Caption transcript for Conquest of Canaan: “The Battle of Ai and Bethel” (3/8)

• 00:01 ♪♪♪
• 00:16 ♪♪♪ Joshua Colson: Well, hey everybody, I'm Joshua.
• 00:18 Caleb Colson: And I'm Caleb.
• 00:19 Joshua: And it is sunrise Ai, and I've got to say I'm a little
• 00:22 confused because I do not see the master computer, the one
• 00:26 that I actually typed in, "Where are you?"
• 00:28 And ominously put coordinates to right here.
• 00:31 Caleb: I think you're confused.
• 00:32 You're talking about AI as an Artificial Intelligence.
• 00:34 This is the city of Ai where Joshua fought a very important
• 00:38 battle in history.
• 00:40 Joshua: Who on earth spells Ai with an A?
• 00:42 This makes absolutely no sense.
• 00:44 Caleb: It's a Canaanite thing, I guess.
• 00:46 Joshua: This guy's, just--I don't understand 'em.
• 00:48 Caleb: Take a look at what's happening this week.
• 00:50 Joshua: It's gonna be awesome.
• 00:52 ♪♪♪
• 01:02 ♪♪♪
• 01:15 Joshua: Hey, didn't see you standing there.
• 01:17 We're getting ready to head back to the West Bank.
• 01:20 I know for some of us that term is a little insulting to what
• 01:23 God has called that region, that area of land, which if you look
• 01:27 in the Old Testament, that's Judea and Samaria where 90%
• 01:30 of the stories of the Bible took place.
• 01:32 Caleb: That's right, Josh.
• 01:33 Joshua: And today, it's a little more contested, a little more
• 01:36 congested, and we're gonna go there anyway and have an
• 01:38 amazing time.
• 01:40 Caleb: We have to guys, because it's very important to tell the
• 01:42 story from the locations in which it occurred.
• 01:46 Now, there are some more frequent areas in the West Bank
• 01:48 today such as Bethlehem, you know, that's become a tourist
• 01:51 hotspot, Jericho.
• 01:53 We need to go deeper, and right now, it's one of the most
• 01:56 volatile places in the West Bank than it's been since the
• 02:00 last Intifada.
• 02:02 I mean, it's really stirred up right now, but God told us to
• 02:04 go, so we're going.
• 02:05 So we'll be okay.
• 02:08 Joshua: Yeah.
• 02:09 Caleb: The mainstream media rarely talks about the nonstop
• 02:11 assaults and terrorist attacks that occur in the West Bank.
• 02:15 It's a bit like the wild wild west.
• 02:17 There are pockets of Jewish communities fenced off to avoid
• 02:20 being infiltrated and attacked by these terrorists.
• 02:23 So let's just say the West Bank, which is the biblical region of
• 02:26 Judea and Samaria, is separated from regional Israel by a really
• 02:31 big wall.
• 02:33 But we needed an expert in warfare and the Bible to join us
• 02:36 today along with our friend evangelist Israel Hanna.
• 02:40 That's why we called up Sergeant Major Chaim Malespin.
• 02:43 For over two years, Chaim has fought fearlessly in the Gaza
• 02:46 Strip, uncovering Hamas's terror tunnels, he's found weapons
• 02:49 hoards under kindergartens and hospitals.
• 02:52 He's literally on the front lines of battle every day.
• 02:55 We're heading to the site of the most infamous battle during the
• 02:58 conquest of Canaan, the Battle of Ai.
• 03:01 Ai is close to the city of Bethel or Bet-El.
• 03:05 Joshua and I visited Bethel the day after the October
• 03:08 7 massacre.
• 03:10 Scripture says in Genesis 12:8 that "Abraham camped out here
• 03:14 between Bethel and Ai where he built an altar to God."
• 03:18 Now, to Ai.
• 03:21 Joshua: You know, it's a shame that it's such a horrible view.
• 03:23 It would make sense that they wouldn't want to have anything
• 03:25 to do with this land whatsoever.
• 03:28 Caleb: It is pretty epic.
• 03:29 This is the site believed to be Ai.
• 03:32 It's today called Et-Tell, which means heap of ruins.
