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Caption transcript for Rebuilding the Ruined Cities: “The Exile” (5/12)

• 00:10 ♪♪♪ Joshua Colson: God had forewarned the Israelites in
• 00:11 advance of possessing the Promised Land, that one day they
• 00:15 would turn from him and fall into sin.
• 00:17 ♪♪♪
• 00:25 ♪♪♪
• 00:30 Caleb Colson: The Lord established laws, commandments
• 00:32 for the Israelites to follow.
• 00:34 He made an agreement with them that we call the Mosaic
• 00:37 Covenant, and they verbally declared that they would adhere
• 00:40 to the terms and conditions of that agreement for their own
• 00:43 benefit or detriment.
• 00:45 Joshua: Deuteronomy 28:1 through 2, "If you fully obey the Lord
• 00:48 your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you
• 00:51 today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the
• 00:54 nations on earth.
• 00:55 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you
• 00:58 obey the Lord your God."
• 01:00 Caleb: It was a fantastic agreement, the Old Covenant, the
• 01:03 law of Moses.
• 01:05 God would bestow upon the children of Israel blessings
• 01:08 greater than any other nation.
• 01:10 He said he would be a husband to them, all they had to do was be
• 01:14 his bride, be faithful to him, and not commit adultery, a.k.a.
• 01:18 worship foreign gods, but the list of curses as penalty for
• 01:23 straying from this covenant was severe and would end up being
• 01:27 the expulsion of the Jews from the land.
• 01:29 Deuteronomy 28:58 says, "If you do not carefully follow all the
• 01:33 words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not
• 01:36 revere this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, the
• 01:40 Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants,
• 01:43 harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and
• 01:46 lingering illnesses.
• 01:47 Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end
• 01:50 of the earth to the other."
• 01:52 Joshua: We know it sounds terrible, when it happened it
• 01:55 was devastating, so why are we talking about the galut,
• 01:57 the exile?
• 01:59 Well, you can't talk about rebuilding the city until it was
• 02:01 broken and captive.
• 02:02 And so, we thought today to really show you the significance
• 02:06 of what happened to Judah and Israel, we would come to the
• 02:08 actual ruins that hold so much significance to the story.
• 02:11 So, for the very first time in "Our Jewish Roots," we give you
• 02:14 Tel Lachish.
• 02:16 Caleb: Join us.
• 02:17 ♪♪♪
• 02:24 ♪♪♪
• 02:29 Joshua: We finally made it to Tel Lachish.
• 02:31 Now, we were scheduled on October 7, 2023 to shoot here
• 02:35 that morning, but as you probably know, that's when
• 02:38 rockets started bombarding this mountain and our producers said,
• 02:42 no, you're not allowed to film there.
• 02:43 We were still willing, but they were not gonna let this happen.
• 02:46 Caleb: But look at this mountain, guys.
• 02:48 This is huge.
• 02:49 It was actually larger in acreage than the city of
• 02:52 Jerusalem at the time, the second most important city in
• 02:55 all the kingdom of Judah.
• 02:57 It was a major center of trade.
• 02:59 Well, back during the conquest of Canaan, Yathia the king of
• 03:02 Lachish had joined an alliance with four other Amorite kings.
• 03:06 He was going to wipe out the Gibeonites because they made a
• 03:09 peace deal with Yehoshua, Joshua, and the people
• 03:13 of Israel.
• 03:14 So, when he came with his armies, the children of Israel
• 03:18 came to honor that alliance with the Gibeonites, and there's a
• 03:21 great battle that is chronicled in the Book of Joshua.
• 03:24 God supernaturally intervened, freezing time itself.
• 03:28 The sun and the moon stood still and giant asteroids or maybe
• 03:32 hailstones came from the sky the size of school buses and wiped
• 03:35 out the army.
• 03:36 Then Joshua came here, chasing the soldiers all the way
• 03:40 to Lachish.
• 03:41 After a short one-day siege, he wiped out the city on the second
• 03:44 day and destroyed it completely.
