Caption transcript for Conquest of Canaan: “The Battle of the Altars” (7/8)

• 00:01 ♪♪♪
• 00:06 ♪♪♪
• 00:15 ♪♪♪
• 00:21 ♪♪♪
• 00:31 ♪♪♪
• 00:41 Caleb Colson: Back in the West Bank again.
• 00:44 Ninety-five percent of this series, "Conquest of Canaan,"
• 00:47 has been filmed in places the enemy doesn't want Jews to go.
• 00:50 Whether in Jordan or biblical Judea and Samaria, this
• 00:54 territory belongs to the Jewish people, but today
• 00:57 it's contested.
• 00:58 Our destination today is so dangerous that we couldn't gain
• 01:01 access without the full support of the Israel Antiquity
• 01:04 Authority and the Israel Defense Forces.
• 01:07 We once again joined Chaim Malespin, Israel Hanna, and our
• 01:10 new archaeological friends, as we wait outside the military
• 01:14 checkpoints and infamous West Bank barrier wall.
• 01:19 Caleb: So we're ready to enter Samaria, biblical Samaria,
• 01:23 Tel Sebastia.
• 01:24 We've got Ari, our loyal camera operator, my daughters, and
• 01:29 we're with the IDF.
• 01:33 We got a special entourage to go in and they're going to make
• 01:36 sure that we are safe as we go through the danger zones.
• 01:40 Haim Shkolnik: Of this store of Samaria and, you know, I felt I
• 01:45 don't come to visit here very often, you know, I think my last
• 01:48 time at Ebal was maybe 5 or 6 years ago, maybe even more.
• 01:52 So I said, okay, I'll join you.
• 01:55 And I think I'm senior enough so they couldn't refuse me.
• 02:02 That's how it worked.
• 02:03 Caleb: So we finally hit the road after the IDF arrived,
• 02:06 heading to present-day Nablus, formerly called Shechem back in
• 02:10 Joshua's day.
• 02:11 Our destination is Mount Ebal, the mountain of curses, to find
• 02:15 a very important archaeological site.
• 02:18 We split into several vehicles interspersed within our IDF
• 02:22 convoy to keep us safe, but somehow even our IDF guides got
• 02:26 lost in the maze of dirt roads that passed through the
• 02:28 mountains of Samaria, and we were separated from my brother
• 02:32 and the others.
• 02:34 Caleb: We made it into a secured area.
• 02:37 Now they won't let us out of the secured area.
• 02:41 Who knew.
• 02:43 Caleb: Disaster averted.
• 02:44 We're back on course.
• 02:46 In the last week, Joshua dispersed all the tribes to
• 02:49 claim their land.
• 02:50 Caleb and the tribe of Judah literally kicked giant butt.
• 02:54 Unfortunately, not all the other tribes acted faithfully.
• 02:58 Joshua 18:1-2: "The whole assembly of the Israelites
• 03:02 gathered at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there.
• 03:06 The country was brought under their control, but there were
• 03:09 still seven Israelite tribes who had not yet received
• 03:12 their inheritance.
• 03:13 So Joshua said to the Israelites: 'How long will you
• 03:16 wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the
• 03:19 Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you?'"
• 03:22 Caleb: That was a journey to get up here.
• 03:26 That's an understatement.
• 03:27 It took an entire crew of IDF, archaeologists, and of course,
• 03:32 us, to get up here and now, man, it's windy up here, but this is
• 03:36 it behind us.
• 03:37 Joshua's Altar, come on.
• 03:39 Joshua Colson: I'm just impressed that I'm the only one
• 03:40 that walked the entire way.
• 03:41 I can't believe y'all drove.
• 03:43 You need to get in better shape like me.
• 03:44 Caleb: That's a lot of work, Josh.
• 03:45 Chaim Malespin: Must have been quite a journey, I'll say that.
• 03:47 Joshua: My name is Joshua, so I had to live up to some kind
• 03:49 of a--
• 03:50 Chaim: Yeah, I bet even just feeling that Joshua actually
• 03:52 stood here, your name is Joshua, named after Joshua, and
• 03:56 realizing that this is an altar built by the 12 tribes, or at
• 04:00 least 6 of them, that must feel--
• 04:03 Joshua: It feels a lot like Superman getting into the yellow
• 04:05 sun, you know, I'm just recharging my ancient
• 04:07 Joshua battery.