• 03:35 You can see the ruins of four layers of civilization they
• 03:39 believe behind us, destroyed by earthquake, by fire, by war,
• 03:44 fire that was so intense it caused the calcinization of the
• 03:48 rock, and we know that Joshua said to have burned the city.
• 03:52 Sgt. Maj. Chaim Malespin: This is quite fortified.
• 03:53 I know that they came up with a small group of Israelis, but to
• 03:57 take it.
• 03:59 But this thing is actually really well fortified.
• 04:00 And some of these walls are what, 60 feet more thick, and
• 04:06 you know what?
• 04:07 I'm just wondering what the residents here thought.
• 04:09 Are they sure they've heard of the God of Israel and the Ark of
• 04:12 the Covenant, and they must have heard of Jericho falling.
• 04:15 Were they confident that they would beat the Jewish people?
• 04:20 Caleb: I don't know, but they said Bethel is just over the
• 04:22 hill that way, and we even heard from that Scripture I read
• 04:25 earlier that Abraham encamped in the valley in between Bethel and
• 04:29 Ai and that was their ally.
• 04:30 So yes, they could probably send up smoke signals, which we'll
• 04:33 learn on later that would signal people, but this was definitely
• 04:36 a fortified hill, and I'd like to explore more of it.
• 04:39 Joshua 7:2.
• 04:40 "Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside
• 04:44 Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them,
• 04:47 saying, 'Go up and spy out the country.'
• 04:49 So the men went up and spied out Ai."
• 04:52 Joshua: This is a vista right here.
• 04:54 As we discussed, it's crazy.
• 04:56 There's so many things about this exact spot and about this
• 04:58 city that are beneficial that we can talk about.
• 05:00 One thing that intrigues me 'cause I love timelines is the
• 05:04 archaeology here, right?
• 05:06 The style of everything that's built.
• 05:07 This is before the Great Pyramids were built, but they
• 05:10 found that the style of the building of this area mimics
• 05:14 that of the Egyptian area in the pyramids.
• 05:17 So somebody here had the same technology, the same building
• 05:21 skills, and what's crazy about that is we know that the
• 05:23 pyramids baffle us on how they did that.
• 05:25 So if somebody was doing that before the pyramids, there's got
• 05:28 to be a connect the dot for who was helping 'cause it couldn't
• 05:30 have just been the people here, they had to help from
• 05:32 somebody else.
• 05:33 Chaim: It's true and the place they picked for Ai right here.
• 05:37 As a sergeant major, having fought in many wars and
• 05:39 including the Seven Front War, you see, man, you always wanna
• 05:42 get a vantage point.
• 05:43 You always wanna get a strategic crossroads.
• 05:45 I mean, just go that way to Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethel, of
• 05:49 course, behind us, you got the mountains of Jordan in the
• 05:51 distance there, mountains of Jordan, the Dead Sea, this is
• 05:54 like the crossroads of Europe, Africa, Asia, the continents,
• 05:59 and you got trade that wants the Nabataeans.
• 06:02 And so if you have a fortress here, solid fortress, you can
• 06:05 control and tax everybody and you can rule this whole place
• 06:09 and that's what the residents here were doing.
• 06:11 Caleb: That's correct and archaeologists are still up in
• 06:14 the air whether this was the biblical eye, because some say
• 06:17 it could have been Beth-Aven or the Ai of Abraham's time and
• 06:20 then Ai of Joshua's time was a different time, and some believe
• 06:24 a new site that was discovered 1 kilometer this way Kiryat, El
• 06:27 Magatier is the real site, but John Garstang, who invented the
• 06:32 pottery dating system dated the pottery found here to the
• 06:34 destruction of the burnt layer to 1400 BC around the time that
• 06:38 Joshua and the Israelites were here.
• 06:40 So I'd go by my money that this is biblical Ai.
• 06:42 Joshua: I go burnt pottery every time.
• 06:45 Show us the next spot, brother.
• 06:46 Caleb: Yeah, let's get to the top now.
• 06:48 We'll see what's up here.
• 06:49 Joshua 7:3 through 5, "And they returned to Joshua and said to
• 06:53 him, 'Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or
• 06:56 three thousand men go up and attack Ai.
• 06:58 Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai
• 07:01 are few.'
• 07:03 So about three thousand men went up from there from the people,
• 07:05 but they fled before the men of Ai.
• 07:07 And the men of I struck down about thirty-six men."