• 03:47 Joshua: That's pretty cool.
• 03:48 ♪♪♪
• 03:52 ♪♪♪
• 04:00 Joshua: Now, that's obviously the more modern gate right
• 04:01 there, and this is the second gate, and in between this entire
• 04:05 area is considered the kill zone.
• 04:07 That's a pretty cool zone, right?
• 04:09 A lot of discoveries have been made here, including the Lachish
• 04:12 letters that we talked about in "Josiah and the Last
• 04:13 Reformation," but these gates, they date all the way back to
• 04:16 the time of Hezekiah.
• 04:17 Caleb: Well, 2 Kings 17:5 says, "Now the king of Assyria went
• 04:22 throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria and besieged
• 04:25 it for three years."
• 04:27 God had removed his hand of protection from the kingdom of
• 04:30 Samaria for them going after other gods, building high
• 04:33 places, you know, the famous, twin calves, golden calves that
• 04:38 Samaria worshiped at Dan and Bethel, but even King Solomon
• 04:41 and Judah built all these idols and shrines on the Hill of
• 04:45 Corruption that was on the south of the Mount of Olives to
• 04:48 worship these other gods.
• 04:50 2 Kings 5:16 through 18 says, "Israel worshiped all the
• 04:54 hosts of heaven, and served Baal.
• 04:56 And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the
• 04:58 fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves
• 05:02 to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.
• 05:06 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed
• 05:09 him from his sight.
• 05:10 There was none left but the tribe of Judah alone."
• 05:13 Joshua: So, Israel was the first to go into exile, but Judah,
• 05:15 they were coming in with a close second with their sins.
• 05:18 But you see, Assyria wasn't pacified at just defeating Iram
• 05:21 or defeating Israel, they had to come all the way pushing through
• 05:26 here to Lachish, that's intense.
• 05:29 Joshua: Isaiah 36:1 through 2, "Now it came to pass in the
• 05:32 fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of Assyria
• 05:36 came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and
• 05:39 took them.
• 05:40 Then the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh with a great army
• 05:44 from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem."
• 05:49 Caleb: It wasn't a walk in the park for Sennacherib to take
• 05:51 the city.
• 05:53 The fighting was brutal.
• 05:54 This is a major fortified city, and so to get within these city
• 05:58 walls they had to build a siege ramp, as you can see here.
• 06:01 Remnants of the siege ramp are still around today, and they had
• 06:05 to push their battering rams and their siege towers up this ramp
• 06:08 in order to break through the city wall and conquer the
• 06:11 city here.
• 06:12 And this was heralded as Sennacherib's greatest victory,
• 06:16 his greatest conquest in all of his fighting.
• 06:18 In fact, he returned to Nineveh and he adorned the walls of his
• 06:22 palace with elaborate reliefs that chronicled the taking of
• 06:25 the city.
• 06:27 You can still see those reliefs today in a British museum.
• 06:30 But they show the brutality of war and how harsh these
• 06:34 Assyrians fought.
• 06:35 They took 46 cities in this territory of Judea.
• 06:38 They took over 200,000 Judeans captive, and from Lachish alone
• 06:43 they killed 50,000 individuals.
• 06:45 They burned them, they beheaded them, they flayed them, it was a
• 06:49 terrible defeat.
• 06:50 Joshua: It's interesting that all these years later there's
• 06:52 still fighting going on in this area.
• 06:55 All morning we've been hearing explosions from Gaza, that's not
• 06:57 too far away from here.
• 06:59 The IDF, Israel taking on its enemy, it's still happening
• 07:03 right now.
• 07:04 For if you know the Bible story that happened right here, God
• 07:07 did intervene on behalf of Jerusalem against Sennacherib's
• 07:09 army, because Hezekiah and the people implored God and they
• 07:13 humbled themselves and they said help us and God sent an angel.
• 07:16 This angel came and smote, smited, 185,000 Assyrian troops,
• 07:22 the entire army.
• 07:23 Caleb: In a single night.
