John Tweedie - Israel: A Blessing To All Nations

December 4, 2025 | 28:39

Dr. John Tweedie hosts from outdoor scenes in Israel, as he shares God’s Word, chapter by chapter. Other experts provide insight throughout.

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Israel: The Prophetic Connection | John Tweedie - Israel: A Blessing To All Nations | December 4, 2025
  • Welcome to season
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  • 23 of the prophetic connection.
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  • Now, if you've watched our show over several seasons,
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  • You know that we do most of our filming
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  • In the land of israel because i like to be on location
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  • And i like to be
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  • In the biblical setting, if that's at all possible.
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  • But filming in israel these days is full of hazards.
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  • For example, there's a war going on and several fronts,
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  • So it's just not possible for us to do what we would like to do
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  • In israel.
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  • So what we're doing,
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  • As you can see, is we're in our new c4 ai studio.
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  • I'm not fighting the wind that blows my pages,
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  • As you will have noticed in other episodes.
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  • I don't have flies landing on my cheeks as happens
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  • In the desert filming.
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  • And of course, this is a comfortable,
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  • Temperature in the studio, so i'm not fighting the heat.
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  • Where in israel we have to get up early
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  • Some days to film in the cool of the morning.
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  • As the sun rises, it becomes hotter and hotter.
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  • So here we are with season 23, and we're using images
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  • From another documentary series i did some years ago,
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  • When i was younger than i am today.
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  • So we're bringing me, as i am today, up to date,
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  • But using this incredible footage
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  • To tell the story of israel, in another way.
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  • That series was called israel a journey of light.
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  • It examined god's promises to abraham,
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  • How he would become a great nation.
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  • He would be the father of many nations.
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  • God would give him a promised land in which his descendants
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  • Would be raised, and in fact, they would occupy that land
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  • According to god's promises and covenants.
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  • But they would also be a blessing to all nations.
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  • So in this series, we're going to examine
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  • How these promises to abraham were fulfilled.
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  • How and when we'll discover
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  • The journey of israel down through the centuries.
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  • And of course, the journey involves much suffering,
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  • Even until today.
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  • But let me begin with what god said to abraham.
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  • God chose this man out of what was a very pagan culture.
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  • And abraham, it seems, believed in one god
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  • In the midst of the worship of numerous gods.
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  • And god summoned him
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  • In the region of what is present day iraq
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  • And asked him to go to a land that he would show him.
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  • So it was a journey of faith.
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  • Abraham had to believe in god and launch out in faith.
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  • Genesis 12 verse one.
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  • Now the lord had said to abraham,
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  • His name was abraham in the beginning,
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  • Which means exalted father.
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  • But god changed his name later on
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  • And called him abraham, which means father of a multitude,
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  • Or as god had promised, father of many nations.
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  • Get out of your country from your family
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  • And from your father's house, to a land that i will show you.
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  • I will make you a great nation.
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  • I will bless you and make your name great.
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  • And you shall be a blessing.
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  • I will bless those who bless you.
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  • And i will curse him who curses you.
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  • I need you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
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  • So those covenant promises involve land,
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  • Descendants and blessing.
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  • We're at the very
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  • Beginning of this journey, the story of israel,
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  • And has its origins and the life of one man, abraham,
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  • A man god called abraham.
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  • An incredible journey of discovery
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  • Of high points and low points,
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  • But all through a chosen nation.
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  • God said it would be a blessing to all nations.
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  • Soft music
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  • Our journey began 4000 years ago.
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  • When incredible promises were made to abraham.
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  • But who was abraham?
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  • And what exactly did god promise him?
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  • I call abraham the proto jew.
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  • You know
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  • He he originated in iraq, or kazeem,
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  • Or at the bottom of euphrates river.
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  • And he migrates up to turkey and then into canaan,
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  • Which is the pre-state name for the land of israel.
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  • But who he was was usually the first u.
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  • Before there was any formal judaism.
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  • Before the giving of the torah at mount sinai.
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  • The book of genesis records that god appeared to abraham
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  • More than once.
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  • It was during abram's first encounter with god,
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  • However, that he was told to leave his homeland
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  • And to go to the land that god would show him,
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  • A land god promised to give
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  • To him and his descendants forever.
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  • God also promised that he would make abraham
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  • A great nation, and that through abraham
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  • And his descendants, the world would be blessed.
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  • He was during a later divine encounter
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  • That god changed his name from abraham, meaning exalted
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  • Father to abraham, meaning father of a multitude.
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  • And god told abraham,
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  • Look now toward heaven and count the stars.
