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Speaker 1: Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Here thousands of

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Speaker 1: hours of Dennis's lectures courses in classic radio programs. Had

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Speaker 1: to purchase Dennisprager's Rational Bibles go to Dennisprager dot com.

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Speaker 2: There's another element here that I'd just like to throw

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Speaker 2: in for a minute, and.

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Speaker 3: That's the issue of faith.

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Speaker 2: God had spoken to Abraham, right, God had told him

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Speaker 2: to move out to begin with, and God had told

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Speaker 2: him already that through you, all the families of the earth.

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Speaker 3: Will be blessed.

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Speaker 2: So then why didn't he simply rely on God? Why

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Speaker 2: didn't he just say, Hey, nothing's going to happen to me, now,

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Speaker 2: are you Sarah? Sorry, We've got it made. God's on

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Speaker 2: our side. He promised me such and such. She's appeared

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Speaker 2: to me. That's an interesting question, and I think there's

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Speaker 2: an answer to it, and there's an important answer in

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Speaker 2: this I haven't seen in the commentaries. This is an

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Speaker 2: answer that I come to but with deep conviction, and

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Speaker 2: that is you can't rely on God if you can

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Speaker 2: help yourself, you can't. Although that is a basic religious principle.

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Speaker 2: God is not a celestial butler. You must do what

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Speaker 2: you can do for you. You cannot say God will

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Speaker 2: bail me out. Oh, yes, Sarah, no problem. Let's go

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Speaker 2: into Egypt. You know, they look at pretty women and they

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Speaker 2: take them and kill the husbands. But I do won't

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Speaker 2: happen to us because God's on our side. You cannot

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Speaker 2: speak like that. Even even Abraham, who's been talked to

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Speaker 2: by God personally, can't talk like that. And that's critical

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Speaker 2: stuff that you can't walk around saying God's going to

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Speaker 2: bail me out of a circumstance. What does faith in

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Speaker 2: God therefore entail is a very great question, and I'm

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Speaker 2: going to talk about that to a certain extent.

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Speaker 3: Today too, But please beware of that question.

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Speaker 2: Yes, why didn't Pharaoh kill Abraham when he finally did

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Speaker 2: realize that he was her wife her husband? Because because

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Speaker 2: he knew that he had gotten whatever he had gotten him.

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Speaker 3: It's not fully clear.

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Speaker 2: Some say impotent, some say some sort of venereal disease,

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Speaker 2: some say some disease.

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Speaker 3: It's not fully clear.

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Speaker 2: He was just he was just hit by God and

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Speaker 2: he knew it was from God. How he knew it

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Speaker 2: was from God? I don't know either. That's not knowable.

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Speaker 2: But the assumption I have to take the stories at

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Speaker 2: face value. By the story, we see that Pharaoh knew

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Speaker 2: that it was from God and understood immediately what was

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Speaker 2: the issue. And at that point he wasn't about to

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Speaker 2: fiddle around with God. But but it isn't. But you

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Speaker 2: make an interesting point there. Maybe Pharaoh wasn't as bad

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Speaker 2: as Abraham had made him.

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Speaker 3: Out to be. Then you have a good question.

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Speaker 2: See what if you're you suspect that they may kill

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Speaker 2: you and take your wife, but in fact maybe they won't.

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Speaker 2: That enters the realm of the non understandable.

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Speaker 3: By the way, here's another interesting question.

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Speaker 2: Why didn't Abraham answer Pharaoh? There's total silence, absolute silence.

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Speaker 2: Pharaoh yells at Abraham, why didn't you tell me? You

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Speaker 2: got me? You got me ruined by God? Here I

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Speaker 2: ended up with your wife? Why didn't you tell me?

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Speaker 2: And Abraham says nothing. My suspicion is he had nothing

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Speaker 2: that he could say. What's he gonna say? Well, frankly,

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Speaker 2: I think you are such slime and your society is

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Speaker 2: so miserable that if I would have announced it, you'd

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Speaker 2: have killed me. What is he gonna tell the truth?

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Speaker 2: You understand, there are times when it is better to

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Speaker 2: shut up than to make a lie as an excuse,

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Speaker 2: because the only answer is the truth, and the truth

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Speaker 2: won't get him anywhere. It's not going to help, and

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Speaker 2: it's only going to be insulting to a man who's

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Speaker 2: already had a pretty rough time of it and looks

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Speaker 2: like the honorable victim. Though the record of Pharaoh's does

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Speaker 2: not lead one to assume that they all.

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Speaker 3: Felt that way.

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Speaker 2: Well, this beautiful woman is a man's wife, and therefore

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Speaker 2: I will certainly not touch her. Listen, what if King David,

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Speaker 2: who wasn't a pharaoh Doe when he saw a beautiful

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Speaker 2: woman who was his.

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Speaker 3: Top general's wife, he got him killed?

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Speaker 2: Riah the Hittite, Okay, you don't have to go to Pharaoh's.

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Speaker 3: Here was a Jewish.

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Speaker 2: King doing exactly that.

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Speaker 3: Hey, it's a beautiful woman.

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna send this man off, right, So I think

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Speaker 2: it was pretty widespread practice and fair to say that

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Speaker 2: that's exactly what would have happened. Yeah, right, he was

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Speaker 2: shown exactly he had been hit by God. And that's

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Speaker 2: the reason you're saying that he not because he had

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Speaker 2: this great moral conscience. Oh God, how could you think,

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Speaker 2: Abraham that I Pharaoh this moral.

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Speaker 3: Civil creature would ever do such a thing. It's almost laughable.

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Speaker 3: I don't believe he's his honorable victim.

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Speaker 2: I think it's laughable. I think that's what he said

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Speaker 2: because he thought it was from God. By the way,

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Speaker 2: isn't it interesting how this is a precursor of the

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Speaker 2: plagues on Pharaoh later. That's exactly what it says. God

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Speaker 2: bore plagues on Pharaoh's has like a dress rehearsal. I

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Speaker 2: just want to see how many plagues work on a

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Speaker 2: pharaoh until I.

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Speaker 3: Get what I want.

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Speaker 2: But it is fascinating this precursor type of idea, isn't

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Speaker 2: it anybody else on this? Yes, yeah, exactly my point.

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Speaker 2: It was totally common, especially of a stranger.

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Speaker 3: Exactly.

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Speaker 4: Yes, Yes, God did bail him out of it.

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Speaker 3: That is true.

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Speaker 2: In the final analysis, it was necessary. But you the

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Speaker 2: human can't rely on that. You can't act as if

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Speaker 2: God will bail you out. If God does, God does,

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Speaker 2: but you must act. I mean, I hate cliches, but

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Speaker 2: God helps those who help themselves. I think is a

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Speaker 2: very very valid one. And there's a very basic Hebrew

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Speaker 2: principal ALTI smokelanes.

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Speaker 3: Do not rely on a miracle?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, does it speak at all about the value of

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Speaker 2: a man versus a woman. In ancient times, it certainly does.

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Speaker 2: Women were property into a very large extent. Well, all

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Speaker 2: I see, No, I would not make that inference. I

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Speaker 2: would not infer that Abraham was saying, well, she's only

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Speaker 2: a woman, so we can get rid of her, and

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Speaker 2: I'm a man, and therefore my life is I don't

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Speaker 2: think so. I mean, I can't prove it, but I

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Speaker 2: don't think that that was the issue. I think that

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Speaker 2: the issue was this is the only way to save ourselves,

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Speaker 2: and literally ourselves. Because you're finished. If I'm gone, I

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Speaker 2: have more to tell you about what sister means. But

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Speaker 2: now I would like to take a vote. How many

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Speaker 2: think Abraham did wrong thing? Okay, so it was somewhat

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Speaker 2: convincing of an argument. If you still think it's wrong,

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Speaker 2: I'm just curious. Well, someone representing the wrong position, just joking,

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Speaker 2: I was play on words. Well, somebody representing the position

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Speaker 2: that it was wrong. Please tell me why you still

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Speaker 2: think it was wrong. Yeah, sin was lack of reliance

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Speaker 2: and faith of God. Who else still think it's wrong? Yes,

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Speaker 2: I said he's leaving a famine. And also, by the way,

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Speaker 2: you know, we don't know. This stuff is condensed time.

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Speaker 2: He may not have realized that that was the law

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Speaker 2: in Egypt when he left to go to Egypt. He

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Speaker 2: may have gotten there and realized that have you never

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Speaker 2: gone to a place and then realized what sort of

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Speaker 2: place it was, rather than knowing it beforehand. That's my

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Speaker 2: suspicion that that was what happened. He got to a place,

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Speaker 2: saw the morals of the place, and said, oh, oh,

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Speaker 2: look at where we are. Okay, let me yes.

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Speaker 1: This episode of timeless wisdom. We'll continue right after this.

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Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

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Speaker 2: Here is her final Here is her question, which I'll

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Speaker 2: propose is the final one from that perspective. Whether he said,

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Speaker 2: which is a good way of summarizing it, Whether he

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Speaker 2: said that SARAHI is his sister or his wife, she's

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Speaker 2: taken by Pharaoh? Is that clear? Her fate is identical

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Speaker 2: in either case. It's actually worse if he says husband,

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Speaker 2: because then he's dead.

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Speaker 3: And she has no hope of getting out.

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Speaker 2: At least the other way, maybe he could bribe Pharaoh

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Speaker 2: five years later or something.

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Speaker 3: But her question is what kind of man is it?

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Speaker 2: What kind of love is it for a wife to

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Speaker 2: know that another man is sleeping with my wife? Okay,

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Speaker 2: would you rather be dead and never see your wife again?

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Speaker 2: Or would you rather have this miserable circumstance. Let me

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Speaker 2: tell you something. I mean, it's for you to answer,

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Speaker 2: not for me to answer for you. I will only

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Speaker 2: tell you this. Much of life does not consist between

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Speaker 2: a miserable alternative and a beautiful alternative. Much of life

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Speaker 2: consists of a miserable alternative and a more miserable alternative life.

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Speaker 2: It is so important to understand that. Remember what I

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Speaker 2: told you about Genesis. It's real life. This is real life.

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Speaker 2: You won't have this dilemma. I promise you You'll have

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Speaker 2: different ones between miserable and more miserable countries.

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Speaker 3: Happen?

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Speaker 2: Should the United States of America have supported a right

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Speaker 2: wing corrupt dictator when the alternative was a communist takeover?

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Speaker 2: My arguments were yes, because I didn't think that the

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Speaker 2: alternative was democracy in some cases, but communism.

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Speaker 3: And I thought that communism was worse.

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Speaker 2: Than a miserable right wing hoodlum because far more people

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Speaker 2: die because immunism't last much longer than right wing hoodlum's

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Speaker 2: and so whatever. I'm not going to get into the

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Speaker 2: argument now, but I'm merely saying I remember having that argument.

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Speaker 3: On a global scale just during the Cold War. She's

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Speaker 3: not too long ago.

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Speaker 2: And I kept saying that was the choice not between

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Speaker 2: democracy and this right wing bumpkin, but between a right

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Speaker 2: wing bumpkin and a left wing totalitarian. And it happens

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Speaker 2: very often, and that realism, strikes me, is very powerful

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Speaker 2: in this particular thing. I don't think he was pleased

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Speaker 2: to know that his wife was in Pharaoh's place. By

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Speaker 2: the way, as it happens, Pharaoh probably didn't sleep with her. Apparently.

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Speaker 2: The implication is that he was about to, or that,

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Speaker 2: you know, she went into the thing, but before he

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Speaker 2: could do anything, he got real sick.

