be that kind of person but at its own time.
05:18 That's what I have to say.
05:19 David: There was a time in my life when I had to forgive
05:22 someone where they didn't ask for that forgiveness,
05:24 but it was a healing in my life that I was just feelin' the pain
05:30 in my gut, and once I released that,
05:33 I had freedom.
05:35 Jeffrey: Yeah, we're beckoned to forgive,
05:36 but we're not told that we have to forget.
05:39 That is to say, you know, someone could do us wrong,
05:43 and to forgive them, to let it go,
05:44 but that doesn't mean we have to run into their embrace as though
05:47 it never happened.
05:48 Now, some can take issue with me on that,
05:50 but, you know, I don't wanna be angry at anybody,
05:54 but there are certain people I don't wanna associate
05:55 with either.
05:57 David: That same time that I was going through that time
05:59 in my life, I heard a pastor say--
06:02 and he wasn't speaking to me, but he really was, and he said
06:05 that "If you can't forgive, you can't be forgiven."
06:08 Do you believe that?
06:10 Jeffrey: Well, he's parroting the Lord's words right here
06:13 that--and, again, what I understand the Lord to be
06:15 saying, in effect, is he wants us to be on the side
06:17 of forgiving, and the word "forgiving" comes from two
06:20 words: "for" and "give."
06:23 You know, we wanna be forgiving, whether it's giving a dollar,
06:28 whether it's giving a hand, whether it's giving a break,
06:30 whether it's giving time, whether it's giving someone
06:33 a chance, a second chance to recalibrate.
06:35 It's the kind of people we are, and if we're not oriented to be
06:38 that way, that's problematic.
06:40 That's evidence of a lack of a Christian constitution to my way
06:43 of thinking.
06:45 Kirsten: I do love that, we are "for" "giving," in many
06:47 different ways.
06:48 I have to-- I was gonna say, "harken."
06:51 That's such a fancy word or old-school word.
06:53 You mentioned "Matthean," and I literally, literally,
06:57 in my e-mails this past week,
07:01 got a letter of someone that watches the program and said,
07:04 "Dr. Seif said 'Matthean.'
07:06 Does he just mean the book of Matthew?
07:07 What's this 'Matthean'?"
07:09 So if you could explain that just really quick 'cause that
07:11 legit was something that just came in this week.
07:13 Jeffrey: Yup, I've been a Bible college,
07:15 seminary professor for over 30 years,
07:16 and I tell my students I use big words 'cause it creates
07:20 the impression I know what I'm talking about.
07:22 Part of it's habit.
07:23 You know, Matthew is referred to as the Matthean gospel;
07:26 Luke, the Lukan; Mark, the Markan;
07:29 and John, the Johannine gospel.
07:31 It's just academic language that slips out because, you know,
07:36 I've spent, you know, 30 years as a college professor.
07:38 Kirsten: That really was someone saying,
07:41 "What does that mean?"
07:42 So it was just a formal way of saying,
07:44 "The Book of Matthew."
07:45 Jeffrey: Yeah.
07:47 Kirsten: Look at you.
07:48 David: Ready for another question?
07:49 Jeffrey: Fire away.
07:51 David: And this is kind of happening a lot right now.
07:52 We're seeing, or hearing, a lot of prophecy going on.
07:55 Someone says, "How important is prophecy?
07:58 What importance does prophecy play in a believer's life?"
08:02 Jeffrey: Well, I think, ultimately,
08:04 different people, different ways.
08:05 You know, not everybody is trying to figure out what's
08:07 happening for the end of the world and how it all comes
08:10 together, but if prophecy talks about looking over the horizon,
08:15 eschatology speaks of last things.
08:17 Certainly the hope of the Christian,
08:20 of the believer, is an eschatological event--
08:23 that is to say, their translation into the
08:26 world to come, it's futuristic.
08:29 I mean, prophecy beckons us to the future.
08:32 It's an impulse.