• 07:25 Joshua: One night, and the thing is, even though they were given
• 07:28 this reprieve, they, well, they didn't exactly hold to it very
• 07:33 fast, because in just a hundred years' time, Babylon would
• 07:36 show up.
• 07:37 ♪♪♪
• 07:45 ♪♪♪
• 07:47 Caleb: We are here on the Acropolis.
• 07:49 You can see this long line of kings and their thrones from
• 07:52 Rehoboam all the way to King Zedekiah.
• 07:55 You know, Lachish was destroyed, so Manasseh right here is
• 07:59 actually the one to help rebuild Lachish.
• 08:01 He was the son of Hezekiah, and it was up and running as a
• 08:04 fortified city by the time King Josiah shows up.
• 08:10 Joshua: I'm the king.
• 08:11 Caleb: I didn't vote for you.
• 08:13 Joshua: You don't vote for kings, kings are chosen by God.
• 08:15 Caleb: You sit on a throne of lies, sir.
• 08:17 Joshua: Bah, Micah prophesied this long before Babylon ever
• 08:21 showed up, okay?
• 08:23 And every foreign power wanted a piece of Lachish at some point,
• 08:28 so Nebuchadnezzar, who's coming in long after Josiah's death to
• 08:32 lay siege to Jerusalem with his generals, he says, man, I want
• 08:37 to come for the two big guns, the twin fortified cities,
• 08:40 Lachish and Azekah.
• 08:42 Well, Jeremiah 34:7 says, "When the army of the king of Babylon
• 08:46 was warring against Jerusalem and against all the cities of
• 08:48 Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah, for
• 08:52 these alone remained of the cities of Judah as
• 08:54 fortified cities."
• 08:56 Caleb: Here on the Acropolis was the royal palace's actually
• 09:00 fortress, the former safest place to be in all of Lachish.
• 09:04 Obviously, the king or governor or ruler lived here and this was
• 09:08 the place that Nebuchadnezzar came to sack and to destroy just
• 09:13 as Sennacherib came before him.
• 09:15 Now, as we mentioned before, there was a monumental discovery
• 09:18 that was made down in the guard shacks at the city gates, where
• 09:23 under a thick layer of ash, the ash from the destroyed and
• 09:26 burned ruins of the city, they found hundreds of
• 09:28 pottery shards.
• 09:30 These pottery shards, 18 of them, had Hebrew writings
• 09:33 on them.
• 09:34 These were called ostraca or ostracon because they were
• 09:37 secret messages written on these pots from a nearby fort.
• 09:41 They would send messages from King Zedekiah in Jerusalem, and
• 09:45 they would bring them here under cover of these pots, and these
• 09:49 Lachish letters as they're called, actually chronicle the
• 09:53 last days of the kingdom of Judah when Nebuchadnezzar came
• 09:56 and annihilated them.
• 10:01 Joshua: That's so much cooler than Pottery Barn.
• 10:03 ♪♪♪
• 10:09 Joshua: After two-and-a-half years of Babylonians besieging,
• 10:13 Jerusalem fell, the temple was destroyed, and the remaining
• 10:16 Judeans were taken captive.
• 10:18 This is one of the toughest time periods for Judah.
• 10:21 Disease, starvation was rampant.
• 10:23 It got so bad that many parents resorted to cooking and eating
• 10:26 their children.
• 10:27 At this time period, the prophet Jeremiah was not a popular guy.
• 10:31 First, he was imprisoned in Jonathan the scribe's house,
• 10:35 then he was thrown in a cistern of mud where he almost drowned,
• 10:38 then taken captive in the king's palace.
• 10:40 Caleb: It was really harsh, you know, that during the time that
• 10:43 Jeremiah prophesied of where there's peace in Judah, he was
• 10:47 saying doom and destruction is coming, Babylon is coming.
• 10:50 No one believed him because it was so peaceful, it was
• 10:52 so wonderful.
