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 Offerings To Access: Why Holiness Still Matters- Day 4
We read the Hanukkah portion in Numbers with fresh eyes, noticing the costs, details, and intentions of Israel’s dedication, and then face the honest truth: the same people who brought generous offerings stumbled in the wilderness. That tension sets the stage for the Feast of Dedication—a reclaimed space, idols removed, light rekindled—and for a deeper invitation to modern believers. The veil is torn, the Spirit is given, and the call is not “try harder” or “do whatever,” but “walk by the Spirit.” We explore what that actually looks like: testing teaching against Scripture, refusing a prosperity-only gospel, practicing repentance that leads to joy, and stewarding our talents so they multiply for the kingdom.
If you’ve felt stuck between grim striving and easy excuses, this conversation offers a path forward—practical holiness, resilient hope, and a life that bears real fruit. Hit play to rediscover the courage to rededicate, the grace to get back up, and the power to live beyond your history. If this resonates, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review to help others find the show. What area are you rededicating today?
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What Then Say You - YouTube
Hey, good morning, good evening, good afternoon, whatever time it is that you are tuning into the podcast. Welcome again as we continue along this amazing journey of tying in with our extended family, our Jews, the Messianic Jewish community, the Orthodox Jewish community, as Gentiles, as believers in Yeshua the Messiah as Christians, right? Emphasis on Christian, this is what we're grafted into, right? And again, this is not about becoming a Jew or celebrating Hanukkah, otherwise you go to hell. This is not that, right? But this is just kind of understanding and diving into the feast of dedication, also known as Hanukkah, and and just sharing in part of the reading that Jews have been reading for hundreds of years on this day, you know. And so if you have not uh watched uh the first video, it'll be linked at the you know in the card or whatever, or at the end of the video. Um these are just quick short messages just to kind of get us locked in and and kind of be able to experience um what Jesus experienced when he was in, if you go to John 10, when he was actually celebrating the feast of dedication, you know, and what he said, he's the light of the world, right? Because Hanukkah, you have the candles and and you know, and and I encourage you to explore, you know, what actually took place for Hanukkah, but um he is the light of the world. Jesus Christ is the light of the world, a savior is born to us, right? And so today's reading um before we kind of dive into it is in Numbers chapter 7, verses 30 through 41. And so, um, like the last few readings, right? Just to give you some context, this is where you know there's a representative of each tribe, all 12 tribes, right? And they're they're um dedicating the tabernacle. They just got finished. This is during Moses' day in Numbers, right? They just got finished um coming out of Egypt. A lot has gone on, right? And they're dedicating, you know, the tabernacle, the place where God is going to dwell. This is pre, you know, the the smoke, the pillar of smoke in the day, and the and then the the pillar of fire at night. This is what the dedication ceremony looked like. And so um when when the Maccabees and the history that led up to what we now know as Hanukkah or the feast of dedication, when they secured the temple again, right, and they kicked out um the rulers of that time and and got all the pagan worship out of there, they rededicated this temple, right? And so yesterday we kind of talked a little bit about that and and dedicating our temple, which is now we know is the body, right, and how the Holy Spirit now lives within us. But I just find it interesting. And so let's dive in to what everybody else is reading, and then we're gonna talk a little bit. It says number seven, chapter thirty through forty, uh number seven, thirty through forty-one. On the fourth day, Elizar, the son of Shedder, the chief of the people of Reuben, 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 Lord, 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 males, male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Elizar, the son of Shador. On the fifth day, Shemel, the son of Zashadi, the chief of the people of Simeon, his offering was one plate, 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 Shemil, the son of Zerashadi. So we just got to partake in what every Jew around the world is celebrating and was reading, right? This feast of dedication. And we kind of talk about our temple being rededicated. Um and just the miracle, right, uh, was that oil that that oil that was only designed and it was only enough to last for that one day ended up lasting the entire eight days, right? And so we have all these things to kind of consider. And then if you keep reading, and if you know the the history, right, of this timeline in scripture, you know, this is before the quail and manna debacle. This is before they're wandering around in the desert, and it's just like, God, you're really gonna, you know, bring us out of Egypt just to kill us in the desert? Like, and so they just got done and they're dedicating the temple. And think about all the offerings and all the things that they're bringing, you know, for the peace offering, for the grain offering, and all these different things, right, to dedicate their tribes, to be representative, to dedicate their tribes to the Lord and just cleanse themselves before continuing on this journey, only to fail again. Only to, you know, I would argue that 90% of those people that dedicated all of this stuff to the to the to the Lord in this moment, they ended up faltering, right? And again, it ties back to this is a walk. This faith walk, this belief walk, this this journey that we have with Christ being led by the Holy Spirit is not a walk for the the weary, right? Jesus reminds us that we will have troubles. This isn't all rainbows and sunshines, and that you know you're gonna get the genie in the bottle complex, and God is here to give you blessings upon blessings and money upon money. Like, no, this is a this is a a death-to-self walk. This is being crucified with Christ type of walk, right? And as you can see, even at the at the ceremony, right, like as they dedicated all of this stuff, all these offerings to the Lord, they still ended up faltering later on. And it cost them dearly, right? And this is in Hanukkah, this is just number seven. And so stick with me here for a moment, because as believers today, as Christians today, as we think about how many times have we said, God, no, for this time, this time I'm for real. This time I'm I'm giving it all away, I'm giving myself away, and and I'm gonna really do it right this time, right? We gotta be able to remove self out of the equation and rely on the power of the Holy Spirit. Let this let today's Hanukkah reflection be not only about the fact of the history of rededicating the temple, but the fact that now we have access to the power that produces a change that is a miracle in and of itself. The