08:34 To understand it, to put something together
08:37 is theological construction: "Well, here's what it says in
08:40 the Word, and here's what's happening
08:42 in Israel and this today."
08:43 That's a theological construction.
08:45 But prophecy is an impulse as distinct from theology.
08:50 Let me explain.
08:51 If you look at the words for "prophet" in the Bible,
08:54 there's the word for "navi."
08:57 It means to bubble forth.
08:58 That is, there's an impulse within that needs to come out.
09:01 Another way is "roeh," a seer.
09:03 Someone has a vision.
09:05 It's not necessarily all this theological writing thick books
09:10 to explain world events.
09:12 Some people are more interested in Bible prophecy than others.
09:15 I think we do well to be interested in it.
09:18 You know, if we're praying, "Lord, your Kingdom come,
09:20 your will be done," it's not beyond the pale
09:22 of reason to search out the Scriptures about the coming
09:24 Kingdom, especially as the Bible talks about "as you see the day
09:28 drawing near," there certainly is a place for it,
09:31 but different people are in different places
09:33 in their own life.
09:34 Not everyone is oriented toward things to come.
09:38 David: A lot of prophecy in politics right now.
09:42 Jeffrey: Well, people are looking at, you know,
09:43 what's going on here, the evil empire emerging,
09:46 and so forth, and, yeah, it's hard to--
09:49 we gotta pull away from the series--
09:51 for this segment, you know, it's hard to go into all of
09:54 that, but, yeah, people are looking for prophetic,
09:57 you know, hints and all of that.
09:59 Kirsten: You're so good.
10:00 We throw this at you and in your brain,
10:03 and God gives you the answer.
10:04 You're just--
10:06 Jeffrey: Well, you're kind. It's my answer.
10:07 It's not rehearsed, by the way.
10:08 Kirsten: I was gonna say you're a treat to work with.
10:10 We have more to come in our program.
10:11 Stay with us.
10:13 ♪♪♪
10:19 David: Our resource this week,
10:20 the series "Faith of Our Fathers," on DVD.
10:23 These eight programs reveal how the creation of Israel in the
10:26 Old Testament inspired a future generation to carve
10:28 out a modern, yet godly nation in the New World.
10:33 This series features Bible teaching by Dr. Jeffrey Seif,
10:36 interviews with Christian historian David Barton,
10:39 plus dramatic reenactments of colonial times.
10:42 Contact us for your own copy of "Faith of Our Fathers."
10:48 David: Join us right now for additional content that is only
10:51 available on our social media sites:
10:53 Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
10:56 David: Visit our website, levitt.com,
10:58 for the current and past programs,
11:00 the television schedule, tour information,
11:03 and our free monthly newsletter, which is full of insightful
11:06 articles and news commentary.
11:08 View it online, or we can ship it directly to your mailbox
11:11 every month.
11:13 Also, on our website is the online store.
11:16 There you can order this week's resource,
11:18 or you can always give us a call at 1-800-WONDERS.
11:23 Your donations to "Our Jewish Roots,"
11:25 help us to support these organizations
11:27 as they bless Israel.
11:29 David: Please remember we depend on tax-deductible
11:32 donations from viewers like you.
11:35 David: For many, a trip to the Holy Land is the dream
11:38 of a lifetime.
11:41 David: The Bible truly comes alive as you see the sights
11:44 where so many biblical events happened.
11:47 Come on a Zola Tour to see Israel and Petra.
11:53 See the land of the Bible for yourself.
11:57 Contact us to reserve your dream of a lifetime.
12:06 David: I love the testimonies of people who get on our tour
12:09 bus and say, "We didn't think we'd ever have the opportunity
12:13 to come to Israel, but God opened up the door.
12:16 There's no way financially we could do it on our own,
12:18 but God opened up the door for us to go to Israel."
12:23 If you'd love to join us, but you don't feel like you ever
12:26 can, pray about it.
12:27 Somebody wants to send you to Israel.
12:30 Kirsten: Right, we're a television program, obviously.
12:32 You're probably either watching us on TV or on your computer.
