Passages discussed.: 1st Corinthians 11; Exodus 13; 1st Corinthians 5; Matt. 16:1-12; 2nd Tim. 2:18-21.
Today is the 15th day of the first month, also called Aviv in the Bible. We are continuing our “Journey To the 10” which is the retelling of the journey from Egypt to Sinai.
Hindsight can be a beautiful thing but sometimes hindsight blinds us rather than illuminates us. As the people of Israel are ready to leave Egypt for good, they have little idea of the epic journey has in store for them. As we read the story of Yeshua’s life in the New Testament, we have the same benefit and “curse” of hindsight as we read about the last few weeks of his life. We tend to be a little judgmental towards His favorite disciples because of they lacked a true understanding of Yeshua’s mission until after His death and resurrection. Today, ignore hindsight and discover some truths in these stories that hindsight otherwise obscures.
The exile of the Israelites in the land of Egypt comes to a climatic end with the 10th plague — the death of the firstborn — and the first Passover, or Pesakh in Hebrew.
One common smear against God in recent times is that He is “an absentee landlord” or “a blind watchmaker” Who may have set everything in motion but now doesn’t care or doesn’t get involved. Many then blame Him for the evil and suffering that goes on in the world, particularly to those who it appears to us don’t deserve it, such as a dying family member or a starving child. A common slight against the book of Esther is that it doesn’t directly mention the name of the LORD, as the other books of the Bible do. However, the clear totality of the account is that He is very much at work in making evil plans turn back upon themselves to bring the promise of a blessing for the whole world — Messiah — through Abraham’s descendants. This would happen, even when the promise seemed to have been abandoned along with the people of Israel in Persia.
Hallel Fellowship celebrated Purim with a fun take on the deadly serious account of the thwarted genocide of the Yehudim (Jews) living in exile in Persia in the fifth century B.C.E.
Reading John 1:1-14 and chapters 9-10 shows a connection in Messiah Yeshua between the imagery of light and God dwelling among mankind and the festivals of Tabernacles (Sukkot) and Dedication (Chanukah, a.k.a. Lights).
The story of Chanukah or Hannukah began before Judas Maccabee killed his first Greek, and the culmination didn’t end with him. The events were no surprise to God either. He told the prophet Haggai something spectacular would happen in His temple during the time we now call Chanukah. Today’s talk starts all the way to the days of Darius the Mede and touches us in the 21st century.