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  • If you are able to number them, so shall your descendants be.
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  • God's promises to abraham were sealed by a covenant ceremony,
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  • Which involved
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  • The sacrifice of animals and the shedding of their blood.
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  • And the idea of a covenant is a is an ancient,
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  • A concept within judaism, because it goes back well before
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  • Moses goes back to the time of abraham about 4000 years ago.
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  • And the idea with the covenant with abraham,
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  • Again, it's a deal.
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  • Abraham is in what is today southern turkey
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  • At a place called haran, and he is told, go south,
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  • Go to a land that i will show you.
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  • And so the deal of
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  • All of abraham's obligation is, first of all, just to go south.
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  • What are you going to get?
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  • Well, you're going to get land.
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  • You're going to be a blessing to all the nations of the world.
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  • God basically says to abraham, i have chosen you,
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  • As it were, to bring a message to humanity.
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  • And that message is one which is going to both create hardship
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  • In terms of your relationship with the communities around you.
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  • But it's a message
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  • Which, is going to bring to you, to your family
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  • And to the world a great light.
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  • But what exactly do the almighty god promise abraham?
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  • The answers are found in the book of genesis.
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  • Abraham was to become the father of a great nation.
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  • He and his descendants were to inherit the land of cain
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  • And forever.
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  • Through abraham's descendants, all of the earth
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  • Would be blessed according to god's promises.
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  • His eternal covenant with abraham,
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  • The descendants of abraham, would become a channel
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  • By which heavens light would break in upon a very dark world.
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  • But who were the descendants to whom
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  • God specific promises would apply?
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  • The bible states clearly that the covenant succession
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  • Was to pass from abraham
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  • To his son isaac, and from isaac to his son jacob.
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  • The bible also records moments when god appeared separately
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  • To each of these patriarchs or fathers of ancient israel.
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  • Times when god confirmed his covenant
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  • Promises to them through dreams or visions.
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  • He had one incident in
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  • Genesis appears to threaten the lineage
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  • Of blessing that god had created,
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  • With what many today would consider an extreme
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  • Test of faith.
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  • One of the most important aspects of the building up of,
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  • Or the
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  • And cementing of the relationship between abraham
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  • And god was, of course, the story of the binding
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  • Of isaac, of yitzchak, of abraham's son,
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  • Years after god had promised he would make abraham
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  • A great nation
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  • And miraculously gave him his son isaac at a very old age. god
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  • Now asked abraham to sacrifice the very son of promise.
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  • And here god says, i want you to sacrifice
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  • Your son, your only son, who you love, isaac.
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  • And avraham, without hesitating, picks up his stuff
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  • The next morning and sets out with isaac
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  • To do god's bidding.
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  • What's fascinating, i think, and an understanding of avraham
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  • And the framing of that relationship between god
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  • And the jewish people,
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  • Is that avraham
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  • Accepted his role
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  • In bringing an understanding of god to a pagan society
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  • Within the context of fighting against
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  • The concept of child sacrifice, which was so prevalent
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  • At the time.
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  • Abraham was willing to sacrifice.
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  • But his heart was not sacrificed.
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  • I believe that if he would have been sacrificed,
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  • He would have had a different nation,
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  • And it would have been altogether different.
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  • What this intriguing and mysterious story
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  • Clearly shows is abraham's devotion to god,
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  • His obedience and willingness to give up his beloved
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  • Son of promise.
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  • If that's what god required.
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  • Yet it is also through this story that god's promise
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  • To shine light through abraham begins to unfold
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  • In a pagan society where human sacrifice was widely practiced.
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  • This momentous event raised a new standard for the world.
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  • God did not want human sacrifice.
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  • Instead, god provided a sacrificial substitute
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  • In the form of a ram caught in the thicket by its horns.
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  • That isaac was not sacrificed meant that heaven's light
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  • Could now be reflected through his life
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  • And through the lives of his descendants
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  • Upon the death of abraham.
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  • God reiterated to isaac the promises he had made to
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  • His father.
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  • God said to isaac, dwell in this land, and i will be with you
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  • And bless you.
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  • For to you and your descendants i will give these lands, and i
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  • Will perform the oath which i swore to abraham your father and
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  • I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven.
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  • I will give to your descendants all these lands,
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  • And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.
  • 00:11:31.116 --> 00:11:38.056
  • So as we saw in the introduction,
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  • The story of israel begins with a man
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  • Called abraham or abraham.
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  • But as the story unfolds in the book of genesis,
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  • The same promises are made to abraham's son isaac,
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  • And then to his son jacob.
