The Jewish roots of Christianity

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

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Episode: “Israel Fulfilling Prophecy”
Wrapping up the series, Jeff and David review the State of Israel, comment on its changing borders, and consider what’s ahead in the not-too-distant biblical timetable.
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): “Israel Fulfilling Prophecy” (8/8)

  • 00:01 ♪♪♪
  • 00:03 David Hart: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots," with insightful
  • 00:06 Bible teaching from Israel by Dr. Jeffrey Seif.
  • 00:10 Today we look at the prophetic future on "Eretz Israel," the
  • 00:14 "Land of Israel."
  • 00:18 ♪♪♪
  • 00:19 [vocalizing]
  • 00:25 male announcer: "Look to the north, the south, the east,
  • 00:34 the west--"
  • 00:36 ♪♪♪
  • 00:41 announcer: "--all the land which thou seest, to thee will I
  • 00:45 give it unto thy seed forever."
  • 00:50 "Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither
  • 00:54 slumber nor sleep."
  • 00:57 ♪♪♪
  • 01:03 announcer: "Eretz Israel."
  • 01:05 ♪♪♪
  • 01:13 David: Thank you so much for joining us today.
  • 01:14 I am David Hart.
  • 01:16 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
  • 01:17 Jeffrey Seif: I am Jeffrey Seif, and with David,
  • 01:19 I say thank you.
  • 01:20 I'm thankful, personally, as a Christian, to have been born
  • 01:23 anew to find life in biblical literature, and I'm thankful as
  • 01:27 a Jewish person to be able to commend this story to you about
  • 01:31 "Eretz Israel," the "Land of Israel," and I'm thankful that
  • 01:34 you have a heart to receive it.
  • 01:36 Thank you for going on the journey with us in the series.
  • 01:39 David: I think we say this every series ending that we're
  • 01:42 sad that it's over.
  • 01:44 It's been so good.
  • 01:45 Jeffrey: Yes, and what a great story.
  • 01:47 Our donors send me to Israel--send us there to do what
  • 01:50 we do, and I'm just so thrilled, frankly, when I look at these
  • 01:54 programs, before they go out on network, just to see what the
  • 01:57 team did in putting it together.
  • 01:58 I'm impressed by it.
  • 02:00 I'm not impressed by me.
  • 02:02 I'm impressed by the overall work product, and I hope you
  • 02:04 find value in it.
  • 02:05 Kirsten: Well, there's been so much biblical history, modern
  • 02:08 insight, into the land of Israel, and it's fascinating
  • 02:12 that God worked there.
  • 02:14 He is working there, and he will.
  • 02:16 It's a past, present, and future with the land of Israel.
  • 02:18 Jeffrey: Right, God worked there yesterday, and his
  • 02:21 presence in the world attest to his presence in our world today.
  • 02:24 David: That's good.
  • 02:26 Here's a quick recap of our dramas from the series, followed
  • 02:29 up with Dr. Seif and David Dolan discussing
  • 02:31 the miracle of Israel.
  • 02:36 announcer: "Eretz Israel."
  • 02:38 It began with Abraham, "And Abram took Sarah, his wife, his
  • 02:45 nephew Lot, all the substance and persons they had acquired in
  • 02:50 Haran and journeyed to Canaan."
  • 02:54 And the Lord appeared to Abraham's son, Isaac, "Sojourn
  • 02:58 in this land, for unto thee and unto thy seed,
  • 03:02 I will give all these countries."
  • 03:05 And then to Isaac's son Jacob, "The land where thou liest, to
  • 03:10 thee will I give it and to thy seed."
  • 03:15 To Moses, "Behold, I have set the land before you.
  • 03:19 Go in and possess the land which the Lord swear
  • 03:22 unto your fathers."
  • 03:24 And then Joshua, "So Joshua took the whole and gave it for an
  • 03:30 inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions
  • 03:34 by their tribes."