• 10:54 They thought he was a false prophet, but now as Jeremiah
• 10:58 lay, you know, half dead in prison, God gave him a different
• 11:02 kind of message, a prophecy for a future with hope, a prophecy
• 11:06 of the Messiah coming, of the New Covenant with the house of
• 11:10 Israel, of the restoration of the whole house of Israel and
• 11:14 the Millennial Reign.
• 11:15 It was so different from what he had heard before, and isn't that
• 11:19 like God today, guys?
• 11:21 That in our moments of distress and hurting, that that's when he
• 11:26 gives us hope, that's when he gives us peace and comfort, and
• 11:31 I wanna read the words of that prophecy of Jeremiah 29:10
• 11:35 through 14.
• 11:36 I think you're gonna find them familiar.
• 11:37 Jeremiah 29:10 through 14, "This is what the Lord says, 'When
• 11:42 seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and
• 11:46 fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.
• 11:50 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans
• 11:53 to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and
• 11:56 a future.
• 11:57 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will
• 12:01 listen to you.
• 12:02 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all
• 12:04 your heart.
• 12:05 I will be found by you,' declares the Lord, 'and I will
• 12:08 bring you back from captivity.'"
• 12:11 We're here in the ruins of an ancient pagan temple complex,
• 12:17 it's called the Solar Shrine.
• 12:19 There's actually altars that were built back here to Persian
• 12:22 gods, but these ruins are built upon previous Canaanite ruins
• 12:26 of temples.
• 12:28 There's three temples total on this tel, and when
• 12:31 archaeologists were uncovering and digging in these ruins, they
• 12:34 found Egyptian idols, gods to the Egyptian pantheon, golden
• 12:39 articles and different things, because the Egyptians were close
• 12:42 by here and at some period in history they held dominion over
• 12:46 this territory.
• 12:48 Well, when Joshua, Yehoshua, came here and took the land of
• 12:52 Canaan, he destroyed Lachish and he destroyed these pagan
• 12:55 temples, but the Israelites always ended up rebuilding them,
• 12:59 rebuilding these shrines and worshiping demons.
• 13:03 Joshua: You know, a lot of people have a misconception
• 13:05 about God because there's some scriptures that say that God of
• 13:09 the Old Testament was a jealous God because he didn't like
• 13:12 sharing his affection with demons.
• 13:14 Hmm, that's funny, but here's the deal, the God of the Old
• 13:16 Testament, the Tanakh, the God of the New Testament, Habrit
• 13:18 Hachadashah, same God, and he stands for one thing and one
• 13:22 thing only and that is love.
• 13:25 You see, a father who loves his children implements strategies
• 13:29 and plans to keep his children from harm.
• 13:32 So, like children, we may think, oh, Dad's trying to keep me from
• 13:36 fun, he's trying to restrict me, but what he has laid out for us
• 13:39 is a plan and purpose to keep us safe and to keep us on a path
• 13:43 that leads us to success.
• 13:45 ♪♪♪
• 13:53 Joshua: I don't think I would have ever visited this temple.
• 13:55 It's too squirrelly to get to.
• 13:59 As you can see today, Israel is flourishing.
• 14:02 The harvest down below us is protected with a covering to
• 14:05 keep it safe from the harsh environment and the sun and the
• 14:07 things that would attack and kill it.
• 14:09 But to get to that point in our lives, to get to that point of
• 14:12 rebuilding, of prosperity, first we have to enter in to
• 14:16 forgiveness and repentance.
• 14:18 We have to ask for forgiveness for the repentance of our sins
• 14:21 so that God the Father can come in and heal us and restore us
• 14:24 and rebuild us and bring us to the point of victory like you
• 14:27 see all around us today, where our life is flourishing just
• 14:30 like this country is.
• 14:31 Caleb: And we wanna invite you to jump ahead in that line of
• 14:34 blessing, to ask Yeshua to forgive you of your sins now, to
• 14:40 accept that free gift of God.
