Bible teaching with an emphasis on Israel, prophecy and the Jewish roots of Christianity
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Episode: “The Covenant,” Part 2
Following the progress of Leket’s non-profit efforts throughout Israel, Joshua and Caleb teach on the Abrahamic Covenant, an eternal promise for a Land and a people that can never be broken by God or undone by the popular opinion of an anti-Semitic world. God blessed Abraham with prosperity wherever he went. These same blessings are attainable to God’s Chosen People today, and those who bless Abraham’s ancestors.
Series: “Rebuilding the Ruined Cities”
In this series, Joshua and Caleb visit war-torn areas in the Holy Land where they discuss hope and blessing amidst ruin and pain. God will faithfully fulfill His promise to heal, restore, and rebuild Israel once again: “‘They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them … never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,’ says the Lord your God” (Amos 9:14–15).
Transcript
Caption transcript for Rebuilding the Ruined Cities: “The Covenant,” Part 2 (3/12)
- 00:05 Joshua Colson: Abraham is the father to the Jewish people, but
- 00:07 also to the Arab people.
- 00:09 Isaac was the son of promise but God blessed Ishmael for
- 00:12 Abraham's sake.
- 00:13 Even though these two sons came together to bury their father
- 00:16 and make peace, their descendants's rivalry would
- 00:19 carry on until the end of time.
- 00:22 ♪♪♪
- 00:31 Caleb Colson: Modern Palestinians today are
- 00:32 descendants of Ishmael, Esau, and Mizraim, Egypt.
- 00:36 That's not what we want to focus on this week.
- 00:39 The Abrahamic Covenant is what matters most to the story and
- 00:42 why Satan continues to incite jealousy against the children of
- 00:45 Abraham through Isaac.
- 00:48 Caleb: We are here at the facility of Leket, Israel.
- 00:52 They are gathering all the crops that you may have just seen us
- 00:55 gather out of the farmer's field.
- 00:56 They gotta go through it, they gotta find the best of it, they
- 00:59 gotta clean it, they gotta put it on a truck and deliver it to
- 01:01 the next facility.
- 01:03 And here is Maya, she's gonna tell us everything we're doing
- 01:05 wrong, especially pronouncing our Hebrew.
- 01:07 Joshua: Now, here's the deal, I heard that produce in Israel is
- 01:10 better than anywhere else on the planet, but I'm still learning,
- 01:13 so I never knew that there was something to do to a honeydew
- 01:15 melon to get it ready.
- 01:16 What do I do to this honeydew?
- 01:18 Maya: So, what we're gonna do, we're gonna take the cabbage--
- 01:19 Caleb: Wait, wait, wait, it's not honeydew, Josh.
- 01:21 Joshua: It's cabbage.
- 01:22 Maya: Cabbage.
- 01:24 Joshua: Cabbage, okay, my bad.
- 01:25 Maya: We're gonna take the cabbage and then we're gonna
- 01:27 peel it off, like two layers, until it looks nice.
- 01:32 The leaves you can put inside of the red crate, and after that
- 01:35 you can just dump it into the blue bin.
- 01:37 Now, just make sure the blue bin goes to animal feeding, then
- 01:40 please don't put inside gloves, papers, plastic, all of those
- 01:43 stuff inside of the regular trash.
- 01:45 Yeah, exactly, yeah.
- 01:47 Joshua: Now, this stuff we take off, it's good?
- 01:50 Caleb: This is the bad stuff.
- 01:51 Joshua: It doesn't--this is why we're taking this off, that
- 01:54 makes sense.
- 01:55 Maya: Yeah, we want it to look nice when the people are going
- 01:57 to get it.
- 01:59 Joshua: And that's important because if you're receiving
- 02:00 something, you shouldn't feel like you have to receive
- 02:02 something because you're in need, you should feel like
- 02:04 you're getting the best, right?
- 02:05 I love that.
- 02:06 Caleb: This is mine.
- 02:08 Thank you for teaching us.
- 02:09 We're gonna continue on and see if we can finish this whole
- 02:12 thing here.
- 02:14 Look at this, Josh.
- 02:15 Joshua: Oh, man. Caleb: Man, look at this stuff.
- 02:17 Joshua: Genesis 12:1 through 3, "Now the Lord had said to
- 02:21 Abram, 'Get out of your country, from your family, and
- 02:24 from your father's house, to a land that I will show you.
