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: “Troubles then and now”
A survey of the entire book of Ezekiel—judgment on Judah and the nations around it, Israel’s re-emergence, a climactic war, and a restored Temple—with emphasis on prophecy fulfillment today. (Ezekiel 33, 34, and 36)
Series: “Ezekiel and the MidEast “Piece” Process (2023)”
Dr. Jeffrey Seif, David, and Kirsten take viewers into one of the Bible’s most mysterious and fascinating books. Ezekiel prophesies Israel’s re-emergence as a nation-state at “day’s end,” and also warns that neighboring nation-states will marshal military resources as they seek to annihilate the fledgling state.

Caption transcript for Ezekiel and the MidEast ‘Piece’ Process (2023): “Troubles then and now” (2/8)

  • 00:02 David Hart: Shalom again. On today's program, we see how the Lord sent a warning through
  • 00:06 the prophet Ezekiel, but the people didn't wanna hear it.
  • 00:09 How do you think that worked out?
  • 00:11 Find out next on "Our Jewish Roots," with Bible teaching
  • 00:14 by Dr. Jeffrey Seif.
  • 00:16 ♪♪♪
  • 00:25 male narrator: "The Lord said unto Ezekiel,
  • 00:27 'Son of man, can these bones live?
  • 00:36 Prophesy upon these bones and say unto them,
  • 00:41 "O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord."'"
  • 00:45 ♪♪♪
  • 01:00 ♪♪♪
  • 01:12 narrator: "Ezekiel and the Mideast Piece Process."
  • 01:16 ♪♪♪
  • 01:19 David: We're so glad you've joined us today.
  • 01:20 I'm David Hart.
  • 01:21 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
  • 01:23 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: And I am Jeffrey Seif.
  • 01:24 Kirsten: We are in the second program of our series on
  • 01:27 Ezekiel, and I gotta be honest: This is hard because I--
  • 01:31 should I say that?
  • 01:33 I've gotten in trouble a little bit when I was a kid.
  • 01:35 David: Ah, do tell.
  • 01:36 Kirsten: I would go to the principal's office a little bit,
  • 01:38 and I never liked it.
  • 01:39 I never liked being told, "You did something wrong."
  • 01:42 And that's what Ezekiel has to do to all the people in Babylon
  • 01:46 right now with people.
  • 01:47 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: It's interesting.
  • 01:48 Little girls can be truth-tellers.
  • 01:50 They'll tell ya, "Daddy, that's not right,"
  • 01:52 "Mommy, that's not right."
  • 01:53 They'll tell ya.
  • 01:54 As women grow up, they, kind of, are disinclined to speak with
  • 01:57 their voice for fear of what others will say,
  • 01:59 men will say, girlfriends will say,
  • 02:00 et cetera, but it is tough to speak the truth,
  • 02:02 and, to your point, Ezekiel does just that and
  • 02:06 gets some pushback.
  • 02:07 David: But nobody listened to him.
  • 02:08 I mean, he had a word for his people,
  • 02:10 and no one accepted it.
  • 02:13 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: It's tough, isn't it?
  • 02:15 You know, there's a verse in Scripture,
  • 02:17 "Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes
  • 02:20 himself a prey."
  • 02:21 You stand up for principle, and you can get knocked
  • 02:23 around pretty good.
  • 02:25 But the thing is God was not pleased with his kids.
  • 02:28 Here's this big Father going, "Y'all messed up.
  • 02:31 You didn't fulfill this covenant,
  • 02:34 and look where you are now."
  • 02:35 Those are hard words to hear and take in.
  • 02:37 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: That's true,
  • 02:39 and when God came in the flesh, he spoke to his kids,
  • 02:41 and then he got beat up in the process as well.
  • 02:43 Truth-speaking is a tough assignment,
  • 02:45 but so it is we are called to blow that trumpet and
  • 02:49 sound the alarm.
  • 02:50 David: That's right.
  • 02:52 Ezekiel is a watchman on the wall.
  • 02:53 We take you to his story right now.
  • 02:56 narrator: And the strength of Nebuchadnezzar's army
  • 02:58 was exceedingly great.
