The only winter celebration mentioned in the Gospels is the festival of Dedication, or Chanukah. Yeshua was at the Temple during that eight-day celebration and stated boldly, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). This caps a string of clashes between Yeshua and certain religious leaders — recorded in John 7-10 and covering a two-month period from Sukkot, or the festival of Tabernacles, to Chanukah — over whether Yeshua was the Messiah.
Many ask something like, “Why do the good die young and the evil seem to live forever?” Yeshua answered two questions about whether sin brought on two tragedies at that time by saying those weren’t punishment for sin, but all need to take notice that a big disaster for Israel — Rome’s destruction of Yerushalayim — was coming and need turn back to God.
Yeshua (Jesus) sent the 12 and 70 other close followers to various cities as witnesses of His message about the coming of the Kingdom of God. Key to this commission was a quotation from the prophet Micah at a time when Israel was about to be taken apart because of rebellion against God. The same was about to happen to Israel in the first century.
In preparation for Passover, we consider the theme of Psalms 22, 23, 40 and 88 is not death but the willingness to die despite one’s fear of death. Yeshua (Jesus) had fear God because He knew God’s awesome power first-hand. He feared death, not the Devil.
The Festival of Dedication, or Chanukah, does not just commemorate a battle of Greeks vs. Jews, but it was a civil war as well. Hellenized people of Israel fought against Israelites loyal to God and His instructions for life, the Torah. Antiochus IV (Epiphanies) only got involved when the Hellenized asked him to intervene to avoid losing to the “rebellious” faithful.
When asked if He were the Messiah on one Chanukah, Yeshua told the leaders of Israel, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me” (John 10:25). His faithfulness to the original and true intent of the words of God testified to His messiahship.
“You have heard it said, but I say…” was a common rabbinic phrase used when a rabbi wanted to encourage yeshiva students to dissect and discuss a particular Torah principle. A “problematic” Torah edicts is “eye for eye, tooth for tooth,” etc. Many Christians and Jews are very uncomfortable with this “barbaric” “tit-for-tat” law.
This chapter gives us a new spin on the meaning of the term “good news.” The major people in 2nd Samuel 19 — Shemai, Mephiboshet and Barzillai — were involved in key events and had important traits later expressed in the life of Peter, particularly in how he responded to the death of Yeshua the Messiah.