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Episode: “Fighting for the Promised Land”
We examine the battle at Hazor, where Joshua secured the northern territories for Abraham’s offspring.
Series:Eretz Israel (The Land of Israel) (2021)”
In this eight-part television series, Dr. Jeffrey Seif takes viewers through Eretz Israel (The Land of Israel). By exploring the Bible’s accounts of the Holy Land’s past, present, and prophetic future, we discover an inextricable relationship between the people of Israel and the land of Israel. Former CBS correspondent David Dolan helps explore the modern-day struggles that accompany the re-establishment of the ancestral Jewish homeland. On-location TV footage, dramas, and Zola’s wonderful music punctuate the series.

Caption transcript for Eretz Israel (The Land of Israel) (2021): “Fighting for the Promised Land” (5/8)

  • 00:03 male announcer: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots," with
  • 00:06 insightful Bible teaching from Israel by Dr. Jeffrey Seif.
  • 00:09 We traveled to Hazor today on "Eretz Israel:
  • 00:13 The Land of Israel."
  • 00:17 ♪♪♪
  • 00:25 announcer: Look to the north, the south, the east, the west.
  • 00:35 ♪♪♪
  • 00:41 announcer: All the land which thou seeth, to thee will I give
  • 00:45 it and to thy seed forever.
  • 00:50 Indeed, he who watches over Israel
  • 00:53 will neither slumber nor sleep.
  • 00:56 ♪♪♪
  • 01:03 announcer: Eretz Israel.
  • 01:05 ♪♪♪
  • 01:12 David Hart: We are so glad you've joined
  • 01:13 us today, I am David Hart.
  • 01:14 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
  • 01:16 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: And I am Jeffrey Seif.
  • 01:18 And we are going back to one of my favorite places in Israel,
  • 01:23 the north, a place called Hazor.
  • 01:25 I love filming here.
  • 01:27 Kirsten: You know what, we see it from the right side
  • 01:29 of the bus as we're driving up north, and it's like, "That's--"
  • 01:32 And we get a little history lesson of it on tour,
  • 01:34 but we've never been.
  • 01:36 And you have. Ooh.
  • 01:38 Dr. Seif: Maybe it's not much to look at from a bus, you know?
  • 01:40 People have to be selective on where they stop to get in all
  • 01:44 the major Bible sites.
  • 01:45 This is an important site because it so
  • 01:47 corroborates the biblical text.
  • 01:50 The Bible speaks of a great conflagration there,
  • 01:53 a great battle, a great fire at a certain point in time,
  • 01:56 and you can go and look at the ruin and see the burn marks.
  • 02:00 And the carbon dating goes back to that very time.
  • 02:04 It gives a credibility to biblical literature that
  • 02:07 wouldn't otherwise be there.
  • 02:09 Kirsten: They've always been fighting--
  • 02:11 we talk about this too--
  • 02:12 always been fighting for that land.
  • 02:14 Here's a question. Please don't write in to me.
  • 02:17 I'm just--I don't wanna say someone else's advocate,
  • 02:20 but here's a question.
  • 02:21 Shouldn't they just be content?
  • 02:23 Shouldn't Israel right now just be content
  • 02:24 with the land that they have?
  • 02:26 Dr. Seif: Well, I think contentment is a recipe
  • 02:30 for disaster in life.
  • 02:31 I don't think I should be content
  • 02:33 with the physical body that I have.
  • 02:35 I need to work at keeping it healthy,
  • 02:37 and Israel certainly needs to work at keeping her borders
  • 02:40 secure and established.
  • 02:43 I don't wanna be lazy with it.
  • 02:44 It's the beginning of undoing, in my opinion.
  • 02:48 David: Dr. Seif will be teaching on Joshua chapter 11,
  • 02:51 but right now let's step back in time to that ancient city.
  • 02:57 announcer: "And Joshua took Hazor, and smote the king
  • 03:00 thereof with the sword: for Hazor beforetime
  • 03:04 was the head of all those kingdoms.
  • 03:07 And they smote all the souls that were therein with the
  • 03:10 sword, utterly destroying them: and he burnt Hazor with fire.
  • 03:17 So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord
  • 03:21 said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto
  • 03:25 Israel according to their divisions by their tribes.
  • 03:29 And the land rested from war."
  • 03:38 Dr. Seif: I can almost hear the sound of trampling boots,
  • 03:41 sword against sword as a great conflagration took place in
  • 03:45 northern Israel, a place that we're etching our way towards
  • 03:49 step by step by step.
