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Caption transcript for Rebuilding the Ruined Cities: “The Rebuilding” (6/12)

• 00:07 ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪
• 00:11 Caleb Colson: Rebuilding after destruction is always a
• 00:13 difficult process emotionally, physically.
• 00:17 Obviously it was no different for the Jews who returned to
• 00:19 Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity in Babylon.
• 00:22 ♪♪♪
• 00:32 ♪♪♪
• 00:38 Joshua Colson: But the fact that the Jews were allowed to return
• 00:40 to their homeland is a miracle foretold by Adonai's prophets.
• 00:44 There's a lot of story to tell here, and we believe it has
• 00:47 ramifications for what the Jews are dealing with today.
• 00:55 Caleb: Apparently we went to the wrong entrance.
• 00:57 It was the exit.
• 00:58 Now we're going to the new entrance, which is the
• 01:00 real entrance.
• 01:02 Following Louie, our fearless--and guide.
• 01:05 Thanks for leading us the wrong way, Louie.
• 01:09 Joshua: Isaiah 44:24, 26, and 28: "Thus says the Lord, your
• 01:14 Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb: Who says to
• 01:18 Jerusalem, 'You shall be inhabited,' to the cities of
• 01:21 Judah, 'You shall be built,' and I will raise up her waste
• 01:25 places; Who says of Cyrus, 'He is My shepherd, and he shall
• 01:30 perform all My pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, "You shall be
• 01:33 built," and to the temple, "Your foundation shall be laid."'"
• 01:38 Joshua: That prophecy was given by Isaiah in the late 8th
• 01:41 century, 200 years before King Cyrus would sack Babylon in 539.
• 01:48 The fact is, Cyrus would fulfill that prophecy, and it was
• 01:51 amazing, but even more amazing are the events surrounding it.
• 01:55 Caleb: That's right, story time, guys.
• 01:57 According to the Greek historian Herodotus, there was a king
• 02:01 named Astyages.
• 02:02 He was the king of Media, the son of Cyaxares, and this man
• 02:05 had a dream that his daughter, who he recently made a peace
• 02:09 deal with Persia, has a son.
• 02:11 And this grandson's gonna grow up to overthrow him.
• 02:14 He's so afraid of this that when his daughter has that son, he
• 02:17 orders that his grandson be killed by his servant Harpagus.
• 02:22 Well, Harpagus was a little afraid of doing so, so he took
• 02:24 the child and entrusted it to the herdsman named Mithridates,
• 02:28 says, "Kill this kid for me."
• 02:30 Mithridates just had a stillborn son, and his heart was stirred
• 02:33 with compassion, so he traded the stillborn son for this
• 02:37 living son who you might well know is Cyrus.
• 02:40 Everybody thought that this baby was killed, but this herdsman
• 02:43 raised Cyrus as his own child.
• 02:46 At the age of ten, the cat is out of the bag, guys.
• 02:49 Everybody figures out, so although Astyages now is too
• 02:52 afraid to do anything to the young Cyrus, so he takes his
• 02:55 revenge on Mithridates by taking his next son in line, killing
• 02:59 him, and serving him to his father for dinner unawares.
• 03:03 Well, by the time his father figures out, he's filled with
• 03:05 rage and he instills his hatred in young Cyrus to one day take
• 03:09 revenge upon his own son's murder.
• 03:13 Cyrus comes of age and he does enact a coup.
• 03:16 He takes over the Median empire and creates the Medo-Persian
• 03:19 Empire and becomes king of all.
• 03:22 Cyrus the virus.
• 03:23 Caleb: Now we get to the biblical part of the story that
• 03:26 you should know.
• 03:27 Darius the Mede was Cyrus's uncle.
• 03:30 He was a general of Cyrus's armies, and they joined together
• 03:34 to conquer Babylon.
• 03:36 When they come to the city, they had to besiege it, and you know
• 03:39 the famous story when they dam up the Euphrates River and sneak
• 03:42 under at night to conquer the city.
