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The God of Israel Strengthens
Ezekiel’s name means “God strengthens.” Reared as a priest in Jerusalem, Ezekiel finds himself among the exiles who are relocated to Babylon. His encounter with God in a Heavenly vision launches his prophetic message to a wayward people.
Air dates: 2022-Dec-28
Production Code: 2301
Episode 1 of 8 in the series “Ezekiel and the MidEast “Piece” Process (2023)”
Duration: 28:30
Year: 2022
 Closed Captioned
Streaming + :

Transcript
Caption transcript for Ezekiel and the MidEast ‘Piece’ Process (2023): “The God of Israel Strengthens” (1/8)
- 00:00 rt: Shalom.
 - 00:02 On today's program, the southern kingdom of Judah
 - 00:04 has been captured, Ezekiel is chosen to proclaim
 - 00:07 God's judgment and his future restoration.
 - 00:10 Stay tuned for "Our Jewish Roots"
 - 00:12 with Bible teaching by Dr. Jeffrey Seif.
 - 00:15 ♪♪♪
 - 00:17 ♪♪♪
 - 00:25 narrator: "The Lord said unto Ezekiel,
 - 00:27 'Son of Man, can these bones live?
 - 00:37 Prophesy upon these bones and say unto them,
 - 00:40 "Oh ye, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.'"
 - 00:45 ♪♪♪
 - 00:55 ♪♪♪
 - 01:05 ♪♪♪
 - 01:12 David: "Ezekiel and the Mid East 'Piece' Process."
 - 01:19 David: Thank you so much for joining us today.
 - 01:20 I am David Hart.
 - 01:22 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
 - 01:23 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: And I am Jeffrey Seif.
 - 01:24 David: Our series today is-- we're starting a new series,
 - 01:27 actually, on Ezekiel that you taught a decade ago.
 - 01:32 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Yeah, but you know,
 - 01:33 Ezekiel taught many decades ago.
 - 01:35 It's such an honor to bring these messengers
 - 01:38 and messages to life.
 - 01:41 David: I was gonna say, we grew up in Sunday school
 - 01:44 and thought we knew all about Ezekiel from,
 - 01:46 you remember the song?
 - 01:48 Kirsten: Oh, "[singing]
 - 01:49 Ezekiel saw the wheel way up in the middle of the sky."
 - 01:53 Look at the--did you-- have you heard that song?
 - 01:55 It's a Sunday school song.
 - 01:56 David: But that's all we know about it.
 - 01:57 There's so much more that you will teach us.
 - 01:59 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: You know, I didn't do Sunday school.
 - 02:01 The church I went to was synagogue
 - 02:02 and I wasn't very familiar with Ezekiel,
 - 02:04 but I am familiar with the song and it is really interesting.
 - 02:09 Ezekiel's a fascinating character and it's a book
 - 02:12 that's characterized by fascinating visions,
 - 02:15 signs and wonders and the like.
 - 02:17 It really is something to behold.
 - 02:19 Kirsten: But we both went to Bible college
 - 02:21 and even in Bible college, I mean we had to study
 - 02:23 all the books in the Bible, all I remember from Ezekiel
 - 02:26 was there was a wheel.
 - 02:27 I'm like, "Is it a chariot?
 - 02:29 Is it a spinning wheel?"
 - 02:30 And I am so thankful for what you will bring to all of us
 - 02:34 with the depth of what that symbolized
 - 02:37 and there's so much more to the book.
 - 02:39 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: There is, and just to boil it down
 - 02:41 principally, Ezekiel was in exile.
 - 02:44 He was a displaced person when he saw that,
 - 02:47 speaking to exiles, people that are upended by circumstance.
 - 02:52 They're in a bad place in life, and there's a powerful vision
 - 02:55 of God even there in a bad place.
 - 02:59 And that's really good to know,
 - 03:01 not just for Ezekiel's recipients but for people today.
 - 03:06 It was a wakeup call for Ezekiel.
 - 03:08 God says, "I'm still here," and he got their attention
 - 03:11 by a vision and he got our attention through a message
 - 03:14 in the book of Ezekiel.
 - 03:16 Kirsten: Well, we're looking forward to the whole series.
 - 03:17 David: Yes, right now we find out what the prophet Ezekiel
 - 03:20 is doing in Babylon.
