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Caption transcript for Faith for the Future: “Conflicting Directions and Destinations” (2/10)

• 00:01 ♪♪♪
• 00:03 David Hart: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots."
• 00:07 ♪♪♪
• 00:12 David: "Now faith is the assurance of things
• 00:14 hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
• 00:18 For by it the men of old received divine approval."
• 00:22 For whatever was written in former days was written for
• 00:25 our instruction that through endurance and through
• 00:29 the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.
• 00:33 ♪♪♪
• 00:36 David: "Faith for the Future: Our Journey
• 00:38 with the Patriarchs."
• 00:43 David: Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 00:45 I'm David Hart.
• 00:46 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 00:48 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: I am Jeffrey Seif,
• 00:49 and we are looking up.
• 00:53 Kirsten: Right, and the whole series is about "Faith for the
• 00:55 Future," and sometimes we look at the stars for our future, but
• 00:58 there was a message for Abraham that came down
• 01:00 from up there, right?
• 01:02 Jeffrey: Yes, he looked up, and God spoke to him
• 01:04 through the cosmos.
• 01:05 What a story.
• 01:07 Kirsten: All about his future and many, many generations.
• 01:10 Jeffrey: You know, I've been out at starry, starry, dark
• 01:12 nights and looked at the stars, and it's very inspirational.
• 01:15 David: What's our drama today?
• 01:16 Jeffrey: Well, it speaks to that piece of inspiration, to
• 01:19 tell you the truth, and we're gonna see it now where Abraham
• 01:22 is beckoned to go out and gets a vision for the future by looking
• 01:25 above and seeing the stars.
• 01:29 male announcer: After these things, the Word of
• 01:31 the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, "Fear not,
• 01:36 Abram, I am thy shield.
• 01:39 Your reward will be exceedingly great."
• 01:45 Abram: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 01:54 Sarai: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 03:27 announcer: And the Lord said further
• 03:28 unto Abram, "Thy seed shall be a stranger in
• 03:32 a land that is not theirs, and they will afflict them for
• 03:36 400 years, and afterwards, they shall come out
• 03:40 with great abundance."
• 03:43 And in the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram,
• 03:47 saying, "Unto thy seed have I given this land, from
• 03:51 the river of Egypt, unto the great river Euphrates."
• 04:02 Jeffrey: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 04:07 "And the Lord said to Abram, 'Look up now.'"
• 04:14 I mean, he was lookin' down. He was discouraged.
• 04:18 He was deflated.
• 04:20 Things didn't make sense to him.
• 04:22 And then he got the Word.
• 04:24 It says, "The Lord appeared to him," the Word of the Lord,
• 04:27 "and said, 'Look up now.'"
• 04:32 Oh, it was a word for him, to be sure,
• 04:35 because that man needed faith for his future, didn't he?
• 04:39 Faith in God because things weren't going terribly well.
• 04:44 But then he got the word, "Look up now."
• 04:49 I wanna look at the Word, in fact, and see
• 04:52 the particulars of it.
• 04:54 Speaking of the Word, you know, in the Hebrew Bible,
• 04:56 the Scripture is referred to as "Etz Chaim," the "Tree of Life."
• 05:01 With Abram now, let's look up now.
• 05:08 Jeffrey: Because he says here--
• 05:10 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 05:12 He said, "Your seed is going to be multiplied."
• 05:16 And listen to me, listen to me: If you're an agrarian as they
• 05:21 were back then, your seed is your future.
• 05:26 "Seed" back then is a 401(k) today.
• 05:30 It's a retirement plan.
• 05:33 "Look up, fearful.
• 05:35 You have a future.
• 05:37 You might not feel it, you might not see it, but it's there."
• 05:42 Now, we wanna talk about "Faith for the Future," and I wanna
• 05:45 alight upon the fact that Abram bought into the program.
• 05:51 He lived proleptically, that is to say, he embraced it before he
• 05:54 got it, and the reason why I say that is because, in verse 6,
• 05:59 it says, "And he believed in Adonai and he reckoned it to
• 06:03 him as righteousness."
• 06:07 "Righteousness" wasn't going to church Sunday morning, Sunday
• 06:09 night, and on Wednesday and all week if there's a revival.
