David Hart: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots" with insightful Bible teaching from
Israel by Dr. Jeffrey Seif. This week, we contrast two kings
of Judah: a faithful father and his evil son, today on
"Kings and Kingdoms." ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ David: We're so glad
you've joined us today, I am David Hart. Kirsten Hart:
I'm Kirsten Hart. Jeffrey Seif: Jeffrey Seif. David: So we're in the middle
of the series and it's all about leadership in the Bible. You've been grading them
and it hasn't been good news. We need a little
bit of good news. Kirsten: Please, can
one of the kings be good? Look at--look,
my fingers are crossed. Please? Jeffrey: Listen, young
lady, don't shoot the messenger, I only work here. The Bible gives 'em bad scores
on the whole because things are deteriorating and the
kingdom's going down the drain. As an instructor, I tend to be
more of an upbeat and more of a gracious grader, but it's
hard to do it on the whole. But we have a good one
coming in short order. Kirsten: Good, well, the
northern kingdom's gone now. We're down to little Judah. Jeffrey: See, yes, in fact,
Judah would have gone too were it not for the individual
who's the object of our attention at the outset. Kirsten: Good, I'm
ready for a good grade. Jeffrey: Yeah, God did a
turnaround because this was a turnaround king. I like turnaround leaders.
How about you? David: I think it's about a
father and son today, correct? Jeffrey: Mm-hmm,
the son not so good. Let's just do Dad now.
We'll get to the kiddos later. David: Right now, let's go to
the Kidron Valley in Jerusalem with Dr. Seif's teaching. ♪♪♪ Jeffrey: I am surrounded
by the memories of biblical noteworthies. I say that because just off to
my right is the tomb of Absalom. You might
have--recall that name. Just over my left
shoulder is a tomb to Zechariah. You might recall that name. And if you're deep
into the biblical woods, you might remember the sons of
Keziah mentioned in Nehemiah and 1 Chronicles, one of 24
famous priestly families. Their tombs are just off
to my immediate right. Very, very interesting
place here at the base of the Mount of Olives. If you've been to Jerusalem and
the area adjacent to it on the Mount of Olives, you'd noted
that it's one big cemetery and a lot of rabbis and
pious Jews are buried and, here, this is a place
reserved for men of renown. And this is a great place to
talk to the one who arguably is the best of the
best of the best. When it comes to
the kings of Israel, save David himself, this
person is adjudged to be so important--think of this, some
of the kings of Judah are just given a few
sentences or a paragraph. This one: three
chapters here in 2 Kings. His name is Hezekiah. Comes from the word
"chezeq," which means strength. And he was going to need it. And he himself was vested with
responsibility to inculcate it into Judah for he served
at the helm of the community during
troubling times. You can't see it from where
the camera's pointed, but my peripheral vision is the city
of David and, right around the bend from me, you might have
heard of Hezekiah's Tunnel. One of the things that Hezekiah
did in preparation for enabling Judas to survive an invasion,
is he managed waterworks by constructing a tunnel to get
to a water source which is essential if you're
going to have a siege. There are stones
laying round about as well. He built up fortifications,
but more than what he did materially, the Bible says
there was something about him spiritually that gave him a
kind of wisdom that wouldn't otherwise have been there. I already mentioned there's
three chapters dedicated to the man's memory. I just wanna look at how he's
introduced, and so I'm looking at 2 Kings chapter 18, and the
author here in verse 5 says, "[Speaking in Hebrew]," that is, "He trusted in the
Lord God of Israel." Isn't that a good testimony
to say of someone that he trusted the Lord? A lot of people don't. In verse 6, he goes on, "[Speaking in Hebrew] He cleaved to the Lord." This is more than just kind of
like an intellectual assent as in trust, "Yes, I think
it'll work out the way the Good Book says." No, but there's something
about him that cleaves to. That says something.