  • 03:01 The mighty walls of Jerusalem were in peril.
  • 03:04 A sword was coming upon the land,
  • 03:07 and the Lord spoke unto Ezekiel, "O son of man,
  • 03:11 I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel.
  • 03:15 Therefore thou shalt hear the word of my mouth,
  • 03:19 blow the trumpet, and warn the people."
  • 03:23 [shofar trumpeting]
  • 03:27 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: I'm coming to you from atop the walls of
  • 03:31 an ancient city in Northern Israel.
  • 03:34 It's thousands and thousands of years old,
  • 03:38 and you can bet that, on top these walls,
  • 03:42 sentries were posted to guard against and to warn against
  • 03:47 impending danger.
  • 03:50 In another vocation, as a police officer,
  • 03:54 when, more than one occasion, I worked deep night shifts,
  • 03:58 and I felt, at one level, there wasn't much between me and the
  • 04:02 civilians dwelling securely.
  • 04:05 I had to be vigilant, on the ready,
  • 04:07 to keep my eyes for trouble.
  • 04:10 And more than one occasion, either because of something
  • 04:13 I saw or something I was dispatched to,
  • 04:16 I had to be in the ready and make haste in order to deal
  • 04:19 with the situation.
  • 04:21 I mention that here because you're gonna see in the Bible
  • 04:24 how Ezekiel is represented as a watchman posted on the wall as
  • 04:28 a sentry, and it was his job to be on the ready and announce
  • 04:35 things to come, and announce, he did.
  • 04:38 I'd like you to open up your Bibles, please,
  • 04:40 to Ezekiel chapter 33.
  • 04:43 I'll read it in mine.
  • 04:45 You read it in yours.
  • 04:47 In verse 7, he says-- [speaking in Hebrew]
  • 04:49 "'So thou, Son of Man,
  • 04:56 [speaking in Hebrew]
  • 05:00 'I have set you as a watchman, as a sentry
  • 05:03 for the house of Israel.'
  • 05:07 [speaking in Hebrew]
  • 05:10 'And you shall hear the word at my mouth,'
  • 05:13 [speaking in Hebrew]
  • 05:17 'And you shall warn them from me.'"
  • 05:22 Ezekiel, as I'd said, was vested with responsibility to warn of
  • 05:28 things to come, and warn he did.
  • 05:33 I wanna explore his message with you some as we consider
  • 05:36 "Ezekiel and the Middle East Piece Process."
  • 05:40 Well, I see myself as being in the business of ministering to
  • 05:44 an audience of one.
  • 05:47 I would hope that God is pleased by what I say,
  • 05:49 knowing that people won't always be,
  • 05:52 and I now Ezekiel felt the same way.
  • 05:54 And the reason why I say that, if you'll look with me in
  • 05:58 verse 11 of the same chapter, we hear him saying,
  • 06:06 well, the Lord saying, "Tell the people,
  • 06:09 "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
  • 06:14 but rather that the wicked turn from his way.
  • 06:17 "Shuvu, shuva," "turn you, turn you,
  • 06:22 from your evil ways in order that you will not die."
  • 06:27 This is the message to the house of Israel,
  • 06:30 but sadly, the message fell upon bad ears,
  • 06:35 as Ezekiel ministered in a degenerative world.
  • 06:40 If you'll look in verse 28 of this same chapter,
  • 06:46 in response to that, the Lord says,
  • 06:50 and I quote-- [speaking in Hebrew]
  • 06:54 'and I will make the land most desolate,
  • 06:57 and the pride of her power will cease.'"
  • 07:02 When we look at "Ezekiel and the Mideast Piece Process,"
  • 07:07 we see, among other things, that God makes his entrance onto
  • 07:11 the stage of the human drama to judge the world.
  • 07:15 In this passage, Ezekiel is a guardian.
  • 07:20 He's a sentry for Israel, and he's warning Israel of
  • 07:24 impending destruction.
  • 07:26 In subsequent passages, he warns the nations that are bent on
  • 07:29 Israel's demise that they're going to get their just deserve.
  • 07:33 And so, when we look at "Ezekiel and the Mideast Piece
  • 07:37 Process," we see judgment coming but not just judgment as
  • 07:41 we'll see in a moment.
