Light on the Rock Blogs

Let’s talk about the coming Beast system, where it could be, the coming Great False Prophet and how God is continuing to bring America down to fulfill prophecy.

A friend of mine just sent me a copy of a quote from the “EU Observer”. Has our recent debacle in Afghanistan just motivated Europe to not want to rely on the USA anymore militarily?

You should find what my friend just sent me very interesting. For years, many of us have believed that the “Beast” of Revelation who allies with a great False Prophet (Revelation 13, etc.) will be a military/economic power based in Europe, as a final “resurrection” of the Holy Roman empire – which is not “holy” and not obviously Roman to most eyes. But it will be powerful and have worldwide influence.

"The EU needed to become the world's third-largest military superpower, the debacle in Afghanistan has shown, French defense minister Bruno Le Maire said at a business congress near Lake Como in Italy Saturday, Reuters reports. "Europe has to become the number three super-power besides China and the United States. Let's open our eyes, we're facing threats and we cannot rely anymore on the protection of the United States’, he said."

By EUOBSERVER

Keep an eye on this, as we will. I had heard that French President Emmanuel Macron had voiced something like this but didn’t have the quote. His name is interesting – meaning “God with us”. So he may be at least the start of motivating Europe to become far more powerful militarily and not reliant on the USA.

The Beast power (interesting, isn’t it, that God compares the world ruling empires to animals) will be allied with a world religious leader, we call the great False Prophet – a la 2 Thessalonians 2 and Revelation 13, as well as mentions in Daniel.

So who will be this great false prophet – the man of Sin – who will declare he is god and will rule from inside the temple of God – which I believe could be constructed in soon-coming years in Jerusalem?

Others believe all we need is to re-start sacrifices, without the building. But scripture is clear that this coming man of Sin, who will be able to do great wonders, takes residence inside the temple of God (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). But read all of 2 Thess 2, a scripture I’ve referenced several times in recent sermons.

2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 – “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of GOD, showing himself that he is God.”

Read all of 2 Thess 2.

That sounds to me like there will be a real, physical 3^rd temple not just an outdoor place of animal sacrifices. Certainly just about all the pieces of “furniture” and items for the third temple in Jerusalem are ready. I’ve seen with my own eyes the golden menorah for the 3^rd temple – already built. We saw the priestly crown to be worn by the high priest, their garments, the table of showbread, the altar of incense, various shofars and much more.

There’s some discussion on where the temple should be located – and God will determine that and will have to let world politics be such that a temple CAN be built. Some believe it will be in the old city of David area, south of the present “temple mount”. I studied personally under Dr. Ernest Martin in 1973 at the Jerusalem Dig. His ideas will require a change of mind and heart from God for present Jewish leaders and archaeologists to build near the Gihon springs, considerably below the present “Temple mount”.

Right now, most Jewish rabbis, historians and archaeologists are adamant that the 1^st and 2^nd temples were very close or directly at the location of the Dome of the Rock. They would need convincing. To build the 3^rd temple in the ancient city of David – just a 12-acre site south of the present southern walls --will require a miracle.

So watch -- and keep watching and praying.

Will the man of sin who rules from the temple of God – be a pope? Or could it be someone outside the Roman Catholic church who is able to unite the whole world in one religion – but likely at the expense of announcing we can’t say Jesus/Yeshua any longer?

I’m not prophesying anything. Just saying – keep your eyes open. Watch and pray, that you be counted worthy to escape these things which shall come to pass (Luke 21:36).

Are the pieces of the puzzle coming together? Did President Biden just give Europe and the EU the impetus, the push, to come together as a powerhouse no longer reliant on America? Even President Trump was urging EU /NATO to be able and willing to defend themselves. So we may see a split coming between the USA and Europe if we continue to no longer keep our treaties and commitments abroad.

The next test of American resolve and their power could be Taiwan. Will the USA give up on Taiwan – or be willing to go to war against China to defend Taiwan? If the USA gives up on Taiwan and the Ukraine, you’ll see Europe come together militarily with real power – FAST – I believe.

You might want to listen to the sermon I recently gave on how God is breaking the pride of our power. Also check out my sermon on “When will Christ return”—which lists the various steps enumerated in scripture before Yeshua lands on the Mount of Olives to rule this world.

“Thy kingdom come.”

Many claim to believe in the resurrection of the dead. That’s great, for “if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we’re of all men most miserable” – someone famous said (1 Cor. 15:19).

Do good people go to heaven when they die? Yeshua said “NO ONE has ascended to heaven or come down from heaven except the Son of man” (John 3:13). NO one. Peter confirmed that even righteous King David “did not ascend into the heavens” (Acts 2:34). If King David is not in heaven, then who is? After listing so many men and women of enormous faith, Hebrews 11:13 says ALL, everyone, before us – even Enoch and Elijah – DIED, not having received the promises.

Just enter into the Search bar “Enoch and Elijah” for more details on what really happened to them.

And our destiny is not to sit on fluffy clouds in heaven while we strum on harps forever and ever. Neither is it “the beatific vision”, as in Catholic theology. It’s so much more. So what will our bodies be like when we’re resurrected?

Since you’re not zoomed up to heaven when you die, a resurrection from the dead is necessary if we are ever to live again after we die. And that’s what the Bible teaches. In fact I’ve often wondered, if “good” people go to heaven when they die and are having a beatific vision of God already, what’s the NEED for a resurrection?

The Bible also speaks of those who will be punished with death for their unrepented sins, and they will be part of the “second death” (see Revelation 20:6, 14). To have a 2^nd death, those people would need to have a 2^nd LIFE – the resurrection for those not in the first resurrection, but a later one.

So everything else I will write about in this blog is about the first resurrection only, OK?

Keep reading, it will get clearer.

The First Resurrection is for the righteous. Saying “first resurrection” implies other resurrections, does it not? That’s a different topic for a different time, so let’s keep to this topic of the kind of body we’ll have if we’re in the first resurrection.

WHO will be in the first resurrection? According to Revelation 20:4-6, those who are in the first resurrection will reign with Christ. So they are believers who were baptized by the Holy Spirit into Christ – into Christ’s body (1 Cor. 12:13) and never partook of the dreaded mark of the Beast on their forehead or on their hands. They are God’s saints!

Revelation 20:4-6

“And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”

No doubt this first resurrection is also the one described in Hebrews 11:35 as “a better resurrection” – in the famous chapter often called “The FAITH Hall of Fame”. It’s the one called “the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14) and it is “the resurrection from the dead” – Philippians 3:11. Other verses call it the “resurrection of the just” and the “resurrection of life for those who have done good” – John 5:28-29.

So the first resurrection if made up of God’s children being resurrected with new bodies unlike any bodies you’re familiar with.

So OK, that’s great, but what kind of body WILL we have in that first resurrection? Note: what I describe now applies only to those in the first resurrection.

WHEN does it happen: At Christ’s return. There will be 7 trumpet blasts and it’s at the last trump when He returns and receives his resurrected and changed Bride in the clouds.

1 Thessalonians 4:15-18

“For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.

16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

1 Corinthians 15:22-25

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming.

24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.”

Paul is on a roll. After stating that celestial bodies have differing brilliances – like comparing the sun, moon and stars –he says so it is in the first resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:42-45

“So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

44 It is sown a NATURAL body; it is raised a SPIRITUAL body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

Did you get that? Those in the first resurrection are brought back to life with a SPIRIT body, not a flesh and blood body.

1 Corinthians 15:50-53

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed — 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

Read verse 50 again: “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”. So we must be SPIRIT. This is a very KEY point in understanding our body at the resurrection.

 Yeshua said “that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit IS spirit” (John 3:6). So we will be spirit beings. “GOD is spirit” – John 4:34.

Angels are also spirit beings so Yeshua says we’ll be like the angels, in as much as they are spirits, or spirit beings, as we shall be (Mark 12:25). We’ll be higher than angels, as they will be our servants and they’re not really considered “sons” of God literally, like we are. (Hebrews 1:13-14).

Another thing: those in the first resurrection to spirit, will shine like the sun! See Daniel 12:3.

Matthew 13:43

“Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

So at the last trump, the dead in Christ rise first with their new spirit, shining, immortal, perfect, powerful bodies that can never die again. Those of us who are still alive, will then be changed to spirit as well. I have 2 sermons on “Life as a Spirit Being” if you care to learn more about what the Bible says about living as a spirit.

But can you imagine all who have died – whether in battle, or car accident or cancer – coming back to life with a brand new, immortal, perfect, healed, powerful Spirit body raised in glory and power? All the wounds and pain and illness and aging – all gone. Just a brand-new powerful spirit immortal body now. Hallelujah. I can’t wait.

The deaf will hear the birds chirping and frogs croaking and the sound of their grandchildren playing. The lame will leap like a deer. The mute will sing God’s praises in perfect tune and harmony. It’s clear from scripture that spirit beings can appear and disappear at will. They can pass through solid walls – and then disappear again, as Yeshua did after his resurrection. They can eat and drink and fly. That’s what our bodies will be like! We’ll never age again. We’ll never die again (Revelation 2:11; 20:6, 14).