• 04:09 Caleb: So this is our first time here.
• 04:10 Chaim, you've been here before, correct?
• 04:12 Chaim: Yes, I bring groups here.
• 04:13 I have in the past, this war has caused the place to be really
• 04:17 locked down and actually I find you both very brave and your
• 04:20 wives are brave for letting you guys come.
• 04:23 Joshua: And we'll tell them we're here as soon as we get
• 04:24 back, so this will be very important.
• 04:26 They'll love it.
• 04:28 Is this the ancient inscription we were looking from, that
• 04:29 Joshua did right here?
• 04:30 Chaim: It's not actually.
• 04:32 Joshua: This is not the original.
• 04:33 Now you know, the story is that--
• 04:35 Joshua: Tell me.
• 04:36 Refresh everyone who needs to know the story.
• 04:37 Chaim: Yeah, so you got the Mount of Blessing.
• 04:40 Joshua: Gerizim?
• 04:41 On the other side of Nablus or Shechem.
• 04:43 Chaim: And the Mount of Cursing.
• 04:44 We're standing on the Mount of Cursing, which I always find
• 04:46 this so strange.
• 04:47 Why is it that Joshua with the famous, famous line, "As for me
• 04:50 and my house, we will serve the Lord," why did he do that on the
• 04:53 Mount of Cursing?
• 04:54 Because they pronounced the six tribes, you know, and the city
• 04:57 of Shechem right down there, some call it Nablus.
• 05:00 The Romans called it Nablus, neo polis, new place.
• 05:04 But you have--but the biblical name was Shechem where Jacob
• 05:07 bought land from the sons of Hamor and all that.
• 05:08 But the cool thing is when they pronounced the blessings on the
• 05:12 Mount of Blessings and then hear the cursings on the Mount of
• 05:14 Cursings, there's a lot of cursings, no food, you
• 05:18 wouldn't like--
• 05:19 Caleb: I would not last at all, man.
• 05:20 Joshua: Sorry, I'm out on the first curse.
• 05:22 Caleb: You would flee before your enemies,
• 05:23 you would be driven out of your land,
• 05:25 but just to recap how it is that the Israelites got here, this
• 05:30 event actually happened after the Battle of Ai.
• 05:33 And so they went straight here.
• 05:34 They had to fulfill the Word of the Lord that God gave to Moses,
• 05:38 Deuteronomy 27, "When you get into the land, you got to
• 05:41 do this."
• 05:42 They had to clear a path first to get here, and then Joshua had
• 05:45 to build the altar of unhewn stones.
• 05:48 And this is like a outer retaining wall of the larger
• 05:50 altar, but they say inside is a smaller circular altar that
• 05:54 dates back to the time of Joshua, but this outer one is--
• 05:58 it's just a few 100 years, well, 400 years past that.
• 06:01 Chaim: True and, of course, all the bones.
• 06:03 Caleb: Kosher animal bones.
• 06:05 Chaim: Yeah, correct.
• 06:06 And I wish we could see the inscription of the actual, like
• 06:08 it says in the book of Joshua, that he inscribed the word of--
• 06:11 that God gave to Moses and that he inscribed it here as a
• 06:15 covenant, as a "yes, we will do your will in your land."
• 06:19 Not in the disputed Palestinian lands.
• 06:21 Joshua: So you two are the geniuses on the details, and I'm
• 06:23 the guy that's connecting my heart to it.
• 06:25 And as Joshua, I'm sitting here thinking in this moment where
• 06:28 I'm writing that into the stone, carving that into the stone, I'm
• 06:32 thinking of sitting on the side of Mount Sinai for all those
• 06:34 days waiting on Moses to come down.
• 06:35 I'm thinking of dealing with all of the people for all the years
• 06:39 and trash talk.
• 06:40 I'm thinking of everything it took to get here, 'cause when
• 06:42 he's having that moment, that's not just this moment, that's his
• 06:46 entire life's commitment to get to this point and then to take
• 06:50 his predecessor--Moses's Torah and to, you know, that's just
• 06:54 crazy to me.
• 06:55 That's a completion that we don't understand in
• 06:57 today's society.
• 06:58 Chaim: He's the next Moses.