 - 03:22 Let's go there right now.
 - 03:25 narrator: In 593 BC, Ezekiel was among the exiles by the
 - 03:29 River Chebar in Babylonia, and the heavens were opened,
 - 03:34 and he saw visions of God.
 - 03:39 A whirlwind came out of the North,
 - 03:41 and a brightness was about him.
 - 03:47 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: His name means God strengthens,
 - 03:50 and Ezekiel was going to use all the strength he could muster.
 - 03:57 And why is that?
 - 03:58 Because this man lived at the ragged edge of time.
 - 04:05 And what time was it, pray tell?
 - 04:08 It was a time when the chickens were coming home to roost.
 - 04:13 Why do I say that?
 - 04:15 When Manasseh came to power, Hezekiah's son,
 - 04:20 he brought bad things with him: idolatry,
 - 04:25 and with bad religion came bad practice.
 - 04:29 People were debauched in their personal lives,
 - 04:32 they were unethical, they were unjust.
 - 04:36 Josiah, his grandson, came to power and endeavored
 - 04:40 to make some reforms and he was good about it but,
 - 04:44 sadly, he died young on the plains of Megiddo,
 - 04:48 Armageddon.
 - 04:51 His successors were like the grandfather:
 - 04:54 they went from bad to worse, and the Hebrew Bible tells us
 - 04:58 that the wound was incurable.
 - 05:01 And against that backdrop, Ezekiel makes his entrance onto
 - 05:06 the stage of the human drama and he makes his entrance
 - 05:10 at a time when, in the wake of the Battle of Carchemish,
 - 05:15 Babylonia came to power and Judea was annexed
 - 05:18 as a Babylonian holding, and it was only a question of time.
 - 05:25 Ezekiel with 10,000 others were spirited away to Babylonia.
 - 05:30 Some remained in Judea but their fate, in effect,
 - 05:34 was sealed.
 - 05:36 Ezekiel, the name means God strengthened and,
 - 05:40 as I said, he was going to need all the strength
 - 05:45 he could muster.
 - 05:47 And to help him along, this man had a vision of God
 - 05:54 comparable to Isaiah who, in the 6th chapter,
 - 05:57 has a vision of God in his throne room.
 - 06:00 And you hear in the text, "[speaking in Hebrew]
 - 06:05 Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty,
 - 06:09 the Lord of Hosts."
 - 06:11 And here, Ezekiel has a powerful vision of his own.
 - 06:17 And again, he ministered at a time when vision
 - 06:22 and vision of hope was needed,
 - 06:25 for hope was in very high demand and very short supply.
 - 06:30 And why is that?
 - 06:31 Because Judea had sunk.
 - 06:34 The temple was to be overrun, the commonwealth would collapse,
 - 06:39 and Ezekiel ministered amongst refugees, exiles,
 - 06:44 in a big refugee camp, displaced persons,
 - 06:48 miserable persons, and to those persons Ezekiel
 - 06:52 had a message of hope.
 - 06:55 Like you to open up your Bibles please and mine in
 - 06:57 the 1st chapter, the 1st verse: "[speaking in Hebrew]
 - 07:02 And it came to pass.
 - 07:04 [speaking in Hebrew]
 - 07:10 And it came to pass in the 30th year,
 - 07:14 in the 4th month, in the 5th day of the month,
 - 07:19 [speaking in Hebrew]
 - 07:26 and as I was among the captives by the River Chebar,
 - 07:31 that the heavens were opened to me [speaking in Hebrew]
 - 07:39 and I saw visions of God."
 - 07:42 And what a vision it was.
 - 07:46 We read in verse 4, he says, "[speaking in Hebrew]
 - 07:51 And I looked, and behold, a stormy wind came
 - 07:55 out of the north, and a great cloud with fire flashing up
 - 08:00 so that a brightness was round about."
 - 08:03 He had a fantastic experience.
 - 08:06 Ezekiel ministered at a time when Judea was
 - 08:12 in a ruinous state and, as I stand here amongst former ruins
 - 08:16 of a bygone era just beneath the Jewish quarter in modern Israel,
 - 08:22 you're looking at the site of a former devastation as
 - 08:27 the commonwealth collapsed.
