The Jewish roots of Christianity

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Bible teaching with an emphasis on Israel, prophecy and the Jewish roots of Christianity

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Episode: “The Spy”
Twelve men are sent to investigate Canaan. Only Joshua and Caleb return with hopeful accounts while the other ten report negatively.
Series: “Joshua”
More than a Conqueror
In this series we examine how Joshua went from a dependable apprentice to the faithful leader of Israel during the conquering of the land of Canaan, a land promised by God to the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Many valuable leadership lessons can be learned from Joshua’s story taught by Dr. Jeffrey Seif from corresponding locations in Israel. David and Kirsten Hart discuss the meaning and application with Dr. Seif as we see dramatic reenactments of some of the key moments in Joshua’s life.

Note: A newer version of this series is available.

Caption transcript for Joshua: “The Spy” (2/8)

  • 00:00 ♪♪♪
  • 00:03 David Hart: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots" with insightful
  • 00:07 Bible teaching from Israel with Dr. Jeffrey Seif.
  • 00:10 This week, how to conquer your fears, and move forward
  • 00:13 in faith.
  • 00:15 On "Joshua, More Than A Conqueror."
  • 00:54 David: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots," I'm David Hart.
  • 00:57 Kirsten: I'm Kirsten Hart.
  • 00:58 Jeffrey Seif: And I am Jeffrey Seif.
  • 01:00 Guess where we're going today?
  • 01:02 We have a story to tell, that talks about grapes and fruits
  • 01:05 and God's bounty.
  • 01:07 What's it all about?
  • 01:09 Kirsten: We're going somewhere where the Israelites
  • 01:10 could've gone, but 10 we're afraid to go to.
  • 01:14 Jeffrey Seif: Oh, no!
  • 01:15 You mean, the goodies are out there, but some are afraid
  • 01:18 to go get them?
  • 01:19 Kirsten: Ooh.
  • 01:21 That's good!
  • 01:22 That's very pertinent to right now.
  • 01:23 Jeffrey Seif: Is that a problem for Jews back then, or is it
  • 01:25 a problem for you's?
  • 01:26 David what do you think?
  • 01:28 David: I want to partake in that.
  • 01:31 Dr. Seif's gonna teach on location.
  • 01:34 But right now, let's go to Joshua, and hear about his
  • 01:36 report from the other spies.
  • 01:38 ♪♪♪
  • 01:41 Joshua: Despite the reports of naysayers, Caleb and I had
  • 01:44 seen with our own eyes, the rich bountiful land of Canaan.
  • 01:50 The Lord's anchor kindles against those who've questioned,
  • 01:53 those who murmur of giants and walled cities in our
  • 01:57 Promised Land.
  • 01:59 My efforts to convince them remain a daunting task even
  • 02:03 within the confines of my own tent.
  • 02:16 Joshua: Thank you for your help.
  • 02:18 Caleb will oversee the remainder.
  • 02:21 There's a murmur in the camp...
  • 02:24 again.
  • 02:26 They would like to stone me.
  • 02:27 male: I think that's a bit extreme.
  • 02:31 Joshua: Is it not enough that he delivered us from the hand's
  • 02:33 of the Pharaoh?
  • 02:35 That he parted the Red Sea?
  • 02:37 That we prevailed against the Amalekites?
  • 02:44 Enormous vines, wheat, barley, fig trees, pomegranates, it's
  • 02:49 all there just waiting for us.
  • 02:52 As the Lord told Moses, while we were still in Egypt, "The land
  • 02:55 flows with milk and honey."
  • 02:58 male: I can understand their concern.
  • 03:00 Joshua: No. No!
  • 03:04 The reports are misleading.
  • 03:06 For 40 days, Caleb and I witnessed the very same things
  • 03:08 that they did.
  • 03:10 Yes, we saw the walled cities.
  • 03:12 And yes, we saw the strength of the Antikeen,
  • 03:14 and the Canaanites, and all of the rest.
  • 03:18 But the arm of the Lord is so much stronger.
  • 03:23 We will devour them like bread, and possess the land!
  • 03:30 male: But what about...
  • 03:33 the giants?
  • 03:34 Joshua: Listen to me.
  • 03:37 I pray you do not die here in the desert, as all the others
  • 03:41 who have questioned the Lord.
  • 03:43 Do not long for the land of the past as others do.
  • 03:46 Egypt is behind us.