  • 03:36 ♪♪♪
  • 03:42 Jeffrey: I'm sure he was a little edgy.
  • 03:44 I know that because, over and again, the Lord said, "Fear not,
  • 03:48 Joshua, for I have given you the mandate.
  • 03:52 I've given you the command in the land to lead the children of
  • 03:55 Israel into the next stage of their journey," and that was the
  • 03:58 conquest of the land of Canaan.
  • 04:02 The text is explicit, and I imagine that
  • 04:05 he was pleased to hear it.
  • 04:06 He says, "Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you,
  • 04:12 Joshua, will divide as an inheritance the land which I
  • 04:17 swore to their fathers to give them.
  • 04:21 It wasn't an enormous tract, but it extended up to the Euphrates,
  • 04:25 over to the river of Egypt, to the Mediterranean Sea, on the
  • 04:28 one hand, and then out, past what we would
  • 04:33 call Jordan today, eastward.
  • 04:35 There was a land that, in Bible times, was known and to Bible
  • 04:39 readers is known as, in effect, the Promised Land.
  • 04:43 Well, that was the biblical vision,
  • 04:47 but what's the current division?
  • 04:51 Right now, we have here the Land of Israel, but I'm standing at a
  • 04:55 place right here where we're about nine miles away
  • 04:58 from the Mediterranean Sea.
  • 05:01 Behind me is a village dotted with minarets,
  • 05:05 a sign of an Islamic triumph.
  • 05:08 So we have biblical vision on one hand, and we have current
  • 05:12 political division on the other.
  • 05:14 Goodness, David, what do we make of this?
  • 05:17 David Dolan: Well, we are dealing with a tiny land, and,
  • 05:20 you know, it really isn't clear to a lot of people around
  • 05:24 the world just how small this is.
  • 05:25 We've been up on the Golan Heights, and there's a lot in
  • 05:29 the south, and we're talking about 280 miles at its longest,
  • 05:32 but the main problem is this was the pre-'67 border.
  • 05:39 This here.
  • 05:40 Now, it's really small here.
  • 05:43 We're talking, as you said, nine miles at its narrowest, but on
  • 05:48 average, it's 15 miles wide.
  • 05:49 Here's Tel Aviv.
  • 05:52 Here's Haifa.
  • 05:53 Here's Netanya and Herzliya, right over here.
  • 05:57 Two-thirds of Israel's Jewish population lives right in this
  • 06:01 area, and if you take it all the way from the northern border to
  • 06:04 the Gaza Strip, 80% of Israel's Jews live in a 15-mile-wide,
  • 06:09 on average, piece of land.
  • 06:11 Jeffrey: Who's living here, David?
  • 06:12 David: And this is mostly Arab towns and villages.
  • 06:15 And as you pointed out, some are inside of Israel, inside of this
  • 06:18 pre-'67 border, but Nablus is here.
  • 06:22 Here's Jerusalem.
  • 06:23 You can see the border went right through the heart
  • 06:26 of the city.
  • 06:27 Israel had the western part, and the Arabs
  • 06:29 had the eastern part.
  • 06:31 It's tiny.
  • 06:32 And all the way across, if you take that line out right here,
  • 06:35 it's about 30 miles.
  • 06:36 At its widest, it's 55 miles.
  • 06:38 It's tiny.
  • 06:40 Jeffrey: If I understand correctly, the biblical vision
  • 06:42 extends downward further.
  • 06:43 This way, it extends upward to the Euphrates, out this way.
  • 06:47 That's the biblical vision.
  • 06:48 The Palestinian vision, the mandate calls
  • 06:51 for pushing Israel into the sea.
  • 06:53 I mean, we're getting awfully narrow here, aren't we?
  • 06:56 David: And we talked earlier about the Partition Plan,
  • 06:59 the U.N. Partition Plan,
  • 07:00 and this--it was even smaller,
  • 07:02 what Israel was gonna have.
  • 07:03 The Arabs would've had a part of this.
