Jews

     What does Hanukkah have to do with Yeshua (Jesus)?  Perhaps nothing, but Yeshua did have something to do with Hanukkah.  He used the opportunity of Hanukkah to remind his Jewish people of the importance of dedication.  After all, the name Hanukkah comes from the Hebrew root word meaning ‘to dedicate.’

     In Chapter 10 of the Gospel of John (vs. 22-39) we see Jesus visiting the temple during the Feast of Dedication (v.22).  Some people claim this to be during Sukkoth (the Feast of Tabernacles) because Solomon dedicated the temple to God during that feast, but this does not seem likely for the following reasons.

1.      As stated before, Hanukkah’s name means ‘dedication.’

2.      Verse 22 points out that the season is winter.  While Hanukkah occurs during winter, Sukkoth is an autumn festival.

3.      The message that Yeshua offers is more in keeping with Hanukkah than with Sukkoth.

     At that time, Yeshua was asked to say whether he was the Messiah.  He responded in this way:

“I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. 

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

I and the Father are one.”

            (John 10:25-30)

     The sheep that are his flock, are those who hear his voice – who believe in him.  In the same way that Judah Maccabee and his followers were dedicated to their God, those who recognize Messiah Yeshua are likewise dedicated to God the Father.

     Moreover, as God was dedicated to the Israelites and delivered them from the hands of Antiochus IV, so is He dedicated to those who have dedicated themselves to Messiah Yeshua – no body can snatch them out of the Messiah’s hands or the Father’s hands.

     Then he makes the remarkable statement, “I and the Father are one.”  Those who say that Yeshua never claimed to be God need to come to grips with this statement.  In these verses he equates himself with God unequivocally.

     If his statement here is not enough to convince us of that affirmation, the reaction of the crowd certainly should be:

“The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.

Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?”

The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

     The Israelites in Yeshua’s day, certainly knew what he was saying.  And they reacted strongly because they didn’t believe him, despite all the evidence that pointed to Yeshua as the Messiah.  But there were still many Jews in his day who did believe.  Among them were scholars and shepherds, rich and poor, leaders and followers - just as their are today (well, maybe not so many shepherds).

     Hanukkah is a Festival of Dedication.  We Jews who are believers in Yeshua (Jesus) celebrate this festival as a reminder of God’s dedication in the time of Judah Maccabee, and as a time to remember the dedication of God to all those who will dedicate themselves to him and follow him according to his standards.

     Messiah Yeshua is the standard by which we are called to dedicate our life to God.  When we put our faith in him as our Saviour and as our Lord we enter into a perfect life of dedication: us to Him, and Him to us.

     Hanukkah is also a Festival of Lights, and when we light the Menorah we remember what Yeshua said to his Jewish people: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8:12)” 

     Why don’t you check out Yeshua’s claims for yourself.  Read the Tanakh - the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament).  Read the Brit Hadashah (the New Testament) as well.  Then ask God to show you his truth.  If you don’t have a bible, contact us.  We’d be happy to send you one.

     If you want, give us a call and we’ll talk!  Call 647-439-2936 and ask for Daniel.  Or email us at info@newcovenantforum.org.  Or check out our website at www.newcovenantforum.org.

     You don’t have to agree with us.  But, at least, make your decision from an informed perspective.

The most common objection I get, when sharing Messiah Yeshua (Jesus Christ) with my Jewish people, is this very simple one: you can’t be Jewish and believe in Jesus.  I have received this response from the religious and the unreligious; by the old and by the young.  And to each one I have a very simple question:  Why not?

The most typical answer I receive is that Jews don’t believe in Jesus, but that is clearly a faulty argument.   I grew up Jewish and I became a believer in Him.  Not only that, but I know of many Jews who have come to believe in Yeshua, and there are many, many more that I don’t know.  Some of them were very religious Orthodox Jews, some of them were observant Jews in the Conservative or Reform movements and some were completely secular: die-hard atheists or not so die-hard agnostics.  The one thing they have in common is that they are Jewish.

I use the present tense when I say we are Jewish because, as far as we are concerned, believing in Jesus is a very Jewish thing to do.  You see, I believe that this statement – you can’t be Jewish and believe in Jesus – really means – Jesus is not the Jewish Messiah, he is not Saviour and he is not Lord.

The problem is that the response is almost always based, not on what the objectors know, but only on what they’ve been told.  When I challenge Jewish people to tell me how they know Jesus is not the Messiah, they don’t really have a response.  Most Jewish people have not investigated the claims of Jesus as found both in the Tanakh (the Hebrew Scriptures) or the B’rit Hadashah (the New Testament).  Many have made half-hearted attempts to read some of the B’rit Hadashah (or, for that matter, the Tanakh), but not really done a critical and honest investigation.

Recently I spoke with a Haredi rabbi, and in the midst of our discussions I challenged him to do just that.  To look at the New Testament text, not in a cynical way, but in a critical way, honestly seeking to understand what it says.  He said he would, but a month or so later he had barely done any reading.  He said he was happy with the Judaism he had – but again, he has not honestly looked at the text that tells us about the Messianic claims of Yeshua. 

I came to believe in Yeshua because I recognized that the promise of Yeshua is in the Tanakh.  I have come to understand that there is a picture of a lowly Messiah in the Hebrew Scriptures (Psalm 22; Isaiah 53; Zechariah 12:10),  that this picture was recognized by the rabbis in his day (though they did not recognize him when he came), and is even recorded in the Talmud (b. Sanhedrin 98a; b. Sukkah 52a).  Over the years I am more and more amazed at the Jewish sensibilities in the B’rit Hadashah, and how consistent it is with the Tanakh.