  • 03:51 Come with me now.
  • 03:53 We're looking at yesterday.
  • 03:55 Let's visit it today.
  • 03:56 The battle of Hazor.
  • 04:03 ♪♪♪
  • 04:13 ♪♪♪
  • 04:23 ♪♪♪
  • 04:33 ♪♪♪
  • 04:43 ♪♪♪
  • 04:45 Dr. Seif: It took a long time for them to get here.
  • 04:49 On the way, there were various battles
  • 04:52 with Transjordanian kings.
  • 04:55 There was the famous battle of Jericho.
  • 04:59 There was the necessity of defeating the coalition of
  • 05:02 southern Canaanite peoples, and then it was time to take the
  • 05:06 battle to the north as God's people were securing
  • 05:11 their place in God's land.
  • 05:14 Let me show you on this map.
  • 05:17 So, we're looking at a picture here of the
  • 05:19 world in Joshua's day.
  • 05:21 We have the Great Sea, so called, the Mediterranean.
  • 05:24 The Jordan River,
  • 05:25 Bible readers are familiar with this, and
  • 05:27 of course, the peaceful Sea of Galilee.
  • 05:30 What we're not so familiar with is the northern campaign,
  • 05:33 a place that was not so peaceful,
  • 05:35 a place called Hazor, right here,
  • 05:39 and we're gonna visit that very place.
  • 05:42 ♪♪♪
  • 05:52 ♪♪♪
  • 05:58 ♪♪♪
  • 06:07 Dr. Seif: The southern campaign had gone remarkably
  • 06:10 well, much to the chagrin of the locals.
  • 06:14 So, you might recall sometime prior, the Israelites were in
  • 06:17 dread fear because the locals were so tall and they felt like
  • 06:20 grasshoppers, but here the fortunes of war has shifted.
  • 06:24 The southern federation of Canaanite peoples had been
  • 06:28 decimated, and word gets up north,
  • 06:32 and there's trouble in river city.
  • 06:34 There's a King Jabin--it's a dynastic name--and he will
  • 06:38 mobilize a federation of northern Canaanite peoples,
  • 06:43 to use that term broadly, and there will be a battle royal.
  • 06:49 Before I show you from the Scripture,
  • 06:51 let me pull out a map.
  • 06:53 It's not your modern garden variety map,
  • 06:56 but something that might have been used--akin to what had been
  • 07:00 used by the locals when they fought here many,
  • 07:04 many, many years ago.
  • 07:07 And just to show, if you will, this is the Mediterranean.
  • 07:11 The Romans called it Mare Nostrum.
  • 07:13 I know that I'm getting ahead, called Our Sea.
  • 07:17 And the reason why I mentioned it is that Jabin here at Hazor
  • 07:21 was so famous that ancient documents in form of political
  • 07:25 alliances that he had with the states out into the
  • 07:29 sea--Phoenicians, the Cretans in Cyprus.
  • 07:34 And he was well connected politically,
  • 07:36 as I'd noted earlier, with all the peoples round about,
  • 07:40 and he is going to mobilize his energies to hold at bay these
  • 07:45 encroaching Israelites that are there with a sense of a divine
  • 07:49 mandate that God has spoken to Moses and directed them onward,
  • 07:55 and Joshua is going onward.
  • 07:58 We're going to hear from Amnon Ben-Tor, professor at Hebrew
  • 08:03 University, who's going to talk a little bit about Hazor,
  • 08:07 and then I wanna talk a little about the tribal area
  • 08:10 round about, and then open up the Bible to consider the story.
  • 08:15 Dr. Amnon Ben-Tor: We have a huge destruction
  • 08:17 of the Canaanite city.
  • 08:18 Wherever we dig, whether it is on the Acropolis,
  • 08:22 whether it is in the lower city, the Canaanite period ends
  • 08:26 with a huge destruction.
  • 08:28 Sometimes more than a meter of debris--ashes,
  • 08:33 wood, bricks, fallen bricks, mutilated statues,
  • 08:38 and the like--which indicate, first of all,
  • 08:41 that the disaster was human-made.
  • 08:43 It's no earthquake, because no earthquake would mutilate the
  • 08:46 statues in a systematic way, so it was manmade.
  • 08:50 And by now we can narrow it down to about the middle
  • 08:55 of the 13th century B.C.