  • 03:47 The promise is before us!
  • 03:49 Long for the land of your children.
  • 03:58 Jeffrey Seif: The land of milk and honey was ever so close
  • 04:01 for the children of Israel, but despite the favorable
  • 04:05 reports of Joshua and Caleb, there were those who questioned
  • 04:08 the decision to possess the land.
  • 04:10 We came here to the Valley of Eshcol, or Mamre, just south
  • 04:14 of Jerusalem, to walk upon one of the very sites that Joshua
  • 04:18 and Caleb first beheld in their mission as spies in the land
  • 04:23 of Canaan.
  • 04:27 Jeffrey Seif: It's known as the land of "ha-lav oo-d'vash."
  • 04:30 In Hebrew, land of milk and honey.
  • 04:34 Of course, there's more than just milk and honey.
  • 04:37 All kinds of fruits.
  • 04:38 I think that the milk and honey language was popularized because
  • 04:42 if there's milk, there's animals that are producing it.
  • 04:45 And if animals are producing it, the land is verdant, it's green.
  • 04:50 And if there's honey, it means there's bees, there's
  • 04:52 pollination, there's flowers.
  • 04:54 It speaks of a land that's alive.
  • 04:58 With milk, with honey, with great pomegranate, fig,
  • 05:01 and other fruits of the Earth as well.
  • 05:06 I look at these fruits of the Earth as soda machines.
  • 05:08 You know, it's a hot day, and you just grab some of this
  • 05:12 and you drink, and it is so very delightful.
  • 05:17 If you can just think of a primitive person.
  • 05:19 We're told Adam and Chawwah were in a garden and the fruit was
  • 05:23 there for the picking.
  • 05:25 Sin made its entrance on the stage of the drama, they
  • 05:28 were kicked out and told they were gonna eat out a living.
  • 05:31 They were going to eke it out, with the sweat of their brow.
  • 05:35 Here, you're walking down the street and you're
  • 05:37 picking the fruits, and you're getting the delights.
  • 05:41 It's no wonder that people would compete for this part
  • 05:45 of the world in [speaking in Hebrew],
  • 05:48 here at the southwestern part
  • 05:50 of the Fertile Crescent.
  • 05:51 You might recall, Les Benet Isra-El made their way
  • 05:54 out of Egypt, and finally, to a place Kadesh Barnea that
  • 05:57 Joshua, well Moses actually dispatched spies; Joshua
  • 06:02 was one.
  • 06:03 And they came to the land.
  • 06:05 And they came here, Mamre.
  • 06:06 Actually, they explored the width, the height and they
  • 06:10 came back with the fruits of the land.
  • 06:13 And of course, the fruits were exotic to people that were
  • 06:17 slave-stock, that didn't know these kind of luxuries.
  • 06:20 And they're told that these big fruits are here.
  • 06:23 They're also told something else.
  • 06:25 And that is, there's trouble in River City.
  • 06:29 Not only were the fruits big, but so were the people that
  • 06:33 consume them.
  • 06:35 I want to get to the report and I'll get to that
  • 06:37 in a minute, and it's important by the way, because the people
  • 06:40 turn back and the fact that they turned back from the challenge,
  • 06:46 that negated their being able to get the benefits of the
  • 06:50 real estate.
  • 06:51 And I wonder, if you'll just permit an application, could it
  • 06:54 be that God has all kinds of fruits and blessings for you?
  • 06:59 Not just for you, but in you, to be produced out of you.
  • 07:03 I mention that because in the New Testament context,
  • 07:06 we're told to bear fruit.
  • 07:08 We're construed as, in effect, the earth.
  • 07:10 And God pours his ruach hakodesh into our Earth and there's
  • 07:15 an outgrowth as a result of that.
  • 07:17 We water the seed of faith that's planted, and then it
  • 07:21 grows into something and bears fruit.
  • 07:23 Well, if you go into the older Testament, there's the land--
  • 07:26 there's different words for land.
  • 07:28 There's eretz, which is land.
  • 07:30 There's aphar, which is dust.
  • 07:31 There's adamah, speaking of the soil.
  • 07:34 In fact, Adam, man, Adam came from adamah,
  • 07:38 from the soil.
  • 07:40 But other things come from the soil as well,
  • 07:41 other forms of life.
  • 07:43 There is the land of promise, the promise land and it bore
  • 07:48 special fruits.
