Caption transcript for Conquest of Canaan: “The Battle of the Waters of Merom” (5/8)

• 00:01 ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Joshua Colson: Well, hey,
• 00:18 everybody, I'm Joshua. Caleb Colson: And I'm Caleb.
• 00:20 Joshua: He's my little brother, but today this week on--
• 00:23 Caleb: The "Bearded Bible Brothers."
• 00:24 Joshua: Yeah, we are.
• 00:26 You wanna see this. Check it out.
• 00:28 ♪♪♪
• 00:38 ♪♪♪
• 00:48 ♪♪♪
• 00:51 Caleb: Last week, God helped the Israelites obtain a supernatural
• 00:55 victory over a coalition of five Amorite kings, but their cities
• 00:59 remain to be conquered.
• 01:01 For the next 5 years, Joshua would leave the Hebrews to clear
• 01:05 out southern and central Canaan.
• 01:07 But some cities fell more quickly than others.
• 01:11 Joshua 10:40-43, "So Joshua subdued the whole region,
• 01:16 including the hill country, the Negev, the western foothills and
• 01:20 the mountain slopes, together with all their kings.
• 01:24 He left no survivors.
• 01:25 He totally destroyed all who breathed, just as the Lord, the
• 01:29 God of Israel, had commanded.
• 01:30 Joshua subdued them from Kadesh Barnea to Gaza and from the
• 01:34 whole region of Goshen to Gibeon.
• 01:37 All these kings and their lands Joshua conquered in one
• 01:40 campaign, because the Lord, the God of Israel, fought
• 01:43 for Israel.
• 01:44 Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal."
• 01:48 Caleb: So, guys, we finally made it to Tel Hazor.
• 01:52 Northern Galilee, guys
• 01:53 See how beautiful this is.
• 01:55 This city was the city of all cities, the hub for all of
• 01:59 northern Canaan.
• 02:01 I mean, it was imposing.
• 02:02 Jericho was a walk in the park compared to this guy.
• 02:05 The layers of civilization that people have founded here.
• 02:08 Layers means that a city was originally destroyed, so then
• 02:11 they covered dirt upon it and it created a tail, this elevated
• 02:14 platform that we have here.
• 02:16 And they found 21 layers of civilization here.
• 02:20 And this is the place where Joshua and the Israelites will
• 02:23 eventually have a showdown.
• 02:25 Joshua: Without a doubt, the largest city in all of Canaan
• 02:29 sits behind me now.
• 02:30 We're talking 200 acres of real estate, an upper city with
• 02:34 fortified walls of lower city tail, as he's described,
• 02:37 with layers.
• 02:39 This place right here was ten times larger than Jerusalem,
• 02:42 boasting a 30,000-person population.
• 02:45 Israel Hanna: So I can't believe it, man, how big this place is.
• 02:48 And it's the final battle before they come--you know, this is the
• 02:51 last battle to conquering the entire northern part of Israel
• 02:56 as a nation.
• 02:57 So in our lives, the--a lot of times the last battle for us is
• 03:02 something deep within us.
• 03:03 It could be a traumatic experience, it could be the loss
• 03:06 of a loved one, it could be maybe unforgiveness, somebody
• 03:10 you haven't forgiven.
• 03:11 It could be a thousand things.
• 03:12 It's like the last battle within you.
• 03:14 God has a plan for you even under those circumstances to
• 03:20 have victory over that trauma, that battle within you that he
• 03:24 wants to help you with, 'cause he loves you, my friend.
• 03:27 Caleb: Amen.
• 03:29 Caleb: Joshua 11:1-4, "And it came to pass, when Jabin King of
• 03:33 Hazor heard these things [the destruction of the southern
• 03:36 Canaanites], that he went to Jobab king of Madon, to the king
• 03:41 of Shimron, to the king of Achshaph, to the kings who were
• 03:45 from the north, in the mountains, in the plains south
• 03:48 of Chinneroth, in the lowland and in the heights of Dor on the
• 03:52 west to the Canaanites in the east and in the west.
• 03:55 The Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite in the
• 03:58 mountains, and the Hivite below Hermon in the land of Mizpah.
