Caption transcript for Divine Deliverance: “Ezekiel” (9/12)

• 00:01 Jeffrey Seif: He was dumped,
• 00:02 displaced, disoriented,
• 00:06 didn't look very good for him, but then God showed up.
• 00:11 What am I talking about?
• 00:13 How does it relate to you?
• 00:15 Stay tuned.
• 00:17 ♪♪♪
• 00:23 male announcer: From the beginning, our Creator
• 00:26 revealed his will to the common man.
• 00:29 Individuals listened to his call and responded in obedience from
• 00:34 the first Hebrew Avraham to the culmination of salvation
• 00:39 in Messiah himself.
• 00:42 The Lord faithfully intervenes with his divine deliverance.
• 00:49 ♪♪♪
• 00:56 David Hart: We're so glad you've joined us today on "Zola
• 00:57 Levitt Presents."
• 00:59 I'm David Hart.
• 01:00 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 01:01 Jeffrey: And I'm Jeffrey Seif, and I am really excited
• 01:02 about today's program.
• 01:04 Kirsten: We're in our series "Divine Deliverance" and today
• 01:08 we'll be learning more about Ezekiel.
• 01:11 He not only saw the wheel up in the middle of the air, he also
• 01:14 had a divine encounter with the Maker.
• 01:18 David: I love the song that I remember singing as a kid, but
• 01:21 also it was an incredible encounter with God.
• 01:25 Jeffrey: The song, what song is that?
• 01:27 David: "Ezekiel saw the wheel--" You don't know it?
• 01:30 both: "Way up in the middle of the air."
• 01:32 Jeffrey: Listen, I wasn't raised in church, so, listen,
• 01:35 I missed a good one I'm sure.
• 01:37 Kirsten: That's okay.
• 01:38 Let's now go and see Ezekiel's encounter with the Lord.
• 01:45 announcer: In 593 B.C., Ezekiel was among the exiles by
• 01:49 the River Kebar in Babylonia and the heavens were opened and he
• 01:54 saw visions of God.
• 01:58 A whirlwind came out of the north
• 02:01 and a brightness was about it.
• 02:10 Jeffrey: Hebrews call it the galut.
• 02:14 It's the word for "exile."
• 02:16 Jews were dispossessed, thrown out of the ancestral homeland.
• 02:20 They, in effect, were refugees.
• 02:23 Among them was a fella named Ezekiel.
• 02:28 Comes from two Hebrew words: "el" as a suffix or as a prefix
• 02:32 God and then "chazaq" which means strength.
• 02:38 And they were in such a bind, in such a corner, they were gonna
• 02:43 need all the strength they could get.
• 02:51 I don't know if you've ever been in a corner.
• 02:52 I have.
• 02:54 I've never been exiled, as in removed from my ancestral
• 02:58 homeland, and if you think for a moment most people never
• 03:01 traveled far.
• 03:02 Here they're over 500 miles away from their place of origin,
• 03:05 uprooted from ancestral lands.
• 03:07 They were really in a bad way, thus in a corner.
• 03:11 They needed help and the question was, is there
• 03:17 deliverance?
• 03:19 The question is, is God a deliverer?
• 03:25 And there was a man who in no uncertain terms said yes.
• 03:31 He saw how they were gonna get out of a corner, and he
• 03:36 envisioned a way that they could go on a quest for the preferred
• 03:41 future.
• 03:44 His story is in the book that bears his name.
• 03:47 Starts off in the first chapter giving voice to the exile that I
• 03:52 just described and noting that Ezekiel is among them, but
• 03:56 unbeknownst to them God was with them, too.
• 04:03 And when you're exiled, when you're repressed, depressed, so
• 04:06 pressed, and oppressed you don't think God is with you because
• 04:09 what comes to mind forever is your misery, not the hope.
• 04:16 But then, we see when we open up the book of hope, the Bible,
• 04:20 we're told in chapter 1, verse 1, "Nif'T'chû haSHämayim,"
• 04:27 the heavens opened up.
• 04:29 "Wäer'eh mar'ôt áélohiym," and IPsaw visions of God in a flash
• 04:42 Prophecy comes different ways.
• 04:44 The message of deliverance comes in more than one cart.
• 04:48 I mentioned that Isaiah was more just rolling out the prophetic
• 04:51 Word.
• 04:53 Ezekiel had a prophetic Word, but he wasn't simply a nabi,
• 04:56 which means to, in effect, bubble forth or bring it forth.
• 04:59 He was a ro'eh.
• 05:00 He was a seer.
• 05:02 He was a visionary.