  • 08:58 If we're talking about biblical sites,
  • 09:00 Hazor is the number one site.
  • 09:02 There is no other which can even get close,
  • 09:05 because if you're talking just about the period
  • 09:08 which we have, you want the Canaanites?
  • 09:09 You have them.
  • 09:11 You want the destruction of Joshua?
  • 09:12 You have.
  • 09:14 You want judges? You have.
  • 09:15 You want Solomon? You have.
  • 09:17 You want Jeroboam? You have.
  • 09:19 You want Ahab? You have.
  • 09:21 You want Pekah? You have.
  • 09:22 You can show.
  • 09:24 You can have the debate at Hazor.
  • 09:27 You can show, "This is the gate which according to the Bible was
  • 09:29 built by Solomon, in the time of Solomon."
  • 09:32 Now, you tell me it was not.
  • 09:33 Let's argue about it. You see what I mean?
  • 09:35 But that there's no other site which has that many strata which
  • 09:41 are somehow related to the biblical narrative.
  • 09:45 Dr. Seif: I have here Hazor in a bolder,
  • 09:50 darker print and round about in a lighter print a notation of
  • 09:54 the tribes who, after the conquest of the south and the
  • 09:59 north and some other ancillary battles, eventually are going to
  • 10:03 go to their inheritance.
  • 10:05 And I wanna note that there was an inheritance that was given to
  • 10:08 the people of Israel in this land,
  • 10:10 an inheritance that was yesterday,
  • 10:12 today, and continues on into tomorrow.
  • 10:16 While speaking of yesterday, today,
  • 10:18 and tomorrow, let's open up the eternal Word and consider
  • 10:23 something of what's noted therein.
  • 10:25 And where else would I wanna go but to the book
  • 10:28 of Joshua the 11th chapter.
  • 10:31 It's always nice to see how biblical archaeology
  • 10:34 corroborates the biblical text.
  • 10:37 We're going to consider a great war that was fought here in
  • 10:41 Hazor, and you can even see the burn marks.
  • 10:45 The biblical testimony is very clear that there was esh,
  • 10:49 Hebrew word for fire, and it's noted in the bricks.
  • 10:53 It's noted in the mud even many years later.
  • 10:57 These stones are crying out and saying,
  • 11:01 "You can trust this literature."
  • 11:03 Well, what does the text say in
  • 11:05 Joshua chapter 11, verse 1?
  • 11:07 "It came to pass that Jabin king of Hazor heard these things--"
  • 11:12 Jabin was a dynastic name that had gone on for centuries.
  • 11:16 What things did he hear?
  • 11:18 He heard about the Israelite conquest of the south,
  • 11:22 and he was not a happy camper.
  • 11:26 We read on in the literature, he mobilizes peoples round about,
  • 11:30 and there is a battle royal that is fought here.
  • 11:35 We're told in verse 10, however, difficulties notwithstanding,
  • 11:39 that Joshua, he was successful in his endeavors,
  • 11:44 and that Hazor was struck, and the king was struck with the
  • 11:48 edge of the sword, an expression that denotes victory.
  • 11:53 We're told in verse 12, "All the cities of the kings,
  • 11:57 and all their kings, Joshua took and struck--"
  • 12:02 Again, a battle royal, a battle that went to the Hebrews.
  • 12:07 I want you to look with me, please.
  • 12:09 We're told in verse 18 that war went for a long time.
  • 12:13 Not every trial in life goes away just like that.
  • 12:15 Sometimes you have to walk it out,
  • 12:17 but there's a positive end result.
  • 12:19 Go with me, please, to verse 23.
  • 12:21 We're told that "Joshua took the whole land according--"
  • 12:26 Now, this is important to me. It's not just a war.
  • 12:29 We're told that it's according to all that the
  • 12:31 Lord had said to Moses.
  • 12:34 There's divine promise in this.
  • 12:37 This is called the Promised Land because from on high it's
  • 12:40 commended, a certain place is commended to a certain people.
  • 12:44 We're told because the Lord said to Moses, and Joshua gave it
  • 12:48 as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions.
  • 12:55 What do we note from the biblical text?
  • 12:58 We note that there was a battle, a battle royal that raged,
  • 13:02 and we know that it went to Israel.
  • 13:04 And it wasn't just the good fortunes of war,
  • 13:06 but rather it's God himself leading a particular people to a
  • 13:10 particular place to accomplish his particular purposes.