And - no – we’re not just going to while away our time on a cloud strumming harps. Here’s what God says we’ll be doing:

Revelation 20:6

“Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”

In fact, we’re told once we’re changed to spirit – as angels and God are spirit beings – we shall see God as he is. Here’s one of my favorite scriptures:

1 John 3:2-3

“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

Let me remind you: all this pertains to those in the First Resurrection. Those who come up in the 2^nd Resurrection … that’s a different story. Maybe we’ll continue another time. Hint: the “rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years are finished” – Rev. 20:5

But if you remain faithful and true and endure to the end after accepting Yeshua as your Savior and your new life, you will get a brand-new immortal and glorious SPIRIT body when Christ returns. Hallelujah.

Most people believe it took Noah 120 years to build the ark. Today’s blog may surprise some of you. And many people think Noah’s 3 sons helped him build the ark, right from the get go. Keep reading. More surprises are in store for many of you.

One point of this blog is to encourage everyone to read the scriptures more carefully. The other point is how incredibly patient God is, even in the face of violence and sin and perversions that were so bad that God decided to end all land life on the earth except what could be placed inside that huge ark.

People lived a long, long time back then. Adam and Eve were still in their midlife when Enoch was actively preaching. Adam was there when Methuselah was born – and lived such a long time.

If you haven’t seen the Ark life-size replica in Kentucky, USA, I recommend you do. The single biggest impression you’ll be left with will probably be how huge that ship was. Plus, what an undertaking it had to be to build such a huge ship without all the modern tools and machinery and equipment we have today. Check out: https://arkencounter.com/about/         

I only wish they had shown more animals in their ark like the ones we see today – and less of the dinosaur type, but other than that, it is a “must see”.

Genesis 6:3   “And YHVH said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."

Notice it does not say, “…yet I’m giving my man Noah one hundred and twenty years to build the Ark.” But that’s the assumption so many make!

And it’s not clearly said here whether this 120-year time period was stated to Noah or anyone – or just a conclusion God had made for himself. It’s true that God gave mankind another 120 years before the rains would fall – but that period of 120 years is not necessarily the same as the years Noah was building. The world’s doomsday clock was well underway into those 120 years by the time Noah was even clearly told to start building the Ark, as we’ll see.

Here’s what we’re clearly told. Keep these numbers in mind. 

** We’re told God had decided there would be a final 120 years for mankind. (Genesis 6:3). It is NOT clearly stated that this timetable was said to, or given to anyone. It seems to be a private conclusion God had decided. If God told Noah of the 120-year deadline, then Noah would have been 480 years old – but we’re not told that. And his first son is still 20 years away from even being born yet!

** We ARE clearly told that Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth (Genesis 7:6). 

** We’re also told Noah was 500 years old when his first son Japheth was born to him (Genesis 5:32), and now only 100 years separate the birth of Noah’s oldest son and the time of the Flood, when Noah was 600 years old.

So, had you realized before that at the start of the 120-year timeline, Noah and Mrs. Noah had no children born to them yet?

** We also know that Shem – Noah’s second son – was 100 years old when he had his first son Arphaxad (Genesis 11:10). This means Shem was 98 years old when the flood came. It also means Noah was 502 years old when Shem was born.

Genesis 11:10 “This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood.”

** The first time we actually have God CLEARLY telling Noah there would be a worldwide destruction by flood that would kill all living things on the earth, is in Genesis 6:13-18. God is – by that time -- mentioning Noah, his wife and Noah’s sons and their wives (verse 18) – which mathematically means Noah was at least 525 years old by this time, to allow 3 sons to be born to him and for them to be old enough to be married. That’s if that was indeed the first time God mentions it to Noah himself. That leaves a maximum of 75 years left in the 120-year countdown, for the Flood came when Noah was 600 years old (Gen. 7:6). So based on the statement GOD makes that includes Noah’s entire family and daughters-in-law (Gen. 3:18), the actual building of the ark could have been 35-75 years.

There is of course also the possibility that God was saying all that to Noah when he was still childless – as a matter of faith, just as God told Abraham he would be the father of multitudes of children, when he also was still childless.

BIRTH ORDER: By the time Noah had his firstborn – who was Japheth, Noah was 500 years old, according to Genesis 5:32. I realize, Shem is listed first in Genesis 6:10 and 7:13, but in the Bible, the most important one in Biblical history, or who had the most impact – or sometimes the most righteous one through whom God worked the most, ends up being listed first a lot of times. For example, Abraham was not the firstborn among his siblings either, but is also listed first.

So the real order of births of Noah’s children was this: Japheth, Shem and Ham – and yes, I know, we’re all used to saying “Shem, Ham and Japheth”, as the Bible itself does that as well (Genesis 6:10; 7:13) multiple times.

Again, Noah was 500 years old when Japheth was born – Genesis 5:32. The flood waters came when Noah was 600 years old. Genesis 7:6. Already you see less than 120 years right there. 

I suspect Noah had to have a LOT of hired help to cut down the trees, prepare the boards and build such a huge ship – whether he had sons or not.

How big was Noah’s ARK? Read Genesis 6:14-15 in a modern translation so you get it in feet. Go see the replica in Kentucky. A FOOTBALL field and a half long! Now imagine that. Picture that next time you see an American football field. That, and half again as long added to that. 450 feet long. 75 feet wide. Over four stories high – or 45 feet high. OK, modern cruise ships are much bigger, but still – this Ark was one huge ship! Imagine having to build all that!

Genesis 6:14-16 NLT   -- "Build a large boat from cypress wood [gopher wood, teak] and waterproof it with tar, inside and out. Then construct decks and stalls throughout its interior. 15 Make the boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. 16 Leave an 18-inch opening below the roof all the way around the boat. Put the door on the side, and build three decks inside the boat—lower, middle, and upper.”

I also believe that God may have tested Noah and all mankind by having a completed ark sitting there for some months or even years, without any sign of flooding or rain. Then when the time for the flood came, Noah had a one-week warning. That was it. (Read Genesis 7:1-20).

Here's a photo of my wife and I standing in front of the Ark replica. Go see it.

The ark by the end of that week had to be full of food and water for all the animals and Noah’s family, plus they had to get all the wildlife God was sending them into the ark and get them all settled in and organized, before the rains, floods and break-out of waters from the deep began to happen. Then God himself shut them in. God locked the doors (Genesis 7:16). Imagine that.

Where did all the water come from?

Besides torrential rains for 40 days and 40 nights, where else did all the water come from? Some scientists have said that under the crust of the earth there is more water than we see in all the oceans today. Scripture speaks of it as “the fountains of the deep”. God broke those open to flood the world, in addition to the enormous amount of rainfall he sent. No doubt this was a very, very scary time to go through – whether inside or outside the ark.

When God stopped the flooding, and began to order the waters to recede, he sent a lot of wind to dry things out (Genesis 8:1). And look how it’s worded (notice “fountains of the deep”).

Genesis 8:2 “The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.”

It took many more months before even the tops of the mountains could be seen – let alone before they could safely leave the ark.

There’s a lot of evidence of a worldwide Flood visible in the earth’s strata of rocks. Lots of it. Every culture around the world has some epic tale of the saving of a few people and animals. The best known one is the Epic of Gilgamesh.

I admit: whether it took Noah just 40-75 years to build the ark – or if he took all 120 years, that’s not a huge spiritual point. But it IS important to read and study the scriptures carefully enough to realize when we’ve been told something over and over that simply may not be true.

And, I’ve got to say this: the most recent Hollywood movies about Noah and the Flood are simply rubbish. They don’t follow the Bible’s descriptions at all. Don’t even waste any time watching them. They’ll put totally wrong concepts in your head and much of what they show are simply untrue, if you go by God’s word.

One of the best known “Bible stories” is David and Goliath, the giant from Gath, of the Philistines. When we were at “the Jerusalem Dig” in Israel in 1973, our group made a trip to the Valley of Elah, where the David vs. Goliath battle happened. I was surprised by how far it was between the 2 sides, the 2 hills where each army had gathered, opposing each other.

You probably know this story well. David carefully selected five smooth stones from a brook. As a watcher over his flock, David knew which stones would “fly” the best and have the greatest impact. He knew God would guide this, but he did his part.

But why FIVE stones? Did he think he’d miss? I’ll post the story of the battle later from 1 Samuel 17:1-11 so you can re-read the account if you wish or need to.

The Bible does not tell us why David took five stones with him. Let’s start with that. So whatever the full reason is, any answer is an educated guess, but you will find it interesting.

There are normally two theories for explaining why David selected 5 stones. First of all, remember that five is the number of God’s grace – and even that is significant to me.

--- The First Theory is David was just being prepared for whatever could happen. David gives no hint of fearing he would miss or that God wouldn’t give him success. So I don’t think he took five stones in case he missed. But what if the Philistines sent more soldiers out to fight David? So the first theory is that David simply wanted to be prepared for other contingencies that could happen. Besides, though he knew God would fight his battle for him, neither had God said that one stone would be enough. So David took 4 additional stones just in case he needed more.

Remember that God wants us to be prepared. Proverbs 27:12 says, “A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.”