• 14:43 Like Josh said, all it takes is repentance, all it takes is
• 14:46 surrender, but you have to make Yeshua, the King of kings and
• 14:50 Lord of lords, the Lord over your life.
• 14:54 Jeremiah 30:3 and 8 through 9, "'For behold, the days are
• 14:58 coming,' says the Lord, 'That will bring back from captivity
• 15:01 My people Israel and Judah,' says the Lord, 'And I 'will'
• 15:05 cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers,
• 15:08 and they shall possess it.
• 15:09 For it shall come to pass in that day,' says the Lord of
• 15:12 hosts, 'That I will break his yoke from your neck and will
• 15:15 burst your bonds.
• 15:16 Foreigners shall no more enslave them.
• 15:18 They shall serve the Lord their God, and David, Yeshua, their
• 15:23 king, whom I will raise up for them.'"
• 15:26 Joshua: It's interesting how we don't attempt to cohabitate from
• 15:29 God when we're in times that seem to be good.
• 15:32 Have you noticed that?
• 15:34 When life's going well for us, when we have times of success,
• 15:36 most people keep God at arm's length or distance.
• 15:39 In fact, they take it a step further and they give themselves
• 15:42 the credit for their success.
• 15:44 It's a crazy spot to be in.
• 15:46 Most people only tend to reach out to the Father when they find
• 15:49 themselves in need or distress.
• 15:52 They don't try to forge that relationship when they feel that
• 15:55 they deserve the pat on the back.
• 15:57 They use this thing that we often refer to as something they
• 16:01 shouldn't, but it's their emotions.
• 16:03 Their emotions seem to become their best friend.
• 16:06 Oh, I feel I know what's going on.
• 16:08 I feel I know the right decision to make.
• 16:10 But in all actuality, and we've said this before on episodes,
• 16:12 that your emotions aren't your best friend, they're your
• 16:15 drug dealer.
• 16:16 They give you a little hit to make you feel good about
• 16:18 yourself and to turn your focus off of God and your eyes
• 16:20 onto yourself.
• 16:22 But inevitably, if you are the only one who is guiding your
• 16:26 path and your decisions, no matter how good and successful
• 16:28 things look at the moment, you are going to find yourself in a
• 16:31 point where the Israelites brought themselves to, that
• 16:34 point of exile, that point of ruin and destruction, why
• 16:36 is that?
• 16:38 Because of your own sin.
• 16:39 Your sin can be as simple as not putting your focus on God.
• 16:43 It can be as simple as thinking you're in control, but
• 16:46 inevitably, no matter what position you are in life, you
• 16:49 will bring yourself to a point of ruin without your focus being
• 16:53 on him.
• 16:54 But you see, it's so simple.
• 16:56 Today is the day that you can change everything.
• 16:58 It doesn't matter where you've been or how much you've built up
• 17:01 in the path that you're going down, you simply humble
• 17:04 yourself today.
• 17:05 You repent and say, Father, forgive me.
• 17:07 I messed up, I want you to take control.
• 17:10 And once you give him that permission to take over your
• 17:11 life, he resumes immediately in the plan that he created for you
• 17:14 before he even created the foundations of this earth, that
• 17:17 plan that he forged for you.
• 17:20 Don't get caught up in complaining.
• 17:21 We were looking at Jeremiah today, and in Jeremiah 29:11,
• 17:25 most people can quote this verse.
• 17:26 'They' jump in and they go, "'I know the plans that I have for
• 17:29 you,' says the Lord, 'Plans for hope and a future and to
• 17:31 prosper,'" but most of you don't know what we talked about today,
• 17:34 which was that Jeremiah was literally at the point of death
• 17:36 when he was giving this message from God.
• 17:39 He had been in a cistern where he almost drowned of mud.
• 17:41 He was half-dead in the king's palace.
• 17:44 This was at the lowest point of his emotions, yet against his
• 17:48 emotions this was the word that God gave him to speak.
• 17:51 Don't get caught up in the why me, God?
• 17:54 I can only trust you if I see that the times are good.
• 17:57 I can only trust you if I see the prosperity.