  • 07:49 Or there are people that bear fruit.
  • 07:51 I mean, there's a fruitful existence, if we have God
  • 07:54 in our life.
  • 07:55 And the question is, are you bearing and cultivating fruit?
  • 07:57 It's a reasonable question.
  • 07:59 We're gonna look how we can be more than a conqueror, and learn
  • 08:02 to bear fruit and more.
  • 08:04 But before we get to that, we have to go through the
  • 08:08 Valley of Despair.
  • 08:10 And commenting on those that got close, they got to it, but they
  • 08:14 never got into it.
  • 08:17 People say, "How long did it take the children of Israel
  • 08:19 to get to Canaan?"
  • 08:21 People say 40 years.
  • 08:22 No.
  • 08:23 It took them 40 years to get into it.
  • 08:25 Actually, they were there at the second year.
  • 08:27 They left Mitsryan, Egypt.
  • 08:29 They went to Sinai.
  • 08:31 They group there, built the mishcon, the portable
  • 08:33 worship facility.
  • 08:35 And then they went up north to the southern border.
  • 08:37 They sent dispatches in to do what was supposed to be
  • 08:42 a reconnaissance mission.
  • 08:44 They went in there for reconnaissance, to gather
  • 08:46 information.
  • 08:48 But what was supposed to be a reconnaissance mission, turned
  • 08:51 into a feasibility study.
  • 08:54 It wasn't supposed to be that.
  • 08:56 But subsequent to that, the whole thing spiraled
  • 09:00 out of control.
  • 09:01 And so all there was in front of them was a promise
  • 09:04 of a better existence, but it's a life they never, ever entered.
  • 09:10 They just died and root.
  • 09:12 We'll consider the genesis of the problem in the heart
  • 09:16 of man.
  • 09:17 God wants us to be more than a conqueror.
  • 09:19 He wants us to be a conqueror, not the conquered.
  • 09:23 He wants us to be a victor, not a victim.
  • 09:26 He wants us to be the head, and not the tail.
  • 09:29 It doesn't always work out that way.
  • 09:32 It's been said that a wise person learns from their
  • 09:35 mistakes.
  • 09:36 Well in this case, let's learn from somebody else's.
  • 09:39 As we look more deeply into the story of Joshua
  • 09:42 and the spies, and learn about being more than
  • 09:46 a conqueror.
  • 09:59 male announcer: Our resource this week, the "Grafted In
  • 10:02 Necklace."
  • 10:03 Wearing this lovely, sterling silver rendition of a classic
  • 10:07 messianic symbol, shows you recognize the Jewish roots
  • 10:11 of your Christian faith, and stirs curiosities
  • 10:14 and witness opportunities with this tribute to light,
  • 10:18 the Lord, and abundant love.
  • 10:21 For this resource and more, call 1-800-Wonders or visit us
  • 10:26 at Levitt.com.
  • 10:30 David: If you only watch us on television, you're missing
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  • 11:04 Kirsten: If you're only a little bit social media savvy,
  • 11:08 you can get so much extra information than what we
  • 11:11 actually even have here on the program.
  • 11:13 We are on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, we have our own channel
  • 11:17 on Youtube.
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  • 11:24 David: That's right.
  • 11:25 Also, there's no way that we could be at this desk every week
  • 11:27 without your support.
  • 11:29 So once again, we just wanna say, thank you.
  • 11:31 Todah rabah.
  • 11:32 Right now, let's go back to Dr. Seif's teaching in Israel.
  • 11:38 Jeffrey Seif: Coming to you from the Valley of Mamre.
  • 11:41 Thank you for bringing me here to the land of Israel.
  • 11:46 Walking in the footsteps of the fathers that went
  • 11:48 before us.
  • 11:49 Particularly, this juncture, spies who traverse this valley
  • 11:53 and others.
  • 11:54 The leaders in the camp at Kadesh Barnea came back
  • 11:57 and brought back a report and brought back fruits,
  • 12:01 like the fig right here.
  • 12:03 Earlier, we saw a pomegranate and grape, but there's all kinds
  • 12:07 of fruits here in the Holy land.
  • 12:08 Figs, by the way, as in these, are noteworthy.
  • 12:11 They're referred to in the Bible and the older Testament.
  • 12:14 Security is everyone dwelling under his fig tree.