• 06:59 He's up on a mountain, he's writing the Torah and he's
• 07:02 reading these curses and, like you said, I just read a couple
• 07:04 more of these: "Cursed in the city, in the field, barren
• 07:07 wounds, failed crops, disease, drought, defeat, becoming the
• 07:11 tail, not the head, exile."
• 07:14 I'm all about the Aliyah, bringing them home, but exile,
• 07:17 cast out, fear, confusion, destruction.
• 07:19 In Deuteronomy 28, you're reading these and Joshua is
• 07:23 like, "I think I've heard enough."
• 07:25 Israel Hanna: There's one coming.
• 07:26 His name is Yeshua, which is going to do away with the Mount
• 07:29 of Cursings.
• 07:30 It will be gone forever because he's going to be a Mount of
• 07:32 Blessings wherever he goes.
• 07:34 And in his kingdom there will be love and all the good things
• 07:38 that God represents, and we're looking forward to that.
• 07:41 Chaim: He's paying the--paying for that so that we don't
• 07:44 have to.
• 07:45 Israel: Yes, he already paid the price for our blessings.
• 07:48 Joshua: Let me show you where the transcription is over here,
• 07:50 where I put it.
• 07:51 I think I remember where I kept it, but we'll take a look.
• 07:54 Caleb: Joshua 8:30-32: "Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an
• 07:59 altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, as Moses the servant of
• 08:02 the Lord had commanded the Israelites.
• 08:04 He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law
• 08:07 of Moses an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool
• 08:11 had been used.
• 08:13 On it they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed
• 08:16 fellowship offerings.
• 08:18 There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on
• 08:21 stones a copy of the law of Moses."
• 08:23 Caleb: Right, this is amazing here.
• 08:25 We have a crew of archaeologists that's telling us all
• 08:27 these facts.
• 08:29 Now over on this side, if the cameras can pan around, you're
• 08:32 going to see the Tears of Valley.
• 08:34 This was a path that the Israelites had to come in to get
• 08:38 up to Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim.
• 08:41 They were over 2 million people.
• 08:43 They needed a lot of space to travel, so they had to have this
• 08:47 valley right here to go through.
• 08:48 You don't want to go over a mountain with women, children,
• 08:51 cattle, all that stuff.
• 08:52 Chaim: This land right here is, like, so disputed.
• 08:54 I mean, it's like a military zone.
• 08:56 Why is, why is this--you know, even the fact that Joshua made
• 09:00 this altar here is disputed by-- it's not with the narrative of a
• 09:05 Palestinian state.
• 09:07 Caleb: And we were talking about that with the archaeologists in
• 09:09 the car, why it's disputed, and he says the only reason it's
• 09:12 disputed is because it's in the Bible.
• 09:14 If it was in any other historical text, it wouldn't be
• 09:17 disputed, but since it's in the Bible, they want to dispute that
• 09:19 it was linked to Joshua.
• 09:20 Now this altar, just to read a few facts, guys, this is 30
• 09:23 meters square.
• 09:25 This is a big altar.
• 09:26 Now it's 3 meters high.
• 09:28 They found over 1000 animal bones here.
• 09:30 The bigger altar encompasses the smaller one, and the outer one's
• 09:34 200 years older.
• 09:35 So the original one is Joshua's smaller one, circular on
• 09:39 the inside.
• 09:40 Now the most important thing that they found to verify that
• 09:43 this is the altar, they found what's called The Curse Tablet,
• 09:47 and this just--I'm very amazed by it.
• 09:49 It's a 2 centimeter lead foil inscription that they had
• 09:52 to unroll.
• 09:53 The most ancient proto-Hebrew texts, the oldest ever
• 09:57 discovered, and this is what the text says: "Cursed, cursed,
• 10:02 cursed, Cursed by the God Yahweh, You will die, cursed--
• 10:06 cursed, you will die.
• 10:08 Cursed by Yahweh--cursed, cursed, cursed."
• 10:12 That is a buffer.
• 10:13 Joshua: Do you think he's trying to get at a point?
• 10:15 In case you misunderstood, what I'm trying to say here, cursed.
• 10:18 And just in case, cursed, and Yahweh, he did it, not me,
• 10:21 cursed again.