- 02:27 I will make you a great nation.
- 02:30 I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be
- 02:33 a blessing.
- 02:34 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who
- 02:37 curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall
- 02:41 be blessed.'"
- 02:43 Caleb: God blesses the children of Israel through Abraham.
- 02:47 This is the blessing, the produce of the land, isn't
- 02:49 it, Josh?
- 02:50 Joshua: It is the produce of the land, and guys, Abraham at this
- 02:52 time is pretty much, I don't know, the coolest guy when it
- 02:55 comes to talking about religions.
- 02:56 If you have one guy who isn't Jesus or God that crosses over,
- 02:59 it's Abraham.
- 03:01 In three major world religions, Abraham is known, right?
- 03:04 He's in Christianity, he's in Judaism, he is in Islam.
- 03:09 He's a big figure, but he started in humble beginnings.
- 03:13 Caleb: Well, let's say in the post-antediluvian world there
- 03:17 were relatively new concepts that were taught such
- 03:19 as idolatry.
- 03:20 You had a man named Nimrod, he was the world dictator at a time
- 03:24 and arguably still alive at the time of Abraham when Abraham
- 03:28 was born.
- 03:29 Well, he became this godlike figure that everybody worshiped,
- 03:35 and after the dispersion at Babel, Nimrod's family became,
- 03:39 like, personified, deified as a god pantheon, and the scattering
- 03:44 of languages, they just had different names under it.
- 03:46 You know, in the Egyptian pantheon you had Horus and Isis,
- 03:49 Osiris, but I believe that the name of Elohim, the God of
- 03:55 Israel, that we will soon later learn, the God that Noah
- 03:58 worshiped, wasn't lost to the people at this time.
- 04:02 In fact, in the Jewish historian Josephus's Antiquities of the
- 04:08 Jews, he explains that at this time Nimrod told the people of
- 04:12 the earth you can't keep God to his promises.
- 04:16 He's gonna break his covenant he made with Noah.
- 04:18 He's gonna flood the earth again and therefore you can't
- 04:21 trust him.
- 04:23 And so, let's build this ridiculously tall tower to
- 04:25 heaven to withstand the coming floodwaters because God's gonna
- 04:29 try to destroy us again, he's the rebel.
- 04:32 Joshua: Oh, my goodness, so whether or not the exact account
- 04:34 by Josephus is accurate or not, we know that Shem was around
- 04:38 100, right, when he has his son Arphaxad?
- 04:41 Caleb: Arphaxad.
- 04:43 Joshua: And from Arphaxad comes Eber?
- 04:47 I'm bad at the names, guys, I apologize, which is where we get
- 04:49 the term Hebrew from.
- 04:52 At this point we know that the longer life spans were there, so
- 04:57 people are still living for hundreds of years, even though
- 04:58 it's in great decline, so it's very likely that Shem was still
- 05:02 around when Abraham was born all those years later.
- 05:04 Caleb: He absolutely was, we know that through the genetic
- 05:07 timetable, but in Genesis 12 we get this important moment where
- 05:10 God speaks to Abram and calls him out of Ur of the Chaldees.
- 05:14 He calls him to a land he doesn't know, the land of
- 05:16 Canaan, and he has a promise to him that one day his children
- 05:20 are gonna be numerous, and God always keeps his promises.
- 05:23 Joshua: Yes, he does, brother.
- 05:24 Promised me that I'd do good at cabbage today and look at me.
- 05:27 Caleb: I'm really not doing that good.
- 05:29 This one's still dirty underneath.
- 05:34 Caleb: Genesis 11:10 through 11, "This is the account of Shem's
- 05:38 family line.
- 05:39 Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he
- 05:43 became the father of Arphaxad.
- 05:45 And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500
- 05:49 years and had other sons and daughters."
- 05:57 Joshua: Look at this, brother.
- 05:58 I don't know if you've been to your local grocery store lately,
- 06:00 but they don't have zucchini this big.
- 06:02 Why is that?
- 06:03 Well, when we talked to the farmer, he said that the grocery
- 06:05 stores are uninterested in zucchini this big, but that
- 06:08 every farmer knows that zucchini this size is where all the
- 06:12 flavor is.