• 04:03 So they went out, they and all their armies with them, as many
• 04:07 people as the sand that is on the seashore in multitude, with
• 04:11 very many horses and chariots."
• 04:14 Joshua: Most epic showdown setup ever.
• 04:19 We're not talking tiny five puny king coalition kind of attacks
• 04:23 here, we're talking about the entirety of northern Canaan
• 04:27 getting together in one Israelite crushing powerful
• 04:31 force brought to you by Jabin.
• 04:33 Jabin, not a name.
• 04:34 You may think that, this mean guy named Jabin.
• 04:37 It was a dynastic title.
• 04:38 You know, like the Pharaoh or something like that.
• 04:40 He had a position given to him probably by the Egyptians and he
• 04:44 was the royal of a royal city.
• 04:46 It gave him the ability to command all of them at his will,
• 04:50 which then brought this army together for a little bit of
• 04:53 Joshua crushing power.
• 04:54 Caleb: That's not very nice.
• 04:56 Here we are in the evidence that the Israelites had a victory.
• 05:00 This is Solomon's gate.
• 05:02 So later on Solomon does take this city and he refortifies it.
• 05:05 This is very interesting.
• 05:07 It's his special design, a triple gate, and it has six
• 05:10 chambers for guard houses and whatever else they need.
• 05:14 This Solomon gate is the same design, Josh, that we saw at Tel
• 05:17 Gezer and at Tel Megiddo.
• 05:19 So we've seen all the three royal cities that Solomon built
• 05:23 up, and they were important fortification spaces because he
• 05:28 held his chariots here.
• 05:30 They had plains around.
• 05:31 So you know how rocky the mountains are there.
• 05:33 He could get his chariots in and out here, his horses.
• 05:37 Israel: So it's amazing.
• 05:38 Everything is a type and shadow of our own lives, I think.
• 05:41 So why three gates?
• 05:43 Because when he put sections in it, one gate with
• 05:46 three sections.
• 05:47 It's the body, our soul, and our spirit that the enemy wants to
• 05:51 come through and attack us in, and he does that on a regular
• 05:54 basis, but we have--each gate had a gatekeeper.
• 05:58 The gatekeeper of our soul, body, and spirit is the Holy
• 06:02 Spirit, which lives within us, and he watches over us and he'll
• 06:05 tend the gate when we turn our lives over to him.
• 06:08 Joshua: This is pretty fancy.
• 06:10 Jabin City state was a convergence point, if you will,
• 06:13 of the road of the patriarchs.
• 06:15 That road that went between the Via Maris and the Mediterranean,
• 06:19 that road went all the way down to Egypt.
• 06:21 If anybody, anybody at all wanted to get to Canaan and they
• 06:24 were down in Africa chilling out or in Egypt, they had to go all
• 06:26 the way up through here and vice versa.
• 06:29 And that meant that Jabin got to set up a few Grecian
• 06:31 toll booths.
• 06:33 You know how in Greece, like, there are toll booth
• 06:34 every 3 minutes?
• 06:35 Joshua: That's how they had it here, and it made this city
• 06:37 lucrative and rich.
• 06:39 Caleb: It was very prosperous, Josh, but it was still
• 06:42 very pagan.
• 06:43 I mean, there were four temples to Canaanite gods that were up
• 06:46 in this city.
• 06:47 You know, there's one back there we saw.
• 06:49 And actually right here, this building has stumped many
• 06:53 archaeologists because they couldn't figure out what it was
• 06:56 at first.
• 06:57 It's obviously the focus of this entire acropolis.
• 07:00 This was a temple.
• 07:01 It was an administrative headquarters.
• 07:04 It was also an entertainment venue.
• 07:06 See that basalt column right there, just like the one we saw
• 07:09 in the lower entrance to the upper acropolis?
• 07:12 That's where the king would sit and be like,
• 07:13 "Hey, everybody, come into my party house."
• 07:15 This is the altar where they would perform sacrifices to
• 07:18 the gods.
• 07:19 But they were afraid, guys, because they heard what the God
• 07:24 of Israel did to the Egyptians.
• 07:26 And so no longer could the Egyptians help this city state
• 07:29 because they had once held dominance in the territory.