So if a hurricane is heading our way, long before it’s too late – we’ve prepared. You trust in God, yes, but you also prepare. You see danger coming and you take prudent steps. So you have spare batteries, spare gas (petrol), food, water, pet food, medicines are ready, first aid kits, and more. You might even board up the windows. This means buying plywood well ahead of time and cut to the proper sizes ahead of time. It always amazes me how so many people wait until it’s too late to “be ready” or seem unaware of other contingencies.

BUT… watch for my upcoming sermon on whether we should speak up and act in times of apostasy and danger against God’s children – or whether we should remain silent and be “invisible”. In this particular case, David showed up in the face of danger, DID speak up, and did face the giant danger head on! But he did take precautions and carefully selected FIVE stones. 

--- The Second Theory is that 2 Samuel 21:15-21 shows that there could have been a literal giant in Philistia named “Rapha” who had four giant sons besides Goliath. FOUR more giants!

The name “Rapha” can actually be translated “the giant” as well, or Rephaim – plural for “giants”. Some translations even translate Rapha as “giants” – or “a son of the giants” – plural.

So whether this was the name of one man who had 4 fearsome giant sons or whether they were simply descendants of the giants generally – the point is: there were FOUR additional giants. Some translations read this as these four were either sons of Goliath himself or a brother of Goliath. Without getting into the nitty-gritty on this, just know there were FOUR additional giants who were fearsome combatants.

So the second theory is that David was not just eager to fight Goliath from Gath – but ALL the giants at that time, all FIVE giant warriors. This theory is plausible, though we have no indication that David was even aware there were an additional four other giants besides Goliath. But it’s an interesting possible explanation for 5 stones, or is this just coincidence?

You can read 2 Samuel 21:15-22 that explains all about the four other giant warriors – but let’s read the summary for now in verse 22:

2 SAMUEL 21:22 –“These FOUR were born to the giant [Hebrew: Rapha] in Gath, and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.”

So if you ask me why David took 5 stones, I’d say he was being prepared for any contingency, whether he needed more than one, or whether the Philistines sent others to help Goliath, or whether the giant’s 4 other warrior sons would show up.

I’ll end the blog with the scriptures of the fight and also about the additional 4 giants, but first this: David’s trust was not in his sling and stone – but in YHVH to fight for him and win.

Here’s the battle scene:

1 Samuel 17:40-51 NCV – (David) He took his stick in his hand and chose five smooth stones from a stream. He put them in his shepherd's bag and grabbed his sling. Then he went to meet the Philistine. 

41 At the same time, the Philistine was coming closer to David. The man who held his shield walked in front of him. 42 When Goliath looked at David and saw that he was only a boy, tanned and handsome, he looked down on David with disgust. 43 He said, "Do you think I am a dog, that you come at me with a stick?" He used his gods' names to curse David. 44 He said to David, "Come here. I'll feed your body to the birds of the air and the wild animals!"

45 But David said to him, "You come to me using a sword and two spears. But I come to you in the name of the Lord All-Powerful, the God of the armies of Israel! You have spoken against him. 46 Today the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll kill you and cut off your head. Today I'll feed the bodies of the Philistine soldiers to the birds of the air and the wild animals. Then all the world will know there is a God in Israel!

47 Everyone gathered here will know YHVH does not need swords or spears to save people. The battle belongs to him, and he will hand you over to us."

48 As Goliath came near to attack him, David ran quickly to meet him. 49 He took a stone from his bag, put it into his sling, and slung it. The stone hit the Philistine and went deep into his forehead, and Goliath fell face down on the ground.

50 So David defeated the Philistine with only a sling and a stone. He hit him and killed him. He did not even have a sword in his hand. 51 Then David ran and stood beside him. He took Goliath's sword out of its holder and killed him by cutting off his head.” 

Now here’s the account of the additional four giant warriors:

2 Samuel 21:15-22 “When the Philistines were at war again with Israel, David and his servants with him went down and fought against the Philistines; and David grew faint. 16 Then Ishbi-Benob, who was one of the sons of the giant [Rapha}, the weight of whose bronze spear was three hundred shekels, who was bearing a new sword, thought he could kill David. 17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, "You shall go out no more with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel." 

18 Now it happened afterward that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbechai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was one of the sons of the giant. 19 Again there was war at Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

20 Yet again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also was born to the giant. 21 So when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David's brother, killed him.

22 These FOUR were born to the giant [Hebrew: Rapha] in Gath, and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.”

The main thing: David trusted in Yehovah to fight for him, to guide him, and give him the victory. But he certainly was willing to face additional issues – whether from other giants or other soldiers from the Philistines. A great example of faith from such a young man, probably no older than 17 at this point (1 Samuel 17:42).

I’m often asked to give prophetic sermons on exactly who the powerful duo working together will be – the Beast and the False Prophet. I’ve given sermons lately on steps to keep from ever being deceived by them or taking their mark on your hand or forehead.  But in those sermons, admittedly, I didn’t name names.

How important is it, for us to know right now who the Beast will be?

Scripture says “666 is the number of a man.” (Revelation 13:18). And who is the great end time False Prophet, the Man of Sin of 2 Thessalonians 2? Many assume it is a Pope. But how do we come to that conclusion for sure? And if it is the Pope, could it be the present-day pope or a coming one? Could it be a coming world False Prophet—working in tandem with the Beast power -- who can unite the Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists all under him – for it clearly says these 2 leaders deceive the whole world, including every tribe, nation and ethnic group (Revelation 13:5-8).  

And what does 666 mean? Who does it pertain to?

Everyone wants the answers. SO many people over the years have labored for hours upon hours on detailed time lines and charts to validate their prophetic conclusions.

I say – if you’re doing that -- you’re not making the main thing the main thing. I wrote on that recently too.

Here’s what I have to say about all that, and I think it is supported by scriptures:

--- I believe we will all know soon enough who the Beast of Revelation 13 is (world dominating super power with 10 kings giving their combined support to one Strong Man world ruler). We’ll know who that one strong man is – someday. All the present speculation going on – is pointless. Even if you get the right man (some say, “or woman”) in the end, so what? How does that benefit us all? It will be obvious when it happens, I’m sure, though some of you will argue against that.

--- Ditto for who the great False Prophet of the end time will be. He’ll be able to apparently bring to life the “image of the Beast” and to make it move and speak. He’ll be able to call down fire from heaven and to kill the saints who don’t worship the image of the Beast (Revelation 13:8-11). We’ll know who he is soon enough.

---All these charts and timelines take uncountable hours of time. Let’s talk about that. I’m not talking about timelines showing the 3 days and 3 nights of Christ in the tomb, or those kinds of timelines. I’m talking about prophetic timelines, the most egregious being the ones that put real future calendar dates and names to their papers. Unless God has inspired you and an angel has spoken to you - - like angels did to John as he wrote the book of Revelation – you’re just guessing!

And guess what? Identifying the Beast and False Prophet – even if you get it 100% correct – is not going to guarantee you special protection or to be counted worthy to escape these things that shall come upon the earth (Luke 21:36). Knowledge you have or think you have by itself –just puffs up (1 Corinthians 8:1).

Luke 21:34-36 "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. 35 For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."

Here's the point of this article: Paul said his #1 quest in life was not to identify the Beast and False Prophet. Nope. Paul said his main goal was “that I may KNOW Him and the power of HIS resurrection” – Philippians 3:9-10.

Paul spoke of the “man of sin”, that “lawless one” – in 2 Thess 2, but he did not name him. Paul said when whatever is holding him back is removed, he would be revealed plainly enough for all to see, though most of the world will see him as a kind and wonderful true religious leader and he deceives almost everyone.

Paul DID name the one whom he DID desperately want to get to know, and that name was Jesus Christ, or Yeshua the Messiah as many prefer, using his Hebrew name and title.

Paul also said we should follow or imitate him, as he followed the Anointed One (what Christ and Messiah mean) (1 Cor. 11:1). Paul wanted to come to know his Messiah and Savior more deeply than ever before.

Please everyone: we’ll all be much better off if we spent much more time seeking God and our Savior in prayer, fasting, ever deeper Bible study and coming to know our Savior - - instead of wracking our brain trying to figure out who the Beast and False Prophet are.

And by the way, once you figure out who they are, or when exactly the Christ will return to earth, please tell me. Then we’ll see if you’re right. All I know is that Yeshua himself said to his disciples that he would return at “a time YOU think NOT.” (Luke 12:40).

 We’re encouraged to seek to BE ready, not just “get ready”.

Luke 12:40 – “Therefore you also BE ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do NOT expect."

 But if we do seek to fervently pray always, fervently, I’m super-convinced that HE will reveal to us everything we need to know when we need to know it, and I believe our chances of being counted worthy to escape the terrible things about to land on this planet will be greatly enhanced (Luke 21:36).

To be able to do this also means many of us need to be spending far LESS time on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, TV, TikTok, Snapchat, video games and more. I will probably quit my Facebook. I totally dislike their censoring and information grabbing that they could use someday against God’s children.