- 06:13 In fact, he said when I would bring zucchini to my mother, if
- 06:15 I brought her one that was small, she would send it back.
- 06:17 So, the people here at Leket are giving those people who need
- 06:22 things the best tasting zucchini, the best of all of
- 06:26 these things.
- 06:27 I love that.
- 06:29 Caleb: Look at them come down.
- 06:30 Those are massive.
- 06:31 You know, guys, there are ancient Jewish writers that
- 06:33 chronicle the territory, the land of the time after the
- 06:38 flood, and they give some extra information that you don't
- 06:41 normally read about in the Bible, but they're historic
- 06:43 Jewish accounts so you can take it with a grain of salt, if you
- 06:45 will, but it's very interesting.
- 06:48 One book called the Book of Jubilees describes that
- 06:51 immediately after the flood that God told Noah to divide the land
- 06:55 by lot to his three sons, and that's what they did.
- 06:58 He divided the land into threes, and then Noah's sons, Ham, Shem,
- 07:02 and Japheth divided that territory to their sons, and
- 07:05 they all had to make a promise, everybody stay within your land,
- 07:08 don't war and take other people's lands.
- 07:11 This was a covenant that they had to swear unto.
- 07:16 Well, this is interesting because this is actually defined
- 07:18 and mentioned in Genesis 10:25 and said in the days of Peleg
- 07:23 the land was divided.
- 07:24 Some people took that to be continental drift dividing.
- 07:27 It was talking about dividing the territories of the land, and
- 07:30 thus it is very interesting that that territory of the river of
- 07:35 Egypt up into Lebanon that was so fruitful and fertile, that
- 07:38 land of Israel that we know today, the former territory of
- 07:42 Eden was so plenteous everybody wanted it, but it was promised
- 07:45 to Shem and to his lineage.
- 07:47 Well, here comes Canaan around, he comes onto Shem's territory
- 07:51 and he's like, oh, wow, that's really good.
- 07:52 He takes that land for his inheritance, starts squatting
- 07:56 on it.
- 07:57 Ham and his sons say, no, Canaan, you can't do this, you
- 07:59 can't take someone else's land or you're going to place your
- 08:02 descendants under a greater curse.
- 08:04 He doesn't care, he does it anyways, and this would give
- 08:08 stock to why in the future God calls Abraham to that land of
- 08:12 Canaan and promises that land as his eternal inheritance because
- 08:16 it was already promised to Shem to create bountiful zucchini
- 08:22 like this.
- 08:23 Joshua: If you don't believe that this is the land of milk
- 08:25 and honey and promise, look at all the vegetables.
- 08:26 Caleb: This is amazing.
- 08:28 Joshua: I'm pretty sure this is what the original Joshua and
- 08:29 Caleb saw when they were like, yeah, this is the place we wanna
- 08:31 go eat dinner at, ha, ha.
- 08:32 Caleb: Let's go to see some more.
- 08:39 Caleb: Yeah, so what do we do with these carrots?
- 08:42 How do you say carrots in Hebrew?
- 08:43 Joshua: These are leeks.
- 08:45 male: Those aren't leeks, we're doing carrots over here.
- 08:48 Caleb: So, how do you pronounce carrot in Hebrew?
- 08:51 [speaking in Hebrew]
- 08:58 I'm not getting this, carry on, captain.
- 09:01 male: We got 3 categories, we've got good, and we have bad, and
- 09:05 we've got good in the hands of a professional.
- 09:07 Joshua: What is this category?
- 09:08 male: That's category of come back to me when you figure
- 09:11 it out.
- 09:13 Caleb: That is a bad category.
- 09:14 Joshua: Tastes okay.
- 09:15 Caleb: That doesn't even look like a carrot.
- 09:18 male: If it looks good but it's not whole, it's only good in the
- 09:22 hands of a professional, a chef who knows how to use it, but
- 09:24 I don't.
- 09:25 It's gonna go in here.
- 09:26 It's gonna go to one of the 300 organizations we work with that
- 09:29 will go to people who need it.
- 09:31 But we want to give to families directly, no middleman.
- 09:35 Caleb: Then what do you do with it after it's full?
- 09:37 male: We place it on this table.
- 09:39 Caleb: Show us what we do at this table.
- 09:40 male: We place it on the table where Noga is going to operate
- 09:45 the conveyor belt.