 - 08:30 Well, in this series on Ezekiel, we're gonna consider the demise
 - 08:34 and we're gonna consider the rise as we consider what
 - 08:38 Ezekiel has to say as we look at "Ezekiel and the Mid East
 - 08:42 'Piece' Process" and consider the prophetic word
 - 08:45 that he brought from his troubled circumstance.
 - 08:51 narrator: "And the Lord spoke to Ezekiel, Son of man,
 - 08:55 'I shall take your wife from you.
 - 08:57 Weep not, mourn not.'"
 - 09:00 And so it was, that the Lord revealed to Israel
 - 09:03 that Jerusalem's temple would soon pass away.
 - 09:07 The death of a beloved wife, a holy temple vanquished,
 - 09:13 a picture of grief beyond expression.
 - 09:19 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: "We are standing on holy ground."
 - 09:23 Now that's an old song of the church.
 - 09:26 And I want you to know that right now,
 - 09:28 we are standing on holy ground.
 - 09:32 It doesn't get a whole lot holier than this here in
 - 09:36 Jerusalem, here at the Southern Steps of the temple proper,
 - 09:42 steps that Jesus Christ walked up and down.
 - 09:46 It's a thrill to come to you from this place.
 - 09:50 In fact, this place is a thrill for so many.
 - 09:53 You can see the golden bricks are lighting behind me.
 - 09:57 There's a famous song the Jews sing:
 - 09:59 "[speaking in Hebrew] Jerusalem, a city of gold."
 - 10:05 I love this city, you love this city,
 - 10:08 and Ezekiel loved this city, a priest.
 - 10:14 Can't tell you how heartbroken he was,
 - 10:16 however, to have to inform that this city will be laid waste.
 - 10:24 I'm sitting on top of pillars here in the temple complex
 - 10:28 that were felled in a former generation.
 - 10:31 "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away."
 - 10:34 You've heard that expression.
 - 10:36 This is the Lord's house, and he let his house be overrun
 - 10:39 because of the iniquity of his people.
 - 10:44 The way Ezekiel was positioned in conjunction with that
 - 10:48 is striking.
 - 10:50 And why do I say that?
 - 10:52 Ezekiel was a priest, trained to minister in this house.
 - 10:57 Ezekiel, however, was spirited away from this house
 - 11:00 with 10,000 others after the Babylonians
 - 11:04 annexed Judea as one of its holdings.
 - 11:07 And in captivity, Ezekiel was given a word.
 - 11:12 But he wasn't just given a word.
 - 11:14 Tragically, he was given an illustration in conjunction
 - 11:20 with that word.
 - 11:21 If you'd open up your Bibles, please, to Ezekiel chapter 24,
 - 11:26 I want to read some horrible text to you.
 - 11:31 Horrible in verse 16: "Ben Adam, Son of man,
 - 11:38 [speaking in Hebrew] behold, [speaking in Hebrew]
 - 11:50 Behold, I will take away from you with one stroke
 - 11:56 the desire of your eyes."
 - 12:02 The Lord told Ezekiel, "I am going to take your wife's life,"
 - 12:10 and the death of Ezekiel's wife was right at the time
 - 12:14 when this temple in Jerusalem suffered its own death.
 - 12:21 But it was finally overrun by the Babylonians
 - 12:24 and inasmuch as Ezekiel lost the desire of his eyes,
 - 12:32 we read in 24:21 that this was illustrative
 - 12:38 of what would happen in Judea is made explicit.
 - 12:41 He says, and I quote, "Behold, I will profane My sanctuary,
 - 12:47 the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes,
 - 12:52 the longing of your soul; and your sons and your daughters
 - 12:57 whom you have left behind shall fall by the sword."
 - 13:03 Tragic words uttered many, many, many years ago.
 - 13:11 And here I sit, among the devastations
 - 13:16 of a former generation.
 - 13:19 Let me just say, parenthetically,
 - 13:22 that you're invited to come and walk in these steps,
 - 13:26 the Archeological Park in Jerusalem.
 - 13:29 And the Davidson Center of the Park,
 - 13:32 particularly, has done a wonderful job
 - 13:34 of resurrecting all this.
 - 13:36 But the resurrection of this pales in comparison
 - 13:40 to the resurrection to come.
 - 13:42 Ezekiel in these dark days, forecasted gloomy days,
 - 13:48 but he said as well that the bright light will once again
 - 13:52 rise over the horizon and illuminate these stones,
 - 13:56 the limestone here in Jerusalem.
