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Caption transcript for Jeremiah: “Promises Made” (6/9)

• 00:01 David Hart: With Babylon coming to capture Judah,
• 00:03 what was to happen to God's promises?
• 00:06 Jeremiah sees restoration.
• 00:08 The land of Israel will again be home to the Jewish people.
• 00:11 Coming up next on "Our Jewish Roots."
• 00:14 ♪♪♪
• 00:20 male announcer: In the 6th century BC,
• 00:22 one man stood alone against the pervading wickedness of God's
• 00:26 people in the land of Judah.
• 00:29 The prophet Jeremiah was chosen by the Lord to warn of pending
• 00:33 judgment that would come at the hands of the Babylonians.
• 00:38 Visions of an exile left him heartbroken and in tears.
• 00:42 But Jeremiah remained faithful to his calling and recorded a
• 00:46 message that would speak to generations yet to come.
• 00:51 Standing tall with faith in God, he understood better days were
• 00:56 coming and there was "Hope Over the Horizon."
• 01:02 ♪♪♪
• 01:05 David: We are so glad you've joined us today.
• 01:06 I am David Hart.
• 01:08 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 01:09 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: And I am Jeffrey Seif.
• 01:11 David: I have a feeling today you've heard
• 01:12 the song that says--
• 01:14 ♪ Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, ♪
• 01:18 ♪ blessings all mine with 10,000 beside. ♪♪
• 01:23 David: Bright hope.
• 01:24 I think there's a little bit of hope in today's program, yes?
• 01:26 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Yes, and not that I want to teach you the
• 01:29 lyrics, but "Great is thy faithfulness"
• 01:31 follows in short order.
• 01:33 David: Yes.
• 01:34 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: And morning by morning.
• 01:36 And, you know, there's darkness in the night and morning comes,
• 01:39 the light breaks, and that's so much of our story today.
• 01:42 Kirsten: Well, we're looking at Jeremiah,
• 01:44 chapters 30 to 33, which is all the new covenant
• 01:48 written on our hearts.
• 01:49 And I believe it's for Jews and Gentiles.
• 01:53 They finally get in kind of on this message, right?
• 01:56 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 01:58 God's not just about the Jewish people.
• 02:01 He's working through the Jewish people,
• 02:03 Jesus being the foremost Jew.
• 02:05 That's why we call this "Our Jewish Roots."
• 02:07 We're looking for the world, but we're looking at the Word
• 02:11 through a Jewish perspective.
• 02:12 Kirsten: God so loved the whole world that he gave the
• 02:14 Word through Jeremiah.
• 02:16 David: We're going to hear so much more from you in a bit,
• 02:18 but right now take your Bible, as we go to Exodus to hear the
• 02:22 Word of the Lord.
• 02:27 announcer: Some 900 years before Jeremiah,
• 02:30 God spoke unto Moses on Mount Sinai,
• 02:33 "Write down these words," he said to Moses,
• 02:37 "for in accordance with these words,
• 02:40 I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel."
• 02:44 ♪♪♪
• 04:28 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: It's known as Shemot in Hebrew,
• 04:31 Exodus in English.
• 04:34 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 04:37 Moses the teacher speaks in the 19th
• 04:40 chapter, while he writes in the 19th chapter,
• 04:43 and therein readers are told that Israel was to be memlechet
• 04:49 kohanim, a nation of priests.
• 04:55 Similarly therein he says that the Hebrew people were to be goy
• 05:01 Kadosh, a holy people.
• 05:05 Tragically, when we look at Jeremiah's world,
• 05:10 we see that the people were not acting as a holy nation,
• 05:16 as a kingdom of priests.
• 05:19 All that was spurned for materialism, vice.
• 05:27 It was an absolute train wreck, but there was a priest.
• 05:32 His name was Jeremiah.
• 05:35 The name itself in Hebrew comes from a word meaning appointed.
• 05:39 And he indeed was appointed to a very difficult task,
• 05:45 and that task was to, in effect, call it as it was,
• 05:51 and it wasn't a very good story.
• 05:54 Happily, however, the sins of the moment
• 05:58 are not the whole story.
• 06:02 The reason why I say that is because,
• 06:04 as we're going to see in very short order,
• 06:07 Jeremiah envisioned that though they broke the covenant given
• 06:12 there at Sinai in chapter 19 and 20 of Exodus,
• 06:18 though that covenant was broken, the Lord was minded to,
• 06:23 in effect, give a new covenant with the house of Israel and the
• 06:29 house of Judah and with the world--accent the world.