- 09:46 We activate the machine with this green button.
- 10:02 The machine takes every portion of carrots that we made, wraps
- 10:08 it up in net, ties it, cuts it, and at the end it comes out and
- 10:14 it's poured into this empty crate at the end.
- 10:17 Let's see what we can make happen.
- 10:19 Joshua: If you've ever wondered how the bag of carrots gets to
- 10:21 the store, this is how.
- 10:22 It looks like a prawn.
- 10:25 Caleb: This is what you're looking for here, a smaller bag
- 10:28 of carrots.
- 10:29 I don't know if they're supposed to drop.
- 10:30 Are we supposed to help them down?
- 10:32 male: There you go, yeah.
- 10:33 Caleb: So they don't fall, okay. male: There you go.
- 10:34 Caleb: And we don't stick our fingers in right here.
- 10:36 male: We don't stick our fingers in unless you want to make
- 10:38 a stew.
- 10:40 Caleb: I don't want to make a stew.
- 10:41 I definitely don't.
- 10:44 male: It's much better.
- 10:45 You got it, sort it out, stop it, take a breather than to lose
- 10:49 a hand.
- 10:50 Joshua: Okay, that makes sense.
- 10:51 Now guys, I don't wanna get into the genealogy specifics right
- 10:54 now, but let's be honest, when we're talking about modern
- 10:57 Palestinians today, in no way whatsoever does their genealogy,
- 11:01 DNA, or anything harken back to the Canaanites.
- 11:03 It's just not the case.
- 11:04 Caleb: Well, that's an amazing segue out of nowhere from
- 11:07 carrots that you got into that topic, but we want to look back
- 11:09 at Genesis 12.
- 11:11 That's when God called Abram all the way from the land of
- 11:13 Chaldees into a land that he didn't know.
- 11:16 He told him that he would have children, but it wasn't
- 11:18 very specific.
- 11:19 By Genesis 13, he said that his descendants would be more than
- 11:23 the grains of sand on the seashore, and he was gonna give
- 11:25 them this land that we're living in now.
- 11:28 Let's read Genesis 13 and hear about that promise.
- 11:32 Joshua: And then I can show you my awesome segue skills from
- 11:34 carrots into Palestinians.
- 11:37 Joshua: Genesis 13:14 through 17, "And the Lord said to Abram
- 11:43 after Lot had separated from him, 'Lift your eyes now and
- 11:46 look from the place where you are, northward, southward,
- 11:50 eastward, and westward, for all the land which you see I give to
- 11:55 you and your descendants forever.
- 11:56 And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth so that
- 12:00 if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your
- 12:03 descendants also could be numbered.
- 12:05 Arise, walk in the land, through its length and its width.
- 12:09 For I will give it to you.'"
- 12:12 Caleb: We're here at the facility of Leket, and here is
- 12:15 the founder of Leket, Joseph Gitler.
- 12:18 Thank you for allowing us to come and volunteer today.
- 12:21 Joshua: I'm grateful because what I've learned from
- 12:23 volunteering is that I'm no good at it, but that's the beauty of
- 12:26 this program, right?
- 12:27 Anybody can come and volunteer and be a part of what y'all are
- 12:29 doing to bless Israel.
- 12:30 Joseph Gitler: Anyone can come and volunteer.
- 12:32 I'm not a great volunteer either, that's why I do--most of
- 12:33 my time is spent doing exactly what you guys are doing, which
- 12:36 is talking, and that's fine.
- 12:38 My mother used to say to me, "You're good at talking, do
- 12:40 something with it," so I'm being respectful to my mother, which I
- 12:43 know you guys will appreciate.
- 12:44 Caleb: That's amazing, sounds like you're a storyteller and we
- 12:46 want to know the story of how this all began.
- 12:49 Joseph: So the idea of Leket, which I would say is really a
- 12:52 biblical idea, because of course we have the story of Joseph in
- 12:55 the Bible, not that I'm comparing, and we have
- 12:58 commandments in the Bible about not wasting.
- 13:01 We have commandments in the Bible about making sure that
- 13:03 crops are utilized to feed the poor, and so I think when I
- 13:07 started this 20 years ago, the idea was here we are in this
- 13:10 western country, like other western countries we have a lot
- 13:13 of poverty, a lot of people suffering, but also a lot of
- 13:16 waste, and you know, how dare we?