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  • Well, we know from the bible
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  • That god communicates with people in different ways.
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  • And when god communicated with jacob,
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  • He did so through a dream.
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  • And we read this account in genesis chapter 28,
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  • In verse ten.
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  • Now jacob went from beersheba and went toward iran.
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  • So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night,
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  • Because the sun had set.
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  • And he took
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  • One of the stones of that place and put it at his head,
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  • And he laid down in that place to sleep.
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  • Then he dreamed.
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  • Behold, a ladder
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  • Was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven.
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  • And there
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  • The angels of god were ascending and descending on it.
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  • The amazing thing is that a door was opened in heaven,
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  • Because jacob saw the almighty
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  • God standing at the top of the ladder.
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  • Verse 13 and behold, the lord stood above it and said,
  • 00:12:53.798 --> 00:12:58.269
  • I am the lord god of abraham, your father,
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  • And the god of isaac.
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  • The land in which you lie.
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  • I will give to you, and your descendants
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  • Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth.
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  • You shall spread abroad to the west and to the east,
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  • To the north and the south, and in you and in your seed,
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  • All the families of the earth shall be blessed.
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  • So god reiterated,
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  • Repeated to jacob,
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  • What he had said to his grandfather abraham,
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  • That through this chosen nation, through the descendants
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  • Of abraham, all the nations would be blessed.
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  • Now this occurred about 3800 years ago.
  • 00:13:39.110 --> 00:13:42.881
  • But lo and behold, when we go to the book of psalms,
  • 00:13:42.881 --> 00:13:46.251
  • In fact to psalm 105, we have this covenant line.
  • 00:13:46.251 --> 00:13:51.022
  • Abraham, isaac, and jacob confirmed again
  • 00:13:51.022 --> 00:13:54.559
  • Through the writings of the psalmist.
  • 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:56.928
  • Psalm 105, verse seven,
  • 00:13:56.928 --> 00:13:59.731
  • He is the lord our god.
  • 00:14:00.231 --> 00:14:02.700
  • His judgments are in all the earth.
  • 00:14:02.700 --> 00:14:05.403
  • He remembers his covenant forever.
  • 00:14:05.403 --> 00:14:07.805
  • The word which he commanded for a thousand generations.
  • 00:14:07.805 --> 00:14:11.709
  • The covenant which he made with abraham and his oath to isaac,
  • 00:14:11.709 --> 00:14:15.813
  • And confirmed it to jacob for a statute
  • 00:14:15.813 --> 00:14:18.816
  • To israel as an everlasting covenant,
  • 00:14:18.816 --> 00:14:21.519
  • Saying to you, i will give the land of canaan
  • 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:25.290
  • As the allotment of your inheritance.
  • 00:14:25.290 --> 00:14:29.060
  • Now canaan was one of the grandsons of noah,
  • 00:14:29.060 --> 00:14:32.397
  • And canaan was the name of the coastal plain
  • 00:14:32.397 --> 00:14:36.834
  • Which became israel, because later on god
  • 00:14:36.834 --> 00:14:41.172
  • Changes jacob's name to israel, and his 12 sons
  • 00:14:41.172 --> 00:14:46.010
  • Will become the 12 tribes of israel,
  • 00:14:46.010 --> 00:14:48.446
  • And they will dwell in the land of ten.
  • 00:14:48.446 --> 00:14:51.749
  • And this is where israel begins.
  • 00:14:51.749 --> 00:14:54.419
  • And we see in the old testament the continuity of god's
  • 00:14:54.419 --> 00:14:58.256
  • Promises to abraham, isaac, jacob,
  • 00:14:58.256 --> 00:15:02.060
  • And then some 800 years years later, even to the psalms.
  • 00:15:02.060 --> 00:15:07.799
  • It's an amazing story of god's relationship
  • 00:15:07.799 --> 00:15:11.703
  • With one special nation on the.
  • 00:15:11.703 --> 00:15:14.372
  • Earth
  • 00:15:14.372 --> 00:15:26.150
  • Our media today is filled with
  • 00:15:26.751 --> 00:15:28.486
  • Traveling reports and disturbing news everywhere you look.
  • 00:15:28.486 --> 00:15:31.656
  • It seems that the world is falling apart.
  • 00:15:31.656 --> 00:15:33.524
  • This could not be more true for the people of israel,
  • 00:15:33.524 --> 00:15:35.827
  • Facing threats of destruction from the neighboring countries,
  • 00:15:35.827 --> 00:15:38.696
  • And calls for sanctions against or around the world.
