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Caption transcript for Divine Deliverance: “Isaac” (2/12)

• 00:01 Jeffrey Seif: Someone's gonna go from sadness to gladness. You're gonna learn about that today on "Zola Levitt Presents."
• 00:15 male announcer: From the beginning, our Creator revealed
• 00:19 his will to the common man.
• 00:21 Individuals listened to his call and responded in obedience,
• 00:27 from the first Hebrew Avraham to the culmination of salvation in
• 00:31 Messiah himself, the Lord faithfully intervenes
• 00:36 with his divine deliverance.
• 00:40 ♪♪♪
• 00:48 David Hart: Shalom, friends, and thank you for joining us
• 00:49 today on "Zola Levitt Presents," I'm David Hart.
• 00:51 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 00:53 Jeffrey: I am Jeffrey Seif and I'm curious,
• 00:56 can you recall what your life was all about when you first
• 00:59 heard, "Bingo, you're going to have a child!"
• 01:03 That's on the menu today, correct?
• 01:05 Kirsten: It is, we are in our series "Divine Deliverance,"
• 01:08 and we are picking and you picked some amazing people
• 01:12 in the Bible to talk about.
• 01:13 And today, it's all about Isaac, but we're gonna go back to his
• 01:17 parents, Abraham and Sarah, and what happens when
• 01:20 you entertain angels unaware.
• 01:23 David: Right now, let's go to our dramatic reenactment where
• 01:26 Abraham finds out that he's gonna be a father.
• 01:31 announcer: And the Lord appeared unto Abraham
• 01:33 in the plains of Mamre.
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• 02:56 [laughing]
• 03:23 Jeffrey: The word in Hebrew for angel is the word "malakh."
• 03:28 It comes from the Ugaritic verb "lak," which means to send.
• 03:33 The word "angel" and the word "messenger" are the same in the
• 03:37 Hebrew Bible, and in Greek, "angelos," the same
• 03:39 word, messenger and angel.
• 03:42 Why is that?
• 03:43 Because we're looking at the delivering of messages,
• 03:48 and oh what a message we have here.
• 03:53 Never mind the word, now let's take a look
• 03:56 at the moment in the book.
• 03:59 We get to the story in chapter 18 of Bereishit, Genesis.
• 04:07 It's worth considering what comes before.
• 04:09 Avram was just circumcised.
• 04:12 I don't wanna speak in a way that could be construed as
• 04:15 inappropriate for television or for religion audience,
• 04:18 but he was in pain considering he just
• 04:20 had a surgical operation.
• 04:22 And the way the story is set up, it is the heat of the day.
• 04:27 I mention that because Jews alight upon the fact that Avram
• 04:31 was particularly discomforted, and you know what it's
• 04:35 like when you're uncomfortable.
• 04:39 You don't wanna reach out to others because
• 04:43 we tend to turn inward.
• 04:45 This man was different.
• 04:49 Discomforted though he was, he sees these messengers,
• 04:53 he doesn't know they're angels, and he comes
• 04:55 and extends hospitality to them.
• 04:58 Refreshment, food, the pouring on of water.
• 05:01 You know, the word "hospitality" and the word "hospital" are cut
• 05:05 from the same cloth.
• 05:06 That is to say there's a kind of healing when we're hospitable.
• 05:11 It's all related.
• 05:12 What's worthy of note here is the fact that the one who's
• 05:15 extending hospitality is suffering in the process.
• 05:20 We read in the Newer Testament, "Do not neglect to show
• 05:24 hospitality--for some of entertained angels unaware."
• 05:29 Not only did they entertain angels,
• 05:31 they did something else.
• 05:33 They inaugurate their own ultimate deliverance.
• 05:40 It's a fascinating story that Avram and his wife
• 05:43 were vexed for years.
• 05:47 Not all trials go away with, "In the name of Jesus, be healed."
• 05:50 Well, I wanna go to a church that can really
• 05:52 make the bad man stop.
• 05:53 You know, truth be known, some things linger.