  • 07:05 They would've had further down here, et cetera, but even
  • 07:09 without that, even with what they got in the '48 War,
  • 07:12 it's tiny.
  • 07:13 And to give that back to the Palestinians for a state is
  • 07:16 gonna, again, leave Israel extremely exposed.
  • 07:19 She's one-eighth of 1% of the population
  • 07:21 of the whole Middle East.
  • 07:24 Tiny little land with just a few million people.
  • 07:26 It's very vulnerable to missile attack in particular.
  • 07:29 Jeffrey: Yeah, we can see it from here.
  • 07:33 The Mediterranean Sea, I mean, it's a stone's throw away,
  • 07:36 in effect.
  • 07:37 You know, I think--tell me what you think of this.
  • 07:39 Let's say, there's a man who's unhappy with his wife:
  • 07:40 "You weigh 120 pounds.
  • 07:42 If you'd lose ten pounds, I'd love you more."
  • 07:43 She loses ten pounds.
  • 07:45 She's 110 pounds.
  • 07:46 If you lose ten pounds more, we'd get along.
  • 07:48 If you'd lose ten pounds more, ten pounds more--" it gets to
  • 07:51 the point it's not about the pounds.
  • 07:53 There's something wrong in the thought process: "Oh, if the
  • 07:56 Jews would just give up a little more of the real estate, it's a
  • 07:58 small parcel, and we're already pushing against it to gobble up
  • 08:02 more and more of the Jewish homeland."
  • 08:04 This isn't the Bible.
  • 08:05 Whoever carved up this turkey never read the biblical text.
  • 08:08 David: Exactly.
  • 08:10 And, you know, the Palestinians have just made a film in which
  • 08:12 they take over Tel Aviv.
  • 08:14 It was made down in the Gaza Strip.
  • 08:15 They go through the streets, and they've driven all the Jews out
  • 08:18 of the land entirely, and that is the vision of Muslim
  • 08:21 fundamentalists: no Jewish state.
  • 08:23 A Jewish state contradicts their faith.
  • 08:25 "Islam is the final truth."
  • 08:27 The truth of that statement was proved by their capture of
  • 08:30 Jerusalem, they believe, so a lot of them just wanna see
  • 08:32 Israel gone entirely.
  • 08:34 Jeffrey: Well, I guess we're gonna see whose God is stronger,
  • 08:36 and that's the old way of doing business.
  • 08:37 You know, nations would fight.
  • 08:39 They'd pray to their gods, and the winner had the stronger God.
  • 08:41 Well, he who keeps watch over Israel has been keeping watch
  • 08:46 over us for thousands of years and I trust will guide us
  • 08:49 through this dilemma.
  • 08:50 What says David Dolan?
  • 08:51 David: I believe it as well.
  • 08:53 It's a miracle that Israel exists at all,
  • 08:56 all these wars, et cetera.
  • 08:58 God's gonna keep Israel until the end.
  • 09:00 I'm sure of it.
  • 09:01 Jeffrey: Yes, and the end comes sooner day by day.
  • 09:04 The end of this program is coming sooner as well, but
  • 09:06 there's more to come as we give a wrap on our series, "Eretz
  • 09:10 Israel," the "Land of Israel."
  • 09:14 ♪♪♪
  • 09:20 announcer: Our offer on this program, a DVD collection of all
  • 09:23 eight programs in our series "Eretz Israel."
  • 09:27 Take a back-road's journey with Dr. Jeffrey Seif
  • 09:30 through the Holy Land.
  • 09:31 Explore the Bible's account of Israel's past, present,
  • 09:34 and future.
  • 09:35 Journalist David Dolan joins Dr. Seif and lends his insight
  • 09:39 regarding the modern-day struggles that accompany the
  • 09:42 reestablishment of the ancestral Jewish homeland.
  • 09:45 This is a series that sets the record straight.
  • 09:48 The biblical and historical account of the land of Israel.
  • 09:53 Call 1-800-WONDERS and ask for "Eretz Israel."