  • 07:48 narrator: And the Lord spoken to Ezekiel and told him to take
  • 07:51 a sharp knife, symbolic of Babylon,
  • 07:55 and cut his hair and beard, symbolic of Jerusalem.
  • 08:00 ♪♪♪
  • 08:04 narrator: "Burn with fire a third part."
  • 08:08 One third of Jerusalem would die by fire.
  • 08:13 "Smite with thine sword a third part."
  • 08:15 One third of Jerusalem would die by the sword.
  • 08:21 "A third part, scatter in the wind."
  • 08:26 One third would be taken into exile.
  • 08:31 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: You're looking at Tel Dan,
  • 08:33 famous city in antiquity and a site for many battles.
  • 08:37 In my left hand, I have the Bible,
  • 08:39 what's referred to as the "sword of the Spirit," which is the
  • 08:42 "Word of God," and in my right hand,
  • 08:45 I have the sword of the sword, seen as an extension of
  • 08:47 God's judgment.
  • 08:49 And why do I mention that now as we look at "Ezekiel and the
  • 08:52 Mideast 'Piece' Process?"
  • 08:55 I do that because, in the fifth chapter,
  • 08:57 Ezekiel himself was told to take a sword and to cut the hair off
  • 09:00 of his head and to shave his face and take the hair
  • 09:04 and bundle it together, and pray tell,
  • 09:08 what was he to do?
  • 09:10 "Divide it in thirds," the Scripture says,
  • 09:12 "and take a third, and throw it in the fire," and this reflects
  • 09:16 those in Jerusalem who will be caught up in the
  • 09:19 great conflagration when the city falls.
  • 09:21 "The second third, take that hair,
  • 09:24 throw it on the ground, and cut it, and stab it, and dash it."
  • 09:28 And why is that?
  • 09:29 The Bible says that many will fall in the wake of the
  • 09:32 fall of the city.
  • 09:33 And the third portion, what of that?
  • 09:35 "Throw it in the air," says the Scripture.
  • 09:37 "Blow it to the wind."
  • 09:39 And why is it?
  • 09:41 Because these people will be scattered.
  • 09:43 And with their scattering, then God's sword of judgment is
  • 09:47 executed against those people.
  • 09:50 And what next?
  • 09:52 As a testimony to the fact that mercy triumphs over judgment,
  • 09:56 Ezekiel tells us that, after the judgment has run its course,
  • 10:00 God relaxes his energies of judgment and then invests them
  • 10:04 in Judea's regathering.
  • 10:08 And so, if you'll look with me, please,
  • 10:10 in Ezekiel, the 34th chapter, verse 11,
  • 10:13 "Thus saith the Lord, 'Behold, here am I,
  • 10:16 and I will search for my sheep, and I will regather them."
  • 10:21 "I'll, in effect, present as a shepherd to them."
  • 10:24 And if you look in verse 23, you're going to find something
  • 10:28 fascinating, and not only is the text itself fascinating,
  • 10:33 but the place where I'm coming from right here,
  • 10:38 this is fascinating, for this is one of the most famous
  • 10:42 archaeological sites on planet Earth,
  • 10:47 at least insofar as the Bible's concerned,
  • 10:49 and I'm going to explain.
  • 10:51 But, first, if you look in chapter 34,
  • 10:54 verse 23, here in the Hebrew Bible says,
  • 10:56 "I will set up one shepherd over them,
  • 10:59 and he'll feed them, even my servant David."
  • 11:03 Ezekiel had presaged that Judea would fall.
  • 11:08 In the wake of so doing, he envisioned that God would then
  • 11:12 represent and gather his people like sheep from the four winds,
  • 11:18 and they would be united beneath the banner of David.
  • 11:22 And this is fascinating.
  • 11:24 In Israel today and in America and all over the world,
  • 11:28 Jewish boys and girls sing--
  • 11:29 "David Melech Yisrael," [speaking in Hebrew]
  • 11:32 "David, the King of Israel, lives forever."
  • 11:35 Though he's been dead for millennia,
  • 11:38 the spirit of David, if you will, rises again, and
  • 11:42 here we're told that Israel rises again as God
  • 11:45 regathers his people from ruin.
