In a sobering interchange between the Messiah and one of His closest students during a pinnacle Pesakh (Passover) celebration, Yeshua challenged Simon Peter to truly become a key shepherd, foretold by prophet Zechariah, by becoming such a friend of God that he wouldn’t fear being persecuted to death.
Leviticus 16, describing Yom haKippurim (Day of Atonement), is a beautiful picture of God’s making us clean and the multifaceted role of the Messiah in that cleansing.
What does Chanukah (Festival of Dedication) have to do with believers in Yeshua (Jesus)? It’s in the Bible, and Yeshua celebrated it. In doing so, He gave one of the most startling teachings about Himself (John 10:22-38). As well as a remembrance of the perils of giving up God’s words to fit in or save one’s neck, Chanukah is a memorial of the great miracle of the conception of the Messiah — Immanuel (God With Us) — through Miriam (Mary) (Luke 1; 1Chronicles 24; Haggai 2).
Following on the message of 2nd Kings 6, with leaders of Israel who were supposed to be able to see God’s actions actually being “blind” to them, 2nd Kings 7 through the saving actions of four lepers — the rejected of society — also points us to the actions of Messiah Yeshua, Who was rejected by the people He came to save.
We have two parallel foreshadowings — prophecies — of Messiah Yeshua in the accounts of Elisha in 2nd Kings 4 and Eliyahu (Elijah) in 1st Kings 17. In this shadow of things to come, the lesson is that people from the nations, aka “gentiles” or “goyim,” can have a lot of power of the Spirit of God but lack “understanding” about God, while people of Israel can have “understanding” about God but lack the power of the Spirit. Both can be “saved” — fully enter the Kingdom of God — if they are willing to seek what they are lacking.
Elisha is a representation of the Messiah, Who is the ultimate high priest. Both Elisha and Messiah gave a profound gift directly to the people. It’s strictly symbolic, but it’s beautiful. The story of Elisha happened about 700 years before “the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.” These accounts in 1st and 2nd Kings were recorded so Israel could recognize the Messiah when He came about seven centuries later.
There are those who teach that God is not “picky,” that we can “come as we are” to Him, anytime we want, any way we want. But is that the lesson of all Scripture? The further you read into Exodus, the more you see how “picky” God really is.
From this point on, the point of the book of Exodus is about the Tabernacle. It was revealed to Moses over the course of the 40 days on the mountain, yet God also inspired craftsmen and craftswomen who were not on the mountain with knowledge of God’s design as well.
God is “picky” — about anyone coming into His presence via any other means than by the High Priest. That one, Who is over all, is Yeshua (Jesus).
It used to be common to ask, “What would Jesus do?” Well, why did Yeshua visit God’s House on an extrabiblical Jewish festival — Chanukah — to make one of the most startling statements about God’s love for humanity? Why did the “disciple whom Iesous loved” record it? Rather than focus on layers upon layers of manmade tradition about a winter celebration of the birth of Yeshua, let’s dig through a number of layered messages that actually are in the Bible about God’s dedicating of a Living Temple — the Messiah — among humanity that could never again by left desolate or destroyed.