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Speaker 3: Yes, this is yeah, Now, this is interesting.

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Speaker 2: This is the worst case reading of Abram's conduct, that

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Speaker 2: it wasn't just to save his life, but to become

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Speaker 2: a very rich man. However, however, I'll tell you what

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Speaker 2: mitigates against that. Number One, that the fact remains that

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Speaker 2: his life was involved. Number Two, you will see later

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Speaker 2: that he is not a materialist, that he refuses all

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Speaker 2: wealth on two occasions which will come to okay, which

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Speaker 2: I think might actually argue on his behalf in that way.

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Speaker 3: But you're right.

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Speaker 2: The worst case descriptions of Abram say, look at that

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Speaker 2: gives his wife to you become.

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Speaker 3: A rich guy.

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Speaker 2: No, let me go on, now, okay, why tell the story?

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Speaker 2: Why tell this story? Remember I always ask in a

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Speaker 2: biblical text, why why is it related?

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Speaker 3: What is there to be learned? I think for a

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Speaker 3: number of reasons.

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Speaker 2: Number one, tell you the type of world in which

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Speaker 2: Abraham lived. It is very important for us to understand

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Speaker 2: what the monotheistic battle was against. When you look at

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Speaker 2: what the Torah eventually developed in terms of morality, and

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Speaker 2: then look at the world that it came from, it

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Speaker 2: becomes far far more of an achievement and a necessity.

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Speaker 2: I think that's one reason. I think another one is

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Speaker 2: the honesty of the text. Jewish heroes are never perfect,

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Speaker 2: whatever one is to say, even if it was the

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Speaker 2: right thing, he doesn't look perfect in this thing. I

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Speaker 2: mean there is you are left the reader is not

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Speaker 2: left with a view of Abraham as saintly, but as

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Speaker 2: a very shrewd guy who sits down, very pragmatically and

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Speaker 2: weighs the issues.

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Speaker 3: I agree with that.

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Speaker 2: In the final analysis. But I don't leave with a

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Speaker 2: saintly view of Abraham. I don't leave with a bad

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Speaker 2: view of him. I agree with him, but I want

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Speaker 2: you to understand that. And it's part of the torrest

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Speaker 2: thing to present the great Jews as flawed, real human beings,

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Speaker 2: from Abraham to Isaac, to Jacob, to Joseph, to Moses,

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Speaker 2: or to King David. Finally, okay, and that, by the way,

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Speaker 2: as I've said to you, I think in the past,

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Speaker 2: it gives me at any rate, it lends credibility to

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Speaker 2: the text that I'm reading.

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Speaker 3: I also I can.

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Speaker 2: Relate, Then can't every one of you, whether you agree

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Speaker 2: with him or not, do you not relate to him?

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Speaker 3: But if the man had.

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Speaker 2: Made said, oh, look, I have but one life, and

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Speaker 2: to give it up for the chastity of my beautiful woman,

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Speaker 2: whom I know is equal to me, even though the

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Speaker 2: rest of civilization understands that we're in her chapel. But I, Abraham,

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Speaker 2: the father of white people, know that she has created

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Speaker 2: in the images I mean that could have been done,

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Speaker 2: couldn't have been done.

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Speaker 3: But who would relate to him? Then you'd go wow?

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Speaker 2: And then turn the page you see though that's very important.

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Speaker 2: This is a real life character with a miserable decision famine,

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Speaker 2: pharaoh or death. Okay, that's the great You know he

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Speaker 2: didn't even have They used to have those things with

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Speaker 2: the doors. Behind one was a lion, behind one was

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Speaker 2: a princess. He had, one had a lion, one had

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Speaker 2: a tiger, and one had a rhinoceros. So it's very different.

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Speaker 2: That's most of life is like that. It is not

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Speaker 2: the princess or the lion. It's the lion or another

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Speaker 2: miserable for stunken animal. And so you know that's however,

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Speaker 2: having said all that, one final thing here, gun thir

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Speaker 2: Plowed thinks he's sinned. I didn't want to tell you

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Speaker 2: that before we had the second vote. I want to

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Speaker 2: read to you what gun thro Plout writes, whom I

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Speaker 2: respect dearly.

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Speaker 3: Okay, he has a whole thing on it.

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Speaker 2: And then he writes, since both Sarah and Farah were

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Speaker 2: put in jeopardy by Abraham, the proper judgment would seem

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Speaker 2: to support Monod's comment it was a sin.

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Speaker 3: The rabbis generally assumed it was a sin. Isn't that interesting?

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Speaker 2: And I don't agree with that, But and but Plout

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Speaker 2: says it seems to support it if he were here.

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Speaker 2: Rabbi Plout, Ah, that's that's a great question. Can you

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Speaker 2: do a sin and still do the right thing? Yes, Nah,

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Speaker 2: that's that's a great question. And I'll tell you. I'll

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Speaker 2: tell you an interesting thing on that. I one of

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Speaker 2: the one interesting recurrent theme on religion on the line

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Speaker 2: that I've had with the clergy was this question.

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Speaker 3: I'd say, is it always wrong to lie?

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Speaker 2: And most of the clergy would say, especially the Catholic

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Speaker 2: priests on this particular issue I remember best, would say, yes,

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Speaker 2: lying is a sin. So I'd say, what if a

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Speaker 2: man is chasing a woman, you know he wants to

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Speaker 2: rape her, and you know where she ran, and the

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Speaker 2: rapist says to you, excuse me, sir, could you please

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Speaker 2: tell me where the woman I want to rape ran?

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Speaker 2: What do you say? And they said, you try to

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Speaker 2: do the best you can without lying. And I said,

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Speaker 2: tell the biggest whopper you could possibly come up with.

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Speaker 3: Because it's not even a question.

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Speaker 2: And they come back and say, look, telling a lie

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Speaker 2: is always a sin. It might be necessary on occasion,

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Speaker 2: but it's still a sin. And there is something to

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Speaker 2: that I have come in other words, I have moved,

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Speaker 2: I'd still tell the lie, but I wouldn't say that

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Speaker 2: I didn't sin I did the right thing, but in

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Speaker 2: the circumstances it has a sinful element. I maybe has

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Speaker 2: a sinful element is a better word? That said I sinned,

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Speaker 2: but it wasn't pure. The truth is, you.

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Speaker 3: Should tell the truth. You may have to not tell

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Speaker 3: the truth on occasion, but.

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Speaker 2: There is a danger obviously that the moment you say

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Speaker 2: this case, I have to tell a lie.

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Speaker 3: What case don't you have to tell a lie? It's

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Speaker 3: still a lie. And I'll give you another example.

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Speaker 2: Why was it that King David was not given the

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Speaker 2: task of building the Holy Temple?

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Speaker 3: It is Jewish tradition throughout that it's because he killed

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Speaker 3: too many people.

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Speaker 2: As a warrior. He had to be a warrior. He

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Speaker 2: was in right wars, he was in correct wars. The

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Speaker 2: wars were not I moral war. But still the man

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Speaker 2: who used the sword shouldn't build a temple. So his son, Solomon,

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Speaker 2: King Solomon builds the temple. And I who am very

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Speaker 2: anti pacifist, very who believe that moral wars are moral wars,

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Speaker 2: fighting Nazis was a beautiful act. Nevertheless, killing is a tragedy.

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Speaker 2: Let's put it this way. If sinful isn't good, tragic

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Speaker 2: is what Abraham did remains tragic though right I would

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Speaker 2: say that about capital punishment.

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Speaker 3: I am for capital punishment.

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Speaker 2: But there isn't any part of me that does not

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Speaker 2: acknowledge the tragedy, the awfulness of taking a human life deliberately.

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Speaker 2: I know that it's not that's something I jumped for

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Speaker 2: joy over. It's an to me in necessity, a moral necessity.

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Speaker 2: And that's that's what I think Plout and Ethmonodes are

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Speaker 2: saying here, and it is a valid point.

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Speaker 3: It was.

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Speaker 2: It was a tragedy that he had to give his

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Speaker 2: wife to another man as if she were property. But

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Speaker 2: there was no choice. That's the point, and that's that's

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Speaker 2: the power of this story. Just stuck in there.

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Speaker 3: It's if the Torah is a teacher, and Tora means teacher.

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Speaker 3: That's what it's about, folks. Here's real life.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't defend Abraham to Torah. That's part of the

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Speaker 2: beauty of it. There's no defense of Abraham here, and

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Speaker 2: there's no condemnation none whatsoever. Read it as you wish.

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Speaker 2: Some say he sinned, some say he didn't some say

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Speaker 2: it was necessary.

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Speaker 3: That's the beauty of this text. You have to learn

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Speaker 3: from it. Okay.

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Speaker 2: So it's a wonderful and by the way it happens

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Speaker 2: later twice, that's what's part of the fascinating element of Genesis.

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Speaker 3: But I'm taking it in the order and I'm not

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Speaker 3: jumping around.

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Speaker 2: Okay, we are up to let's see thirteen. What verse

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Speaker 2: on thirteen? Huh oh, we are.

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Speaker 3: Oh, okay, one minute, one minute, one minute, one minute. Okay,

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Speaker 3: now wait wait, oh thirteen one yes, thank you? All right.

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Speaker 2: From Egypt, Abram went up to the negative with his

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Speaker 2: wife and all that he possessed, together with Loath.

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Speaker 3: Okay. Now, Abram was very rich in cattle, silver, and gold,

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Speaker 3: and he proceeded by stages from the Negive as far

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Speaker 3: as Bethel to the place where his tent had been

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Speaker 3: formerly between Bethel and I.

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Speaker 2: You recall that when I mentioned that earlier, the sight

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Speaker 2: of the althar, which he had built there at first,

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Speaker 2: and there Abram invoked the lord by name Loat, who

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Speaker 2: went with Abram also had flocks and herds and tents,

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Speaker 2: so that the land could not support them staying together.

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Speaker 2: That apparently was the way it was in that world.

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Speaker 2: If you had a lot of sheep and cattle and

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Speaker 2: so on, you had to be in different areas. That's

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Speaker 2: I guess because of the grazing and whatever other factors.

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Speaker 2: The land could not support them staying together, for their

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Speaker 2: possessions were so great that they couldn't remain together.

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Speaker 3: So there was quarreling between the herdsmen.

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Speaker 2: Of Abram's cattle and those of Loat's cattle, the Canonites

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Speaker 2: and the Parazites within dwelling in the land.

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Speaker 3: Abram said to.

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Speaker 2: Lot, let there be no strife between you and me,

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Speaker 2: between my herdsmen and yours, for where kinsmen. Remember this

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Speaker 2: is Uncle Abram talking to nephew Lot, is not the

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Speaker 2: whole land before you. Let's separate. It's clear he did

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Speaker 2: not think much of his nephew. He wanted to get

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Speaker 2: rid of him. Let us separate. If you go north,

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Speaker 2: I'll go south. If you go south, I will go north.

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Speaker 2: In other words, I'll do anything to get rid of you.

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Speaker 2: Wherever you want to go, you choose. I mean, is

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Speaker 2: now what it means? Isn't that obvious? It's really It's

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Speaker 2: one of those things to be inferred. But it's correct.

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Speaker 2: Loat looked about him and saw how.

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Speaker 3: Well watered was the whole plane. You gotta love this.

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Speaker 3: How well watered was the whole plane of the Jordan.

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Speaker 2: Okay, all of it. This was before the Lord had

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Speaker 2: destroyed Sadman Gamora.

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Speaker 3: Here's one of those parenthetical sentences. I love them, just

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Speaker 3: to help you keep up the narration.