- 13:19 Really, that's what it is.
- 13:20 We can't seem to solve the problem of poverty, we better at
- 13:23 least use the resources that are just being given to us, or in
- 13:27 this case wasted, and that's really the Leket origin story.
- 13:31 It bothered me.
- 13:32 I used to go to weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs and we would
- 13:35 all comment on the same thing, which was what are they doing
- 13:38 with all this food at the end of the event?
- 13:40 And the answer was, you know, the old heave-ho as they say,
- 13:44 and that's painful, and that seems to be what goes on in most
- 13:48 of the western world.
- 13:49 And I just kind of woke up one day and said I can't, I can't
- 13:53 bear it anymore to see people struggling while we're throwing
- 13:56 away food.
- 13:58 And so, but we have an amazing team in Israel, over 150 people
- 14:02 working for us.
- 14:03 We will probably this year have 60,000 to 70,000 volunteers who
- 14:08 come work, and of course I should note it's more necessary
- 14:13 than usual, okay, because what you're experiencing here is what
- 14:17 I would call Leket's classic volunteering.
- 14:20 Groups, individuals from all over the world and from Israel
- 14:23 coming and volunteering.
- 14:24 The big change I would say since October 7 is that a vast
- 14:28 majority of the volunteers that we've recruited, we are sending
- 14:30 to farms to help farmers.
- 14:32 Normally when we send volunteers to help farmers, we take the
- 14:35 crops to feed the poor.
- 14:37 What's changed over the last seven months is that what we're
- 14:41 gathering they're using for their own purposes, selling,
- 14:44 often we'll even buy it now if we hear that they're in trouble,
- 14:47 having trouble selling it.
- 14:48 So, we've changed everything that we're doing because
- 14:52 certainly October 7 didn't do anything to help the poor, put
- 14:56 them in a better situation, and the challenge for us has frankly
- 14:59 been that many of the people we deal with are now in different
- 15:03 places in the country, and so we've really had to change our
- 15:07 entire operation to try to help those people.
- 15:09 Caleb: Look at all these amazing volunteers here spending their
- 15:13 own time, their own resources, to work for the greater good
- 15:16 of Israel.
- 15:18 Joshua: In fact, those over there, I talked to them, they're
- 15:19 from Mexico, so they're actually even a little further than we
- 15:21 are coming from Texas to be here in Israel, which is
- 15:24 so incredible.
- 15:25 As God finally makes his covenant with Abram, okay, he
- 15:29 goes to Abram and he lays it out in Genesis 15.
- 15:32 In fact, he gives him the entire game plan.
- 15:34 He says this is Canaan.
- 15:35 This is the land that I'm gonna give to you and this is how long
- 15:38 it's gonna take for your children to move into it.
- 15:40 He lets him know your children, your ancestors, it's gonna take
- 15:43 400 years.
- 15:44 They're gonna be taken captive, they're gonna be held, they're
- 15:47 gonna be abused, unfortunately, and then after those four
- 15:50 generations, as they come out of that land, Egypt, into Canaan,
- 15:55 then they're going to receive what he has promised for them.
- 15:58 God was trying to give Canaan as much time as possible to repent
- 16:01 because he knew he was going to have to wipe them out.
- 16:04 Caleb: Now, God made a specific promise with Abram, it's
- 16:07 a covenant.
- 16:08 It involves cutting, it involves blood.
- 16:11 He told him to take five animals.
- 16:12 There was a cow, there was a ram, a goat, a turtle dove,
- 16:16 and pigeon.
- 16:17 He had to cut the large animals in half, lay one on either side,
- 16:21 then God himself in the form of a glowing furnace, a lamp,
- 16:25 walked through the pieces of those bloody animals to secure
- 16:29 the covenant with Abram, and these are the terms of the
- 16:33 covenant and the territorial distance that that land he
- 16:38 promised to Abram in verse 18.
- 16:40 Genesis 15:18 through 21 says, "On that day, Adonai cut a
- 16:46 covenant with Abram, saying, 'I give this land to your seed,
- 16:50 from the river of Egypt to the great river, the
- 16:52 River Euphrates.
- 16:54 That includes the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the
- 16:57 Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaites, the Amorites, the
- 17:01 Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.'"
- 17:06 Caleb: Now, which river in Egypt is that scripture describing?