  • 11:48 Oh, it's a fascinating story, and the reason why this place is
  • 11:52 fascinating, right here, is because many thought that David
  • 11:55 was just a figment of biblical writers' imaginations.
  • 11:59 And then, in this spot right here,
  • 12:02 recently they found an inscription from a Canaanite,
  • 12:07 from a non-Jewish people.
  • 12:08 They told of the House of David and struggles with them,
  • 12:12 evidence outside of the Bible that corroborates what's told
  • 12:15 in the Bible.
  • 12:17 And speaking of David and speaking of Bible,
  • 12:19 you might recall in Matthew chapter 1, verse 1--
  • 12:23 [speaking in Hebrew] New Testament begins by speaking
  • 12:29 of the coming of the Son of David,
  • 12:31 who will come again, says Ezekiel the prophet many
  • 12:34 centuries ago.
  • 12:37 ♪♪♪
  • 12:44 David: Our resource this week, "Coming: The End!
  • 12:46 Russia & Israel in Prophecy."
  • 12:48 This book analyzes the world situation in surprisingly modern
  • 12:51 terms as it applies to end-time prophecy,
  • 12:55 insight for believers and unbelievers.
  • 12:58 This book provides tips on surviving the
  • 13:01 Tribulation period.
  • 13:02 Call 1-800-WONDERS, or visit us levitt.com.
  • 13:05 Remember to connect with us on social media for
  • 13:08 so much extra content.
  • 13:10 Find us at "Our Jewish Roots."
  • 13:13 David: Recently, I was reminiscing about college days,
  • 13:16 for some reason, and I was thinking about a song that I
  • 13:20 used to sing as a 19-year-old, "I Walk Today Where Jesus
  • 13:23 Walked," and at 19 years old, I never dreamed in a million years
  • 13:28 that I'd be singing this song about Jesus walking in Israel,
  • 13:31 two times a year.
  • 13:34 So we would love for you to join us.
  • 13:36 I will sing this song for you in Israel.
  • 13:39 We go twice a year, both the fall and the spring.
  • 13:42 You can find all the information on levitt.com.
  • 13:44 Kirsten: You make all of this happen.
  • 13:47 I hope you're enjoying the gorgeous footage from
  • 13:50 the land of Israel.
  • 13:52 That is an "Our Jewish Roots" signature that our teaching
  • 13:56 comes from the Holy Land.
  • 13:58 It's costly to go.
  • 14:00 I mean, I don't know if you've all looked at plane tickets
  • 14:03 recently, but it's not cheap, but we want to bring that to
  • 14:06 you, and you make that happen, so we just wanna take a quick
  • 14:11 minute to say thank you for keeping us going to the land to
  • 14:15 film these programs for you.
  • 14:18 And Jeff, Dr. Seif, will be teaching from the Mount of
  • 14:24 Olives, and, oh, my goodness, remember,
  • 14:26 we were watching this?
  • 14:28 'Cause we get to watch all the footage beforehand,
  • 14:30 and Dave said to me, he said, "Do you see that?"
  • 14:34 Remember?
  • 14:36 It was like, "There's the temple."
  • 14:38 And we just literally, kind of, had to clean our eyes and say,
  • 14:40 "What are we seeing?"
  • 14:43 So our incredible editors and graphics guys made the
  • 14:47 Temple Mount look as if the new, the third temple,
  • 14:51 is right behind Dr. Seif's shoulder.
  • 14:55 It was breathtaking because everything else looks the same.
  • 14:59 I don't know how they did it, but this is a treat.
  • 15:01 It's a visual treat for you, perhaps what the third temple
  • 15:05 will look like.
  • 15:07 Let's go to Israel now.
  • 15:11 narrator: And the Word of the Lord came upon Ezekiel,
  • 15:14 "then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet,
  • 15:17 and taketh not warning, if the sword comes,
  • 15:21 and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head."
  • 15:28 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Ezekiel sounding the warning when he
  • 15:31 blows the trumpet and says, "You know,
  • 15:32 your sister Samaria didn't commit half your sins."