  • 13:14 ♪♪♪
  • 13:24 ♪♪♪
  • 13:30 announcer: Our offer on this program, a DVD collection
  • 13:33 of all eight programs in our series "Eretz Israel."
  • 13:37 Take a backroads journey with Dr. Jeffrey Seif
  • 13:40 through the Holy Land.
  • 13:41 Explore the Bible's account of Israel's past,
  • 13:44 present, and future.
  • 13:45 Journalist David Dolan joins Dr. Seif and lends his insight
  • 13:49 regarding the modern-day struggles that accompany the
  • 13:52 reestablishment of the ancestral Jewish homeland.
  • 13:56 This is a series that sets the record straight,
  • 13:58 the biblical and historical account of the land of Israel.
  • 14:03 Call 1-800-WONDERS and ask for "Eretz Israel."
  • 14:10 announcer: Join us right now for additional content that is
  • 14:13 only available on our social media sites: Facebook,
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  • 14:18 Visit our website, levitt.com, for the current and past
  • 14:21 programs, the television schedule, tour information, and
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  • 14:28 articles and news commentary.
  • 14:30 View it online, or we can ship it directly
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  • 14:35 Also on our website is the online store.
  • 14:38 There, you can order this week's resource,
  • 14:40 or you can always give us a call at 1-800-WONDERS.
  • 14:45 Your donations to Our Jewish Roots help us to support these
  • 14:48 organizations as they bless Israel.
  • 14:51 Please remember we depend on tax-deductible
  • 14:53 donations from viewers like you.
  • 14:57 announcer: For many, a trip to the Holy Land is
  • 14:59 the dream of a lifetime.
  • 15:03 The Bible truly comes alive as you see the sites where
  • 15:06 so many biblical events happened.
  • 15:09 Come on a Zola tour to see Israel and Petra.
  • 15:15 See the land of the Bible for yourself.
  • 15:19 Contact us to reserve your dream of a lifetime.
  • 15:27 David: Many of the sites you see in the series,
  • 15:30 we take you there on our tour, both in the fall and the spring.
  • 15:33 Some great places, one that we're talking about today.
  • 15:36 Kirsten: Right, at the beginning of our program, Jeff was at
  • 15:39 Hazor, the ancient city, and we pass by that.
  • 15:43 Here's the thing: not every tour that goes to the Holy Land
  • 15:46 goes to northern Israel.
  • 15:48 Lots of times they'll stop at Sea of Galilee,
  • 15:50 and then go down to Jerusalem.
  • 15:51 We take you way up north, and the Jordan River valley
  • 15:56 is gorgeous and lush.
  • 15:58 We would love for you to go with us.
  • 15:59 Dr. Seif: Yes, and we like to take you to places where you
  • 16:03 normally wouldn't go, even on a trip to Israel.
  • 16:06 Much as in this program, we like to take you to places
  • 16:09 intellectually, emotionally, spiritually,
  • 16:11 and visually which you wouldn't otherwise go to,
  • 16:15 and we hope you find it enriching,
  • 16:17 that it contributes to your walk with the Lord and your
  • 16:19 understanding of biblical history.
  • 16:21 If you do find value in it, I wanna ask you please sow some
  • 16:25 resource in it to help us to do it.
  • 16:28 It doesn't come cheap. We don't ask often.
  • 16:30 If there's a need, I put it forth in front of you,
  • 16:33 and I'm not ashamed to do so 'cause it's a worthy cause.
  • 16:36 If you think it's worth it, sow into it today.
  • 16:39 David: The Burma Road is an important road.
  • 16:41 David Dolan takes us there right now.
  • 16:45 Dr. Seif: This is a model of the Burma Road,
  • 16:48 a strategic road for survival constructed by Israeli Forces
  • 16:51 during the War of Independence.
  • 16:54 David Dolan joins us now to tell us more about that road and the
  • 16:58 miraculous story against encroaching Arab forces.
  • 17:04 David Dolan: The day after the UN Partition Plan was
  • 17:06 approved in New York, the fighting over this land began.
  • 17:10 Irregular Arab Forces from Iraq, from Syria,
  • 17:14 from Jordan, from Lebanon, and from Egypt crossed over.
  • 17:17 Others came from Libya and farther away to help the local
  • 17:21 Arabs, the Fedayeen, in the battle against the Jews.
  • 17:24 The British were still here, but they mostly stood on the
  • 17:27 sidelines and let the Jews fight for themselves.