• 17:59 That's your emotions again.
• 18:02 Submit your emotions to God, ask for forgiveness.
• 18:05 See, most people don't quote Jeremiah 29:12 or 13 or 14, the
• 18:09 verses after that.
• 18:10 All those conditions are based off of you repenting and turning
• 18:13 to him and giving permission over to him like he says in
• 18:15 the verses.
• 18:17 So, make today that change.
• 18:18 Give up your control.
• 18:20 Don't pursue God just for what he can give to you, but pursue
• 18:22 the relationship with your Father, the relationship that
• 18:25 should be the closest you have with anyone on this planet, and
• 18:29 he will lead you to prosperity and out of exile.
• 18:33 Caleb: We are here in the factory, warehouse, whatever you
• 18:37 wanna call it, a place to store goods for those in need.
• 18:41 You look all around you, you see everything you need, you see
• 18:43 diapers, you see food products, you see clothing, you see all
• 18:47 the necessities that every human needs, and it's right here in
• 18:51 Israel, it's amazing.
• 18:54 Caleb: Hello, everyone, I'm here with Ariel Segal of Vision for
• 18:58 Israel Ministries.
• 19:00 Your parents, Barry and Batya, have long time been a friend of
• 19:04 Zola Levitt Ministries, they went all the way back doing
• 19:07 music with Zola Levitt.
• 19:09 Ariel Segal: That's amazing, yeah, they have.
• 19:11 Caleb: This ministry is all about meeting the needs of the
• 19:14 people in Israel.
• 19:15 Ariel: Well, yeah, in many ways, honestly, Vision for Israel has
• 19:18 been helping since 1993.
• 19:21 It all started as a grassroots movement, honestly, where my
• 19:25 parents, right after the first Intifada, went to comfort those
• 19:30 who mourned in Zion.
• 19:31 That's the scripture that came to them, and they went door to
• 19:34 door to help the families, the local families with food,
• 19:38 clothing, and supplies, to families who lost their
• 19:42 loved ones.
• 19:43 Now we're celebrating the 30th year of Vision for Israel as a
• 19:46 ministry, and it's just incredible to see what the Lord
• 19:50 has been doing through the ministry here in Israel to just
• 19:54 help practically the different communities and people of Israel
• 19:58 from all kinds of different backgrounds, by the way.
• 20:00 So, Jews, Arabs, yeah.
• 20:02 Caleb: Non-discriminatory, whoever has need,
• 20:04 y'all show the love of Yeshua.
• 20:05 Ariel: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 20:07 Joshua: Now, right now, obviously, we're not at your
• 20:08 parents' house still, so in 30 years it seems it's grown some.
• 20:10 This is a massive warehouse of provisions that I'm seeing that
• 20:12 I'm sure you can show us.
• 20:14 Kind of take us around and explain some of the different
• 20:16 areas and what you have going on.
• 20:18 Ariel: Well, this is the warehouse, the Millennium Center
• 20:21 actually, this is the name of the building that we're in, and
• 20:24 this is where Vision for Israel is headquartered today.
• 20:29 This building itself is a whole story, a miraculous story that
• 20:32 was funded by people like you all over the world.
• 20:37 Many, many little donations, it's not like one big donor that
• 20:41 came and gave and funded the project, but many donors from
• 20:45 all over the world helped fund this building in order to house,
• 20:51 as you can see, all these boxes.
• 20:54 Joshua: Now, what's in some of these boxes if I was to go
• 20:56 through them?
• 20:57 Ariel: So, there are toiletries, there are--there's food items
• 21:00 here, clothing, as you can see in these boxes there, there are
• 21:05 clothes and toys, so you can see the different toys that are
• 21:09 being distributed to kids from the southern and northern
• 21:14 communities, the southern communities around Gaza, the
• 21:17 northern communities closer to Lebanon, and these are all being
• 21:21 distributed across the country to families that are in need.