 - 13:59 The prophet had bad news but he closed doing good news.
 - 14:03 And speaking of bad news and good news,
 - 14:05 here we're looking at the Middle East peace process
 - 14:09 from Ezekiel's perspective.
 - 14:11 There's bad news but there's good news still to come.
 - 14:22 David: Our resource for this week:
 - 14:23 "Zola's Introduction to Hebrew."
 - 14:25 This 400-page text progresses gradually
 - 14:28 so even the fainthearted will find value in it,
 - 14:31 but robust enough that dedicated students are equipped to read,
 - 14:35 speak, write and understand Hebrew.
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 - 15:26 David: You've seen Dr. Seif teaching at the Southern Steps.
 - 15:29 We take you there on a tour.
 - 15:32 We would love for you to join us.
 - 15:34 We stop at this place where Jesus taught.
 - 15:38 It's life-changing.
 - 15:40 We give you some quiet time where you can get away
 - 15:42 and walk the steps.
 - 15:44 I've done it, we've done it together.
 - 15:46 It really is just an amazing time.
 - 15:49 We worship on the steps.
 - 15:50 Please join us on a tour to Israel, the Old City.
 - 15:54 Join us.
 - 15:56 Kirsten: You can find out about that on our website,
 - 15:58 but also in the Levitt Letter which is a monthly publication
 - 16:02 that we send out to all our readers and our viewers
 - 16:05 and it's free for you.
 - 16:07 There's insider scoop about Israel.
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 - 16:11 We would love for you to go with us and I just have to say
 - 16:14 a quick thank you, toda raba in Hebrew,
 - 16:18 for all of you because you keep this program on the air.
 - 16:22 And you see value in the fact that we actually go to the land.
 - 16:27 We go to Israel to tape and for the teachings that Dr. Seif
 - 16:32 brings, so you make it possible
 - 16:34 and we just want to say thank you.
 - 16:36 One of our favorite things, or my favorite thing in Israel,
 - 16:39 is the food.
 - 16:40 We go to Israel to eat and, speaking of eating,
 - 16:44 Ezekiel was giving--given a literal scroll and God said,
 - 16:48 "Eat these words," and he did.
 - 16:50 Let's see what happened now.
 - 16:54 narrator: "And Ezekiel reached towards the Lord
 - 16:57 and received a scroll and the Lord said unto Ezekiel,
 - 17:01 'Son of man, eat this scroll and go speak
 - 17:05 unto the house of Israel my words.'
 - 17:07 The mournful message to Israel would be troubling but,
 - 17:11 in his obedience to God, Ezekiel would find the taste
 - 17:15 of the scroll to be as sweet as honey."
 - 17:22 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: I don't know how you live your life,
 - 17:24 but I know for myself that when I find myself stressed,
 - 17:29 perplexed, I find it to be very important for me to get
 - 17:34 into the Scriptures.
 - 17:36 For what I want to do is get God's Word in my mind
 - 17:39 to help me have equilibrium, to help me to have peace,
 - 17:43 to help me to, with God's help, get new ideas in order
 - 17:47 to confront the pressing circumstances
 - 17:51 that are imposing themselves upon me.
 - 17:54 Ezekiel found himself in a world where he and the Judean exiles
 - 17:59 were pressed round about.
 - 18:02 And I find it interesting, personally,
 - 18:04 that there's a story here of Ezekiel coming
 - 18:07 upon God's Word and being told to actually eat it,
 - 18:11 and then reporting that it was sweet to him.
 - 18:14 I find something in this living drama that's so very powerful,
 - 18:18 not just for Ezekiel but for me.
 - 18:23 I'm interested in Ezekiel at one level because of the history.
 - 18:26 It's fascinating and we're going to see as we follow along
 - 18:29 in the series how Ezekiel envisions the world
 - 18:32 at the ragged edge of time and he says what
 - 18:35 God's going to do in that world, and you're going to see
 - 18:37 how Israel's reconstitution as a nation state factors into that.
 - 18:41 You're going to hear about how the nations round about
 - 18:44 are hell bent on her destruction and a whole lot more.
 - 18:47 You're gonna learn about the end game in human history.