  • 12:18 Interestingly and similarly in the newer Testament
  • 12:21 in the Johannine Gospel, chapter 2, Jesus speaks of a man says,
  • 12:25 "I saw you under the fig tree."
  • 12:29 Again, the land is so much associated with fruits.
  • 12:33 But the story here with these fruits is associated with a bad
  • 12:38 news story.
  • 12:39 And I don't like to tell it, but it's in the book.
  • 12:43 And there's a window here into pathology, into being
  • 12:47 toxic, learning how things can go horribly wrong in life.
  • 12:55 I want to pick up in the book [speaking Hebrew]
  • 12:57 in the wilderness, we know it as Numbers.
  • 12:59 In the 13th chapter, we're told that the spies, who had come
  • 13:05 into this area, in Eretz Canaan to do a reconnaissance mission.
  • 13:12 That is to say, they're supposed to gather information.
  • 13:15 If an army is coming this way, they need to know where there's
  • 13:18 orchards, water supply, major cities, populations, et cetera.
  • 13:22 They need a general idea of where they're going.
  • 13:26 They came here to do reconnaissance, but they did
  • 13:29 more than that.
  • 13:31 They came here on a reconnaissance missions,
  • 13:33 they returned with a feasibility study.
  • 13:38 They told [speaking Hebrew]
  • 13:40 mother, Moses and others, "Listen, yeah!
  • 13:42 The land is this and that, but we can't do it, those people
  • 13:46 are just way too big."
  • 13:48 It's a bad story.
  • 13:50 In chapter 13:31, we're told, [speaking Hebrew]
  • 13:57 "The men that went up," that is the spies.
  • 14:01 Came up and said, and I quote,
  • 14:04 [speaking Hebrew]
  • 14:08 "We are not able to go up against this people.
  • 14:12 We can't do it."
  • 14:16 They go on to say, [speaking Hebrew]
  • 14:23 "Because they are stronger than we."
  • 14:27 They feared.
  • 14:29 These were people who not long before were slave-stock
  • 14:31 in the land of Egypt, and they left Egypt.
  • 14:36 God was their soldier.
  • 14:37 The waters parted, they walk through.
  • 14:39 It wasn't as a result of their agency.
  • 14:41 They would just swept up into circumstances
  • 14:44 beyond their control.
  • 14:45 But now they're facing a situation where they have
  • 14:48 to bear arms for a specific purpose.
  • 14:52 But they just wince away from doing so, they are fearful,
  • 14:56 they lack confidence.
  • 15:00 Confides, with faith.
  • 15:01 They go on to report, "The people are just so big.
  • 15:05 And if that's not bad enough, they're skilled in war, and were
  • 15:10 novices.
  • 15:11 And if that's not bad enough, they have military advantage
  • 15:15 behind ramparts, behind walls, and walled cities."
  • 15:18 It didn't look good and when they put it all together, they
  • 15:22 said, "It can't be done."
  • 15:25 We're told, by the way, in 32, they go on to say,
  • 15:27 [speaking Hebrew]
  • 15:32 He goes on to say, "They spread an evil report."
  • 15:37 An evil report.
  • 15:41 The rabbis, I should say, and looking at that, they go
  • 15:44 beyond an evil report and say, that they invented a lie.
  • 15:51 They invented a lie.
  • 15:54 And when you live with that lie, it becomes a self-fulfilling
  • 16:01 prophecy.
  • 16:02 They go on to exaggerate and say, "Listen, they're
  • 16:04 so big, and we're like grasshoppers."
  • 16:06 They just they spiral out of control.
  • 16:09 "We can't do it."
  • 16:10 Well the last I checked, they couldn't get out of Egypt
  • 16:12 either, but guess what?
  • 16:14 There was heaven's help for life's vexing problems.
  • 16:18 'Cause God who calls you, can lead you successfully
  • 16:21 into the future, and he did just that then.
  • 16:24 But oh my, did they forget.
  • 16:26 Now I don't want to talk about them, I want to talk
  • 16:28 about you and I want to talk about me.
  • 16:30 That is to say, because these aren't the only ones that turn
  • 16:36 away from challenges.
  • 16:38 And when you turn away from it by the way, you can get so close
  • 16:41 to the promised land, but never get into it.
  • 16:44 And I wonder, how many people are watching this and hearing
  • 16:48 me, that keep going around the same old mountain?
  • 16:50 That is to say, you kind of believe in God, you have
  • 16:53 religious conviction.