• 10:22 Caleb: This was how serious God was trying to tell his people:
• 10:25 "When you go into that land, don't commit the sins of
• 10:28 the Canaanites.
• 10:29 Don't intermarry them, you know, wipe out every man, woman,
• 10:32 and child.
• 10:34 This is hard core, or they will be a snare to you.
• 10:36 You will adopt their lifestyle."
• 10:37 And we know that's exactly what they did.
• 10:39 Caleb: Joshua 23:1-2 and 14-16: "Joshua, by then a very old man,
• 10:45 summoned all of Israel--their elders, leaders, judges and
• 10:48 officials--and said to them: 'Now I am about to go the way of
• 10:51 all the earth.
• 10:53 You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the
• 10:56 good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed.
• 10:59 Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.
• 11:03 But just as all the good things the Lord your God has promised
• 11:06 you have come to you, so He will bring on you all the evil things
• 11:09 He has threatened, until the Lord your God has destroyed you
• 11:13 from this good land he has given you.
• 11:15 If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he
• 11:18 commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down
• 11:21 to them.'"
• 11:22 Caleb: You finally got your ramp, Josh.
• 11:23 You don't have to climb upstairs to sacrifice.
• 11:25 Joshua: It feels so good to be on my namesake's ramp.
• 11:28 I can't tell you.
• 11:29 Caleb: This is pretty crazy.
• 11:31 Now, like I mentioned, there's more to the story.
• 11:33 Joshua had to bring the tribes back here.
• 11:36 He had a lot of trouble.
• 11:37 Over a few years after he dispersed the tribes with
• 11:40 getting them motivated to go take their land territory, they
• 11:43 sat around, they did nothing.
• 11:45 He had to send people out and do surveys and draw really detailed
• 11:49 maps, right, "This is your territory, guys.
• 11:51 Now take it," but they still didn't do it.
• 11:53 So finally, you know, he senses it's the end of his life.
• 11:57 So he gathers the tribe to Shechem, and he gives this
• 12:00 farewell address.
• 12:02 And it's basically he says, "Guys, I know what's
• 12:05 gonna happen."
• 12:06 There was a prophecy that was given to him and Moses before
• 12:10 they would even come into a Promised Land, a prophecy that
• 12:12 he--God said, "After you die, Moses, and after you die,
• 12:16 Joshua, the children of Israel are gonna sin against me.
• 12:18 They're gonna go after idols.
• 12:19 This is what's--" God gave him the entire game plan up to the
• 12:22 exile, and Joshua was carrying this kind of burden with him his
• 12:27 whole life, knowing no matter what I do, they're gonna fail.
• 12:31 So what kind of leader is that?
• 12:33 What can I do?
• 12:34 So at the end of his life, he finally came to this conclusion:
• 12:38 You know what?
• 12:39 I'm just gonna be the example.
• 12:40 Y'all guys do whatever you want.
• 12:42 But look at me.
• 12:43 This is what I'm gonna do, and that's where he gives his
• 12:45 farewell address.
• 12:47 So he sends them out.
• 12:48 This is his final example.
• 12:49 Guys, this is how important it is.
• 12:51 There's nothing I can do prophetically.
• 12:53 He knows what the future is, but he's still gonna fight.
• 12:56 He's still gonna try to get them to do what's right.
• 12:58 Joshua: So often that balance between mandate and emotion is
• 13:01 literally the human struggle, right?
• 13:03 Everything in your flesh is telling you, "Not possible.
• 13:06 What's the point?
• 13:08 I give up," which again I was saying earlier, like, here's the
• 13:10 guy who's been there the entire time, right?
• 13:13 He's been by Moses's side the whole way.
• 13:16 He watched as Moses, rightly so, got so irritated after this
• 13:19 entire time, that he had to stop over there, so he's got to
• 13:21 think, "Man, I can't mess up because maybe I don't get to go.
• 13:23 Then on top of this, I've already been told that once I do
• 13:25 all this, it's gonna be--" But yet you still have to do what
• 13:28 you're told.
• 13:30 There's still a mission to accomplish.
• 13:31 That is that mandate, that message from on high, that's
• 13:35 still relevant today.