So focus on getting God’s word firmly planted in your heart because you read, listen, and study God’s word so much. Focus on talking to our Savior and Father – and asking God to please open your mind, help you see spiritual things, help you see where you need to repent/change and overcome . Ask God to help you and me to repent and to wake up out of our Laodiceanism and lukewarmness. And also ask God to speak to you. He will. He does – if you tune in and are close to him and seeking him while he may be found.

THIS is where I want you focusing your non-working time. And if you do, you will recognize the Beast and False Prophet, recognize their mark, and 666 will just jump out at us – when it’s time.

Again, this is what Paul said kept him going:

Philippians 3:9-11 “…and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may KNOW Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

And please do watch my video on “5 Steps on HOW to be sure you will not be deceived by the Beast and the False Prophet”.

The points in that sermon are frankly far more important than identifying the Beast and False prophet. They will be so convincing that we will have to rely on the power of GOD to recognize his deceptions. It’s all in that video. Please also tell others about this website and the things you’re learning here.

1. Cybercrime is real. Municipalities, corporations, government agencies and people just like you can get viruses, malware and even ransomware. Ransomware is particularly dangerous in that it encrypts all of your data so it can’t be opened or read. Victims will often pay heavy sums to get the “antidote”. I have a friend who works at CDC whose elderly mother fell for this trap and ended up paying $300,000, her entire savings in the scam.

2. Make sure your internet connection at home is secure using a strong password (at least 8 characters including special characters like ! ^$). Do not use the same password for all of your online accounts, especially banking. If it’s been more than a month since last changing passwords, it would be wise to change them all now since there have been massive cyber break-ins that could affect you – with Amazon, Google and Facebook and many more, for example.

3. When shopping online, make sure before you purchase anything to verify the connection is secure, with the address showing: https and a small padlock icon in the URL address bar.

4. Keep your devices (computers, laptops, tablets, cell phones) up to date. These updates often include security patches and are good defenses from viruses, malware, ransomware and other online threats.

5. Only login to your banking, credit card or other financial online services at home or work where you have a secure connection. Never access your financial information at a public location such as a coffee house or even a hotel on any device, including your cell phone. Your internet connection in public locations is often not secure and your username/passwords can easily be stolen. Don’t take the chance.

7. Watch out for phishing scams. You might get an email that concerns you about an unknown purchase, a request to reset your username/password or anything that might seem suspicious. 
   
   
8. Never open any attachments such as a pdf, zip file or Microsoft office document from unknown sources as these might contain macros that install malicious software. Also, do not click on any links from untrusted senders. These can take you to sites that download malware or viruses without being detected. Always check the email address of suspicious senders. Often, it is unrelated to the content of the email. For example, you might get an email from FedEx, Apple or Amazon, however the senders email address is: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The domain name should be the same as the company mentioned in the email.

8. Especially if you’re on Facebook, do not share information about pending vacations, trips or anything personal online. If a criminal knows your plans they can find where you live and break into your home when you are away. It’s also best not to post your birthdate on public sites, or names that could be used to help crack your passwords, i.e., be cautious about using names of pets, or nicknames of grandchildren or children, etc.

9. Your friends on Facebook and other media may ask you to copy and paste something they found elsewhere and now want you to do the same. The problem with this is that all too often those oft-shared posts can have malware and computer viruses that can infect your computer and the ones with whom you share!  I recommend you stay away from these kinds of invitations. 

10. Never give any PII (Personal Identifiable Information) on the phone, including your birthday, social security number or any banking information. No government agency will ask for this information. In addition, the IRS will never email you regarding you filing status.

11. Don’t throw your personal information in the trash without first shredding it, tearing it up or blocking out sensitive information with a marker.

12. Check your credit card statements each month and immediately report any unapproved activities.

13. Windows 10 offers Windows Defender that should protect your system in real time, however that service can be compromised. A good, inexpensive alternative is Malwarebytes that can protect your computer and periodically scans your computer for any threat. While PC’s running Windows are the most targeted operating systems, Mac OS is also vulnerable as well if you do not take precautions.

14. Finally, if you think you are the victim of a cybercrime, Do Not Panic. Shut down your computer and call an IT specialist for help.

Are you and I becoming more and more aware of our mortality – without being morbid?  I am. Are you ready to meet Christ at your next conscious moment? 

It’s undoubtedly easier for people with serious health issues or for older people to have this awareness of our mortality. But it should be an awareness we all should have – whether healthy or not right now. Our lives can change suddenly and in an instant. 

I want to face that awareness of my mortality with a confidence of having fought a good fight and run the course given to me, as Paul said (2 Tim. 6:7). That wasn’t just for Paul but for all of us (1 Timothy 4:12). Still working on that part by forming the right trusting relationship with my Savior and Father.

David said God gave mankind by David’s time, about 70 years of life. After that, it’s bonus or grace. Obviously in our day, many live into their 80’s to even past age 100.

Psalms 90:9-10 – “For all our days have passed away in Your wrath;

We finish our years like a sigh. 10--The days of our lives are seventy years;

And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,

Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”

We know Methuselah and many others lived over 900 years. And for many of you, your dad or mom or grandpa lived into their 80’s and 90’s and longer. Regardless: everyone’s first moment of awareness after our death – whether young or old – will be with Christ, one way or another. (Hebrews 9:27; John 5:28-29). Some will receive praise (2 Cor. 4:5) from God.

But what about you? And why does it matter? Are you ready to have your next moment of awareness be in your resurrection -- and what happens after that? Literally, our “life expectancy” or “lifetime” could be our very next breath or heartbeat. Are you ready for that to be the conclusion of your life?

Have you ever been taken to the hospital by ambulance? It really wakes you up to the fact that “this could go either way” and your time left on earth could be mere minutes.

I was rushed to the hospital by ambulance about a year or so ago after severe chest pains. One moment I was feeling great. The next moment, I felt like someone had stuck an ice pick into my chest all the way to outside my back. And it felt like it was throbbing there, in and out, and not subsiding. That’s when I called for my wife to take me to ER nearby – and with just a few checks on me, they rushed me into an ambulance to the full hospital.

As I rode to the hospital by ambulance – though I honestly was not afraid, the thought did cross my mind, “is this the way I finally go”? I was connected to various monitors and had things stuck into me by the EMT all the way to hospital. I was answering his questions. Then in a quiet moment, I wondered if I had let God do as much in my life as He may have wanted or could have – or did I resist his will for my life? And now I am much more aware of how quickly things can change.

Our life can end suddenly. Or it can drip away little by little, as you slowly die with severe pain, or Alzheimer’s – like my wife’s mom. Like grandma. Like my brother’s wife recently. But one way or another, we all will die unless Christ returns in our lifetime. 

Are you ready?

For my dad, at 61, it was after a hard day’s work in the Philippines, but with a weak heart after many prior heart attacks -- he just lay down to sleep and never woke up. For my mom at 65, it was a sudden stroke and that was it. I was only 30 and 40 when they left us.

And going further back to when we were just 29 years old, how awful it was hearing my young wife’s screams as she pointed to our young first son’s lifeless tiny body and his dark blue face on our bed. I’ve never been able to hear screams or ambulance sirens ever since then without reliving the indescribable horror of those moments.

But once again, the suddenness of how quickly our lives could change -- was slapping me in the face. My attempts at CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for our little David were so frustrating as nothing happened – as I prayed my heart out and breathed in deeply into his tiny mouth to give him air. But it was too late. His face was dark blue and his body already hardening. I remember being amazed at how many tears I was splashing on to his still and lifeless form. He was so small, so new, so young – and gone. Suddenly.

Mortality. Your mortality. Mine. Are we aware of it? Our physical life can end at any time – or not. Paul urges us to “make the most of our time” – or “redeeming the time” we have. In Greek, it’s literally “buy back the time” you have left.

Ephesians 5:15-16 CJB -- “Therefore, pay careful attention to how you conduct your life — live wisely, not unwisely. 16 Use your time well, for these are evil days.”

Other translations say, “Redeeming the time”. Holman Bible says “Making the most of the time…”

I tell these stories only to help make the point of how quickly things change. Just a buzz on your cell phone in your pocket can mean “it’s started”. The notification could be someone trying to alert you of a dear one in an accident, or in the hospital, or who has died. Will you be ready?

Even on a worldwide basis, remember how quickly a virus changed the whole world. Suddenly!

Just a couple days ago, we got the notice that one of our neighbors had died of Covid-19, the terrible virus from China. I had come to know her, been there for some needs she had, and even worshipped with her at her place of worship. But suddenly – she was gone. We’ve personally known 3 others who have died from Covid-19. In those other cases, there were prayer requests for a few days – and then they too had died. So those weren’t instant, but still rather sudden.

How suddenly things can change. That’s the point.

Yeshua said the very end time’s events will be like those in the days of Lot and Noah. We tend to think he was addressing how evil the end time will be, but if you read it, Yeshua’s main point was actually on how SUDDENLY their end came. I actually have a sermon on this too.

Paul described the very end time by saying it will seem peaceful and safe – then sudden destruction. (1 Thessalonians 5). He also said it would be like a pregnant woman who knows the time is close – then her water breaks suddenly, at the worst possible time and place. Read it below:

1 Thessalonians 5:2-4 – “For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.”

You and I may not have time or may not be given time to spend a few months seeking God, repenting, fasting, changing, overcoming before the “end” comes to you or me.