• 06:36 Readers of the New Testament experienced Peter giving voice
• 06:41 to the fact, when he writes, he says,
• 06:43 "You are collectively a chosen race,
• 06:48 a royal priesthood, a holy nation."
• 06:53 The language that was commended to Israel in Exodus is commended
• 06:58 to people who are Jewish and non-Jewish alike.
• 07:03 And we see that in Jeremiah.
• 07:06 While he's principally speaking to Hebrews,
• 07:09 he's not just speaking to Hebrews and about Hebrews.
• 07:12 He gives voice, chapter after chapter,
• 07:15 to the nations, as well.
• 07:18 He sees God doing something new in the world and hopefully that
• 07:22 newness is a work that you've experienced in you.
• 07:27 And hear me on this.
• 07:29 If you have, if you in effect have been born anew,
• 07:34 Peter speaks of that in the context of the text that I've
• 07:38 already alluded to.
• 07:39 If you've been born anew, that new work that was prophesied in
• 07:45 Jeremiah has already begun in you.
• 07:48 It's not a perfect world.
• 07:50 There's difficulties in it.
• 07:52 But we, in this world, like Jeremiah,
• 07:54 are priests to stand and represent God.
• 07:58 It's not always easy.
• 08:00 Sometimes people disrespect us for so doing.
• 08:03 But at the end of the day, we stand,
• 08:06 we speak, and we lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven,
• 08:11 by virtue of our so doing.
• 08:13 We speak a bad word on occasion, but a good word on top,
• 08:16 because though we see difficulties,
• 08:19 because we believe in God and know his word and his will,
• 08:22 we know, in fact, that there indeed is hope over the horizon.
• 08:27 ♪♪♪
• 09:08 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: It's all too easy to misread Jeremiah.
• 09:14 I don't mean just understand the literature--or to misunderstand
• 09:17 the literature, I should say.
• 09:19 It's easy to misunderstand the man who's penning it.
• 09:23 Individuals see him as an angry fellow.
• 09:25 He isn't.
• 09:26 He's saddened, to be sure, because his task,
• 09:29 as a minister, is to call it the way it is.
• 09:32 And the people were in a bad way in that day.
• 09:36 Similarly, today, you can have an evangelist
• 09:39 calling someone out for their sin.
• 09:40 It doesn't mean they're an angry person or a mean person.
• 09:42 It just means it is what it is.
• 09:44 The news is the news.
• 09:46 Let's not do fake news. Let's call it the way it is.
• 09:48 'Cause when people can see it for what it is,
• 09:50 then they can turn from it.
• 09:53 And when people turn from it, good things happen.
• 09:58 Jeremiah saw good things happening,
• 10:00 believe it or not.
• 10:02 The reason why I say that is because he said that.
• 10:04 Look here, if you will, in chapter 30.
• 10:06 He knew he had a tough assignment,
• 10:08 but he, as I said, over and again,
• 10:10 in this entire series, he saw hope over the horizon.
• 10:18 The reason why I say that is because he said it in his own
• 10:20 words, in chapter 30, if you'll look with me, please,
• 10:22 in verse 3--I'll do it in my translation,
• 10:25 and I'll unpack it piece by piece
• 10:27 so you can follow it in yours.
• 10:29 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 10:33 "The days are coming, says the LORD--"
• 10:37 It's futuristic from Jeremiah's vantage point.
• 10:41 The day is bad, but there is a new day coming.
• 10:48 And what's coming?
• 10:49 Well, he says
• 10:51 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 10:52 "And I will turn,"
• 10:54 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 10:56 "your captivity."
• 10:58 They were taken off into bondage.
• 11:00 It was tough, but God was going to turn that around.
• 11:05 It's like the word "repentance."
• 11:06 It's the same root word
• 11:08 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 11:09 to shuv, turning.
• 11:11 There's a new direction.
• 11:14 Individuals are going one way, but then they turn another.
• 11:18 Here circumstances are going one way,
• 11:21 but they're going to turn another toward
• 11:24 a brighter future.
• 11:29 He goes on to say
• 11:30 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 11:33 The people of Israel and the people of Judah.
• 11:37 Indeed, it's for the whole world,
• 11:39 but the point is these that were overrun and taken away,
• 11:43 there is going to be a returning,
• 11:45 we're told.
• 11:46 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 11:48 says the Lord, it's the Word of the Lord.
• 11:50 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 11:55 "And I will bring them back.
• 11:57 They will return to the land of their fathers."
• 12:03 He made promises to Avraham, Yitzhak,
• 12:06 and Yaakov, or Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
• 12:09 And he gave voice to the fact he's given those people a land
• 12:14 commended in literature.
