Caption transcript for Divine Deliverance: “Ruth” (6/12)

• 00:01 Jeffrey Seif: If I was
• 00:03 holding up a newspaper, I'd say, "Extra, extra!
• 00:05 Read all about it!"
• 00:07 This is a cover story.
• 00:08 It's an exclusive and the headliner goes something
• 00:11 like this.
• 00:13 If you look at all the Bible's major redemptive characters,
• 00:17 not all of them are men.
• 00:21 Off we go now to one of the more famous women in
• 00:24 the Hebrew Bible.
• 00:27 ♪♪♪
• 00:32 male announcer: From the beginning, our Creator revealed
• 00:35 his will to the common man.
• 00:38 Individuals listened to his call and responded in obedience, from
• 00:44 the first Hebrew Avraham to the culmination of salvation in
• 00:48 Messiah himself, the Lord faithfully intervenes with his
• 00:55 divine deliverance.
• 00:58 ♪♪♪
• 01:04 David Hart: Thank you for joining us today on
• 01:06 "Zola Levitt Presents."
• 01:07 I'm David Hart.
• 01:08 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 01:10 Jeffrey: Jeffrey Seif.
• 01:11 David: Today we're in the middle of our series,
• 01:12 "Divine Deliverance."
• 01:14 We've been talking about heroes of the Bible, and today
• 01:15 we're talking about Ruth.
• 01:17 Is she a hero?
• 01:18 Jeffrey: A beautiful story of loyalty.
• 01:20 It all began there, loyalty to a mother-in-law.
• 01:25 Kirsten: Which is rare.
• 01:26 Jeffrey: In today's economy, yes.
• 01:28 Well, loyalty--anyone sticking with anyone in today's economy
• 01:32 is a rare story, never mind a mother-in-law.
• 01:37 Kirsten: And this--she is mentioned in the lineage
• 01:40 of Jesus, so she's very important in the Bible.
• 01:43 Jeffrey: Yes.
• 01:44 Kirsten: "Where you go, I'll go.
• 01:46 Where you stay, I'll stay," is one of the famous lines that
• 01:48 we know of from Ruth.
• 01:50 Now here's the story of Ruth and Naomi, followed by teaching
• 01:53 with Dr. Seif.
• 01:57 narrator: Grief-stricken by the death of her husband
• 01:59 and two sons, Naomi's return to Bethlehem has not been
• 02:04 a pleasant one.
• 02:06 Her daughters-in-law have accompanied her and offered
• 02:09 their support, but it all seems so hopeless.
• 02:17 [speaking Hebrew]
• 03:11 ♪♪♪
• 03:48 [speaking Hebrew]
• 04:29 Jeffrey: What's particularly important to me is the dramatic
• 04:33 tension between those women.
• 04:35 But before getting to it, I wanna speak to the backdrop of
• 04:39 it, something I think we can all relate to, and that is sometimes
• 04:42 when family economies go bad, it sets in motion all kinds of
• 04:48 tension, problems, and movements.
• 04:51 The family was in Moab, modern Jordan,
• 04:54 and things just dried up.
• 04:56 Things weren't good.
• 04:58 There was death. There was tragedy.
• 05:00 They came to Moab originally because there was a famine
• 05:03 in Bethlehem.
• 05:05 That's why Naomi and the family went, but things have improved.
• 05:08 The backdrop to our story now is a woman, a Hebrew woman,
• 05:12 an Israelite, who's returning to the homeland.
• 05:15 And interestingly, an Arab woman comes with her.
• 05:20 It's a beautiful story of family loyalty, and I like it too
• 05:26 because we're looking at a woman, Ruth, whose beauty,
• 05:32 whose loyalty to her mother-in-law--you know,
• 05:35 mothers-in-law are subjected to a lot of jokes, and the God's
• 05:37 honest truth, I've told one or two, but here there's a woman
• 05:42 who is so connected to her mother-in-law.
• 05:45 Naomi is going back to Bethlehem to face an uncertain future.
• 05:48 She doesn't really know what the outcome's going to be.
• 05:52 And neither does Ruth, but just Ruth is so loyal.
• 05:55 And that sterling virtue that she possesses, Ruth possesses,
• 05:59 has left such a mark on the language that to be
• 06:03 without virtue is said to be, quote, ruthless.
• 06:06 I like the story in the text in chapter 1, verse 16, in Hebrew,
• 06:12 "Ki el asher, telechi elek," "Where you go, I will go."
• 06:23 And she stuck with mom, and you know what?
• 06:27 She experienced a future that was beyond her wildest dreams.
• 06:34 A lot of people are driven by circumstance, and to be sure,
• 06:38 circumstance is driving this.