  • 10:00 ♪♪♪
  • 10:02 announcer: "For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good
  • 10:05 land, a land of fig trees and pomegranates,
  • 10:10 a land of olive oil and honey."
  • 10:13 "Arise, walk through the land, for all the land which thou
  • 10:19 seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever."
  • 10:27 Worship in the shadows of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
  • 10:33 Behold the land of the covenant.
  • 10:36 ♪♪♪
  • 10:43 ♪♪♪
  • 10:45 Jeffrey: For all the Palestinian rhetorical flurry
  • 10:48 about driving Israel into the sea, well, if they do it,
  • 10:51 they're gonna discover, when they get here, an advanced
  • 10:54 civilization, and you see it behind me.
  • 10:56 It's Tel Aviv.
  • 10:58 Reminds me when individuals get to work instead of get to
  • 11:00 raging, there's a lot of things people can accomplish by working
  • 11:04 together, and to have God helping you, that doesn't hurt
  • 11:06 either, does it, David?
  • 11:08 David: It doesn't, and God certainly has helped the Israeli
  • 11:11 people, and this, that we mentioned earlier, was just
  • 11:14 marshes and sand dunes just 100 years ago.
  • 11:19 It's now this thriving city.
  • 11:20 Jeffrey: People have been raging and fighting.
  • 11:21 It's amazing, to me, that the Palestinians don't have a good
  • 11:24 baseball team for all the good pictures
  • 11:25 for these rock throwing.
  • 11:27 There's gotta be somethin' better to do with those energies
  • 11:29 instead of warring.
  • 11:30 David: Indeed.
  • 11:32 I've covered the two uprisings that occurred here in 1987,
  • 11:35 1991, '92, hundreds of Palestinians killed, hundreds of
  • 11:41 Israelis killed--in the Israeli case, mostly civilians
  • 11:44 in terror attacks.
  • 11:46 Then we had a little brief period of hope with the Oslo
  • 11:49 Peace Accords and peace with Jordan, but it wasn't but seven
  • 11:53 years after that we had a second uprising, and again, a thousand
  • 11:57 Israelis killed, several thousand Palestinians killed--
  • 12:01 a real mess.
  • 12:02 Jeffrey: So-called Palestinians--individuals of
  • 12:05 Arab extract that have some history here but not a divine
  • 12:09 mandate here as in the sense of the Israelite peoples, correct?
  • 12:12 David: Well, no, and, in fact, this was never
  • 12:15 a country under Muslim rule.
  • 12:19 The Muslims that ruled it, as we've mentioned earlier in the
  • 12:21 series, were either in Cairo, or they were in Damascus.
  • 12:24 Sometimes they were in Baghdad, then, finally, in Constantinople
  • 12:27 or Istanbul--never in Jerusalem.
  • 12:30 Tel Aviv didn't exist at all.
  • 12:32 This was part of a larger Arab area--Syria or Southern Syria,
  • 12:36 they often called it.
  • 12:38 So, yes, you're right, the name Palestine as a Western name,
  • 12:41 it didn't really apply.
  • 12:42 Jeffrey: Historically there's no Palestinian constitution,
  • 12:44 flag, national anthem, currency.
  • 12:47 You can go back and see a divine constitution in biblical
  • 12:50 literature for Israelites to this part of the world, going
  • 12:53 back thousands of years--coinage, history,
  • 12:55 and the like.
  • 12:57 You just weigh it out, and the evidence informs there's a
  • 13:00 Jewish presence here.
  • 13:01 The other seems, to me, rather mythic.
  • 13:04 David: Well, the irony is that the Palestinian National
  • 13:08 Movement, as they would call it, is a reflection of Zionism.
  • 13:13 It wasn't until the Jewish movement back to the land became
  • 13:17 organized and formalized with the first Zionist Congress and
  • 13:20 all these other things that the Palestinians or the Arabs here
  • 13:24 started to have a sense of nationalism to this little land.