My point in this message is simple: don’t assume you have all the time in the world to seek your God, to pray often to Abba our dear Father or talk to our Beloved Yeshua and to build the strongest possible relationship.

Relationships take time. Sure, God can and does hear “deathbed repentances”. But don’t risk your eternal assignment and even communication with last minute planning.

I had a classmate “in the church” in high school who said he would quit messing around at the “11^th hour”. I remember telling him as a 17-year-old, “the problem with that, is that you could die suddenly at 10:30 pm and have no eleventh hour”. He did die suddenly, shot in the chest multiple times. He never did get his life in order.

So we may not be given all the time we hope for. Some of you won't’ agree with me on that. Fine, but I’d rather play it safe and always be ready. NOW is the time to pray as never before. Now is the time to pray OFTEN, many times a day. Now is the time to stop habitual sins that you’ve allowed to fester in your life.

And yes, we all hope Messiah will return soon, in our lifetimes, or in the next 10 years. But no matter when he returns, his “return” to you may be your next heartbeat or breath! We must live with that awareness; not morbidly, but with seriousness of our time – even as we EAGERLY await our meeting with him, knowing – like Paul said about his own life – that he had fought the good fight and there awaited him the crown of righteousness.

That’s the right balance. We know we can die at any time but we’re ready – whether we live or die anytime soon or not. We’re ready – in faith in our Messiah and our awesome Father. We’ve repented and turned away from our sins. We’ve accepted Yeshua – Jesus Christ – as our Savior and Master. We accepted his righteous covering over us, and his life now has become our life (Col. 3:3-4). His righteousness has been credited to our account (Romans 4:5-8, 23-24) and so God now sees Jesus’ goodness in us. And we accepted that (2 Cor. 5:21).

So we don’t have to fear death. We don’t fear meeting our God. In fact, we have confidence in him and look FORWARD to being with Christ.

2 Timothy 4:6-8 – “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have LOVED His appearing.”

Do WE have that confidence to LOVE his appearing? We should! 

Hebrews 9:27-28 -- “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who EAGERLY wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”

Did you get that? EAGERLY awaiting him. In fact when he comes – He will have judgment on those destroying the earth, yes. But he will have PRAISE for those who are his people, those “who do good” (1 Peter 2:15b).

1 Corinthians 4:5

“Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one's PRAISE will come from God.”

So BE ready – no matter how much or how little time we have left – BY CHANGING the way we live and letting the Messiah’s life BE our new life. The “old self” in us should no longer be dominant.

1 Peter 4:1-4   “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

3 For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles — when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.”

Titus 2:11-15   “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

Philippians 1:21-22   “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell”.

Let’s live -- soberly and joyfully looking forward to meeting our Beloved Savior. Let’s take our remaining lives seriously and thankfully. If we have serious sinful habits, let’s be done with that and let’s let Christ live in us now as never before.

What’s first in your life?  What’s your Main Thing in life? 

 Some time ago, someone wrote a book that popularized the title above, so I want to give credit to where credit is due. But the point was: life is about keeping the main thing, the one main thing.  Do you readily know your “main thing” in life?

 Our Master told us what he thinks our main thing should be:  God. Seek him first thing every day. First thing. David sought God in prayer three times a day… morning, noon and night. He is our salvation. He is our goal. He is our holiness. He has all power – for that matter – to make things go easier for us or he can refrain from smoothing out our paths.

 Yeshua said “seek FIRST the kingdom of God and HIS righteousness, and all these other things you worry about will be added to you.” (Paraphrased a bit from Matthew 6:33). 

 We get into trouble when things that are not the “main thing” get in front of what’s most important.  ARE you and I seeking the Kingdom of God FIRST thing, each day?  Look for the sermon about Eating your Daily Manna. 

 We’ve all heard the phrase, ‘Oh Martha, Martha”  In the story of Mary and Martha, two wonderful faith-filled sisters who supported Christ’s ministry. Martha had forgotten the main thing. She very understandably became overly concerned with getting dinner ready for everyone while her sister Mary was stuck in the room with the guys listening to Yeshua (the Hebrew name for Jesus). 

Many of you reading this, especially you ladies, would have to admit that many of you would be exactly like Martha. You’d be busy getting the appetizers, drinks, napkins out, and the main course meal all ready if this dinner was in your own home. You know you’d be no “better” than Martha! Nor would I! So what Yeshua says is of utmost importance. 

What did our Master say? How does that apply to us today? Are you and I keeping the main thing, the main thing – day after day?

I wonder if many of us even have our own “Main Thing” established in our lives.  Look at your life. What are the priorities in your life?  What are the things you and I have as “must do” items each day?  Are we any better than Martha? I’ll get to what Yeshua said in a moment. 

You know you certainly spend more TIME on other things than seeking after God and his word. Who gets more of your time – Facebook, or God? Which grabs more of your instant attention – your dumb cell phone or listening for God’s words for you? TV – or Bible study? 

And we excuse ourselves by saying we’re too busy to pray and study every day as the first thing we do. There are other pressing issues. Remember the warning in Yeshua’s parable of the wedding supper in Matthew 22. Those who were invited to the royal wedding of the King’s son had to go check out some land they had bought, or their new team of oxen, or the woman they were about to marry. Please read it again for yourself (Matthew 22:1-10). So others were invited, but they did the same thing. Finally the king pulled in anyone they could find – both good and bad. And the others had a bad ending. Go read it. It’s not just a cute story but a strong warning. 

I heard a report that the average 15-30 year old reads and responds to 1,500 texts a month! That’s at least 50 a day! Now add to that, any time we spend actively engaged in downright sinful activities. God forbid.  

What do you do when you first wake up and open your eyes? Sure, we all go to the bathroom. But after that what do you do? Yep, many of you grab your cell phone before all else to check what new texts await you, what’s the latest news, or new gossip is being offered or what the calendar says is on for the day. 

That’s NOT keeping the main thing the main thing. If that’s your pattern, please wake up. Don’t put God and his kingdom 2^nd, 3^rd, or 40^th in your life. 

You know I’m right – for many of you. I don’t even have my cell phone anywhere near my bed because I don’t want my cell phone to be my main thing. It IS the main thing for most people. I know people who can’t go shopping without the cell phone and will drive all the way back home first, as they’re lost without their cell phone. 

Put the cell phone down. Now pray. Then Study. And spend time with your wife or husband and go for a walk and leave your cell phone behind. Some of you just would refuse to do that. I say put it down, focus on relationships. Start with your relationship with God, then with your husband or wife, and your children. Relationships. That’s what life is all about and will always be what it’s about – not how much work you can accomplish. 

Yes, I’ve had to learn that too. So now my wife and I have daily time focused on each other in pickleball, or sitting out in the lanai and just enjoying each other, or going for walks around the block hand in hand, focused on each other. It wasn’t always that way and I almost lost my marriage. And my relationship with God too. So I had to wake up and keep the main thing the main thing. And now we’ll soon be happily celebrating our 46^th anniversary – when many didn’t give us much of a chance years ago. But more importantly, I want to be accepted by my Master and my Father. 

Oh that we would feel as “lost” if we were to start a day without communing with our Father and Savior each and every day, absolutely first thing every day. You know what happens otherwise: other things CROWD OUT God and seeking him and his word. 

Are you caught in that trap of seeking and spending time on worthless things – pursuits that won’t bring you eternal life? Are we missing out on building a closer bond with our Savior because the weeds and thorns of life’s distractions are choking the word of God?  

Do you remember the Parable of the Sower and how some seeds were prevented from growing and bearing fruit because the cares of this life were likened to weeds and thorns choking the word of God? See Matthew 13. “Cares of this life” can be the worries of this life as well as the pleasures of this life – anything that chokes out God’s word from being productive in us.

Matthew 13:22

“Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the Word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.”

Luke 8:14-15

“Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.”

Back to Mary and Martha. Notice Yeshua’s words to Martha. She was concerned with MANY things and missed the MAIN Thing. But her sister Mary was concerned with the ONE thing, the main thing, and she was commended. Mary sat at Jesus’ feet listening to His words. Remember there were no doubt thousands of stories that could have been told about Yeshua, but of all of those possible stories, only a few dozen are preserved for us today. This one story was important enough to be among those preserved for eternity – as so many of us, men and women alike, are “Marthas” so much of the time. Including me!

Luke 10:38-42

“Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me."

41 And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about MANY things. 42 But ONE thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."

If this were spoken today, he’d be mentioning some in the audience who were distracted by their dumb “smart phones” – as they would check for their latest FB notification, or email or twitter – even AS Yeshua was speaking. There’s a time and place for social media and smart phones. But there’s a time we should turn them off and focus on The Main Thing. 

Would YOU have been Mary in that situation, sitting at Yeshua’s feet, listening to the Master? Or seeking other priorities? 

I find it disgusting to see people in a restaurant unable to talk together because most are checking their cell phones instead. Table after table – the same thing. Are you like that? What have we come to? How about leaving at least one cell phone in the car and just focus on your spouse or family and the meal and talk – and listen. Focus on relationships! 

