Valuetainment - November 16, 2025


“God Let Israel Fall for 1,900 Years” - Why God Has NO MERCY For ARROGANT Empires


Episode Stats


Length

16 minutes

Words per minute

202.81447

Word count

3,286

Sentence count

256

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

47

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Pastor Ken teaches on the role of the Israelites in the Old Testament. God's love for the nations and his desire to save them is the key to understanding the role Israel plays in His plan for the world.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 By the way, in regards to us, Assyrians, you know the story about what happened with us.
00:00:07.100 You're a good storyteller.
00:00:08.720 You know how to break things down well.
00:00:10.840 I don't know if I can with Assyrians. 1.00
00:00:12.460 What happened to Assyrians?
00:00:14.360 We used to have a country, you know, the fall of Babel. 0.94
00:00:16.240 What happened to us?
00:00:17.640 If you're asking me from a theological perspective, because Old Testament history,
00:00:22.300 because it's not just prophecy, it's history.
00:00:25.260 Well, we're told in the book of Nahum, if you're asking me now, just as a Christian,
00:00:30.080 see the political landscape from the revelation God has given,
00:00:34.040 because that's the only source I have, right?
00:00:35.540 I mean, if we can conjecture all we want, your opinion is just as good as mine.
00:00:40.280 But if I believe the Bible is God's word, and this is God's perspective, he's a reality.
00:00:44.920 The Lord will often destroy nations who've reached a limit of sin of how much he tolerates.
00:00:52.000 The Bible says there's like a debt ceiling.
00:00:54.020 There's so much sin he tolerates, and then that's over for you.
00:00:56.040 So we're told in the book of Nahum, this is the judgment of Nineveh.
00:01:00.860 He says, because of the Assyrians being steeped, and it's not just Assyrians, it's just this thing. 0.91
00:01:05.380 God does this with all the nations.
00:01:06.780 You can just start reading from Isaiah chapter 10 on, all the way, you're going to see all the way to 19.
00:01:12.080 God has done about the judgment of all the nations, like, you know, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Babylonians. 0.99
00:01:17.040 Because why?
00:01:18.060 God owns them all.
00:01:19.360 This is where people must read the Old Testament.
00:01:21.280 They go, oh, this book is the Old Testament, and he's the God of Israel.
00:01:23.740 So if you read the Old Testament, God keeps saying, I'm the God of all nations.
00:01:27.660 The reason why I'm working through Israel is to move them to worship me. 1.00
00:01:31.200 This is the theme in the Old Testament.
00:01:33.160 And point of fact, I want to ask you guys a question as I answer this one.
00:01:36.900 When was the last time you were told that there's another group said to be God's people in the Old Testament besides Israel?
00:01:44.780 Because you're told that Israel's the people of God, right?
00:01:46.520 When is the last time someone told you that the very Old Testament says there's another group that is said to be the people of God?
00:01:53.940 It's the very passage every Assyrian and his mother quotes that talks about Assyrian Egypt.
00:02:00.820 In Isaiah 19, 23 to 25, specifically 25, it goes, Egypt, my people.
00:02:07.200 Assyria, the work of my hands.
00:02:08.620 Israel, my inheritance. 0.85
00:02:10.600 Does that sound like a tribal God?
00:02:12.180 He says, Egypt is my people.
00:02:16.020 So when we read the Old Testament, sometimes we're misreading it due to particular theological dispositions or political points of view.
00:02:25.240 The God of the Old Testament is quite clear.
00:02:27.160 The response of Israel was to be his priest to lead the nations to him.
00:02:31.420 And do you know the one group of people that are the most attacked in the Old Testament are the Israelites.
00:02:36.760 Now, what that tells me is this is a brutally honest record.
00:02:41.880 Because if you're making up stories, you're going to sugarcoat things, right?
00:02:45.320 Are you talking about the Forgotten Nation of Prophecy by John Bucco?
00:02:48.600 No, no, I'm not talking about the book.
00:02:50.420 He wrote a book.
00:02:51.100 I'm talking about Isaiah 19, 23.
00:02:52.140 I get that, but he talks about that in the book, right?
00:02:54.620 Yeah, he's trying to focus on Assyrian.
00:02:56.120 I actually met him.
00:02:56.840 I think he went to be with the Lord.
00:02:57.900 Good man.