• 13:37 Caleb: Joshua 22:1-5: "Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites,
• 13:41 the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and he said to them
• 13:45 for a long time now--to this very day--you have not deserted
• 13:49 your fellow Israelites but have carried out the mission the Lord
• 13:52 your God gave you.
• 13:53 Now that the Lord your God has given them rest as He promised,
• 13:57 return to your homes in the land that Moses the servant of the
• 13:59 Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan.
• 14:02 But be very careful to keep the Commandment and the law that
• 14:06 Moses the servant of the Lord gave you."
• 14:08 Caleb: This is the very important part, but I think
• 14:10 another battle of the altars moment that takes place.
• 14:13 So Joshua releases the Israelites to their territories,
• 14:17 to their allotments.
• 14:18 Everything's good and great.
• 14:20 You remember Reuben, Gad, and half-tribe of Manasseh had a
• 14:23 territory east of the Jordan River, guys, and even though
• 14:26 they received that inheritance 7 years prior and their families
• 14:30 could stay there, they promised to fight at the front of the
• 14:32 battle to be honorable until they were released.
• 14:35 So they were released and on their way back to pass over the
• 14:38 Jordan River, they built a giant altar.
• 14:41 It's called an imposing altar in scripture.
• 14:43 And when the other tribes on the west of the Jordan River saw
• 14:47 this, they went, "Oh no, that fast, they're already worshiping
• 14:51 pagan gods.
• 14:52 All right guys, let's get together.
• 14:54 This is what the law of Moses says: we're going to wipe them
• 14:55 out, every single one of them."
• 14:57 And as civil war getting ready, they gathered all the armies
• 15:00 together, but then Phinehas, you know, who would become the high
• 15:03 priest, the priestly life for the kohenim, he said, "Hold
• 15:05 on, let me go speak with him."
• 15:07 And he went to the other side of the Jordan River to talk to them
• 15:11 about, you know, what's really your motivation and that's where
• 15:15 they unveil, "Hey, we want to make sure that our children
• 15:19 realize that we're in covenant with you.
• 15:21 Even though we're separated by this river, we can't always get
• 15:24 to your tabernacle to worship God, we're still part of the 12
• 15:28 tribes and we will still serve Yahweh.
• 15:29 So this is a marker, a sign, so that we will remember not to sin
• 15:33 against God," and that just blows your mind.
• 15:37 And restoration, peace, they're like, "Okay, we misunderstood."
• 15:39 That was like the greatest misunderstanding that led to a
• 15:42 civil war in history with the Israelites.
• 15:44 That's how important it was to them all at this moment after
• 15:47 Joshua died that they should serve God.
• 15:50 Chaim: A hundred percent, what Israel said here in Israel,
• 15:53 which is this is actually part of Israel,
• 15:55 that Judea and Samaria, some call it the West Bank.
• 15:58 This is part of the Promised Land that God promised with
• 16:01 his words.
• 16:03 Israel: So I'm an ex-combat army infantry sergeant.
• 16:05 One of the greatest lessons in history is you can not win a
• 16:08 battle when you're fighting on two fronts.
• 16:11 Israel is surrounded, every single side, circled by their
• 16:15 enemy, and the only way the Israeli army and Israel can
• 16:19 exist and survive and have victory is because Hashem,
• 16:23 Yeshua, of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is on your
• 16:26 side, on the side of Israel, because Israel is his people and
• 16:30 his nation and his country, and he created it.
• 16:33 He gave--he designed the boundaries.
• 16:36 He led us here for such a time as this, in the midst of this
• 16:41 war, we'll claim victory over your enemy.
• 16:43 Chaim: I think one of the things that sticks with me the most of
• 16:45 this whole being at this altar, remembering these things,
• 16:48 thinking of where we've come today, is generation
• 16:50 to generation.
• 16:52 It says, teach your children [speaking in Hebrew].
• 16:55 You shall teach them--and [speaking in Hebrew]
• 16:57 is like on the tooth, like cutting your teeth.
• 17:00 They'll cut their teeth on this Word of God, and if you don't do
• 17:03 that, we'll lose everything.
• 17:06 Caleb: Joshua 24:14-15: "Joshua said to the Israelites: 'Now
• 17:11 therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth,
• 17:15 and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side
• 17:18 of a river [Euphrates] and in Egypt.
• 17:21 Serve the Lord!