• 12:16 Their sinfulness prompted the exile from it,
• 12:20 but there's a return to it, and we've seen that happen time and
• 12:25 time again.
• 12:27 We see it in biblical literature.
• 12:29 We even see it today.
• 12:32 Against all odds, the Jewish people are returning to the
• 12:37 ancestral homeland.
• 12:39 And what does that tell us?
• 12:41 It tells us that God watches over his Word to perform it,
• 12:46 and it tells us he's indeed able to do that,
• 12:50 against all odds.
• 12:52 And guess what?
• 12:54 The same God that can do that in a way that's material,
• 12:59 he can do something spiritual, as well.
• 13:03 Inasmuch as he can bring a people back to their land,
• 13:07 he can bring you to a better place than you might find
• 13:11 yourself in right now.
• 13:15 God did it for them.
• 13:17 He can do it for you.
• 13:19 What he could do materially in the world involving hundreds of
• 13:23 thousands of people, what he could do for them,
• 13:27 he can do for us.
• 13:28 God is in the business of restoring people from captivity,
• 13:35 and that's the good news of the gospel.
• 13:37 The prison doors are flung open, and whosoever will,
• 13:42 may come.
• 13:44 To be sure, the prophet calls him out for their sin.
• 13:46 It's a tough assignment,
• 13:48 but he doesn't want to just call them out.
• 13:50 He invites them into a new world.
• 13:54 And it's just not a new world for them.
• 13:57 And indeed it was, because he restores the captives
• 14:01 from Judah and Israel.
• 14:02 He does.
• 14:04 We see it in biblical literature.
• 14:05 We see it today with the rebirth of the modern nation
• 14:08 state of Israel.
• 14:10 But what he does for them, he can do for you.
• 14:14 And like Jeremiah, to be sure, you can know indeed there's hope
• 14:20 over the horizon.
• 14:22 ♪♪♪
• 14:24 ♪♪♪
• 14:34 announcer: Our resource this week,
• 14:35 the series, "Jeremiah: Hope Over the Horizon" on DVD.
• 14:39 The prophet Jeremiah was called to warn Judah that judgment was
• 14:42 coming at the hands of the Babylonians.
• 14:45 What we find woven through his writings is a message of hope
• 14:49 and deliverance.
• 14:50 These nine programs feature Bible teaching by Dr. Jeffrey
• 14:53 Seif, with special guest, Dr. Michael Brown.
• 14:56 Contact us and ask for the Jeremiah series on DVD.
• 15:02 David: "Our Jewish Roots"
• 15:03 is more than just a television program.
• 15:05 See what you are missing on our social media outlets.
• 15:09 Kirsten: On Facebook and Twitter,
• 15:10 you'll find our daily Name of God devotional,
• 15:14 current news articles, the bearded Bible brothers,
• 15:17 and more.
• 15:18 David: On our YouTube channel,
• 15:19 you'll find faith foundations, music,
• 15:23 interviews, the bearded Bible brothers, and more.
• 15:27 Kirsten: Or find everything on our website, levitt.com.
• 15:30 David: We invite you to keep in touch
• 15:31 and join us on social media.
• 15:36 ♪♪♪
• 15:41 ♪♪♪
• 15:51 ♪♪♪
• 16:01 ♪♪♪
• 16:11 David: We are so honored to bring you dramatic reenactments
• 16:13 each week with people who do the dramas,
• 16:16 who really speak Hebrew well.
• 16:17 Kirsten: We know a few words, but these actors,
• 16:20 I mean, it's fantastic.
• 16:22 It's as if you are back in the day,
• 16:24 really with Jeremiah.
• 16:26 It's fantastic.
• 16:27 We do all of that for you.
• 16:30 Our viewers love the authenticity
• 16:32 of Hebrew-speaking actors.
• 16:34 And I just have to add the fact that it costs money
• 16:38 to hire actors.
• 16:39 I mean, we wish they'd all work for free.
• 16:41 They need to eat also.
• 16:43 And if you appreciate what we do,
• 16:46 we appreciate your donations to keep going and bringing those
• 16:49 Hebrew-speaking Israeli actors to you.
• 16:52 Dr. Seif is coming up in a few minutes,
• 16:55 but first we have Dr. Michael Brown explaining how salvation
• 17:00 for the Jewish people is just the beginning.
• 17:06 Dr. Michael Brown: There's a great scene in Jeremiah that we
• 17:08 often miss, and it is that Israel's salvation means the
• 17:13 salvation of the whole world.
• 17:15 See, this was a vision of the prophets.
• 17:17 When God called Abram, he said that through his seed the whole
• 17:21 world would be blessed.