• 07:10 Thirty-six soldiers dying from an army of 600,000 is not bad
• 07:16 odds, but for the Israelites, this was a stab in the gut
• 07:20 'cause they had--
• 07:21 Joshua: Were this their first casualties?
• 07:23 Caleb: This is their first list of casualties that had happened
• 07:25 and so they were really upset and so they knew God wasn't
• 07:29 fighting for them 'cause every other victory they had obtained.
• 07:33 So I think before we even focus on everybody knows the story is
• 07:36 gonna lead to Achan, I think there's three mistakes that
• 07:40 Joshua made in coming to this point and the first mistake is
• 07:43 he didn't consult God, I want to do.
• 07:46 Numbers 27:21 said that Joshua was always supposed to consult
• 07:49 God by the Urim and Thummim to know what the plan was
• 07:52 of action.
• 07:53 And the second mistake he did was he did not send the whole
• 07:56 army to battle, which God said always when you go to battle,
• 07:59 the whole army goes, no one's staying behind, but they only
• 08:02 sent 3000.
• 08:03 Joshua: Now let me jump into number three.
• 08:05 Caleb: You go ahead.
• 08:06 Joshua: Number three, I feel very personal about because I
• 08:07 call number three the wandering juice in, okay?
• 08:10 At a moment where he's messed up and he knows it, instead of
• 08:14 going to God in repentance, instead of on behalf of his
• 08:17 decision and Israel, he falls on his face and he throws a tantrum
• 08:21 like they did back in the day when they didn't want to have
• 08:23 any more manna and they didn't know why they didn't have this,
• 08:26 and he goes, "Woe is me.
• 08:28 Why would you lead us out here to do this?
• 08:30 What?"
• 08:32 And this is how God is.
• 08:33 So I kind of like this part that kind of scares me.
• 08:35 At that point, God goes, "Get off your face and stop throwing
• 08:39 a tantrum.
• 08:40 You sinned.
• 08:42 This isn't on me.
• 08:43 This is on you."
• 08:44 And Josh goes, okay, my bad.
• 08:48 No, I just think, I think this is a message for everybody.
• 08:51 Like yesterday, today, Old Testament, New Testament, we
• 08:53 throw everything on God, right?
• 08:55 This bad stuff, this is your fault.
• 08:57 This happened to me, this is 'cause of you.
• 08:58 And you look at it and it all links back to a decision that we
• 09:01 made because he's been the one defending us the entire time.
• 09:04 He is going to honor those who repent.
• 09:06 When you come to him humbly, he honors you and he lifts you up.
• 09:09 When you go to him in pride, when you go to him in
• 09:11 accusation, what happens?
• 09:12 You fall--
• 09:13 Chaim: It's true.
• 09:15 And going back to what Caleb says is the unity 'cause
• 09:16 I feel like it's my brother, my sister that we're taking to
• 09:18 Hamas tunnels.
• 09:20 They're part of our people.
• 09:21 It's not just all about me.
• 09:22 We gotta be unified.
• 09:24 We gotta be one people.
• 09:25 And when you said, "Hey, you guys go fight the battle, maybe
• 09:27 the rest of us are gonna sort of chill," you start to get too
• 09:30 individualistic and you lose the people.
• 09:34 I mean, we're gonna get to Achan, I'm aching to get there,
• 09:39 but I mean, he does something selfish.
• 09:40 I won't talk about it now, but he does something
• 09:43 individualistic and God writes to a people, to a nation, to
• 09:47 a family, to tribes which can't be individualistic.
• 09:50 They gotta be together.
• 09:52 Israel Hanna: So what was the bottom line?
• 09:54 What was the bottom line of Joshua's sin?
• 09:56 He did not listen to that voice of his commander.
• 09:59 He did not listen to that still small voice to tune in that what
• 10:03 do you want me to specifically do in this situation?
• 10:06 He failed to obey the rules that are already given him in combat,
• 10:11 and that's a death experience.
• 10:14 You don't win after that.
• 10:15 Caleb: Let's go learn about Achan so Hanna doesn't make any
• 10:17 more dad jokes. [all chuckle]
• 10:19 Joshua 7:10 through 12, "The Lord said to Joshua, 'Stand up!
• 10:23 What are you doing down on your face?