• 05:56 It doesn't mean there isn't a breakthrough.
• 05:58 It doesn't mean there's no deliverance to come.
• 06:01 But there is suffering and there's a biblical promise about
• 06:04 those who, through faith and patience, inherit a promise.
• 06:10 It seemed to me that Sarah was a little--she had lost patience a
• 06:15 little sooner in the game, so when she first hears of--that
• 06:19 she's gonna be pregnant, she laughs.
• 06:23 The word "Isaac," or "Yitzhak," comes from a
• 06:26 word meaning "to laugh."
• 06:30 We live in a world today when many think that deliverance,
• 06:34 biblical deliverance, is, in fact, laughable.
• 06:38 Not so.
• 06:39 I read the text and read stories of God breaking through.
• 06:46 And by the way, the word "breakthrough," as in waiting
• 06:48 for the breakthrough, means just that.
• 06:50 There's something that, for all intents
• 06:52 and purposes, is impenetrable.
• 06:56 And you know what happens?
• 06:57 God breaks through.
• 07:01 Is it just for the Jew or is it for you?
• 07:03 It's a reasonable question.
• 07:05 It's a rhetorical one because the answer is for all.
• 07:08 Well, you say, "Yeah, maybe that's from the Jewish people."
• 07:11 It's for those who walk by faith.
• 07:17 There is a great reward.
• 07:18 And after a series--a sequence of sufferings,
• 07:23 after being tested by time and circumstance,
• 07:26 finally the miracle child is going to be born.
• 07:31 It's not just good news coming to these ancient Jews,
• 07:33 all of us are reminded that there's good things to come
• 07:37 when we walk by faith.
• 07:43 announcer: And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said,
• 07:46 and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken.
• 07:50 For Sarah conceived and bear Abraham a son in his old age at
• 07:55 the set time of which God has spoken to him.
• 09:16 Jeffrey: When you get a professor type or a theologian
• 09:20 to talk about childbirth, there really is the potential of
• 09:26 missing the moment by a long shot,
• 09:29 you know, the intellectual jargon.
• 09:31 There's a certain kind of tenderness.
• 09:34 There's a certain experience that the movie captures,
• 09:38 that gentle moment, that mother with child.
• 09:44 I think it's hard for a male to understand that,
• 09:47 and it's easy for a theologian just to dive into the text
• 09:49 and the context and word studies,
• 09:52 and just miss the tenderness of the moment entirely.
• 09:57 I don't wanna apologize for who I am.
• 10:00 I gotta run with it, but there's something about seeing it.
• 10:04 There's a kind of soulish beauty there.
• 10:07 Certainly it's the story of a mother with a child,
• 10:10 but in conjunction with that, if not beyond that,
• 10:13 it's the story of a dream come true, a miracle that's
• 10:19 happened, the end of a journey, a long wait.
• 10:23 There's a sense of fulfillment.
• 10:27 When I think of fulfillment, I think of
• 10:30 being full and being filled.
• 10:33 There's biblical language, "My cup runneth over," to use the old
• 10:37 classical King James talk, and
• 10:39 that certainly is Sarah's feeling.
• 10:43 It's her mind on the matter.
• 10:45 In chapter 21, we're told, "Adonai visited Sarah
• 10:50 just as he had said."
• 10:53 There's that moment of deliverance
• 10:56 when it all comes clear.
• 11:00 The sacredness of a moment.
• 11:01 The Hebrew "piqued," as in, "The Lord visited,"
• 11:06 it's also, "The Lord remembered."
• 11:10 And this speaks to me of a question that we ask,
• 11:14 if not verbally, at the feeling level.
• 11:17 Sometimes we wonder, does God really remember?
• 11:24 It's a question we ask as sometimes we're in a wilderness.
• 11:28 We can go to church and it's always preached that walking
• 11:31 with God is the oasis and the oasis is here.
• 11:34 I'm not to say there's no watering holes to speak of,
• 11:37 but sometimes it's a long journey.