  • 16:54 But it seems that success in life is 13-inches away,
  • 16:56 and you only have a 12-inch reach.
  • 16:58 For some reason, you just can't quite get to it.
  • 17:03 Fear prompts people to turn back.
  • 17:04 I know that, I live that.
  • 17:06 It's one of the reasons why it took me to the 30 to get
  • 17:10 married, because I was afraid to ask.
  • 17:12 I was afraid I'd get rejected.
  • 17:14 I was afraid that they would say no.
  • 17:15 So I lived alone.
  • 17:16 In other words, fear became a prison.
  • 17:19 It was the same thing with school.
  • 17:20 You know, I wound up becoming a college professor.
  • 17:23 But interestingly, it took me till 26 or so to get
  • 17:25 into college.
  • 17:27 Why is that?
  • 17:28 'Cause I did so poorly in high school.
  • 17:29 Why is that? Because of fear.
  • 17:32 I had to learn to say no to fear, and yes to a good God,
  • 17:35 and a good future.
  • 17:37 And I know, from firsthand experience, that if you hold
  • 17:41 tight to fear, it ruins your life.
  • 17:43 We could be so much further along in life.
  • 17:46 I have 30 years under my belt as a college professor, among
  • 17:50 other things.
  • 17:51 Worked with a lot of young people and I would tell them all
  • 17:53 shoot for the moon!
  • 17:55 Lift up your eyes! Dream big!
  • 17:58 Shoot for the moon, and even if you miss the mark, you'll land
  • 18:01 somewhere among the stars.
  • 18:03 And be so much better off in life then had you dared
  • 18:07 not to dream in the first place.
  • 18:09 I believe in dream stuff.
  • 18:11 Especially if I believe that we're redeemed people.
  • 18:15 That if Jesus lives in us and the Holy Spirit guides us,
  • 18:21 then we are people with a future.
  • 18:24 Would we dared to dream.
  • 18:26 Would that we didn't turn back, but we move forward.
  • 18:29 And the process of so doing, we learned what it is to be more
  • 18:33 than a conqueror.
  • 18:38 Jeffrey Seif: For the Israeli Defense Forces, the saying,
  • 18:42 "More than conquerors" is more than a slogan.
  • 18:46 My good friend, Chaim Malespin who serves with the Israeli
  • 18:49 Defense Forces, is gonna give us a window into how the Israeli
  • 18:53 army is taught to go forth and slay the giants.
  • 18:57 Jeffrey Seif: Sarge, when I look in the Bible, these spies are
  • 19:01 dispatched to go into the land and those people are so big,
  • 19:04 the fortifications are so high.
  • 19:06 They're afraid.
  • 19:07 There's some that have confidence.
  • 19:09 What did they teach you in the Israeli Defense Forces
  • 19:12 about looking beyond the current malaise, and believing
  • 19:15 for a successful outcome?
  • 19:17 Chaim Malespin: Well, I'll give you a story my Commander
  • 19:19 gave me.
  • 19:21 Commanding officer, he calls everyone in one day and he says,
  • 19:22 "Hey, you guys, do you have any complaints?"
  • 19:24 One of the soldiers came and he said, "Our thermal vision,"
  • 19:26 we had this little refrigerator, that cool thermal vision, so you
  • 19:29 can see a heat imprint.
  • 19:30 And he said, "Sometimes I can't see the heat imprint properly.
  • 19:33 I don't want to go out to war."
  • 19:34 And he said, "Let me tell you a story.
  • 19:36 In 1948, War of Independence, when Israel was reborn."
  • 19:39 Well guess what?
  • 19:40 He said, "My grandfather went out and he fought with only
  • 19:43 a shovel.
  • 19:44 He believed in the cause that we're all here.
  • 19:46 In this Defense Force, we're here to defend the defenseless.
  • 19:49 We can't give up.
  • 19:50 And so, sometimes you see the giants in the land."
  • 19:53 And there were giants in the time of Joshua.
  • 19:55 There are giants now.
  • 19:56 Some of those giants could even be within you.
  • 19:58 But if you know how to say, "I am going to look beyond that.
  • 20:00 I'm going to look towards the mission,
  • 20:02 and tenacity to that mission."
  • 20:03 Again, one of our core competencies, our core values,
  • 20:07 the tenacity to the mission.
  • 20:08 It doesn't matter.
