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The Covenant · The Chosen People

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Previously on The Chosen People.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Tell me more about this visitor at the perimeter. Did
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: you learn his name? He calls himself Melchizedek, King of Salem.
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  Speaker 1: King Melchizedek, you honor us with your visit. Tell us,
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  Speaker 1: what have you come to say?
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  Speaker 3: I am a king, yes, but I am also a
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  Speaker 3: high priest.
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  Speaker 4: A priest of what god?
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  Speaker 2: El Elyon.
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  Speaker 3: The one and only true god there is. The one
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  Speaker 3: who created both the heavens and the earth. He has
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  Speaker 3: many names, but he is one god. The god most
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  Speaker 3: high is what I call him before you now. This
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  Speaker 3: is the god of Abraham. The god who has given
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  Speaker 3: him favor in his land. He is the god who
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  Speaker 3: blesses his friends... and curses his enemies. This is the
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  Speaker 3: God who has granted you your victories and destroyed your
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  Speaker 3: enemies before you.
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  Speaker 2: Melchizedek then stood, gently placing his hands on Abram's shoulders,
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  Speaker 2: closed his eyes, and began his blessing.
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  Speaker 3: Blessed be Abram by God Most High, creator of heaven
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  Speaker 3: and earth. In him, you and your great nation will
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  Speaker 3: have a protector and provider.
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  Speaker 2: The king of Sodom wore a dark robe with crimson
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  Speaker 2: threads woven into an image of a three-headed serpent.
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  Speaker 4: Do not fear, Abram. Call off your Amorite guard dogs.
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  Speaker 4: I told you I had come to make a generous offer.
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  Speaker 4: I see you have all our possessions and people, but
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  Speaker 4: I would allow you to keep all the possessions. Call
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  Speaker 4: it an act of gratitude, goodwill even.
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  Speaker 5: For destroying our enemies and avenging our sins.
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  Speaker 2: Abram smiled.
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  Speaker 5: There it was.
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  Speaker 2: This was what the king wanted, giving up the possessions
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  Speaker 2: he lost in a raid to gain a friend, to
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  Speaker 2: curry favor with Abram and the Amorites. King Bera was
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  Speaker 2: looking to own Abram through this gift.
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  Speaker 1: As my friends know, I have devoted my life to
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  Speaker 1: the God Most High. All I have is his, and
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  Speaker 1: all I do is in his name. My victories are
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  Speaker 1: his and not my own. So it is to him
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  Speaker 1: that you should be grateful and not me. My possessions
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  Speaker 1: are the same. Everything I own is his. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: a self-made man. Therefore, I have little taste for ambitious friendships.
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  Speaker 1: And I would not take even a thread or sandal
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  Speaker 1: strap or anything that belongs to you. I see the
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  Speaker 1: invisible strings attached to I will sever them now and
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  Speaker 1: give you what is yours. I will not allow you
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  Speaker 1: or anyone to say I made Abram rich. I cannot
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  Speaker 1: be owned because I am already under the lordship of another.
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  Speaker 4: Then you told Bera that you would never be owned
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  Speaker 4: by him?
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  Speaker 1: That's a sight I hope never to forget.
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  Speaker 4: I will not allow you or anyone to say I
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  Speaker 4: made Abram rich.
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  Speaker 5: Oh, Abram, that was masterful. I should say that King
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  Speaker 5: Bera would not soon forget it either.
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  Speaker 2: Abram and his three Amorite companions had finally returned home
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  Speaker 2: to Hebron. They dined together and toasted their recent adventures.
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  Speaker 2: Everyone had heard of their exploits and learned of their victories,
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  Speaker 2: hailing them as mighty warriors. They soon found themselves something
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  Speaker 2: akin to celebrities. The Amorites returned wealthier than ever, while
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  Speaker 2: Abram declined his share of the rescued plunder from Sodom.
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  Speaker 4: I may not understand this god you follow, Abram. I
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  Speaker 4: certainly don't understand your strange devotion to him. But I
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  Speaker 4: appreciate how rich he's made me. Here, here.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps I too shall worship this god of money. If
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  Speaker 1: he makes us any richer, one of our sons will
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  Speaker 1: be plotting our demise to take control of our fortunes faster.
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  Speaker 3: If I had known how rich I would become, I
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  Speaker 3: never would have had any.
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  Speaker 1: I do not expect you to understand. But be careful
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  Speaker 1: how you speak of such things. I have seen the
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  Speaker 1: power of God Most High firsthand. And in direct ways,
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  Speaker 1: you have as well.