12:36 We're a television program, but we're also a tour company.
12:39 This is something we've done for decades,
12:41 and you're probably watching this program again because it
12:45 says, "Our Jewish Roots."
12:46 You're interested in your Jewish roots of your faith.
12:50 There's no better way to learn about it than actually to walk
12:53 the land itself.
12:54 We go two times a year-- gorgeous hotels, phenomenal bus.
12:58 You will be safer there than you will be going
13:00 to your local Walmart.
13:02 We'd love for you to come with us.
13:04 David: Dr. Seif--
13:05 Kirsten: Ha-hah, you're just sittin' there, smiling.
13:07 Jeffrey: No, because I'm thinking of a time when
13:08 I was leading a tour when Zola was alive,
13:11 and some guy got up in the back of the bus and snapped out.
13:14 He says, I'm tired of all this Jewish stuff."
13:16 And I'm thinkin', "You know, what a bozo."
13:19 I mean, he's in Israel, and he came with us.
13:22 "What did you expect me to sound like?
13:23 A Franciscan friar giving a lecture through the Vatican?"
13:27 You know, it is stupid.
13:29 Kirsten: I know, maybe I shouldn't even say this--
13:31 Jeffrey: No, no, no, you're good at the--
13:33 Kirsten: But this isn't-- this, a little different.
13:34 We had one person, and she goes,
13:35 "When are we gonna have spaghetti?
13:37 We need more spaghetti."
13:38 And I'm just, like--
13:39 [gasps]
13:41 These buffets of phenomenal, fresh, gorgeous Israeli food.
13:43 Jeffrey: Listen, lady, she might be watching the program.
13:45 The story that I told was 25 years ago.
13:48 Kirsten: I still love you but--I know.
13:50 Jeffrey: I don't think he's still alive, you know?
13:51 Eat your spaghetti, love, but let's move on from that.
13:54 But that's why I was smiling.
13:55 I was remembering that unique moment.
13:57 Kirsten: But it's a wonderful aspect of this program is taking
14:00 tours, and you and I hop on those buses,
14:02 and we pray every morning, and we dine together.
14:07 We sing everywhere.
14:08 We get baptized in the Jordan River.
14:10 It's just hard to beat.
14:11 Jeffrey: But it's definitely a Jewish operation.
14:13 Kirsten: It is.
14:16 Jeffrey: A little confusing.
14:18 Kirsten: But it's a good operation.
14:19 We'd love for you to go with us.
14:21 So this week's program is kind of a little different than our
14:24 normal--we're not in a normal series with you.
14:26 We're looking at viewer questions.
14:29 A lot of you write into the ministry,
14:31 and we have some more questions for you.
14:34 You have one, don't you?
14:35 David: I do. People ask this a lot.
14:36 I think, they know you, but they really don't.
14:40 So a question is "How could a Jewish boy become
14:44 a biblical theologian?"
14:47 Jeffrey: Well, my mother asked the same question--
14:50 David: Yes.
14:52 Jeffrey: Because I wasn't raised into all of this.
14:55 My wife too, Barri, she has a PhD in biblical studies.
14:58 She was born and raised Jewish from both parents,
15:01 and I was born and raised Jewish from both parents.
15:04 Actually, my mom was a Holocaust survivor.
15:07 She was smuggled out of the war.
15:09 Kirsten: Your mom?
15:10 Jeffrey: Yeah, she was smuggled out--
15:12 her and her sister.
15:13 My mother died in a mental hospital, however.
15:16 Kirsten: In the states or--
15:17 Jeffrey: In the states, yeah, because, you know,
15:19 she was a little girl.
15:21 You get her out of Germany, but it's kind of weird, you know?
15:24 And you can get Mom out of Germany,
15:25 but it's another thing to get Germany out of Mom, you know?
15:29 And so I grew up in that post-Holocaust
15:32 Jewish experience.
15:35 Jewish neighborhoods, Jewish synagogue--
15:38 pretty involved.
15:39 Went to a religious Jewish school, you know.