  • 15:35 You might recall, once upon a time,
  • 15:38 the northern kingdom of Israel broke away from Judah
  • 15:41 in the south.
  • 15:42 They set up their own religious worship,
  • 15:44 allegedly to Jehovah, but it was a farce.
  • 15:46 This was the place right here.
  • 15:48 They built the altar right there.
  • 15:50 On a number of occasions, the man who set this in motion is
  • 15:52 alleged to be the one who, quote,
  • 15:55 "caused Israel to sin," and sin, they did.
  • 15:57 But Ezekiel says, "Listen, Samaria wasn't half as bad as
  • 16:01 you," and why is that?
  • 16:03 Because Judah should've known better.
  • 16:05 What happened is Samaria was overrun.
  • 16:08 It fell.
  • 16:09 Assyrians wiped it out.
  • 16:12 You might recall, in Isaiah 7:20,
  • 16:14 therein the prophet speaks of Assyria coming down like a razor
  • 16:17 and shaving the northern kingdom.
  • 16:20 For his part, Ezekiel goes on record,
  • 16:22 saying that God's going to do much the same,
  • 16:25 and he uses his own head, his own face as an example of
  • 16:28 that coming cutting.
  • 16:30 Speaking of cutting, here I am in the temple environs that the
  • 16:34 Samaritans, the Ephraimites to the north set up.
  • 16:37 This is a spot right here where they stored the accoutrements to
  • 16:40 this unsacred worship.
  • 16:42 God judged all of this, and judgment was forthcoming,
  • 16:46 says Ezekiel.
  • 16:48 It's a tragic story at one level.
  • 16:50 He sounds the judgment.
  • 16:51 He sounds the trumpet.
  • 16:53 He lets them know that there's a bad moon rising.
  • 16:55 And I wish today that there were more that did much the same.
  • 16:57 Seems, to me, the preachers wanna be politically correct.
  • 17:01 They're afraid to offend.
  • 17:03 They don't wanna speak the truth,
  • 17:04 and the net result is that the warning isn't sounded.
  • 17:06 Well, Ezekiel wasn't of that ilk.
  • 17:09 He was a straightforward kind of fellow,
  • 17:11 and he told the story.
  • 17:13 And speaking of the story and moving on beyond the bad news,
  • 17:16 there's something special I want you to see.
  • 17:19 Come over with me to these bunkers,
  • 17:21 and we're gonna leap out of the ancient world and get into the
  • 17:25 present, modern world, and then we're gonna make our way
  • 17:27 into the future.
  • 17:29 ♪♪♪
  • 17:37 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Battles were fought here many,
  • 17:40 many centuries ago, and just years ago,
  • 17:42 battles were fought here as well at the edge of the modern
  • 17:47 nation state of Israel.
  • 17:50 Not far from here is a place that marked the edge
  • 17:53 of apostasy, where Israelites had broken away and set up
  • 17:57 their own religion.
  • 17:59 Inasmuch as God had judged them by the coming of Assyria,
  • 18:03 so, too, given that Judah hadn't performed much better,
  • 18:07 Ezekiel presaged that Babylonia would come and wreak havoc,
  • 18:11 and wreak havoc Babylonia did.
  • 18:16 But that's not the end of the story.
  • 18:19 When you look at the Hebrew Bible,
  • 18:22 judgment is never the end of the story.
  • 18:24 I perceive what I call a destructive and
  • 18:26 constructive dialectic.
  • 18:28 There's something of a conversation there.
  • 18:30 God shows himself as judge, but then he sees that--Ezekiel sees
  • 18:36 that God has in store a reemergence,
  • 18:39 and so it is, if you'll look in your Bibles,
  • 18:42 please, in Ezekiel chapter 34, he says in verse 20--
  • 18:49 [speaking in Hebrew]
  • 18:55 "And I will raise up for them a plantation of renown."
  • 19:02 He says that Israel has a future.
  • 19:04 They will be raised up.
  • 19:06 And then-- [speaking in Hebrew]
  • 19:13 "And neither shall they bear the shame of the nations anymore."
  • 19:18 Here, speaking to you from an entrance to a bunker,
  • 19:24 just to the north of me is an Arab village in what would be
  • 19:29 modern Lebanon.