• 03:45 That's the same night that Daniel and the handwriting on
• 03:48 the wall event happened with King Belshazzar.
• 03:51 They find Belshazzar dead the next morning, and Daniel was
• 03:54 made the third highest ruler of the kingdom.
• 03:57 And why is this important?
• 03:58 Because Nabonidus, Belshazzar's father, was going crazy in the
• 04:02 desert, and he literally wasn't taking charge and ruling over
• 04:05 the kingdom.
• 04:06 Joshua: So Daniel was elevated to the position in Babylon to
• 04:09 speak to Darius and Cyrus.
• 04:11 He was a student of the prophets.
• 04:12 He, in fact, carried copies of Jeremiah's prophecies, and I
• 04:16 believe he carried the book of Isaiah in which he handed this
• 04:19 scripture to Cyrus which reads, Isaiah 45, starting in verse 1:
• 04:25 "Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right
• 04:28 hand I have held--to subdue nations before him and loose the
• 04:32 armor of kings, To open before him the double doors, so that
• 04:36 the gates will not be shut: 'I will go before you and make the
• 04:40 crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of
• 04:44 bronze and cut the bars of iron That you may know that I, the
• 04:49 Lord, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel--have
• 04:53 named you, though you have not known Me.
• 04:56 I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God
• 04:59 besides Me.'"
• 05:01 Caleb: Mind-blowingly epic, guys.
• 05:03 In Josephus, the Jewish historian's book, "Antiquities
• 05:07 of the Jews," he declares that King Cyrus was moved in his
• 05:11 spirit when he read the Isaiah scroll, and he determined in his
• 05:15 heart to do everything that was prophesied in that book.
• 05:18 So in Ezra 1, we see that Cyrus declares that the Jewish
• 05:22 captives be set free.
• 05:24 And then he declares that the temple be rebuilt in Jerusalem.
• 05:28 Ezra 1:2 says: "This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: 'The
• 05:33 Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the
• 05:36 earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at
• 05:40 Jerusalem in Judah.'"
• 05:43 Joshua: Now, for all you Bible naysayers out there,
• 05:45 archaeologists did find the Cyrus cylinder.
• 05:48 It was a clay tablet wrapped in a cylinder that verifies Cyrus's
• 05:52 decree to release the captives.
• 05:54 That's amazing.
• 05:55 God didn't just provide a way for the Jews to return to Judea.
• 05:59 No, he did more.
• 06:01 He gave them provision as well, financially.
• 06:03 At this point, Cyrus says, "Hey, here are all the golden articles
• 06:07 back that Nebuchadnezzar took from Solomon's temple."
• 06:09 Then he encouraged the Medes and the Persians to give gifts of
• 06:12 gold and silver to God's people, and on top of that, he goes to
• 06:15 his treasury and gets money to give to them to fund
• 06:17 the rebuilding.
• 06:19 What's even more crazy is that Adonai calls this pagan king
• 06:23 Cyrus, who grew up worshiping pagan gods, Mashiach, his
• 06:28 anointed one.
• 06:29 This is the same term used to describe Yeshua, the Messiah,
• 06:33 his anointed one.
• 06:35 He was the deliverer of the Jews.
• 06:38 Caleb: Led by Zerubbabel, the governor, a small group of Jews
• 06:40 heads back to Jerusalem at this point, to rebuild the city and
• 06:44 the temple.
• 06:45 What's even more amazing is God in his grace and his mercy and
• 06:49 his abundant love does not start the dating calendar at 586 BC
• 06:54 when Nebuchadnezzar went and destroyed the temple in
• 06:56 Jerusalem and Jerusalem.
• 06:57 Instead, he starts it at the first deportation of Jews that
• 07:01 included Daniel and his friends in 605 BC.
• 07:05 At 537 BC, Cyrus gives a decree for the Jews to be released and
• 07:10 to return.
• 07:11 536 BC, the Jews gather together and prepare to embark
• 07:15 to Jerusalem.