  • 00:15:38.696 --> 00:15:41.299
  • Israel must deal with the challenges
  • 00:15:41.299 --> 00:15:43.101
  • Few other countries will ever face,
  • 00:15:43.101 --> 00:15:44.936
  • Making it even more difficult to provide for her
  • 00:15:44.936 --> 00:15:47.171
  • Most vulnerable citizens. yet
  • 00:15:47.171 --> 00:15:49.140
  • See, for i and their partners are making a difference.
  • 00:15:49.140 --> 00:15:51.743
  • When you give to see farai,
  • 00:15:51.743 --> 00:15:53.211
  • You are donating to charities within israel that provide food,
  • 00:15:53.211 --> 00:15:56.214
  • Clothing and so much more for those in need in the holy land.
  • 00:15:56.214 --> 00:15:59.517
  • When you become a partner for the first time
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  • With a monthly donation of $25 or more, and as a thank you,
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  • You will receive
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  • The dvd set prophetic dreams and visions in daniel.
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  • And you will also receive
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  • The bi monthly newspaper call now
  • 00:16:10.161 --> 00:16:12.096
  • With your monthly donation of $25 or more.
  • 00:16:12.096 --> 00:16:14.499
  • 1-888-206-1986 or visit
  • 00:16:14.499 --> 00:16:18.970
  • C4i america.com and make a difference in israel today.
  • 00:16:18.970 --> 00:16:33.951
  • The genesis account makes it clear that the descendants
  • 00:16:35.086 --> 00:16:37.755
  • Of abraham and sarah, the children of israel,
  • 00:16:37.755 --> 00:16:41.325
  • Were specifically chosen by god to be a blessing.
  • 00:16:41.325 --> 00:16:44.862
  • But with this reality, there also arose a possibility
  • 00:16:44.862 --> 00:16:48.466
  • That other people and nations could easily
  • 00:16:48.466 --> 00:16:51.736
  • And understandably resent
  • 00:16:51.736 --> 00:16:53.571
  • The choosing of one nation above all other nations.
  • 00:16:53.571 --> 00:16:57.075
  • Did this mean god was rejecting other nations?
  • 00:16:57.075 --> 00:17:00.344
  • Why would the god of creation have a chosen people at all?
  • 00:17:00.344 --> 00:17:04.615
  • Abraham says to god, so to speak, i choose you.
  • 00:17:04.615 --> 00:17:07.218
  • I choose to dedicate my life
  • 00:17:07.218 --> 00:17:08.986
  • And the life of my descendants to one mission,
  • 00:17:08.986 --> 00:17:11.522
  • Bringing humanity back to relationship with you.
  • 00:17:11.522 --> 00:17:13.758
  • And god says back to abraham,
  • 00:17:13.758 --> 00:17:15.226
  • So to speak, your choosing me, abraham. then i choose you back.
  • 00:17:15.226 --> 00:17:17.962
  • You and your descendants, the jewish people.
  • 00:17:17.962 --> 00:17:19.964
  • The question of god's sovereign selection of israel
  • 00:17:20.998 --> 00:17:23.634
  • Is answered for us in the biblical text.
  • 00:17:23.634 --> 00:17:26.704
  • For you are a holy people to the lord your god.
  • 00:17:26.704 --> 00:17:30.074
  • The lord your god has chosen you to be a people for himself,
  • 00:17:30.074 --> 00:17:33.644
  • A special treasure
  • 00:17:33.644 --> 00:17:34.745
  • Above all peoples on the face of the earth.
  • 00:17:34.745 --> 00:17:37.515
  • The lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you,
  • 00:17:37.515 --> 00:17:40.718
  • Because you were more number
  • 00:17:40.718 --> 00:17:41.986
  • Than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples.
  • 00:17:41.986 --> 00:17:46.057
  • But because the lord loves you, and because he would
  • 00:17:46.057 --> 00:17:48.893
  • Keep the oath which he swore to your fathers.
  • 00:17:48.893 --> 00:17:52.396
  • In other words, god chose the children of israel
  • 00:17:52.396 --> 00:17:55.466
  • In order to be faithful to the promises
  • 00:17:55.466 --> 00:17:57.702
  • He had made earlier to abraham, isaac, and jacob.
  • 00:17:57.702 --> 00:18:01.105
  • But god's ultimate plans for humankind were even greater
  • 00:18:01.105 --> 00:18:04.142
  • Than his promises to one nation and its descendants.
  • 00:18:04.142 --> 00:18:07.678
  • They were merely to be the means, the channel
  • 00:18:07.678 --> 00:18:10.781
  • By which god would bless all nations.