• 17:22 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for
• 17:26 yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods
• 17:29 which your fathers served or the gods of the Amorites, in whose
• 17:32 land you dwell.
• 17:33 But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.'"
• 17:38 Caleb: I'm here with Eyal Freiman, he's the archaeologist
• 17:41 who brought us here, opened doors so that we could get to
• 17:44 Joshua's Altar.
• 17:45 Thank you for joining me today.
• 17:47 Eyal Freiman: My pleasure.
• 17:48 Caleb: You have so many positions and I don't really
• 17:50 understand how this all works, and we're in a zone that's quite
• 17:52 different from being in the Israeli territory when you do
• 17:55 archaeological work.
• 17:56 What's your position, and what do you do?
• 17:58 Eyal: Well, my job title is the Deputy Staff
• 18:01 Officer, Archaeology.
• 18:03 Because we are in Judaean Samaria and it's a different
• 18:08 process, so the antiquity law of Israel doesn't apply to the
• 18:13 Sumerian Jews--Judaean antiquity law that
• 18:17 we are supposed to all in the area built.
• 18:21 Caleb: And you're subjected to, you got to obey their Jordanian
• 18:24 Antiquities law.
• 18:25 Eyal: Exactly, yeah, and with the corrections here and there,
• 18:28 of course, and here we are at Mount Ebal,
• 18:31 actually an area that was in the also agreements
• 18:34 with the Palestinian Authority was agreed to be a
• 18:38 place where security be controlled by Israeli forces,
• 18:42 but municipality be by Palestinian.
• 18:46 Problem with this altar that is located in a place where there
• 18:49 was a plan to build the structure and a whole
• 18:52 neighborhood on top of it.
• 18:54 So we kind of interfered and start visiting the site even
• 18:57 more just to make sure that it won't get hurt.
• 19:00 That's what we do here.
• 19:02 Caleb: So they wanted to build real estate on here because this
• 19:04 is a nice view, you got an epic landscape, but you're like, no,
• 19:07 this is priceless, we got to keep it there, and now they're
• 19:10 not too happy.
• 19:11 I've heard that there was some destruction done to the altar,
• 19:14 that people tried to mess with it?
• 19:17 Eyal: And both of the times, even when we came here was there
• 19:19 were roads being built and without any permission,
• 19:23 destroying other sites on the way here, but not as significant
• 19:26 as this site.
• 19:28 Yeah, so this site was really where we came and show our teeth
• 19:31 and really stood ground that it won't get hurt.
• 19:34 It's one of a kind.
• 19:37 Don't know any other sites from that time of creation of the
• 19:43 people of Israel.
• 19:44 And it's not only for the Jewish people, of course, it's
• 19:48 for everybody.
• 19:49 It's a traditional, it's a heritage site, should be kept
• 19:53 and being able to let people come and visit it.
• 19:55 It's not--the way that we came here today with the military,
• 19:59 with the convoy--
• 20:01 Caleb: Yeah, it was a big deal.
• 20:02 Eyal: It was a big deal, but it should be open to everybody to
• 20:04 come to visit.
• 20:06 It shouldn't be just for people of Israel and just people from
• 20:08 Nablus or something like that.
• 20:10 Should be--
• 20:11 Caleb: For the world to see.
• 20:12 Eyal: All the world, yeah. Be more approached.
• 20:14 Caleb: Well, I appreciate--I appreciate your time here so
• 20:16 thank you.
• 20:18 Eyal: Thank you so much.
• 20:19 Caleb: To the shock of no one, most world governments have
• 20:21 turned against Israel, but unfortunately, so have many
• 20:25 church congregations.
• 20:26 Very few ministries are supporting the Jewish people or
• 20:30 teaching the truth about Israel in God's covenant plans.
• 20:33 Joshua: In fact, if you scroll through social media, you'll see
• 20:35 feed after feed of churches teaching that the Jewish people
• 20:38 are not God's chosen people and not the fulfillment of
• 20:40 a covenant.
• 20:42 At Zola Levitt Ministries we've been preaching the same message
• 20:44 for 47 years, why?
• 20:45 Because God's message does not change.
• 20:48 The Jewish people are his chosen people, but he also made a way
• 20:51 for the Gentile to be grafted in.
• 20:53 Consider donating to this ministry to be a part today of
• 20:56 getting this message out.
