Caption transcript for Divine Deliverance: “Abraham” (1/12)

• 00:01 Jeffrey Seif: You need a little help maybe? You're gonna like these next 30 minutes when we look at divine deliverance.
• 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 from
• 00:27 the first Hebrew Avraham to the culmination of salvation
• 00:31 in Messiah himself.
• 00:34 The Lord faithfully intervenes with his...
• 00:38 Divine deliverance.
• 00:41 ♪♪♪
• 00:48 David Hart: Thank you for joining us today
• 00:50 on "Zola Levitt Presents," I'm David Hart.
• 00:51 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Heart. Jeffrey: I'm Jeffery Seif.
• 00:54 David: All of us are excited today to bring you
• 00:56 a brand-new series called "Divine Deliverance,"
• 00:58 and, really, the theme today is all about the journey
• 01:02 of faith, starting with...
• 01:04 Jeffrey: Avraham and going to Yeshua.
• 01:07 That's Abraham and Jesus, but we do it Jewish style
• 01:11 because it's a Jewish book.
• 01:14 So, it's a new story, but it's an old story.
• 01:16 We're just pulling out of the ancient wisdom,
• 01:19 connecting the dots.
• 01:20 Kirsten: Old and New Testament, all Jewish.
• 01:23 That's what we believe here on "Zola Levitt Presents"
• 01:26 and the message of divine deliverance is yours
• 01:30 that you wanna bring to us.
• 01:32 Jeffrey: Well, we need a little help from some friends.
• 01:35 You know, I'm all for counseling and therapy and all the rest,
• 01:39 but we need divine intervention in circumstance.
• 01:42 You may need this in your life to help you facilitate,
• 01:46 to help you leverage heaven's help for life's assorted hurts.
• 01:51 David: I just said this a minute ago.
• 01:52 I think it's a journey. It's not all perfect.
• 01:55 We're gonna hear about that today.
• 01:57 Kirsten: And something that "Zola Levitt Presents"
• 01:59 is known for are our dramatic reenactments.
• 02:03 They're filmed with Israeli actors in Israel.
• 02:06 Ken Berg, our producer, has done this for years.
• 02:08 You get to experience the Bible through actors that bring
• 02:13 to life the story of Abraham, Avraham.
• 02:17 Today here is part of his journey.
• 02:22 ♪♪♪
• 03:29 ♪♪♪
• 03:39 announcer: It had been a long journey starting in Ur,
• 03:43 and Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son,
• 03:48 and they followed the banks of the Euphrates River,
• 03:52 migrating northwest past Babylon to Haran.
• 03:57 And now heading south into Canaan, Abram stops in Bethel,
• 04:02 where he builds an altar and calls upon the Lord.
• 04:06 ♪♪♪
• 05:00 Jeffrey: It says in Bereshit, Genesis,
• 05:02 "Vayomer Adonai el-Avram lekh-lekha."
• 05:06 "Vayomer," and he said.
• 05:07 "Adonai," the Lord.
• 05:09 "El-Avram," to Abram.
• 05:11 "Lekh-lekha," go, go.
• 05:14 And with that Avram left the place, and he went to a place.
• 05:20 The word "Hebrew," by the way, comes from the word "ebreu,"
• 05:22 which means "beyond the river."
• 05:25 He was prompted to take a journey and in so doing
• 05:28 became the father of all who take a journey by faith.
• 05:32 ♪♪♪
• 05:38 Jeffrey: In so many ways like him, we who walk by faith
• 05:43 roll the dice against an uncertain future.
• 05:46 I say that because Avram went to a world he knew not of, hadn't
• 05:51 been there before, driven, in effect, by an impulse,
• 05:56 an impulse that prompted him to begin, in so many ways,
• 06:01 the story of deliverance.
• 06:05 God's plan interestingly inhabits the mind and the heart
• 06:09 of a man, and he's beckoned to go forth and inhabit
• 06:14 and develop a nation, a specific place.
• 06:17 It's interesting, it seems to me.
• 06:19 Again, it's a popular text in Genesis 12.
• 06:23 The Lord says to him, "Get going.
• 06:25 Go out from your land."
• 06:27 You go out from a place, which is very, very, very hard to do.
• 06:33 We tend to hold on to security.
• 06:36 Throwing the dice against an uncertain future, taking leave
• 06:39 and going on a journey is an act, particularly in a time in
• 06:44 the ancient world where the average person didn't travel
• 06:46 75 miles from their place of birth in the course
• 06:50 of a lifetime.
• 06:52 Imagine that.