• 07:32 It was up to King Jabin to gather this alliance of the
• 07:36 greatest armies in the territory to defeat the Israelites.
• 07:40 Now, it's important that the Bible says they were greater
• 07:42 than the number of the sands upon the sea because we had
• 07:45 600,000 Israelites in their army, so they obviously had to
• 07:48 be more than the Israelites to scare them.
• 07:51 Joshua: That's a few--that's few people.
• 07:53 Caleb: Yeah.
• 07:54 Israel: You know, Caleb, throughout history, all nations
• 07:57 that arise have a king, an administrative center, and also
• 08:02 an entertainment area.
• 08:03 A business and a entertainment area.
• 08:05 Over here we have the temple.
• 08:07 And the temple, unfortunately, become sometimes an
• 08:11 entertainment center for the world.
• 08:13 And it's crazy that that's happened even in America and
• 08:16 throughout the world, that our temples that are meant to be
• 08:18 holy and a place of prayer are turned into
• 08:21 entertainment centers.
• 08:22 Why would they use entertainment?
• 08:24 'Cause entertainment subtracts all of the audience from the
• 08:29 most important things that there are, and that's God, Yeshua,
• 08:32 Hashem and the relationship with him.
• 08:34 It's amazing the way it works.
• 08:36 Caleb: Joshua 11:5, "And when all these kings had met
• 08:39 together, they came and camped together at the waters of Merom
• 08:42 to fight against Israel."
• 08:44 Caleb: Now, guys, down here you can see the entrance, the
• 08:46 connective tissue between the lower city and the upper city.
• 08:50 They just recently found a 15-foot wide stairwell that led
• 08:55 up and down so that most of the inhabitants of the city which
• 08:58 lived in the lower part of the tail could make it up to the
• 09:02 upper to do business.
• 09:03 Now, the lower part, Josh, was about 170 acres and the upper
• 09:09 part of the city of this acropolis was 30.
• 09:12 So you can see how big it is right here.
• 09:15 The location of Hazor is prime and important.
• 09:19 To the north here is the important Hula Valley, and this
• 09:23 valley, 4 miles wide, 16 miles long.
• 09:26 And this is the point, Josh, for a very important bird migration
• 09:31 that happens every year.
• 09:32 Joshua: Oh, good, I was wondering.
• 09:34 Caleb: Five hundred million birds would come there along the
• 09:37 Great Rift Valley.
• 09:38 All the way from Africa, they're heading up to Europe or to
• 09:41 the north.
• 09:43 This was the spot where they would stop 'cause there was a
• 09:45 great lake, the Hula Lake that used to be there, and they would
• 09:49 hang out.
• 09:50 But eventually when Israel was reestablished as a nation state
• 09:54 in the '50s, people were getting sick because it was more
• 09:57 swamp lands.
• 09:58 It wasn't well kept.
• 09:59 And so everybody was getting malaria from mosquitoes.
• 10:01 So they end up draining the lake, you can't really see it
• 10:04 today, and then they figured out it was starting to destroy
• 10:06 the ecosystem.
• 10:07 They're losing now on all those 500 million birds.
• 10:09 So they try to fill up just a little portion of it today, but
• 10:12 nothing what it used to be.
• 10:13 Joshua: Only you would find a way to weave birds and their
• 10:16 migration into Bible-telling stories.
• 10:19 Well, they needed fresh water nonetheless, and that's why they
• 10:21 had Merom, the freshwater spring in the west.
• 10:23 And the thing about this freshwater spring is it was
• 10:25 prime for drinking.
• 10:27 Who doesn't want fresh water?
• 10:28 Well, Jabin's like, "I got an idea.
• 10:30 I'm gonna call all the other kings and we're gonna meet over
• 10:33 here by this freshwater spring because now we can drink of
• 10:35 its deliciousness."
• 10:36 And the land was very flat over there, so they could bring
• 10:39 horses and chariots and line up all their gang together for the
• 10:42 most epic musical snap fight of all time versus
• 10:46 these Israelites.
• 10:47 This had everybody, every human, probably even Joshua shaking in
• 10:51 the boots because they had never faced horse and chariot in
• 10:54 battle before.