 - 18:50 But here, as Ezekiel is pressed, we learn something
 - 18:53 about his story.
 - 18:55 In chapter 3, verse 1, the Lord says,
 - 18:57 "Son of man, eat what you find."
 - 19:00 And then we're told that he comes upon a scroll
 - 19:03 and then we're told at the end of verse 3,
 - 19:06 "I ate it, and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness."
 - 19:11 So it's fascinating and it bears reminding.
 - 19:16 Those of you that need God's peace plan for your own
 - 19:19 circumstances, you'd do well to get into God's Word
 - 19:23 to digest it, to take it in.
 - 19:26 I can't underscore that enough.
 - 19:29 I mean, it's a pastoral point at one level and you don't need
 - 19:31 to watch national TV.
 - 19:33 You should be able to hear this in your own local church,
 - 19:36 but just, it's so worth underscoring that what you need,
 - 19:40 if you find yourself pressed, is you need to get into the Word.
 - 19:43 You need to eat it.
 - 19:44 You need that, the fiber of the Word to inform you
 - 19:48 and to strengthen you.
 - 19:50 And inasmuch as Ezekiel's name means God strengthens
 - 19:53 that you can do what Ezekiel did and get strengthened.
 - 19:56 Well, he was strengthened for a purpose
 - 19:57 beyond his own needing to recover equilibrium.
 - 20:00 We're told in verse 10 of this same chapter,
 - 20:03 chapter 3, the Lord says, "Son of man,
 - 20:07 all My words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart,
 - 20:10 and hear them with your ears."
 - 20:14 First thing we have to do is open ourselves up to hear
 - 20:16 the Scriptures, to get 'em in our mind and then to open up
 - 20:20 our heart.
 - 20:21 Let it go through our ears into our mind,
 - 20:23 then down into our heart.
 - 20:25 "And go get them to those of the captivity,
 - 20:29 to the children of Israel of your people,
 - 20:31 and speak to them and tell them, 'Thus saith the Lord God,'
 - 20:35 whether they hear, or refuse to hear."
 - 20:40 Let me tell you something.
 - 20:42 Ezekiel had a really tough assignment,
 - 20:46 and he was strengthened for the task in part
 - 20:48 because he had a godly vision.
 - 20:52 The Lord had shown up and given him a vision of who he was,
 - 20:57 a fantastic vision.
 - 20:59 And with that, he was strengthened.
 - 21:02 In fact, his name means God strengthen, as I've said,
 - 21:05 rather providential it seems.
 - 21:08 In any case, what we have here is a story of a man
 - 21:11 who's been girded up.
 - 21:12 He's getting into the Word, he's studying up,
 - 21:15 he's encouraged to speak up, and why is that?
 - 21:18 Because God was going to work through Ezekiel to tell the
 - 21:22 story, to look at the unfolding of the mystery of the ages.
 - 21:28 For those of you that follow me through Ezekiel,
 - 21:30 we're going to take a whirlwind trip through time.
 - 21:35 We're going to go back to Ezekiel's time.
 - 21:37 We're gonna look at the present time and then at time to come,
 - 21:41 as we consider God's peace plan.
 - 21:44 We consider ABC, NBC, Fox News, and now it's time
 - 21:49 for Bible news, and you're going to be fascinated.
 - 21:52 This man ate the word.
 - 21:54 He got the mind of the Lord, and he gave a word
 - 21:56 that is spellbinding for its potency.
 - 22:00 You're gonna be drawn into Ezekiel's world,
 - 22:02 and you're gonna see the world at the ragged edge of time and,
 - 22:06 in the process of so doing, I hope you'll get a word
 - 22:09 for your own time and be reminded of the fact
 - 22:12 at the end of days God has a peace plan
 - 22:14 to restore peace to you personally
 - 22:17 and to restore peace to the world at large.
 - 22:22 ♪♪♪
 - 22:32 ♪♪♪
 - 22:42 ♪♪♪
 - 22:52 ♪♪♪
 - 23:02 ♪♪♪
 - 23:12 ♪♪♪
 - 23:24 Kirsten: Dr. Seif has given us many pieces
 - 23:27 to the prophetic puzzle.
 - 23:30 Can I get any more "P's" in there?
 - 23:32 But it's interesting the title of this series when
 - 23:35 we first heard it we thought it would be P-E-A-C-E,
 - 23:38 but it's not.