• 11:40 But God watches over his Word to performance and he brings
• 11:44 about a great deliverance.
• 11:46 In this case, a woman who could not bear a child, and
• 11:50 deliverance would come through this womb that wouldn't open.
• 11:55 And there's a child who would come who then,
• 11:58 as we'll see, is gonna be offered up to be sacrificed.
• 12:02 This is a story about a woman's struggle.
• 12:04 This is a story about God's plan.
• 12:06 But it's a story that points to another story,
• 12:10 when the Father of us all, through a woman who couldn't
• 12:13 bear a child, is gonna bring forth a great Deliverer.
• 12:20 announcer: Our offer on this program is the first three
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• 12:53 Andrea Davis: Hello, my name is Andrea Davis, and I've been
• 12:56 working with Zola Levitt Ministries for over 20 years.
• 13:00 For me, this is not just a career, it's a calling, and I'm
• 13:04 so grateful for those who feel called alongside us.
• 13:08 Your prayers and financial support help us produce
• 13:11 informative, anointed television from Israel.
• 13:15 So please, continue to give as you're able and let's
• 13:19 continue this journey together.
• 13:21 Thank you.
• 13:24 Kirsten: In Hebrew, "Thank you" is "Toda," and "Thank you
• 13:27 very much" is "Toda raba."
• 13:30 And I would like to say to you, our wonderful viewer and those
• 13:33 who support "Zola Levitt Presents," toda raba for being
• 13:37 faithful and keeping this program on the air
• 13:40 for so many years.
• 13:41 Now, let's see as Abraham almost
• 13:45 sacrifices Isaac on Mount Moriah.
• 13:51 announcer: And it came to pass after these things
• 13:54 that God tested Abraham.
• 14:18 announcer: And God said, "Take now thy son, thine only son
• 14:23 Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee unto the land
• 14:27 of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering
• 14:31 upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."
• 14:35 Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes
• 14:40 and saw the place afar off.
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• 16:51 Jeffrey: I find it very interesting that Avraham,
• 16:55 when he heard God tell him to go sacrifice Yitzhak, or Isaac,
• 17:00 there's no record of him telling Sarah on the front end.
• 17:04 After the fact, when the boy's brought back, then you can
• 17:07 tell the story, but on the front end, I think not.
• 17:13 I mention that because I was pleased to develop the story of
• 17:17 the tender moment between a mother and child.
• 17:20 After all that she had been through,
• 17:22 if her husband came around and said,
• 17:24 "Honey, I heard the voice of the Lord.
• 17:27 I'm gonna go kill Junior," I think she would've taken the
• 17:29 knife and stuck it in him, and would've been forgiven for it.
• 17:35 Well, never mind my conjecture.
• 17:37 Sometimes God beckons us to do things that
• 17:40 don't comport with sensibilities.
• 17:43 This story in the book Bereishit, in Genesis, in the
• 17:47 Hebrew world is called the Akedah, which means the
• 17:51 "Binding," particularly the "Binding of Isaac."
• 17:55 And what a story it is that this man who's the father of the
• 18:00 nation is going to take a miracle-born son and have him
• 18:06 carry the wood up to a place where he is then intended to be
• 18:11 sacrificed, only to be stopped in mid act and told that God
• 18:18 will himself provide a lamb.
• 18:22 There's a few things at play here.
• 18:23 One, in chapter 22, we're told that the Lord
• 18:27 tested Abraham in this way.
• 18:31 And it can be said that if there isn't a test,
• 18:33 there ain't a testimony.
• 18:35 There are tests.
• 18:37 I wouldn't suggest you endeavor to do this with your own.
• 18:41 One of the upshots of all this is clarifying in no uncertain
• 18:45 terms that God does not want child sacrifice.
• 18:49 I mention that 'cause in antiquity, in North Africa and
• 18:52 in the ancient Near East, there are many examples of the
• 18:56 ancients offering up child sacrifices, the firstborn.