Please don’t make your cell phone more important than God. Roll out of bed, speak and listen to your Father, first thing every single day. Make that your new habit, if it’s not already. Let’s MAKE the main thing the main thing in our lives – and then KEEP the main thing the main thing.  

Get to bed early enough to get up early enough to once again sit “at Jesus’ feet and hear His word”. Get up early enough to open the Word of God, thank God for this daily time you devote to seeking Him and His Word. 

We’re too close now to the return of Yeshua our Messiah, our Beloved Master for us to be letting Satan distract us.

In case it’s still unclear to anyone: the main thing is seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness –Matthew 6:33 –and you’ll find you have lots of time for everything else. God smooths out our paths and opens doors when we put him first.

Proverbs 3:6  --“In ALL your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct (smooth out) your paths.”

And keep the main thing – The Main Thing. 

You all know this verse where Yeshua (Jesus) is speaking to his very own followers and disciples and says this: 

Matthew 7:15-16 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” 

“Beware of wolves IN SHEEP’s clothing”. We’ve all heard that verse, but many have missed it. Christ is NOT telling us to just beware of false ministers, false prophets, or false SHEPHERDS who come to us AS ministers, prophets, or shepherds. That applies too but notice what he actually says. But here at least, Messiah doesn’t say “beware of false prophets who come to you in Shepherd’s (ministers) clothing.” We have to be aware of that too. There are a lot of false teachers out there. We must be on guard against that too.

But who are the “sheep”? We brethren are the sheep of His pasture (Psalm 100:3). Sheep are regular members of the congregation. That’s why Messiah told Peter to “Feed my lambs and my sheep” in John 21:15-17.

By saying “who come to you in SHEEP’S clothing”, Yeshua is saying “beware of false teachers who come to you like a regular brother or sister in the congregation. They look, act and speak like a regular church member.”

 Especially in these last days, deception can come from any direction – including from beloved Sheep of God – the brethren. In this passage Christ is urging to have our guard up because even regular brethren can actually be wolves or false teachers.

The Supreme Being, God Almighty, selects and appoints leaders - or shepherds -- over the flock to guide and lead the sheep. We know them as “watchmen, pastors” – which is related to being in the pasture with the sheep. Hence, we have “shepherds, teachers and ministers”. Many prophets and teachers were actual shepherds like David, Amos, Jacob, and his sons and many more.

There certainly are many warnings to teachers and shepherds. We teachers will be judged more strictly (James 3:1). Read Ezekiel 34:1-10 on your own. And in Acts 20, we have Paul’s warnings to the leaders of Ephesus – and it really applies to any who are leaders in the congregation.

Acts 20:28-29   “Therefore take heed to yourselves AND to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.”

We belong to Christ, as he purchased you and me with his own life blood. We do not belong to any other shepherd. Christ is our Chief Shepherd and you and I can follow pastors only as long as they follow Christ. As Paul said, “Follow or imitate me, as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).

So the ultimate shepherd over the flock of God is the Son of God, Yeshua. HE’S the head of the church. David said “YHVH, the LORD, is my shepherd”. God the Father is, by hierarchy, also our shepherd, but Yeshua was explicitly clear that HE is the good shepherd. John 10:11 – “I am the good shepherd…” 

But now let’s get back to wolves/false teachers who talk to you as a brother or sister in the church. Your guard may be down, for he/she is – after all – someone you know so well. SO you talk, so you listen, so you get influenced.

ARE there wolves masquerading as shepherds and ministers? Of course.

But don’t miss what our Messiah is actually saying: You and I can just as easily be led astray by brethren we hold in high esteem who are not pastors or shepherds but like to share their new idea with others and lead them away from the flock. This could be anybody. It could be me. It could be you. It could be our friends. We must be vigilant even with those we thought we could trust as good friends in the congregation. This is why we must speak up more often than we do when someone is leading others astray.

How would YOU feel, if you had been one of the 12 disciples of Christ – and Jesus the son of God called you “Satan”?

Yeshua was being super aware not to let anyone near him be used by the Adversary (Satan).

Matthew 16:21-23   “From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. 22 Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!"

23 But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, SATAN! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."

So never forget that Yeshua called even Peter – “SATAN” -- when he perceived that SATAN’S own wrong spirit had infected Peter’s answer when he was correcting Christ about his upcoming crucifixion. If Christ could call Peter “Satan” – it shows how we must be on guard even with our own best friends, our own family, or our own church members.

We often let our guard down when it’s family or friends speaking to us. We shouldn’t EVER let our guard down.

Some of you prefer to never “rock the boat” or look disagreeable. Had you been Yeshua that day, would YOU have corrected Peter so strongly – even calling him “Satan” – because that is whom Peter had listened to. Remember another time Yeshua warned Peter that Satan had asked God for permission to “sift him as wheat”. Don’t think that all stopped with Peter. I’m sure Satan is asking permission to use other brethren as well.

Luke 22:31-32 And the Lord said, "Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren."

The good news is that once we belong to God, Satan cannot do anything to God’s children without the Almighty’s permission. Remember Job? Yes, God does give Satan permission at times. Even Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” – whatever that was – was, according to Paul, “a messenger of Satan” to harass him and keep him humble (2 Cor. 12:7).

Christ warned that our own family could turn against us in the very end as some will become wolves – in sheep’s clothing, not wolves in shepherd’s clothing.

How do we remain on guard to counter this? We’re given several points.

You will know the wolves in sheep clothing by their fruits.

Matthew 7:15-16 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

Another point: Be like the Bereans. Compare whatever brethren are telling you -- to God’s word. Are all of us even IN the Bible absolutely every single day? It’s the BREAD from YHVH. We don’t miss food on any given day unless we’re purposely fasting. Neither should you miss time in God’s word one way or another, especially in 2021 when it’s so EASY to have the whole Bible in many formats in books, on our cell phones, tablets, computers, everywhere!

John 8:31-32 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you ABIDE in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Know God’s word SO WELL that when you hear something that just isn’t Biblical – you can challenge it. Instead of having the TV on constantly or having news or music on in the car when you drive – listen instead to the Bible in audio format. Or just turn everything off – and meditate in silence over what you studied that morning. DO the audio Bible in addition to deep study at your desk.

You and I are set FREE by the truth. But if we don’t KNOW the truth of scripture, how will you be set free? Yeshua says we have to ABIDE – stay closely in – HIS word!

And of course PRAY for God’s spirit to help you discern truth from error.

I personally think we should follow Jesus’ example too. SPEAK UP when heresy is being discussed. Our Savior didn’t let Peter get away with saying HE – Yeshua – would not be crucified. No, he roundly corrected him. Many of us are more comfortable saying nothing and “not causing a fuss”. But silence emboldens those propagating error. Silence is seen as agreement with their error.

There’s a great example of a married couple named Aquila and Priscilla who took an upcoming “leading man” named Apollos, mighty in scriptures, and took him aside to explain more correctly the way of God that Apollos didn’t understand. They didn’t just let him continue teaching what was error. Apollos went on to become a great leader in the church, by the way, and in Corinth some even claimed to be “of Apollos” (1 Cor. 1:12; 3:4). 

Acts 18:24-26 “Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. 25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.”

Would you have done that? Apollos may have, at this point, been simply a regular brother/member of the church. But had Aquila and Priscilla not done that, he could have become a wolf in sheep’s (brethren’s) clothing deceiving the brethren. But it ended well – because Aquila and Priscilla were on guard.

Today, false teachers coming to you as regular members, can use so many avenues: Facebook, email, text messages. They can forward link after link of something new and titillating they think everyone needs to hear. Just be careful. Some of these forwarded links are fine. Some are not.

So –as Yeshua said: “Beware of wolves in SHEEP’S clothing;” FALSE teachers who come to us as a regular member of your church. So – we think “they’re just one of us; he’s a church member – so yes, I can listen to him”. And so our guard goes down. Let that not be your story. Let your story be that you keep your guard up, and you abide in the word of God, know it very well – and you recognize error and don’t let that wolf in sheep’s clothing continue sending you more and more material that is off based.

I certainly would not recommend you let false teachers TEACH in your congregation. If what they’re teaching is easily proven to be false – or causes division and arguments and discord – recognize their FRUIT. You shall know them by their fruit.

Let’s end with James’ admonition. When listening to other brethren around the dinner table or after church services, watch for the fruit of that discussion. Watch for it to be according to God’s word. Be sure it’s TRUTH. And be sure it is peaceable, gentle, willing to yield – and sown in peace.

James 3:13-18   “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.

14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.

17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace”.

So there you have it: wolves who come to us looking like regular sheep. Beware.

We know God loves to bless people. He even sends rain on the just and unjust. He just loves blessing as much as he can. One blessing we receive, for example, is his patience and longsuffering – even giving mankind centuries sometimes to repent before he punishes, is well known. He loves doing things for people.  God loves to bless and BE a blessing. Now consider this: he says he also wants us to be like Him and he makes it possible via his spirit in us.