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  Speaker 5: Oh, I'm sorry. We mean no disrespect.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, but... But what of the wealth and influence you
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  Speaker 4: have amassed? You may have turned down your share of
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  Speaker 4: King Bera's possessions, but you are still a very wealthy man.
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  Speaker 4: And you speak often about your legacy and the nation
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  Speaker 4: you are building. I do not... overreach, but how do
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  Speaker 4: you plan to secure your line of inheritance without a
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  Speaker 4: son or any children for that matter? Have you named
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  Speaker 4: an heir?
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  Speaker 5: Or is it to be our man Eliezer?
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  Speaker 1: Isn't it a custom among you Hebrews that the most
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  Speaker 1: senior servant in your household stands to inherit if there
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  Speaker 1: is no heir of your own flesh and blood? Yes,
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  Speaker 1: that is a tradition among my people. We call them
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  Speaker 1: the possessor heir or son of possession. But no, I
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  Speaker 1: will not pass on what has been given to me
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  Speaker 1: to Eleazar. My God has promised me that Sarai and
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  Speaker 1: I will have a son.
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  Speaker 5: Poor Eleazar.
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  Speaker 1: I imagine he's become quite accustomed to the idea at
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  Speaker 1: this point.
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  Speaker 5: But how, Abram?
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  Speaker 2: Forgive me, but you are over 80 years old.
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  Speaker 3: And Sarai is only 10 years younger.
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  Speaker 5: She is certainly fair, but... I don't think.
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  Speaker 1: Even an Egyptian fertility ritual could summon an heir from her.
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  Speaker 5: Womb at this late stage in her life.
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  Speaker 1: I hear your concern, Einar Eskol.
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  Speaker 5: I really do.
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  Speaker 1: I do not know how it will come to pass,
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  Speaker 1: but my God has promised it. And I have yet
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  Speaker 1: to see anything he tells me not come to pass.
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  Speaker 4: Brothers, let's not push Abram on this matter. Let us
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  Speaker 4: talk of other things. Here, here.
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  Speaker 2: The hour was late when Abram at last departed from
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  Speaker 2: Mamre's household, and despite the lateness of the hour, he
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  Speaker 2: decided to walk around the long way home through the
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  Speaker 2: now deserted streets of the city. He did not want
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  Speaker 2: to admit it, but the conversation with his friends had
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  Speaker 2: shaken him. He knew his friends meant well, and they
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  Speaker 2: did not mean to offend him, but it had been
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  Speaker 2: almost ten years since his God had promised him a son.
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  Speaker 2: And though the God Most High had not specified a
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  Speaker 2: time in which this was to happen, and though he
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  Speaker 2: did not doubt the words, he still wondered at the
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  Speaker 2: mechanics of how. Abram had never expected others to have
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  Speaker 2: the same faith as him, but he was surprised to
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  Speaker 2: find how alienating it was for his friends to vocalize
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  Speaker 2: their doubts. Would he spend the rest of his life
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  Speaker 2: defending this promise? His friends had been gentle. He could
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  Speaker 2: only imagine what his enemies said of him behind his back,
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  Speaker 2: but he could not deny that their lack of belief
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  Speaker 2: was a blow. Was he to carry this legacy alone?
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  Speaker 2: Just then, as had happened all those other times before,
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  Speaker 2: the quiet city went utterly still and silent, and Abram
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  Speaker 2: knew that his God was about.
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  Speaker 5: To speak to him.
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  Speaker 2: Abram steadied his breath and heartbeat. He turned his face
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  Speaker 2: toward the hills. The breeze blew from behind him as
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  Speaker 2: if to nudge him forward.
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  Speaker 5: Abram, do not be anxious and do not worry about
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  Speaker 5: the opinions of others, for you are not alone. I
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  Speaker 5: am your shield. Your friends seek only temporal rewards, riches
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  Speaker 5: of this world. But your reward will be far greater.
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  Speaker 5: I have not forgotten about the promise I have made you.
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  Speaker 1: God Most High, I know what you have promised me,
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  Speaker 1: but how? Can you blame my friends for questioning? I
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  Speaker 1: have no children. Will I truly need to settle with Eliezer,
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  Speaker 1: a mere servant becoming my heir? Is that how what
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  Speaker 1: you have said will come to pass?
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  Speaker 5: No, this man will not be your heir. You will
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  Speaker 5: have a son who is your own flesh and blood,
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  Speaker 5: and he will be your heir. I want you to
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  Speaker 5: listen to me. Go outside the city walls. Meet me
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  Speaker 5: in the quiet, under the canopy of stars. There I
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  Speaker 5: shall speak to you.