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Speaker 2: Remember, then it became desolate, because the reader at this

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Speaker 2: time has already seen a.

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Speaker 3: Desolate Sudoman Gomorro.

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Speaker 2: It was already as if you ever gone down to

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Speaker 2: sid Dooma, it's a big salt nothing. So how could

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Speaker 2: load look at the place where Sidoma is and go, wow?

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Speaker 2: Is that fertile and rich? So it's explaining you this

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Speaker 2: is before was destroyed. It was really rich. By the way,

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Speaker 2: it happens to be archaeologically valid that there was a

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Speaker 2: time when it was extremely fertile and green and wet.

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Speaker 2: Just want you to know that. It's an interesting point.

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Speaker 2: So this was before God destroyed Sadom and Gomorrah. All

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Speaker 2: the weight at Sohar, like the garden of the of

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Speaker 2: the Lord, like the land of Egypt. Slot chose for

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Speaker 2: himself the whole plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward

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Speaker 2: Thus they parted from each other. Avram remained in the

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Speaker 2: land of Canan, while Loat settled in the cities of

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Speaker 2: the Plain, pitching his tents near Sidome.

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Speaker 3: A wise choice.

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Speaker 2: Now, the inhabitants of Sidon were very wicked sinners against

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Speaker 2: the lord.

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Speaker 3: Now this is interesting.

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Speaker 2: There's a phenomenal amount of irony in Genesis, constant irony.

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Speaker 2: Why does Loath choose He goes according to what seems

408
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Speaker 2: to be the most fertile area and picks what Sidome.

409
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Speaker 2: It would be as if somebody had left you off

410
00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:26,080
Speaker 2: in California said choose anywhere to live, and you've got

411
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:31,320
Speaker 2: telescopic vision, and you go Las Vegas because it looked

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Speaker 2: so glamorous. And that's what he loved, the glamour. It

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Speaker 2: looked unbelievably rich, and he'll take it. But even the

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Speaker 2: next sentence tells he was a miserable place to live.

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Speaker 3: But Low didn't care. Low cared about money.

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Speaker 2: This is an example that I said earlier to show

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Speaker 2: that money was not that interesting.

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Speaker 3: Remember he was the uncle.

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Speaker 2: As the uncle, he could have said to Loath, listen,

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna go to Sidome.

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Speaker 3: And that area and the Jordan plane.

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Speaker 2: Where it's where I know it's rich, and you go elsewhere.

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Speaker 2: But no, the uncle said to the nephew, you choose

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Speaker 2: now by the way, as you will see with Moses,

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Speaker 2: except in reverse order.

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Speaker 3: We have here.

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Speaker 2: The stories of Abraham air through God picks him, whereas

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Speaker 2: we have the stories of Moses before God picks him. Okay,

429
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Speaker 2: but the stories nevertheless fill you in. You want to

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Speaker 2: know who the father of Monotheism is, who the father

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Speaker 2: of the patriarch of the Jews is. So there's a

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Speaker 2: lot to tell you about. So too with Moses, I

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Speaker 2: want to know who was Who was this redeemer of

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Speaker 2: the Jews from Egypt?

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Speaker 3: I want it?

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00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:48,479
Speaker 2: Why did God choose? Now you're finding out about the

437
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:52,600
Speaker 2: choice of Abraham later. Remember that I told you I

438
00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:55,000
Speaker 2: had a theory as to why there was silence before,

439
00:26:56,160 --> 00:27:00,760
Speaker 2: But now there is This is who God chose. And

440
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:03,800
Speaker 2: there is probably more story, more stories about Abram than

441
00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:09,560
Speaker 2: anybody else except perhaps Joseph and Uh and Moses, and

442
00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 2: probably more than Joseph. I'd like to add up the words.

443
00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:14,359
Speaker 2: It would be interesting to find out. It's just a

444
00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:18,280
Speaker 2: huge amount about Abraham. So one of the stories is

445
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:21,920
Speaker 2: here that he's a peacemaker. He sees there's an argument,

446
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:24,359
Speaker 2: and he's totally self sacrificing.

447
00:27:24,760 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 3: Let's not argue.

448
00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:29,359
Speaker 2: You loat and your herdsman, choose what you want, and

449
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:31,760
Speaker 2: you go where you want, and there's no problem.

450
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:33,480
Speaker 3: And he solves the problem.

451
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:37,640
Speaker 2: Lot ends up in Sidome, which was a poor choice.

452
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:42,720
Speaker 3: Okay. One other thing.

453
00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:48,199
Speaker 2: You see the next sentence fourteen, verse fourteen. And the

454
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:52,240
Speaker 2: Lord said to Abram, after Lot had parted from him,

455
00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:55,120
Speaker 2: raise your eyes and look out from where you are

456
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:56,800
Speaker 2: to the north and the south, to the east and

457
00:27:56,840 --> 00:27:59,920
Speaker 2: the west. For I will give. For I give all

458
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:03,720
Speaker 2: the land that you see to you and your offspring forever.

459
00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:07,560
Speaker 2: I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth,

460
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:10,040
Speaker 2: so that if one can count the dust of the earth,

461
00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:14,320
Speaker 2: then your offspring too can be counted. That's how numerous

462
00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:15,440
Speaker 2: your offspring will be.

463
00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:17,000
Speaker 3: Up.

464
00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:19,960
Speaker 2: Walk about the land through its length and its breadth,

465
00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:22,159
Speaker 2: for I give it to you. And a removed his

466
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:25,440
Speaker 2: tent and came to dwell at the oaks of Mamree,

467
00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:27,240
Speaker 2: which are in Fevron.

468
00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:29,280
Speaker 3: And he built an altar there to God.

469
00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:32,720
Speaker 2: Notice verse fourteen where it said and God said to Abraham.

470
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:36,800
Speaker 2: God said all these things after Loath had parted from him.

471
00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,320
Speaker 2: One of the commentators makes the point that for God

472
00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:43,160
Speaker 2: to complete all of what he had to say with.

473
00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:46,360
Speaker 3: Abraham, he had to get rid of all of his family.

474
00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:50,640
Speaker 2: They were a burden from the past. The last links

475
00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:55,440
Speaker 2: to his father's family of idle worshipers was the nephew Loath.

476
00:28:57,240 --> 00:29:00,560
Speaker 2: You see, it's so interesting. Why were those words there?

477
00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:05,000
Speaker 2: And God said after Loath departed, because only then could

478
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:09,600
Speaker 2: God relate. It's something for us to know. Maybe sometimes

479
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:15,640
Speaker 2: we too need to leave our origin to talk to God.

480
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:24,400
Speaker 2: It's something to think about. There is another thing of

481
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:28,920
Speaker 2: phenomenal importance here, and that is the land in Judaism.

482
00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:34,600
Speaker 2: There is no parallel fully to this in Islam, and

483
00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:38,240
Speaker 2: none whatsoever in Christianity, which is not to say better

484
00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:40,760
Speaker 2: or worse, simply to say that it is.

485
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:41,960
Speaker 3: There is no parallel.

486
00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:49,960
Speaker 2: The importance of the land to Judaism cannot be overstated.

487
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:52,880
Speaker 2: And I say this is one who does not live

488
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:56,520
Speaker 2: in that land. So I certainly am not saying this

489
00:29:56,640 --> 00:30:01,959
Speaker 2: with any acts to grind or promoting my own choice

490
00:30:01,960 --> 00:30:03,000
Speaker 2: in life.

491
00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:05,360
Speaker 3: But intellectual honesty.

492
00:30:06,720 --> 00:30:10,840
Speaker 2: Demands that we acknowledge how important the land of Israel

493
00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:15,840
Speaker 2: is to Judaism, so much so that the rabbis later said,

494
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:18,240
Speaker 2: Jew moves.

495
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:21,040
Speaker 3: To israel Is as if he has fulfilled the entire torrem.

496
00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:24,800
Speaker 2: Now, of course they say that about twenty other things too,

497
00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:30,120
Speaker 2: so you know you have to take it slightly tongue

498
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:30,560
Speaker 2: in cheek.

499
00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:35,200
Speaker 3: But they meant to say, this is where it's at,

500
00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:36,520
Speaker 3: that this is.

501
00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:41,760
Speaker 2: What God intended for the Jews to build a holy society.

502
00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:45,560
Speaker 2: But you can only build a holy society in a place.

503
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:52,320
Speaker 2: Judaism is profoundly physical. It is the most corporeal religion

504
00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:59,640
Speaker 2: of the monotheistic religions. It is bound to land, bound

505
00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:04,840
Speaker 2: to people, bound to family, bound to law.

506
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:09,040
Speaker 3: It is not metaphysical or religion.

507
00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:17,520
Speaker 2: It has metaphysical elements, but the religion itself is uniquely physical.

508
00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:20,920
Speaker 2: That is why the means both are physical.

509
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:25,120
Speaker 3: The laws of Judaism are very physical.

510
00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:29,960
Speaker 2: And you will take this meat, and you will eat

511
00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:35,600
Speaker 2: this way, and you will slaughter this way. And you

512
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:39,800
Speaker 2: will take this branch of palm, and you will take

513
00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:45,560
Speaker 2: this citron, this etro, and you will wash your hands

514
00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 2: this way.

515
00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:50,200
Speaker 3: It is a very physical religion.

516
00:31:50,320 --> 00:31:55,960
Speaker 2: You will wear fringes on your garment, and you will

517
00:31:56,040 --> 00:32:00,360
Speaker 2: go three times a year up the mountains in Jerusalem

518
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 2: to bring the sacrifices. It's a very physical religion, and

519
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:08,760
Speaker 2: the reason is because as we live in a physical world,

520
00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:14,240
Speaker 2: and if you don't invest the physical with holiness, if

521
00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 2: you separate holiness and physical, then you will have a

522
00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:18,960
Speaker 2: bad world.

523
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:25,959
Speaker 3: The purpose of Judaism is to sanctify the non sanctified.

524
00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:31,280
Speaker 2: It's to sanctify the physical, which is not sacred.

525
00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:34,560
Speaker 3: You make the land sacred.

526
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,280
Speaker 2: After all, that land was lived on by canon Kites

527
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,080
Speaker 2: and Perizites and others, and it wasn't sacred.

528
00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:44,400
Speaker 3: You make it sacred. And that is why God.

529
00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:48,960
Speaker 2: Warns the Jews in Deuteronomy and elsewhere, if you live

530
00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:52,000
Speaker 2: as bad as the others who lived in their lived,

531
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:54,760
Speaker 2: the land will vomit you out. And those are the

532
00:32:54,840 --> 00:33:00,760
Speaker 2: words it uses, just as it vomited them out. You

533
00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:05,280
Speaker 2: Jews are here, you seed of Abraham, are here to

534
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:10,840
Speaker 2: lead a sacred life on this soil. That's what I

535
00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:14,760
Speaker 2: have made you for. That's what I have chosen this.

536
00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:19,560
Speaker 3: Area for that we have tried, and I am as

537
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:26,560
Speaker 3: guilty as any Jew to much more spiritualized Judaism than

538
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:27,000
Speaker 3: it is.

539
00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:31,280
Speaker 2: It's filled with the spiritual but it's not just the spiritual.

540
00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:35,160
Speaker 2: It is very physical, and that is why it can

541
00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:40,320
Speaker 2: be seen by some people as a lower form in

542
00:33:40,360 --> 00:33:43,320
Speaker 2: some ways of religiosity being preoccupied.

543
00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:46,280
Speaker 3: What is it that Jesus is reputed to have said?