• 10:25 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I
• 10:29 commanded them to keep.
• 10:30 They have taken some of the devoted things: they have
• 10:33 stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their
• 10:35 own possessions.
• 10:37 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against
• 10:39 their enemies.
• 10:40 I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever
• 10:43 among you is devoted to destruction."
• 10:45 Chaim: I think one of the things that's easy to forget sometimes
• 10:48 is this is God's land.
• 10:49 It's not even actually the Jewish people's land.
• 10:52 Yeah, we were the stewards, God asks us stewards.
• 10:54 Caleb: He's leasing it to us.
• 10:56 Chaim: Yeah, he wants us to steward it, but it's his land,
• 10:57 and he gets the first fruits of the increase.
• 11:00 When you think of everything that was in the, you know, when
• 11:03 the walls of Jericho fell, all this spoil and all this rich
• 11:06 stuff, that belongs to God.
• 11:07 That's first fruits.
• 11:09 Same with Ai.
• 11:10 It says, Joshua said, "This is sacred or sanctified or set
• 11:13 apart to God.
• 11:14 That's God's stuff.
• 11:16 Don't mess with God's stuff."
• 11:17 And the thing is, is that I think when Achan saw this cloak
• 11:20 from Shinar, Shinar, what is that?
• 11:22 Mesopotamia, but he's going all individualistic again, me, me,
• 11:26 me, and that is not cool because we're a community, we're
• 11:30 a people like I was saying earlier, and one person messes
• 11:34 up, well, they're also messing with the whole entire community.
• 11:37 Caleb: And that's why everybody paid the consequence for his
• 11:40 one sin.
• 11:41 And when they had to punish him, they had to kill off his entire
• 11:44 family, all the animals, everything that was connected,
• 11:47 and then they heap the pile of stones over the body.
• 11:50 It's interesting 'cause when archaeologists were digging
• 11:52 here, we're in the acropolis right now.
• 11:54 We're, well I guess would be a palace or
• 11:56 administrative headquarters.
• 11:57 There's a temple section over there and originally they found
• 12:00 a heap of stones 28 feet tall that was covering around there.
• 12:05 I mean, and you'll figure out later that Joshua does the same
• 12:09 thing to the king of Ai.
• 12:10 Heaps the stones on it, so there's a connection there with
• 12:13 the stones, but still this heap of stones as Et-Tell is called,
• 12:16 is all about the punishment of showing that rebellion like you
• 12:20 said, against God.
• 12:21 Joshua: A lot of people get really confused at this idea of
• 12:24 God killing the entire family, and they get really angry.
• 12:28 How can this be a good God?
• 12:29 He killed the woman, he killed the children, he killed
• 12:30 the animals.
• 12:32 And that's because people don't understand the DNA of sin.
• 12:34 If you look throughout the Bible and the way we're examining it
• 12:36 through the nepheline and all this other stuff, there is DNA
• 12:39 involved in everything.
• 12:41 We were birthed and created out of God's DNA.
• 12:43 So Satan came in and tried to inject his DNA into man.
• 12:46 The Banalohim, you know, procreating with women and
• 12:49 causing all these problems.
• 12:50 So what happens with sin is the father commits that sin and it's
• 12:54 imprinted on the DNA of his bloodline.
• 12:56 And so then his children to the third and fourth generations
• 13:00 have this imprint of DNA on sin DNA through them.
• 13:04 They have this propensity, they have this oppression, this
• 13:06 burden, and we see this, but they didn't understand at
• 13:08 the time.
• 13:09 And so in Exodus--
• 13:11 Caleb: Says, I have it right here.
• 13:12 Joshua: Yeah, right there, read it.
• 13:13 Caleb: 20:5 through 6 it says, "For I, the Lord your God, and
• 13:15 a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the
• 13:17 parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
• 13:20 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me
• 13:24 and keep my commandments."
• 13:25 So there was no way to break the generational curse back then.
• 13:28 Joshua: Back then because you didn't have Jesus's sacrifice so
• 13:30 that you couldn't break it.
• 13:31 And yes, third and fourth generations, that's bad, but
• 13:33 1000 generations of blessings.
• 13:35 So the comparison is like this, but he still had to wipe
• 13:38 that out.