  • 00:18:10.781 --> 00:18:13.951
  • They would become his light bearers, a chosen nation
  • 00:18:13.951 --> 00:18:17.054
  • He would use to penetrate the darkness of paganism
  • 00:18:17.054 --> 00:18:19.891
  • That it engulfed all nations on earth.
  • 00:18:19.891 --> 00:18:22.326
  • It was because of their belief in one god
  • 00:18:23.161 --> 00:18:25.763
  • That these children of abraham would become a light to all
  • 00:18:25.763 --> 00:18:28.733
  • Nations.
  • 00:18:28.733 --> 00:18:31.969
  • The original way it was supposed to happen
  • 00:18:31.969 --> 00:18:33.905
  • Was merely that abraham rediscovers god.
  • 00:18:33.905 --> 00:18:36.941
  • He creates a family that makes a nation that serves as a model.
  • 00:18:36.941 --> 00:18:40.111
  • That's what or ligaya means light to the nations.
  • 00:18:40.111 --> 00:18:42.747
  • And we always say imitation is the highest form of flattery.
  • 00:18:42.747 --> 00:18:45.416
  • If you have your act together, people will imitate you.
  • 00:18:45.416 --> 00:18:48.653
  • One of the hebrew prophets, isaiah,
  • 00:18:48.653 --> 00:18:50.955
  • Clearly understood israel's special mission that they were
  • 00:18:50.955 --> 00:18:54.959
  • To bring light into an otherwise very dark world.
  • 00:18:54.959 --> 00:18:58.429
  • You are my servant, o israel, in whom i will be glorified.
  • 00:18:59.597 --> 00:19:03.834
  • I will also give you as light to the gentiles.
  • 00:19:03.834 --> 00:19:06.871
  • Then you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth.
  • 00:19:06.871 --> 00:19:11.008
  • And we understand we are not chosen for privileged.
  • 00:19:11.008 --> 00:19:13.044
  • We were chosen for responsibility.
  • 00:19:13.044 --> 00:19:14.745
  • What's the responsibility?
  • 00:19:14.745 --> 00:19:16.314
  • The term in hebrew is tikkun olam.
  • 00:19:16.314 --> 00:19:17.882
  • Fix the world, which is the ultimate cause.
  • 00:19:17.882 --> 00:19:20.251
  • I always say it's a lot bigger than save the whales.
  • 00:19:20.251 --> 00:19:22.486
  • The ultimate cause of being the nation
  • 00:19:22.486 --> 00:19:23.988
  • Whose job it is to be a model for the rest of the world.
  • 00:19:23.988 --> 00:19:26.090
  • To teach the world about god, morality,
  • 00:19:26.090 --> 00:19:27.792
  • And to bring the world back to that relationship
  • 00:19:27.792 --> 00:19:29.527
  • And elevate the world
  • 00:19:29.527 --> 00:19:30.628
  • To the highest moral, spiritual level humanly possible.
  • 00:19:30.628 --> 00:19:33.898
  • Abraham was the catalyst for all of it.
  • 00:19:33.898 --> 00:19:35.566
  • Without abraham, there would be no jewish people.
  • 00:19:35.566 --> 00:19:37.602
  • And who knows where the world would be today for.
  • 00:19:37.602 --> 00:19:50.481
  • Them.
  • 00:19:50.715 --> 00:19:58.689
  • When god chose abraham and promised to bless him
  • 00:19:59.657 --> 00:20:02.627
  • And his descendants, he did so that through them
  • 00:20:02.627 --> 00:20:05.863
  • The whole world would be blessed.
  • 00:20:05.863 --> 00:20:08.566
  • This then raises the question,
  • 00:20:08.566 --> 00:20:11.135
  • How have the descendants of abraham blessed the world?
  • 00:20:11.135 --> 00:20:14.705
  • And in what sense can they be called a light
  • 00:20:14.705 --> 00:20:17.208
  • To the nations?
  • 00:20:17.208 --> 00:20:20.211
  • Abraham introduced a revolutionary concept
  • 00:20:20.211 --> 00:20:23.180
  • To the world.
  • 00:20:23.180 --> 00:20:24.148
  • He introduced the idea of having only one god,
  • 00:20:24.148 --> 00:20:27.118
  • Monotheism, to a world that practiced only polytheism.
  • 00:20:27.118 --> 00:20:31.455
  • The belief in many gods today, if you go to university
  • 00:20:31.455 --> 00:20:34.859
  • And you study the origins of monotheism,
  • 00:20:34.859 --> 00:20:36.594
  • They'll tell you that the ancient hebrews
  • 00:20:36.594 --> 00:20:38.396
  • Eventually coalesced into this concept of one god.