• 07:17 They don't arrive until 535 BC, exactly 70 years after the
• 07:22 first deportation.
• 07:23 Joshua: As amazing as God's intervention was, returning the
• 07:26 Jewish people from exile, the actual rebuilding process was
• 07:29 quite lengthy and cumbersome.
• 07:31 Just like in the conquest from Canaan, it was slow.
• 07:34 They had to believe in God, step by step, by faith for
• 07:37 each process.
• 07:38 And even though it wasn't a cakewalk, God met them every
• 07:41 step of the way until it was completed.
• 07:45 Caleb: 2 Chronicles 36:21: "The land enjoyed its sabbath rests;
• 07:51 all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy
• 07:55 years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the
• 07:58 Lord spoken by Jeremiah."
• 08:01 Caleb: Now apparently, the kings of Judah had forsaken God's
• 08:04 commands to allow the land to rest the 7th year from
• 08:08 growing crops.
• 08:09 This was called the Sabbath year rest.
• 08:11 If you do the calculations, they had forsaken 490 years' worth of
• 08:16 Sabbath rests.
• 08:17 Joshua: So step one, before rebuilding the temple, before
• 08:19 rebuilding Jerusalem, they needed to rebuild the brazen
• 08:22 altar so they could worship God.
• 08:24 Joshua: Ezra 3:2 through 4: "Then Joshua son of Jozadak and
• 08:29 his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and
• 08:32 his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel
• 08:35 to sacrifice burnt offerings on it.
• 08:37 Despite their fear of the people around them, they built the
• 08:40 altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it
• 08:43 to the Lord.
• 08:45 Then in accordance with what is written, they celebrated the
• 08:47 Festival of Tabernacles with the required number of burnt
• 08:50 offerings prescribed for each day."
• 08:55 Caleb: Isn't it interesting that on the final day of the Feast of
• 08:58 Sukkot was when Hamas decided to invade Israel?
• 09:02 Well, the Feast of Sukkot was the first Moadim that the
• 09:05 captives celebrated when they returned from exile, and in the
• 09:09 future, the Feast of Sukkot, which is the Feast of
• 09:12 Tabernacles, is the only required feast that Yeshua
• 09:16 requires man to celebrate during his millennial reign, or else
• 09:21 there will be no rain in their land.
• 09:26 Joshua: Ezra 4 details the opposition that Satan stirred up
• 09:30 in the hearts of men to stop the rebuilding of God's temple.
• 09:34 The locals went and tried everything that they could.
• 09:37 They tried threats, they tried bribery, they tried accusation.
• 09:40 And then after King Cyrus dies, they go to the successor kings
• 09:44 of the Persian Empire and they lie and say that the Jews had
• 09:48 seditious intentions in rebuilding the temple and in
• 09:50 rebuilding Jerusalem.
• 09:52 Caleb: Now, this is no different from Satan's modern tactics to
• 09:56 destroy and discredit the Jewish people.
• 09:58 He moves in the hearts of men still, including using
• 10:02 organizations like the United Nations, even the US government,
• 10:05 to listen to the lies of Hamas, to spread those lies through the
• 10:10 world media, to declare the Jews to be wicked and to have ill
• 10:14 intent.
• 10:16 Now, to say that Zerubbabel and his colleagues were discouraged
• 10:18 would be an understatement, but God sends encouragement through
• 10:22 the words of the prophet Zechariah, Zechariah 4:6 through
• 10:26 7: "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor
• 10:30 by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the Lord of hosts.
• 10:34 'Who are you, O great mountain?
• 10:35 Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!
• 10:38 And he shall bring forth the capstone [of the Temple]
• 10:41 With shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"'"
• 10:44 Joshua: So Zerubbabel succeeds in building the foundation for
• 10:47 the Second Temple.
• 10:50 At this point, the elders who were still alive from the
• 10:54 destruction of Jerusalem have to be over 80 years old, but when
• 10:57 they saw that foundation, they begin to weep for how small and
• 11:02 modest the temple would end up being.