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  Speaker 2: Abram obeyed, hurrying beyond the city's boundaries. The verdant valleys
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  Speaker 2: darkened under the velvet skies. Abram knelt down, bawling the
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  Speaker 2: grass in his fists. He was anxious to hear more
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  Speaker 2: from his God. He strained to listen. thirsty for an
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  Speaker 2: ounce of clarity. He gazed up at the heavens, the
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  Speaker 2: stars shining with a cold, distant light.
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  Speaker 1: What is my destiny?
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  Speaker 5: What will be my legacy? Do you see the stars
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  Speaker 5: spread across the heavens far above your head? Abram nodded.
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  Speaker 2: His brows creased upward, desperation painted on his starlit face.
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  Speaker 5: Can you count the stars, Abram?
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  Speaker 2: Abram shook his head, uncertain.
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  Speaker 5: You cannot, for there are too many. It is impossible.
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  Speaker 5: It is to be the same with your offspring. The
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  Speaker 5: great nation I shall make through your heir. would be
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  Speaker 5: as innumerable as the stars in the night sky.
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  Speaker 2: Abram could again sense the certainty, the absolute and unexplainable
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  Speaker 2: peace that accompanied his God's words. Abram believed, although he
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  Speaker 2: was still uncertain about how these things would come to pass.
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  Speaker 5: I am the God Most High, the God who brought
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  Speaker 5: you out from earth I have laid out my plans
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  Speaker 5: for you and have been your advocate since before you
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  Speaker 5: even heard my voice. I called you and was with
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  Speaker 5: you in Haran, Egypt, and Canaan, everywhere you have ever
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  Speaker 5: set foot. And I say I will give you this
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  Speaker 5: land to possess.
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  Speaker 1: El Elyon, God Most High, I believe the words you
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  Speaker 1: have said to me. But how am I to know
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  Speaker 1: that I will possess it?
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  Speaker 5: But you also believe I will do as I say.
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  Speaker 5: Your faith will be credited to you as righteousness. You
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  Speaker 5: ask for more than a contract. You ask for a covenant.
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  Speaker 5: In your common tongue, a covenant is between us that
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  Speaker 5: would signify a permanent, everlasting agreement between us. This I
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  Speaker 5: will gladly do. Come to me here in this place tomorrow,
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  Speaker 5: before sunset, and bring the following with you, so we
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  Speaker 5: may make our covenant. A three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat,
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  Speaker 5: a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon
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  Speaker 5: Our covenant will be between the God of all creation
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  Speaker 5: and you, my creation. I will come down to cut
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  Speaker 5: a covenant in the ways of your people, but this
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  Speaker 5: will be something else entirely. This covenant between us will
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  Speaker 5: be something new, the likes of which humankind has never
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  Speaker 5: seen before.
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  Speaker 2: Abram did exactly as his God said. He acquired the
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  Speaker 2: sacrificial animals required to cut the covenant between them and
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  Speaker 2: brought them back to the place and time the God
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  Speaker 2: Most High had specified. Abram had seen his God do
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  Speaker 2: incredible things, but that he would enter into this agreement
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  Speaker 2: with him was truly remarkable. As the agreement required, Abram
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  Speaker 2: sacrificed the animals and cut them in half from head
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  Speaker 2: to tail. The blood dripped down the blade and down
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  Speaker 2: his forearm. The blood was warm and unsettling on his skin.
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  Speaker 2: The gore was significant. The lives of innocents were given
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  Speaker 2: as a symbol of the purity of their covenant. The
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  Speaker 2: only animals he did not cut in half were the birds.
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  Speaker 2: He then laid the pieces, the bloody side facing upwards,
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  Speaker 2: on either side. Abram knew this ritual. Shadows of it
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  Speaker 2: were passed down since the ancient days. The crimson stained
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  Speaker 2: space between animals was the symbolic walkway for their covenant.
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  Speaker 2: The walk unto death. Once the ritual began, the representatives
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  Speaker 2: would circle the halved pieces and go through the walkway
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  Speaker 2: to signify that if either representative were to break the covenant,
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  Speaker 2: something similar would be done to them. Abram had not
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  Speaker 2: seen his god take a fall, so he wondered how
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  Speaker 2: this portion of the ritual would be achieved as he
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  Speaker 2: dragged the animals into place. Would Melchizedek return? Would an
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  Speaker 2: angel descend from above? Abram stood back from his work
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  Speaker 2: and watched the blood from the carcasses seep into the earth,
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  Speaker 2: some of it flowing into the middle of the walkway.