  • 00:20:38.396 --> 00:20:41.766
  • If you know the moses story,
  • 00:20:41.766 --> 00:20:43.334
  • The exodus, that was all mythology,
  • 00:20:43.334 --> 00:20:45.169
  • And it took until the second temple
  • 00:20:45.169 --> 00:20:46.604
  • Period, till it finally caught on. okay.
  • 00:20:46.604 --> 00:20:49.307
  • But the jewish understanding is the exact opposite.
  • 00:20:49.307 --> 00:20:51.475
  • The understanding
  • 00:20:51.475 --> 00:20:52.276
  • Is that adam and eve
  • 00:20:52.276 --> 00:20:53.644
  • Were the spiritual progenitors of all humanity,
  • 00:20:53.644 --> 00:20:56.347
  • Had a direct relationship with god, and that relationship
  • 00:20:56.347 --> 00:20:59.216
  • Was blown and humanity degenerated into polytheism
  • 00:20:59.216 --> 00:21:02.687
  • Because they found it too
  • 00:21:02.687 --> 00:21:03.654
  • Hard to maintain a relationship with one god.
  • 00:21:03.654 --> 00:21:06.490
  • I mean, think about it.
  • 00:21:06.490 --> 00:21:07.258
  • The universe exists within god.
  • 00:21:07.258 --> 00:21:09.827
  • But but you can't.
  • 00:21:09.827 --> 00:21:10.995
  • He's not standing in front of you like i am.
  • 00:21:10.995 --> 00:21:13.431
  • It's very hard to have.
  • 00:21:13.431 --> 00:21:13.964
  • Relationship with god
  • 00:21:13.964 --> 00:21:15.032
  • Is the ultimate challenge, is the ultimate
  • 00:21:15.032 --> 00:21:16.667
  • Meaningful experience, is the ultimate relationship.
  • 00:21:16.667 --> 00:21:18.536
  • But it's extremely hard to accomplish that.
  • 00:21:18.536 --> 00:21:20.137
  • So people basically
  • 00:21:20.137 --> 00:21:21.706
  • Started using intermediaries as a way of indirectly relating
  • 00:21:21.706 --> 00:21:25.109
  • To god, like, i don't i don't see god,
  • 00:21:25.109 --> 00:21:26.744
  • But look at the really unbelievable sun
  • 00:21:26.744 --> 00:21:28.512
  • And the moon and the stars and the ocean
  • 00:21:28.512 --> 00:21:30.014
  • And the lightning in the volcanoes.
  • 00:21:30.014 --> 00:21:31.582
  • I'll be nice to those things
  • 00:21:31.582 --> 00:21:32.850
  • That god created which are stronger than i am,
  • 00:21:32.850 --> 00:21:34.885
  • As a way of indirectly showing respect to god.
  • 00:21:34.885 --> 00:21:37.455
  • The ancient world was inundated with gods.
  • 00:21:38.322 --> 00:21:41.459
  • In fact, it was common practice in abraham's
  • 00:21:41.459 --> 00:21:44.295
  • Day for individuals to worship many gods,
  • 00:21:44.295 --> 00:21:47.565
  • Objects of worship who must be appeased
  • 00:21:47.565 --> 00:21:50.134
  • So they will dispense good fortune and blessings.
  • 00:21:50.134 --> 00:21:54.705
  • Since there was no absolute source
  • 00:21:55.473 --> 00:21:57.174
  • For right or wrong behavior at this time in history.
  • 00:21:57.174 --> 00:22:00.144
  • Behavior was based upon individual perceptions
  • 00:22:00.144 --> 00:22:03.080
  • Of what the gods desired.
  • 00:22:03.080 --> 00:22:06.550
  • It is against this pagan backdrop
  • 00:22:07.284 --> 00:22:09.487
  • That abraham first appears
  • 00:22:09.487 --> 00:22:11.255
  • Toward the beginning of the 19th century bc, a man who now
  • 00:22:11.255 --> 00:22:15.226
  • Championed the radical concept of the worship of only one god.
  • 00:22:15.226 --> 00:22:19.563
  • Although there were others before abraham
  • 00:22:19.563 --> 00:22:21.565
  • Who also believed in only one god,
  • 00:22:21.565 --> 00:22:23.734
  • Such as the biblical figures of adam and noah.