- 17:09 Some people say it's the Nile River and some people say it's
- 17:13 the Brook of Egypt.
- 17:14 Well, I like to look at Joshua 1:4 as a description when it
- 17:17 describes the River Euphrates's boundary.
- 17:21 And so people say, well, is that the River Euphrates to the north
- 17:24 or the River Euphrates all the way to the east in Iraq?
- 17:26 It should encompass all of it, guys.
- 17:30 From this River Euphrates, everything west of it
- 17:33 encompasses all of Israel's territory that God intended for
- 17:37 his people to have in Joshua 1:4.
- 17:39 That would include parts of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan,
- 17:43 Saudi Arabia, and even Egypt today.
- 17:45 Joshua: As we're here at Leket Express, everything you've been
- 17:48 seeing up to this point, how we've been getting the food from
- 17:51 the farmers, giving it to the farmers, how it's being
- 17:53 processed and put together into packages, it's all for this
- 17:56 moment right here.
- 17:57 The people who need it the most are in line and they're about to
- 17:59 go through one at a time and receive their bags of food for
- 18:02 their family.
- 18:03 It's an incredible moment.
- 18:05 You see, moments like this are God ordained, and when you look
- 18:08 at the Bible again, at the boundaries of Israel that were
- 18:10 ordained by God, you see that it's not the same as the
- 18:13 boundaries for Israel today.
- 18:15 Obviously the borders were way bigger, and we know that God is
- 18:17 going to fulfill that in the Millennium, but if you look at
- 18:20 the so-called West Bank, which was Judea and Samaria, you look
- 18:22 at the Gaza Strip, those were all originally parts that were
- 18:25 intended to be Israel's territory, and we're at
- 18:28 one point.
- 18:29 We know this, blood was spilled, a covenant was made, it is
- 18:33 resolute and for all of time, and it will be Israel's again.
- 18:42 Caleb: Now, unfortunately until then there are squatters in
- 18:46 their land.
- 18:47 You know, the size of modern state of Israel is the size of
- 18:51 New Jersey.
- 18:52 It is estimated that it's 638 times smaller than the territory
- 18:57 of the Arab states around it.
- 18:59 They're 638 times larger.
- 19:00 Now you can see the comparison, why people are confused when he
- 19:03 says they want a right to this land or they want a right
- 19:06 to territory.
- 19:07 You hear this subject matter declared on college campuses,
- 19:11 this mantra if you will, "From the river to the sea, Palestine
- 19:15 will be free."
- 19:16 Well, how about we go back to Joshua 1:4, the true designation
- 19:21 of boundaries and territories from the Euphrates River to the
- 19:25 Mediterranean Sea, God's people should be free.
- 19:28 Joshua: That's really catchy, brother, I like that.
- 19:29 You know, the problem is is that the jealousy from Ishmael is
- 19:32 alive and well today, because Isaac was the son of promise
- 19:37 that God's blessings are being channeled through that's spoken
- 19:39 about in Genesis 13:2.
- 19:41 And so, we see in Genesis 13:2 that Abram was a wealthy man
- 19:45 because God had blessed him in all his ways.
- 19:47 And as we see, as the Jews have gone out to all nations of the
- 19:50 world, we see that they have been blessed with that same
- 19:52 wealth and abundance wherever they go, but we also see that
- 19:54 this incites jealousy in other nations around the world.
- 19:58 But you see, Ishmael's descendants, the Arabs, they
- 20:00 have wealth as well.
- 20:01 You look at their natural resources and the amount of oil
- 20:03 that they have and the wealth that comes from it, it is vast,
- 20:06 and yet they're still not satisfied with the blessings
- 20:08 that they've received from being still a part of that blessing
- 20:12 of Abram.
- 20:13 They still want the birthright of Isaac that is promised to the
- 20:15 Jewish people.
- 20:18 Joshua: Hebrews 9:22, "In fact, the law requires that nearly
- 20:23 everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding
- 20:25 of blood, there is no forgiveness."
- 20:28 Verse 28, "So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the
- 20:32 sins of many."
- 20:34 Caleb: Blood was necessary to make a covenant with Abraham.
- 20:39 This was an unconditional covenant with the Jewish people,
- 20:42 something that cannot be broken, just like the Noahic Covenant
- 20:44 that we talked about.