• 13:39 Hanna: Achan's sin as the father of his family affected not only
• 13:42 the entire family, but the entire nation of Israel.
• 13:45 And the lesson is in that today for us as fathers, our sins and
• 13:50 the way we handle our own families, affect our families,
• 13:53 affect our children, affect our wives.
• 13:55 To this day, that's a principle that's an existence that we as
• 14:00 Christians and Jewish people need to understand that as
• 14:03 fathers throughout the land, we have to be careful that we will
• 14:06 try our utmost to live a righteous holy life.
• 14:11 Caleb: Joshua 8:1 through 2: "Then the Lord said to Joshua,
• 14:14 'Do not be afraid: do not be discouraged.
• 14:16 Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai.
• 14:20 For I have delivered into your hands the King of Ai, his
• 14:23 people, his city and his land.
• 14:25 You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its
• 14:29 king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock
• 14:32 for yourselves.
• 14:33 Set an ambush behind the city."
• 14:36 Joshua: This part of the story is where it is revealed that God
• 14:40 is the grand master risk champion.
• 14:43 If you've ever played the game of global domination, this is
• 14:46 where God excels and says it's not gonna take me eight hours to
• 14:48 conquer the world.
• 14:49 I'm gonna do it like that, because he creates a plan of
• 14:52 battle that is so strategic, so masterful that even Joshua in
• 14:56 his worst tantrum couldn't ruin it and mess it up.
• 14:58 Caleb: And here's what the plan is because this, it all has to
• 15:01 do with this vantage point and the line of sight that you can
• 15:04 see here.
• 15:06 So northern gate of the city right here.
• 15:08 Joshua took 600,000 men on that hill and they camped out.
• 15:12 They're like the red herring, "Everybody look at me, look at
• 15:15 me over here."
• 15:16 All the while he sends 30,000 men secretly to the south to
• 15:20 hide behind that mountain right there, there's a valley right
• 15:23 there, you can't see 30,000 men that are hiding in that area.
• 15:27 Secretly also, he decides to send 5000 men to hide in that
• 15:31 valley in the woods in between Bethel and Ai, so you have the
• 15:35 battle plot set up.
• 15:37 Then that evening he moves his encampment from where they could
• 15:41 see it at the northern gates down into the valley.
• 15:43 The king of Ai says, "Oh no, they're gonna get ready to
• 15:45 attack in the morning, so they're gonna jump the gun.
• 15:48 They're gonna attack them at dawn before that happens."
• 15:51 So then he attacks at dawn, and the king of Ai goes out to meet
• 15:54 'em in battle.
• 15:55 And what do the Israelites do?
• 15:57 "Oh no, we're being defeated again."
• 15:58 And they run west through this valley that leads all the way to
• 16:02 the Dead Sea.
• 16:04 And while they're doing that, guess what happens?
• 16:06 These 30,000 men that are hiding, they come sneaking up.
• 16:09 They sneak into the city gates that are wide open.
• 16:11 I had already called for reinforcement with
• 16:13 smoke signals.
• 16:15 Bethel sees it they're chasing out those 5000 men going to that
• 16:18 city and they're burning these cities to the ground and they
• 16:21 have no idea 'cause they're chasing Joshua and his men.
• 16:23 Chaim: They're out thinking they're winning.
• 16:25 Caleb: Yes, it's crazy.
• 16:26 Chaim: And the gates are wide open, unlocked.
• 16:29 Caleb: Joshua 8:18 through 20.
• 16:31 "Then the Lord said to Joshua, 'Hold out toward Ai the javelin
• 16:35 that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver
• 16:37 the city.'
• 16:39 So Joshua held out toward the city the javelin that was in
• 16:41 his hand.
• 16:42 As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly from
• 16:45 their position and rushed forward.
• 16:47 They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it
• 16:50 on fire.
• 16:51 The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of a city rising
• 16:53 up into the sky, but they had no chance to escape in any
• 16:56 direction; the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the
• 16:59 wilderness had turned back against their pursuers."
• 17:02 Caleb: So yeah, they burned this city to the ground.
• 17:06 And there's so much evidence that it happened, but Joshua and
• 17:09 his army is still fleeing, and he raises his javelin as
• 17:14 that sign.