 - 23:39 It's P-I-E-C-E, which is a little different.
 - 23:41 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Yes, people speak of the Middle East
 - 23:42 peace process, and it's a play on words.
 - 23:45 We opted for piece as in puzzle piece,
 - 23:48 principally to underscore, though,
 - 23:50 the Middle East situation is rather puzzling, as is life.
 - 23:53 Israel's emergence in that world is a major piece
 - 23:58 and we wanted to consider that and things associated with it.
 - 24:01 Kirsten: There are many different interesting pieces
 - 24:04 should I say to Ezekiel's life and you were just talking
 - 24:07 about the death of his wife.
 - 24:10 Now, we've been married, are we, 32, 33?
 - 24:12 David: Thirty-three.
 - 24:13 Kirsten: You know you're married a lot of years
 - 24:15 when you don't remember exactly how many years.
 - 24:16 But it's interesting to me, as a wife, and Ezekiel, I mean,
 - 24:20 I can't imagine me dying and God telling Dave,
 - 24:23 "Don't you mourn.
 - 24:25 You're not supposed to mourn."
 - 24:26 David: You've been through that yourself.
 - 24:27 Of course you mourned, from your first wife.
 - 24:29 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Yeah, it was a strange stretch
 - 24:31 of highway, losing Patti but I'm so glad that the Lord
 - 24:37 graced me with Barri to kind of push a reset button,
 - 24:41 but it was miserable.
 - 24:42 It was hell on earth.
 - 24:44 David: Can you imagine God saying,
 - 24:45 "Don't you mourn her"?
 - 24:46 I don't quite understand how that--
 - 24:48 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: It seems that the Lord put that prophet
 - 24:50 at a rather strange place in life,
 - 24:53 that the death of his wife was assigned at the very day--
 - 24:58 now Ezekiel is hundreds of miles away from Israel,
 - 25:02 from Judah, but the death of his wife coincided
 - 25:06 with the destruction to Jerusalem.
 - 25:08 It's like the Lord said to Ezekiel,
 - 25:10 "I lost my wife today.
 - 25:11 You're losing your love as well."
 - 25:14 And his life becomes an object lesson where the message
 - 25:19 and the messenger are experiencing the same.
 - 25:23 It's rather interesting.
 - 25:25 It's the way God opted to use the prophet.
 - 25:26 David: Right now, even you talking gives me
 - 25:28 little goosebumps thinking about God using Ezekiel
 - 25:31 in that way for Israel, Jerusalem.
 - 25:34 It's pretty amazing.
 - 25:35 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Yes, and to your initial point about not
 - 25:40 grieving, which is important in the wake of the death of a loved
 - 25:43 one, but I think it would strike the sensibilities of others too.
 - 25:48 I mean, God, to get people's attention,
 - 25:51 strikes nerves.
 - 25:54 Sometimes, preachers, we just wanna raise the volume
 - 25:58 in the hope that people will listen.
 - 26:00 I get that.
 - 26:01 But God goes for nerves, for pain,
 - 26:04 for something odd, to prompt people
 - 26:08 to look twice at something, and God wants people
 - 26:12 to look twice or three times at the relationship with him.
 - 26:15 David: You just said the word "hope."
 - 26:17 I think this program deals with hope for all of us watching.
 - 26:21 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: The national anthem of the modern state
 - 26:24 of Israel is called "Hatikvah," which means "The Hope,"
 - 26:28 and it's called specifically from Ezekiel.
 - 26:32 David: Yes.
 - 26:33 Kirsten: Even through pain, even through hardships,
 - 26:35 even through losing his spouse, we can still have hope and,
 - 26:38 in the end, hope wins.
 - 26:41 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: Yes, and in this series,
 - 26:44 we're out of this program right now,
 - 26:45 but in this series, we note how the emergence of Israel
 - 26:49 isn't just hope for Jews; it's hope for the world.
 - 26:54 It's rather puzzling but we want them to take a look
 - 26:56 at that particular piece.
 - 26:58 Kirsten: Tell them more next week.
 - 26:59 David: Yeah, so much more to come.
 - 27:01 Kirsten: Yes. David: It's time to end.
 - 27:02 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: 'Til then, Shaalu shalom Yerushalayim.
 - 27:05 David: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
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