• 17:23 And even though the prophets majored on Israel and focused
• 17:26 mainly on Israel and Judah, it had some words for the nations,
• 17:29 but their focus was on Israel and Judah.
• 17:31 They also knew that Israel's salvation would bring blessing
• 17:36 to the entire world.
• 17:37 So, the new covenant that we enjoy as followers of Jesus
• 17:41 today, that Gentile Christians around the world enjoy,
• 17:44 who is it made with?
• 17:46 The covenant was made with the house of Israel and the house of
• 17:49 Judah, and through Israel and Judah,
• 17:51 as a priestly nation, the whole world is then blessed.
• 17:55 And there are passages you find in Jeremiah,
• 17:57 in the 3rd and 4th chapter, and the 24th chapter,
• 18:00 where you see, as God brings the Jewish captives back to
• 18:04 Jerusalem, as God restores the city,
• 18:07 as God rebuilds the nation, as the temple is repaired,
• 18:11 that this is the first fruits of restoration,
• 18:13 and it speaks of a future day when the nation of Israel will
• 18:17 serve God with one heart and one soul.
• 18:20 And when Israel gets things right,
• 18:23 the whole world comes flocking
• 18:25 to learn about the God of Israel.
• 18:27 When Israel is rightly connected with the Lord,
• 18:30 the glory of the Lord fills the land,
• 18:32 and the nations come streaming, and that's why Israel's
• 18:36 salvation still matters to this day.
• 18:38 That's why the gospel is still to the Jew first.
• 18:41 Israel's salvation will mean life and resurrection
• 18:44 to the entire world.
• 18:47 ♪♪♪
• 18:54 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: My heart is just bursting with enthusiasm.
• 18:58 Such good news.
• 19:01 And I imagine what I'm feeling pales in comparison to what
• 19:05 Jeremiah felt when he wrote it.
• 19:08 In chapter 31,
• 19:10 he reiterates what we've already heard already.
• 19:13 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 19:17 "'The days are coming,
• 19:18 saith the LORD--'" Brit Hadashah.
• 19:21 There's a new covenant.
• 19:23 He says
• 19:24 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 19:27 With the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
• 19:31 He's going to make a new deal.
• 19:34 And what are the constituent parts of that new deal?
• 19:40 You read on.
• 19:41 He says--and it's fascinating.
• 19:44 He says, "And I will write it on their inward parts,
• 19:49 and on their hearts."
• 19:52 What I see in the literature here,
• 19:54 it's explicit.
• 19:55 God says he's going to do something new.
• 19:58 He's going to enter into people and affect a transformation.
• 20:06 And what he does in the process of so doing is something else
• 20:11 that's really worth having a look at.
• 20:16 People are shackled with shame and guilt,
• 20:21 and rightly so on many occasions because people do wrong.
• 20:28 We're told here in the literature,
• 20:29 however, God says
• 20:31 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 20:34 He says, "I will forgive their iniquity,
• 20:40 and I will remember it no more."
• 20:44 Now, contextually, just to go back to Jeremiah's world,
• 20:50 people were flagrant in their disavow of the covenant.
• 20:55 Time and time again, prophets came to warn the people of
• 20:59 Israel and Judah to turn from their ways,
• 21:01 but they would have none of it.
• 21:03 They stiffened their necks.
• 21:05 They turned their back.
• 21:07 They were insistent on their wicked ways.
• 21:12 They would not heed.
• 21:17 The net result was that judgment was forthcoming,
• 21:20 and the prophet gives voice to that over and over again.
• 21:24 While he says that, he doesn't apologize for that.
• 21:30 Why should it be someone needs to apologize for telling someone
• 21:34 they're going to get what they have coming to them.
• 21:36 We all make decisions in life, and what we sow is what we reap.
• 21:42 He said it. He didn't like it.
• 21:43 but that's why I say here I'm sure he's thrilled,
• 21:47 because he knows people are people,
• 21:51 but God is God, and the steadfast love
• 21:55 of the Lord never ceases.
• 21:57 His mercies never come to an end.
• 22:00 Great is his faithfulness.
• 22:03 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 22:05 His mercy endures forever,
• 22:09 from generation to generation.
• 22:13 You might be at a place in your life where you don't
• 22:16 live in Jeremiah's world.
• 22:17 You live in your own, but you can relate to what I'm talking
• 22:19 about, because you're on the guilty-feeling
• 22:22 end of all of this.
• 22:23 I want you to know that God's a gracious God.
• 22:27 He gives us a break.
• 22:29 I'm glad he gave it to me, and I know he'll give it to you,
• 22:33 but you've gotta reach up to him.