544
00:33:47,280 --> 00:33:49,400
Speaker 2: It is not, And tell me if it's Jesus or

545
00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:52,080
Speaker 2: if it's someone else. I believe it's in Matthew. It

546
00:33:52,120 --> 00:33:54,360
Speaker 2: is not what goes into your mouth that matters, but

547
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:58,080
Speaker 2: that which comes out of your mouth, the art. It's

548
00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:02,200
Speaker 2: not an argument here with Jesus or whoever is attributing

549
00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:06,560
Speaker 2: death to Jesus. It is a statement of difference. Judaism

550
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:08,080
Speaker 2: holds that what goes into your.

551
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:09,560
Speaker 3: Mouth is important.

552
00:34:10,640 --> 00:34:13,000
Speaker 2: Of course, what goes out of your mouth is important,

553
00:34:13,359 --> 00:34:16,840
Speaker 2: but what goes in is also important. That you must

554
00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:23,120
Speaker 2: lend to time, to space, and to place sanctity.

555
00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:26,319
Speaker 3: This is the beginning of it.

556
00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:30,400
Speaker 2: This land I give you, and this is the land

557
00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:32,640
Speaker 2: over which the battle.

558
00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:35,799
Speaker 3: For humanity will take place, as I God see it.

559
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:43,359
Speaker 2: That's Judaism. The jew embodies it. The Jewish physical, and

560
00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:46,520
Speaker 2: the land is physical. That is part of the reason

561
00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:49,640
Speaker 2: I'll talk about this much later on why I don't

562
00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:51,880
Speaker 2: believe the Torah talks about it hereafter.

563
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:55,480
Speaker 3: Whereas what happens.

564
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:57,920
Speaker 2: After you die is a very major theme in the

565
00:34:57,960 --> 00:35:01,000
Speaker 2: New Testament, it is not talked about in the Toro.

566
00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:03,520
Speaker 3: It is simply ignored.

567
00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:10,120
Speaker 2: The physical Sank define this physical world as the preoccupation

568
00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:13,600
Speaker 2: of the too, and it starts with the land.

569
00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:17,640
Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

570
00:35:23,239 --> 00:35:28,040
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.

571
00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:30,920
Speaker 2: God promises in sixteen as I just read to you,

572
00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:37,200
Speaker 2: God promises to Abram that his seed will be numerous,

573
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:41,319
Speaker 2: and yet Sarah has still just Sarah can't give birth.

574
00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:45,640
Speaker 2: Here is an example, by the way of where you

575
00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:51,040
Speaker 2: could imagine Abram's standing there and going huh. And by

576
00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:53,960
Speaker 2: the way he does that, he actually asks God later on,

577
00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:55,279
Speaker 2: how exactly are.

578
00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:58,359
Speaker 3: You going to do it? You will see it adds

579
00:35:58,400 --> 00:35:59,719
Speaker 3: again the humanity of it.

580
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:02,960
Speaker 2: Even if it's God speaking to you, and it doesn't

581
00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:06,680
Speaker 2: make sense, it still doesn't make sense, even if it's God.

582
00:36:07,440 --> 00:36:11,719
Speaker 3: That's what's so remarkable about a little bit. Now, all

583
00:36:11,800 --> 00:36:16,840
Speaker 3: of this is there is completely stopped for a moment.

584
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:20,040
Speaker 3: Remember the Tower of Bible story just came out of nowhere.

585
00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:22,200
Speaker 2: And then back to the other story you have that

586
00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:25,320
Speaker 2: affair amount here and here all of a sudden, Chapter

587
00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:28,359
Speaker 2: fourteen exactly the same thing, and I will not read

588
00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:29,960
Speaker 2: the whole chapter. This is one of the times I'll

589
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 2: just summarize now when I'm ruffo, King of Shinar, let

590
00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:38,920
Speaker 2: me you know enough. Shannar are yoth Meleth of Lasar,

591
00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:42,799
Speaker 2: Cadella Omar, the king of Elam, and so on and

592
00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:46,280
Speaker 2: so on were there where the kings of nations.

593
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:50,120
Speaker 3: They all started fighting with each other. That's most of chapter.

594
00:36:49,880 --> 00:36:53,520
Speaker 2: Fourteen, the names of kings and places where they fought.

595
00:36:54,239 --> 00:36:58,520
Speaker 3: But it ends with fourteen eleven.

596
00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:04,719
Speaker 2: The invaders seized all the wealth of Siddom and Gomorrah

597
00:37:05,640 --> 00:37:08,960
Speaker 2: and all their provisions and went their way. They also

598
00:37:09,239 --> 00:37:14,680
Speaker 2: took Loath, the son of Abram's brother, and his possessions

599
00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:17,560
Speaker 2: and departed, for he had settled in Sadom. In case

600
00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:24,000
Speaker 2: you forgot, okay, Siddom lost the war. People were taken away,

601
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:29,200
Speaker 2: and that included Abram's nephew Lote, whom he was just.

602
00:37:29,200 --> 00:37:33,320
Speaker 3: Dying to hear from now verse thirteen.

603
00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:38,320
Speaker 2: In chapter fourteen, a fugitive brought the news to Abram

604
00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:40,720
Speaker 2: the Hebrew all of a sudden, By the way, Abram's

605
00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:43,320
Speaker 2: called the Hebrew, which is the first time it's used,

606
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:47,520
Speaker 2: and all the research I have done has led me

607
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:49,760
Speaker 2: to believe that nobody knows what it means.

608
00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:53,719
Speaker 3: There are those in sam I'm short some of you

609
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:55,320
Speaker 3: know that it's related.

610
00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:59,040
Speaker 2: To a nomadic people at the time called the Abiru.

611
00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:01,520
Speaker 3: There's total debate whether that's true.

612
00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:05,719
Speaker 2: To me, what strikes me is the most logical is

613
00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:08,760
Speaker 2: to look at the word in Hebrew, and in Hebrew

614
00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:13,439
Speaker 2: la vor means to pass, to go on to if

615
00:38:13,440 --> 00:38:18,960
Speaker 2: you will wander, and that's really both I think literal

616
00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:21,080
Speaker 2: and hermoneutically.

617
00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:25,560
Speaker 3: What Jews are wanderers and started off as wanderers.

618
00:38:26,120 --> 00:38:29,680
Speaker 2: They got the Torah as wanderers and have been wanderers

619
00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:34,000
Speaker 2: for a good part of their history. It's really Abraham

620
00:38:34,640 --> 00:38:36,400
Speaker 2: the other, the wanderer.

621
00:38:37,680 --> 00:38:39,680
Speaker 3: Anyway, he got the news right.

622
00:38:39,760 --> 00:38:43,759
Speaker 2: He was at the oaks of Mamre, the Amorit king,

623
00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:46,919
Speaker 2: kinsmen of Eshkol and nan Air and so on, these

624
00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:50,040
Speaker 2: being Abram's allies. When Abram heard that his kinsman who's

625
00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:53,800
Speaker 2: that loath, had been taken captive, he mustered his retainers

626
00:38:53,840 --> 00:38:57,000
Speaker 2: born into his household numbering three hundred and eighteen, and

627
00:38:57,040 --> 00:39:00,640
Speaker 2: went and pursued as far as done at night, he

628
00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:03,319
Speaker 2: and his servants deployed against them and defeated them. And

629
00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:06,000
Speaker 2: he pursued them as far as Clovap, which is north

630
00:39:06,040 --> 00:39:06,759
Speaker 2: of Damascus.

631
00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:08,120
Speaker 3: That's quite a trip by the way.

632
00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:11,680
Speaker 2: So that was a good, good little battle just to

633
00:39:11,719 --> 00:39:13,120
Speaker 2: get his nephew, whom he didn't like.

634
00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:18,200
Speaker 3: He brought back all the possessions he also brought back.

635
00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:23,719
Speaker 2: Now, if that doesn't give it away, here is one

636
00:39:23,760 --> 00:39:27,240
Speaker 2: of those rare moments. I am convinced of deliberate humor.

637
00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:33,719
Speaker 2: Brought back possessions, Diami, brought a love and his possessions

638
00:39:33,719 --> 00:39:36,560
Speaker 2: and the women and the rest of the people. So

639
00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:39,800
Speaker 2: which gives you go off bee perhaps of women back again?

640
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:44,560
Speaker 2: Oh yes, and brought back to at any rate. This

641
00:39:44,719 --> 00:39:48,720
Speaker 2: is important because it tells you another thing about Abraham. First,

642
00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:51,840
Speaker 2: he was the peacekeeper. Right, what have we seen about Abraham?

643
00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:55,440
Speaker 2: These are important things. We saw that Abraham was a

644
00:39:55,440 --> 00:39:58,920
Speaker 2: peace lover. He made peace between the battle between his

645
00:39:59,040 --> 00:40:02,160
Speaker 2: men and loatsmen. Wherever you want to go, please, just

646
00:40:02,239 --> 00:40:05,080
Speaker 2: so long as we have peace. And now though he's

647
00:40:05,120 --> 00:40:07,799
Speaker 2: a war maker, so is.

648
00:40:07,880 --> 00:40:12,239
Speaker 3: So was Moses. And there's a very big lesson here.

649
00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:15,759
Speaker 3: I am convinced. A great leader has to know when

650
00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:18,160
Speaker 3: to fight and has to know when to make peace.

651
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:23,440
Speaker 2: Moses knew when to kill an Egyptian, and Moses new

652
00:40:23,480 --> 00:40:25,080
Speaker 2: when to just speak up.

653
00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:25,840
Speaker 3: And make peace.

654
00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:30,640
Speaker 2: You can't only be a peace lover and you can't

655
00:40:30,680 --> 00:40:34,319
Speaker 2: only be a war lover. You have to know when

656
00:40:34,640 --> 00:40:38,319
Speaker 2: both are necessary. It's as true today as it was

657
00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:41,799
Speaker 2: when this was written. A leader who was a pacifist

658
00:40:41,960 --> 00:40:45,400
Speaker 2: won't work. I'm talking about the leader of all is

659
00:40:45,440 --> 00:40:48,759
Speaker 2: a given movement. In the case of Gandhi, the peace

660
00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:55,080
Speaker 2: a peaceful or non violent resistance was very appropriate, but

661
00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:57,799
Speaker 2: it's a separate issue. He was not against the violent nation,

662
00:40:57,920 --> 00:41:02,080
Speaker 2: being against the English. Nonviolent resistance against the Nazis would

663
00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:06,200
Speaker 2: have been suicidal. You have to know when to fight

664
00:41:06,239 --> 00:41:08,480
Speaker 2: and when to make peace, and it depends on who

665
00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:11,960
Speaker 2: your enemy is. At any rate, Abraham obviously knows how

666
00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 2: to fight, Okay. When he returned from defeating Kidullah Homer

667
00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:21,200
Speaker 2: and the King's win him, the King of Saddam came

668
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:23,360
Speaker 2: out to meet him in the valley of Chevet.

669
00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:32,359
Speaker 3: Let's say, how was it in Hebrew seventeen. Sometimes the English.

670
00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:34,400
Speaker 2: Cheve okay, which is the valley of the king. And

671
00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:39,000
Speaker 2: maid said that king of Chalem or Salem brought out

672
00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:41,920
Speaker 2: bread and wine. Okay, this king did. He was a

673
00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:48,279
Speaker 2: priest of God Most High. Now that's very interesting. This

674
00:41:48,520 --> 00:41:55,760
Speaker 2: was a monotheist king, a non jew monotheist is described here.

675
00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:59,480
Speaker 3: It happens later too. Just wanted to point that out

676
00:41:59,520 --> 00:41:59,719
Speaker 3: to you.