• 06:12 I'm not trying to discredit that, but it's believing in God.
• 06:16 It's having faith in him for the future.
• 06:20 He did that.
• 06:22 He took that step, and then we're told subsequent to that,
• 06:26 that God made a covenant with him.
• 06:29 He entered into a relationship to facilitate the promise of a
• 06:35 seed of offspring and then a place for the offspring to go.
• 06:40 We're told in chapter 15, verse 18, later on, on that day,
• 06:46 Adonai cut a covenant with Abram.
• 06:49 In Hebrew, there's no verb, "to make."
• 06:52 It's "cut."
• 06:54 You've heard the expression "to cut a deal"?
• 06:56 Well, that's where it comes from literally, the verb, "to cut."
• 06:59 He made a contract with him, and he said, "I will give to
• 07:06 your seed--" "Zara Israel," "the seed of Israel."
• 07:11 And, by the way, there are people who are of the seed
• 07:16 of Israel, but they're not of the religion of Israel.
• 07:21 I mention that Benjamin Netanyahu's father, a famous
• 07:25 professor, argued, "There's some 30 million Hispanic people in
• 07:30 Central and South America, descended from Sephardim,
• 07:34 Spanish Jews that came to the New World.
• 07:37 They don't practice the religion of Israel, but if they're
• 07:40 checked out genetically, they belong to the people of Israel.
• 07:44 There are certain people that have stirrings within them
• 07:46 toward the Hebrew people.
• 07:48 It might not be to something spiritual.
• 07:50 It's something genetic.
• 07:52 There's a kind of impulse there.
• 07:54 In any case, he doesn't say, "So shall your religion be."
• 07:58 He says, "So shall your people be spread out."
• 08:01 He says here specifically he gives boundaries.
• 08:06 He speaks to people about a place.
• 08:09 There's a territorial dimension.
• 08:11 He says, "I will give it to you from the river of Mitsrayim,
• 08:15 of Egypt, to the great river, the river Euphrates."
• 08:20 Now, if we're looking at the ancient world, we're looking at
• 08:23 two big markers there, and there's real estate place there
• 08:27 for the Hebrew people, right at the southwestern portion
• 08:30 of the Fertile Crescent.
• 08:33 Abraham is on a journey.
• 08:35 He's on a journey with God.
• 08:38 He's a bit discouraged, and Sarah is too.
• 08:41 Hope for a future with children seems not very doable, but
• 08:45 "With God, all things are possible."
• 08:48 Lord gets ahold of this fella, slaps him up a little bit, gets
• 08:51 him lookin' up some.
• 08:53 He does, he believes, God makes a promise, gives him some land,
• 08:58 and the rest is history for him and for those who imitate
• 09:02 him--for you as well.
• 09:07 ♪♪♪
• 09:16 announcer: Our resource this week,
• 09:18 the "Grafted-In" necklace.
• 09:20 Wearing this lovely sterling silver rendition of a classic
• 09:23 messianic symbol shows you recognize the Jewish roots of
• 09:27 your Christian faith and stirs curiosities and witness
• 09:32 opportunities with this tribute to life, the Lord,
• 09:36 and abundant love.
• 09:38 For this resource and more, call 1-800-WONDERS,
• 09:42 or visit us at levitt.com.
• 09:47 ♪♪♪
• 09:52 ♪ Sha'alu Shalom Yerushalayim ♪
• 09:55 ♪ Sha'alu, Sha'alu Shalom. ♪
• 09:59 ♪ For the Holy City of Jerusalem, ♪
• 10:06 ♪ we will pray for peace, ♪
• 10:09 ♪ Sha'alu Shalom. ♪
• 10:18 ♪ Shalom. ♪♪
• 10:23 David: This whole series is about "Faith for Our Future."
• 10:26 Kirsten and I never dreamed in our wildest dreams that
• 10:29 we'd be going to Israel two times a year.
• 10:32 We have the faith now that Israel is in our future.
• 10:36 Kirsten: Right, we'll be going back.
• 10:38 David: Yes, also for you to have faith that Israel
• 10:42 could be in your future, pray about it.
• 10:44 We would love for you to join us on a trip to Israel.