• 05:04 You know, paranthetically in church work today there some
• 05:06 churches that just roll out the biblical principles, some give
• 05:09 voice to the Spirit and vision.
• 05:11 They each say they're crazy.
• 05:12 I say they both have their place.
• 05:15 Both are found in the biblical testimony.
• 05:17 Ezekiel has visions and what he envisions
• 05:23 is so very transformative.
• 05:26 He sees that individuals will come back to life in their inner
• 05:31 persons.
• 05:33 He spoke of God giving people a new heart and a new spirit in
• 05:37 chapter 36, verse 26 and in proximity to that he spoke not
• 05:43 just of e a personal renewal, but a national revival that has
• 05:47 prophetic implications that speaks to the very day when Jews
• 05:54 all but dead and gone arise from ruin and retake their place as a
• 06:02 people of destiny.
• 06:08 ♪♪♪
• 06:34 God: "Son of man, can these bones live?"
• 06:37 Ezekiel: [speaking foreign language]
• 06:43 God: Prophesy over these bones and say,
• 06:49 "O you dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord."
• 06:55 ♪♪♪
• 07:10 God: Say to the bones I will put sinews and flesh upon you
• 07:15 and cover you with skin.
• 07:18 Ezekiel: [speaking foreign language]
• 07:27 God: Prophesy unto the spirit, son of man.
• 07:32 Ezekiel: [speaking foreign language]
• 07:36 ♪♪♪
• 07:45 God: I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live, and I
• 07:49 will place you in our own land.
• 07:53 Then you will know that I the Lord
• 07:55 have spoken and performed it.
• 08:00 Jeffrey: In a previous era, a literary giant in America
• 08:04 named John Steinbeck wrote a famous novel called
• 08:09 "The Grapes of Wrath."
• 08:12 Therein he was underscoring the plight of displaced migrants.
• 08:16 I mentioned that to say never mind this modern literary giant.
• 08:21 Here we have a giant in an ancient world that gave voice
• 08:26 not just to a wrath, to a feeling of dispossession and
• 08:30 discouragement, but he envisioned a new world to come,
• 08:36 new life on the bones.
• 08:38 In chapter 37, verse 1 in this man whose name is "God is
• 08:44 strength" we read, "Häy'täh," that is, and came,
• 08:51 "älay," on me, "yad-adonai," the hand of the Lord.
• 08:58 Sounds like an old religious expression in church.
• 09:01 "You know, the hand of the Lord was upon me, brother."
• 09:03 Don't mock it, because good things come when God comes,
• 09:11 and here the visionary sees a vision.
• 09:16 We'll go on and unpack it.
• 09:17 He says the, "The Ruach Adonai," the Spirit of God, "carried me
• 09:22 and set me down."
• 09:24 And again, today when people talk of, "The Spirit of God was
• 09:26 upon me," people go, "Ha-ha, that's just modern religion,
• 09:30 those crazy people."
• 09:31 Well, they would have said it of him.
• 09:33 It's biblical language.
• 09:35 People don't understand it, I get it, but better not
• 09:38 to mock it.
• 09:40 This person envisions himself placed down in the middle of a
• 09:43 valley, one that was full of bones
• 09:49 scattered all about.
• 09:51 The picture that you saw before I started opening my mouth was
• 09:55 so good, I actually regretted I have to talk afterward.
• 09:58 It is so dramatic.
• 10:00 A picture tells a thousand words and there you see bones
• 10:06 coming back to life.
• 10:07 They're recycled.
• 10:09 They're reinvigorated.
• 10:10 They take on flesh and spirit.
• 10:14 They come alive and then they're nationalized, too.
• 10:17 They become an army.
• 10:18 Now, I know people take issue with that because they don't
• 10:20 like to see that in religion, but it's in the book.
• 10:23 Let's take a look at the book.
• 10:25 We're told the Spirit is upon him.
• 10:28 He sat down in the valley.
• 10:30 In verse 2 he lead him all around and there was very many
• 10:33 on the floor, many bones that were very dry.
• 10:38 "And he said to me," in verse 3, "'Son of man, can these bones
• 10:42 live?'" Now, listen.
• 10:44 If God asked you a question I don't think it's to know--he
• 10:46 doesn't the answer. "I'm a little confused, Zeke.
• 10:48 What are you saying? Can you help me out here?"
• 10:49 No, it's for rhetorical purposes.
• 10:51 One would think not.
• 10:53 In other words, when you're--when it's that way, when
• 10:59 you're dead and gone for so long, it all deteriorates, there
• 11:02 is nothing left, the question of is there any hope for this?
• 11:06 It sounds like a ridiculous question, but God majors in
• 11:10 turning around the ridiculous, because he is a great deliverer.