677
00:41:59,800 --> 00:42:05,000
Speaker 2: And he blessed him, saying, bless the Abram of Godmost High,

678
00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:08,480
Speaker 2: creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God most High,

679
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:11,520
Speaker 2: who's delivered your foes unto your hand. And Abram gave

680
00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:16,359
Speaker 2: him a tenth of everything. Okay, which is impressive. Again again,

681
00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:17,839
Speaker 2: the generosity of the.

682
00:42:17,800 --> 00:42:19,960
Speaker 3: Man, the King of Saddome.

683
00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:24,640
Speaker 2: It's a slight country distinction to cadullah Omer. The King

684
00:42:24,680 --> 00:42:26,880
Speaker 2: of Saddam said to Abram, give me the persons and

685
00:42:26,920 --> 00:42:31,400
Speaker 2: take the possessions for yourself. But listen to this, Abram

686
00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:33,319
Speaker 2: said to the King of Sadom. And here is where

687
00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:36,120
Speaker 2: I've said to you earlier that it shows that he

688
00:42:36,160 --> 00:42:39,080
Speaker 2: was not materialistic. I swear to the Lord God Most

689
00:42:39,160 --> 00:42:42,200
Speaker 2: i creator hear in earth. I will not take so

690
00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:45,239
Speaker 2: much as a thread or a sandal strap of what

691
00:42:45,440 --> 00:42:48,600
Speaker 2: is yours. You shall not say it is I who

692
00:42:48,600 --> 00:42:52,799
Speaker 2: made Abram rich, But rather, who is it who made

693
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:53,399
Speaker 2: Abram rich?

694
00:42:53,719 --> 00:42:56,120
Speaker 3: God? Okay, it's interesting.

695
00:42:56,200 --> 00:42:59,000
Speaker 2: He refused all of what he was to be given

696
00:42:59,120 --> 00:43:01,879
Speaker 2: for me, nothing but what my servants have used up.

697
00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:03,560
Speaker 2: As for the share of the men who went with

698
00:43:03,600 --> 00:43:08,920
Speaker 2: me an heiress tole Monrae, let them take their share. Okay,

699
00:43:09,040 --> 00:43:14,120
Speaker 2: we are up to chapter fifteen, and we have something

700
00:43:14,480 --> 00:43:23,839
Speaker 2: very new. For the first time. Abraham will speak to God.

701
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:28,240
Speaker 3: The whole time, if you notice, God has been speaking

702
00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:29,640
Speaker 3: to Abram.

703
00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:35,839
Speaker 2: Finally Abram speaks. Sometime later, this is fifteen to one.

704
00:43:36,360 --> 00:43:39,680
Speaker 2: The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, now,

705
00:43:39,719 --> 00:43:42,879
Speaker 2: by the way, this is God speaking in a vision.

706
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:44,640
Speaker 2: And later you will see that God spoke when he

707
00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:49,480
Speaker 2: was asleep. There is one exception to these, and that

708
00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:53,480
Speaker 2: is Moses, where it even says, not in a vision

709
00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:57,399
Speaker 2: and not in a dream, but face to face, God

710
00:43:57,480 --> 00:43:58,440
Speaker 2: spoke to Moses.

711
00:43:58,800 --> 00:44:01,200
Speaker 3: The communication to Moses was unique.

712
00:44:01,440 --> 00:44:04,480
Speaker 2: In other words, what you and I don't know what

713
00:44:04,520 --> 00:44:08,399
Speaker 2: divine revelation directly is, obviously unless any of you told

714
00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:14,279
Speaker 2: me otherwise after class, and I have a fine, fine doctor.

715
00:44:13,960 --> 00:44:18,040
Speaker 3: That I wouldn't know. No, I'm joking about that part.

716
00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:21,160
Speaker 3: But I wouldn't be curious if you had direct revelation

717
00:44:22,040 --> 00:44:22,680
Speaker 3: at any rate.

718
00:44:24,239 --> 00:44:31,040
Speaker 2: There are levels of revelation, which means therefore that in

719
00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:38,799
Speaker 2: some way even those who get divine revelation don't get

720
00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:43,359
Speaker 2: it as clearly as let's say Moses did. There is

721
00:44:43,400 --> 00:44:48,560
Speaker 2: still a human fog perhaps in the way others may

722
00:44:48,560 --> 00:44:52,359
Speaker 2: have gotten revelations. It's just an interesting point to dwell upon.

723
00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:57,360
Speaker 2: It isn't God revealed themselves spoke to Moses, both to Isaac, Abraham, Jacob,

724
00:44:57,360 --> 00:44:58,200
Speaker 2: and it's all the same.

725
00:44:58,600 --> 00:45:00,800
Speaker 3: It is not. And here is one example.

726
00:45:02,520 --> 00:45:05,800
Speaker 2: He came to Abram in a vision, saying, fear not, Abraham,

727
00:45:06,560 --> 00:45:16,120
Speaker 2: I am a shield to you.

728
00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:20,600
Speaker 3: Your reward shall be very great. And now remember what

729
00:45:20,680 --> 00:45:23,600
Speaker 3: I said. Listen. But Abram said to God.

730
00:45:24,400 --> 00:45:27,920
Speaker 2: O, Lord God, what can you give me, seeing that

731
00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:31,080
Speaker 2: I shall die childless? And then one in charge of

732
00:45:31,120 --> 00:45:35,160
Speaker 2: my whole of my household is the one from Damascus,

733
00:45:35,200 --> 00:45:38,280
Speaker 2: Eliezer he had hired.

734
00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:39,719
Speaker 3: As it were, what made this.

735
00:45:41,239 --> 00:45:45,319
Speaker 2: Eliezer the head of his household, who by ancient Near

736
00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:49,080
Speaker 2: Eastern law that inherits the household because you don't have

737
00:45:49,160 --> 00:45:55,000
Speaker 2: a son. So here is an interesting thing. Let me

738
00:45:55,040 --> 00:45:58,719
Speaker 2: ask you if God spoke to you, first of all,

739
00:45:58,719 --> 00:46:01,479
Speaker 2: you'd be so thrilled to know that God was there

740
00:46:01,520 --> 00:46:04,600
Speaker 2: and knew you. It's like Whitty Allen said that I

741
00:46:04,680 --> 00:46:07,120
Speaker 2: mentioned this on the radio. If God would only sneeze,

742
00:46:08,120 --> 00:46:11,919
Speaker 2: I would be happy. I just want to sneeze. That's

743
00:46:11,920 --> 00:46:14,680
Speaker 2: how we moderns feel, right, a lot of us. That's

744
00:46:14,719 --> 00:46:19,279
Speaker 2: all I want is a sneeze. But it's interesting you

745
00:46:19,320 --> 00:46:22,200
Speaker 2: would think, therefore God speaks to him, Now, why would

746
00:46:22,200 --> 00:46:23,200
Speaker 2: he ask a question?

747
00:46:24,160 --> 00:46:26,280
Speaker 3: And I mean this, I'm not sure I have an answer.

748
00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:29,360
Speaker 2: If he knows that God is God, God is the

749
00:46:29,400 --> 00:46:32,200
Speaker 2: creator of the universe and promises things.

750
00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:35,160
Speaker 3: What's the question? Okay?

751
00:46:35,239 --> 00:46:37,359
Speaker 2: I mean this is the You know, if the God

752
00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:42,279
Speaker 2: who made the earth and sun and moon and planets

753
00:46:42,280 --> 00:46:45,240
Speaker 2: and stars probably can give me a child.

754
00:46:45,920 --> 00:46:49,520
Speaker 3: There's a good chance based on his track record. So

755
00:46:49,680 --> 00:46:53,160
Speaker 3: you would think that you wouldn't have all these questions

756
00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:56,520
Speaker 3: to God. On the other hand, it's very normal.

757
00:46:56,600 --> 00:46:59,560
Speaker 2: It doesn't make sense, as I said earlier, even if

758
00:46:59,600 --> 00:47:00,400
Speaker 2: God says it.

759
00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:03,600
Speaker 3: If it doesn't make sense, people will ask.

760
00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:08,400
Speaker 2: And this, by the way, is all I think virtually

761
00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:10,239
Speaker 2: uniquely Jewish.

762
00:47:10,400 --> 00:47:16,239
Speaker 3: Of having those talk to by God answer back and

763
00:47:16,719 --> 00:47:18,720
Speaker 3: Jews do this to this day.

764
00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:23,920
Speaker 2: I mean that, with absolute sincerity, Jews have a very

765
00:47:24,040 --> 00:47:27,640
Speaker 2: vibrant those who think about God. Many Jews have been

766
00:47:27,680 --> 00:47:36,759
Speaker 2: thoroughly secularized, tragically, but a very vibrant relationship mainly anger. Yes,

767
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:39,160
Speaker 2: I would say that the number of Jews who are

768
00:47:39,160 --> 00:47:41,800
Speaker 2: angry with God is probably greater than the number of

769
00:47:41,880 --> 00:47:46,160
Speaker 2: Jews who loved God. I'm not saying that's good at all.

770
00:47:46,200 --> 00:47:48,320
Speaker 2: I don't think it's good. I think you can have both.

771
00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:51,120
Speaker 2: I think it's gone overboard. But I would say most

772
00:47:51,200 --> 00:47:53,279
Speaker 2: Jews are walking around saying, Oh God, I could you

773
00:47:53,360 --> 00:47:54,399
Speaker 2: let six million die?

774
00:47:54,480 --> 00:47:57,279
Speaker 3: Oh God, how do you let kids with cancer? Etc? Etc.

775
00:47:57,480 --> 00:47:57,680
Speaker 4: Etc.

776
00:47:59,960 --> 00:48:04,920
Speaker 2: But it's very part of our tradition. Our patriarchs answered back.

777
00:48:05,360 --> 00:48:09,000
Speaker 2: He answers back, the first person spoken to.

778
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:11,480
Speaker 3: The first Jew, at least spoken to by God answers back.

779
00:48:11,560 --> 00:48:18,000
Speaker 2: Remember Noah didn't answer back an arc certainly, sir, Remember

780
00:48:18,160 --> 00:48:21,160
Speaker 2: we went through that, his total silence the whole time.

781
00:48:22,120 --> 00:48:25,960
Speaker 3: You name it the day the Wood. I'm your man,

782
00:48:26,800 --> 00:48:27,600
Speaker 3: not Abraham.

783
00:48:27,960 --> 00:48:33,040
Speaker 2: Abraham has got already some Jewish characteristics that it is

784
00:48:33,120 --> 00:48:35,399
Speaker 2: a fascinating It is a fascinating thing.

785
00:48:36,920 --> 00:48:40,239
Speaker 3: So he says exactly how am I going to do that?

786
00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:45,120
Speaker 3: What can you give me? Since I'm gonna die childless

787
00:48:45,520 --> 00:48:46,240
Speaker 3: and worse.

788
00:48:46,440 --> 00:48:49,719
Speaker 2: The one who's in charge is this guy from Damascus, Eliezer.

789
00:48:51,000 --> 00:48:55,799
Speaker 2: Abram said further, since you have granted me no offspring,

790
00:48:56,160 --> 00:48:59,080
Speaker 2: my steward, that's Eliezer, will be my heir.

791
00:49:00,239 --> 00:49:02,160
Speaker 3: The word of the Lord came to him in a reply,

792
00:49:02,760 --> 00:49:06,240
Speaker 3: shit not as not true.

793
00:49:06,800 --> 00:49:08,759
Speaker 2: The word of the Lord, just for to see who

794
00:49:08,840 --> 00:49:11,839
Speaker 2: was following the word of the Lord came to him

795
00:49:11,840 --> 00:49:14,560
Speaker 2: in reply that one shall not.