• 06:54 It's hard to retroject back into the ancient world,
• 06:57 because we get around, we travel,
• 06:59 but Avraham took that leap.
• 07:03 He goes to a place he doesn't have kinfolk.
• 07:05 We don't have pre-established webs of relationship.
• 07:08 What do we have?
• 07:10 We have a voice, and that voice beckons him onward.
• 07:15 People talk about the call of God.
• 07:18 We hear that vocatio, in Latin, the voice,
• 07:22 and it's where we get the word "vocation."
• 07:25 We feel inclined to do something with our life
• 07:27 because we hear a voice.
• 07:30 What's interesting, by the way, we hear God leading Avraham to
• 07:34 a place, to some space, but we see, as well,
• 07:38 in the literature that Avraham erects a mizbeach in Hebrew,
• 07:43 and altar, we call it.
• 07:46 It's interesting in the world today and popular English we
• 07:49 talk about altar calls, you know, being called to the altar,
• 07:54 and we think that's just classical Christian language.
• 07:56 Well, to be sure it is language of deliverance that is employed
• 08:02 in a Christian context, but what if, like so much else of what
• 08:07 we call Christian, what if we have roots in the Jews?
• 08:14 "Zola Levitt Presents."
• 08:15 We're all about looking at the good news through the eyes of
• 08:18 the Jews and here we begin the story of deliverance by noting
• 08:22 a man who hears God's voice.
• 08:26 His life and circumstances are transformed in the process,
• 08:31 and he goes on a journey, and he finds an altar along the way.
• 08:36 May that not just be his story,
• 08:40 but may it be our story as well.
• 08:47 announcer: And the Lord said unto Abram, "Lift up thine eyes
• 08:52 and look from the place where thou art: northward
• 08:56 and southward and eastward and westward.
• 09:01 For all the land which thou seest,
• 09:04 to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever."
• 09:10 ♪♪♪
• 09:20 ♪♪♪
• 09:44 ♪♪♪
• 09:51 Jeffrey: Secular people have trouble, understandably so,
• 09:55 with the language "and God told me."
• 09:57 I mean, is he yelling from heaven?
• 09:59 What does that actually mean?
• 10:01 Those that hear the voice of God, do the eardrums vibrate?
• 10:05 The word "secular" comes from a Latin word meaning "of this
• 10:07 age," and I understand that there can be trouble with
• 10:10 understanding what the Jews referred to as bat kol,
• 10:15 the daughter of the voice, or to use New Testament language,
• 10:19 that still, small voice.
• 10:22 Well, the secular people have trouble with that, but religious
• 10:27 people have trouble with this.
• 10:31 When we look in the Bible people have an understanding of walking
• 10:36 by faith, yes, but here it's, "To go to the land that I
• 10:41 will show you," he says at the end of the verse.
• 10:44 He says--the Lord says that "I will show you a particular
• 10:48 place," land specifically.
• 10:53 People of faith, of the Christian faith, have trouble
• 10:56 understanding that when we read the Hebrew Bible there is
• 11:00 a territorial dimension to it.
• 11:04 What do I mean by that?
• 11:06 Well, nevermind me on the front end.
• 11:08 Professor W. D. Davies at Duke University spoke
• 11:11 of the territorial dimension to the Old Testament promise.
• 11:16 That Avraham is promised a place, land, boundaries,
• 11:22 whereas by way of contradistinction
• 11:24 to the newer testament believers are told that we get
• 11:27 our reward--the place that we're led to is in heaven.
• 11:30 That our commonwealth is there, but we look in the Hebrew Bible,
• 11:34 the commonwealth is here to an actual place, to a space.
• 11:40 People that have trouble with that, I think, would do well to
• 11:44 consider that even if you don't understand it we should abide
• 11:47 it, because it is so very explicit in the literature,
• 11:52 which is one reason why it makes no sense to me to argue that
• 11:56 the Jews were not given the Promised Land,
• 11:58 because it's so very, very explicit.
• 12:01 It's not tacit. It's not inferred.
• 12:04 It is explicit.
• 12:06 Beyond that, another reason why it doesn't make sense to me,
• 12:09 is the truth of the matter is redemption has to inhabit space.
• 12:15 God shows himself in the world by what he does in the world so
• 12:20 people can see his power and purpose is attested through
• 12:25 what he does with the people in a land.
• 12:28 It's not just lofty religious principles and for those that
• 12:32 might have trouble with that, and I know that a lot of people
• 12:35 who name the name of the Lord do, it's the same that's true
• 12:38 in the newer testament.