And I know that everything that is written in the Tanakh is a preparation for the time of Yeshua’s coming – the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the covenant at Sinai with its sacrificial system and its laws of sanctification; the promises to David and through the Prophets.  Ultimately the Hebrew Scriptures are about Messiah Yeshua.

But if you won’t read the book, you can’t know the truth.  The truth that I have found, that many Jewish people have found, is that the most Jewish thing you can do is to believe in the Messiah promised by Moses and the Prophets – and that Messiah is Yeshua.  For if he is not the Messiah to the Jews then he can be nobody’s Messiah.

Why not check out the truth for yourself.  Read the Hebrew Scriptures.  Read the New Testament as well.  If you need a copy we would be happy to provide you with one – just email us.  Then ask the Lord of all Creation to show you His truth.  Not my truth – and not the rabbis’ truth – but His truth.

“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. (Jeremiah 33:3)”

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8)”

If you want, give us a call and we’ll talk!  Call 647-439-2936 and ask for Daniel.  Or email us at info@newcovenantforum.org. 

Or check out our website at www.newcovenantforum.org.

You don’t have to agree with us.  But, at least, make your decision from an informed perspective.

I would love to receive your instructive and constructive response.

Purim is one of the happiest holidays in the Jewish calendar for it commemorates a mighty deliverance for the ancient Jewish people. The biblical book of Esther recounts the story and the origins of the celebration.

The historical setting is 473 B.C.E., near the end of the 70 years of Babylonian exile, when many Jews were living in exile in Persia. Powerful King Ahasuerus had a right hand man named Haman who hated Jews and longed to see them exterminated. His implacable hatred of all Jews was conceived in his utter disregard for one Jewish man - Mordecai. Determined to rid himself of Mordecai, and every other Jew in the empire, Haman devised a scheme to enlist the support of the King himself. In chilling words, all too familiar to the Jewish community, Haman prevailed upon the King with these words:

“There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your realm. Their laws are different from every other people’s and they do not observe the king’s laws; therefore it is not befitting the king to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let it be recorded that they be destroyed…” (Esther 3:8-9 - The Stone Edition Tanach, Artscroll Series).

King Ahasuerus gave Haman permission to carry out his evil plot, even providing his signet ring to Haman, ensuring that the Persian people understood the King was in full agreement with Haman’s plan. The biblical text identifies Haman as the “son of Hammedatha the Agagite” (Esther 3:1 The Stone Edition Tanach, Artscroll Series). Students of the Bible will recognize “Agagite” as hearkening back to the days of King Saul.

During Saul’s reign in Israel, God had commanded him to utterly destroy King Agag and the Amalekite people. Saul failed in that responsibility, a failure that cost him and his descendents the throne of Israel. We should not miss the fact that Haman’s presence is a direct consequence of Saul’s failure to carry out God’s directive concerning the Amalekites. Haman was a descendant of Agag. Had Saul been obedient, there would have been no descendants of Agag to pose this threat to the Jews.

The biblical book of Esther tells the story of God’s (though he is never mentioned once in the text) sovereign control of history. By providentially bringing Esther, a beautiful Jewish woman, into the Persian King’s household as his queen, God ensured that Haman’s plot would fail. I encourage you to get a Bible and read the story for yourself.

Haman’s evil plot failed, God preserved his covenant people, and Mordecai proclaimed an annual celebration whereby Jewish people would remember their mighty deliverance from annihilation.

“…these days are recalled and observed in every generaton: by every family, every province, and every city. And these days of Purim shall never cease among the Jews, and the memory of them shall never perish among their descendants” (Esther 9:28 - Tanach, Jewish Publication Society).

As history readily shows, the dramatic deliverance in ancient Persia, was just one of many divine interventions, ensuring the survival of the Jewish people. The survival of the Jewish people, along with the presence of the modern state of Israel, is a testimony to God’s faithfulness. Millennia ago, he declared through the prophet Jeremiah:

“Thus said the LORD, Who established the sun for light by day, The laws of moon and stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea into roaring waves, Whose name is LORD of Hosts: If these laws should ever be annulled by Me - declares the LORD - Only then would the offspring of Israel cease to be a nation before Me for all time. Thus said the LORD: If the heavens above could be measured, and the foundations of the earth below could be fathomed, only then would I reject all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done - declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 31:35-37 - Tanach, Jewish Publication Society).

As long as creation stands, the King of the Universe will ensure the survival of the Israelite people. Jewish people have faced many enemies throughout their long history, and from them all God has given faithful deliverance.

I believe God’s promise to preserve the Jewish people is a promise for this life. However, there is an afterlife, an eternity where every man, woman, boy and girl will dwell - either in the presence of God or in a place called Hell, forever separated from Almighty God.

Yeshua (Jesus), God’s anointed Messiah, came to earth nearly 2000 years ago. Isaiah prophecied that Messiah would come to bear the sins of his people (Isaiah 53), and this is exactly what we see in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. He was the one that John the Baptizer said was “the Lamb of God”  (John 1:36). As the Lamb of God, Jesus came to bear the sins of all who would believe in him. He is the perfect sacrifice - he is the only one who could identify with us and bear our sins before a just and holy God. Of him, the writer of Hebrews said:

“…we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16 - Holy Bible: New International Version.

 How tragic then, if at the end of this life, the greatest deliverance God will ever provide should be missed. It is right and proper to celebrate Purim - it was a divine intervention of miraculous dimensions. It was the faithful arm of a promise-keeping God.

But this same God has declared that salvation - deliverance from an eternal death - can only be found through faith in his Messiah - Yeshua. We read of Jesus in the New Covenant book of Galatians:

“[Jesus] gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (Galatians 1:4-5 - Holy Bible: New International Version).