15:41 People send their kids to Christian school because they
15:44 wanted to get Christian education.
15:46 I went to religious Jewish school--
15:48 half a day Hebrew stuff, half a day English, you know--
15:51 and I wasn't gonna be a rabbi, but I definitely was more
15:56 introduced to things Jewish.
15:57 It wasn't just casual, but in my case, you know,
16:03 the '60s, the '70s, hippies, young people, it's not at all
16:09 uncommon for young people to kind of press--
16:11 to push off against the values of their
16:14 family of origin to go experience the world themselves.
16:17 And in the context of doing that,
16:19 I ran into Christian people. I knew nothing about it.
16:22 I was challenged.
16:24 A guy wanted to talk to me about Jesus.
16:25 He leaned on me, and I said, "I don't believe in Jesus.
16:28 I'm Jewish."
16:29 And we started to get into the Bible, and the Lord--
16:32 David: You were in San Francisco at the time, weren't you?
16:34 Excuse me.
16:35 Jeffrey: No, on the way to San Francisco,
16:36 I went out, but I ran into Christian people,
16:40 but it was on the way back in Pennsylvania.
16:42 I'm from Harrisburg.
16:44 That's where a guy buttonholed me and leaned on me, and he got
16:46 me to pray with him, and the rest is history.
16:48 Kirsten: How did I not even know that you're
16:50 from Harrisburg.
16:51 You know, I'm from New Jersey. Did you know that?
16:53 Jeffrey: No, I didn't know.
16:54 Kirsten: Ah, East Coast people.
16:55 Jeffrey: Knew there was somethin' about you that
16:57 I liked.
16:59 David: I'm thinkin' about friends that we have made
17:00 in Israel, Chaim Mailspin, Dov Schwartz.
17:05 They're on our program, and they're on fire for God
17:09 as Israelis.
17:11 It's amazing.
17:12 Jeffrey: Well, I think you have to be.
17:13 I mean, you're gonna pray a price for it
17:15 because it is so against the norm.
17:16 You're not gonna sit on the fence.
17:17 I mean, I knew early in the game that my decision was gonna be
17:22 confusing for people in my webs of relationships,
17:25 family of origin, and if you're not serious about it,
17:28 then you're just not--
17:30 you know, if you're gonna do it, you're gonna lean in on it,
17:32 so I was pretty zealous, and my wife too.
17:35 Kirsten: Well, how did that work with your family dynamic?
17:37 What did your parents feel?
17:38 Jeffrey: They were offended, disturbed,
17:42 and, you know, when you're young and stupid,
17:44 there's probably a better way I could've articulated what it was
17:47 all about.
17:49 My parents were disturbed, and they went to their graves with
17:56 that disconsternation.
17:58 Kirsten: I'm so sorry about that.
17:59 Jeffrey: It's okay.
18:00 My sisters, however, were at peace, you know,
18:02 that, they don't believe like me, but we're close.
18:06 There's love.
18:07 And Jews tend to be very liberal and gracious and realize,
18:12 you know, let people live and breathe, you know,
18:14 and do their own thing.
18:16 And they look at me as "He's not hurting anyone.
18:19 He makes a living on it, you know.
18:20 Yeah, he went to college, became a college professor.
18:23 You know, he's a doctor, but he's not a doctor of a
18:26 discipline that I necessarily approve of,
18:27 but, look, it's an honest living.
18:29 Kirsten: Right, because the Jewish doctors--
18:30 lawyer or a doctor, right?
18:31 You got the "doctor" part but--
18:33 Jeffrey: Yeah, I don't write any prescriptions.
18:34 Someone said--my sister said, "This is my brother,
18:35 Doctor so-and-so."
18:37 Someone says, "What's he a doctor in?"
18:38 She says, "Don't ask."
18:39 You know, but there's love there because Jewish people tend to be
18:42 a gracious people but--
18:44 Kirsten: But you had a price to pay.
18:46 You have been paying a price in following Messiah.