• 21:27 So, Vision for Israel is working in close ties with the Israeli
• 21:32 government, and in doing so is really a light to the nation of
• 21:38 Israel and just shows how much the love of Christians from
• 21:42 around the world is so warm towards the Jewish people.
• 21:47 So, it's just amazing, it's beautiful just to see
• 21:52 that connection.
• 21:53 Joshua: One of the things that I was reading on your website is
• 21:55 that, a not-commonly-known fact is that there is a poverty level
• 21:59 in Israel that's higher than most people think.
• 22:01 I know that you all have done some independent studies
• 22:03 on that, you want to speak to the fact that there is actual
• 22:06 need in Israel that people don't know about?
• 22:07 Ariel: I would say around at least 50% of the population is
• 22:11 at the poverty line or lower because Israel is an
• 22:14 immigrant country.
• 22:15 Hundreds of thousands of people came to Israel from very poor
• 22:19 countries, and ultra orthodox, the ultra orthodox, the man
• 22:23 usually doesn't work, and they study most of their life, and
• 22:27 then they only have the wife who sometimes works, and they're
• 22:31 also in deep need.
• 22:33 So Vision for Israel is right there in that place to show
• 22:37 support and give support practically to those families.
• 22:41 One of the big projects that has been happening actually for the
• 22:44 last few years, not only this year, is the whole bomb shelter
• 22:48 project where Vision for Israel in partnership with Christians
• 22:52 and believers from around the world have been funding bomb
• 22:56 shelters for communities that don't have enough funding for
• 23:01 their own bomb shelters.
• 23:02 Caleb: How are people reacting, Jews, even orthodox, to
• 23:06 Christians trying to help them?
• 23:08 Ariel: The first reaction is surprised and shocked, you know,
• 23:11 that, oh, really?
• 23:12 Like, there are Christians that, you know, care about us and
• 23:16 wanna actually, like, donate and support us?
• 23:18 And a lot of times the seed is planted in their hearts and it
• 23:21 opens conversation.
• 23:23 Caleb: I appreciate you meeting with us today and we want to
• 23:26 support ministries like this.
• 23:28 These are ministries that you can trust that will find
• 23:31 the need.
• 23:32 They have access where we don't.
• 23:34 They're working with the Israeli government, and it's a miracle
• 23:36 that the Israeli government is open to working with Christians.
• 23:39 They know what you're gonna do.
• 23:40 They know you're gonna talk about Yeshua and share his love,
• 23:43 and they're open to that, and I think that's absolutely
• 23:45 fantastic what you're doing.
• 23:49 ♪♪♪
• 23:53 Israel Hanna: When we were here at Lachish walking through the
• 23:56 land of Israel, once again I was talking and praying with people
• 23:58 as I do everywhere I go, and I had a guy send me or give me a
• 24:03 unit patch from Swords of Iron.
• 24:06 This is amazing, that they are so thankful that we are over
• 24:10 here as a ministry, praying for them, lifting them up and
• 24:15 encouraging them in such a time as this.
• 24:20 Caleb: You guys have no idea how excited I was to finally get to
• 24:24 Tel Lachish.
• 24:26 That was literally the first shoot on our trip this time, and
• 24:28 I wanted to guarantee we made it there.
• 24:30 Most importantly, I want to complete the mission that God
• 24:33 gave us almost two years ago.
• 24:35 You see, originally during our film shoot in Israel, October
• 24:38 2023, God directed me to go to Tel Lachish to use that site as
• 24:42 an example to warn of coming judgment.
• 24:44 Now, out of everything God directed us to do on that trip,
• 24:47 this was the only plan left unfulfilled, and it was
• 24:50 agonizing to me, the morning of October 7th when we planned to
• 24:53 drive to Tel Lachish and missiles were firing off
• 24:57 from Gaza.
• 24:58 It was hitting all around Lachish.
• 24:59 We still wanted to go and film there, I mean, we were begging
• 25:02 our producers, our driver, literally everybody said no,
• 25:05 they prohibited us from going.