• 10:56 Caleb: Joshua 11:6, "But the Lord said to Joshua, 'Do not be
• 11:00 afraid because of them, for tomorrow about this time I will
• 11:03 deliver all them slain before Israel.
• 11:06 You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots
• 11:10 with fire.'"
• 11:11 Caleb: Back to this battle, back to the story.
• 11:13 You had six independent city states, ten nations gathered
• 11:18 together in the Hula Valley, which is right there, could fit
• 11:21 millions of people.
• 11:22 King Jabin and his army come together and they have horsemen,
• 11:26 they have chariots.
• 11:27 So these chariots were formable, they were destructive.
• 11:30 But, you know, the Hittite chariots and the Egyptian
• 11:33 chariots, one was more agile and one was heavier duty, one could
• 11:38 fit two people, a driver and a warrior, and one fit a spearman,
• 11:42 you know, a warrior, and a driver.
• 11:45 And so Joshua 17:16, that these chariots even had armor on the
• 11:51 outside of it.
• 11:52 So these were like--yeah, these were like tanks going through,
• 11:54 mowing down, like, an olive press, just crushing.
• 11:59 You know, blood filling up the valley everywhere they went.
• 12:01 You had to get out of the way before this chariot came.
• 12:04 Joshua 11:9, "So Joshua did to them as the Lord had told him:
• 12:08 he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots
• 12:11 with fire."
• 12:13 So that's a pretty sneaky move, guys.
• 12:14 And Josephus explains that after 5 days of marching from Gilgal,
• 12:18 they surprised him in the middle of the night.
• 12:19 That's pretty grueling march.
• 12:21 Israel: They say 16 kings they came up against.
• 12:24 And yet they won the battle under those circumstances
• 12:27 because God, my friend, had a plan, and he has a plan for you
• 12:32 in the midst of your own battle also.
• 12:34 Caleb: Man, I'm encouraged now.
• 12:36 Caleb: Joshua 11:7-8, "So Joshua and all the people of war with
• 12:40 him came against them suddenly by the waters of Merom, and they
• 12:45 attacked them, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of
• 12:48 Israel, who defeated them and chased them to Greater Sidon, to
• 12:52 the Brook Misrephoth, and to the Valley of Mizpah eastward; they
• 12:56 attacked them until they left none of them remaining."
• 13:01 Joshua: But the chase at this point was on.
• 13:04 It was a massive chase.
• 13:05 It was all--see this big place?
• 13:07 It was all over, right?
• 13:08 But not just there.
• 13:10 Lebanon, Golan Heights.
• 13:11 Caleb: They went in all directions.
• 13:12 Joshua: Syria, they just--they scattered like cats, right,
• 13:14 chasing them all down, it was a melee.
• 13:16 And then in the middle of all of this, Joshua knew one thing.
• 13:19 He had to cut off the head of the snake, he had to get Jabin.
• 13:22 And guess where Jabin runs to like little, whiny coward?
• 13:25 The fortified city there...
• 13:28 Caleb: This is--if he made it to this wall city, this protective
• 13:32 fortress, and he shut the gate, it would be siege that would
• 13:36 just last for months.
• 13:37 So it was definitely a race against time to get here.
• 13:40 They had cisterns here, they had enough food to outlast any kinda
• 13:44 siege, they had weapons on the wall, they had, you know,
• 13:47 archers and everything.
• 13:48 But the Israelites did make it here in time to fight a great
• 13:52 battle and to conquer this city.
• 13:54 So it's pretty cool.
• 13:56 Caleb: Joshua 11:10-11, "Joshua turned back at that time and
• 13:59 took Hazor, and struck its king with the sword; For Hazor was
• 14:03 formerly the head of all those kingdoms.
• 14:06 And they struck all the people who were in it with the edge of
• 14:08 the sword, utterly destroying them.
• 14:11 There was none left breathing.
• 14:13 Then he burned Hazor with fire."
• 14:16 Caleb: You know, archaeologists also did not have to really
• 14:19 imagine what happened here, because as you can see around
• 14:21 us, there's evidence of destruction.
• 14:23 Here's a burnt layer, the burnt layer of Joshua's time period
• 14:27 when he razed this place to the ground.
• 14:30 Another interesting thing--because this is the
• 14:32 temple, remember?