• 06:40 Depravation is driving this.
• 06:42 Lack of income, lack of work drove the family, Naomi, and her
• 06:46 husband, and sons, to Moab, away from the promised land.
• 06:50 And then abysmal circumstances in Moab, modern Jordan,
• 06:55 drove 'em back.
• 06:57 And it's interesting, the drivers behind the story are
• 07:03 difficulties and human affairs that we all face, but what
• 07:06 fascinates me is how redemption and deliverance emerges
• 07:13 from this.
• 07:16 When we think of deliverance, we think of kings, generals,
• 07:20 and saviors.
• 07:22 I get that, but here there's a story of deliverance coming not
• 07:27 through power, not through pomp, but through peasantry.
• 07:31 You saw the tattered robes of these women.
• 07:34 They're not wearing fancy regalia.
• 07:36 They're just wearing the inner beauty of a beautiful
• 07:41 inner disposition.
• 07:43 And out of that, God is going to bring forth the woman who is
• 07:47 gonna give birth to the Savior of Israel, not just in
• 07:51 a spiritual sense, as in Jesus, because Ruth is mentioned
• 07:57 in his genealogy, but similarly to the line of David.
• 08:02 It's a great story and it's a story that we're gonna attend.
• 08:09 narrator: So Boaz took Ruth as his wife.
• 08:16 ♪♪♪
• 08:55 narrator: And the Lord blessed them with a son.
• 09:08 Jeffrey: Truth be known, I almost hate to interrupt
• 09:12 the drama or to come out of it because the teaching is so much
• 09:16 in the pictures.
• 09:18 It's such a beautiful story of finding love at the ragged
• 09:23 edge of life.
• 09:24 Boaz is gonna be dead in short order and Ruth is going to go on
• 09:29 and bring forth a line that's gonna facilitate in a material
• 09:35 and spiritual sense the salvation,
• 09:38 the deliverance of Israel.
• 09:40 It's a beautiful story, and just finding love itself
• 09:43 is a beautiful story.
• 09:45 Just finding blessing.
• 09:47 You know, Ruth, it's this rags to riches story.
• 09:52 It's this from being unemployed and getting a great job.
• 09:57 Anyone that's experienced the contrast can relate.
• 10:00 And if what you're experiencing right now is depravation, not
• 10:04 resolution, well it holds out hope in the biblical text
• 10:09 that life can turn around, and it does.
• 10:13 Oftentimes we go down the aisle when we're married and we say,
• 10:18 "I do," but the first "I do" or the first "I will"
• 10:21 wasn't a transaction between Ruth and Boaz.
• 10:28 It was between someone else.
• 10:31 In chapter 3, verse 5, I'll give it to you first in the Hebrew,
• 10:35 "Kol asher tom'ri elai e'eseh."
• 10:40 It translates, "Ruth said to her,
• 10:43 'I will do everything you say.'"
• 10:48 The advice was given through Naomi, the
• 10:52 mother-in-law, "Listen honey, I wanna give you some advice."
• 10:58 And there's a younger woman who's minded to abide it.
• 11:01 Now, that in and of itself, by the way, is a message for today
• 11:05 where the young tend to press against the previous generation.
• 11:09 It's all about autonomy, and younger people
• 11:12 are less inclined.
• 11:14 I know for me with my boys, the way to not see a relationship
• 11:17 get started is for me to advise it.
• 11:20 How could I possibly be right in these affairs?
• 11:24 But here, there's a story of a woman who says, "Honey, listen
• 11:29 to me," and a little matchmaker going on, but good things
• 11:34 came from that.
• 11:38 I believe that God has great plans for our lives, and there
• 11:42 could be some that are listening that are
• 11:44 experiencing depravation.
• 11:47 This story began by depravation in Bethlehem, so they went
• 11:52 to Moab, modern Jordan.
• 11:55 Depravation and tragedy in Jordan, so they go back
• 11:58 with little more than the ragged clothes on their back.
• 12:01 They go back to Bethlehem to face an uncertain future.
• 12:04 And here's this woman, Ruth.
• 12:06 Folk could've said, "Oh, here's this Arab woman.
• 12:09 What's she doing here?"
• 12:10 or whatever, but it's not a racist culture.
• 12:12 And by the way, Jews are not racist people as a rule of
• 12:14 thumb, contrary to popular misconception.
• 12:18 But it's a story where you could say these women have it all
• 12:22 stacked against them.
• 12:24 They're acted upon forces beyond their control that tend to be
• 12:27 more negative than positive, but you know what?
• 12:30 God can pull the rabbit out of the hat, make the miracle
• 12:33 to happen.