• 17:15 This was really the sign that everybody turned around and
• 17:18 swarm, go into the city's burning down, he raises his
• 17:20 javelin, turns around, and then that's when they realize,
• 17:23 oh c--, it was a trap.
• 17:25 And they surround the armies of Ai, they annihilate them
• 17:29 completely and no one is left of the sea.
• 17:32 There's supposed to be 12,000 in this city that they annihilated.
• 17:35 The only one they left alive was the king of Ai.
• 17:37 He takes the king of Ai and he hangs him on a tree, on a cross
• 17:42 to die.
• 17:43 And then at sunset, which it is right now, he took the body and
• 17:46 right north at the gate of the city, which is right here, he
• 17:48 laid the dead body and he piled up once again the heap of stones
• 17:52 as a monument, as a marker letting everybody know this city
• 17:56 is cursed, this is what happens when you mess with the people
• 17:59 of Yahweh.
• 18:01 Joshua: I think that when I listen to these stories of what
• 18:04 God has to do, what actually happens and then how God fixes
• 18:08 it in the end, everything is always pointing back to, "I am
• 18:11 God, trust in me, I have your back, but I also have a plan
• 18:16 that you don't understand yet."
• 18:18 And I think we have a huge propensity in life to get caught
• 18:21 up in trying to calculate God's plan first before we obey.
• 18:25 Chaim: Life passes so quickly.
• 18:26 This life is boom and it's gone.
• 18:28 Eternity, you have to live with what you did in this life.
• 18:31 Why not do your absolute best for God?
• 18:34 Joshua: Amen my brother.
• 18:36 Where do we go from here?
• 18:37 Caleb: This way, Joshua 8:30 through 31.
• 18:40 "Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of
• 18:45 Israel, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had command of
• 18:48 the Israelites."
• 18:49 When we look at this area that we're standing in right now, the
• 18:52 term that's used by many is the West Bank, as opposed to Judea
• 18:56 and Samaria.
• 18:57 You say, "Why is that?"
• 18:59 Because we go back again to decisions being made, blessing
• 19:01 and cursing.
• 19:03 This land is disputed because at the times in history where man
• 19:06 was supposed to listen to God and make decisions, he didn't
• 19:09 do it.
• 19:10 And he made mistakes and the enemy is grasping to take
• 19:14 everything that belongs to God's people away from them because he
• 19:17 wants God to suffer and he wants God's people to suffer.
• 19:20 It is our responsibility to hold fast to what God's called us to
• 19:24 do, not because God wants to control us, manipulate us.
• 19:27 He has blessings for us.
• 19:29 He has promises for us that are for our good, but we have to
• 19:33 trust in him and kick sin out of our life so that we can fulfill
• 19:37 what God has for us.
• 19:38 Caleb: That's right.
• 19:40 Now, we've been talking about Satan's side of the conquest of
• 19:43 Canaan and how he has enacted these giant world dominating
• 19:47 kingdoms to try to take God's land throughout history and
• 19:50 we've talked about the Canaanites, we talked about
• 19:53 the Egyptians.
• 19:54 We have a new kingdom to talk about this week and we're
• 19:56 traveling to Jerusalem to do so, so join us.
• 19:59 Joshua: Do we have to walk to Jerusalem now 'cause it's kind
• 20:01 of, it's kind of a job though, don't you think?
• 20:04 Joshua: The "Bearded Bible Brothers" is an outreach of Zola
• 20:06 Levitt Ministries.
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• 20:10 "Levitt Letter," or call 1-800-WONDERS.
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• 20:34 Caleb: Our resource for this program, the book "The Mountains
• 20:37 of Israel: The Bible and the West Bank" by Norma Archbold.
• 20:41 A profound ignorance exists today concerning the land of
• 20:44 Israel, thanks to the false picture presented by news media.
• 20:47 The so-called Palestinians claimed their land was stolen by
• 20:50 invading Jews.
• 20:51 Learn the true origins of Judea and Samaria, the incorrectly
• 20:55 named West Bank, and why this territory belongs to the
• 20:58 Jewish people.
• 20:59 Call 1-800-WONDERS or visit LEVITT.COM for
• 21:02 "The Mountains of Israel."
• 21:05 Caleb: 2 Kings 17:5 through 6, "The king of Assyria invaded the
• 21:10 entire land, marched against Samaria, and laid siege to it
• 21:14 for three years.