• 14:33 This is the temple center where they worship gods.
• 14:35 Is they found that there were standing stones around here up
• 14:38 in the front and around this whole city.
• 14:40 The Israelites chopped up the standing stones.
• 14:42 They destroyed the temple, burned them down.
• 14:44 Now, when any other foreign enemy would come, the Assyrians,
• 14:47 Babylonians, they would treat these temples with honor
• 14:51 and respect.
• 14:52 They would take the gods back to their kingdom, you know, worship
• 14:54 them because their gods were now on their side.
• 14:57 Not here.
• 14:58 This proves there was a monotheistic people who came
• 15:01 here and desecrated this territory.
• 15:03 That was the Israelites.
• 15:05 Israel: They may have purposely destroyed the pagan gods.
• 15:08 We in our lives as Christians have to destroy the pagan gods
• 15:11 in our lives.
• 15:12 Bible calls us to be separate from the world, crucify your
• 15:15 pagan gods, and live a righteous and holy life.
• 15:18 Caleb: Joshua 11:12-13, "So all the cities of those kings, and
• 15:22 all their kings Joshua took and struck with the
• 15:25 edge of the sword.
• 15:26 He utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of
• 15:28 the Lord had commanded.
• 15:30 But as for the cities that stood on their mounds, Israel burned
• 15:33 none of them, except Hazor only, which Joshua burned.
• 15:37 Joshua made war a long time with all of those kings."
• 15:41 Caleb: Wow, look at this little set of ruins, guys.
• 15:45 See that Israeli flag perched upon the top?
• 15:48 That's because this is the Israelite portion ruins of
• 15:51 the city.
• 15:52 This is where we can see that Israel eventually dominated and
• 15:56 rebuilt Hazor, as we know, of course, from Solomon's gate that
• 16:00 we already walked through.
• 16:01 But unfortunately, as we know by the story, the Israelites end up
• 16:04 falling into sin hundreds of years later.
• 16:06 Assyria led by Tiglath-Pileser comes and destroys Hazor and
• 16:11 takes the Israelites captive into Assyria.
• 16:13 Now, eventually, according to the book of Jeremiah, they start
• 16:17 to rebuild these ruins here.
• 16:19 They don't complete the rebuilding by the time that King
• 16:21 Nebuchadnezzar shows up.
• 16:23 Now, Babylon's coming.
• 16:24 And this is what Jeremiah the prophet says in Jeremiah 49:33.
• 16:28 He says, "Hazor will become a haunt of jackals, a desolate
• 16:32 place forever.
• 16:34 No one will live there; no people will dwell in it."
• 16:38 Joshua: Well, funny he should say that because here we are in
• 16:41 Hazor today and nobody lives here.
• 16:44 So when God prophesies something, he makes it happen.
• 16:46 The shame of it all is that after going to such great
• 16:49 lengths to empower the Israelites to be an innumerable
• 16:52 army, an army without count, they sin again and then they get
• 16:56 taken captive.
• 16:57 Because every time they sin, they get taken captive.
• 16:59 So at the Syria battle and all those guys were taken captive
• 17:00 and they find themselves in the same place.
• 17:02 In essence, starting over, having to repent and waiting for
• 17:05 the next opportunity to claw their way back in the position
• 17:08 that they had destined for them.
• 17:10 Israel: You know, this reminds me, Joshua, 10 years of--I had a
• 17:13 jail ministry in northern Minnesota.
• 17:17 And in that ministry I would see people come and go constantly.
• 17:21 I call it the revolving door.
• 17:22 They would come in and they would come back and then they
• 17:25 would say, "This is the last time I'm ever gonna be here."
• 17:27 And I got knowing--and I got to be knowing someone as the last
• 17:31 stop sign and I said, I would tell them.
• 17:33 I said, "Now, listen.
• 17:35 You may have gone through here several, several times and
• 17:37 committed the same sin over and over again, but for some reason
• 17:41 if I come in here not because it's me but it could be the Lord
• 17:44 speaking directly to you, the next time you do this it may
• 17:48 cost you your life."
• 17:50 Because they don't do something you mentioned, a word that
• 17:53 everybody opposes and nobody wants to hear.