• 20:57 You can call 1-800-WONDERS or you can click on the link below
• 21:00 at levitt.com.
• 21:02 ♪♪♪
• 21:08 Caleb: Look at this, Josh. We are in Jerash, Jordan.
• 21:12 This is one of the most visible examples of the conquest of the
• 21:16 Roman Empire, because it's a giant Roman city that's
• 21:20 still around.
• 21:21 You can still see it.
• 21:23 You know, this town was once called Gerasa, and it was
• 21:25 settled in a broad plain in between two valleys.
• 21:28 The interesting thing about this town, Josh, is it was once in
• 21:32 the territory of Gad in Gilead, which is on east of the
• 21:36 Jordan River.
• 21:37 There was 2.5 tribes of Israelites that settled in
• 21:41 this territory.
• 21:42 This was once part of Israel proper.
• 21:44 Joshua: We are sitting here in the middle of the Oval Plaza.
• 21:47 As you can see, none of this was made by IKEA.
• 21:50 Why?
• 21:51 Because it's still here today.
• 21:53 Everything I sit on at IKEA breaks.
• 21:54 So sorry, Swedes.
• 21:55 This little area sported 56 columns.
• 21:58 Count them if you dare. They're all around us.
• 22:00 This was the central hub for politics, for entertainment, and
• 22:04 it had pagan symbols, shrines and temples galore.
• 22:07 Everything you would need as a pagan to survive, we have
• 22:09 right here.
• 22:11 Caleb: This is also called one of the ten cities of
• 22:13 the Decopolis.
• 22:14 So it is believed that Yeshua pastored here when he was
• 22:17 teaching about the kingdom of heaven.
• 22:19 Joshua: Right behind you is Dallas, Texas, 8,000 to 10,000
• 22:22 miles away, but right over there, that's the ancient ruins
• 22:24 of the Temple of Zeus.
• 22:26 At the time period of Yeshua, everyone in the world spoke
• 22:28 Greek of some kind.
• 22:29 Now these guys would come along named Romans and push this other
• 22:32 little language called Latin, but the Romans, they didn't have
• 22:34 a problem worshiping the gods of the Greek because it was the
• 22:37 same as theirs, just with different rebranding of
• 22:40 the names.
• 22:41 Caleb: That's right, Satan used the Roman Empire to try to
• 22:44 subjugate the whole world and halt the promises of God, even
• 22:47 at the time of Yeshua.
• 22:49 It was prevalent.
• 22:50 It was a dominating force in Israel, and they wanted to be
• 22:54 free from Roman rule.
• 22:55 You get this very important prophecy in the book of Daniel
• 22:59 that foretells this Roman Empire being an endgame player in the
• 23:03 end times during the Tribulation.
• 23:05 The first beast represented Babylon, the second beast
• 23:09 represented the Medo-Persian Empire.
• 23:10 The third beast representing Greece, and that leads us to the
• 23:14 big bad, this Roman Empire, this beast that's unlike any of
• 23:18 the others.
• 23:19 Let's read that scripture.
• 23:21 Caleb: Daniel 7:7-8: "After that, in my vision at night I
• 23:24 looked, and there before me was a fourth beast--terrifying and
• 23:28 frightening and very powerful.
• 23:30 It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims
• 23:33 and trampled underfoot whatever was left.
• 23:35 It was different from all the former beasts, and it had
• 23:38 ten horns.
• 23:39 While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was
• 23:42 another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and
• 23:46 three of the first horns were uprooted before it.
• 23:49 This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a
• 23:52 mouth that spoke boastfully."
• 23:55 Joshua: It's amazing how the Empire of Rome looks so similar
• 23:59 to the empire of the beast, the Antichrist, although they're
• 24:02 separated by thousands of years.
• 24:04 Now, the Roman Empire, it came to an end, right?
• 24:06 Well, no, not exactly.
• 24:08 Part of it did.
• 24:09 One half split and the other half kept going, just being
• 24:11 rebranded throughout the ages and eventually will reveal
• 24:14 itself to be the empire of the beast.
• 24:16 Caleb: That's right.
• 24:18 Daniel was given a vision of all these world empires to come and
• 24:20 it paralleled the vision that Nebuchadnezzar was given.