• 10:46 We go both in the fall and the spring.
• 10:49 Information right here on levitt.com.
• 10:52 Jeffrey: Yeah, it's not just a vacation.
• 10:53 There's something very inspiring.
• 10:55 And looking up to the stars, of course, as noted,
• 10:57 Abraham was inspired.
• 10:59 Someone wrote not long ago.
• 11:01 They said, "Boy, I wish I could give you a million dollars."
• 11:04 And I was indeed appreciative of that for the ministry's sake,
• 11:06 but I'm not lookin' for million-dollar checks.
• 11:08 Inasmuch as Abraham looked up and saw a bunch of stars,
• 11:11 if everyone who watched this program just did a little,
• 11:15 that would really help us to move forward a lot.
• 11:18 I mentioned that, please, I'm looking at the stars.
• 11:21 I'm looking out at you, all the friends that your last name
• 11:24 isn't Gates, but you are in love with the Lord
• 11:28 in this program.
• 11:29 If you could pick up a pen and do a little, we surely would
• 11:32 appreciate it a lot.
• 11:34 Kirsten: We'll get to hear from your beautiful and
• 11:36 intelligent wife in a minute, but, first, let's peek into the
• 11:39 lives of Sarah and Hagar.
• 11:42 Sometimes we girls can get catty with each other, and even back
• 11:46 in the old times, it wasn't any different.
• 11:49 Here we go.
• 11:53 ♪♪♪
• 12:01 Abram: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 12:10 Sarai: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 13:33 Dr. Barri Seif: As I see Sarai here, my heart goes
• 13:37 out to my distant ancestress because of all the different
• 13:43 emotions that she's going through.
• 13:46 There's pain. She is barren.
• 13:49 She is the matriarch of the clan, of the family.
• 13:55 She is to be respected, and, yet we are told in Scripture that
• 14:01 Hagar saw her as "qalal" in Hebrew, "despised, belittled,"
• 14:06 and it was not a pleasant place for Sarah, and you can see it in
• 14:12 her emotions and in the pain, and the comfort that we have
• 14:17 when we go through these times--and maybe you've been
• 14:21 despised or betrayed.
• 14:22 I sure have.
• 14:24 And I'm comforted to know that Yeshua was despised
• 14:27 and rejected by men.
• 14:29 A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, who better to
• 14:33 comfort us in these times of difficulty, as we see with
• 14:39 Sarai, who is in deep pain.
• 14:42 I like to know that the Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh,
• 14:47 is there with us.
• 14:49 He's our "paraclete," the one who comes alongside of us and
• 14:52 comforts us.
• 14:54 And Paul encourages us as well in 2 Corinthians, the first
• 14:58 chapter, that "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
• 15:02 Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who
• 15:07 comforts us in any of our affliction with the comfort that
• 15:11 we ourselves had in Jesus so that we can comfort others."
• 15:16 God never weighs suffering.
• 15:18 He cares about us. He carries us through.
• 15:21 And we know the end result because we know about Sarai as
• 15:24 she becomes Sarah, and she's the mother of many.
• 15:27 But there's the journey of going through, and God is faithful.
• 15:31 If we can't see his hand, we can certainly trust his heart.
• 15:39 Kirsten: Barri was mentioning that Hagar now was
• 15:43 belittling Sarah.
• 15:44 Sometimes when there are two wives and one husband, there
• 15:47 could be fighting happening, but that even happens among women,
• 15:52 and I think sometimes we set our minds to what we want, and I
• 15:55 think Sarah wanted Hagar to bear the children 'cause she
• 15:59 couldn't, but all of a sudden, that ugly thing called jealousy
• 16:03 kind of started stirring up in Sarah, and Sarah sent Hagar off,
• 16:07 but God saw Hagar.
• 16:10 God saw her pain and her shame and her hurt and sent a word
• 16:14 through an angelic being of promise and prophecy.
• 16:19 Let's watch that.
• 16:25 announcer: And Abram said unto Sarai, "Behold,
• 16:28 thy maid is in thy hand.
• 16:31 Do to her as it pleases thee."
• 16:34 And when Sarai dealt harshly with Hagar, she fled from
• 16:38 the face of Sarai.