  • 13:28 Now, by now, they have developed those things, and they have the
  • 13:31 Palestinian Authority government, and they have, you
  • 13:34 know, the makings of a state coming, but they still haven't
  • 13:37 gotten very far in that and certainly nowhere like the
  • 13:40 Israelis did, like the Jewish people did before
  • 13:42 the state was actually created.
  • 13:44 Jeffrey: Well, you make an important point that a lot of
  • 13:46 this Palestinian self-determination comes in the
  • 13:49 wake of a Zionist re-presence here as opposed to having a
  • 13:53 history before the modern Jewish state.
  • 13:56 David: It was really sparked off by Zionism, ironically.
  • 14:00 You know, that's when they thought, "Hey, we have to have
  • 14:02 something to, you know, identify with and to push forward with."
  • 14:06 It was just the Arab world in general.
  • 14:08 All these states were created in the last hundred years
  • 14:11 by the Europeans and, et cetera, so--
  • 14:15 Jeffrey: And talk about spark.
  • 14:16 You've been observing sparks flying here all the while,
  • 14:19 looking at different wars.
  • 14:21 How long have you lived here, David?
  • 14:22 David: I've been here since 1980, so, for over 30 years.
  • 14:26 Jeffrey: And you've been a correspondent helping Christians
  • 14:28 understand the Bible on the one hand, Israel on the other,
  • 14:31 how it all comes together.
  • 14:32 David: Yeah, and that's a unique aspect of it.
  • 14:34 Of course, I've also covered those wars, the '82 Lebanon War
  • 14:38 and the 2006 attacks from Hezbollah and the Scud attacks
  • 14:43 from Saddam, et cetera, but I've been able to give a little bit
  • 14:46 of comfort and hope in the midst of that, working in Christian
  • 14:48 radio and different things.
  • 14:50 Jeffrey: I've been following your career
  • 14:51 and appreciate you so doing.
  • 14:53 We're going to wrap it up in a moment or two and look at what
  • 14:55 the Bible says, not just about the present but about the future
  • 14:58 here in "Eretz Israel."
  • 15:03 David: We are at the end of this series, "Eretz Israel."
  • 15:07 We have many more series coming your way.
  • 15:09 It takes lots of work, lots of money, lots of prayers, and we
  • 15:13 thank you so much for your support in all of that.
  • 15:15 Kirsten: I just want you to know that many people write in
  • 15:17 to this ministry, either on their keyboards or, still,
  • 15:20 handwritten letters and say, "We want you to know that this
  • 15:24 ministry is being prayed for daily from people
  • 15:27 across the world."
  • 15:28 Thank you for that, and here's a fun thing: Watching this whole
  • 15:32 series, it's been a great one.
  • 15:34 We'd love for you to write to us and tell us your personal
  • 15:37 takeaways, things that you learned from watching "Eretz
  • 15:40 Israel," and you have brought us so much knowledge
  • 15:44 as you always do.
  • 15:45 Jeffrey: You're so kind to say that.
  • 15:47 I appreciate my friends and even my detractors,
  • 15:49 to tell you the truth.
  • 15:50 Not everybody likes what we do, but God bless.
  • 15:52 We love to be able to do it, and we're thankful in the doing.
  • 15:55 Coming up next, by the way, is something very interesting.
  • 15:58 If you're interested in coins, ancient coinage, you're gonna
  • 16:01 see how ancient money is important for corroborating the
  • 16:04 ancient biblical testimony--coming right up.
  • 16:10 Jeffrey: One sure-proof way of connecting a people with
  • 16:12 their land is through a study of their coinage.
  • 16:16 Donald Ariel is head of the coin department
  • 16:18 of the Israel Antiquities.
  • 16:20 These little boxes contain irrefutable evidence that there
  • 16:25 has been a Jewish presence in Eretz Israel
  • 16:28 for thousands of years.