So how about you and me? Do we like to bless? ARE we a blessing to others? WHY does God bless you and me? Look at one of the reasons God gives for blessing Abraham.

Genesis 12:2 ESV – “I will make you a great nation; and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”

Other verses say that in Abraham, all nations of the earth will be blessed by blessings given to Abraham (Genesis 18:18-19). Of course much of those blessings (v.19) came because he and his family were obedient to God. Apostle Paul says that the blessings of Abraham even extends to all Gentiles in Christ (Galatians 3:14).

Back to Genesis 12:2. It says God blessed Abram so that he could be a blessing to so many all around him and ultimately to all nations.

When God blesses you and me, do we in turn consciously wonder how we can use God’s blessings to BE a blessing as Abraham was? I believe from all the principles in scripture, that when we use God’s blessings to bless others, God blesses us even more because of that.

I remember when my girls were very young, I had bought one of them a candy bar. She broke it in half, ate half the bar but kept the other half uneaten in its wrapper. I asked her what she was doing. Her reply: “This is so good that I want Heather [her sister] to have the other half.”

In that moment, I decided to bless her even more. The younger daughter has done similar things too, and we end up blessing our children and grandchildren more when we see them being a blessing to others.

How can you be a blessing? Well, do you have a gift or talent God has given you? By talent I don’t mean the type of money that “talent” in the New Testament means. I mean a special ability, the way we normally use the word. Well, USE your talents to BE a blessing to others. Bless others with your gift. Don’t just sit on it or bury it. I’m not just referring to money here.

I’m referring to gifts God’s given you either through heredity – or even more special, spiritual gifts you wouldn’t have except from God. Maybe you explain things well, or can sing well, or play piano. Maybe you communicate well with others. Maybe people tell you that you are a great writer. USE your gifts to bless others. Find ways to be a blessing.

Do you have some time to serve? We all have 24 hours a day. Be willing to use some of your precious time in service to others. Help elderly neighbors with yard work or errands. Do you know what? Just giving people a lovely smile can bless them! How about calling your neighbor’s spouse—after seeing her husband rushed to hospital with a heart attack. Show interest to ask how they are all doing, offer to help, take over some food – BE a blessing.

Use your voice to bless. Find kind words you can say to the person checking you out at the food store. Be profuse with thank you. Whenever I see someone mopping floors or sanitizing shopping carts – I make a point to get his or her attention and say, “I sure appreciate you doing all that for us. Thank you so much.” So many times they respond: “Aw, that means so much!”

I have a couple of people who contribute ideas to this website that I can sometimes use to serve others. It takes up some of their time, but it sure helps me and all of you. That’s being a blessing to me and others in that case.

One lady has helped with doing the transcripts of my sermons – which takes an unbelievable amount of my time to produce for each sermon and any help is much appreciated. Believe me, I’ve done it by myself for years as we have brethren who are deaf and rely on these notes. Others appreciate the notes too. Someone also helps make “Happy sabbath” cards and “shabbat shalom” cards for me to use. They’re beautiful and those cards bless people. It gives them a lift. Those are ways to bless.

When you recognize you are being blessed - - and again, I mean beyond just about physical blessings and money – BE a blessing with the blessings you have received.

And financially too. Be sure you tithe (10%) cheerfully. Be sure you obey God’s laws to give an offering on at least the three pilgrim holy day feasts – Days of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost and Feast of Tabernacles, as we’re instructed (Deuteronomy 16:16-17). Help where you can financially too.

Four or five households help us support a pastor in western Kenya who has taken 30 orphan children who were trying to find food in garbage cans – and brought them to his home. These orphans had lost both parents to HIV AIDS in most cases. Many were just 4-5-6 years old; some were 10 or 11 when he first took them in – and we first started helping him. Most of them are in their teens or even late teens now. Had he not taken them in, many of them would have been raped or would have died by now. Their home is called “Cup of Water Home for Children”.

Our pastor over there fed and housed them. Several here from USA provided funds for wells for drinking water, bought land, paid to build a proper home, toilet facilities, bunk beds, clothing, schooling, uniforms, Bibles, medical needs and hospital fees, and much more. Many of those 30 would have surely died without support. Thank you who have helped. May God bless you all even more, for being a blessing. I certainly could not have done it without those 4 households helping me. Right now the Pastor has Covid19 and needs oxygen. He came close to dying but others who were being a blessing – paid the huge hospital bill and the oxygen he needs for a while at home.

Some of you have a way with words. Use those skills to write to those who have lost a child or husband or wife. Send them a note. Let them know there are people out there – like you – who care for them and are praying for them.

There are always things we each can do to be a blessing. And I promise you, God will bless YOU much more when you ARE a blessing to others as he blesses you.

One more thought: In the days of the Patriarchs, men would bless their children. I urge you fathers and grandfathers: US speak a blessing over your children too, in their hearing, like Jacob (Israel) did to his sons in Genesis 49. He also blessed the two sons of Joseph separately in Genesis 48. Don’t just wait for the “official” blessing of the children at the Feast. You do it for your own children and grandchildren. You know their strengths and weaknesses. Bless them! If there’s no father or grandfather, then you moms do it.

And don’t forget: we think of God blessing us. There are numerous psalms which speak of OUR ability to bless GOD! Have you ever thought of that?  “Bless the Lord Eternal, O my soul” – is one of the hymns sung often in Church of God congregations. Do you ever say in prayer “I bless and praise you, my God and Savior…”?   David sure did. Here are a few. Maybe I will write an entire blog simply on this matter of blessing God.

Psalms 34:1 “I will bless YHVH at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”

Psalms 63:3-4 “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.”

Psalms 145:1-2 “I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever.”

While we’re at it, remember to bless Israel, for God says he will bless those who bless Abraham and his descendants, and curse those who curse Israel. Genesis 12:3 continues – speaking to Abram: “I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

Now another hard command and teaching of my Lord about this:

           “BLESS those who curse you…”    Matthew 5:44

Are you ready to obey that? A full sermon is coming on HOW to do that. I’ve found that when I started getting so angry at anyone for their persecution or gossip and lies, that my whole spirit changes when I ask God to forgive them, love them, bless them, heal their marriage, mend their broken financials and so on. And I also ask Him to fill me with his audacious love and help me to love my enemies, just as God loved all of us while we were enemies of God.

You can refuse to bless your enemies – and as a result have ulcers, depression, heart problems, abdominal issues and headaches. I’ll choose healing that comes from blessing others instead, thank you.

Watch my upcoming expanded sermon on this point of HOW we can love our enemies and bless those who curse us and pray for those who spitefully abuse us. Yeshua goes on to explain that we prove we are children of God when we act that way.

“THAT you may be the children of your father in heaven, for he sends rain and sun on the just and unjust”. And he loved the people of the world while we were his enemy; His godly Son dying for the ungodly. Asking God to bless even those hateful to you shows you have the mind of God, according to Matthew 5:44-48.

So if God gives YOU blessings – USE them to BE a blessing, and I suspect you’ll receive even more blessings from God as a result. Learn to bless, bless, bless.

Let me get right to the point.  Over the many years in the Church of God and its subsequent branches, I was taught – and I even taught – this about unleavened bread:

** Leavening pictures sin and so that is why we put it out. (True, but leavening can also picture God’s kingdom that spreads! Matthew 13:33).

** Then when talking about eating UNLEAVENED bread, it is believed that this now pictures our new life committed to obedience and being free from sin.

All that can be true. But it’s not complete. It’s dangerously incomplete, in fact. 

When you deleavened your home, and men – I hope you helped a lot and led the family in this – you threw OUT and disposed of all leavened breads, crackers, cookies, etc. because there was no way to salvage any of it. You couldn’t pick the leaven out of the bread. You could only throw it out – and then we all had to start over with brand new unleavened bread that you either made at home or bought matzah from an outside store.

What did the leavened bread you threw out picture?

The right answer: Our old carnal selves. It pictures US. Yes, Christ died for our sins and our Father in heaven forgave us. But then we still stumble in sin, though it must not be a way of life any longer. So we remind ourselves that we must continually be putting out our old self. We must be totally surrendering to God in every facet of our lives so we can call Jesus our Lord. So the leavening we throw out pictures – US. Not just sin generally, but “US”.

When you were throwing out your leavened products, did you realize that all pictured – YOU? Your old self; what Paul calls “the old man”? It pictured you giving up the old ways of unrighteousness.

After throwing out the old sinful way pictured by leaven, we go out and buy or bake fresh UNLEAVENED bread that had not been in our homes before. It was brand new. It had no connection to the discarded leavened products. It’s a new product.

So the Unleavened Bread does not and cannot picture US. It doesn’t even picture us as we try to keep sin out of our lives because as Paul admits in Romans 7, we all still stumble in sin. UNLEAVENED bread has to picture someone far greater than you and me. 

Unleavened Bread pictures the One, and the only One, who DID keep sin totally out of his life. HE is the Unleavened Bread of God. HE is the manna, the bread of heaven, from God (John 6:48-51 please read it). He and he alone. This is why Yeshua said, “this is MY body, broken for you.” (Matthew 26:26).  It’s HIS body, HIS life; not mine, not yours.