• 11:05 Ezra 3:11 through 13 says: "And all the people gave a
• 11:09 great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of
• 11:12 the house of the Lord was laid.
• 11:14 But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads,
• 11:17 who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the
• 11:20 foundation of his temple being laid, while many others shouted
• 11:23 for joy.
• 11:24 No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from
• 11:27 the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise."
• 11:32 Caleb: But God again encourages Zerubbabel, do not give up,
• 11:36 though this temple won't be as grand as is--as glorious as King
• 11:39 Solomon's, he will be faithful to help him succeed in
• 11:42 the construction.
• 11:44 Zechariah 4:8 through 10 says: "Moreover the word of the Lord
• 11:47 came to me, saying: 'The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the
• 11:50 foundations of this temple; his hands shall also finish it.
• 11:53 Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you.
• 11:56 For who has despised the day of small beginnings?'"
• 12:01 Joshua: Translation: Do not despise small beginnings.
• 12:05 Who is faithful in little, the Lord will reward with much and
• 12:09 see through to completion.
• 12:11 Caleb: So, Zerubbabel finishes constructing the temple.
• 12:15 But again the people get discouraged because at its
• 12:18 inauguration, no fire comes down from heaven to light the
• 12:21 brazen altar.
• 12:22 No shekinah, the presence of God, returns to the temple.
• 12:26 Josephus, a Jewish historian, even says that the ark of the
• 12:29 covenant was not in the Holy of Holies, so God has to send
• 12:32 encouragement again through the prophet Haggai, and he says,
• 12:37 Haggai 2:3 through 4: "'Who is left among you who saw this
• 12:41 temple in its former glory?
• 12:43 And how do you see it now?
• 12:44 In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing?
• 12:48 Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,' says the Lord; 'and be strong,
• 12:52 Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest.'"
• 12:55 Verse 6: "For thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Once again (it is a
• 12:58 little while)
• 13:00 I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land; and I
• 13:03 will shake all nations, and they shall come to see the Desire of
• 13:06 All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,' says
• 13:09 the Lord of hosts.
• 13:10 'The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the
• 13:13 former,' says the Lord of hosts."
• 13:15 Joshua: Once again, my mind is blown.
• 13:18 Here we get this prophecy for the millennial temple, the
• 13:20 Fourth Temple.
• 13:21 How do we know it's that?
• 13:23 Because the glory of God can't reside in the temple until it's
• 13:24 built by Yeshua himself, as Ezekiel 43 says.
• 13:28 God gets this desire for men to come here to worship Yeshua, to
• 13:33 be in this temple and all glorify him.
• 13:36 Caleb: And back to the story about the rebuilding of
• 13:39 Jerusalem and the temple.
• 13:40 Were things easy for the Jews after they rebuilt that temple?
• 13:44 Absolutely not.
• 13:45 Satan still tried to use evil people to halt the promises of
• 13:48 God over and over again, and he come to this moment where
• 13:52 Nehemiah, the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes the First,
• 13:55 was forlorn.
• 13:57 He was downtrodden.
• 13:58 The king notices his countenance and figures out that his people
• 14:01 still haven't rebuilt Jerusalem.
• 14:03 He sends Nehemiah back and Nehemiah is determined, even
• 14:06 though opposition after opposition comes against him, to
• 14:09 rebuild the walls of Jerusalem so his people are safe, to the
• 14:13 point that he has a sword in one hand and and a tool in the other
• 14:17 and they finally rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
• 14:20 Isn't that like God to always fulfill his promises, but we
• 14:25 have to take that first step and walk in obedience to him, and
• 14:29 trust in faith that he will fulfill those promises.
• 14:32 ♪♪♪
• 14:37 Caleb: Rebuilding Israel after October 7th is going to
• 14:40 be tough.
• 14:41 I feel that the country is going to feel the lasting effects for
• 14:44 decades to come.
• 14:46 You see, no one could work during this time.