• 12:40 That is to say the Holy Spirit enters into a person
• 12:45 and makes God's will and ways known through
• 12:49 what the divine inhabits.
• 12:52 People can see deliverance from someone who's been delivered.
• 12:55 Explicitly the Lord says in the Johnian Gospel,
• 12:58 "The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound
• 13:01 of it, but you don't know whence it goes
• 13:03 or whether it goes.
• 13:05 So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
• 13:08 We can see that by virtue of God taking residence in, people can
• 13:14 see transformation power, a kind of newness and be beckoned,
• 13:20 perhaps, to seek out the source themselves.
• 13:26 We live in a world today where there are so many problems.
• 13:29 It's such a bad-news world.
• 13:30 The question is, is there any good news?
• 13:33 Can God do something in the world?
• 13:36 We do well to tell our story of what he's done in our world,
• 13:40 what he's led us to, and we give voice to that,
• 13:44 and we tell people, "The God who led me,
• 13:47 the God who saved me, the God who delivered me,
• 13:51 the God who is manifest in the earth and in my earth,
• 13:54 you know what?
• 13:56 He can show himself powerful in yours."
• 14:00 ♪♪♪
• 14:09 announcer: Our resource this week, the DVD
• 14:11 "Abraham: Father of Faith."
• 14:14 This eight-part series tells the story of the patriarch through
• 14:16 drama and teaching at the actual biblical sights.
• 14:20 "Abraham: Father of Faith."
• 14:22 He left with all he had for a land unknown.
• 14:25 Nothing could stop him.
• 14:27 "In thee all nations shall be blessed."
• 14:30 God had spoken and there was no turning back.
• 14:33 This series also includes riveting interviews that
• 14:36 illustrate the seamless connection with the Promised
• 14:39 Land to the descendants of Abraham and Isaac.
• 14:42 Call 1-800-WONDERS and ask for "Abraham: Father of Faith."
• 14:50 male: Our founder, Zola Levitt,
• 14:51 established this ministry in 1979.
• 14:54 Today we continue bringing you the good news of Messiah
• 14:58 and the truth about Israel via television, our newsletter,
• 15:02 and the internet.
• 15:04 If you believe that this Bible-teaching ministry is
• 15:07 worthy of your assistance, then please call us
• 15:10 at 1-800-WONDERS or visit us at levitt.com.
• 15:15 We sincerely appreciate your prayers
• 15:17 and your financial support.
• 15:21 David: We have been bringing you series for the last
• 15:23 40 years, and we have so many more biblical series
• 15:26 that we wanna bring to you, and we cannot do that
• 15:29 without your financial support.
• 15:30 We just wanna say thank you today, and we would love
• 15:33 for you to support Zola Levitt Ministries.
• 15:35 Right now let's go back to our dramatic reenactment
• 15:38 and teaching from Dr. Seif.
• 15:42 announcer: "After these things the word of the Lord came
• 15:44 unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram:
• 15:50 I am thy shield.
• 15:52 Your reward will be exceedingly great."
• 16:42 ♪♪♪
• 16:50 Jeffrey: She wasn't a happy camper now, was she?
• 16:55 I get it.
• 16:57 Truth be known, things didn't seem to be working out.
• 17:02 It's embarrassing, too, to have a husband whose name is
• 17:04 "father of the nation," but he doesn't seem to be
• 17:08 getting on with the nation-making business.
• 17:13 In Antiquity particularly the women would have
• 17:16 borne scorn for that.
• 17:18 It would be construed as some kind of curse.
• 17:19 "Why is she getting in the way of all this?"
• 17:21 all things being equal.
• 17:24 Blessing is attested, among other things, through bearing
• 17:28 children and year after year she came up with nothing.
• 17:36 We're told in verse 15--chapter 15, rather, the Lord comes
• 17:41 to Avram in a vision, and people that have trouble
• 17:45 with Abraham hearing God's voice similarly can say,
• 17:50 "What do you mean he had a vision?
• 17:51 This is stuff that people are in mental hospital wards,
• 17:55 for hearing voices and seeing visions."
• 17:59 I should say, by the way, not that I feel particularly
• 18:01 compelled to offer an apologetic for that, if you look at Jesus,
• 18:05 he was a storyteller and stories, in effect,
• 18:08 cast visions on the mind.
• 18:10 They paint on the mind so people can see.
• 18:13 Now, he has a vision wherein he hears the Lord saying,
• 18:18 "Don't fear."
• 18:20 And he says, "I will be your great reward."
• 18:24 It's very interesting.
• 18:26 Well, Avraham is promised that there will, in effect,
• 18:30 be a payday.