- 20:46 There's also another covenant that is referred to as the
- 20:48 Mosaic Covenant.
- 20:50 This is a covenant God made with his chosen people on Mount
- 20:52 Sinai, but there are terms and conditions to this covenant.
- 20:55 It was conditional.
- 20:57 They had to fulfill their end of the bargain.
- 20:59 They had to be obedient to God's laws and commands, and if they
- 21:02 weren't, then there's a list of curses that would be poured out
- 21:06 upon them, but they swore an oath to fulfill the terms of
- 21:10 that covenant.
- 21:11 This is of course called the Old Covenant or the Old Testament as
- 21:15 you have heard.
- 21:16 Joshua: Thankfully though, there was a better covenant, a new
- 21:19 covenant, one made with Yeshua, but it still required blood.
- 21:22 This covenant is talked about in Jeremiah 31:31 through 33.
- 21:26 Caleb: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I
- 21:29 will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the
- 21:32 house of Judah not according to the covenant that I made with
- 21:36 their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead
- 21:39 them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke,
- 21:43 for I was a husband to them, says the Lord.
- 21:46 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of
- 21:48 Israel after those days, says the Lord.
- 21:51 I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts,
- 21:56 and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
- 22:02 Caleb: As we'll continue to explain throughout this series,
- 22:05 the Israelites have throughout history and will continue to
- 22:08 suffer anti-Semitism, persecution, and hatred incited
- 22:12 by Satan just for being a Jew.
- 22:15 There are also times that the Israelites have and will suffer
- 22:18 for their disobedience, breaking that Mosaic Covenant with God,
- 22:22 but God will always be faithful to keep his promises to Abraham
- 22:27 and to his descendants forever.
- 22:31 This is an eternal covenant that God will keep.
- 22:42 Joshua: In modern times today, man has focused more on the idea
- 22:45 of a contract than a covenant.
- 22:47 A contract is something that two or more people come into under
- 22:51 this type of an agreement, an if-then agreement.
- 22:54 If you do this, then this party does this, and they come upon
- 22:57 this agreement, and generally this agreement has a specific
- 23:00 list of requirements or specifications over a certain
- 23:03 period of time before they then reassess that to see if it's
- 23:06 being fulfilled.
- 23:08 The problem with the contract is if one party or the other party
- 23:12 decides to go default and not fulfill it, then it's null and
- 23:15 void, and then the two are fighting in court or whatever it
- 23:18 takes to try to get this contract to be upheld.
- 23:21 The beauty of a covenant is that it can be one-sided.
- 23:25 A covenant is something that one person could simply say I give
- 23:29 to you and all you have to do is receive.
- 23:32 You saw the covenant in the Bible in the Old Testament that
- 23:35 God made with Abraham.
- 23:37 The Hebrew people could not do anything on their own to break
- 23:41 God's covenant because his covenant was resolute.
- 23:45 That means that when he made a promise with them, it lasts
- 23:49 forever and ever, no matter what they did or will ever do, his
- 23:53 promise will remain.
- 23:55 When he sent his Son, Yeshua, to die for you, that was a covenant
- 23:58 which he said the only requirement I have is that you
- 24:00 accept this covenant, and if you do, you live forever.
- 24:03 You have to accept that this is the same God in both situations,
- 24:07 because if for some reason God could go back on his covenant
- 24:09 with Israel, then that means he could go back in his covenant
- 24:11 with you, and you may not spend an eternity with him.
- 24:14 That'd be a terrible idea.
- 24:16 Today we've been with Leket Israel, where their covenant is
- 24:19 to give to the people of Israel in need.
- 24:22 Behind me you have people who have only one requirement, show
- 24:25 up and receive.
- 24:27 And so, they have facilitated presenting the needs of these
- 24:30 people in all different forms or fashion so that all these people
- 24:33 have to do is show up and come and accept.
- 24:36 No matter where you are in life or what you think you have
- 24:38 figured out, you are in need.
- 24:41 You're in need of a Savior and you're in need of the New
- 24:43 Covenant of Yeshua.
- 24:45 So, today when you're looking at your life and you're reading
- 24:49 about Old Testament God and New Testament God and all these
- 24:51 things that might cause you confusion or think I don't need
- 24:53 it, I've got a great job, great money, great this, know that the
- 24:57 only thing resolute in life is God's Word.