I like that in a leader. How about you? "[Speaking in Hebrew] He departed not from
following him." You know, sometimes people
get religion on the spur and it evaporates like morning dew. You know, when they're in
trouble they kind of--you know, they run to the
altar but in the, you know, in due time
those energies just dissipate. There's a kind of
staying power with him. We're told that he
didn't evaporate. "[Speaking in Hebrew] But that he kept God's
commandments." Now, one of the reasons
why I wanna break this down specifically isn't
simply to eulogize him. You know, I'm not some
rabbi tasked with the--there's something called panegyria
in antiquity, that is, the way you speak of greats, of
noteworthies, of royalty. The reason why I wanna slow down
and get into the particulars here is less
about describing him, much as it is my wanting to
lift up what are some of the characteristics of leaders that
I am game to affirm personally? That is to say, I like this. More important than what I
like, the Bible commands this. We're told as well, as we read
on through to the end of verse 6: "He kept the
commandments, which the Lord God commanded Moses." This is before the printing
press, by the way, where people can get books on the cheap and
everyone can pick up a Gideons Bible in a hotel room, never
mind a bookstore, never mind googling something
and getting a text online. That he, before
those modern inventions, that he dwelt in
proximity to the literature. The Torah beckoned kings to
make a copy of the text and so, by virtue of their being
involved in the manufacture, the hope was that that would
contribute toward their abiding with it and having more
of a familiarity with it. Not always the case, however. If you look at the
biblical testimony, if we look at the kings of
Judah and their religion, you couldn't trust it any
further than you can throw it. Out of 28 kings, the only one
there noteworthy for any kind of piety, there's 8 of them, and
in this series we only cover 4. We don't have time to do it all. This man, however, comes with
these sterling affirmations. Now, I wanna close the
book to make a point. You know, I'm a Bible teacher
and I'm opening up the Bible and going back, you know, thousands
of years and certainly when we're looking at
the book, Kings, we're going back, you
know, to a bygone era. But I wanna bring it
forward and make a point, one you've heard me to say on
a number of occasions as we've looked at the biblical testimony
about kings and kingdoms. And what is that
point, principally? The simple point is
that faithfulness to the Lord pays dividends. Over and over again,
that's what the biblical chroniclers alight upon. This translates
into success in life. By way of contra-distinction,
the lack thereof translates into failure, which is why when I
look at kings and kingdoms, while I'm looking there
generally, specifically what I'm looking at are
issues associated with faithfulness to biblical vision. And I say that to you as
you're looking for what leads, who leads, what
ideas move forward, what personalities best
advocate for those ideas. As you, in a democracy, weigh
in and decide what you wanna do, who you wanna support,
whether it's in government, in the broader sense of
political government, who do you wanna attach
yourself to in business, in the business of business,
or even who you wanna attach yourself to in the business of
love, whether it's building a biological kingdom, whether
it's building a business kingdom, whether
it's considering the national kingdom that we live
in, our country. Let me encourage you with what
the biblical authors encourage us: put your energies and
support behind that which advocates faithfulness
to the biblical economy. Support faithful men,
support policies that reflect biblical vision. This, according to
the authors of this, the Bible, this is a
recipe for success in life. Conversely, throwing this
behind the back translates into lack of success in life. There are individuals who
ostensibly pay lip service to a biblical agenda, but it
doesn't really inform what they're thinking and doing. What you wanna do is
look for people that are faithful to the biblical text. Call those faithful people your
friends and I believe you'll be better for so doing. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jeffrey: He was,
in no uncertain terms, a worthless piece
of human wreckage. To whom am I referring? Well, a Bible character: the
son of Judah's most famous king, Hezekiah, was a mess. His name was Manasseh. And my description of him in
my opening statement pales in comparison to the way
the Bible describes him. And here in this
segment, I wanna take a look at that passage. And I'm pleased to film
this segment from here. I can't think of a better place. I'm coming to you from
the Valley of Gehenna, also known as
hell, interestingly. In fact, some New Testament
texts you'll see where Jesus says, "hell," and you
look at the bottom, there's an italicized letter
and it gives the word "Gehenna," because it was in this place
years ago that corpses were taken and incinerated. So it was a reminder of a place
where corpses would be taken and incinerated, that is hell. Beyond that, here was a place
where child sacrifices were offered, and we'll see in short
order how Manasseh actually offered his own son as a
child sacrifice in Judah. Horrible. And this is the place