• 18:32 That is, that things are going to work out.
• 18:36 It might not seem so, but God's power is made manifest
• 18:42 in human weakness.
• 18:45 He's beckoned out.
• 18:46 He looks at the heavens. Majestic are they.
• 18:50 City dwellers don't see 'em so much.
• 18:52 Everything is just obfuscated.
• 18:54 It's hidden behind clouds and smog.
• 18:57 Well, Avraham is out there, and he hears that voice
• 19:03 and that voice says, "So will your descendants be,"
• 19:09 as big as all of that.
• 19:13 And what happens?
• 19:14 We're told that Avraham, he believed it.
• 19:18 Now, the word in Hebrew is the word "ahmein,"
• 19:22 and church folk say, "Amen, brother.
• 19:24 You know, that's good preaching."
• 19:26 I think that's true and oftentimes to say amen
• 19:29 to something is, "Yes, that's my understanding, amen?
• 19:32 I believe that doctrine. I believe that truth."
• 19:36 We'll say amen to that, but this isn't just believing a doctrine.
• 19:41 This is believing at the core.
• 19:44 You know, faith is the assurance of things hoped for.
• 19:48 It's the conviction of things not seen.
• 19:53 A lot of times people think that faith and promises,
• 19:55 all that is the stuff of younger people.
• 19:58 These guys have been on social security for a few years by now,
• 20:03 or they have their AARP card.
• 20:06 Sometimes as we get older--and I'm 62.
• 20:09 I'm talking about myself, not you.
• 20:11 We tend to think that God's promises and blessings and
• 20:14 newness, it comes to the young.
• 20:17 Well, if that's what you're thinking, consider that even
• 20:21 for you God can conceivably have a reward.
• 20:27 What happened here is Avraham believed that.
• 20:30 He amened it in Hebrew.
• 20:33 He said amen and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
• 20:38 There is another Hebrew word for that: tzedakah, to be righteous.
• 20:43 There is something cleansing, there is something religious,
• 20:47 there is something noteworthy when someone lays hold
• 20:52 of the promise and they believe it.
• 20:54 It clears away the clouds.
• 20:56 Oh, friends, would it be that we walk by faith and not by
• 21:02 circumstance, and we then can enter into the hall of fame.
• 21:06 The author of Hebrews speaks of the faith walkers, an army,
• 21:10 and Abraham and his wife Sarah are there in the list
• 21:14 and may we join them and be part of the great
• 21:17 cloud of testimonies that give voice to the fact that God
• 21:20 is in the world, and he brings about deliverance.
• 21:27 David: This is the first out of 12 programs that we have
• 21:29 for you on this series, and Dr. Seif, there is so much
• 21:33 that we will present in this series.
• 21:35 Tell us what's going on.
• 21:37 Jeffrey: Well, from Abraham to Yeshua, you know, bookending
• 21:39 the Bible, let me tell you what really resonated with me
• 21:43 and let me tell you this is a look at major Bible moments.
• 21:50 This is Cecil B. DeMille on steroids.
• 21:55 He just took the Exodus key moment.
• 21:58 We're bringing all of it to life, dramatic vignettes,
• 22:02 resurrecting stories all over the Bible,
• 22:06 the key moments of deliverance.
• 22:08 I got excited when we all were conversating about what next
• 22:13 for "Zola Levitt Presents."
• 22:15 I thought this is one that is really gonna
• 22:18 hit pay-dirt spiritually.
• 22:20 Kirsten: I agree and the wonderful thing about this
• 22:22 program, probably why you're watching, is we talk about our
• 22:26 faith, our Christian faith, but the Jewish roots,
• 22:30 and Avraham, Avram, Abraham was the very first Jew.
• 22:35 He was the very first Hebrew ever.
• 22:37 Jeffrey: Yes, he was.
• 22:39 Kirsten: We start with him, right?
• 22:41 Jeffrey: Yes, and what that Jew did is he rolled the dice
• 22:45 against an uncertain future, and it can seem on so many ways,
• 22:50 on so many days in our own lives, you know,
• 22:53 we're facing the darkness.
• 22:55 We're facing uncertainty.
• 22:57 More than just that, though, he took a step into the darkness,
• 23:03 walking with God, and guess what?
• 23:05 Everything turned out fine with him.
• 23:08 I think it can turn out pretty good with us too.
• 23:10 David: That's right, so he was the first that we talk about.
• 23:12 Who else will be in this series?
• 23:14 Jeffrey: Oh my goodness. Key moments.
• 23:16 We go Avraham. We look at Moses.