• 19:00 It's to placate a deity.
• 19:02 If you look in the Hebrew Bible, individuals are beckoned to
• 19:05 offer the first fruits.
• 19:07 There's grain products, there's animals, not your own children.
• 19:10 But offering up children was part and
• 19:13 parcel to ancient religion.
• 19:15 This certainly offers a challenge to that in no
• 19:18 uncertain terms in the biblical economy.
• 19:21 But more than that, there's a picture here
• 19:24 of the ultimate redemption.
• 19:26 Why do I say that?
• 19:27 Again to repeat, there is the father who is working with a
• 19:33 woman who cannot conceive.
• 19:36 It takes divine agency.
• 19:38 It takes miracle.
• 19:41 Subsequent to which she gives birth, in the wake of which
• 19:45 this special son, who is the carrier of the promise of
• 19:50 redemption through Abraham, blessing to the world.
• 19:55 This son is gonna be taken and sacrificed, only to be stopped.
• 20:01 It begs the question, what's at play here?
• 20:05 Beyond offering a corrective to a sacrificial practice that
• 20:10 existed in antiquity, there's something here that telescopes
• 20:14 into the future, to my way of thinking, that beckons an
• 20:17 individual to understand something about the redemption
• 20:21 to come, when God the Father will effect a miracle through a
• 20:26 woman who cannot bear a child.
• 20:29 And by the way, messengers come and speak to her and Joseph and
• 20:32 say as much, that, "A miracle child will be born and you're
• 20:36 gonna name him Yeshua," or Jesus.
• 20:39 And by the way, the word "Jesus" is a word meaning to save,
• 20:43 to deliver, or to redeem.
• 20:46 To me, it's tragic.
• 20:48 The word "deliverance" has been hijacked.
• 20:50 There's a famous movie, "Deliverance," and it has themes
• 20:53 that aren't really appropriate for a biblical audience,
• 20:56 so we have to preface by saying "Divine Deliverance."
• 21:00 This, friends, is a picture of a divine deliverance, and we find
• 21:05 it in the Hebrew Bible.
• 21:08 It's at play in this text, and I hope it's
• 21:12 at play in your own life.
• 21:14 That is to say there is a God the Father who so loved the
• 21:17 world that he sent his only begotten Son who carried his
• 21:22 wood to a cross, and in so doing became the sacrifice
• 21:27 and the deliverer for us all.
• 21:33 David: Some of you have heard us talk about our son,
• 21:34 Ryan, who lives in Jerusalem.
• 21:37 We have another son who lives in Colorado Springs,
• 21:39 who is an Army vet.
• 21:40 And we love our children so much, and I have a hard
• 21:44 time thinking what it would be like if God said to me,
• 21:49 "Sacrifice one of your children."
• 21:51 I don't know if I could do it.
• 21:52 Jeffrey: Well, I don't know that I could--well,
• 21:54 I know that I couldn't, but I can tell you this.
• 21:58 Twenty years in a police uniform, I have gone to places
• 22:02 where--I mean, if I ran upon a situation like this as
• 22:05 a police officer, I'd have assault with a deadly weapon,
• 22:09 aggravated assault, I would have domestic violence here.
• 22:13 Someone's going to jail.
• 22:16 And if they said, "God told me to do it," that's
• 22:18 a mental health issue on top.
• 22:20 David: You've probably heard that before.
• 22:21 Jeffrey: Oh, I sure--I've heard everything.
• 22:23 Between 63 years of living and 20 years of policing,
• 22:26 nothing surprises me anymore.
• 22:28 But isn't this, at one level, really a bombastic story?
• 22:33 Kirsten: Oh, talk about drama.
• 22:36 It's full of it; and you were saying about, "I can't imagine
• 22:40 almost doing that to my child."
• 22:41 I can't imagine what you're telling your child as you're
• 22:44 binding him up, and laying him on an altar,
• 22:47 and sharpening the knife.
• 22:49 Jeffrey: And I can't imagine a child who's not an infant just
• 22:52 sheepishly going on with it.