  • 17:29 But they hadn't allowed the Jewish community here
  • 17:32 to bring in heavy weapons.
  • 17:34 They had no aircraft. They had no actual tanks.
  • 17:37 They just had the arms they were manufacturing themselves,
  • 17:40 light arms, for the most part.
  • 17:42 The Arabs were convinced that they would swiftly defeat the
  • 17:45 Jews and there would be no Jewish state when the British
  • 17:48 left in the middle of May.
  • 17:50 The fighting became fierce in February and March.
  • 17:53 Tiberias was captured on April 19, Haifa on April 23.
  • 17:58 The fighting spread down to the Tel Aviv area.
  • 18:00 Jaffa was captured by the Jewish forces on May 12.
  • 18:05 Meanwhile, Palestinians, Arabs started to flee their
  • 18:08 homes in greater numbers.
  • 18:09 Some 20,000 had fled by May 15.
  • 18:13 They were convinced they would soon come back to their homes
  • 18:16 after the war was easily won by the Arab powers around them.
  • 18:20 The road to Jerusalem, the main road connecting Tel Aviv and the
  • 18:23 coastal areas to the Jewish community in western Jerusalem,
  • 18:26 was cut off in the fierce battles.
  • 18:28 It was then reopened, but after the declaration of independence
  • 18:32 on May 15, the Jordanian army, the Jordanian Arab League
  • 18:36 Forces, joined the battle.
  • 18:38 They were very well trained by the British.
  • 18:40 They circumvented Jerusalem and came down the hill
  • 18:43 to the Latrun Junction.
  • 18:45 Fierce battles took place there, and they defeated the Jewish
  • 18:48 forces, and again the road was completely closed.
  • 18:52 No supplies were getting up to the
  • 18:53 Jewish community in Jerusalem.
  • 18:55 Food was short, water was running out,
  • 18:57 medicines were running out, so the Jews opened an alternative
  • 19:01 route, and we're standing at the site where that began.
  • 19:04 It was dubbed the Burma Road after the great road that was
  • 19:07 opened during World War II by the Allies connecting Burma to
  • 19:10 China, and it succeeded in bringing supplies around the
  • 19:14 main road up into Jerusalem.
  • 19:16 And you can see part of the road behind me here.
  • 19:19 The battles were fierce, and by the middle of June, the Arabs
  • 19:23 had tired of the battle.
  • 19:24 They were not fighting very well anymore.
  • 19:27 The Jews were continuing to fight back with strength.
  • 19:29 Historians say it's because the Jews
  • 19:32 were fighting for their lives.
  • 19:33 They knew their country was going to be destroyed
  • 19:36 if they lost this war.
  • 19:38 Many of them were Holocaust survivors that literally got off
  • 19:41 of the boats from Europe and were given a gun and told
  • 19:43 to go to the warfront.
  • 19:45 Their motivation was extremely high.
  • 19:47 A truce was declared on June 10.
  • 19:49 During this period of fighting, another 200,000 to 300,000
  • 19:53 Palestinians had fled their homes.
  • 19:56 Most of them didn't go to other countries, though.
  • 19:58 They went to the areas that the partition plan designated
  • 20:00 for a Jewish state.
  • 20:02 They went to family homes in Judea and Samaria.
  • 20:05 They went to homes in the Gaza Strip and other areas,
  • 20:08 but about a third went to Jordan and to Lebanon
  • 20:11 and to Syria and other places.
  • 20:13 Fighting resumed on July 8 and lasted till July 18.
  • 20:17 Another 20,000 to 30,000 Arabs fled their homes during this
  • 20:20 time, and this was the only time that the Israeli Forces
  • 20:24 deliberately evacuated some of the Arabs from their homes.
  • 20:28 That was in two towns, Ramle and Lydda,
  • 20:30 right next to the vital Ben Gurion Airport,
  • 20:33 the only airport in the country at that time.
  • 20:37 There was another ceasefire, as I said,
  • 20:39 in July, and that lasted until mid-October when fighting began
  • 20:44 again, and during this time, this third period of fighting,
  • 20:47 the Jews succeeded in reopening the road from Tel Aviv to
  • 20:51 Jerusalem, and this Burma bypass was no longer so essential.
  • 20:56 More Palestinians fled their homes during this time.
  • 20:59 The UN said that the total Palestinian refugee
  • 21:02 flight was 726,000.