796
00:49:14,480 --> 00:49:15,280
Speaker 3: Be your heir.

797
00:49:16,120 --> 00:49:19,839
Speaker 2: None but your very own issue shall be your heir,

798
00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:22,439
Speaker 2: your own seed that comes from you.

799
00:49:23,880 --> 00:49:26,240
Speaker 3: He took him outside and said, look toward heaven.

800
00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:29,000
Speaker 2: But I wonder if it's still the vision or he

801
00:49:29,040 --> 00:49:31,600
Speaker 2: got up now it's interesting he took him outside, Was

802
00:49:31,640 --> 00:49:32,520
Speaker 2: it in the vision or not?

803
00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:37,160
Speaker 3: Look toward heaven and count the stars if you're able.

804
00:49:36,920 --> 00:49:40,960
Speaker 2: To count them, And he added, so shall your offspring be.

805
00:49:42,160 --> 00:49:44,279
Speaker 3: And because he put his trust in the.

806
00:49:44,200 --> 00:49:49,160
Speaker 2: Lord, God reckoned it to his Abraham's merit.

807
00:49:49,960 --> 00:49:51,040
Speaker 3: I would say the number of.

808
00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:54,799
Speaker 2: Times that Genesis fifteen six has been cited to me

809
00:49:54,920 --> 00:50:01,879
Speaker 2: by Christian pastors that I've been dialogue, it probably by

810
00:50:01,880 --> 00:50:06,120
Speaker 2: now has entered the thousands. This is about as frequently

811
00:50:06,160 --> 00:50:13,440
Speaker 2: ascited Hebrew Bible phrased as Protestants in particular will cite.

812
00:50:13,760 --> 00:50:17,240
Speaker 2: And because he put his trust in God, God reckoned

813
00:50:17,280 --> 00:50:20,920
Speaker 2: it to his merit or considered it meritorious, or however

814
00:50:20,960 --> 00:50:25,080
Speaker 2: the translation might be, evelyn, what translation do you have

815
00:50:25,160 --> 00:50:26,759
Speaker 2: on that good?

816
00:50:26,760 --> 00:50:35,480
Speaker 3: So why does it say fifteen six okay? Which is

817
00:50:35,560 --> 00:50:38,600
Speaker 3: in some ways more fully literally accurate.

818
00:50:39,120 --> 00:50:42,560
Speaker 2: Abraham believed in God, and God credit to him his righteousness.

819
00:50:44,080 --> 00:50:47,520
Speaker 2: Christians use this how Protestants used this not Catholic, but

820
00:50:48,400 --> 00:50:53,799
Speaker 2: Protestants use this as one of their basic text phrases

821
00:50:54,520 --> 00:50:59,400
Speaker 2: for the belief that faith is what saves rather than works,

822
00:51:00,160 --> 00:51:04,480
Speaker 2: because they say, look, this is what God said about Abram,

823
00:51:05,120 --> 00:51:06,680
Speaker 2: that it was his faith.

824
00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:11,239
Speaker 3: In him that he counted toward his merit. Now I

825
00:51:11,280 --> 00:51:12,399
Speaker 3: don't read that from it.

826
00:51:12,719 --> 00:51:15,520
Speaker 2: What I do read is that it is critical that

827
00:51:15,560 --> 00:51:18,640
Speaker 2: you be faithful, but not that faith.

828
00:51:18,400 --> 00:51:19,800
Speaker 3: Alone is the issue.

829
00:51:19,880 --> 00:51:22,240
Speaker 2: Again, I don't want to get into a theological argument

830
00:51:22,320 --> 00:51:26,320
Speaker 2: on the one of the most ongoing of these debates.

831
00:51:27,080 --> 00:51:32,680
Speaker 2: But it is true that God here is stating the

832
00:51:32,760 --> 00:51:39,520
Speaker 2: importance of faith. Now what does faith mean? There are

833
00:51:39,560 --> 00:51:43,759
Speaker 2: two elements to faith with regard to God. One is

834
00:51:44,160 --> 00:51:50,240
Speaker 2: I believe God exists. The other is I believe in God.

835
00:51:51,520 --> 00:51:54,240
Speaker 2: But when people say I believe in God, they usually

836
00:51:54,280 --> 00:51:55,800
Speaker 2: mean I believe God exists.

837
00:51:56,360 --> 00:51:58,320
Speaker 3: That's not the issue.

838
00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:01,800
Speaker 2: To believe God exists is not what the Biblical faith

839
00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:06,759
Speaker 2: is about. The Hebrew Bible takes faith in God as

840
00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:12,240
Speaker 2: a given. Faith in God means trusting in God.

841
00:52:13,400 --> 00:52:13,719
Speaker 3: You get.

842
00:52:13,719 --> 00:52:16,720
Speaker 2: The difference is all the difference in the world. Listen,

843
00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:20,520
Speaker 2: you know your next door neighbor exists. There's no question

844
00:52:20,600 --> 00:52:21,120
Speaker 2: about that.

845
00:52:21,480 --> 00:52:23,920
Speaker 3: Question is do you trust him?

846
00:52:24,320 --> 00:52:27,880
Speaker 2: That's the issue with God. There is no issue in

847
00:52:27,920 --> 00:52:30,840
Speaker 2: the Bible whether God exists. It would be absurd, it

848
00:52:30,880 --> 00:52:33,279
Speaker 2: would be an intrinsic absurdity.

849
00:52:33,360 --> 00:52:34,520
Speaker 3: Of course God exists.

850
00:52:34,960 --> 00:52:36,840
Speaker 2: There are those who may believe in other gods, but

851
00:52:36,880 --> 00:52:39,960
Speaker 2: there's no question about a God existing. The question is

852
00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:44,759
Speaker 2: do you have trust in this God. That's what Abraham had.

853
00:52:45,440 --> 00:52:50,160
Speaker 2: He's old, his wife is old. He's promised descendants who

854
00:52:50,239 --> 00:52:53,799
Speaker 2: number the stars in the sky, and he believes that.

855
00:52:55,000 --> 00:52:57,920
Speaker 2: So the issue for Abraham was never vi, is there

856
00:52:57,960 --> 00:53:01,520
Speaker 2: a God who's he talking to? Of course he believed

857
00:53:01,560 --> 00:53:06,520
Speaker 2: God exists. The question is do I believe in God,

858
00:53:06,800 --> 00:53:07,839
Speaker 2: Do I trust.

859
00:53:07,520 --> 00:53:11,279
Speaker 3: Him and that he did. That's what the merit here was.

860
00:53:12,280 --> 00:53:15,080
Speaker 2: That is talked about in this very important little verse,

861
00:53:16,280 --> 00:53:19,319
Speaker 2: and that, by the way, is our modern dilemma. A

862
00:53:19,360 --> 00:53:22,040
Speaker 2: lot of people believe in God but don't have faith

863
00:53:22,080 --> 00:53:24,200
Speaker 2: in him.

864
00:53:24,520 --> 00:53:26,240
Speaker 3: That's a big difference.

865
00:53:28,719 --> 00:53:31,680
Speaker 2: That's really worthy of an entire evening on its own,

866
00:53:31,680 --> 00:53:35,440
Speaker 2: and I won't develop it at any length, but I

867
00:53:35,480 --> 00:53:38,440
Speaker 2: do want you to think about that issue, the difference

868
00:53:38,480 --> 00:53:42,520
Speaker 2: between knowing God exists or believing God exists and on

869
00:53:42,560 --> 00:53:48,719
Speaker 2: the other hand, actually having faith in God's word. That's

870
00:53:48,760 --> 00:53:51,240
Speaker 2: the issue. That's the issue for the Jews, the issue

871
00:53:51,280 --> 00:53:54,960
Speaker 2: for the Muslim, it's the issue for the Christian. Do

872
00:53:55,000 --> 00:53:58,080
Speaker 2: you have faith that God means what he says? And

873
00:53:58,120 --> 00:54:01,919
Speaker 2: that takes faith. I believe God exists, it's a little

874
00:54:01,960 --> 00:54:05,880
Speaker 2: difficult sometimes to believe that God really will work things

875
00:54:05,920 --> 00:54:09,160
Speaker 2: out in this world. It looks too miserable, it looks

876
00:54:09,160 --> 00:54:13,239
Speaker 2: too messy. That's the question in life. And when I

877
00:54:13,320 --> 00:54:15,560
Speaker 2: read this, I get more faith. I told you that

878
00:54:15,640 --> 00:54:18,920
Speaker 2: this stuff builds my own faith. I understand that.

879
00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:22,960
Speaker 3: Now. That's the issue. The issue was He's not an atheist, Abraham.

880
00:54:23,600 --> 00:54:24,960
Speaker 3: The issue was that he believe him.

881
00:54:25,000 --> 00:54:26,840
Speaker 2: And by the way, God had no track record to

882
00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:34,120
Speaker 2: be believed. That's very important. God has a track record.

883
00:54:34,120 --> 00:54:38,040
Speaker 2: If God came to a Jew today, a new Abraham said,

884
00:54:38,040 --> 00:54:40,719
Speaker 2: you know, listen, I'm gonna promise you the following that

885
00:54:40,920 --> 00:54:44,879
Speaker 2: Jew could say, I believe you because listen, three two

886
00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:48,319
Speaker 2: hundred years of Jews staying alive proves to.

887
00:54:48,239 --> 00:54:51,239
Speaker 3: Me that your covenant, which we're going to come up to,

888
00:54:51,800 --> 00:54:53,360
Speaker 3: is true.

889
00:54:53,680 --> 00:54:57,319
Speaker 2: I understand that you're good for your word, including the

890
00:54:57,360 --> 00:55:01,080
Speaker 2: miserable stuff you promised. You're good for your word. But

891
00:55:01,440 --> 00:55:04,719
Speaker 2: Abraham had no basis of saying that. All he knows

892
00:55:04,840 --> 00:55:07,319
Speaker 2: is he's been thrown out of his father's house. He

893
00:55:07,360 --> 00:55:10,080
Speaker 2: was very happy and wealthy. He got thrown out of there.

894
00:55:10,280 --> 00:55:15,280
Speaker 2: He has no more relatives left. He gets stuck with Pharaoh,

895
00:55:15,320 --> 00:55:18,160
Speaker 2: gets embarrassed at the least in Egypt, with his wife

896
00:55:18,160 --> 00:55:22,120
Speaker 2: in bed with the case, is gallivanting around the world,

897
00:55:22,200 --> 00:55:26,000
Speaker 2: ends up having to rescue his nephew, whom he couldn't

898
00:55:26,040 --> 00:55:29,560
Speaker 2: stand to begin with. And in the meantime, he's getting older,

899
00:55:29,600 --> 00:55:32,160
Speaker 2: his wife is getting older, and God keeps telling him.

900
00:55:32,120 --> 00:55:34,879
Speaker 3: You see that sand, and the next time you see

901
00:55:34,920 --> 00:55:37,560
Speaker 3: those stars it's a little overkill here.

902
00:55:37,920 --> 00:55:41,280
Speaker 2: And he finally says, well, you know, it's all a little difficult,

903
00:55:41,400 --> 00:55:44,040
Speaker 2: and then God answered him back, and then finally it's

904
00:55:44,080 --> 00:55:45,440
Speaker 2: clear if he still has faith.

905
00:55:45,920 --> 00:55:49,399
Speaker 3: That's the issue. Do you have faith in God? Now?