• 14:48 All the reservists were called to duty and the government had
• 14:51 to provide food and lodging and clothing, and where's that money
• 14:55 gonna come from?
• 14:56 So, financially, there will be economic hardships that will
• 14:59 come because of this situation.
• 15:02 But you know what, I feel that God is going to make Israel
• 15:05 prosperous again.
• 15:06 In fact, scripture assures us that this is so.
• 15:10 Well, we know what's coming, that there may be a Psalm 83
• 15:13 war, and that could be a singular event where all these
• 15:16 nations surrounding Israel comes against her or it could have
• 15:19 been instigated by the start of Hamas and be a prolonged
• 15:22 war event.
• 15:23 But we know scripturally by the time Ezekiel 38 shows up, Israel
• 15:27 will be wealthy and prosperous again with great resources, and
• 15:31 all the nations around will covet her.
• 15:33 Joshua: Israel may have to rebuild with one hand on a
• 15:36 weapon while the other hand builds, but God will stand
• 15:39 behind them.
• 15:41 God will support them to fulfill his Word.
• 15:45 Isaiah 61:4 through 6: "They will rebuild the ancient ruins
• 15:49 and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the
• 15:53 ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.
• 15:57 Strangers will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work
• 16:00 your fields and vineyards.
• 16:01 And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named
• 16:04 ministers of our God.
• 16:06 You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you
• 16:10 will boast."
• 16:11 ♪♪♪
• 16:21 Joshua: Do not despise small beginnings.
• 16:25 History has a bad habit, if you will, of chronicling the end of
• 16:30 somebody's story more than necessarily the details of what
• 16:34 got them to that final point.
• 16:37 The heroes of our faith, the heroes of histories of our
• 16:41 countries, is generally laden with those end details, what
• 16:46 these men and women become in the totality of everything that
• 16:49 they've experienced.
• 16:51 Sometimes when looking at the final example of these men and
• 16:54 women, we get discouraged for where we're at in the moment,
• 16:59 wondering, Is it possible that we could ever get to a point to
• 17:02 achieve anything that's either in our heart or that these
• 17:06 people had achieved?
• 17:08 We look at Moses and we see how his life went through this
• 17:12 humble position even to the point where he's speaking to the
• 17:15 burning bush and telling God, "You can't use me because I have
• 17:19 a s-s-s-stutter."
• 17:22 God's never appeared to me in the form of a fiery bush.
• 17:26 And yet fear can be so overwhelming that you can look
• 17:30 into the face of of God himself and still feel inadequate and
• 17:34 insecure if your focus is on you and not on him.
• 17:38 Abraham Lincoln is another man in history who is known as one
• 17:41 of the greatest presidents of the United States of America,
• 17:44 and yet few talk about how many times he attempted to even get
• 17:47 on the ballot and failed but refused to give up.
• 17:52 We can look at the destination far too often as the gauge of
• 17:56 our solid success, having arrived, and yet God says that
• 18:02 he is going to be faithful to you when you're faithful to him
• 18:07 in the small steps along the way.
• 18:10 Why is that?
• 18:11 Well, because it's not actually the destination that God's
• 18:14 looking for.
• 18:15 If you prayed for something tomorrow and he immediately gave
• 18:18 you this destination, this position of power, this position
• 18:21 of influence, authority, finances, and yet you had no
• 18:25 character behind it.
• 18:27 A good father who did that wouldn't be a good father
• 18:30 anymore because you'd be setting up your son or daughter for
• 18:32 failure to have overwhelming power and reach and yet no
• 18:36 character to back it up.
• 18:38 You would cave and fall apart under the pressure, under the
• 18:41 greed, under the weakness of our flesh.
• 18:44 And so God, in his infinite mercy and love, understands that
• 18:48 what is going to truly make a man or woman is the daily steps
• 18:52 that he takes, the small steps by faith in believing in what
• 18:56 God has placed in our hearts, that he will fulfill it and that
• 19:01 that passion and that promise and that faith we have in him is
• 19:06 big enough to see us through the daily trials that seem
• 19:08 so overwhelming.