18:54 Jeffrey: Yeah, there's a price to pay from the
18:56 beginning and today even.
18:57 You know, there's a lot of people that don't get it.
18:58 You can talk about, here, you have this Jewish-Christian
19:01 television program.
19:02 "What's that?"
19:04 People think the terms are mutually exclusive:
19:05 "You're either a Jew, or you're a Christian.
19:06 What do you mean you're Christian-Jewish,
19:08 Messianic Jewish?"
19:09 It seems it's an anomaly and a contradiction,
19:13 people perceive, but Jesus was a Jew.
19:14 The disciples were Jewish.
19:16 It all took place in Judea, and we like to look at the good news
19:20 through the eyes of the Jews, and I'm glad
19:21 to have an opportunity to come here and do it.
19:22 Not everybody gets it. I get that, but I don't care.
19:25 David: So your journey is, really, a miracle.
19:28 Jeffrey: I think it's a miracle when anybody accepts the Lord,
19:30 but when a Jewish person does,
19:32 it's a miracle on steroids, in my opinion.
19:34 Kirsten: Another miracle is the fact that, years ago,
19:38 thousands of years ago,
19:39 a man named Joshua brought the Israelites into a new land,
19:45 and he conquered them.
19:46 Coming up, well, actually, right now,
19:48 you're gonna see a little bit of our series
19:50 "Joshua: More than a Conqueror."
19:54 ♪♪♪
20:04 ♪♪♪
20:14 ♪♪♪
20:24 ♪♪♪
20:30 Joshua: Canaan has proven to be everything promised
20:32 by Adonai.
20:34 Just as lush as it was when Moses sent Caleb and me to
20:39 scout the land.
20:41 And now the time has come to partition the land to the tribes
20:45 of our people.
20:47 Eleazar the priest joins me on this hallowed occasion.
20:53 Just as we've done in Gilgal, we have gathered in Shiloh to cast
20:59 lots for the land that the Lord has given us.
21:03 Eleazar: We do so to confirm what Adonai said in ages past
21:06 to Jacob and then to Moses.
21:09 It will not be Joshua nor I who will decide.
21:12 It will be the Lord God of Israel.
21:17 Joshua: You've surveyed the land.
21:19 You know it well.
21:21 We've gathered in Shiloh to cast lots for Judah,
21:25 Ephraim, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
21:28 They have already received their portions--
21:30 this side of the Jordan.
21:33 Eleazar: Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh
21:36 are acquiring their portions over the Jordan to the east as
21:41 was pledged by Moses.
21:44 ♪♪♪
21:51 Eleazar: Benjamin.
21:53 Joshua: The land between Judah and Ephraim.
21:56 ♪♪♪
22:02 Eleazar: Simeon.
22:05 Joshua: The land within Judah with the cities and villages
22:08 encircling Beersheba.
22:11 ♪♪♪
22:18 Eleazar: Zebulun.
22:21 Joshua: The land as far as Sarid,
22:23 then to the north to the valley of Jiphthahel.
22:26 ♪♪♪
22:31 Eleazar: Issachar.
22:33 Joshua: The land from Jezreel, reaching to Tabor.
22:37 ♪♪♪
22:41 Eleazar: Asher.
22:46 Joshua: The land from Mount Carmel, to the city of Tyre.
22:50 ♪♪♪
22:55 Eleazar: Naphtali.
22:58 Joshua: The land from the terebinth tree in Zaanannim,
23:02 to the Jordan and the Kinnereth.
23:05 ♪♪♪
23:11 Eleazar: And Dan.
23:12 Joshua: The land from Zorah, to Joppa.
23:15 ♪♪♪
23:24 ♪♪♪
23:26 Eleazar: And to you, Joshua, son of Nun,
23:30 we give Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim,
23:35 just as you requested.
23:38 ♪♪♪
23:42 Jeffrey: It was a dream come true.
23:44 His mission complete, Joshua would spend the last few years
23:47 of his life in the green heartland of Israel within
23:50 the boundaries given to his tribe: Ephraim.