• 21:15 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria
• 21:19 and deported the Israelites to Assyria.
• 21:22 He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Harbor River and in
• 21:27 the towns of the Medes."
• 21:30 Caleb: You guessed it, guys.
• 21:32 Assyria is the next kingdom to try to conquer Israel and
• 21:36 almost succeeds.
• 21:37 We're here at a war zone from times past.
• 21:40 This is Ammunition Hill, and I'm so excited to be here.
• 21:43 Joshua: Oh boy.
• 21:45 Brother, I have questions.
• 21:46 This is for protection, this wall?
• 21:48 Caleb: This is a foxhole, Josh.
• 21:49 We hide out here so the bad guys can't shoot us in the face.
• 21:52 Joshua: This is clearly fox sized.
• 21:53 I have serious issues with the height here.
• 21:55 Well, did they stop on Shabbat one day and didn't continue?
• 21:57 What's going on here?
• 21:58 Caleb: Okay, it's possibly not Jewish height, but guys, this is
• 22:01 where a major battle took place, as I mentioned, during the Six
• 22:04 Day War of the Battle of Ammunition Hill.
• 22:06 So this was a storage depot way back during the British mandate
• 22:10 for ammunition when they had a police academy up here.
• 22:13 Well, the Jordanians were occupying it during the war and
• 22:17 the Israelis need to take this cover point because they were
• 22:20 taking out their civilians.
• 22:21 Now, the Jews didn't wanna bomb it and wipe out other innocents,
• 22:25 so they were shelling the site and then they're gonna go in on
• 22:28 foot with their paratroopers.
• 22:30 They had intelligence that there was only one platoon of
• 22:33 Jordanian soldiers here.
• 22:34 They showed up and there was 150 soldiers, three to one, they
• 22:38 were outnumbered.
• 22:39 Wasn't good odds.
• 22:41 Joshua: They did win though, and they won by God's mighty hand.
• 22:43 And after 2000 years, they finally reclaimed that eastern
• 22:47 wall and were able to go and pray at the Wailing Wall.
• 22:50 At that moment, they could have taken control of everything, but
• 22:53 it wasn't God's timing, and so instead they gifted it to
• 22:57 Jordan Walk.
• 22:58 Caleb: Josh, as much as I wanna talk more about this battle of
• 23:00 Ammunition Hill and the Six Day War, how God delivered the
• 23:03 Jewish people and they rested on the seventh day, we're supposed
• 23:06 to be here to talk about Assyria, remember?
• 23:08 Joshua: That's right.
• 23:09 Caleb: What's the connection here?
• 23:11 Joshua: Well, I'm glad you asked.
• 23:12 The connection is archaeology, and the archaeologists have
• 23:13 found that there was another massive battle that took place
• 23:15 here when Assyria besieged Jerusalem in 701 BC.
• 23:20 Caleb: Okay, that's a very important moment in history.
• 23:23 Well, let's look back at the Assyrian Empire.
• 23:26 They were the descendants of Nimrod, and at this moment in
• 23:29 history, they were conquering most of the known world.
• 23:32 They were very violent and ruthless and instead of like the
• 23:35 Egyptian kingdom that conquered the people and then they
• 23:38 installed the vassal king who paid tribute, Assyria just
• 23:41 obliterated everybody in their path.
• 23:43 So the Assyrians had conquered most of the known world all of
• 23:47 Mesopotamia, Turkey, and even down into Egypt.
• 23:52 They even took the kingdom of Israel captive.
• 23:55 Ten tribes of Israel were taken prisoners, and all that was left
• 23:59 was this tiny little splot of the kingdom of Judah surrounded
• 24:03 by enemies.
• 24:05 Isaiah 36:1 through 2, "In the 14th year of King Hezekiah's
• 24:10 reign, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, attacked all the
• 24:12 fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
• 24:15 Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large
• 24:18 army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem."
• 24:22 Joshua: All of the fortresses of Judah, including Lachish had
• 24:28 been destroyed, which we visited on our last trip here.
• 24:31 The Assyrians were very brutal in battle.
• 24:34 They would flay the skin off the bones of their enemies.
• 24:37 They would impale them with massive sticks in one end and
• 24:39 not the other until they suffocated.