• 19:10 That's why every verse you read about about faith is about
• 19:13 taking your eyes off of yourself or taking your eyes off of the
• 19:16 problem and putting it on the author and finisher of your
• 19:18 faith, the individual who created you and gave you that
• 19:21 purpose and plan.
• 19:23 How good of a Father would he be if he instilled in you this
• 19:27 passion that you couldn't shake, this desire for a future that
• 19:30 you couldn't relent out of your heart and then give you no
• 19:33 ability to reach it?
• 19:34 But as I said, the man or woman that you will become has nothing
• 19:40 to do with the destination you land on.
• 19:42 It has to do with every single day you wake up in the morning
• 19:46 and choose to step out in faith, not listening to circumstances,
• 19:51 not listening to your emotions that lie to you, but by the
• 19:54 Spirit of God who has promised you, by the relationship you
• 19:57 have with the Father, when you say, "I know what I see today, I
• 20:01 know how I feel today, but my Father promised me this.
• 20:05 And by that promise I walk and I hold on to faith."
• 20:09 Today surrender, today verbally give it to him by saying,
• 20:13 "Father God, I have this passion and I
• 20:15 don't know what to do, but I trust you.
• 20:17 Show me the step to take today.
• 20:18 Bring me closer to you.
• 20:20 Help me to become the man or woman that you've called me to
• 20:24 be, that you sacrificed your Son for me to be."
• 20:27 And when you do that, one day you're gonna wake up and look
• 20:30 behind you and all the things that tripped you up, all the
• 20:32 things that seemed impossible, all the moments that seemed to
• 20:35 destroy you emotionally, are tiny specks in a part of history
• 20:41 that few will chronicle about your story.
• 20:48 Israel Hanna: Well, we were at the walls around--in Jerusalem
• 20:51 around the Citadel David, I met a rabbi there was actually
• 20:56 sitting down on a rock nearby where we were filming, and he
• 21:00 was reading the Torah.
• 21:01 I went over and sat down with him and we had a wonderful time
• 21:05 of prayer, and I told him that even though we were reading the
• 21:09 Torah, the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you, Haim.
• 21:12 His name was Haim, which means life, and I said, "Haim, the
• 21:15 Holy Spirit wants to give you more life.
• 21:17 He wants to breathe upon you.
• 21:19 You are the temple of God that he wants to fill with
• 21:21 his breath."
• 21:23 And his response was this: "My wife has been telling me that
• 21:26 for a long time, and I need to think about what you're saying.
• 21:31 I know you're sent by God."
• 21:33 And I said to him, "Well, Haim, I'm gonna teach you a little
• 21:36 prayer concerning what I'm saying.
• 21:38 It'll change your life, and I guarantee it."
• 21:40 And here's the prayer: "Give me eyes to see what you're doing
• 21:43 around me, ears to hear what you're saying to me, and then a
• 21:46 heart willing to obey what I see and hear."
• 21:49 "And if you do that, your life, Haim, will change forever."
• 21:52 I preach that all around the world, and he thanked me for it,
• 21:55 and we prayed together.
• 21:59 Michael Mistretta: Good morning, my friend, good to see
• 22:00 you again.
• 22:06 Caleb: I'm here with Michael Mistretta, the CEO of FIRM,
• 22:10 Fellowship of Israel-Related Ministries.
• 22:12 Thank you for joining us today.
• 22:13 Michael: Thanks for having me here, guys.
• 22:15 Joshua: It's super cool when a CEO can take time out of
• 22:16 everything he's doing and sit down with a couple of people
• 22:18 he's never met and just talk about Yeshua.
• 22:20 That's what we're here to do.
• 22:21 FIRM is doing amazing things in Israel.
• 22:23 We want our audience to know what y'all guys are doing.
• 22:25 Tell us a little bit about the ministry.
• 22:27 Michael: Thanks, well, FIRM, really, we exist as a network
• 22:29 of ministries, so we stand for the Fellowship of
• 22:31 Israel-Related Ministries.