  • 21:05 The Israelis said it was more like 600,000 since,
  • 21:09 as I said, many had gone back to family homes,
  • 21:11 hadn't really become refugees at all.
  • 21:13 The Arabs put the number at over a million.
  • 21:17 Six thousand three hundred and seventy-two Jews lost their
  • 21:20 lives during this war, by far the greatest death toll in any
  • 21:23 of Israel's wars, one percent of the population.
  • 21:26 Two thousand four hundred of those were civilians.
  • 21:29 ♪♪♪
  • 21:39 ♪♪♪
  • 21:42 Dr. Seif: David, it's like things never change.
  • 21:45 Jews were always fighting for a right to be in this real estate.
  • 21:48 David: Absolutely, and you know, we've just been talking about
  • 21:51 the ancient battles here in the land and the modern battles.
  • 21:54 I'm looking out at the Golan Heights here from Hazor,
  • 21:57 and that has figured in what, two, three wars so far?
  • 22:01 Maybe another one in the future.
  • 22:03 Maybe another few in the future.
  • 22:05 It hasn't changed.
  • 22:07 The Arab world, the Muslim world wants to see Israel destroyed,
  • 22:11 so many of them, they keep saying it.
  • 22:13 They've tried several times and failed,
  • 22:15 going back to the time of Joshua,
  • 22:17 and looks like there's gonna be more attempts.
  • 22:19 Dr. Seif: I mean, I'm a Bible guy.
  • 22:20 I'm a lot about the divine Word of yesterday,
  • 22:22 but you're here on the ground in Israel.
  • 22:24 What do these wars look like? How did it unfold?
  • 22:27 David: Well, I covered the Lebanon War, just 25 miles north
  • 22:31 of here, inside of Lebanon, and I was there
  • 22:34 for the build up to it, the rockets coming across the
  • 22:36 border pretty much every day.
  • 22:39 I saw the kids running to the shelter.
  • 22:41 I saw what life is like when there's not actually war
  • 22:45 declared, but there's not peace.
  • 22:48 And that's the part of the story that often doesn't get told,
  • 22:51 that the Israeli people have suffered these almost constant
  • 22:54 attacks since--well, really since the 1920s.
  • 22:58 Not even since '48, but, of course,
  • 23:00 '48 being the war with the largest number of casualties.
  • 23:03 But it's dramatic. It's tough to live like that.
  • 23:06 Dr. Seif: People lose a sense of that.
  • 23:07 We read the biblical texts.
  • 23:09 There's a lot of sweat and blood, energy, drama, pain,
  • 23:12 passion, and pleasure too, to see God come through and
  • 23:15 give good success yesterday and today.
  • 23:18 David: And it doesn't happen without pain and tears and blood
  • 23:21 and the price that's paid.
  • 23:24 This country is good about remembering that, you know?
  • 23:26 You go from Memorial Day for the fallen soldiers to
  • 23:30 Independence Day within a second.
  • 23:32 They're back to back as holidays here and that
  • 23:35 reminds everyone of the price.
  • 23:36 Dr. Seif: Yes, it seems that the Bible beckons us to
  • 23:38 remember, because these wars are noted in the text.
  • 23:41 Why is it that Bible people forget,
  • 23:43 forget the Jews, forget Israel?
  • 23:44 Why?
  • 23:46 David: That is a good question.
  • 23:47 I think it's something that you would probably
  • 23:50 have a better answer for.
  • 23:51 It's a spiritual mystery, really.
  • 23:53 Dr. Seif: It surely is; you know, Paul speaks of how Jewish
  • 23:55 people God loved, can look at the biblical text and not see
  • 23:58 Jesus, but my question is how can Christian people
  • 24:00 look at the biblical text and not see Jews in Israel?
  • 24:03 Go figure. Blindness.
  • 24:04 David: I have a friend here, a Jewish believer.
  • 24:06 He says, you know, that Paul said that a blindness would fall
  • 24:10 upon the Jewish people in part until it's revealed who their
  • 24:13 Messiah is, but he says it seems to have fallen on the church in
  • 24:17 terms of who Israel is and their covenant relationship with God.
  • 24:21 And that's a shame, and it's led to a lot of persecution against
  • 24:24 Jews and wars against Jews.
  • 24:26 Even here in the land, the Crusaders killed
  • 24:28 thousands of Jews.