906
00:55:49,400 --> 00:55:51,960
Speaker 2: If God didn't make a promise to you, God did

907
00:55:52,000 --> 00:55:55,799
Speaker 2: make a promise collectively, that's the issue. I believe in

908
00:55:55,840 --> 00:55:59,520
Speaker 2: God's collective promises. God didn't make a promise to Dennis.

909
00:56:00,800 --> 00:56:02,680
Speaker 2: But I do believe that God made a promise to

910
00:56:02,719 --> 00:56:05,040
Speaker 2: the Jewish people. If I didn't believe that, I would

911
00:56:05,040 --> 00:56:08,520
Speaker 2: not be Jewish, I would not stay Jewish after the Holocaust,

912
00:56:08,560 --> 00:56:09,280
Speaker 2: if I did.

913
00:56:09,080 --> 00:56:11,840
Speaker 3: Not believe that God were involved with the Jewish people.

914
00:56:12,360 --> 00:56:16,760
Speaker 2: I think it's an interesting decision to stay Jewish after Hitler,

915
00:56:17,160 --> 00:56:21,359
Speaker 2: but it's not a very rational one. There has to be,

916
00:56:21,880 --> 00:56:26,080
Speaker 2: in the final analysis, some really good reason that you

917
00:56:26,120 --> 00:56:29,640
Speaker 2: would risk it again, given the suffering that is involved

918
00:56:29,680 --> 00:56:32,200
Speaker 2: often in being a Jew, and that.

919
00:56:32,320 --> 00:56:32,920
Speaker 3: I believe in.

920
00:56:33,480 --> 00:56:36,480
Speaker 2: I do believe, and this, as I say, the studying

921
00:56:36,520 --> 00:56:42,719
Speaker 2: of this increases my belief each time. Well, God does

922
00:56:43,600 --> 00:56:47,680
Speaker 2: say that to him in fifteen six, or actually the

923
00:56:47,760 --> 00:56:53,080
Speaker 2: Torres says it of him. Then God said to him

924
00:56:53,360 --> 00:56:55,680
Speaker 2: I am the Lord who brought you out from or

925
00:56:55,760 --> 00:56:58,680
Speaker 2: of the Chaldeans to give you this land as a possession.

926
00:56:59,680 --> 00:57:06,279
Speaker 2: And he said, it's interesting. He still has questions. Right

927
00:57:06,320 --> 00:57:10,359
Speaker 2: after he's praised for having all this faith. Two versus later,

928
00:57:10,520 --> 00:57:14,160
Speaker 2: he asks God the following, God, how will I know

929
00:57:14,280 --> 00:57:15,240
Speaker 2: that I am to possess?

930
00:57:15,280 --> 00:57:20,760
Speaker 3: It? Isn't that interesting? I just find you know, it's not.

931
00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:24,760
Speaker 2: These are not snotty questions like some of my callers

932
00:57:24,800 --> 00:57:29,240
Speaker 2: on KBC. You know, it's just a very nice way

933
00:57:29,520 --> 00:57:32,960
Speaker 2: of posing the thing. Excuse me, God, but how exactly

934
00:57:33,320 --> 00:57:33,560
Speaker 2: will it?

935
00:57:33,640 --> 00:57:34,560
Speaker 3: Will it come about?

936
00:57:35,200 --> 00:57:38,680
Speaker 2: In other words, he posed it not as challenge but

937
00:57:38,760 --> 00:57:39,840
Speaker 2: as curiosity.

938
00:57:40,400 --> 00:57:43,480
Speaker 3: I was just wondering how was it gonna happen?

939
00:57:44,520 --> 00:57:51,080
Speaker 2: So the answer is real helpful, God answered, bring me

940
00:57:51,120 --> 00:57:52,480
Speaker 2: a three year old heifer.

941
00:57:53,720 --> 00:57:56,760
Speaker 3: Hey, that's that's what you call a non sequitur.

942
00:57:58,440 --> 00:58:02,240
Speaker 2: A three year old she goat, a three.

943
00:58:02,040 --> 00:58:04,880
Speaker 3: Year old ram eternal dove, and a young bird.

944
00:58:08,560 --> 00:58:11,280
Speaker 2: There are a few moments like this that a good

945
00:58:11,400 --> 00:58:15,040
Speaker 2: humorist could make a tremendous film without in any way

946
00:58:15,360 --> 00:58:16,120
Speaker 2: any way.

947
00:58:16,040 --> 00:58:20,000
Speaker 3: Departing from the text. Another one is with mos Is Moses.

948
00:58:20,280 --> 00:58:24,920
Speaker 2: Moses says to God finally at the burning bush, who

949
00:58:24,960 --> 00:58:25,480
Speaker 2: are you?

950
00:58:26,720 --> 00:58:29,680
Speaker 3: What's your name? That's exactly what he asks.

951
00:58:30,240 --> 00:58:35,320
Speaker 2: And God answered, I am who I am?

952
00:58:35,520 --> 00:58:39,120
Speaker 3: And I always imagine at that moment Moses things. Now

953
00:58:39,160 --> 00:58:43,560
Speaker 3: I know. Gee, that's that's really clear. Thank you very much.

954
00:58:44,040 --> 00:58:49,760
Speaker 3: This ends the whole issue. And you have this. It's

955
00:58:49,880 --> 00:58:51,439
Speaker 3: exactly the same thing. Here.

956
00:58:51,480 --> 00:58:54,040
Speaker 2: Look, how am I gonna know that I'm gonna possess

957
00:58:54,080 --> 00:58:54,600
Speaker 2: this land?

958
00:58:54,760 --> 00:58:57,960
Speaker 3: I'll tell you how Premia, turtle, dove and she go.

959
00:59:00,440 --> 00:59:03,520
Speaker 3: Isn't that terrific? I just I've bought? What of he do?

960
00:59:03,840 --> 00:59:08,800
Speaker 3: The next verse, he brought up all these and cut

961
00:59:08,840 --> 00:59:09,800
Speaker 3: them into.

962
00:59:10,040 --> 00:59:13,400
Speaker 2: Placing each half opposite the other. But he did not

963
00:59:13,520 --> 00:59:16,320
Speaker 2: cut up the bird. Birds of prey came down upon

964
00:59:16,400 --> 00:59:20,520
Speaker 2: the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. Now, in all seriousness,

965
00:59:21,720 --> 00:59:24,240
Speaker 2: Abram must have known what was about to happen, or

966
00:59:24,280 --> 00:59:27,320
Speaker 2: he would have truly been confused. Because if you ever

967
00:59:27,360 --> 00:59:30,480
Speaker 2: answered anybody that question, you know, well, just bring me

968
00:59:30,520 --> 00:59:32,800
Speaker 2: a total love and couple of she goes, they would

969
00:59:32,800 --> 00:59:35,880
Speaker 2: not understand what you meant. The assumption is that Abraham

970
00:59:35,920 --> 00:59:41,560
Speaker 2: actually did that. These were These were ways in which

971
00:59:42,720 --> 00:59:46,200
Speaker 2: major religious deals, as it were, were cut in the

972
00:59:46,280 --> 00:59:50,320
Speaker 2: old days, very old paes in the ancient world. In

973
00:59:50,360 --> 00:59:53,960
Speaker 2: other words, there were he knew something was about to happen.

974
00:59:56,200 --> 00:59:59,160
Speaker 3: As the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell.

975
00:59:59,000 --> 01:00:03,680
Speaker 2: Upon Abram, you see again, and a great dark dread

976
01:00:04,040 --> 01:00:05,360
Speaker 2: descended upon him.

977
01:00:06,080 --> 01:00:08,840
Speaker 3: Was he was in fear for good reason.

978
01:00:10,080 --> 01:00:13,560
Speaker 2: And God said to Abram, know well that your offspring

979
01:00:13,640 --> 01:00:16,360
Speaker 2: shall be strangers in a land not theirs.

980
01:00:18,200 --> 01:00:18,400
Speaker 3: Right.

981
01:00:19,240 --> 01:00:22,720
Speaker 2: We're talking, of course about Egypt, and they will be

982
01:00:22,880 --> 01:00:28,480
Speaker 2: enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will execute

983
01:00:28,640 --> 01:00:32,840
Speaker 2: judgment on the nation they shall serve, and in the

984
01:00:33,000 --> 01:00:37,680
Speaker 2: end they will go free with great wealth. As for you,

985
01:00:39,160 --> 01:00:41,800
Speaker 2: because you know there is an element of that, he

986
01:00:41,920 --> 01:00:44,720
Speaker 2: was wondering, how am I involved in all of this?

987
01:00:45,040 --> 01:00:48,800
Speaker 3: As for you, you shall go to your father's in peace.

988
01:00:50,040 --> 01:00:54,960
Speaker 2: You will be buried at a ripe old age.

989
01:00:53,440 --> 01:00:57,320
Speaker 3: And they shall return here. That is your descendants in

990
01:00:57,400 --> 01:01:01,840
Speaker 3: the fourth generation. For the iniquity of the Amorites is

991
01:01:01,880 --> 01:01:05,680
Speaker 3: not yet complete. It's a very important statement.

992
01:01:09,240 --> 01:01:12,160
Speaker 2: The g who are the Amorites one of the people

993
01:01:12,240 --> 01:01:16,800
Speaker 2: living in Canan. I am not going to kick out

994
01:01:16,920 --> 01:01:22,960
Speaker 2: those people until they deserve to be. You Jews cannot

995
01:01:22,960 --> 01:01:28,760
Speaker 2: come into the Holy land and dispossess innocent people. You

996
01:01:28,800 --> 01:01:32,600
Speaker 2: will have to wait till they're miserable enough to deserve it.

997
01:01:34,400 --> 01:01:39,919
Speaker 2: And that's a very important moral lesson. Even though you're

998
01:01:40,000 --> 01:01:42,960
Speaker 2: my chosen people and I have this great mission to humanity,

999
01:01:43,080 --> 01:01:46,800
Speaker 2: I can't I God can't do an immoral act for

1000
01:01:46,840 --> 01:01:51,160
Speaker 2: a greater moral purpose. I can't dispossess innocent people from

1001
01:01:51,200 --> 01:01:54,160
Speaker 2: the land to make my holy people in the land.

1002
01:01:55,520 --> 01:02:01,000
Speaker 2: You understand how important that is. You can't do sinful

1003
01:02:01,120 --> 01:02:06,680
Speaker 2: things for greater goods. It's one of the greatest possible.

1004
01:02:06,280 --> 01:02:07,840
Speaker 3: Lessons in life.

1005
01:02:08,000 --> 01:02:12,600
Speaker 2: That's Lenin's old line when making the Russian Revolution the

1006
01:02:12,640 --> 01:02:17,200
Speaker 2: Bolshevik Revolution. In order to what is it, in order

1007
01:02:17,240 --> 01:02:20,720
Speaker 2: to make on, let's see, you gotta break eggs. So

1008
01:02:21,240 --> 01:02:25,920
Speaker 2: the eggs were people, great people for the greater progress

1009
01:02:25,960 --> 01:02:27,280
Speaker 2: of Soviet society.

1010
01:02:28,000 --> 01:02:29,080
Speaker 3: Uh huh.

1011
01:02:29,560 --> 01:02:32,600
Speaker 2: When the Amirites are bad and in any event would

1012
01:02:32,640 --> 01:02:35,920
Speaker 2: self destruct as bad nations do self destruct, that we

1013
01:02:36,040 --> 01:02:40,800
Speaker 2: know from history, then you'll go in and not until then.

1014
01:02:41,600 --> 01:02:46,200
Speaker 2: This obviously was not for Abram. Abram, this was not

1015
01:02:46,280 --> 01:02:48,840
Speaker 2: an issue for him. This is an issue for us.