• 25:06 Tel Lachish is that example of destruction and rebuilding and
• 25:09 destruction and rebuilding and destruction and rebuilding, but
• 25:12 unlike Lachish that stayed in ruins, God will rebuild the
• 25:16 waste places in Israel after Hamas's horrific attack.
• 25:19 Joshua: Isaiah 58:9, 11 and 12 says, "Then you will call, and
• 25:24 Adonai will answer.
• 25:25 You will cry and He will say, 'Here I am.'
• 25:28 Then Adonai will guide you continually, satisfy your soul
• 25:32 in drought and strengthen your bones.
• 25:35 You will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water
• 25:39 whose water never, never fails.
• 25:41 Some of you will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up
• 25:45 the age-old foundations, will be called Repairer of the Breach,
• 25:48 Restorer of Streets for Dwelling."
• 25:51 Finally, the Lord called us to prophetically declare the good
• 25:55 things that he had for his Israel.
• 25:58 He is the rebuilder.
• 26:00 He is the repairer, the restorer.
• 26:02 The Jewish people will not be burdened under the spirit of
• 26:05 exile and destruction much longer, soon their mourning will
• 26:08 turn into dancing, their darkness will be driven away by
• 26:11 light, their reproach will be removed, and the people of God
• 26:15 will stand strong in his joy and grace.
• 26:19 Caleb: Guys, we hope you enjoyed learning about Vision for
• 26:22 Israel, the nonprofit that we showed you during our interview.
• 26:26 It's a ministry run by Messianic believers who are truly working
• 26:30 to provide for hurting Israelis.
• 26:32 We also hope that God moves on your heart to continue to
• 26:35 support us as we go wherever he sends us, and we want to fulfill
• 26:38 his mission that he calls us to, so please check out our social
• 26:42 media sites.
• 26:43 We have additional programming, we have Bible lessons, we have a
• 26:45 monthly newsletter.
• 26:47 You can check it out at Levitt.com, additional content.
• 26:50 We want to equip you to go out and declare God's good promises
• 26:53 for Israel.
• 26:54 Joshua: So, as you go [speaking in Hebrew].
• 26:57 Caleb: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 27:00 Joshua: Whoa, whoa, whoa, don't change that channel, we're here
• 27:02 to peddle you some awesome merch.
• 27:05 Ever wanted an Israeli flag to fly proudly in front of your
• 27:07 home or wave lovingly in front of God's enemies?
• 27:10 Make a donation of $20 or more to get the flag of Israel
• 27:13 famously emblazoned with the Star of David, or you can get
• 27:16 Caleb's new book, "Josiah and the Last Reformation," for your
• 27:19 donation of $25.
• 27:21 Learn about the parallels between the last days of the
• 27:23 kingdom of Judah and the last days we're living in today, or
• 27:26 get both the flag and the book for $35.
• 27:30 We hope you've been blessed by this week's broadcast.
• 27:34 To learn more about Zola Levitt Ministries and how to donate,
• 27:37 please visit Levitt.com.
• 27:39 You'll find all our past television programs, our monthly
• 27:42 newsletter, "The Levitt Letter," where we focus on current events
• 27:45 in Israel.
• 27:46 And check out Zola Tours to learn about our study tours to
• 27:49 the Holy Land.
• 27:50 Follow our social media sites at Our Jewish Roots for even more
• 27:54 relevant and inspirational content concerning Yeshua and
• 27:57 his chosen people.
• 28:00 Caleb: Apparently we went to the wrong entrance, it was the exit,
• 28:03 now we're going to the new entrance, which is the
• 28:05 real entrance.
• 28:07 Rebuilding after destruction is always a difficult process.
• 28:10 Obviously, it was no different for the Jews who returned to
• 28:12 Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity in Babylon.
• 28:16 male: There was always needs in Israel, there were always needs,
• 28:19 but after October 7th, everyone was in need in some area and
• 28:23 we've been able to effect change
• 28:25 and see lives transformed in areas across the country
• 28:28 that we never even dreamed were possible before.