• 11:15 "I answered, 'Lord, you know.'" In verse 4 the Word is, "Speak
• 11:21 to them.
• 11:23 Prophesy and say, 'Dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord.'"
• 11:29 Truth be known, there can be people that are hearing within
• 11:33 the sound of my voice.
• 11:34 You know, I mean, a pastor can look out over the congregation
• 11:37 and see who's there and see who's paying attention.
• 11:40 This all goes coast to coast.
• 11:41 I don't know who I'm talking to.
• 11:43 I don't know if I find you in a hotel room with a gun to
• 11:46 your head.
• 11:47 I don't know if I find you behind your desk after you just
• 11:49 got a check for $30 million in a contract you signed.
• 11:51 I just don't know, but I know this.
• 11:54 I know this.
• 11:55 That people do well when they hear the Word of the Lord.
• 12:01 "Behold," he says, "I will cause Ruach to enter into you," I will
• 12:06 cause the Spirit to come into you, "and you will live."
• 12:10 Today, people talk about, "I received the Holy Spirit, and I
• 12:12 came alive."
• 12:13 And people say, "That's just hokey religion."
• 12:15 A Jewish person says, "I can't buy into that.
• 12:17 I'm a Jew.
• 12:18 I'm not a Pentecostal."
• 12:19 Well, the last I checked Ezekiel was a Jew, too.
• 12:21 This is the Old Testament.
• 12:23 I'm not reading you from something in the new.
• 12:24 That God prophesies deliverance, and he uses the language of the
• 12:30 Spirit coming in.
• 12:32 "I will put tendons on you, put flesh on you."
• 12:35 And then he says, "I will breathe on you."
• 12:38 Someone picked up on that.
• 12:45 You might recall when he came back to life, and I'm
• 12:48 referencing to the way Yeshua, the way Jesus is noted in the
• 12:52 Johannine Gospel.
• 12:53 It says he enters into a room and possibly so he just kinda
• 12:56 goes through the wall, and it says, "He breathed on them, and
• 13:00 said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" Sounds so un-Jewish.
• 13:07 Of course, Jesus was a Jew, they were Jewish, and it sounds a lot
• 13:10 like this.
• 13:12 And not only is the remaking of life characterized by new
• 13:17 breath, but if you roll the tape back to the beginning in early
• 13:22 Genesis it says of Adam, Adam, it says, "He breathed into his
• 13:27 nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."
• 13:34 This is the very birth of humanity.
• 13:38 Now, I know what happens with the birth of humanity.
• 13:42 We come out of our mother's womb, and we begin living our
• 13:44 lives.
• 13:45 It doesn't always turn out right.
• 13:47 Listen to me.
• 13:48 If being born hasn't been all that it's cracked up to be, try
• 13:53 being born-again.
• 13:58 announcer: Our offer on this program, "Ezekiel and the
• 14:01 Mid-East Peace Process," eight 30-minutes programs on 2 DVDs.
• 14:05 In the series Dr. Jeffrey Seif considers the various pieces of
• 14:10 Ezekiel's end-time puzzle, Judah's demise, Israel's last
• 14:13 days rise, Israel's neighbor states, the valley of dry bones,
• 14:18 the battle of Gog and Magog, and the restored temple.
• 14:22 Enhance your understanding of the day and time in which we
• 14:27 live.
• 14:28 Ask for "Ezekiel and the Mid-East Peace Process."
• 14:32 male: Hi, thanks for watching "Zola Levitt Presents."
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• 15:03 David: We couldn't do what we do every week without your
• 15:05 financial support.
• 15:07 We are here today to say thank you so much.
• 15:09 Right now let's continue our story with Ezekiel in Israel.
• 15:16 announcer: Ezekiel's vision of the future temple
• 15:18 is glorious.
• 15:20 Paradise restored and by the river thereof, upon the bank
• 15:26 thereof shall grow all trees for food, bringing forth new food,
• 15:31 whose leaf shall not fade.
• 15:35 And the leaf thereof shall be for medicine.
• 15:40 ♪♪♪
• 15:48 Jeffrey: You know, if you think about it a vine is simply
• 15:53 a machine through which flat water is turned into grapes.
• 15:58 It's turned into wine.
• 16:00 It's interesting the Johannine Gospel begins with Jesus turning
• 16:03 water into wine and then his last discourse at the very end
• 16:07 he talks about how we, in effect, are the vine.
• 16:08 There is a kind of transformation from the flat to
• 16:12 the energized and that's what Ezekiel sees.
• 16:18 I'm interested in the 47th chapter here.