• 24:41 They would cut open pregnant bellies and kill the
• 24:44 babies inside.
• 24:45 It was very gruesome.
• 24:48 Caleb: Now, King Sennacherib was busy at Tel-Lachish
• 24:51 murdering Jews, so he sends one of his commanding officers to
• 24:55 Jerusalem to issue a dire threat to King Hezekiah.
• 24:59 And this blasphemous officer comes before the gates of the
• 25:02 city and shouts even in Hebrew for everyone to hear that he
• 25:08 defies Yahweh, the God of Israel.
• 25:11 He curses him.
• 25:13 He's, you know, it is the most blasphemous thing that he
• 25:15 commands Hezekiah to surrender now or they're gonna be
• 25:19 wiped out.
• 25:20 Hezekiah doesn't surrender, but he's so stirred, he's so upset.
• 25:24 And he rips his robes, puts on sackcloth and ashes, he sends
• 25:29 word to the prophet Isaiah asking, "What can we do?
• 25:32 Is God gonna deliver us?"
• 25:34 And God through the prophet Isaiah speaks and says, "Don't
• 25:38 worry, I'm gonna take care of the army of King Sennacherib and
• 25:41 his death is imminent."
• 25:43 But then again, Sennacherib doesn't give up.
• 25:45 He sends his officer and he shouts more blasphemous taunts
• 25:49 to surrender.
• 25:50 So Hezekiah goes before the temple of God.
• 25:53 He lays flat on his face and cries out to God for mercy.
• 25:58 He humbles himself.
• 26:00 And because of that, God decides to act, and this is what the
• 26:05 Lord did for his people.
• 26:07 Isaiah 37:36 through 38.
• 26:11 "Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred
• 26:14 and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp.
• 26:17 When the people got up the next morning--there were all the
• 26:20 dead bodies.
• 26:22 So Sennacherib king of Assyria, broke camp and withdrew.
• 26:25 He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
• 26:27 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok,
• 26:32 his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword."
• 26:37 Caleb: But the point of this whole story is that God once
• 26:40 again saved his people and showed himself strong.
• 26:44 Now, once again we came here to Ammunition Hill to tell that
• 26:47 story of the Assyrians.
• 26:50 Recently, archaeological evidence, satellite imagery has
• 26:53 unveiled something very interesting.
• 26:55 They believe, Josh, that this hill where that battle of the
• 26:59 Six Day War took place was also the location where Sennacherib's
• 27:02 forces were camped out.
• 27:04 They believe this is the location where the angel of the
• 27:07 Lord wiped out 185,000 Assyrians in one night, sending them
• 27:13 packing home.
• 27:14 It's amazing.
• 27:16 Joshua: This is the entire point of conquest of Canaan.
• 27:17 Who can stand against the armies of the Lord?
• 27:20 No one.
• 27:21 Who can stand against what he has promised?
• 27:23 When the Father has given his word, when he has made
• 27:26 a covenant, it doesn't matter who you are, how big your armies
• 27:29 are, if you're a fallen cherub, if you're this or that, it does
• 27:32 not matter.
• 27:33 You can't have what God has promised.
• 27:35 You can't take it from him.
• 27:36 There's gonna be times in your life where it may seem like
• 27:38 Satan has the upper hand, but it's only for a second.
• 27:41 Do not give up, do not give in, do not lay down.
• 27:45 If you do that, he'll win because you've submitted,
• 27:48 but you stand firm in what God has promised you, and nothing
• 27:52 in this universe can take it from you.
• 27:54 Caleb: So we thank you from the bottom of our hearts and most
• 27:57 importantly, the Lord thanks you for furthering his gospel.
• 28:00 And as you go, don't forget to Sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim.
• 28:04 Joshua: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 28:06 Joshua: Did you know the "Bearded Bible Brothers" is
• 28:08 an outreach of Zola Levitt Ministries?
• 28:10 That means we are entirely donor funded.
• 28:12 Consider giving at Levitt.com.
• 28:13 You can also join the Bearded Bible Bonanza to access
• 28:16 additional content at patreon.com/BeardedBibleBonanza.
• 28:20 Please support our mission to spread the gospel of Yeshua by
• 28:23 subscribing to our social media and sharing our online messages.
• 28:27 And as always, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.