• 17:55 The word is repent.
• 17:57 Repent means to change your ways, go back the opposite way
• 18:01 that you're normally going.
• 18:02 We all need to repent of our sins, and each one of us and
• 18:06 myself included, on a daily basis almost because we are who
• 18:09 we are.
• 18:10 Joshua: I think the reason repentance is so important to
• 18:12 God is because if you are not repenting and you're operating
• 18:14 in that sin, that sin is actually fueled by pride.
• 18:18 And pride, that original sin is what caused Lucifer to get
• 18:21 thrown down.
• 18:22 And when you operate in pride, people say, "Well, that's not
• 18:24 that bad of a sin."
• 18:25 It's not the action that's happening, it's the motivation
• 18:28 behind the action, which is telling the God of the universe,
• 18:30 "I don't have to listen to you.
• 18:32 I get to do what I wanna do.
• 18:33 I want this lifestyle.
• 18:35 I've been able to give myself this, I've been able to create
• 18:37 this position for me.
• 18:38 So how about you just butt out of my life?"
• 18:40 And that's why pride goes before a fall, because the King of the
• 18:43 universe says, "I'm the only one in charge here."
• 18:46 And so as Joshua today, 'cause I am, and Joshua back then, I'm
• 18:50 gonna implore you, repent, get the pride out of your life.
• 18:55 There's nothing that you are holding on to that is worth
• 18:58 losing your soul over.
• 19:00 Today the Father is saying to you, "Humble yourself before me
• 19:03 and I'll exalt you before my Father."
• 19:06 All you have to do is give him that, whatever it is, the fear,
• 19:10 the lust, the sin, the pride, what--
• 19:12 anything in your heart, give it to him and humble yourself and
• 19:15 let him take control of your life or else let your life
• 19:18 become a story of a desolate land that no one lives in.
• 19:24 Joshua: The "Bearded Bible Brothers" is an outreach of Zola
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• 19:54 Caleb: Our resource for this program, the book "The Mountains
• 19:57 of Israel: The Bible and the West Bank" by Norma Archbold.
• 20:01 A profound ignorance exists today concerning the land of
• 20:04 Israel, thanks to the false picture presented by news media.
• 20:07 The so-called Palestinians claim their land was stolen by
• 20:10 invading Jews.
• 20:12 Learn the true origins of Judea and Samaria, the incorrectly
• 20:15 named West Bank, and why this territory belongs to the
• 20:18 Jewish people.
• 20:19 Call 1-800-WONDERS or visit Levitt.com for the "Mountains
• 20:23 of Israel."
• 20:24 Caleb: Isaiah 45:1, "'This is what the Lord says to his
• 20:27 anointed, to Cyrus whose right hand I take hold of to subdue
• 20:32 nations before him and to strip kings of their armor to open
• 20:36 doors before him so that gates will not be shut.
• 20:40 I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness.
• 20:42 I will make all his ways straight.
• 20:45 I will rebuild my cities and set my exiles free, but not for a
• 20:49 price or a reward,' says the Lord Almighty."
• 20:53 Caleb: Wow, we are in rebuilt Jerusalem after so many
• 20:57 centuries of Satan trying to dominate and take it over.
• 21:01 Destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed, and rebuilt.
• 21:04 And now as you can see behind us, here's the citadel of David,
• 21:07 the famous tower of David.
• 21:09 And throughout these walls speaks multiple civilizations
• 21:13 throughout time.
• 21:15 You have walls that are from Hezekiah, Nehemiah, Solomon,
• 21:18 even King Herod.
• 21:20 And as you can see here, all the different centuries, conquests
• 21:23 of different kingdoms that occupied this territory even
• 21:26 though it originally was supposed to be the Jewish
• 21:29 people's lane.
• 21:30 Joshua: But the Persian Empire coming into power, that was
• 21:33 really, really good for Jews.
• 21:35 Now, Cyrus is awesome.
• 21:36 He was actually foretold by Isaiah the prophet that he would
• 21:40 bring the Jews out of exile, right, bring them back to the
• 21:42 land, that they would be able to rebuild Jerusalem and
• 21:45 the temple.
• 21:46 And guess what? He did all of those things.