• 22:32 We started almost 10 years ago, here in the heart of Jerusalem.
• 22:36 We serve over 72 different ministries across the country.
• 22:39 These are all Messianic Jewish ministries, congregations, and
• 22:43 even Christian Arab ministries that are working together to see
• 22:45 a day where every person in Israel is
• 22:47 transformed by the love of Yeshua.
• 22:48 That's our heartbeat, and we get to help strengthen, unite, and
• 22:51 resource these ministries, and I can tell you, probably we--for
• 22:54 a long time we've had a vision to see ministries work together
• 22:56 but nothing like what we've seen since October 7th.
• 23:00 Everyone really rallied together, worked together, and
• 23:02 we've been able to effect change and see lives transformed in
• 23:06 areas across the country that we never even dreamed were possible
• 23:08 before that.
• 23:10 Caleb: Well, how has the need changed since October 7th?
• 23:13 We've been working with other ministries, and they have an
• 23:17 influx of people that have been displaced from their homes.
• 23:19 They need food, they need shelter, and just the common
• 23:23 things that any human being needs.
• 23:25 What are y'all doing to meet that need?
• 23:27 Michael: There was always needs in Israel.
• 23:29 There are always needs, but after October 7th, everyone was
• 23:33 in need in some area and different kinds of needs.
• 23:36 So as you said, we had hundreds of thousands of displaced
• 23:39 families, from the south, then from the north as well, and we
• 23:43 wanted to serve these families, so we're bringing food, we're
• 23:45 bringing supplies.
• 23:47 We never imagined the doors of God would open up, and so we had
• 23:50 someone say, "Hey, we want to donate a hotel to you
• 23:53 temporarily to house displaced families."
• 23:56 They started coming to this hotel, and the hotel wasn't just
• 23:58 housing and three meals a day food.
• 24:01 We also started a kindergarten there.
• 24:02 We started a school there, we started music classes and art
• 24:05 classes and cooking classes.
• 24:07 It became a village for these people coming down.
• 24:10 And at first they came slowly, but then like everything in
• 24:12 Israel, the people that came saw the excellence at which it was
• 24:16 done with and they started calling their friends
• 24:17 and family.
• 24:18 We started being bombarded with phone calls, people calling, and
• 24:20 we filled every room in that hotel, about 450 people, so 1
• 24:24 hotel turned into 2, turned into 3.
• 24:26 We ended up with 7 different locations across the country.
• 24:29 People are like, "Who are you?
• 24:31 Wait, I look at your website.
• 24:32 You're Messianic Jews and you're Christians," and these are
• 24:35 communities on the fringes of Israel.
• 24:37 They've never met a Christian.
• 24:39 Joshua: We're told y'all are evil, like, we're not supposed
• 24:40 to talk to you all.
• 24:41 Michael: Yeah, they never-- "What are your motives?"
• 24:43 And we said, "We just want to hug you and love you and give
• 24:46 you a breathing space."
• 24:48 Joshua: So, people watching at home, they wanna get involved.
• 24:51 Either they wanna give, they wanna come to Israel.
• 24:54 We've heard so many stories of people just getting
• 24:55 on planes and coming.
• 24:56 How do they become a part of what FIRM's doing to get
• 24:58 involved in the network to maybe, say, their congregation,
• 25:01 you know, in America wants to get involved and support?
• 25:03 What's the process?
• 25:04 Michael: Yeah, well, I'm so glad that you asked.
• 25:06 You know, our website is firmisrael.org.
• 25:08 So, F-I-R-M Israel dot org, and people can get online there and,
• 25:14 really, we see partnership as a two-way street.
• 25:16 So for us, we love people that want to get
• 25:19 involved financially, it's amazing.
• 25:20 In fact, the primary way you can give financially is through what
• 25:23 we call the FIRM Foundation, and 100% of what you give goes to
• 25:27 these projects, these initiatives, doesn't cover our
• 25:29 staff's salaries or our rent or our programs or operations.