  • 16:31 ♪♪♪
  • 16:32 Donald Ariel: Coins are extremely important in
  • 16:34 dating--when one finds a stratum in an excavation, one can date,
  • 16:40 using the objects in that stratum.
  • 16:43 Most of the objects are ceramics, pots, broken pot
  • 16:46 shards, and those do not provide very, very fine dates.
  • 16:50 We can barely date a pot shard to within a hundred years, but
  • 16:54 there are coins here, and coins that were struck by the Jews
  • 16:58 that have exact dates on them.
  • 17:00 The earliest exactly dated Jewish coin dates to 80 B.C.
  • 17:06 It was minted by Jonathan the king, otherwise known as
  • 17:09 Alexander Jannaeus, but as we come closer to our day and come
  • 17:14 closer to the time of the Second Temple, more and more strict,
  • 17:18 strong archaeological evidence shows that the Jews were where
  • 17:22 they were supposed to be according to the biblical books,
  • 17:25 and, therefore--you have to bear in mind that maybe far back
  • 17:30 we're less sure--as we get closer to the time of the Second
  • 17:33 Temple and during the Second Temple, there is no reason to
  • 17:36 doubt at all that the Jews were in the land.
  • 17:39 They were striking coins.
  • 17:41 They were using symbols that are described in the ancient sources
  • 17:45 on their coins, and their names were appearing
  • 17:48 on the coins as well.
  • 17:50 So I think there's no question that certainly in the Second
  • 17:54 Temple period, the biblical books do reinforce everything we
  • 17:59 find in the archaeological record.
  • 18:03 ♪♪♪
  • 18:07 Jeffrey: Well, the task at hand now is to give something of
  • 18:09 a wrap of an eight-part series on "Eretz Israel,"
  • 18:15 the "Land of Israel."
  • 18:17 And, oh, what a story it is, but the story, in so many ways,
  • 18:22 is so very gory.
  • 18:25 The passage of Israel is marked with many a battle, and we've
  • 18:30 explored the battles and the boundary some, from biblical
  • 18:34 antiquity, right up to modernity and considered all the while how
  • 18:39 God is watching over his Word to perform it and to perform it
  • 18:44 here in the land of Israel.
  • 18:48 One of the tragedies in all this seems to me is how the reality
  • 18:52 of what's really being played out here is so very obscure.
  • 18:56 It seems, to me, that truth is the first casualty in the war to
  • 19:01 tell the story about what's going on--a world where the Jews
  • 19:04 are so vilified and those that are hell-bent on the destruction
  • 19:09 of the Jewish state, glorified.
  • 19:11 To me, it's all upside down.
  • 19:13 To me, I like the Bible to give me some vision, and we note here
  • 19:17 in Ezekiel, and I want you to turn to the very end
  • 19:19 of this prophetic book.
  • 19:22 In the 47th chapter, he says, "These are the borders," in
  • 19:26 verse 13, "by which you shall divide the land
  • 19:30 as an inheritance."
  • 19:32 It's not tacit. Its explicit.
  • 19:35 God gave the land.
  • 19:36 The particulars are delineated, and one can read on and note how
  • 19:40 those borders are expanded actually beyond the current land
  • 19:44 holdings in the land of Israel.
  • 19:45 Where the forces of darkness are bent on dividing the land and
  • 19:49 squeezing it, actually the biblical vision is to expand it.
  • 19:53 I know I'll get some bad mail for saying that, but I'm not
  • 19:56 trying to win a popularity contest.
  • 19:58 He says in verse 14, "You shall inherit the land, for I raised
  • 20:03 my hand in an oath," he says, "to give it to your fathers, and
  • 20:09 this land shall fall to you as an inheritance."
  • 20:16 I'm miffed at one level how someone can claim to be a Bible
  • 20:20 believer on the one hand, but not come to terms with what the
  • 20:25 literature says so clearly on the other.