• 22:54 If you figure that Avram is an older man,
• 22:57 and here is a son who's spunkier, he's got energy,
• 23:01 could he not have got himself out of that?
• 23:04 There is someone who, in effect, is going as a sheep
• 23:08 to the slaughter, literally.
• 23:11 It's a fascinating story.
• 23:12 And you like the whole laughter thing accentuating the joy of
• 23:16 the birth of this boy, and now look at the lack thereof as a
• 23:20 father is about to plunge a dagger into the breast
• 23:26 of his firstborn son.
• 23:27 David: Right, so he was obedient.
• 23:29 I'd struggle with being obedient with something like that.
• 23:32 But that's not the end of the story.
• 23:34 Jeffrey: No, it really isn't.
• 23:36 Obedience is a sidebar to it.
• 23:38 I think one of the things that's clear is, in antiquity,
• 23:42 people did offer firstborn children.
• 23:45 In the biblical economy, we'll take the firstborn of the flock
• 23:49 rather than the firstborn of your own family system,
• 23:53 but one of the things that's clear is that in Israelite
• 23:56 religion, we don't do that sort of thing.
• 23:59 Kirsten: Right, so that was very different,
• 24:00 I mean, for God to call--right, so in ancient times, you
• 24:06 sacrificial--you sacrificed your child.
• 24:09 And here, you know, God brought Abraham out of that,
• 24:13 and now he's saying, "Now do this to your son."
• 24:15 Jeffrey: Not so with Hebrews.
• 24:17 There's whatever he's saying to Avraham,
• 24:20 but there is a prophetic picture here.
• 24:22 I do know a Father who did sacrifice his
• 24:26 only begotten, firstborn Son.
• 24:30 Kirsten: And there wasn't a ram in the thicket, he took it.
• 24:32 Jeffrey: He took it on the Mountain of Moriah.
• 24:36 David: Yes, we'll hear more about that in just a minute.
• 24:38 Stay with us.
• 24:40 ♪♪♪
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• 25:00 ♪♪♪
• 25:14 David: On our last tour to Israel, we had a friend
• 25:16 who joined our tour from New York.
• 25:18 She's a dentist, and she was telling me one day on the bus
• 25:21 that she had a dream of going to Greece and Israel.
• 25:25 She didn't know who she'd go with or when.
• 25:29 And one night in the middle of the night, she couldn't sleep
• 25:31 and turned the television on, and there I was talking about
• 25:35 our tours to Israel, Greece, and Petra.
• 25:38 She joined us, and I'm so glad that she turned
• 25:41 that TV on that night.
• 25:42 We would love for you to join us on a Zola Levitt tour.
• 25:45 You can find all the information on levitt.com.
• 25:48 Right now, let's go to a Zola Levitt song.
• 25:51 ♪ Jerusalem, you'll sing baruch hashem. ♪
• 25:58 ♪ A thousand years, a thousand years. ♪
• 26:03 ♪ You'll sing baruch hashem. ♪
• 26:08 ♪ Your King who came before, ♪
• 26:12 ♪ your King forevermore. ♪
• 26:17 ♪ A thousand years, a thousand years. ♪
• 26:22 ♪ Your king forevermore. ♪
• 26:31 ♪ Forevermore. ♪
• 26:37 Jeffrey: Intense story today, yes?
• 26:40 Reminds me that God really is in the business of making dreams
• 26:46 come true for Abraham and for you.
• 26:51 It's all found in the story of "Divine Deliverance."
• 26:55 David: That's right, I'm glad this story ended
• 26:57 on a positive note.
• 26:58 Kirsten: And redemption. God always makes a way for us.
• 27:02 Jeffrey: Yes, he does; it happened in the book and
• 27:06 it happens to those that are giving us a look.
• 27:09 Thanks for your attention.
• 27:11 See you again in a week, and as you go now,
• 27:14 sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim.
• 27:17 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
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• 28:04 ♪♪♪
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