• 12:35 He did and he does.
• 12:38 Great things to come in Ruth's life through this wonderful son
• 12:43 that was born through this miracle-made union,
• 12:47 a match made in heaven.
• 12:51 announcer: Our offer on this program, the DVD, "Ruth: Your
• 12:55 People Shall Be My People," shot on location in Israel.
• 13:00 Miles and Katherine provide some wonderful insights regarding
• 13:02 one of the Bible's all-time heroines.
• 13:06 Ruth forsakes her own land and people in Moab and joins her
• 13:09 Jewish mother-in-law on an extraordinary journey
• 13:13 that brings hope and redemption to all.
• 13:16 A love story for the ages.
• 13:18 Eight programs on two DVDs.
• 13:21 Cal 1-800-WONDERS and ask for the DVD, "Ruth: Your People
• 13:26 Shall Be My People."
• 13:30 male: Hi, thanks for watching "Zola Levitt Presents."
• 13:33 You know, besides our television program, you can also reach us
• 13:36 at levitt.com, as well as following us on
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• 13:42 And of course, we'd love to receive your mail.
• 13:44 And as always, you can call us.
• 13:47 We'd love to hear your voice at 1-800-WONDERS.
• 13:50 And don't forget, your donations are what enable us
• 13:53 to keep going.
• 13:55 Thank you so much.
• 13:59 Jeffrey: Appreciate all of you that care to keep us
• 14:02 on the air.
• 14:04 It means a lot, and I know that the Lord has a way of visiting
• 14:08 you with special blessings as you look to be
• 14:11 a blessing to others.
• 14:13 That in fact dovetails with the story of the day.
• 14:17 There's Ruth, who's minded to be a blessing.
• 14:20 And it turns out the greatest blessing in the world comes
• 14:25 through her for the world as she stands as a matriarch
• 14:30 for the messianic line.
• 14:32 God's got great plans for people who go out of their way to plan
• 14:37 to bless other people.
• 14:39 We're gonna enter into a world now where women are so thrilled
• 14:42 to see new life that's come and the hand of God in the making.
• 14:53 narrator: Naomi's life has completely changed.
• 14:57 Once overcome by despair at the loss of her husband and two
• 15:00 sons, she's found new hope in the birth of Ruth's son, and the
• 15:04 women of Bethlehem are equally delighted.
• 15:09 [speaking Hebrew]
• 15:49 narrator: There's reason for celebration here
• 15:51 at the city's gate.
• 15:52 A once tragic story has miraculously turned
• 15:57 for the good.
• 15:59 Heartbroken at the loss of her family while in Moab,
• 16:02 Naomi has returned with her daughter-in-law Ruth and become
• 16:07 a vital chapter in the love story for the ages.
• 16:13 Ruth, ever faithful to Naomi and the God of Israel, has gained
• 16:18 a loving redeemer in Boaz.
• 16:21 And now on a little road in Bethlehem of Judah, they rejoice
• 16:27 over the son of Ruth and Boaz.
• 16:31 And they name the child Obed, meaning "Servant of God."
• 16:37 Obed would become the father of Jesse, and Jesse would become
• 16:41 the father of David, king of all Israel.
• 16:47 Rejoice they should, and it's just begun here in this
• 16:53 little town of Bethlehem.
• 16:57 Jeffrey: Moving drama, is it not?
• 17:01 Great story to be sure, and the Bible is full of that.
• 17:05 People that are just pushed to the ragged edge, but God
• 17:09 brings beauty out of ashes.
• 17:13 It so fascinates me how deliverance comes through
• 17:17 very difficult circumstances.
• 17:19 And it happens on more than one occasion and it's facilitated
• 17:23 through women in the Bible, interestingly, women that are
• 17:27 tortured by lack of success, mothering problems, birthing
• 17:31 problems I should say, and so forth, but God has a way.
• 17:38 Here we're told, as we noted when we saw it visually depicted
• 17:42 in chapter 4, verse 16, that Naomi, the mother-in-law, took
• 17:46 the child, and held the child, and then all her neighbors are
• 17:50 coming and doting on the child.
• 17:54 Little did they know how special the child would be.
• 17:59 There's a tradition in the Jewish world, by the way, when
• 18:02 boys are born to say, "And this one might be the Messiah."
• 18:05 Well, truth be known, this one was giving birth
• 18:10 to the lineage here.
• 18:11 This woman, Ruth, was holding Obed, whose name is "Servant."
• 18:16 We're told in verse 18, it begins, "Eleh tol dot,"
• 18:21 "These are the generations."