greatest miracle of all times is the fact that now you and I are Gentile at that, but whoever's watching, you have the ability, you have the access through Yeshua the Messiah, through Jesus Christ, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Now the veil has been torn, and you have the ability and the power by way of the Holy Spirit to actually change, to actually die to your flesh, to actually chase righteousness, to actually pursue holiness because our God is holy. We now have the ability and the power, not of ourselves, but the power of Christ inside of us to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord, to bear fruit, and to bear witness to his name. We have the power now to be ambassadors truly for Christ. And so understand, because I'm sure every believer out there, and this is applicable to the Jew who's practicing legalism, who's trying to ensure they stick to the Tanakh and they're trying to do all the different things, right? And sometimes they fail, sometimes they mess up, sometimes they slip up, and that can become discouraging because the enemy, just like the beginning of time, the enemy knows that if I can just plant that seed of doubt that says, you can't do it, you're never gonna be good enough, you're never gonna get it all down right. You're not a priest, you're not a Levite, right? Like you're not perfect. And then to the American Christian, nobody's perfect. We all sinners. We're all just, you know, Jesus, the blood of Christ. See, the the real miracle here, right, as we as we introduce Yahshua back into the situation and the Holy Spirit that he poured out amongst all flesh, is that now we have the power, we just have to be willing to get out the way. We have to remove our expectations, we have to remove the presuppositions that says, no, this isn't how it works. We have to listen to these sermons, right? And listen to the things that are being prophesied and talked to and taught over our lives, and then take it back to the word of God and say, God, if I believe in you, does it really just mean I'm gonna get rich? Does it really mean that I'm just gonna have tangible things? Like, what's the spiritual connection here? How do I get to the I once was a sinner, now I'm saved, and then I get to the good job well done, my faithful servant? How do I get to the place where you've given me the talents and then I invest them back out? What are my talents? What how do I get to the place to where the fruit of the Spirit is in me and pouring out of me in everything that I do in every area of my life? How do I get to this place to where when I fall, I get back up and I receive the lesson, the correction, the reproof, and I keep it pushing in peace and joy. Because, yeah, we're gonna fail. We're gonna fall. But we can't listen to the enemy that says, exactly, you're not good enough. You're never gonna do it right. Jesus says, No, if you stick with me, it's gonna be a good job well done, my faithful servant, at the end of it. We cannot settle for mediocracy in this walk. We cannot settle for just just pure, you know, status quo. You know, we have to be able to push beyond the limits that we've applied to ourselves in the tangible flesh. We've given the flesh way too much credit and way too much power. I'm here to let you know as a as a as a living example, and what the word says is is absolutely true, is that by way of the Holy Spirit overcoming obstacles and sin nature and all these things are totally viable options for you now. There's no longer this space of, I just can't. Because you're right, you can't, but the Holy Spirit can. And so I just want to encourage you, I just want to remind you that you know we we dedicate a lot to the Lord. We try to set ourselves apart. We say, you know, my kids are yours, and we do all these different things, right? And then somewhere along the line, we we end up at status quo. And so as you're as you're reflecting over Hanukkah, if you are reflecting over Hanukkah, as you're diving deeper into what we've been grafted into as a Christian, um, and you're starting to kind of take an examination or a deeper look at the Old Testament, you see this cyclic pattern of the people requiring a savior because they never get it right. They always get close, but not close enough. That's the whole purpose of Jesus coming on the scene to begin with, to be the Kaporah, right? To be the sacrifice, to be the unblemished person who never sinned, who didn't do anything wrong, and to and instead of a grain offering and a peace offering and all the lambs and all the goats, instead of all that, now we have the blood of Christ shed once and for all for all humanity, who's willing to have their faith and their hope and their trust put in Him. And so if you are putting your faith and your hope into Yahshua the Messiah for salvation and for a place in heaven, don't just stop there at salvation. Don't just stop there at, I I'm going to heaven, question mark, because I believe in Jesus. Go beyond that and pursue righteousness and pursue holiness, pursue all the things that have been opened up to you because now you have access to God. Now you can legitimately pray, and your prayers are heard if you are practicing righteousness, if you are believing and hoping in the in in Yahshua, now you have a direct line of communication. Right? Now, that's just something to really consider, right? These, and as we continue in the Hanukkah readings, right, as we continue in Numbers, as we think back to Moses leaving Exodus and all the things that took place, right? And now they're dedicating this, and then as we fast forward in history, you have this, you know, this this heathen of a man, right, who's in charge, is Greek, who's like, I'm I'm basically Zeus, I'm I'm Zeus reincarnated, right? You got this guy in the temple, and then the Maccabees, who were Levites, by the way, they overthrow him by force, and then they rededicate the temple, and then you look at us today, right? And it's like, yes, it's a miracle. Because had the Greek leader had his way, and I can't pronounce his name, maybe tomorrow, but as the leader had his way, we wouldn't have Jews today. It was it was like a miniature holocaust. It was illegal to fast, it was illegal to pray, it was illegal to do anything Jewish during that time, and if you were caught doing it, it was death, right? And so it was one of those things by force that this leader was doing. And so, yes, praise God, Hanukkah happened. Praise God that the feast of dedication took place and that and that they were able to overpower and overcome that tyrant in that time, right? But as we transition into today, as we as we transition and bring Christ with us in this moment and realize that the power of the Holy Spirit has the ability to do so much in our lives and change every aspect of our life, we should not limit it to just merely heaven. We shouldn't just merely limit it to just, I at least I know. There's so much that's that's available to us all as believers, as those who choose Christ. And I just want you to dig in deeper and just don't settle for the status quo, reflect, dig in, grind, explore. That that door is open. All doors are open. Right? And so I pray that this message was received well, that you take it to heart, and you have a blessed day, and I will see you tomorrow.