• 24:23 It's very interesting that God gave this vision to Daniel, one
• 24:26 of his people, and to an antichrist
• 24:28 figure, Nebuchadnezzar.
• 24:29 Nebuchadnezzar's dream or vision, if you will, was of that
• 24:33 amazing statue, the colossal head of gold, which represented
• 24:36 the Babylonian Empire, and then you had the silver chest, you
• 24:40 know, that was the Medo-Persian Empire, and then you had the
• 24:42 bronze, which represented the Greek Empire.
• 24:46 And then of course, Rome, we'll get to this very important
• 24:48 lesson, which is the legs of iron, the feet.
• 24:53 Caleb: Daniel 2:40-41: "And the fourth kingdom shall be as
• 24:56 strong as iron; inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters
• 25:01 everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break
• 25:04 in pieces and crush all the others.
• 25:06 Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay
• 25:10 and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the
• 25:13 strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron
• 25:16 mixed with ceramic clay."
• 25:18 Caleb: And the kingdom continues to divide.
• 25:21 In fact, it never really dissolved.
• 25:23 This Babylon the great, just was incorporated into other
• 25:28 world-devouring kingdoms.
• 25:30 That means the statue itself doesn't represent Nebuchadnezzar
• 25:33 like he thought.
• 25:34 It actually represents Satan himself.
• 25:36 The hands and feet of Satan are the hands and feet of
• 25:38 that statue.
• 25:40 Joshua: In all the visions that Daniel and Nebu see, there is
• 25:42 this Yeshua-like figure that comes and destroys Babylon, and
• 25:47 not just Babylon, but all the previous Babylonian-like
• 25:50 civilizations and establishes his kingdom once and for all.
• 25:54 Caleb: Daniel 2:44-45: "And in the days of these kings, the God
• 25:59 of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed;
• 26:03 and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall
• 26:06 break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall
• 26:09 stand forever.
• 26:11 Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of a mountain
• 26:14 without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze,
• 26:17 the clay, the silver, and the gold--the great God has made
• 26:21 known to the king what will come to pass after this."
• 26:25 Caleb: That kingdom that will destroy all the other kingdoms
• 26:28 is Yeshua's millennial kingdom.
• 26:30 He is a rock that's hewn out of the side of the mountain, that's
• 26:34 cast against that statue and sends it obliterated to pieces,
• 26:38 and then he will rule and reign for a thousand years.
• 26:41 That is what we are waiting for, the final conquest of Canaan.
• 26:45 The deception, Josh, is still a powerful tool.
• 26:47 It's still around today.
• 26:49 As you can see behind us, this infamous Arch of Hadrian.
• 26:54 You know, Hadrian didn't like the Jews.
• 26:57 After the Bar Kokhba revolt, he decided to rub it into the
• 27:01 Jewish people's face.
• 27:02 He decided to do that by renaming the ancient territory
• 27:06 of Israel, Syria Palestina in 135 AD, after their age-old
• 27:10 enemy, the Philistines, just to show them that they cannot have
• 27:14 that land.
• 27:16 And then, thousands of years later, they call it Palestine
• 27:18 today to still try to disinherit the Jews from the
• 27:22 God-given territory.
• 27:23 Joshua: It's important you understand the history of your
• 27:25 faith and of what you believe and you don't just accept the
• 27:27 lies today, because lies get trending and as soon as they're
• 27:30 trending, everyone starts quoting them, and that's what
• 27:32 you think.
• 27:33 This show does its best to go all over the world to share the
• 27:36 history from a biblical perspective of the truth of
• 27:38 God's Word so that you're equipped for such a time
• 27:41 as this.
• 27:42 We can't do without you.
• 27:43 We are family here in this program.
• 27:45 So ask the Father what he would have you do, whether it's
• 27:47 financial donation, prayer, sending these links out to your
• 27:49 friends, following us on social.
• 27:51 The more we do together, the stronger the voice of the Father
• 27:54 gets to speak the truth in a time where there's so much
• 27:57 deception, and it is so much needed.
• 27:59 Caleb: That's right, guys, and as you go, don't forget to
• 28:02 shout, "Sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim."
• 28:03 Joshua: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 28:06 Joshua: Do you know the Bearded Bible Brothers is an outreach of
• 28:08 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.