• 16:41 And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in
• 16:44 the wilderness, by the fountain on the way to Shur.
• 16:49 angel: Hagar.
• 16:58 angel: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 17:11 Hagar: [speaking in Hebrew]
• 18:31 Jeffrey: Okay, here's the word for this segment: "Meow."
• 18:37 "What kind of Hebrew word is that?"
• 18:38 you wonder.
• 18:40 Well, it's really kind of English, as in cats.
• 18:43 I mention that because these ladies are gettin' at it.
• 18:46 This is a little in-house cat fight going on here now.
• 18:49 It sounds a little disrespectful--I get it--but
• 18:52 it's true, and quite frankly, I'm not particularly impressed
• 18:56 by Sarah's performance.
• 18:58 She's not at her best here.
• 19:00 After all, she was the one that shoehorned this maiden into
• 19:04 marrying her old man.
• 19:06 Literally he was an old man, and that was a young girl.
• 19:09 She turns up pregnant, and it gets very, very complicated.
• 19:13 Someone might not like me saying it like this, but it's true.
• 19:18 Again, I don't think Sarah was at her best.
• 19:20 But, of course, not everybody can be as sweet as my wife,
• 19:24 Barri, all the time.
• 19:26 Well, Barri has her moments.
• 19:28 We all do, to be sure, so I don't wanna be too critical, but
• 19:31 what I want to underscore here is, even as things deteriorate,
• 19:35 what I observe in the literature is that God has some love for
• 19:40 Hagar and for her child Ishmael.
• 19:45 Never mind my little "meow" play on words.
• 19:47 Maybe you like it, maybe you don't.
• 19:49 "Ishmael" means "God hears," or "God listens."
• 19:52 How about that?
• 19:54 This disenfranchised young girl, thrown under the bus, you know,
• 19:57 God had her back.
• 20:00 Talk about faith for the future.
• 20:02 Now, let me offer a corrective to something here which might
• 20:07 not comport with the sensibilities of some.
• 20:10 I mention that because those of us that love Jewish
• 20:14 people--hooray.
• 20:16 Those of us that love Israel--hooray.
• 20:19 Those of us that believe that God has a place for the Hebrew
• 20:22 people in the land of Israel--hooray, I love it.
• 20:25 But sometimes those of us of that ilk are inclined to be
• 20:30 particularly disdainful of these "brothers from another mother."
• 20:35 I find no merit at all in hating Arab people or hating anyone
• 20:42 for that matter.
• 20:43 And speaking to the children that are gonna be born here,
• 20:46 Ishmael and later Isaac, when Abram dies later on, they're
• 20:51 both at the funeral, getting along.
• 20:54 It wasn't until the conflict, you know, Muhammad
• 20:57 was born in 570 A.D.
• 20:59 He mobilizes in 610, and something else is born thousands
• 21:03 of years after this story.
• 21:07 We're related.
• 21:08 People say, "Well, you know, are those Arabs anti-Semitic?"
• 21:11 No, they are Semitic.
• 21:12 We're from the same stock, at the end of the day,
• 21:14 descended from Abraham.
• 21:17 And what I find noteworthy in here, and then what I wanna
• 21:20 commend to you, is to be a lover of all people.
• 21:27 God put on my heart sometime back that, yes, I do support the
• 21:30 Jewish people and the ancestral homeland, and I have good reason
• 21:35 to do that, but that doesn't incline me to be disdainful of
• 21:39 other people.
• 21:41 Personally, I don't believe we're allowed to be that way.
• 21:45 In any case, when I look here in the literature--and, again, I'm
• 21:48 looking in chapter 16, verse 10--the promise to this woman,
• 21:54 who finds herself in a bad way--you know, Abram and Sarah
• 21:58 were in a bad way earlier, and a promise came to them, "I'm going
• 22:01 to multiply your seed."
• 22:03 Well, same thing is said, by the way, to Hagar here: "I am going
• 22:10 to deal bountifully and multiply your seed, till they're
• 22:17 too many to count."
• 22:19 You know, this is a big planet.
• 22:21 When I look at planet Earth, you know, the belt around the waist
• 22:25 is 24,000 miles.