  • 19:31 And behind me is the Dov Mountains.
  • 19:35 It's a Hebrew word for "bear," and this is the beginning
  • 19:39 of the Golan Heights.
  • 19:42 And over yonder, we have the modern nation state of Syria,
  • 19:46 hell-bent on Israel's demise.
  • 19:49 Once upon a time, forces were hell-bent on destroying Israel.
  • 19:55 And I'm told by those in the know in Israel that the wars
  • 19:59 typically began here.
  • 20:01 When I read the biblical text, I read that wars are forthcoming
  • 20:05 true, but nevertheless, out of the midst of it all,
  • 20:10 out of the rubble of a former existence,
  • 20:12 God brings his people together, and then what happens is he
  • 20:16 makes his people to be a people of renown in all the earth.
  • 20:20 What a story.
  • 20:22 Ezekiel says it as do other prophets.
  • 20:25 Before I wrap, come here.
  • 20:27 I wanna show you something.
  • 20:29 ♪♪♪
  • 20:32 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Coming to you from the crossroads of
  • 20:35 history and wars yet to come and wars past,
  • 20:38 here, I'm in a bunker underground in a place where
  • 20:41 Lebanon isn't far from Syria, isn't far from Israel.
  • 20:45 Oh, it comes together here, and what a place to tell a story
  • 20:48 from here as we look at Ezekiel, who speaks of wars to come
  • 20:53 and wars past.
  • 20:55 In 36:36, he says, "The nations that are left round about you
  • 21:01 will know that I, the Lord, have builded the ruined places."
  • 21:05 Oh, as you know, God has raised up Israel in these days,
  • 21:08 and the nation states roundabout are upset by it.
  • 21:13 There's a day of reckoning.
  • 21:15 There's a day of knowing when God says,
  • 21:16 "They're going to know what I'm up to in the world."
  • 21:19 There's judgment, there's grace, and there's more to come as we
  • 21:22 consider the story as we look at "Ezekiel and the
  • 21:26 Mideast Piece Process."
  • 21:28 ♪♪♪
  • 21:38 ♪♪♪
  • 21:48 ♪♪♪
  • 21:58 ♪♪♪
  • 22:08 ♪♪♪
  • 22:18 ♪♪♪
  • 22:31 David: We are in our second program in this series on
  • 22:34 Ezekiel, and, to me, to us, it looks kind of grim for future.
  • 22:39 Is there hope?
  • 22:41 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Sometimes the future can look
  • 22:43 a little grim.
  • 22:44 Well, I don't wanna remind you about songs,
  • 22:47 but remember the one "Because he lives,
  • 22:48 I can face tomorrow"?
  • 22:49 David: Sing it for us.
  • 22:51 [all laughing]
  • 22:52 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: No, no way.
  • 22:53 David: But hope, yes, that's a great song for that.
  • 22:55 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Yeah, you know,
  • 22:56 crawling around these spaces and in the Holy Land,
  • 23:00 you know, tunnels, trenches, and what have you,
  • 23:03 it reminds me of war.
  • 23:06 And struggles have been in the past.
  • 23:07 They'll be in the future, but God wins.
  • 23:09 David: We've been in some of those trenches and bunkers
  • 23:11 before, and it's kind of eerie.
  • 23:13 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Yeah, it's not comfortable space.
  • 23:16 In a spiritual sense, you know, some of us wind up
  • 23:19 in uncomfortable places.
  • 23:22 It's part of bein' in an army, you know?
  • 23:25 It's not always roses, but thank God for God and the victory that
  • 23:28 comes at the end, and we prevail because we look to him.
  • 23:32 Kirsten: You were in some spots that are kind of hotspots.
  • 23:36 I know you were teaching up in Tel Dan,
  • 23:38 and you were also Golan Heights area,
  • 23:40 kind of, in there underground in the mountains.
  • 23:42 What are the relationships with those countries like right now?
  • 23:46 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Well, they were hotter yesterday than
  • 23:48 they are today.
  • 23:49 You know, it seems the principal problem in the region comes from
  • 23:54 just beyond the immediate region.