• 18:25 And by the way, the same kind of context and the same kind of
• 18:28 words are the opening words of the ultimate deliverance story
• 18:33 in the Bible, in Matthew chapter 1, verse 1, "Sefer toldot
• 18:41 ha-Yeshua ha-Mashiach, Ben-David, Ben-Avraham."
• 18:44 "The book of the genealogies," or the book of the generations,
• 18:47 "of Jesus the Messiah," Ben David, "the son of David,"
• 18:53 Ben-Avraham," the son of Abraham.
• 18:56 In as much as the Ruth text speaks of the beginning of
• 19:01 generativity, here you can see where this all points to.
• 19:06 It's interesting, by the way.
• 19:08 In the genealogies of Yeshua in the newer testament, there are
• 19:13 a number of women who are participants in the drama.
• 19:17 They're named.
• 19:18 And Tamar is named, she was a woman blacklisted in effect.
• 19:23 Judah, her father-in-law, disrespected her, and he had
• 19:26 wicked sons who died and he blamed the woman.
• 19:29 And she however is going to, through interesting
• 19:33 circumstances, give birth to a son.
• 19:35 She's in the line.
• 19:36 Ruth is noted in the line as well, and she is a Jordanian.
• 19:42 She had a Jordanian passport, an Arab woman if you will,
• 19:45 a beautiful woman.
• 19:46 And Bathsheba is noted, who was married to a man from Turkey.
• 19:53 I say that because Uriah the Hittite, if you look where the
• 19:57 Hittites frequented, were on the Anatolian Peninsula, Asia Minor,
• 20:01 modern Turkey.
• 20:03 There's lots of interesting people in the drama.
• 20:05 I don't think God's a racist and I don't think you find that
• 20:08 in the Hebrew Bible.
• 20:09 You find in the lineage of Yeshua a lot of people from the
• 20:12 region that have come together to give birth to
• 20:15 the king of the Jews.
• 20:16 In fact, it's interesting, for my money, even when you look
• 20:19 at the Matthean text, the Gospel of Matthew, the first to
• 20:22 acknowledge Yeshua are not women and men of Jewish extract.
• 20:26 It never says there were three wise men that came, that's just
• 20:29 a tradition, but the fact that they came with gold,
• 20:32 frankincense, and myrrh attest to them being what we'd call
• 20:36 Arabic traders.
• 20:37 These are commodities that were moved around on dromedaries,
• 20:40 on camels, by Arab peoples.
• 20:43 It was a major trade in that part of the world.
• 20:45 It's a beautiful story about estranged Arab cousins coming to
• 20:49 worship he who is King of the Jews.
• 20:53 Deliverance is fascinating, lots of surprises, yes?
• 20:57 It's a rhetorical question when I say, "Yes?"
• 21:01 I'm kind of asking, but I think I know the answer to it,
• 21:03 and I hope that you know the answer too.
• 21:08 We're looking at the drama of the ages as found in the pages
• 21:11 and we're tracing the story of deliverance, how it came
• 21:15 through this book and I hope it came to you.
• 21:20 David: All of us at this desk have been a part of church
• 21:23 ministry for years, and I just gotta say, I'm thankful for a
• 21:26 wife that has been obedient, I guess is the word, following me
• 21:30 when I'm called to a different city and ministry, and that's
• 21:33 happened quite a bit in my life.
• 21:35 I guess that's kind of our theme today of following.
• 21:38 Jeffrey: Well, certainly that's the case with Ruth, but
• 21:41 to your point, it's amazing what we guys put our women
• 21:44 through whether we're called to the ministry or not.
• 21:48 They go on a journey with us, in the process of which they lose
• 21:51 their figures to having children with us, they spend their--not
• 21:56 that you have done that, but the point is they lose their youth
• 22:01 and lose a certain amount of control.
• 22:03 A male is a powerful creature and a woman attaches to that
• 22:08 and goes down the road.
• 22:10 My goodness, the implication for a woman's life are profound.
• 22:14 You think?
• 22:15 Kirsten: It is, but where you go--I mean, I know it's
• 22:18 Ruth's saying, but where he goes, I will go.
• 22:20 Where you stay, I will stay, but that's because we're
• 22:25 in a marriage together and that kind of bond.
• 22:28 So what is amazing about Ruth is to her mother-in-law she said,
• 22:32 "To my mother-in-law, not my husband, where you go,
• 22:33 I will go.
• 22:35 Where you stay," which led her--what?
• 22:39 Jeffrey: It's all the more amazing when she's saying it
• 22:40 to her mother-in-law, not to a spouse.
• 22:42 Kirsten: Right? I know.