  • 20:30 This series, "Eretz Israel," the "Land of Israel," was
  • 20:34 prayerfully and carefully put together with the mind to
  • 20:38 counterbalance the insanity, to bring biblical medicine
  • 20:43 to life's assorted hurts.
  • 20:46 What I want you to know is that not only does the Bible, does
  • 20:52 the God of the Bible, commend this land to a particular
  • 20:57 people, but he notes herein as well that there's places for
  • 21:03 many other peoples to dwell peaceably round about
  • 21:06 and even within Israel.
  • 21:09 He says in verse 22 of the 47th chapter that residents herein
  • 21:15 should find a place to dwell peacefully amongst the Hebrew
  • 21:18 people if they're minded to do so.
  • 21:20 There's a wonderful story: "There's room for all in God's
  • 21:24 arms, and his arm is extended."
  • 21:27 And it seems we're living at a time today when God's extending
  • 21:31 his arm to Jewish people and non-Jewish people and bringing a
  • 21:35 testimony the world over how God is, in fact, working and walking
  • 21:40 upon the earth to make his will and ways known
  • 21:44 fully and finally.
  • 21:47 ♪♪♪
  • 21:54 David: This series has been all about the land of Israel
  • 21:56 which we love with all of our hearts so much that our son
  • 22:00 lived there for three years.
  • 22:01 He had an amazing time in the land of Israel.
  • 22:04 Jeffrey: Yes, and in your case, it's love in the original
  • 22:07 sense in Hebrew, "ahav," which means "to do good on behalf of."
  • 22:11 It's not just an affection.
  • 22:12 It is that, but your family's invested in participating in
  • 22:17 bringing about God's will in the ancestral homeland.
  • 22:20 Thank you.
  • 22:21 Kirsten: Well, we've learned so much from this series.
  • 22:23 David Dolan is like a walking--it's like a
  • 22:26 encyclopedia in his brain, the knowledge that he has, and he
  • 22:31 moved there in 1980.
  • 22:32 Is that correct?
  • 22:34 Jeffrey: I forget the exact year, but he has a lifetime of
  • 22:36 accumulating information.
  • 22:37 Worked at CBS, you know, when a journalist,
  • 22:40 he was all about gathering the facts, the history,
  • 22:42 on the ground.
  • 22:43 Kirsten: Well, we're so thankful that our ministry found
  • 22:46 him and his insight along with your biblical insight,
  • 22:50 and it's been a treat.
  • 22:51 Jeffrey: Well, we find our way to friends with common
  • 22:53 values, whether a journalist on his part, an eccentric
  • 22:56 theologian on my part, good Christian people like you,
  • 23:00 and like you.
  • 23:01 We participate together, believing that there's a story
  • 23:04 here that has value.
  • 23:06 Can I quote a psalm, 50, chapter 50, verse 2?
  • 23:11 "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth."
  • 23:16 And there's just something special, looking at the land,
  • 23:19 the literature, the people, the place, and we hope God looks
  • 23:22 beautiful and that he shines forth through this series.
  • 23:26 David: Can you give us a little glimpse
  • 23:27 of what's coming up?
  • 23:29 Jeffrey: Well, you know, it's not over yet.
  • 23:32 There's lots of stories to tell,
  • 23:34 and we're forever busy gearing up.
  • 23:37 We're just--we just buttoned down our tickets to get there
  • 23:41 for the next series that we're shooting, and we conversate
  • 23:44 about what's next.
  • 23:46 "What's next?"
  • 23:47 You know, there's a few thousand pages in this, and when--if you
  • 23:49 look at what's happening back here in the Bible and you'll
  • 23:52 pick up a newspaper and see what's happening in the world
  • 23:54 today, I mean, there's plenty of stories to tell and--
  • 23:58 Kirsten: I was gonna say, on that, there's so much ancient
  • 24:01 history that we learned about "Eretz Israel," that the "Land
  • 24:03 of Israel," but even today, I mean, we see in the news
  • 24:09 literally daily there are new discoveries being unearthed
  • 24:12 in the land.