  • 00:22:23.734 --> 00:22:26.670
  • Abraham took this idea a step further
  • 00:22:26.670 --> 00:22:29.507
  • By committing himself and his descendants
  • 00:22:29.507 --> 00:22:31.976
  • To the promotion and development of monotheism.
  • 00:22:31.976 --> 00:22:35.179
  • So how did the ideas get?
  • 00:22:35.746 --> 00:22:37.815
  • Get out there? it's a whole it's a huge story.
  • 00:22:37.815 --> 00:22:40.751
  • It has to do with, again,
  • 00:22:40.751 --> 00:22:42.486
  • Primarily the religious offshoots,
  • 00:22:42.486 --> 00:22:44.021
  • The out of judaism, christianity
  • 00:22:44.021 --> 00:22:45.856
  • Being the biggest one initially, for sure, followed by islam,
  • 00:22:45.856 --> 00:22:49.126
  • Which introduced this idea,
  • 00:22:49.126 --> 00:22:50.561
  • The essential feature of christianity, islam,
  • 00:22:50.561 --> 00:22:52.129
  • Or that monotheistic belief systems,
  • 00:22:52.129 --> 00:22:54.498
  • Albeit with different theology.
  • 00:22:54.498 --> 00:22:56.233
  • Mere christianity has the idea of trinity,
  • 00:22:56.233 --> 00:22:57.935
  • Whereas islam is maybe more purely monotheistic
  • 00:22:57.935 --> 00:23:00.971
  • And very anti-gay idea of portraying god in any way
  • 00:23:00.971 --> 00:23:05.042
  • But the basic value system, the whole idea.
  • 00:23:05.042 --> 00:23:07.678
  • There's a god who acts in history that controls history.
  • 00:23:07.678 --> 00:23:10.815
  • That is a moral code.
  • 00:23:10.815 --> 00:23:12.650
  • These are all values of christianity, islam
  • 00:23:12.650 --> 00:23:14.418
  • Excepted from judaism and spread around the world.
  • 00:23:14.418 --> 00:23:17.087
  • And ultimately billions of people today
  • 00:23:17.087 --> 00:23:19.723
  • Whose ancestors were pagans are now people who, through
  • 00:23:19.723 --> 00:23:22.960
  • Christianity, islam, are bought into a belief system
  • 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:25.996
  • That comes from the jewish people.
  • 00:23:25.996 --> 00:23:28.999
  • Today,
  • 00:23:29.200 --> 00:23:30.201
  • Over 3.5 billion christians, jews and muslims
  • 00:23:30.201 --> 00:23:33.838
  • Trace the roots of their monotheism to abraham,
  • 00:23:33.838 --> 00:23:37.274
  • In each case having only one god is the foundation
  • 00:23:37.274 --> 00:23:40.845
  • Of their faith.
  • 00:23:40.845 --> 00:23:41.879
  • Abraham set an example for the ancient world
  • 00:23:41.879 --> 00:23:44.949
  • By his belief that a righteous moral life
  • 00:23:44.949 --> 00:23:47.551
  • Begins with submission to the only supreme god.
  • 00:23:47.551 --> 00:23:50.788
  • This legacy lives on
  • 00:23:50.788 --> 00:23:52.623
  • Not only through his descendants, the jewish race,
  • 00:23:52.623 --> 00:23:55.426
  • But also through the billions of others today
  • 00:23:55.426 --> 00:23:58.128
  • Who believe, as abraham did, in one
  • 00:23:58.128 --> 00:24:00.898
  • And only one supreme being.
  • 00:24:00.898 --> 00:24:06.604
  • Centuries later,
  • 00:24:07.004 --> 00:24:08.105
  • Another very special descendant of abraham,
  • 00:24:08.105 --> 00:24:11.075
  • Another specifically chosen by god,
  • 00:24:11.075 --> 00:24:14.144
  • Would become the instrument through whom god would.
  • 00:24:14.144 --> 00:24:16.580
  • Rubio even more of his divine nature to humankind.
  • 00:24:16.580 --> 00:24:20.618
  • The man's name was moses,
  • 00:24:20.618 --> 00:24:23.087
  • Although raised as a prince in egypt.
  • 00:24:23.087 --> 00:24:25.422
  • Moses, from the moment of his birth,
  • 00:24:25.422 --> 00:24:27.458
  • Was destined for even greater things.
  • 00:24:27.458 --> 00:24:30.394
  • God had chosen him to
  • 00:24:30.895 --> 00:24:32.363
  • Introduce new standards of ethics and morality.