• 16:22 I wanna talk about the essence of life.
• 16:24 Nahar hachayyim in Hebrew, a river of life.
• 16:29 It goes right back to Gan Eden, to paradise.
• 16:34 We're told here in the 47th chapter--we're told this prophet
• 16:38 of the galut, this exiled prophet envisions Israel
• 16:44 reconstituted as a nation state, and then he sees the temple
• 16:48 rebuilt therein.
• 16:50 He not only envisions that.
• 16:52 He sees water coming from the house.
• 16:56 He says, "Then he brought me back to the door of the house,"
• 16:59 kin 47:1, "and water was flowing out from underneath the
• 17:04 threshold."
• 17:05 This isn't your garden variety.
• 17:07 You know, the plumbing breaks in the bathroom and the water is
• 17:09 coming out from underneath the door.
• 17:11 This is something else.
• 17:12 There is a picture here that develops in the literature,
• 17:15 where it's God's restored house.
• 17:18 From there comes water to bring new life to the dry lands.
• 17:23 It says it explicitly.
• 17:25 Now, if you would go to Israel you would see it pictorially.
• 17:29 If you go to the Temple Mount, which is right there at the
• 17:33 zenith, the high point of the city and you were to go east
• 17:37 from there, it falls off dramatically, turns into a
• 17:40 wilderness, if you ever heard the term "wilderness of Judea,"
• 17:44 and it descends all the way to the Dead Sea.
• 17:48 If you were to read through the Prophet Ezekiel in this chapter
• 17:51 you'd see that water comes from out of this temple and, whoosh,
• 17:57 it goes down through the wilderness, through the dry
• 18:00 lands, whoosh, and it brings new things to life, because wherever
• 18:07 the water goes life comes.
• 18:10 It's a beautiful story.
• 18:13 It's a picture that tells a thousand words.
• 18:17 It's depicted in the literature not just here.
• 18:20 If you go to Revelation chapter 22
• 18:24 this visionary sees the river of the water of life coming out
• 18:30 from the holy city, bringing new life.
• 18:34 Now, there is a snapshot here and there is a snapshot there.
• 18:41 It's both testified to in the newer testament and the older
• 18:45 testament.
• 18:46 My question is, is it testified to you?
• 18:50 I'm less interested in the story in the book as much as I'm
• 18:55 interested now in whether this story resonates in the pages of
• 19:00 your own diary.
• 19:02 I want you to know that the flat water can be turned to wine.
• 19:07 It needs energized.
• 19:09 This prophet Ezekiel sees the source, God's grace and mercy,
• 19:13 coming to a ruined people, filling them with the Spirit and
• 19:17 filling them with new life.
• 19:19 That's not a story from yesterday's pages.
• 19:21 That's a story for the ages.
• 19:23 It's all about the deliverance that's made available to
• 19:25 martyrs, women and men like me and you.
• 19:32 David: As you've seen already today by our dramatic
• 19:34 reenactment, that Ezekiel has had a pretty fascinating life,
• 19:38 and God has really spoken to him.
• 19:41 An encounter like really no other.
• 19:43 Jeffrey: It's a significant vision of things to come.
• 19:47 There is deliverance.
• 19:49 There is personal deliverance.
• 19:50 There is a miracle.
• 19:52 It's the miracle of water coming out of dry places and that image
• 19:58 is so potent because there are so many people that are parched.
• 20:01 David: Right, today.
• 20:02 That story is for us today, for all of us, right?
• 20:06 Jeffrey: Yes, it's Jews yesterday, and it's used today.
• 20:10 It's timeless.
• 20:12 People get so bent out of shape.
• 20:16 Marriages are so brittle.
• 20:19 Lives are just hanging together by a thread.
• 20:24 The desperation index is high.
• 20:28 The anxiety index is high.
• 20:31 People are thirsty, and the Lord comes along with a vision of
• 20:36 drink.
• 20:38 Kirsten: And life.
• 20:39 I love that Word, and I know you didn't grow up in the church.
• 20:43 We did.
• 20:44 And you're sitting talking, I am listening to what you're saying,
• 20:46 but in my head I hear the song, "Them bones, them bones, them
• 20:50 dry bones now hear the Word of the Lord."
• 20:52 Now, you know that. You've sung that.
• 20:54 David: Dry bones.
• 20:56 Kirsten: But dry people. David: Dried up.
• 20:58 Jeffrey: And, first, no need to apologize for being you.
• 21:01 That we all have our experiences and just 'cause I popped out of
• 21:05 a Jewish womb and lived in a Jewish world doesn't make me
• 21:08 better than you or you.