00:02:59.000 I don't know if he's still around.
00:02:59.860 I saw him years ago.
00:03:00.680 But my point being, I'm not talking about future per se.
00:03:03.840 Anyway, God in the Old Testament talks about the nations and his love for them and his desire to save them.
00:03:12.000 He doesn't talk about Israel.
00:03:13.800 The role of Israel in the Old Testament, as I'm preparing to answer your question,
00:03:17.580 because I want to give a context to the Old Testament.
00:03:19.340 Because if I just say, well, God says he's going to destroy Nineveh.
00:03:21.260 Oh, look at this.
00:03:21.960 This Old Testament.
00:03:22.640 No.
00:03:23.480 God says to the Israelites, you see what I do to nations? 0.99
00:03:25.900 I'm going to do worse to you if you don't toe the line.
00:03:29.280 That's why I know this book is, look, if I'm making up a book, I want to make myself look as good as possible.
00:03:35.460 The people that are the thorn in God's eye that God has the hardest time with are the Israelites. 0.99
00:03:40.640 So that tells me this is a brutally honest record that's not trying to sugarcoat and make one people superior.
00:03:48.680 On the contrary, God keeps reminding them, don't you dare discriminate against the Gentiles? 0.94
00:03:53.900 If a Gentile comes to live in your midst, treat him as a native Israelite. 1.00
00:03:59.100 He's not less than you.
00:04:00.400 And I can give you the receipts.
00:04:02.440 So with that in the context, because what is God's heart for Assyria?
00:04:06.180 He doesn't want Assyria to die.
00:04:08.000 Isaiah 19, 23 to 25 tells you.
00:04:10.640 There'll be a highway between the land of Egypt and Assyria.
00:04:13.060 And then he goes, Assyria, the work of my hands. 0.59
00:04:16.820 The book of Jonah is all about God wanting no nation to perish, not even the Assyrians, because he said to Jonah, give them 40 days, 40 days, and the great sin in them will be destroyed. 0.82
00:04:29.320 But when they turn to national repentance, God turned back from his wrath.
00:04:33.640 And then Jonah says something interesting.
00:04:35.720 If you go to Jonah chapter 4, verses 1 to 3, if you open up specifically to, look what he says.
00:04:40.400 He goes, see, I knew this is the kind of God you are.
00:04:42.320 And that's why I wanted to run, because I wanted you to destroy them, because I knew if they repented, you would forgive them, because that's the kind of God you are.
00:04:48.820 You don't want anyone to perish.
00:04:50.660 His hatred for the Assyrians was so great that he knew if he reached them and they turned, God would spare them, because God loves all people.
00:04:58.940 And this is the God of the Old Testament, because people always go to the New Testament.
00:05:02.140 No, I'll show you from the Old Testament it's the same God.
00:05:04.460 So if you open up Jonah chapter 4, verse 1 to 3, you're going to see it.
00:05:07.900 So this is the context in which I will put the book of Nahum.
00:05:11.480 Jonah 4, look at our, and Jonah knows it.
00:05:15.200 Now, when I look at you handsome warriors, I can see why he wanted you guys wiped out.
00:05:19.740 You were a thorn in the side of his people.
00:05:22.020 But look what he says.
00:05:23.140 Jonah 4, verses 1 to 3.
00:05:25.160 You can open up just Jonah chapter 4.
00:05:28.180 Yeah, that's it.
00:05:29.480 You don't need to put chapter 4, I think.
00:05:30.920 You just put Jonah and then 4.
00:05:33.000 It's like, man, I can't keep up with this guy.
00:05:35.280 It's not my fault you're not Assyrian, brother. 1.00
00:05:37.880 But to Jonah, this seemed very wrong.
00:05:40.920 And he became angry.
00:05:42.120 Angry at what?
00:05:42.900 He didn't destroy the Ninevites. 0.98
00:05:44.620 He didn't destroy all the Jilus, right? 1.00
00:05:47.560 He prayed to the Lord.
00:05:49.080 Isn't this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home?
00:05:51.540 Meaning, isn't that what I reasoned myself?
00:05:53.500 That if they turned, you would spare them?
00:05:55.320 Now why?
00:05:56.740 That is why I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. 1.00
00:05:59.680 I knew that you are gracious and compassionate God.
00:06:04.280 Slow to anger and abounding in love.
00:06:06.100 A God who relents from sending calamity.
00:06:08.600 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.
00:06:12.000 He hit depression that you didn't wipe out the enemies of my people.
00:06:17.660 You see, the God of the Old Testament doesn't want the enemies of Israel to be destroyed.
00:06:22.320 A very timely message for today.
00:06:25.380 He wants all peoples to be saved.
00:06:28.280 I want you to see this Old Testament.
00:06:29.560 The God of the Old Testament says, I don't want the nations surrounding Israel to be destroyed.
00:06:37.100 I want them to turn to be saved because I created them and I love them.
00:06:41.260 They're my creatures.
00:06:43.320 Don't you dare look down upon them because they're not an Israelite. 0.99
00:06:46.980 Jonah's the one who wanted to wipe them out.
00:06:49.340 But then God gives him a lesson, a parable.
00:06:52.300 It's scorching heat, if you read it, and we won't need to read all of it.
00:06:55.300 And then he makes a gourd, a miraculous gourd, to give him shade.
00:06:58.400 And he's, ah, comforted.
00:06:59.900 Then he commands a creeping, crawling thing to gnaw it, and it withers away overnight.
00:07:05.080 And then it says that the heat pounded him.
00:07:07.340 And he's like, God, let me die from this heat.
00:07:09.120 Now, look what God says.
00:07:10.040 Look, we're going to read from verse 8.
00:07:11.900 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind,
00:07:15.200 and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint.
00:07:18.600 He wanted to die and said, it would be better for me to die than to live because of the heat.
00:07:23.500 Now, watch verse 9.
00:07:24.320 But God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the plant?
00:07:27.340 You're concerned that a plant die, huh?
00:07:29.500 A plant?
00:07:30.320 But you didn't give a damn that over 100,000 people were going to die?
00:07:34.880 You had more concern for a plant than a human soul created in my image?
00:07:38.960 That's what he says.
00:07:40.640 Right?
00:07:41.560 Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?
00:07:44.060 It is, he said.
00:07:45.540 And I'm so angry I wish I was dead because it was, you know, shielding me from the heat.
00:07:50.900 But the Lord said, you have been concerned about this plant.
00:07:54.320 Though you did not tend it or make it grow.
00:07:57.240 It sprang up overnight and died overnight.
00:07:59.880 Now watch.
00:08:01.360 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh,
00:08:05.140 in which there are more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left,
00:08:11.580 and also many animals?
00:08:13.520 You didn't want me to care for them?
00:08:15.380 Because they're your enemies, but it doesn't mean they're my enemies.
00:08:18.940 Don't make your enemies my enemy.
00:08:22.440 Just like I created the plant, I own it, I created them.
00:08:26.580 And I didn't create them for destruction.
00:08:28.240 I created them to live.
00:08:30.320 See, this is the heart of God.
00:08:32.420 This is God.
00:08:33.820 So when I tell you what he did to the Ninevites, it's not because he hated them.
00:08:37.240 Because God does it to all peoples.
00:08:40.040 He even did it to the Israelites. 0.84
00:08:41.840 Their judgment was they were exiled out of the land.
00:08:44.500 The first time.
00:08:45.120 The second time, because of the rejection of Jesus. 0.68
00:08:46.620 Jesus said it.
00:08:47.420 Because he rejected me, I'm going to reject you.
00:08:49.120 Temple will be destroyed.
00:08:50.200 Land will be destroyed.
00:08:51.280 For over 1,900 years, they were left in exile.
00:08:55.360 What sin does the Bible say they committed that would have resulted in them being exiled for over 1,900 years?
00:09:01.000 Because the sin that resulted in the destruction of the first temple, it says bloodshed, immorality, idolatry.
00:09:09.800 So then he brought the Babylonians, right? 0.96
00:09:11.960 Started around 604, first depretation, then 597, then 586.
00:09:16.240 They burned the temple and destroyed Jerusalem. 0.93
00:09:19.300 But he returned them 70 years.
00:09:21.320 So no matter how great their sin was, it only lasted 70 years.
00:09:27.060 But whatever sin they committed during the second temple was so heinous that God scattered them for 1,900 years.
00:09:34.380 That means their sin during that period was greater than their sin in the first period.
00:09:37.800 Now, what's the point I'm trying to show you?
00:09:39.900 God does to Israel what he'll do to the nations. 0.96
00:09:42.580 See, he's impartial, unbiased, and fair.
00:09:45.380 Just because you say you're an Israelite doesn't mean I'm going to wink or look over your sin. 0.83
00:09:49.420 No, all of you are my creatures, and I'm going to hold you more accountable.
00:09:53.400 Do you know why?
00:09:54.240 Because they don't know me.
00:09:55.340 You do.
00:09:56.880 That's what he says in Amos chapter 3.
00:09:58.780 So I'm going to give Bible here.
00:09:59.700 If they want to argue with me, say, hey, Amos, can you rewrite this?
00:10:02.840 I don't like what you said.
00:10:04.060 In Amos chapter 3, verse 1 or 2, he says to Israel, of all the families in the earth,
00:10:08.800 I only know you, and that's why I'm going to punish you for your sins.
00:10:13.760 Amos chapter 3.
00:10:15.860 Here's the word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel. 0.95
00:10:18.660 Against you, O children of Israel. 1.00
00:10:20.280 Against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,
00:10:23.300 you only have I known of all the families of the earth,
00:10:26.000 therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
00:10:29.360 No, I'm not going to give you a free pass.
00:10:31.240 Your judgment is going to be worse than the Assyrians who don't know me. 1.00
00:10:35.260 See, this is the God of the Old Testament.
00:10:37.440 So why did he destroy Nineveh?
00:10:39.280 Because sadly, God doesn't have grandchildren.
00:10:43.100 So you can claim the faith, but the faith is yours.
00:10:45.860 It's not your child. 0.52
00:10:47.120 Unless he believes and continues, your blessing won't be your child's blessing.
00:10:53.160 Because if he turns from the Lord, then that generation will bring wrath. 1.00
00:10:56.420 So although the generation of Jonah repented, 0.90
00:10:58.940 the next generation went back to their polytheistic paganism.
00:11:02.800 God says, now I have to scatter you. 0.99
00:11:04.180 So number one, they were scattered because God only tolerates so much sin
00:11:09.360 before he brings judgment on a nation and replaces them.
00:11:12.440 This is in Scripture.
00:11:13.380 I mean, I can show you.
00:11:14.020 It says, look, why didn't he, for example,
00:11:16.680 why didn't he drive out the Canaanites at the time of Abraham? 0.98
00:11:21.680 He says it.
00:11:22.800 Because the sin of the Amorite has not been made complete. 1.00
00:11:26.200 If you go to Genesis 15, 16,
00:11:28.320 he says, I'm waiting for their debt ceiling to hit.
00:11:31.800 Genesis 15, 16, it says it.
00:11:34.040 You can open up, Genesis 15, 16.
00:11:36.100 So he waited 400 years.
00:11:37.400 Now, that tells you the mercy and compassion of God.
00:11:39.580 So Genesis 15, 16, and the fourth generation, 0.91
00:11:42.760 meaning 400 years in the context,
00:11:44.200 it's the fourth generation in the 100 years.
00:11:46.420 Your descendants will come back here, 0.93
00:11:47.720 for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. 0.99
00:11:53.100 Warning, there's so much sin I'll tolerate from a nation,
00:11:56.140 but I'll wait patiently to see if you're going to turn.
00:11:58.040 But he's already telling them he won't.
00:12:00.580 They won't.
00:12:02.020 But I'm a fair God.
00:12:02.860 I don't just rush to judgment,
00:12:04.160 because I don't want anyone to be destroyed.
00:12:06.540 It's going to take them 40 years when I say enough is enough.
00:12:09.460 I'm done.
00:12:09.820 I can't handle this.
00:12:11.300 400 years.
00:12:12.100 You know what that means?
00:12:13.320 Each generation of children grew up to be just as wicked as the generation before. 0.91
00:12:17.860 And if you want to know their atrocities,
00:12:19.240 he mentions in Leviticus 18.
00:12:20.960 In Leviticus 18, he tells them,
00:12:22.520 this is what the people did in the land,
00:12:24.180 and that's why the land is throwing them out.
00:12:25.680 And he says, Israel, if you do the same,
00:12:28.160 I'll do the same to you.
00:12:29.940 And he says what they did.
00:12:31.660 Bestiality.
00:12:32.920 Incest. 0.68
00:12:34.000 Homosexuality. 0.96
00:12:34.740 Infanticide.
00:12:35.220 He goes, because of these sins that I put up with for 400 years,
00:12:38.520 I'm disgusted.
00:12:40.000 They got to go.
00:12:41.540 But I'm going to evict you if you do the same thing.
00:12:43.960 It's in Leviticus 18.
00:12:46.180 So this is the context of the punishment of all the nations. 0.88
00:12:49.200 But who comes first on the list of punishment?
00:12:51.600 The Israelites.
00:12:53.280 Why?
00:12:54.460 Because the greater the blessing,
00:12:58.260 the greater the accountability.
00:12:59.960 The more you know,
00:13:01.300 the more you're accountable.
00:13:03.340 So if the Assyrians didn't know God, 0.65
00:13:05.360 like Israel did, 0.99
00:13:06.080 yeah, they'll be punished,
00:13:06.920 but who do you think is going to be punished more severely?
00:13:09.020 If you have two sons,
00:13:10.400 and you instruct one son not to do something,
00:13:12.500 but you didn't tell the other one,
00:13:13.980 and they both do the thing you don't want,
00:13:15.880 you'll be angry with both,
00:13:16.880 but who you'll be angry with more?
00:13:19.380 The one you told, right?
00:13:21.040 God is telling Israel, 0.98
00:13:22.520 you're the ones who are making me more angry than any other nation.
00:13:25.820 Because you know better.
00:13:26.860 They don't.
00:13:27.300 And you're supposed to influence them.
00:13:28.600 But what you're doing is,
00:13:29.740 you're driving them away from me.
00:13:31.860 How are they driving people away from God?
00:13:34.280 When you go worship their God,
00:13:35.760 you know what you're telling them?
00:13:37.020 My God is not a big deal.
00:13:38.500 Because if he was,
00:13:39.520 I wouldn't be worshiping yours.
00:13:41.760 I like your God better.
00:13:43.420 So when you do that,
00:13:44.600 what are you telling them?
00:13:46.160 That I'm a God that doesn't compare to theirs.
00:13:48.860 So this is why he destroys the Neva.
00:13:50.540 But now,
00:13:52.560 why?
00:13:54.000 Well,
00:13:54.340 it's the opposite.
00:13:55.900 Even though we don't have a land,
00:13:57.520 the fact that we haven't wiped out
00:13:59.520 is a testament of God's goodness to us.
00:14:01.860 We survived.
00:14:02.580 Brothers,
00:14:03.140 we've survived impossible odds.
00:14:05.320 Not only did we live under the yoke of Rome,
00:14:08.880 then later,
00:14:09.860 they came the Zoroastrians. 0.96
00:14:10.960 A lot of people don't know
00:14:13.000 that in the 5th century,
00:14:14.260 even the church at large
00:14:15.360 ostracized us.
00:14:16.960 They condemned us as heretics.
00:14:19.240 So when I say us
00:14:20.280 because of the church of our ancestors,
00:14:22.180 what do I mean?
00:14:23.760 This is going to be related to your question,
00:14:25.440 so I have to unpack this.
00:14:26.460 In the 400s,
00:14:27.500 because of Nestorius,
00:14:28.540 remember I mentioned Nestorius?
00:14:30.580 Because he was accused of teaching
00:14:31.980 there are two persons of Christ,
00:14:34.000 the Assyrians were now identified
00:14:35.160 with that teaching.
00:14:36.240 So the church at large says,
00:14:37.520 you are heretics, 0.50
00:14:38.160 you're not Christians, 1.00
00:14:38.880 to hell with you. 0.99
00:14:39.520 So now we didn't have
00:14:41.300 the backing of the Byzantine Empire.
00:14:44.680 But we're under the duress
00:14:46.700 of the Persian Empire.
00:14:48.500 Then Islam rises. 0.98
00:14:50.200 So we had it bad from every angle.
00:14:52.460 So now I'm going to ask you,
00:14:53.620 how do we survive
00:14:54.420 against impossible odds
00:14:55.500 if Christ wasn't preserving our people?
00:14:58.580 Do you know at one time in history,
00:15:00.280 the largest church in the world
00:15:01.400 was the Syrian Church of the East?
00:15:03.240 This is a fact.
00:15:05.300 We reached all the way to China.
00:15:07.200 They even found Aramaic scripts,
00:15:09.840 the Aramaic script,
00:15:10.660 that is attributed to the Nestorian Church.
00:15:13.480 But Nestorian Church is a church
00:15:14.500 of your ancestors,
00:15:15.420 my ancestors.
00:15:16.560 This is a testimony
00:15:17.720 that God has not abandoned Assyria.
00:15:20.980 Because if he did,
00:15:22.260 you wouldn't be here as an Assyrian 1.00
00:15:23.640 speaking your Assyrian mother tongue,
00:15:26.100 and the Assyrian Church
00:15:27.220 would have been wiped out of the planet.
00:15:28.400 So what are the likelihood
00:15:29.740 that Assyrians get their country back 0.99
00:15:32.680 in the middle of Iraq,
00:15:34.000 similar to what Israel did?
00:15:35.340 What's the likelihood?
00:15:36.040 Ah, you're talking to a guy
00:15:37.340 who's very pessimistic.
00:15:38.780 Okay.
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00:15:47.900 As Christians,
00:15:48.520 we've never seen Jesus face to face,
00:15:50.060 but we believe.
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00:15:52.740 Trusting when we can't see.
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00:16:02.340 Rock the shirt,
00:16:03.020 rock it with purpose,
00:16:03.920 and let the world know
00:16:04.760 who you stand with.
00:16:05.960 Peace and love.
00:16:06.620 If you enjoyed this video,
00:16:07.600 you want to watch more videos like this,
00:16:08.960 click here.
00:16:09.360 And if you want to watch
00:16:10.040 the entire podcast,
00:16:11.680 click here.