  • 23:56 Things are more settled though it can change from the time that
  • 23:59 I make this statement to when this actually gets out on the
  • 24:02 air a few weeks from now, but things are relatively calm.
  • 24:07 Syria's challenging, and we're right up against Syria
  • 24:09 where I shot that.
  • 24:11 Lebanon can be volatile, but it seems,
  • 24:14 the nemesis from Iran, that's still there,
  • 24:20 but that's further to the east, and Russia is
  • 24:23 further to the north.
  • 24:24 But, still, it's a tense area, but things are,
  • 24:27 all things considered, bless the Lord,
  • 24:30 relatively good as I speak right now.
  • 24:33 Kirsten: It could be tense, and I have absolutely nothing to
  • 24:36 segue into what I just--I wanna touch upon the whole drama
  • 24:42 of Ezekiel cutting his hair.
  • 24:44 I mean, I'm just jumping right in that.
  • 24:47 That's so strange, I think.
  • 24:49 So here he is, this guy that doesn't really speak unless he
  • 24:53 has a Word from God, and you mentioned today that the whole
  • 24:57 haircutting thing, a third and a third and a third,
  • 25:00 God uses these weird ways to reach people?
  • 25:04 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Well, Ezekiel is doin' what any woman
  • 25:06 who teaches a third-grade class does.
  • 25:08 You teach with object lessons.
  • 25:10 You get stuff on the board.
  • 25:11 It's a little bit of show-and-tell,
  • 25:13 and his life, in a variety of ways,
  • 25:15 is an object lesson.
  • 25:17 He shaves off the beard.
  • 25:19 A part is gonna go here, a part is gonna go there,
  • 25:21 you know, that it's his way of giving voice to the fact that
  • 25:23 judgment is coming: A part is gonna be destroyed.
  • 25:26 A part is gonna be exiled.
  • 25:27 I mean, there's a way to tell the story,
  • 25:29 and he objectifies it with his own being.
  • 25:33 Kirsten: You call this whole--the series as the
  • 25:35 "Piece Process."
  • 25:36 This piece, that piece, that piece.
  • 25:38 He had hair pieces everywhere, but he was telling the story of
  • 25:40 what's been pushed aside and kind of exiled and what will
  • 25:48 come together, and we get to see that later
  • 25:50 in some of our programs.
  • 25:51 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: You know, and as you mention that--and,
  • 25:54 if you'll permit, I wanna speak to you.
  • 25:56 Sometimes aspects of our lives can be pushed aside
  • 26:00 in different ways.
  • 26:02 That can be a problem person, a problem circumstance,
  • 26:05 and life can be rather compartmentalized.
  • 26:08 As I mentioned, I look within my own world.
  • 26:12 It's rather private, and sometimes you wonder if that
  • 26:14 which is coming apart can be brought back together again.
  • 26:17 You can't read Ezekiel from chapter 1 to the end without
  • 26:22 saying the answer, in no uncertain terms,
  • 26:24 is yes, which is why, by the way,
  • 26:26 I'll hope you'll let me be successful in my appeal to you
  • 26:30 to encourage you to turn to God.
  • 26:32 God can turn to you and come to you with healing in his wings.
  • 26:35 David: You got this song in my head today,
  • 26:37 "Because he lives, you and we can face tomorrow.
  • 26:42 All fear is gone," because we know he lives within our heart,
  • 26:47 amen?
  • 26:48 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Amen.
  • 26:49 Kirsten: That's a good way to end the program.
  • 26:51 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: It surely is.
  • 26:52 And speaking about facing tomorrow,
  • 26:54 let's face next week.
  • 26:56 Hope to see ya then.
  • 26:58 As you go now, Sha'alu Shalom Yerushalayim.
  • 27:01 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
  • 27:05 ♪♪♪
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  • 28:04 ♪♪♪

Episodes in this series

  1. The God of Israel Strengthens
  2. Troubles then and now
  3. That You Might Know
  4. The Hope of Restoration
  5. Neighbors Ready for Judgment
  6. The Valley of Dry Bones
  7. Battle of Gog and Magog
  8. The Restored Temple

Guest organizations and links