  • 00:24:32.363 --> 00:24:35.566
  • Indeed, the ten commandments moses received
  • 00:24:35.566 --> 00:24:38.536
  • During one of several encounters with god
  • 00:24:38.536 --> 00:24:41.038
  • Have perhaps done more to shape human behavior
  • 00:24:41.038 --> 00:24:43.974
  • Than any other code of law in history.
  • 00:24:43.974 --> 00:24:58.656
  • As we follow
  • 00:24:58.989 --> 00:25:00.024
  • The story of israel through the old testament,
  • 00:25:00.024 --> 00:25:02.726
  • We find out that god is raising up kings
  • 00:25:02.726 --> 00:25:05.596
  • To serve them, such as cyrus, king of persia,
  • 00:25:05.596 --> 00:25:09.400
  • Or deposing other kings who stand in their way
  • 00:25:09.400 --> 00:25:12.436
  • Or offend the almighty god in some way. so.
  • 00:25:12.436 --> 00:25:16.640
  • But at the same time, god is raising up leaders
  • 00:25:16.640 --> 00:25:19.710
  • To lead his nation forward through time and circumstance.
  • 00:25:19.710 --> 00:25:24.582
  • One of the most amazing leaders of all was a man called moses.
  • 00:25:24.582 --> 00:25:29.119
  • And moses, ironically, was a hebrew.
  • 00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:32.256
  • But through a set of circumstances,
  • 00:25:32.256 --> 00:25:34.258
  • He ended up being, in a sense, mothered by the queen of egypt.
  • 00:25:34.258 --> 00:25:39.530
  • So he became a prince in pharaoh's court.
  • 00:25:39.530 --> 00:25:42.299
  • But all the way through the story
  • 00:25:42.299 --> 00:25:43.834
  • That we find in the book of exodus,
  • 00:25:43.834 --> 00:25:45.536
  • You can see the hand of god in all of this
  • 00:25:45.536 --> 00:25:48.706
  • For israel's benefit.
  • 00:25:48.706 --> 00:25:50.441
  • And blessing.
  • 00:25:50.441 --> 00:25:51.642
  • And moses becomes the deliverer of the nation of israel,
  • 00:25:51.642 --> 00:25:55.512
  • Who've been in 400 years of servitude, serving as slaves
  • 00:25:55.512 --> 00:25:59.416
  • In the slime pits of egypt through moses.
  • 00:25:59.416 --> 00:26:02.686
  • God delivers them from that incredible
  • 00:26:02.686 --> 00:26:05.823
  • Long period of bondage,
  • 00:26:05.823 --> 00:26:07.958
  • And on the journey
  • 00:26:07.958 --> 00:26:09.093
  • Through the wilderness, places toward the promised land,
  • 00:26:09.093 --> 00:26:12.496
  • Which is the fulfillment of god's promise to abraham.
  • 00:26:12.496 --> 00:26:15.633
  • Moses is summoned up onto the holy mountain,
  • 00:26:15.633 --> 00:26:19.036
  • And there he receives what we know today as the ten
  • 00:26:19.036 --> 00:26:21.639
  • Commandments on two tablets of stone.
  • 00:26:21.639 --> 00:26:25.809
  • God's ethical and moral laws for the nation of israel
  • 00:26:25.809 --> 00:26:30.347
  • That would reflect his moral laws and ethics
  • 00:26:30.347 --> 00:26:33.584
  • For the whole world through the nation of israel,
  • 00:26:33.584 --> 00:26:37.021
  • Because they would become the bearers of his light,
  • 00:26:37.021 --> 00:26:39.857
  • Reflecting heaven's light, which includes standards.
  • 00:26:39.857 --> 00:26:43.761
  • And imagine if we could live by those standards today.
  • 00:26:43.761 --> 00:26:47.197
  • What a different world we would be living in.
  • 00:26:47.197 --> 00:26:49.967
  • And of course, israel couldn't
  • 00:26:49.967 --> 00:26:51.368
  • Keep up and live up
  • 00:26:51.368 --> 00:26:52.536
  • To those standards either, but it still set the bar high.
  • 00:26:52.536 --> 00:26:56.607
  • What god required of all nations, in fact individuals
  • 00:26:56.607 --> 00:27:00.744
  • And families.
  • 00:27:00.744 --> 00:27:02.713
  • So israel was to reflect heaven's moral ethical code
  • 00:27:02.713 --> 00:27:07.885
  • In her
  • 00:27:08.085 --> 00:27:09.687
  • Life so the whole world could see
  • 00:27:09.687 --> 00:27:12.723
  • What god, the almighty god required of all nations.
  • 00:27:12.723 --> 00:27:12.723