What Then Say You
Welcome to the show! In this podcast my wife and I have candid conversations about various topics that will encourage and at times challenge you! The greatest conversations ever had are typically amongst friends in an intimate setting. This is the venue in which the Holy Spirit often works to separate the chaff from the wheat in our lives if we are being honest with ourselves. We hope as you peer behind the veil and join us that you take what you hear and consider it with Gods word in your own life.
What Then Say You
From Hanukkah Flames To Christian Faith: Learning To Burn Bright- Day 2
What if the energy we spend chasing headlines and hot takes was redirected into knowing God? That question sits at the heart of a timely conversation that bridges Hanukkah’s miracle of light, the detailed offerings in Numbers 7, and the Christian confession that Jesus is the light of the world. Let's slow down to read the text, name the cost of worship in Israel’s life, and then trace how one offering for all offerings reframes our habits, our holidays, and our witness.
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Hey, good morning, good evening, good afternoon, whatever time it is that you are tuning in, we are on day two of you know something that God just kind of put heavy on my spirit, um, referencing Hanukkah and the reality that, you know, as believers in Christ, doing some of the things that Jesus did, um, you know, and and truth be told, he did um celebrate Hanukkah. Um, and am I saying that if you are a Christian and you don't that something's wrong with you or that you're going to hell, absolutely not. But what I am saying is that, you know, especially in America, we spend so much time researching facts. We will research things that uh have no consequence to anything, right? But we'll put time and energy and effort into learning about something just so we can have a conversation about it and be informed. Um, and we pick and choose what we want to be informed about, right? Like so, whether it's Charlie Kirk or some celebrity gossip or what's the latest and greatest thing going on with Patrick Mahomes and Kelsey and Taylor Swift, we'll we'll spend a lot of effort and energy to learn and have an informed opinion about whatever those subjects are. Um, and we rarely do that with the Word of God. We rarely do that with anything concerning our faith. You know, it's it's typically whatever information is presented to us on a Sunday. Um, it might even be some catchy, you know, sermon series or some YouTube short that you know we we come across, you know, we hear that phrase, that a preach, right? Like, oh man, that was a word right there, that a preach, and it'll stay on our minds for a moment in time, um, but we don't really delve in and dive in and research and learn um truly, you know, uh anything outside of that. Outside of it being a good word or that a preach, that's about it. And um in this in this time for the next, you know, what six more days, um, I'm just gonna be diving in and again locking in with our extended family, you know, the Jew, our extended family on the father's side, and I and I say that I don't know if you caught it yesterday, but you know, the one one thing that uh many messianic Jews out there and even Orthodox Jews they say they have an understanding of who Elohim is, who God is. Um, and and we on this side, uh in our Christian faith, we'll say, Well, we know Christ, we know the Messiah, and that's what separates us. And because we know the Messiah and his blood has been poured out on us, now we can uh come into communion with God, right? And so we'll stop there and and not really explore the character of God. We don't spend a lot of time in the Old Testament, we have the gospel, etc., etc. Right, and so today, in today's reading is in Numbers chapter 7. It's Numbers chapter 7, verse 18 through 29. And this is what every Jew out there, messianic and alike, everybody who's celebrating Hanukkah, reflecting on the fact that that oil, um, that was only enough oil to survive one day, ended up lasting and lighting that flame in the in the temple for eight days straight. Um, and and Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, he comes as the light of the world, right? And as that same Holy Spirit was poured out amongst all flesh, now as believers, we are to be that light of the world. We should be burning bright so that the world can see. We should be able to stand up and and and and a Christmas tree is in the backdrop, right? Like we should be able to talk that it's not just about you know presents and spending money and buying gifts and doing all these things, but it's about the birth of our Lord and Savior, right? And so if we're concerned about the birth of our Lord and Savior and we're like excited about Jesus and and look at the little, you know, the uh the nativity scene and all these things, what does that actually mean to us as believers as we live it out, right? Because now we're saying we're grafted into being set apart, we're grafted into this idea or this concept that now, you know, we have this ability to be able to just stand and proclaim the name of Jesus Christ and to share the gospel message to everybody, right? But yet, again, when we look at the national travesties that's going on with in the world, you know, with right now the Jews and anti-Semitism, we stop there. And I don't want us to be divided any longer. I want us to tell our brothers and sisters, um, you know, in our family, the Jew, the Gentile, the unbelievers, everybody to know who the light of the world is, and that light should be shown through us. And so today, when we read number seven in today's reading that everybody around the world is reading, um, just reflect on that. And so, number seven, verses eighteen through twenty-nine, it says, On the second day, Nathaniel, the son of Zor, the chief of Azakar, made an offering. He offered for his offering one silver plate, whose weight was a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver basin of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour, mixed with oil for a grain offering, one golden dish of ten shekels, full of incense, one bull from the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering, one male goat for a sin offering, and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Nathaniel, the son of Zor. On the third day, Eliab, the son of Helon, the chief of the people of Zebulum, his offering was one silver plate whose weight was a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver basin of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, one golden dish of ten shekels, full of incense, one bull from the herd, one ram, one male lamb, a year old for a burnt offering, one male goat for a sin offering, and the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Elab, the son of Helen. That was the reading for today. Now, if you will, just reflect for a second and think about, you know, yeah, I think the Maccabees, the revolution of the Maccabees, you know, against the the Greek, you know, uh king at the time and what he was trying to do. Um, think about all those offerings, right, that was set up in that sanctuary, you know, uh concerning the Levitical law of what should be done in the sanctuary. Now we have Yahshua the Messiah, right? He was that one offering for all offerings. You know, there's no more peace offerings that need to be made. There's no more offering for the sin of the nation that needs to be made. All of those things that they were bringing and presenting to the temple, all those things now have changed, and now it's just Christ. And now it's just Yeshua. But we can still, both Christians and non-believers alike, like once you realize that, once you come to that understanding, now you can see the purpose. It's not just the nativity scene, right? It's not just Christmas, it's not just Hanukkah, but now we have the one who has come to be the light in the world. And that light can shine through us, right? You can go anywhere and and and profess the name of Yahshua the Messiah, right? God should be inside of us as we're living this thing out, as we're engaging with our community, as we're engaging with friends and family. That that same light, that same light, what they're celebrating right now, the same light that Jesus Himself said when he went to go celebrate the festival of Hanukkah, that's us now. Be encouraged and realize that. Be encouraged, do some research, spend some time investigating the things that have a consequence to our soul and not just a consequence to an opinionated conversation that does nothing but just stir up the visions and entertains us, right? We got to do better, we got to do more. And in Jesus' name, I pray that you guys seek that information out for yourselves, read the word for yourselves, and I will see y'all tomorrow. Be blessed.