1016
01:02:49,920 --> 01:02:54,840
Speaker 2: This line was for Jews later, much later than Abram,

1017
01:02:55,160 --> 01:02:59,320
Speaker 2: to understand what the moral element of going into the

1018
01:02:59,360 --> 01:03:04,960
Speaker 2: Promised Land is about. You can't dispossess innocent people, and

1019
01:03:05,000 --> 01:03:08,320
Speaker 2: there are a lot of contemporary things to be learned

1020
01:03:08,320 --> 01:03:08,640
Speaker 2: from that.

1021
01:03:09,200 --> 01:03:10,720
Speaker 3: I dare say, but I.

1022
01:03:10,640 --> 01:03:13,720
Speaker 2: Don't want to get into the most sensitive issue in

1023
01:03:13,800 --> 01:03:20,120
Speaker 2: Jewish life because it is just not germane right now, Okay,

1024
01:03:21,640 --> 01:03:24,160
Speaker 2: when the sun set it was very dark. There appeared

1025
01:03:24,200 --> 01:03:28,760
Speaker 2: a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between

1026
01:03:28,800 --> 01:03:31,640
Speaker 2: those pieces, the pieces of the animals that he had

1027
01:03:31,680 --> 01:03:35,880
Speaker 2: cut up. On that day, the Lord made a covenant

1028
01:03:35,920 --> 01:03:40,600
Speaker 2: with Abram, saying, to your offspring, I give this land

1029
01:03:41,160 --> 01:03:44,320
Speaker 2: from the River of Egypt, that's the Nile, to the

1030
01:03:44,360 --> 01:03:47,080
Speaker 2: great river, the River Euphrates.

1031
01:03:46,960 --> 01:03:49,120
Speaker 3: Which is of course in modern Iraq.

1032
01:03:50,480 --> 01:03:53,760
Speaker 2: That's the land given to the Jews to Gabraham, to

1033
01:03:53,800 --> 01:03:58,520
Speaker 2: the Jews, from the Nile to the Euphrates, which is

1034
01:03:58,560 --> 01:04:03,600
Speaker 2: of course vaster than Israel wi or without a west bank,

1035
01:04:03,680 --> 01:04:09,400
Speaker 2: even with Jordan. The Canites, the Kenesites, the Cammanites, the Hittites,

1036
01:04:09,480 --> 01:04:14,240
Speaker 2: the Perizites, the ifaim the Amorites, the Cannonites, the Gegashites.

1037
01:04:13,920 --> 01:04:16,440
Speaker 3: And the Jebucides. Those were the nations living there.

1038
01:04:18,040 --> 01:04:21,400
Speaker 2: One word on this, and with this I'll conclude we'll

1039
01:04:21,440 --> 01:04:24,400
Speaker 2: just have to pick up at chapter of Perfect the

1040
01:04:24,480 --> 01:04:25,840
Speaker 2: Works at chapter sixteen.

1041
01:04:26,480 --> 01:04:29,840
Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

1042
01:04:35,360 --> 01:04:39,360
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.

1043
01:04:39,720 --> 01:04:46,200
Speaker 3: In verse eighteen, God makes a covenant. This is called

1044
01:04:46,200 --> 01:04:47,320
Speaker 3: the Covenant.

1045
01:04:46,880 --> 01:04:51,400
Speaker 2: Of the Pieces breath the behabitarin in Hebrew. This is

1046
01:04:51,440 --> 01:04:54,480
Speaker 2: the first covenant God makes with the Jews. It is

1047
01:04:54,520 --> 01:04:59,920
Speaker 2: the second covenant God makes with humanity. Remember the first

1048
01:04:59,960 --> 01:05:04,760
Speaker 2: covenant with the Rainbow, that I make a covenant that

1049
01:05:04,840 --> 01:05:09,000
Speaker 2: I won't destroy the world again. Okay, it's an interesting

1050
01:05:09,120 --> 01:05:12,560
Speaker 2: point that is raised by Plout.

1051
01:05:12,200 --> 01:05:14,680
Speaker 3: Here, which I would like to read to you.

1052
01:05:19,320 --> 01:05:22,760
Speaker 2: In a society in which the capriciousness of the gods

1053
01:05:22,880 --> 01:05:27,280
Speaker 2: was taken for granted, writes not from Sarna, the Covenant

1054
01:05:27,320 --> 01:05:32,160
Speaker 2: between the Pieces, like the Covenant with Noah, set religion

1055
01:05:32,200 --> 01:05:32,520
Speaker 2: on a.

1056
01:05:32,520 --> 01:05:34,720
Speaker 3: Bold, new, independent course.

1057
01:05:37,120 --> 01:05:42,560
Speaker 2: Do you understand why the gods of the world acted capriciously?

1058
01:05:43,200 --> 01:05:45,840
Speaker 2: They did what they want, just like people do what

1059
01:05:45,880 --> 01:05:50,720
Speaker 2: they want. People are generally unpredictable. If you or worse,

1060
01:05:51,280 --> 01:05:54,200
Speaker 2: they're predictable. You bribe them, they'll do this.

1061
01:05:54,960 --> 01:05:59,280
Speaker 3: What did ancient people do with their gods. They bribe them.

1062
01:05:59,480 --> 01:06:05,400
Speaker 2: Sacrifices were bribes much more than they were thanks or

1063
01:06:05,560 --> 01:06:06,520
Speaker 2: sin offerings.

1064
01:06:07,160 --> 01:06:09,960
Speaker 3: They were bribes. I'll give you this, so you give

1065
01:06:10,040 --> 01:06:12,840
Speaker 3: me this. Okay. That was the way they were.

1066
01:06:14,280 --> 01:06:17,920
Speaker 2: What Sarna is saying and Cloud brings here is brilliant

1067
01:06:19,080 --> 01:06:24,960
Speaker 2: convenant means not no matter what you do, this is

1068
01:06:25,040 --> 01:06:31,200
Speaker 2: what I God promise. I promise you I am predictable.

1069
01:06:31,560 --> 01:06:35,560
Speaker 2: I'm telling you right now, to you, Noah, I will

1070
01:06:35,600 --> 01:06:39,480
Speaker 2: never destroy the world again. To you, Abraham, I am

1071
01:06:39,520 --> 01:06:44,640
Speaker 2: telling you, no matter how you act, your children act,

1072
01:06:45,040 --> 01:06:48,080
Speaker 2: it will not affect the fact that I will make

1073
01:06:48,200 --> 01:06:52,840
Speaker 2: you a big people and give you this land. Okay,

1074
01:06:53,520 --> 01:06:58,840
Speaker 2: are you with me? That's predictability. That's a covenant. However,

1075
01:06:59,320 --> 01:07:04,320
Speaker 2: the uniqueness of this covenant, will say is that there

1076
01:07:04,360 --> 01:07:09,640
Speaker 2: are no obligations on man. These first two covenants, unlike

1077
01:07:09,720 --> 01:07:13,200
Speaker 2: later covenants with the Jews, which make demands on the Jews,

1078
01:07:13,760 --> 01:07:15,600
Speaker 2: our only demands upon God.

1079
01:07:16,640 --> 01:07:19,480
Speaker 3: Abraham doesn't have to do a thing. Noah didn't have

1080
01:07:19,520 --> 01:07:20,080
Speaker 3: to do a thing.

1081
01:07:22,040 --> 01:07:26,320
Speaker 2: Both conveidants of one outstanding feature in common. They obligate

1082
01:07:26,400 --> 01:07:31,040
Speaker 2: God but demand nothing of man. In contradistinction to many

1083
01:07:31,120 --> 01:07:35,280
Speaker 2: later references to brit. By the way, when a Jewish

1084
01:07:35,720 --> 01:07:40,160
Speaker 2: boy baby on the eighth day has a brisk, which

1085
01:07:40,240 --> 01:07:43,640
Speaker 2: is our brit, that doesn't mean circumcision.

1086
01:07:44,120 --> 01:07:46,880
Speaker 3: It means covenant. It's too bad.

1087
01:07:46,920 --> 01:07:49,280
Speaker 2: It's call let's go to the circumcision. It should be

1088
01:07:49,360 --> 01:07:52,120
Speaker 2: let's go to the covenant. When we speak in English,

1089
01:07:52,240 --> 01:07:56,640
Speaker 2: because in Hebrew, Grit means covenant, Brit me law means

1090
01:07:56,800 --> 01:08:01,920
Speaker 2: covenant of the circumcision. That's the whole term there. But

1091
01:08:02,080 --> 01:08:04,680
Speaker 2: that's what it is, that's the covenant. That's why it's

1092
01:08:04,720 --> 01:08:09,560
Speaker 2: such a big deal. Contradistinction to many later references to

1093
01:08:09,640 --> 01:08:12,680
Speaker 2: brit in which God's covenant with Israel has made dependent

1094
01:08:13,080 --> 01:08:18,960
Speaker 2: on Israel's continued faithfulness. The Bible here makes God's commitment unconditional.

1095
01:08:20,080 --> 01:08:23,400
Speaker 2: Not only has God created a physical universe, it's a

1096
01:08:23,440 --> 01:08:27,879
Speaker 2: beautiful point. Not only has God created a physical universe

1097
01:08:27,960 --> 01:08:33,520
Speaker 2: with immutable laws, non changeable laws, he has established conditions

1098
01:08:33,559 --> 01:08:37,000
Speaker 2: for an unchanging spiritual world as well.

1099
01:08:39,439 --> 01:08:40,559
Speaker 3: That's what's being said.

1100
01:08:40,600 --> 01:08:44,200
Speaker 2: I made a law with unchanging physical laws and unchanging

1101
01:08:44,240 --> 01:08:49,600
Speaker 2: spiritual laws, and I might add unchanging moral laws. He

1102
01:08:49,720 --> 01:08:53,680
Speaker 2: is a faithful God, faithful in his natural as well

1103
01:08:53,720 --> 01:08:59,719
Speaker 2: as trans natural manifestations, and unlike the pagan deities whose

1104
01:08:59,840 --> 01:09:05,200
Speaker 2: universes were unpredictable and erratic, God shows himself in the

1105
01:09:05,240 --> 01:09:07,880
Speaker 2: Covenant between the pieces to be an il nam On,

1106
01:09:08,680 --> 01:09:14,280
Speaker 2: a god who is both dependable and trustworthy. No such

1107
01:09:14,360 --> 01:09:17,799
Speaker 2: religious covenant is known outside of Israel.

1108
01:09:19,080 --> 01:09:24,360
Speaker 3: This is another unique, unique means umo. Only it never

1109
01:09:24,680 --> 01:09:28,000
Speaker 3: happened outside.

1110
01:09:26,800 --> 01:09:30,800
Speaker 2: This concept of the covenant. What the Jews obligations are

1111
01:09:30,920 --> 01:09:32,280
Speaker 2: we'll talk about next time.

1112
01:09:32,120 --> 01:09:32,719
Speaker 3: When we talk.

1113
01:09:33,240 --> 01:09:37,640
Speaker 2: When we will later talk about covenant, it'll be embellished,

1114
01:09:38,080 --> 01:09:39,639
Speaker 2: but I will explain that next time.

1115
01:09:39,680 --> 01:09:42,840
Speaker 3: We go to chapter sixteen. Thank you, enjoy your summer.

1116
01:09:46,320 --> 01:09:50,600
Speaker 1: This has been timeless wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit dennispragger

1117
01:09:50,680 --> 01:09:54,200
Speaker 1: dot com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses,

1118
01:09:54,240 --> 01:09:58,880
Speaker 1: and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles.