Transcript [00:01] [applause] [00:08] >> When you visit [00:10] the city of David today [00:12] in the entrance [00:14] you will see [00:16] a plaque [00:17] recognizing [00:20] the city of David the place where the [00:22] kings of the Bible ruled [00:24] and the prophets of the Bible preached [00:26] as a heritage site. [00:28] But not as a Jewish heritage site, not [00:30] as an Israeli heritage site [00:32] but as an American heritage site. [00:36] Now, why would the United States of [00:37] America [00:39] recognize a site some 6,000 miles [00:42] outside its borders [00:44] as an American heritage site? [00:47] Now, when people think of the places [00:50] that the ideals [00:51] that this great nation was built upon [00:54] you might think of Plymouth Rock [00:56] Valley Forge [00:58] Independence Hall. [01:01] But 3,000 years before that [01:04] the foundations [01:05] that the United States of America would [01:07] be built upon [01:08] were taking root in Jerusalem. [01:13] >> [applause] [01:17] >> In a palace [01:19] and in a pit [01:21] millennia before [01:24] people ever heard of Franklin [01:26] Jefferson [01:27] and Washington [01:30] a king on a balcony [01:31] and a prophet in a pit [01:34] would shape the foundations [01:36] that this nation would endure upon. [01:41] To begin, we go back to 2005 when a [01:43] woman by the name of Dr. Eilat Mazar [01:45] walks into our offices in the city of [01:48] David. [01:50] And clickers, there we go. Right? And so [01:52] now, she walks into our offices in the [01:54] city of David and she says to us [01:58] "You need to move your visitor center." [02:00] We ask her why. She says, "Beneath your [02:03] feet, you will find the palace of King [02:06] David." [02:07] >> Wow. [02:08] >> Now, that's what we said, "Wow." Right? [02:12] It's one of those awkward moments. And [02:13] what what do you say to something like [02:14] that? [02:15] So, we said, "Dr. Mazar, people have [02:16] been digging here for the last nearly [02:18] 150 years. No one's ever said that [02:19] before. What makes you so certain?" So, [02:22] she says, "If you have a city on a hill, [02:24] what part of the hill would you expect [02:26] to find the palace?" [02:28] "The top." She says, "This is the top of [02:30] the city of David. This is where you'll [02:31] find the palace." We said, "Dr. Mazar, [02:33] with all due respect, we need something [02:34] better than that." [02:36] So, she shows us something found [02:39] at the base of the hill that the palace [02:41] would have sat upon. You have here a [02:43] royal Phoenician capital. Phoenicia is [02:45] modern-day Lebanon, and a capital would [02:47] have stood atop an ancient column or [02:49] pillar. Imagine Supreme Court, White [02:51] House. [02:53] And the question we had, we said, "What [02:55] on earth does a royal Phoenician capital [02:57] have to do with David and where he built [02:59] his palace?" [03:01] So, she says to us, [03:02] "If you knew the Bible [03:05] like I know the Bible, [03:07] you would not ask questions like that." [03:10] We said, "Clearly, we don't. Help us [03:12] out." [03:13] She says, "If you look at 2 Samuel [03:15] chapter 5 verse 11, King David does the [03:17] original Mission Impossible. He conquers [03:19] the city that for nearly 400 years no [03:21] one could conquer. Now, how does David [03:23] conquer the unconquerable? Come to city [03:25] of David, I will show you myself." But, [03:28] he does conquer Jerusalem. He makes it [03:30] his capital. And the first thing he does [03:32] after making it his capital is he turns [03:34] to his neighbors in the north, the [03:35] Phoenicians. And it says, "King Hiram of [03:37] Tyre sent envoys to let David with cedar [03:40] logs, carpenters, and stone masons, and [03:42] they built a palace for David." Great. [03:45] So, now, what happens next? [03:47] Archaeologists, like Dr. Mazar, the [03:49] Israel Antiquities Authority, they begin [03:50] to dig, and they end up discovering the [03:53] foundations of what they believe were [03:55] King David's Palace. [03:58] Now, [04:00] what happens here? [04:03] Today we're excavating the site. It's [04:05] going to be one of the most flagship [04:06] important sites in all of Jerusalem to [04:08] tell the story the legacy of David of [04:11] the values that we learn from David that [04:13] impact our lives today. But when we talk [04:15] about David, most people know about two [04:18] things. Two stories. One story is he [04:21] became king. That is the story of David [04:23] and [04:24] Goliath. We're going to talk about the [04:26] other one in a moment, but first the [04:27] question is how do we even know that [04:29] there was a David? Until 1993 there was [04:31] no archaeological proof that David ever [04:33] existed until an excavation in Israel's [04:36] north in a place called Tel Dan a large [04:38] stone inscription was unearthed [04:40] dating to about a hundred years after [04:42] the time of David. And it's that [04:44] it is attributed to a man named King [04:46] Hazael of Aram. Aram is modern-day [04:48] Syria. King Hazael is himself mentioned [04:50] in the Bible in 2 Kings. [04:52] And it talks about how he [04:54] defeated the king from the house of [04:57] David. And if there's a house of David, [04:59] what does that mean? [05:00] There's a David. So today virtually [05:02] everyone knows that there was a David. [05:05] And David, the Bible tells us where did [05:06] he rule from? [05:08] Jerusalem. Good. So now we have David in [05:11] Jerusalem. The story that everyone knows [05:13] about David before he becomes king David [05:14] and Goliath. The story that everyone [05:16] knows about David after he becomes king [05:18] is David and [05:19] Bathsheba. So what happens? [05:25] The AC is not working in the palace. [05:30] He goes out onto the balcony. [05:32] And what does he see when he goes out [05:33] onto the balcony? He sees what he sees. [05:37] He does what he does. [05:41] And back then the king served [05:44] as is kind of judge. And so the prophet [05:47] Nathan [05:48] comes before David says, "David, I have [05:49] a case for you to try. [05:52] There's a rich man and a poor man. [05:54] The rich man was having a big party. [05:56] Why should you use your own sheep if you [05:58] could take someone else's? [06:00] And he takes the sheep from the poor [06:01] man, that one little sheep that he had. [06:04] And that was dinner. [06:06] David hears about this and he says, [06:08] "That man deserves to die. [06:10] And he needs to pay five times the value [06:12] of what he stole." [06:15] Nathan, the prophet, says to David [06:17] something revolutionary. [06:18] Perhaps the most powerful words in all [06:20] of the Bible. [06:22] He says to the king, [06:24] "You are [06:26] that man." [06:29] Now, think about that. [06:31] In the ancient world, a king was like a [06:33] god. [06:35] You don't get to tell a god that god is [06:37] wrong. [06:38] And maybe if you do, you get to do that [06:40] one time. You will not get a second [06:42] chance. [06:44] In fact, there are places in much of the [06:45] world today where the same holds true. [06:48] You could be critical of the government [06:49] of leadership one time. [06:51] And yet Nathan does something [06:52] revolutionary. [06:54] He holds the king [06:56] to account. [06:58] Equality [06:59] before the law. [07:01] The king is accountable [07:03] to the same law as the commoner. [07:07] That didn't come from Rome. [07:09] That didn't come from Athens. [07:12] That came from [07:14] Jerusalem. [07:16] Now, how does that principle, that [07:17] ideal, get from Jerusalem to the shores [07:20] of America? [07:22] Well, it travels through someone named [07:23] John Locke. [07:24] Perhaps one of the most well-known [07:26] enlightenment figures, the thinker that [07:29] the founders quoted more than any other. [07:32] And when he argues against the divine [07:34] right of kings, [07:35] he points to the Bible, to Jerusalem's [07:37] biblical heritage, to the source code [07:40] that America would be built upon. [07:43] So, we have equality before the law that [07:45] the founders would then turn to Thomas [07:47] Paine himself said in America [07:49] the law is king. [07:51] Not government, [07:53] not the king, [07:54] but the law that binds everyone equally. [07:58] So, now we come then to the second [07:59] principle. [08:01] We have equality before the law, but now [08:02] let's fast-forward. Dr. Mazara is still [08:04] digging and she finds something that [08:06] changes the way how people relate both [08:08] to the city of David and to the Bible. [08:11] Now, today everyone here has their cell [08:13] phones, their iPhones, [08:15] and you're going to send a message, [08:17] and with encryption and encoding, your [08:19] hope is that the only people who are [08:20] going to read these messages [08:22] are the intended recipients [08:24] and the Chinese and the Russians. [08:29] But, imagine 2,500 years ago, you need [08:31] to send a message, [08:32] and you can't deliver it yourself. [08:34] You're going to have to entrust it to a [08:35] messenger. What are you going to do? [08:37] You need to seal the letter. And so, Dr. [08:40] Mazara is digging and she finds two [08:42] small clay seals [08:44] in the city of David, in the excavation [08:46] where she believed King David's palace [08:47] stood, and she said there are names on [08:49] the seals. [08:50] And the names on the seals appear in the [08:51] Bible. [08:53] But, not only do the names on these [08:54] seals appear in the Bible, [08:56] they appear in the same book of the [08:57] Bible, the book of Jeremiah. [08:59] Not only do they appear in the same [09:00] book, they appear in the same chapter, [09:02] Jeremiah 38. Not only do the names on [09:05] the seals found in the city of David in [09:07] this excavation appear in the same [09:09] chapter, [09:11] they appear in the same [09:12] verse, Jeremiah 38:1. [09:16] And not only [09:18] do the names on the two seals that she [09:19] finds in the city of David in the same [09:21] excavation, not only do they appear in [09:23] the same verse, [09:24] they appear in that verse [09:27] back [09:28] to back. [09:31] Now, what are the names on these seals? [09:33] You have Gedaliah son of Pashhur, [09:35] Jucal son of Shelemiah, two of the four [09:38] ministers who plotted to kill the [09:40] prophet Jeremiah. [09:42] Now, why would they want to kill the [09:43] prophet Jeremiah? [09:45] Well, he was saying things that nobody [09:47] wanted to hear. [09:48] Not the leadership, not the people. [09:51] Jeremiah was the most hated man in [09:53] society because he said the things [09:55] nobody wanted to listen to. [09:59] And so, what did they do? [10:01] They decided to throw him in a pit. [10:03] We have the palace, we have the pit. [10:06] Now, [10:08] why was Jeremiah [10:11] why was Jeremiah saying things nobody [10:13] wanted to hear? [10:15] Didn't he know? Didn't he like read the [10:16] room? Right? Nobody wants to hear it. [10:19] Why is he saying it? [10:20] And that leads us to the second ideal. [10:23] Because what does Jeremiah teach us? [10:26] He teaches us that truth is answerable [10:30] to something higher than power. [10:33] Speaking truth to power, [10:35] conscience over conformity, [10:39] that comes from the prophetic tradition. [10:43] In Jerusalem, that comes from a pit [10:46] where the prophet was thrown for [10:47] speaking truth to power, but doing so [10:50] even though he knew the price of of what [10:52] that would cost him. Because there are [10:54] some things that are more important. [10:57] And so, Jeremiah finds himself sitting [11:00] in a pit. [11:01] Now, this idea of speaking truth to [11:03] power, [11:04] how does that get from a pit in [11:06] Jerusalem to the shores of America? [11:10] And you have people [11:12] like Milton, who wrote Paradise Lost. [11:14] So, he argues [11:16] that if prophets could challenge kings, [11:18] then that gives the right of every [11:20] single person here, every single person [11:23] to challenge their governments, their [11:25] rulers, their kings. The Bible is the [11:28] foundation for the principle of speaking [11:30] truth to power from a pit in Jerusalem. [11:36] >> [applause] [11:39] >> Now, Benjamin Franklin, when he wanted [11:41] to suggest what the motto for the United [11:43] States of America should be, he summed [11:45] up Jeremiah in seven words. When he said [11:47] rebellion to tyrants [11:50] is obedience to God. [11:54] That came from Jerusalem. [11:56] Not from Rome. [11:57] Not from Athens. [11:59] Which now leads us to the third ideal. [12:03] The third founding principle that [12:04] America is built upon and which and upon [12:06] it endures. [12:08] And for that, there's a curious thing [12:10] that happens. Jeremiah is thrown in the [12:11] pit to die. [12:13] But he doesn't die in that pit. [12:16] Why not? [12:17] Because there is [12:19] a no-name bureaucrat mentioned in the [12:21] Bible. [12:22] His name is Ebed-Melech, which literally [12:24] means the servant of the king. That was [12:27] his name. That was his identity. He was [12:29] the servant of the king. [12:31] And this servant of the king, he goes [12:32] before King Zedekiah, the last king of [12:34] the Davidic dynasty, and he says to the [12:35] king, [12:37] "You can't do that to Jeremiah. If you [12:39] don't like what he's saying, your issue [12:42] is not with Jeremiah, but with who? [12:45] With God. Jeremiah is speaking the words [12:47] of God. You can't do that." [12:50] Now, what should have happened to this [12:51] Ebed-Melech? [12:52] He should have ended up in the pit with [12:53] Jeremiah. [12:55] But he spoke up anyway. [12:57] A Gentile [12:59] who spoke up in defense of the man that [13:01] no one else would defend. [13:03] Why? [13:04] Because Ebed-Melech [13:06] and Jeremiah understood the same thing. [13:10] What gives [13:12] a no-name official like Ebed-Melech? [13:14] What gives a prophet like Jeremiah the [13:17] courage, the conviction [13:19] to speak before the highest levels? [13:23] And that is [13:24] very simply [13:26] that every single one of us [13:28] is created [13:30] in the image of God. [13:34] >> [applause] [13:37] >> Inherent human worth [13:40] dignity [13:41] Where did that come from? [13:43] That also came from a pit [13:46] in Jerusalem. [13:47] Ebed-Melech understood [13:49] you don't have to be Jewish. [13:51] You could be whatever race, whatever [13:53] faith [13:54] and you're also created in the image of [13:55] God. Jeremiah understood you might be [13:58] the least popular person in society [14:01] but you're also created in the image of [14:02] God and what you have to say matters the [14:04] same as any king, any ruler, anywhere in [14:08] the world. [14:10] And where do we get this from today? How [14:12] does that reach the shores of America? [14:15] We'll take a look at this. [14:16] The Declaration of Independence. All men [14:20] are created equal [14:21] endowed with inalienable rights [14:24] by their creator. [14:26] Not from the king [14:28] not from government [14:30] but from God. [14:32] All the rights that we enjoy as [14:34] Americans [14:36] is because the founding fathers [14:38] understood based on Jerusalem's biblical [14:39] heritage [14:42] that we're all created in the image of [14:43] God. That didn't come from Athens. That [14:46] didn't come from Rome. [14:48] That came from Jerusalem. [14:54] >> [applause] [14:57] >> And I want to very quickly end with two [14:58] stories. One is by a man who visited the [15:01] City of David a few months ago. [15:03] And he answered the question about why [15:04] the United States of America recognized [15:06] the City of David [15:08] as an American heritage site. [15:13] >> Our rights came from [cheering] our [15:14] creator. [15:16] That was a revolutionary idea 250 years [15:19] ago, one that I believe helped change [15:21] the world. [15:23] But that idea did not come from the [15:25] ether. It did not come from someone's [15:26] imagination. [15:28] It was deeply rooted [15:30] in the traditions [15:32] in the teachings [15:34] of ancient words [15:37] thousands and thousands of years [15:39] that find its genesis here. [15:41] Literally on the very spot on which I [15:43] stand. The Roman Empire is no more [15:46] nor any of the others that sought to [15:48] conquer and rule this land. [15:51] But one people remain. [15:53] They have returned. [15:55] For God's promise is eternal [15:57] and it is perfect and his word is always [16:00] true. [16:02] >> [applause] [16:08] [applause] [16:09] >> In closing [16:13] in 1979 [16:14] in an ancient burial cave just next to [16:16] the city of David a tiny silver scroll [16:18] about the size of a pinky finger was [16:20] discovered. [16:22] And when archaeologists [16:24] were able to unroll this tiny scroll [16:28] they found the oldest biblical text [16:31] ever discovered. [16:33] This dates back to the time of Jeremiah. [16:37] This outlasted fire, outlasted [16:39] destruction [16:41] and it brought a message to us today. [16:43] Because on this scroll [16:46] we find verses from the book of Numbers [16:49] chapter 6. [16:52] The words on this scroll [16:55] May God bless you and protect you. [16:58] May God deal kindly [17:01] and graciously with you. [17:03] May God shine his light upon you [17:06] and grant you peace. [17:08] That blessing has been echoing for the [17:10] last 2,500 years [17:13] from Jerusalem [17:14] to the shores of America. [17:17] That blessing has been upon America [17:18] these last 250 years [17:21] because America [17:22] has been a beacon of Jerusalem [17:25] in the West. [17:27] Because America runs on the source code [17:30] that came from Jerusalem. [17:32] And as long as she continues to do that, [17:35] not only will we look back and celebrate [17:37] the last 250 years that have made [17:39] America great, [17:41] but that blessing will hold true for the [17:44] next 250 and beyond. [17:46] And so may this blessing [17:49] ring true from sea to shining sea. [17:53] May God bless Israel. [17:55] May God bless the United States of [17:57] America. [17:58] And may God continue to bless [18:00] all the great millions who make up [18:03] Christians United for Israel. [18:05] >> [applause] [18:07] [cheering]