• 21:48 And in 538 BC, boom, there they were.
• 21:50 He treated them very well.
• 21:52 Now, they weren't allowed to have the monarchy back, but they
• 21:54 were allowed to worship Yahweh, they were allowed to have all of
• 21:57 their practices, the priesthood.
• 21:58 This was an amazing time period for them.
• 22:00 Caleb: The Jews really had it easy in Persia.
• 22:04 They had a few close calls like with the story of Esther, you
• 22:06 know, period where almost annihilated, wiped out,
• 22:09 you know.
• 22:10 But typically, they were well respected, they were very
• 22:13 wealthy in Persia.
• 22:15 Even when Cyrus said, "You can go back to your homeland," most
• 22:18 of them didn't want to.
• 22:19 They had good life.
• 22:21 They wanted to stay.
• 22:22 Caleb: Daniel 8:1-4, "In the third year of the reign of King
• 22:25 Belshazzar a vision appeared to me--to me, Daniel.
• 22:29 I saw in the vision, and it so happened while I was looking,
• 22:32 that I was in Shushan, the citadel, which is in the
• 22:34 province of Elam; and I saw in the vision that I was by the
• 22:37 River Ulai.
• 22:39 Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and there, standing beside the
• 22:42 river, was a ram which had two horns, and the two horns were
• 22:45 high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher one
• 22:49 came up last.
• 22:50 I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, southward, so that no
• 22:54 animal could withstand him; nor was there any that could deliver
• 22:57 from his hand.
• 22:58 He did according to his will and became great."
• 23:02 Caleb: Daniel saw this vision of the rise of a
• 23:04 Medo-Persian Empire.
• 23:06 Now, this vision was based upon this ram that had two horns.
• 23:10 One of the horns would become stronger.
• 23:12 The Persian Empire and Medes, they would be diminished.
• 23:15 But it was interesting this occurred during the time that
• 23:17 Babylon was the ruling overlord and Persia was
• 23:20 basically nonexistent.
• 23:22 Then King Cyrus would rise from the Persian Empire and
• 23:25 annihilate the Babylonians.
• 23:27 Joshua: The Persian Empire would grow larger than Babylon,
• 23:29 Assyria, or Egypt before it.
• 23:31 We believe this is largely in part to how they treated
• 23:33 their people.
• 23:34 They treated their people much better.
• 23:36 Yes, they had to overtake them by dominating them with
• 23:39 violence, but once they had them, they treated them well.
• 23:41 Now, we believe that because they treated the Jews well like
• 23:43 this, God's promise to Abraham carried on and they prospered.
• 23:47 Caleb: Genesis 12:3, "I will bless those who bless you, and I
• 23:50 will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of
• 23:53 the earth shall be blessed."
• 23:55 Joshua: That time period, it seems like every time an empire
• 23:57 was in play, there was a spiritual principality that was
• 24:00 in play too, a fallen angel who would come to wreak havoc, try
• 24:03 to claim dominion over stuff.
• 24:04 And in the Persian Empire, he was known as the Prince
• 24:06 of Persia.
• 24:08 We read this in Daniel chapter 10.
• 24:09 Because here's Daniel praying, right, in this theophany of
• 24:13 Yeshua at that time period, is trying to come to answer his
• 24:16 prayer and the Prince of Persia is fighting him off.
• 24:19 But guess what?
• 24:20 The Prince of Persia loses and that theophany comes to Daniel
• 24:23 and gives him a prophecy for the end of time and for the Jews.
• 24:26 And that's something that the Prince of Persia did not want.
• 24:29 Daniel 10:20-21, "Then he said, 'Do you know why I have come
• 24:32 to you?
• 24:33 And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia; and
• 24:35 when I have gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come.
• 24:38 But I will tell you what is noted in the Scripture of Truth.
• 24:41 No one upholds me against thee, except Michael your prince.'"
• 24:45 Caleb: I'm not gonna go into all the importance of the prophetic
• 24:48 details that Yeshua tells Daniel, but what's important to
• 24:51 this story is that after the Persian Empire, the prince of
• 24:54 Greece would become, this demonic principality that ruled
• 24:57 over the kingdom of Greece.