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  Speaker 2: As he waited for his God, birds of prey began
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  Speaker 2: to circle above. They grew bold in hunger and dove
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  Speaker 2: before Abram for the sacrificed animals. Their talons and beaks
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  Speaker 2: hungrily picked at the carcasses.
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  Speaker 1: Away with you!
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  Speaker 2: Get!
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  Speaker 1: Get!
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  Speaker 2: Abram ran at the birds like a fool, flapping his
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  Speaker 2: arms and screaming. The birds, relatively unperturbed, retreated to a
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  Speaker 2: nearby tree and waited. Abram laughed and shook his head.
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  Speaker 2: He stretched and yawned, wondering if God would show himself.
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  Speaker 2: He laid back and waited, his eyes sinking with each blink.
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  Speaker 2: As the sun slipped beyond the horizon, A terrible and
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  Speaker 2: unnatural darkness swirled around him, far darker than it should
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  Speaker 2: be at dusk. Abram was then pulled into a deep
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  Speaker 2: sleep and fell to the ground. Abram saw nothing but
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  Speaker 2: heard the voice of his God from the depths of
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  Speaker 2: his dream.
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  Speaker 5: I will give you a new vision of what is
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  Speaker 5: to come. For four hundred years, not unlike you, Your
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  Speaker 5: descendants will be strangers in a country that is not
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  Speaker 5: their own. But unlike you, they will be slaves, backs
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  Speaker 5: bruised by their oppressors. Do not fear, for I am
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  Speaker 5: a just God, and I will wield my judgment and
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  Speaker 5: punish the nation they served as slaves. After this trial,
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  Speaker 5: They will come out with many possessions and be restored.
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  Speaker 5: Just as you feared that the birds would alter the
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  Speaker 5: workings of our covenant, I tell you, nothing can alter
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  Speaker 5: my judgment and restoration. And so, despite oppression and mistreatment,
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  Speaker 5: the covenant will be fulfilled. All that I have said
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  Speaker 5: will come to pass Do not fear what is to come. You, Abram,
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  Speaker 5: will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried
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  Speaker 5: at a good old age. Do not fret over the
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  Speaker 5: sins and wickedness of the people in Canaan. I see
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  Speaker 5: it and will judge. In the fourth generation, your descendants
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  Speaker 5: will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites
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  Speaker 5: and the Canaanites alike has not yet reached its full measure.
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  Speaker 5: I will wait until the proper time, but rest assured,
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  Speaker 5: my judgment will come.
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  Speaker 2: The God Most High's voice dissolved into nothing. Out of
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  Speaker 2: the darkness, a smoking fire pot, an oven, and a
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  Speaker 2: flaming torch appeared. The light emitting from the pair of
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  Speaker 2: objects cast a warm glow. Abram watched the shadowy outlines
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  Speaker 2: of the halved animal carcasses in the walkway between them.
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  Speaker 2: The oven and the torch, together as one, passed through
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  Speaker 2: the pieces, completing the walk unto death. As they drew
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  Speaker 2: near to Abram where he lay, he could feel the
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  Speaker 2: heat of their cleansing, purifying flames from within his dream.
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  Speaker 5: Again I say to you, You are to take this
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  Speaker 5: as a blessing to signify the beginning of our formal covenant.
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  Speaker 5: To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi
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  Speaker 5: of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, the land
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  Speaker 5: of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadamanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Raphonites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites,
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  Speaker 5: and Jebusites.
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  Speaker 2: Despite witnessing all of this in a dream, he knew
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: that the items were meant to represent his God to
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  Speaker 2: his human mind. His God had completed the ritual alone,
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  Speaker 2: releasing Abram from any responsibility beyond his faith. He wondered
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  Speaker 2: at a God who would go to such lengths to
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  Speaker 2: fulfill the most profound gesture to his Hebrew culture just
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  Speaker 2: so that he would feel reassured of the promises made.
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  Speaker 2: Abram marveled at what this meant for himself and the
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: generations that would come after him. This Pray.com production is
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: only made possible by our dedicated team of creative talents.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: Steve Katina, Max Bard, Zach Schellewager and Ben Gammon are
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: the executive producers of The Chosen People, narrated by Paul Coltofianu.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Characters are voiced by Jonathan Cotton, Aaron Salvato, Sarah Seltz,
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: Mike Reagan, Stephen Ringwald, Sylvia Zaradok, Thomas Copeland Jr., Rosanna Pilcher,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: and Mitch Lashinsky. Music by Andrew Morgan Smith. Written by
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: Aaron Salvato, Brie Rosely, and Chris Baig. You can hear
• 20:22
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• 20:29
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• 20:32
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