- 24:59 It's the only thing you can count on, the only thing you can
- 25:02 depend on, it is never ending.
- 25:04 And if he's made a covenant with you, there is absolutely nothing
- 25:08 in this universe, including your sin, that can stop it, because
- 25:13 his Son was sent and lived a perfect life to pay the price
- 25:16 for that.
- 25:18 Today, ask yourself, since I've been given this free gift, am I
- 25:21 going to choose it?
- 25:23 And once you choose it, the question is to ask how am I
- 25:25 going to give to others?
- 25:33 Caleb: Man, filming this episode brought me the most joy during
- 25:36 our entire trip.
- 25:38 This was an amazing experience because we were physically able
- 25:40 to serve and bless those in need, and Ray and Rosalind
- 25:44 MacDonald and Leket truly love and support the Jewish people,
- 25:47 and they graciously granted us access to all their facilities
- 25:50 to document their efforts.
- 25:52 Joshua: James 1:27 says, "Pure and undefiled religion before
- 25:55 our God and the Father is this, to care for the orphans and the
- 25:59 widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by
- 26:03 the world."
- 26:04 It's always been God's heart to bless and provide for those in
- 26:07 need, to protect those who can't protect themselves.
- 26:10 Psalm 146:7 says, "He upholds the cause of the oppressed and
- 26:14 gives food to the hungry."
- 26:17 And although God does this supernaturally, he still calls
- 26:20 upon us, Yeshua's hands and feet, to do his work by taking
- 26:23 care of the needy.
- 26:25 Caleb: That's right, and Zechariah 7:10 says, "Do not
- 26:27 oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or
- 26:30 the poor."
- 26:32 Joshua: See, this was also a result of God's everlasting
- 26:34 covenant, okay?
- 26:35 Caleb: A b'ri'ah olam.
- 26:37 Joshua: That's the one, the word I never can say, Caleb knows.
- 26:39 Part of that covenant was to bless those who bless the Jewish
- 26:42 people, and for the Messiah to come through Jewish blood to
- 26:46 bring salvation to the world, now this is the time to stand
- 26:49 side by side with Israel, not to say, no, Israel's in the wrong,
- 26:54 not to sit there and speak all of these horrible lies, but to
- 26:57 defend her from her enemies.
- 26:59 Caleb: Yes, it's time to bless her just because God commands us
- 27:02 to do so, and we thank you for blessing us with your donations,
- 27:06 with your prayers.
- 27:07 We act as your conduit to Israel, but most importantly
- 27:10 God's conduit to share the love of his Son, Yeshua, to the
- 27:15 Jewish people.
- 27:16 Please check us out on social media.
- 27:17 We have so much additional programming.
- 27:19 We have Bible lessons.
- 27:21 You can even find our monthly newsletter at Levitt.com.
- 27:24 So much additional content, and please check us out next week as
- 27:27 we continue our journey
- 27:29 to rebuild the ruined cities.
- 27:31 Joshua: So, as you go, [speaking in Hebrew].
- 27:33 Caleb: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
- 27:37 male announcer: Our offer on this program, "The Covenants
- 27:40 of God."
- 27:41 Eight 30-minute programs on two DVDs.
- 27:45 Zola Levitt helps us understand God's covenants with man,
- 27:49 enriching our faith, and expanding our knowledge of the
- 27:52 great Creator we're privileged to call Father.
- 27:56 Ask for the "Covenants of God" DVDs.
- 28:02 Caleb: Join us as we ascend Tel Gezer, a giant
- 28:07 Canaanite metropolis.
- 28:11 This was one of the largest tels, and the ancient word of
- 28:15 tel is like a man-made hill of sorts with layers of
- 28:18 civilization, one built on top of the other.
- 28:22 Joshua: Does ascend mean climb?
- 28:24 Is there an escalator or a moving sidewalk?
- 28:25 Caleb: Nope, it's time for exercise.
- 28:27 Joshua: I don't want to exercise.
- 28:28 Okay, exercise is what I wanted.
Watch Part 1
- The Return
- The Covenant, Part 1
- The Covenant, Part 2
- The Conquest
- The Exile
- The Rebuilding
- The Bridge
- The Diaspora
- The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
- The Re-Birth
- The Future
Guest organizations and links