• 22:36 Heed this word. It's not even my word.
• 22:38 I have an open Bible here.
• 22:40 I don't want you to get lost in the Hebrew.
• 22:41 It makes sense in the English.
• 22:43 We do the Hebrew because it gives a little more authenticity
• 22:46 to it, to underscore the fact that this good news story takes
• 22:50 place in an Old Testament world.
• 22:52 But I want it to take place in your world.
• 22:54 If you would, please, reach up to God and experience what I'm
• 22:57 talking about right now, and you'll learn,
• 23:00 indeed, there is hope over the horizon.
• 23:03 ♪♪♪
• 23:12 David: There's been a lot of bad news that we've heard in
• 23:13 this series, but I'm so thankful for today's program all about
• 23:17 hope today.
• 23:18 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Indeed.
• 23:19 And goodness, hope is in high demand and short supply in this
• 23:23 world in so many ways.
• 23:25 David: And we need to hear about it even today in our
• 23:27 culture, in our world.
• 23:28 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Yes, and I think that's principally the
• 23:30 message of the gospel.
• 23:32 Paul spoke of the ministry of reconciliation.
• 23:35 He's trying to connect people together
• 23:38 who've been estranged, connect people to God,
• 23:40 who've turned away.
• 23:42 And when those connections are restored, bingo, hope.
• 23:48 Kirsten: And I loved earlier in the program,
• 23:50 you mentioned about the returning of the people,
• 23:52 or the aliyah, to Jerusalem.
• 23:55 They will return to Jerusalem.
• 23:56 But they're also returning, God says,
• 23:59 to a new covenant, and it's such a beautiful picture of grace,
• 24:05 forgiveness, mercy.
• 24:09 It is Yeshua, it is the Messiah in the Old Testament.
• 24:14 He's there, and he's saying, "I want to do something
• 24:16 new in your hearts."
• 24:18 I love that.
• 24:19 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: I'd like to respond but that's so succinct
• 24:21 and profound, I don't know how to add to it,
• 24:23 to tell you the truth.
• 24:24 Kirsten: May I ask you?
• 24:25 Because you're the doctor of theology.
• 24:27 In this new covenant that Jeremiah,
• 24:30 I mean, so long before Messiah came,
• 24:33 talked about of the covenant of, "I'm going to write on your
• 24:36 hearts this new covenant."
• 24:38 He wants to enter into us.
• 24:40 Dare I say we're talking Holy Spirit, yes?
• 24:42 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Yes.
• 24:43 Kirsten: All right, look at that.
• 24:44 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: You can dare to say--
• 24:46 the Holy Spirit didn't just show up in Acts chapter 2.
• 24:48 In Genesis, the first breath, the ruach Elohim
• 24:52 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 24:53 the Spirit of God was moving over the
• 24:55 face of the waters, kapoom, dispelling
• 24:58 [speaking in Hebrew]
• 24:59 the darkness, and bringing forth light.
• 25:02 And God's all about that, from alpha to omega.
• 25:06 Kirsten: You just gave me goosebumps,
• 25:08 because here's this powerful God,
• 25:11 Trinity, that he's saying, "I did that."
• 25:14 I mean he spoke into being this world and moved,
• 25:19 and the amazing thing is he wants
• 25:22 to come into your heart, today.
• 25:24 This powerful being says, "I'm going to write a covenant."
• 25:28 And if you don't know what a covenant is,
• 25:31 look over the Old Testament,
• 25:33 look over the New Testament, right?
• 25:35 There, it's everywhere.
• 25:36 But he says, "I'm going to do a covenant,
• 25:38 and my Holy Spirit is going to come into your life."
• 25:41 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Yes, and the rabbi from Tarsus,
• 25:43 Paul, spoke of this treasure that's deposited
• 25:47 in an earthen vessel.
• 25:49 It really is special what God does for us,
• 25:52 his implanting his person in us, and it's transformative.
• 25:56 The consequences are profound.
• 25:58 David: God called young Jeremiah,
• 26:00 but he's also called us to share that good news in today's world.
• 26:03 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Yes, and I really hope it's gotten into
• 26:05 your heart and head.
• 26:06 Kirsten: Ooh, this is a good way to end the program today.
• 26:08 David: It really is. Kirsten: I'm excited.
• 26:10 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: You know, our ending is all about new
• 26:11 beginnings, but we've gotta go.
• 26:13 And as we go, sha'alu shalom, Yerushalayim.
• 26:16 David: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 26:18 ♪♪♪
• 26:27 ♪♪♪
• 26:37 ♪♪♪
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