• 22:44 Jeffrey: I get the point, but no mother-in-law jokes now.
• 22:45 This is national TV.
• 22:47 Kirsten: No, 'cause mine watches and I'm not talking
• 22:48 about you at all.
• 22:50 Jeffrey: But it does speak to the point, there is a kind
• 22:51 of loyalty there.
• 22:53 Speaking of which, it discourages me.
• 22:56 Honestly, I was thinking of this today.
• 22:58 I've been getting too many phone calls, and texts, and e-mails
• 23:02 about divorce, and breakup, and marriages,
• 23:05 all this disintegration, this splintering.
• 23:09 Here we're looking at undying resolve by way of contrast.
• 23:15 Kirsten: And if she had not stayed with Naomi,
• 23:17 she would never have met Boaz.
• 23:19 She would never have been in the lineage of Yeshua.
• 23:23 Jeffrey: Ah, so does loyalty and faithfulness to God
• 23:27 and his plans pay dividends?
• 23:29 David: There's an outcome. Kirsten: It's good.
• 23:31 David: Right. Kirsten: I know.
• 23:33 We would talk about this forever, but we
• 23:36 have limited time.
• 23:37 We'll be right back.
• 23:40 ♪♪♪
• 23:45 ♪ Sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim. ♪
• 23:48 ♪ Sha'alu, sha'alu, shalom. ♪
• 23:53 ♪ In the holy city of Jerusalem, ♪
• 23:59 ♪ we will pray for peace. ♪
• 24:03 ♪ Sha'alu shalom. ♪♪
• 24:13 Kirsten: I am a grandma.
• 24:15 My grandma name is Gram-cracker, so I want to say a special word
• 24:18 to all of your grandparents today that are missing your
• 24:22 grandkids and missing having time with your children.
• 24:25 You wanna know a wonderful way to spend time with your kids and
• 24:30 those grandbabies?
• 24:31 Take 'em on a trip to Israel.
• 24:33 It will change their life spiritually, an investment in
• 24:37 their life spiritually, will also give you time with them.
• 24:42 Levitt.com is our website.
• 24:43 Sign 'em up for a trip to the holy land.
• 24:46 Now let's hear some music by Zola Levitt.
• 24:49 ♪♪♪
• 24:51 ♪ Homeland forever. ♪
• 24:55 ♪ Land of Messiah. ♪
• 24:59 ♪ Israel, my love. ♪
• 25:03 ♪ Our God watches thee. ♪
• 25:08 ♪ Does the rose still bloom in the desert? ♪
• 25:11 ♪ Does the olive tree bask in the sun? ♪
• 25:15 ♪ Do the children laugh? ♪
• 25:17 ♪ Are the soldiers home? ♪
• 25:20 ♪ Is the age-old fighting done? ♪
• 25:24 ♪ Has Messiah come? ♪
• 25:26 ♪ Has the King returned? ♪
• 25:27 ♪ Are we saved? ♪
• 25:29 ♪ Oh blessed be he. ♪
• 25:31 ♪ When the King comes home ♪
• 25:34 ♪ to the land he loves, can we live, ♪
• 25:37 ♪ can we pray, can we be? ♪
• 25:41 ♪ Israel, my love. ♪
• 25:45 ♪ Israel, my promised. ♪
• 25:49 ♪ Chosen of God. ♪
• 25:53 ♪ Chosen for me. ♪
• 25:57 ♪ Homeland forever. ♪
• 26:00 ♪ Land of Messiah. ♪
• 26:04 ♪ Israel, my love. ♪
• 26:12 ♪ How God watches thee. ♪♪
• 26:27 Jeffrey: I love telling the story of Ruth.
• 26:29 And harking to Kirsten's point earlier, she was obedient.
• 26:33 A misunderstood term, by the way, from the Latin meaning
• 26:37 "Inclining to the voice."
• 26:39 That is to say, within Ruth, she inclined herself to hear.
• 26:43 She heard God's voice through her mother-in-law and the rest
• 26:47 is history, yes?
• 26:48 Kirsten: Right, to stay, to go, and then Boaz came.
• 26:52 And as I mentioned earlier, then Yeshua came from her eventually.
• 26:58 It's a beautiful story of deliverance from death to life.
• 27:03 David: And he still speaks to us today.
• 27:05 Jeffrey: It surely does.
• 27:07 Would that we all listened for the voice.
• 27:10 Thanks for paying attention to ours.
• 27:13 As you go now, sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim.
• 27:18 David: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 27:22 announcer: Our monthly newsletter, "The Levitt Letter,"
• 27:24 is free and full of insightful articles and news commentary
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• 28:04 ♪♪♪
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