  • 20:09 It's one of our slangs, or our mottos is, this is what we have,
  • 20:13 and with this we shall succeed.
  • 20:15 Jeffrey Seif: Well Sarge, at the Israeli Defense Forces,
  • 20:19 under Moses initially, they didn't have that disposition.
  • 20:21 It didn't work very well for them as a result, did it?
  • 20:24 Chaim Malespin: No.
  • 20:26 And I know the spies, when they came back as you mentioned, they
  • 20:28 brought a bad report and that delayed their success.
  • 20:31 Jeffrey Seif: Have you seen bad reports in Israeli Defense
  • 20:34 Forces?
  • 20:35 And have you seen people blow out because they just weren't
  • 20:37 made of the right stuff, they didn't have confidence?
  • 20:40 Chaim Malespin: It's true.
  • 20:42 Some people say, "This journey is just too hard for me."
  • 20:44 I know one guy that said, okay.
  • 20:45 He had to drop, and give 100 pushups.
  • 20:48 And at one point he just says, "I'm not doin' this."
  • 20:50 You know?
  • 20:52 And in our elite unit, all you have to do is sign, "I quit."
  • 20:53 You write, "I quit." That's all, and you hand it in.
  • 20:56 And you can then go to the regular battalions;
  • 20:59 the regular company.
  • 21:00 And so they would always come to me and say, "Hey, you
  • 21:02 look tired.
  • 21:04 Would you like to use write those two words?"
  • 21:05 And I would say, "Absolutely not.
  • 21:07 Take that hamburger and french fries away from me.
  • 21:09 I will eat nasty army food."
  • 21:11 Jeffrey Seif: You're looking through the Eye of the Tiger,
  • 21:13 that vision of faith, correct?
  • 21:14 Chaim Malespin: That's correct.
  • 21:16 David: Thanks, Sarge.
  • 21:18 ♪♪♪
  • 21:25 ♪ For he and he alone will come to rule his own ♪
  • 21:34 ♪ A thousand years a thousand years ♪
  • 21:39 ♪ He'll come to rule his own ♪
  • 21:44 ♪ The King will come to dwell ♪
  • 21:49 [singing in Hebrew]
  • 21:53 ♪ A thousand years a thousand years ♪
  • 21:59 ♪ The King will come to dwell ♪
  • 22:08 ♪ Jerusalem, I've come at last. ♪
  • 22:11 ♪ And when a thousand years have finally passed, ♪
  • 22:15 ♪ I will see the new Jerusalem descending, ♪
  • 22:19 ♪ I will be there for the grand and glorious ending. ♪
  • 22:23 ♪ Out of heaven, I will see a city come ♪
  • 22:26 ♪ and I will live forever in Jerusalem. ♪
  • 22:36 ♪ And then Jerusalem ♪
  • 22:40 [singing in Hebrew]
  • 22:44 ♪ A thousand years a thousand years ♪
  • 22:49 [singing in Hebrew]
  • 22:55 ♪ Your King who came before ♪
  • 22:59 ♪ Your King forevermore ♪
  • 23:03 ♪ A thousand years a thousand years ♪
  • 23:08 ♪ Your King forevermore ♪
  • 23:18 ♪ forevermore ♪♪
  • 23:23 David: That was a song from our founder Zola Levitt.
  • 23:28 We love bringing you his music and we will continue to do that.
  • 23:31 What are you doing over here?
  • 23:33 What--did you, were you eating while we were singing?
  • 23:36 Jeffrey Seif: Listen, I can resist,
  • 23:38 but, who can resist to tell you the truth.
  • 23:40 It was right in front of me. Good stuff.
  • 23:43 Here, you do it.
  • 23:44 You say well I know, we're supposed to be earning a living
  • 23:46 right now.
  • 23:47 That's good, and you know, when I look at the fruit, it reminds
  • 23:50 me, we're beckoned to bear fruit.
  • 23:52 And it's a play on words, the spies bore that fruit
  • 23:56 and they brought it into the land.
  • 23:57 But in a new covenant context, we bear fruit, in a sense,
  • 24:02 grapes too to go with the Johannine analogy
  • 24:04 in the 15th chapter.
  • 24:05 There's a kind of fruit that's supposed to come out of us and I
  • 24:08 know that as worship leaders, you spent your life trying
  • 24:11 to elicit that.
  • 24:12 Yes?