where it all happened. Well, this is a place that has a
horrible memory attached to it. And I wanna come to you from
this place and tell a bad story. It's not that I'm game
to tell bad stories. I know we have a lot of bad
stories in our own personal narratives and people watch
religious TV for a Bible study to get some good news. But sometimes, it's important to
take a look at the bad in order to see the way through it
to get that which is good. I mention that because I had
a friend in medical school. He said they
would take cadavers, bodies that died of
disease processes, and they would take
them and dissect them. It was adjudged to be important
to look how disease worked and to look at the effect
that it had on the body. Well, I think that's true and I
think the biblical authors think that's true too. And why is that? Because they tell
this man's story. Let's go take a
look at the book. It's worth seeing. It's a tough story to
tell, but it's worth hearing as we look at
kings and kingdoms. ♪♪♪ Jeffrey: You can see from the
passageway behind me that the road to hell is
indeed well traveled. Of course, it's an
analogy here but, unfortunately, it's very true. And it's doubly unfortunate that
it was one of Judean kings who was particularly culpable
in leading people to it. My strong and disdainful intro
bears some biblical proof text for it, lest you think that I'm
just brazen in my disregard for personalities of old. In chapter 21 of
2 Kings, therein, the literature is very clear. Manasseh is introduced and
we're told at the outset he reigned 55 years. It's 55 years of
World War II, in effect. It's 55 years of horror. We're told in verse 2: "And
he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, going after the various
abominations of the nations whom the Lord cast out
before the eyes of the children of Israel." There were things that the Lord
cast out and he ran after those with a vengeance to reinstall
them in Israel, in Judah. There's particulars noted. We're told here that he
built altars to Baal, pagan worship is
instilled, as well as Asherah, the female counterpart
to this pagan worship. Not only that, in verse 4,
to add insult to the injury, we're told that he built pagan
altars in the house of the Lord, in the--called the
temple, the Beit Hamikdash, the holy house. He took that which was
dedicated to Jehovah and, in effect,
dedicated it to the devil. That's what this
author is saying. We're told as well, as
evidence thereof in verse 6, that, "He made his son to
pass through the fire." This harks back to a pagan
practice of child sacrifice. He did it. By the way, child sacrifices
were done here in this valley and, here, this man,
we're told, a king of Judah, mind you, is
proactive in all of that. Not only that, this Manasseh,
his father, Hezekiah, was the best kiddy in the Judean
litter, a very righteous king. And his son, to be so
deplorable, it's just bombastic. We're told as well that he
practiced soothsaying, he's something of a fortune
teller, absolutely unacceptable. If you look in verse
16 of the chapter, we're told that, "He shed
innocent blood very much till he filled Jerusalem from
one end to another." In another life, I've served as
a police academy director and instructor, and I would teach
professionalism and ethics. I teach a course in the US
Constitution and Bill of Rights, and I always made a number of
points with a mind to inculcate the imperative that those
that have power be virtuous, just, ethical, fair, and good. This man was anything but that. He was unjust, guilty of murder,
filling Jerusalem with blood from one end to the other. When I think of that, there
are leaders that are like that. They go after policies that
lend themselves to murder. It's horrible,
completely unacceptable. The net result,
we're told in verse 12, that God is gonna
bring evil upon Jerusalem. When you have leaders
like that, bad leaders, bad things happen
as a result of that. We wanna go after people
that reflect biblical vision, value, and virtue. Vote for them, get behind them. Put 'em in your house,
put 'em in the White House, put 'em in Congress. That's what we want. And if we don't get
it, if we get this, I see a bad moon rising. ♪♪♪ Jeffrey: Our Creator chose
certain places on the planet to reveal himself and his
message of redemption to us. Mount Sinai, Moriah,
Olives, the Mount of Beatitudes, as well as various
seas, rivers, and deserts. These were the places. Some are now only ruins, yet
they continue to tell of the Lord's faithfulness and love. These sacred backdrops have
been beautifully captured in our resource this week: the book,
"Heaven and Earth: Landmarks of the Bible from
Genesis to Revelation." Our producer and director,
Ken Berg, has assembled some of his favorite photographs
taken during his four decades of travel through the
lands of the Bible. Contact us and ask for the
book, "Heaven and Earth." male announcer: If you're
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you so much for your financial support that helps us do what we
do around the world every week. Kirsten: We have
many creative ways. This is wonderful. The head of our
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your heart is behind "Our Jewish Roots," get in touch
with us, levitt.com, and we'll help facilitate
your support of this ministry. Jeff has been talking about
a good king, Hezekiah. The benchmark, I