• 23:18 We look at David. We look at prophets.
• 23:21 We look at Jesus. It's a virtual who's who.
• 23:25 It's the Hollywood star of fame walk,
• 23:28 and along redemption road we'll look at the noteworthies,
• 23:33 always through Jewish eyes,
• 23:36 but pointing ahead to deliverance in Jesus
• 23:40 and letting people know it's not just a story about back then.
• 23:44 It's a story about today.
• 23:46 David: You sound kind of excited about this.
• 23:47 I think you might be.
• 23:49 Jeffrey: You know, and it really is enthusiastic.
• 23:50 I'm not just ramping it up because I'm in a television
• 23:52 studio, truth be known, and I'm a Bible teacher,
• 23:55 a seminary professor, and this stuff has just--I mean,
• 23:59 I think it will be the best.
• 24:01 A series that I did before on Eden was the best
• 24:03 that I ever did in my own estimation.
• 24:05 This is the best that we ever did.
• 24:07 I mean, it's just everything is in there.
• 24:09 Kirsten: It's what we do here on "Zola Levitt Presents."
• 24:12 We present the gospel, the Jewish roots of our Christianity
• 24:16 and our faith, and we have so much more to come.
• 24:19 Stay with us.
• 24:23 announcer: For insightful perspectives on Israel and Bible
• 24:26 prophecy ask for our free monthly newsletter,
• 24:30 "The Levitt Letter."
• 24:31 At levitt.com you can read the newsletter,
• 24:34 watch the TV program, or visit our online store.
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• 24:42 Come with us on a tour of Israel or Petra or a cruise
• 24:46 to Greece and Ephesus.
• 24:48 Please contact us for more information.
• 24:53 Kirsten: I think we've told you before that a tour to the
• 24:56 Holy Land will change your life.
• 24:58 One of my favorite parts of a tour, if you know me at all,
• 25:01 is the food, and I tell everyone when we're at the buffets that
• 25:05 we eat every day, I say, "Do you know why
• 25:07 the food tastes so good?
• 25:09 Because you're literally eating fulfilled prophecy."
• 25:13 Where else in the world can you do that?
• 25:15 Isaiah 35 talks about the desert blooming, and it's blooming
• 25:19 with produce and the food of the Holy Land.
• 25:22 Go with us.
• 25:24 Your life will be changed forever.
• 25:26 Now, let's go to some music by our founder, Zola Levitt.
• 25:32 ♪ Out of the wilderness into your light. ♪
• 25:36 ♪ You have called me to walk in your way. ♪
• 25:40 ♪♪♪
• 25:48 ♪ Lord, it's never easy. ♪
• 25:50 ♪ No road in sight. ♪
• 25:53 ♪ Steps I take believing every day. ♪
• 25:57 ♪♪♪
• 26:05 ♪ And down to my children of all generations. ♪
• 26:10 ♪ Everlasting Israel is our home. ♪
• 26:15 ♪♪♪
• 26:25 ♪♪♪
• 26:32 Jeffrey: My jaw dropped when Kirsten spoke about
• 26:35 eating fulfilled Bible prophecy.
• 26:39 That's what it's like having a meal in Israel.
• 26:42 Opening up the Bible, we're eating fulfilled
• 26:44 Bible prophecy in this series.
• 26:46 Kirsten: Right, and it satisfies our soul.
• 26:49 It fills us up, and it gives us energy and strength to go
• 26:52 on our journey, just like we learned Abraham
• 26:55 went on his journey today.
• 26:57 Jeffrey: David, is she always that profound?
• 26:59 David: She's pretty good. Kirsten: Oh, thank you.
• 27:01 David: She teaches me sometimes.
• 27:03 Jeffrey: Oh, there we go.
• 27:04 Well, girl, you hit pay-dirt on that one, and there is more
• 27:07 good insights to come from the both of you.
• 27:10 We'll have to do it another time.
• 27:12 As you go now, sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim.
• 27:17 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 27:21 male announcer: Our monthly newsletter, "The Levitt Letter,"
• 27:23 is free and full of insightful articles and news commentary
• 27:27 from a messianic perspective.
• 27:29 Visit levitt.com to find our newsletter,
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• 27:37 female announcer: Don't forget to order this week's
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• 27:52 female announcer: Thanks again for joining us this week.
• 27:54 Zola Levitt Ministries and this television program depend
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• 28:04 ♪♪♪
• 28:14 ♪♪♪
• 28:21 ♪♪♪
• 28:25 male announcer: This has been a paid program brought to you
• 28:27 by Zola Levitt Ministries.