  • 24:14 It's not a stagnant old land.
  • 24:16 It's vitally alive right now.
  • 24:18 Jeffrey: It's not static.
  • 24:20 It's very dynamic, and in series like this and other ones like
  • 24:23 it, we go to places right when it breaks, you know.
  • 24:25 We get there just when the professor is finished dusting
  • 24:28 off the sites, you know, and we like to be first in, early in
  • 24:32 the game, and we think our supporters deserve that.
  • 24:35 We wanna be their journalists.
  • 24:37 David Dolan looks at the news.
  • 24:39 We look at the news and the good news, put it all together
  • 24:41 through the eyes of the Jews, and we love to do it.
  • 24:44 Kirsten: But you went to some places.
  • 24:45 What was--do you have a memorable place from where
  • 24:49 this series took you?
  • 24:51 I mean, you went to ancient sites.
  • 24:53 David: Places we don't go on tour.
  • 24:54 Jeffrey: Oh, I know.
  • 24:55 What I remember the most is my producer,
  • 24:57 what he puts me through.
  • 24:58 It gets hot sometimes out there.
  • 25:00 You know, we're off the beaten path.
  • 25:02 We're away from the air-conditioning,
  • 25:03 and I like air-conditioning.
  • 25:04 I'm a little on the spoiled side.
  • 25:06 David: Well, you look like Indiana Jones
  • 25:07 when you were there.
  • 25:09 I just gotta say.
  • 25:10 Jeffrey: Yeah, and I felt like Indiana Jones too, by the
  • 25:11 way, except, after he did his set, he went to some cool
  • 25:14 trailer and drank some bubbly.
  • 25:16 I just sat there in the heat.
  • 25:17 But it's a joy to do it, tell you the truth, but it's work.
  • 25:20 Kirsten: Well, it's a joy to be part of it with you.
  • 25:22 And please come back next week.
  • 25:25 We're not ending anything here.
  • 25:26 We have more series to bring you, more good news, more all
  • 25:30 about this beautiful land and the people of Israel.
  • 25:34 David: We do end this series with a song from our founder,
  • 25:36 Zola Levitt.
  • 25:37 Jeffrey: And we've been doin' it for 40 years and lookin'
  • 25:39 forward to the next.
  • 25:40 As you go now, Sha'alu Shalom Yerushalayim.
  • 25:43 David: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
  • 25:46 ♪♪♪
  • 25:52 ♪ So we will pray to you our anger, ♪
  • 25:58 ♪ so we will weep in desperate shame. ♪
  • 26:05 ♪ Knowing you hear and will remember, ♪
  • 26:11 ♪ blessed our God, we call your name. ♪
  • 26:19 ♪ How can we sing a song of Zion? ♪
  • 26:25 ♪ How can we sing a song of joy if I forget you, ♪
  • 26:35 ♪ oh, Jerusalem, promises made forevermore. ♪
  • 26:46 ♪ How can we sing a song of Zion? ♪
  • 26:52 ♪ How can we sing a song of joy if I forget you, ♪
  • 27:01 ♪ oh, Jerusalem, promises made forevermore. ♪♪
  • 27:17 David: Join us right now for additional content that is only
  • 27:20 available on our social media sites, Facebook,
  • 27:23 YouTube, and Twitter.
  • 27:26 Visit our website, levitt.com, for the current and past
  • 27:28 programs, the television schedule, tour information, and
  • 27:32 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
  • 27:48 give us a call at 1-800-WONDERS.
  • 27:52 Your donations to Our Jewish
  • 27:53 Roots help us to support these
  • 27:55 organizations as they bless Israel.
  • 27:58 David: Please remember, we depend on tax-deductible
  • 28:01 donations from viewers like you.
  • 28:04 ♪♪♪
  • 28:13 ♪♪♪
  • 28:19 ♪♪♪
  • 28:25 David: This has been a paid program brought to you
  • 28:27 by Zola Levitt Ministries.

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