23:55 Jeffrey: We've come here to Shiloh many times before, as
23:58 it is such an important biblical site.
24:01 And this time, especially because it's central
24:04 to the very land allotted to Joshua,
24:08 it happened that the Lord blessed the land with rain
24:10 on our visit, so we found shelter within some ancient
24:14 ruins while outside it poured.
24:17 ♪♪♪
24:20 Jeffrey: Everyone in Israel prays for rain,
24:23 and I'm good with that, but I say,
24:25 "Lord, why today, here in Shiloh,
24:28 where we have a special TV program?"
24:32 It is special, but you know what?
24:34 So is rain.
24:35 If there wasn't rain, we wouldn't have any of these
24:38 goodies right here.
24:39 We wouldn't have 'em today, and they surely wouldn't have had
24:43 them yesterday.
24:44 They were all farmers,
24:46 and they relied on the produce of the earth.
24:50 In fact, "mayim," the word for "water," is related to the word
24:54 "shamiam," or "heavens."
24:56 The point is you look at the rain, this outpouring,
25:00 as blessings.
25:01 Even in biblical literature, we talk about the outpouring of the
25:05 Holy Spirit.
25:06 Lord, pour out your blessings, and it's water language,
25:10 and it harks to this agrarian language.
25:13 Well, we're in the thick of it here in Shiloh,
25:17 a fascinating place today, an important place yesterday in
25:22 Joshua's day.
25:24 We're told, in fact, in the 18th chapter,
25:27 that when the battles had run their course,
25:31 Joshua led the Israelites, and they knocked the backbone of the
25:36 local Canaanite resistance,
25:38 and now it's time to divide up the tribes.
25:43 They get their parcels of real estate, their inheritances.
25:47 We're told in the 18th chapter,
25:50 [speaking in Hebrew]
25:55 "And that the whole congregation of the
25:58 children of Israel assembled themselves together at Shiloh."
26:03 [speaking in Hebrew]
26:06 "And they gathered themselves.
26:08 They assembled themselves at the tent of meeting."
26:12 And this is where it was, you know?
26:14 In fact, before--
26:15 ♪♪♪
26:21 David: We really enjoy bringing you series every week,
26:25 but I think the letters program is one of our favorite times
26:29 that we sit at this desk with you, Dr. Seif.
26:31 Thank you for just being honest with us today,
26:34 answering these questions.
26:36 Really insightful information today.
26:37 Kirsten: Just kind of really-- I mean, you bore your heart,
26:40 and that's something that you just don't
26:41 see a lot on the television airways.
26:44 I mean, we just appreciate that.
26:45 Jeffrey: Well, you're kind, of course, but I'm more of a
26:47 professor type. and education is conversational,
26:48 so it's a little easier.
26:49 Most people used to administer as a monologue,
26:52 giving a lecture, but it's more conversation--
26:54 Kirsten: Thank you so much. New series next week.
26:57 Join us. Set your DVR.
26:59 Get ready to watch on your computer.
27:00 However you watch our program,
27:02 we look forward to seeing you again next week.
27:05 David: We end this program today with a song from our
27:07 founder Zola Levitt--
27:09 Jeffrey: And a word from the Scripture.
27:10 [speaking in Hebrew]
27:12 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
27:16 ♪ For us, your blood was a outpoured. ♪
27:21 ♪♪♪
27:30 ♪♪♪
27:32 ♪ All we like sheep have gone astray, ♪
27:38 ♪ every one to his own way. ♪
27:44 ♪ But you alone took the blame, ♪
27:50 ♪ and now we ask in your holy name. ♪
27:56 ♪ For we like sheep have gone astray, ♪
28:03 ♪ every one to his own way. ♪
28:08 ♪ But you alone took the blame, ♪
28:14 ♪ and now we ask in your holy name. ♪
28:23 CC by Aberdeen Captioning 1-800-688-6621 abercap.com

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Kirsten Hart
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Dr. Jeffrey L. Seif
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