• 22:26 You know, you can look at the distance east to west in Israel.
• 22:29 It's rather small.
• 22:31 I think there's room for a lot of people on this planet, and I
• 22:36 think there's room for Hebrew people to dwell in their
• 22:39 ancestral homeland, and I believe there's room for
• 22:44 "the brother from another mother" to dwell in proximity
• 22:48 as per the literature here.
• 22:50 But you know what it's gonna take to bring
• 22:52 that about, I think?
• 22:54 Sar Shalom, the Prince of Peace.
• 22:59 And, by the way, he was the one that said,
• 23:02 "Blessed are the peacemakers."
• 23:05 Let's be about that.
• 23:07 There are a lot problems in the world.
• 23:09 Let's be part of the cure.
• 23:13 Let's endeavor to build bridges to those estranged from us.
• 23:17 I think that's a good thing to do.
• 23:19 Similarly, I believe that even amidst the turbulence of
• 23:23 broken relationships, fractures, misunderstandings, and
• 23:27 resentment, I believe those of us that can marshal faith for
• 23:31 the future, that we know that we have a future in God and that
• 23:36 he's gonna watch over his word to perform it.
• 23:40 I believe those of us thus-minded are able to look at
• 23:44 others that aren't thus-minded with a kind of grace that
• 23:48 wouldn't otherwise be there.
• 23:50 Why?
• 23:51 Because they have faith in God for the future.
• 24:00 ♪♪♪
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• 24:57 Kirsten: In your last teaching, you talked about
• 25:00 Ishmael, and I think we believers in the Bible kind of
• 25:07 kick Ishmael to the side because it's all about Isaac.
• 25:11 He was the promised child.
• 25:13 But you also mentioned and taught that there was a covenant
• 25:16 blessing and promise that God himself gave
• 25:20 to Ishmael, correct?
• 25:21 Jeffrey: I don't believe in kicking human beings
• 25:23 to the side--period.
• 25:25 And I believe race hate is unacceptable, and I'm all for,
• 25:28 as I mentioned in my teaching segment, supporting Israel,
• 25:32 but I don't wanna hate "the brother from another mother."
• 25:34 That does not comport with my sensibilities.
• 25:36 That offends my understanding of what it means to be Christian.
• 25:39 Kirsten: And I like that because, if I remember right, it
• 25:44 was a "sand one," as if, "As the sands that you see, so shall
• 25:49 your descendants be," to Ishmael, is that correct?
• 25:51 Jeffrey: Yeah, there's a big world.
• 25:52 God has a way of taking care of everyone, and there were
• 25:54 promises to Ishmael and his progeny and perpetuity,
• 25:58 yes, indeed.
• 25:59 Kirsten: So even in our downfalls, when we make
• 26:02 mistakes, when we step outside of God's perfect plan,
• 26:06 there's still grace.
• 26:08 Jeffrey: There certainly is. There certainly is.
• 26:10 Now, there is--and I don't wanna--I wanna end the
• 26:13 moment on a happier moment.
• 26:15 There are people that are invigorated against Hebrew
• 26:18 people, in Israel, of Islamic extract, and I think
• 26:23 that's unfortunate.
• 26:24 That needs to be stopped.
• 26:26 We need to find a way to build bridges of peace, and
• 26:28 the Bible gives us insights on how to do that.
• 26:30 David: So much more in this series.
• 26:32 Thank you for your teaching today.
• 26:34 We end our program--
• 26:35 Jeffrey: As always, Sha'alu Shalom Yerushalayim.
• 26:38 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 26:42 ♪♪♪
• 26:47 ♪ When peace like a river ♪
• 26:54 ♪ attendeth my way, ♪
• 27:01 ♪ when sorrows like sea billows roll, ♪
• 27:15 ♪ whatever my lot, ♪
• 27:21 ♪ thou hast taught me to say, ♪
• 27:27 ♪ 'It is well, ♪
• 27:31 ♪ it is well with my soul.' ♪
• 27:42 ♪ And Lord, haste the day ♪
• 27:48 ♪ when my faith shall be sight. ♪
• 27:55 ♪ The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. ♪♪
• 28:05 ♪♪♪