• 24:59 And it's--describes this in Daniel chapter 8, that this goat
• 25:03 representing Greece would destroy the ram and out of it
• 25:06 would be this powerful horn, this very important ruler that
• 25:09 would dominate the entire world, one Alexander the Great.
• 25:13 Caleb: Daniel 8:5, "Suddenly a male goat came from the west,
• 25:17 across the surface of the whole earth, without touching the
• 25:19 ground; and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.
• 25:22 Then he came to the ram that had two horns, he was moved with
• 25:25 rage against him, attacked the ram, and broke his two horns.
• 25:29 There was no power in the ram to withstand him, but he cast him
• 25:32 down to the ground and trampled him; and there was no one that
• 25:35 could deliver the ram from his hand."
• 25:37 Caleb: Now, that goat, as directly interpreted by the
• 25:40 angel Gabriel, represented the Greek Empire.
• 25:43 A horn, Alexander the Great, would die, he would diminish,
• 25:46 and four horns would rise up in his place.
• 25:49 Joshua: Daniel chapter 11 would give incredible prophetic
• 25:52 insight into the Persian Empire.
• 25:55 It chronicled not only the Persian Empire but it chronicled
• 25:58 Alexander the Great and how he would split his kingdom into the
• 26:02 four different generals.
• 26:03 This chapter gives more prophetic detail and then
• 26:05 fulfillment than any other prophecy in the Bible.
• 26:08 Caleb: Daniel 11:2-4, "Now then, I tell you the truth: three more
• 26:12 kings will arise in Persia, and then a fourth, who'll be far
• 26:15 richer than all the others.
• 26:17 When he has gained power by his wealth, he will stir up everyone
• 26:20 against the kingdom of Greece.
• 26:21 Then a mighty king will arise, who will rule with great power
• 26:24 and do as he pleases.
• 26:26 After he has arisen, his empire will be broken up and parceled
• 26:29 out toward the four winds of heaven."
• 26:31 Joshua: Satan's most destructive plan for people isn't adversity,
• 26:34 it isn't them doing "bad things," but it can be
• 26:37 complacency, deception.
• 26:40 You see, Satan was okay with the Jewish people living--
• 26:44 So Caleb should be in Zerubbabel's temple, why?
• 26:46 Because the number one plan of God during the Persian Empire
• 26:49 was halted, and that was a monarchy.
• 26:53 Caleb: You know, this is how Satan tried to stop God's
• 26:56 promises from being fulfilled, by halting the line of monarchy
• 26:59 of Jewish kings from going forth.
• 27:01 He knew the prophecy that from the seed of David this messianic
• 27:04 line would arise and David's kingdom would rule forever
• 27:08 and ever.
• 27:10 So that's how he used a very subtle and sinister way the
• 27:12 Persian Empire to stop the Jewish kingdom from advancing
• 27:16 because he knew that his rule would end as being god of this
• 27:18 world when the King of kings and Lord of lords shows up.
• 27:21 And that's why God's final word, his prophetic word would go
• 27:26 forth and he would decimate the Persian Empire and the Greek
• 27:28 Empire would rise.
• 27:30 Joshua: This ministry is your ministry.
• 27:32 When you watch these shows you are supporting the gospel, the
• 27:35 ministry to the world.
• 27:37 This is an opportunity for you to take these episodes, send to
• 27:40 people who don't know, send to people who sit in church, but
• 27:42 they're afraid to ask the questions 'cause they don't
• 27:44 wanna be singled out.
• 27:45 We want you to be a part of that.
• 27:47 We want you to ask the Father what it is that he would have
• 27:48 you do, whether it's to watch, like, share, subscribe, or even
• 27:51 financial donations.
• 27:53 This is how we keep going.
• 27:54 This is how we continue to get the gospel out.
• 27:56 Next week you wanna tune in because we're going to Hebron
• 27:58 and it's gonna be some really cool stories.
• 28:00 Caleb: And as you go, don't forget to Shaalu
• 28:02 Shalom Yerushalayim.
• 28:04 Joshua: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 28:06 Joshua: Did you know the "Bearded Bible Brothers" is an
• 28:07 outreach of Zola Levitt Ministries?
• 28:09 That means we are entirely donor-funded.
• 28:11 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.