  • 24:14 Kirsten: We do. Honestly, we try to--
  • 24:16 Jeffrey Seif: Pardon me, you talk for a while.
  • 24:18 Kirsten: No, you're good!
  • 24:19 Jeffrey Seif: You talk for a while.
  • 24:20 Kirsten: Focus on Joshua and Caleb.
  • 24:22 They brought in this good report, we can do this.
  • 24:25 And unfortunately, we deal with, I love you all.
  • 24:27 I love you all.
  • 24:29 We hear so much of the the 10 spies, who said, "Too hard.
  • 24:34 Can't do it. Let's just stay here."
  • 24:37 And they focus on the negative report versus the positivity of,
  • 24:42 look at what's ahead for us.
  • 24:43 David: And I think we see that, we see that happening even
  • 24:47 in church as we worship.
  • 24:49 That I don't know if people get, but they can receive
  • 24:53 through the good gift of what Joshua has taught us.
  • 24:56 Jeffrey Seif: I think God has a wonderful life for us,
  • 25:01 and it's tragic that a lot of people lives are withering
  • 25:06 on the vine.
  • 25:09 And, I, and you, and we, we're looking at this bounty.
  • 25:14 And I want to ask you the question, could it be that
  • 25:18 God has something more for you?
  • 25:20 By the way, it's a rhetorical question.
  • 25:23 Not just because you can't answer it because you're in your
  • 25:25 living room or wherever.
  • 25:27 It's a rhetorical question 'cause I know the answer
  • 25:30 before I ask it.
  • 25:31 Nine of ten to give it and the answer is, yes.
  • 25:33 Scripture says, "In Him, all things are yes."
  • 25:37 And I believe that God wants to move us along and make us
  • 25:42 better than when we started.
  • 25:43 But in as much as the children of Israel weren't the children
  • 25:49 of Israel, they were in, the children of Israel by name
  • 25:52 only, they had to go into Canaan and call it Israel.
  • 25:54 They had to claim it.
  • 25:56 They had to reach beyond their doubts and fears and do it.
  • 26:01 They had to exercise themselves.
  • 26:04 Similarly, I think there are ways that believers need
  • 26:09 to exercise themselves, to bear fruit and so prove
  • 26:12 to be disciples.
  • 26:14 That includes embracing the disciplines that come
  • 26:16 along with being a disciple.
  • 26:17 One of which is giving.
  • 26:20 At the risk of sounding like I'm trying to exploit a religious
  • 26:23 point to serve an interest, let me ask you.
  • 26:27 Please, if you find value in "Our Jewish Roots," and you
  • 26:33 remember our founder Zola Levitt and you appreciate our future
  • 26:37 with me and the Harts, please consider.
  • 26:42 Please help us in the doing.
  • 26:45 Exercise that fruit. That sacrificial giving.
  • 26:47 God can bless you a thousand-fold and you can bear
  • 26:51 fruit in ways you can't anticipate as you sit there
  • 26:54 right now.
  • 26:55 Kirsten: That's good. Walk into the new land.
  • 26:59 David: Right, and, we will believe the report of the Lord.
  • 27:01 We believe it.
  • 27:02 Kirsten: And it's there for the taking.
  • 27:03 Jeffrey Seif: Amen, it's there for the taking.
  • 27:05 David: Amen.
  • 27:06 Jeffrey Seif: Thank you for being here for the hearing.
  • 27:07 Time's up. Let's do this again.
  • 27:10 As you go now, [speaking Hebrew]
  • 27:13 David: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
  • 27:17 David: Join us right now for additional content that is
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  • 27:24 Visit our website, Levitt.com for the current and past
  • 27:28 programs, the television schedule, tour information,
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  • 27:35 articles and news commentary.
  • 27:37 View it online or we can ship it directly to your mailbox,
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  • 27:42 Also on our website, is the online store.
  • 27:44 There you can order this week's resource or you can always give
  • 27:48 us a call at 1-800-Wonders.
  • 27:52 Your donations to "Our Jewish Roots" help us to support these
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  • 28:01 from viewers like you.
  • 28:05 ♪♪♪
  • 28:24 announcer: This has been a paid program brought to you by
  • 28:26 Zola Levitt Ministries.

Episodes in this series

  1. At Sinai
  2. The Spy
  3. At the Jordan
  4. At Jericho
  5. At Ai
  6. The Gibeonites
  7. At Shiloh
  8. At the End

Guest organizations and links