• 21:09 I think it's a level playing field, but to the point and the
• 21:14 image, can you think of just death, despair?
• 21:19 People are living in a world today where they're feeling that
• 21:22 their lives are somewhere between going, going, and gone,
• 21:24 and they really think there is no hope.
• 21:27 But if there is a God that can bring these bones back together
• 21:32 again, if it really is true he can bring back that life and
• 21:36 bring new life, the implications are profound.
• 21:38 David: It is true, and I'm so sorry to say this again, but as
• 21:42 I lead worship I see that even in the church.
• 21:45 That we're--there is so much dry bones even in the church today.
• 21:49 How do we get over that?
• 21:50 Jeffrey: I think people are checkered by despair.
• 21:53 We live in a world and there is so much fracture in
• 21:58 relationships.
• 21:59 There is so much anxiety about the future.
• 22:02 There is so much regret about the past.
• 22:04 People live in all of that.
• 22:07 I think it's good to open up the Bible and take a leap into the
• 22:10 biblical world.
• 22:11 They can find hope.
• 22:12 We can find hope that's experiential.
• 22:15 That is available even today.
• 22:18 Kirsten: And I am just gonna do it, tour plug in the middle
• 22:22 of this program, why it is so important to go to Israel,
• 22:27 because just a few decades ago it was dry, barren desert, and
• 22:32 God has restored the dry bones of that land.
• 22:36 And as we were driving in our tour bus we see field after
• 22:40 field and date palms and flowers and food everywhere growing, and
• 22:46 Israel has become alive.
• 22:48 And if God can do it with barren, swamp land, he can--
• 22:51 David: Desert. Kirsten: Desert.
• 22:52 He can do it in your life.
• 22:54 He can do it for you also.
• 22:56 Jeffrey: Profound.
• 22:57 David: Amen. We'll be right back.
• 23:00 announcer: For insightful perspectives on Israel and Bible
• 23:04 prophecy ask for our free monthly newsletter,
• 23:07 "The Levitt Letter."
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• 23:20 Come with us on a tour of Israel or Petra or a cruise to Greece
• 23:24 and Ephesus.
• 23:25 Please contact us for more information.
• 23:31 Kirsten: The dry bones in Israel are not dry anymore.
• 23:33 The land is fruitful.
• 23:35 It is green.
• 23:36 It is full of produce and flowers, and you won't believe
• 23:40 how beautiful the Holy Land is.
• 23:43 Go see it for yourself.
• 23:44 Go to our website to find out details.
• 23:47 David and I were recently in the Holy Land, and we rerecorded a
• 23:51 song by Zola Levitt.
• 23:53 Here it is.
• 23:57 ♪♪♪
• 24:00 ♪ Could it be me for whom he died? ♪
• 24:08 ♪ Could it be me for whom you cried ♪
• 24:16 ♪ that night in the garden? ♪
• 24:22 ♪ Was it for me? ♪
• 24:27 ♪ Would God I had died for thee. ♪
• 24:41 ♪ Could it be me who cost your life? ♪
• 24:50 ♪ Could it be me who caused such strife? ♪
• 24:57 ♪ There in Israel you had to die for me. ♪
• 25:07 ♪ Would God I had died for thee. ♪
• 25:17 ♪ Ooh, to live my life for the King of kings. ♪
• 25:25 ♪ This above all I want to do. ♪
• 25:34 ♪ And when I die may they say, ♪
• 25:38 ♪ "He gave his life for his King," ♪
• 25:42 ♪ and that I lived and died for you. ♪
• 25:52 ♪ For it is thee for whom I died. ♪
• 26:05 ♪ Lord, it was thee for whom ♪
• 26:10 ♪ I cried in my night of salvation, ♪
• 26:17 ♪ "Lord, forgive me." ♪
• 26:24 ♪ Thank God you have died for me. ♪
• 26:37 Jeffrey: We speak about Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel, but
• 26:41 it's more than trees and dirt.
• 26:43 It's the people of the land.
• 26:45 God surely has brought the land back to life because people have
• 26:49 been brought to life there to develop it.
• 26:52 It's all about the miracle of modern Israel.
• 26:55 David: And I think we've been talking about Jewish folks, but
• 26:58 also as a Gentile I don't wanna be one that has dry bones in my
• 27:02 life.
• 27:03 Jeffrey: That is certainly true.
• 27:05 That it's a story about material Israel, but there is a spiritual
• 27:09 application for all.
• 27:11 Well, we're outta time.
• 27:12 So much to say.
• 27:13 As you go now, sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim.
• 27:18 David: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
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• 28:05 ♪♪♪
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