• 25:32 We have a private group of legacy partners that fund our
• 25:35 budget, so that 100% of what's raised can go directly to the
• 25:37 frontlines serving those in need.
• 25:38 We don't ask for ourselves.
• 25:40 We ask on behalf of the body to resource them in more
• 25:43 effective ways.
• 25:44 Caleb: There is a great need for service in this country, and I
• 25:47 thank you for providing that through FIRM and so many
• 25:50 organizations because you're using the hands and feet of all
• 25:54 these different ministries to come together.
• 25:55 Thank you for that, Michael.
• 25:57 Michael: Thank you, it's an honor to be able to share
• 25:58 a little bit with you guys today.
• 26:00 Joshua: Awesome.
• 26:03 Joshua: Oh, here we go.
• 26:04 Caleb: Now that is a temple.
• 26:06 Joshua: Imagine the emotional roller coaster, okay, that the
• 26:10 Jewish people went through over a 70-plus-year period of time.
• 26:14 Let's see what they did.
• 26:15 There was nonstop wars, first of all.
• 26:17 They had a Babylonian invasion where they were taken into exile
• 26:19 in Babylon.
• 26:20 The Babylonian Empire wiped out in a single night, and
• 26:23 eventually the Persians become their new masters.
• 26:26 But then finally the Mashiach Cyrus, he allows
• 26:29 them to go free.
• 26:30 But they returned and they were heartbroken to see the stunted
• 26:34 version of the temple being built.
• 26:35 Even some survivors, well, they remembered that the former
• 26:39 glory of Solomon's temple--
• 26:40 Caleb: It was bigger.
• 26:42 Joshua: It was much bigger.
• 26:43 Yet again, God sends his prophets with words of
• 26:45 encouragement, "'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,'
• 26:49 says the Lord of hosts."
• 26:51 Psalm 121:4 through 6: "Indeed, He who watches over
• 26:55 Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
• 26:57 The Lord watches over you--the Lord is your shade at your right
• 27:00 hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night."
• 27:03 Everything that you've just heard in this scripture is
• 27:05 about God's commitment and partnership with us, but now he
• 27:09 wants us to partner back with him.
• 27:11 He asks something of us, not because we can do it under our
• 27:13 own power like we just talked about, but because he wants our
• 27:16 commitment by faith to him.
• 27:18 For this ministry, those of you who have partnered so far, we
• 27:20 are so grateful for everything we've been able to accomplish,
• 27:23 but God wants to do more, and now is the time to ask what that
• 27:27 partnership means to you, through us, through the Holy
• 27:30 Spirit, and we thank you for that.
• 27:32 Caleb: All we have to do is to say yes to Yeshua, and we will
• 27:35 see God working through us to rebuild those ruined cities.
• 27:39 And please check us out on social media.
• 27:41 We have additional programming.
• 27:43 We have Bible lessons.
• 27:44 Levitt.com is our website.
• 27:45 You'll find the monthly newsletter.
• 27:47 You can donate.
• 27:48 You can even purchase our products.
• 27:49 We just want you to get connected with us and
• 27:51 even communicate with us on social media.
• 27:53 We love you guys.
• 27:55 Joshua: So, as we go, Sha'alu shalom, Yerushalayim.
• 27:57 Caleb: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 28:00 Caleb: We're here at Bridges For Peace.
• 28:02 What are we doing?
• 28:03 male: We are feeding over 24,000 people every month.
• 28:06 Over 2 million people in Israel that live under the
• 28:09 poverty line.
• 28:11 Almost half of those numbers are kids.
• 28:14 female: The response you always get is amazing.
• 28:16 There are Christians out there that support us.
• 28:18 Caleb: That really exists? female: Yeah.
• 28:20 male: Bridges For Peace--
• 28:22 Caleb: Christians are here to help.
• 28:23 male: Christians from around the world who are coming to
• 28:25 bless them, which is extraordinary for the people
• 28:28 of Israel.