  • 24:29 Dr. Seif: Yes, and you know, through what we're doing
  • 24:31 together, may God bless our labors to dispel that darkness
  • 24:35 and set a little light from the biblical text.
  • 24:38 ♪♪♪
  • 24:44 ♪♪♪
  • 24:49 David: I think the whole theme for today's program has
  • 24:51 been about fighting for real estate in Israel past
  • 24:56 and present, future.
  • 24:57 Dr. Seif: Yes, well, I look at all of life as a
  • 25:00 struggle, to tell you the truth.
  • 25:01 You know, there's a reason why Paul encourages believers to
  • 25:04 fight the good fight of the faith.
  • 25:06 And armed as I am with that attitude,
  • 25:09 it makes me more robust in response to the troubles of the
  • 25:11 day, but never mind my own personal orientation.
  • 25:15 It is true.
  • 25:16 You look at it, Jews are forever picked on.
  • 25:19 Friends are few, foes are many,
  • 25:21 and we have to, you know, fight and press on to get on with it.
  • 25:25 Kirsten: It's kind of interesting
  • 25:27 because there's the blessing of this gift of land,
  • 25:30 but there's been a great price since the day God said to
  • 25:34 Abraham, "This will be yours and for your generations."
  • 25:36 It's like it's a constant battle.
  • 25:38 Dr. Seif: Yes, and I think for believers too.
  • 25:39 I've said that if God's got a call on your life,
  • 25:41 hell has an assignment against you.
  • 25:43 It's true with real estate, if there's anything to be said for
  • 25:46 spiritual warfare and an enemy of the soul,
  • 25:49 an adversary to what God is all about and who he's all about.
  • 25:52 If all that's at play in human experience,
  • 25:55 behind the scenes, one should expect a struggle,
  • 25:57 but helpfully, it's good to know there are godly people that
  • 26:02 step up into the gap to push the ball forward,
  • 26:05 whether that's for the fight of the modern nation state of
  • 26:08 Israel, whether it's for this Jewish-related ministry.
  • 26:12 God bless our friends.
  • 26:13 Kirsten: Here's a quick question.
  • 26:15 We've watched, you know, every one of your teachings that we
  • 26:18 have on this program, and you roll out this map,
  • 26:22 and it shows a--the ancient lines of Israel and what it
  • 26:26 really was, much larger than it is today.
  • 26:29 So, here's a question that I honestly don't know.
  • 26:32 Prophetically, will Israel get that original outline of the
  • 26:36 land of Canaan back before the end times?
  • 26:40 Dr. Seif: Well, let me just say if you look at--if you put a
  • 26:42 belt around Planet Earth, it's 24,000 miles.
  • 26:45 You can go east or west in Israel.
  • 26:47 It's 10 miles, maybe 50 miles at the widest.
  • 26:50 There is more real estate that's commended to the people of
  • 26:53 Israel, but still, you know, there's this rhetoric the Jews
  • 26:56 are taking over the Middle East.
  • 26:57 It's less than 1% of all the Arab holdings in the area.
  • 27:01 But there is more land that's commended to the Hebrew people,
  • 27:04 and we'll have to see how God brings that about
  • 27:06 in his own timetable.
  • 27:08 Kirsten: All right, well, thank you for today's
  • 27:09 teaching and insight and wisdom.
  • 27:11 David: Our program's over again today, I can't believe it.
  • 27:13 We love to end our program with a song
  • 27:15 from our founder, Zola Levitt.
  • 27:17 Dr. Seif: And a word of prayer.
  • 27:18 Please sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim.
  • 27:22 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
  • 27:24 ♪♪♪
  • 27:30 ♪♪♪
  • 27:36 ♪ Yeshua, return unto our Father. ♪
  • 27:42 ♪ Yeshua, return to us alone. ♪
  • 27:48 ♪ Yeshua, return unto Israel. ♪
  • 27:55 ♪ Yeshua, return unto your own. ♪
  • 28:01 ♪ Yeshua, return unto Israel. ♪
  • 28:07 ♪ Yeshua, ♪
  • 28:09 ♪ return unto ♪
  • 28:12 ♪ your own. ♪♪
  • 28:19 ♪♪♪

Episodes in this series

  1. The Land Promised
  2. Promised to the Next Generation
  3. To All Generations
  4. Entering the Promised Land
  5. Fighting for the Promised Land
  6. Promised Forever
  7. Jesus and the Promised Land
  8. Israel Fulfilling Prophecy

Guest organizations and links