think, is King David; a good name, your name is David. Who was one of the first
praise and worship leaders. He wrote the Psalms, and Sarah
Liberman is a worship leader in Israel and she's gonna teach
us Hebrew words of worship. Here's Sarah now. ♪♪♪ Sarah Liberman:
Shalom haverim. Welcome back to our series
on exploring the words of worship in Hebrew. You see, in English we
primarily have only two words: "worship" and "praise." But in the Hebrew language,
there are so many more words that explore what it
is to worship God. Now, today's word is
the word "La'avod." In fact, the first time the word
"worship" is mentioned in the Bible, it uses this word
in Hebrew, "la'avod." The word means work. It comes from the same root that
we use to describe our jobs, our daily work that we
do as our profession. Do you know where it's found? It's found in that moment where
Abraham is going to take Isaac up to Mount Moriah. He says to the boy, "Let us
go up and worship," or work, "as unto the Lord." I find that incredible and
inspiring because that act of surrender, that act of worship,
that Abraham knows he's going to do with Isaac, he
uses that word "work." It suggests to me that we
can go about our daily lives, our work, our tasks,
everything that we are doing, and we can go about it with
the attitude of worshiping God. What would our lives look
like if everything we did, we did from that place
in our heart to say, "I am doing this as a
work unto the Lord, as a act of worship
and service unto God"? Imagine going through your life
and continually being aware of the presence of the Lord and
wanting to give him something in everything that you do. This is this word of
worship, "la'avod et Adonai." ♪♪♪ ♪ Though I
walk in darkness-- ♪ ♪ Though I'm often lost, ♪ ♪ you light the way. ♪ ♪ By the still waters, ♪ ♪ leading me onward, ♪ ♪ a place of peace
and quiet rest. ♪ ♪ I call out your name. ♪ ♪ You hear my voice. ♪ ♪ I hear you call me,
"My chosen." ♪ ♪ Hold a place for me, ♪ ♪ there beside your throne. ♪ ♪ I will follow you
forever. ♪ ♪ I call out your name. ♪ ♪ You hear my voice. ♪ ♪ I hear you call me,
"My chosen." ♪ ♪ Hold a place for me, ♪ ♪ there beside your throne. ♪ ♪ I will follow you
forever. ♪ ♪ I call out your name. ♪ ♪ I hear you call me,
"My chosen." ♪ ♪ Hold a place for me. ♪ ♪ I will follow you
forever. ♪♪ David: We love bringing
you music by Marty Goetz. We love having him
on this program. Also, we hope you're enjoying
our Hebrew lessons that we bring you each week
from Sarah Liberman. Right now, I think you
have a report card here. What's going on today? Kirsten: I'm ready.
I'm ready for this, great. Jeffrey: Professor
Seif is at it again. I hope I'll make you happier. Kirsten: Hezekiah,
he has his own tunnel. He's gotta get a good grade. Jeffrey: Okay, then only
because of you, we'll give him a B, how's that? David: That's what I
was--I was gonna say a B. Jeffrey: Oh, there you go. You know, I mean, I like him. He's noteworthy in
the literature for a variety of reasons. He was faithful unto the Lord. His weakness that's noted in the
text is that he showed off his treasury to enemy envoys who
came and that was gonna come back to haunt him. Kirsten: Which is prideful.
"Look what I have." Jeffrey: It was prideful of
him and showing off your money's not a good thing. Now, we're not gonna have
that problem at "Our Jewish Roots," I should say. We're not working with deep
pockets and big treasuries. We get it a dime at a time. And that said, I
want to encourage you, please, help us to
fill the coffers. We don't store it up from
generation to generation. We're on nationally
syndicated television. We don't own it, we rent
it, and it's due every month. And if you'd help us, if
you think this is good news, looking at it all through
the eyes of the Jews, please put some money in there and I know
God'll bless you for so doing. Hezekiah was a blessed man. He served the Lord and
saw miracles in his life. And I think we can see
miracles in our own as well. Unfortunately, his son,
Manasseh, was a worthless piece of human
wreckage, bad to the bone. He's the worst kiddy in this
litter to my way of thinking. David: Here's my thought,
you and I are dads and I think we both
have great sons. My son was in the army,
another son lived in Jerusalem for three years. You have great sons. Hezekiah, he had to deal
with his son who was evil. Jeffrey: Well, you
know, in Jewish tradition, it says that he turned it around
later in life but, you know, the author of Hebrews speaks about
some being sawn in two. It was Manasseh
who murdered Isaiah the prophet, one of the greats. Kirsten: I mean,
literally, he--a saw, right? I mean, it's just horrible. Jeffrey: Yeah, you know,
these kings can really be bad to the bone. He gets an F-minus.
I'm not pleased. You know, like
politicians today, sometimes when you
give someone power, things flower in
conjunction with that. Napoleon said, "You find out the
measure of a man when you give him some rank," the General. Well, we see the
measure of this man. He wasn't very good. Kirsten: We should
pray for our politicians. Pray for them and pray
that pride will not rise up. That's my personal takeaway. Jeffrey: Yes, and
speaking of taking away, it's time to go away. And speaking of
prayer as you go, shaalu shalom Yerushalayim. Kirsten: Pray for
the peace of Jerusalem. David: Join us right now for
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