So far, are you with me? The leavened bread pictures us who still stumble in sin. Each year, we remind ourselves that there are still vestiges of sinful habits and ways of thinking we have to cast out as we cleanse the temple of God.

The unleavened bread pictures Yeshua. Surely it has to, for that’s what Yeshua said, and what Paul echoed.

Yes, I know we are to grow to become in His image. We are to copy him. We are to follow him. (1 Cor. 11:1). I am to let HIS mind become my mind (Philippians 2:5). But the life I now live is not supposed to be mine, nor can it really be mine, just as Paul says in Gal. 2:20 and Col 3:1-4. Christ is now my life. HE is now my righteousness. He “became FOR us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30-31).

So the UNLEAVENED BREAD we eat does NOT picture US primarily. It is NOT about our lives that are now free from the penalty of sin, but we still sometimes sin (leaven). Though you may not have eaten any leavened products so far this week, I doubt any of us can claim to have not sinned at all during the same last few days. Apostle Paul, as you know in Romans 7, still admitted to stumbles of sin that he hated.

Paul even goes on to make a differentiation between his old carnal sinful fleshly self – and the new creation Paul. In fact Paul says in Romans 7:16-20 that NOW when he sinned, it was not really him doing it. It wasn’t the new Paul—no, it was “Sin that dwells in me” that was doing the sinning.

Romans 7:15-17 “but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

That’s not me saying that, but Paul. He repeats it in verse 20. Paul makes a clear distinction between the carnal nature he still had (“For I am carnal”- v.14), and the new nature and the new life and new creation inside him -- which is Christ actively living in him. This only happens if we abide in him in constant prayer and frequent studying of his word.

How could Paul say that it was no longer him sinning but sin that dwelt in him? Because he understood that just as we throw out the old leaven, we have to get rid of, surrender, put to spiritual death – the OLD SELF. ALL of it. Did you get that? ALL of it.

But now we have 2 natures inside us: the old carnal self is still there, fighting the new spirit-led self, the new creation. See Gal. 5:16-17.  

Our entire life before Christ has been leavened, in other words. We can’t keep any of it. It all has to go – just like your bread, cookies and crackers. Once a life is leavened, you cannot deleaven it, any more than you can deleaven already leavened bread. A leavened LIFE – which is really what all this pictures – has to be cast out and rejected.

Even GOD has to start with a new creation in us. A once-leavened life cannot be deleavened. It has to be replaced. It is replaced by the life of Christ alive in each of us. So I need a new life pictured by new bread that is unleavened.

But my new self is NOT me, trying to qualify for God’s kingdom in my efforts to overcome and defeat sin. In fact, remember that the days of Unleavened Bread come BEFORE the giving of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Imagine claiming you could have any victory over sin without the holy spirit! My old me failed. So did yours. We need something – or Someone – PERFECT, without ANY sin at any time, ever (Hebrews 4:15).

Jesus Christ said the prince of this world (Satan) had NOTHING in him. Nothing (John 14:30). He was the perfect Lamb of God (John 1:29), totally without sin his entire life. Now THAT is what unleavened bread looks like. It looks like Christ.

Even just a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough, as Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 – “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.

8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”.

Cast it all out, Paul says, for we are now unleavened. What does that mean? That you don’t sin anymore? Hardly. The Corinthian brethren were loaded with sin. Chapter after chapter is about another sinful behavior – party divisions, marital problems, terrible open sex sins going on, suing one another, getting drunk at Passover, teaching our resurrection is already past, and on and on.

The ONLY way the Corinthians could be said to be “truly unleavened” (v.9) is by the new life of Christ himself living in them.

            Who is the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth? Yeshua! He said “I am the way, the TRUTH and the life.” (John 14:6). “Thy word is truth” (John 17:17). Who is the Word? John 1:1-3. It’s Yeshua! We strive to live more sincerely and truthfully, but the One it pictures is Yeshua.

Are you seeing the difference? It’s ALL about Yeshua. ALL about him and how he perfectly obeyed his Father, and our Father.

I eat unleavened bread to remind me that I have to take in Jesus Christ my Savior day after day. We become what we eat. In this season, let’s FEAST on our Messiah. I don’t eat matzah to remind me I no longer sin – because you and I still do. I eat matzah this week – and figuratively the rest of my life – because I need HIM living in me from now on. 

When our Savior handed out the pieces of matzah to the disciples, he does NOT say “Eat this, as this pictures the new you trying your best to ‘make it’ and to finally be good enough to be allowed into the kingdom”. No!           

Yeshua said, “Eat this bread, for this is MY LIFE broken for you. Drink of my cup, for this is MY BLOOD of the new covenant” that he SHED for us (Matt. 26:26-29). Life is in the blood. It’s all about him.

I know you know that, but I still keep hearing and reading an emphasis on the unleavened matzah picturing each of US successfully fighting sin. But even just ONE sin makes us a sinner, right? Even one lustful or overly angry thought makes you and me a sinner, right?

Yes, we have to fight sin. Yes, we have to be Christian soldiers fighting the good fight of faith (1 Tim 6:12). Yes, we have to put on the whole armor of God. All of that is in context that we must “be strong in the Lord and in the power of HIS might” (Eph 6:10).

WE can do all things THROUGH Christ who strengthens us so we can fight – but it’s HIS might, HIS power (Phil 4:13) -- not through our own failing efforts. Even Jesus, remember, relied on his Father for everything! He said 3-4 times, “I can do NOTHING of myself” (John 5:19, 30; 8:28) and then reminded us WE can do nothing apart from HIM (John 15:5).

To this end, Paul repeatedly teaches that HE – and you and I – are supposed to have DIED to sin, to have been crucified with Christ, and our new life is not one of our own making, but is the life of the Son of God himself – it’s Yeshua (Jesus) himself! Any righteousness we have now is from and by Jesus Christ (please read Philippians 1:10; 1 Cor. 1:29-31; Phil 3:8-11). I’m finding many “church of God” friends resisting this; that God’s righteousness is only possible through faith in Christ and his life, and his righteousness gifted to us (Rom 5:17; 2 Cor. 5:21). HE is our righteousness and our unleavened bread.

WE died. Christ was resurrected and his resurrection life becomes ours when we declare it with our mouths and believe it with our hearts (Romans 10:1-4, 9-10). Read these again. This is our unleavened bread that we eat.

Unleavened bread does not picture ourselves defeating sin. It’s much more perfect than that. Unleavened bread pictures Christ living in me and crushing sin. Father sees HIS life, HIS righteousness covering me.

Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Colossians 3:2-4 “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For YOU died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When CHRIST WHO IS OUR LIFE appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

Unleavened Bread. It is Christ who is pictured. It is Christ, who is now our life, living victoriously in us. Be sure as you eat unleavened bread, you don’t leave Yeshua out. It’s all about him.

As you eat unleavened bread, think of it as you pursuing the Messiah, seeking to be with him, learning what it means to abide in him. As you eat unleavened bread, invite him to BE the new you. Invite him to cleanse the temple of your body of anything unpleasing to Father. Dwell in him. Invite him and Father to dwell in you. And this is why you and I must eat unleavened bread each and all 7 days of the Feast. We simply cannot live perfectly enough without it being HIM and HIS righteousness.

To him be all the glory and praise. Amen.

As we prepare for Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread, and examine ourselves so we take the Passover in a worthy manner, I hope all of us are focusing on a few things I’ll hi-lite here. Please take time to personally review each scripture in your own Bible. As we gather and feast on Messiah, there’s a lot to ponder.

*** PERSONALIZE your Passover. It wasn’t done just for the whole world, though that’s true too. Look at the examples of scripture, like how Paul says Christ “died for ME” (Galatians 2:20). The Israelites were told to tell their children that Passover is about what God “did for ME” (Exodus 13:8-9). FEEL those verses. Know God chose YOU and died for YOU through Christ. In Exodus 12, being under the blood of the lamb saved their lives. Today, being under the blood of Messiah – saves us for eternity! Hallelujah.

Make this real. Make it about what God did for YOU, just you – and then we know of course that he did it for everyone else who will accept him as well.

** Look at the SPIRITUAL meaning of everything you are doing.

The blood of the lamb is the blood of the Lamb of God. Putting out leaven is more about focusing on surrendering and giving up our remaining life behavior and thought patterns that are contrary to God’s Way. Throwing out leaven is really pointing to repentance – and leaving the old way, getting all of it out of our lives. Repentance is proving you’re sorry for your sins by throwing out the old patterns – the point of deleavening.

It makes little difference if we found and removed every crumb of leaven – but we still sinned with hardly a fight. We got drunk this week, or we looked at porn - again, or lost our temper – again, or pigged out as a glutton would, or were lax on keeping the sabbath day holy and set-apart. It makes little difference if we emptied the cupboards of leavened products but continue to shack up instead of honoring your partner and GOD -- and coming into a covenant marital relationship instead of living in sin.

DO TRUE deleavening, in other words, and put out the sinful ways we each still have. And really ultimately, we have to come to Yeshua and ask him to wash us thoroughly in his blood and to keep washing us thoroughly. It’s an ongoing activity! (1 John 1:7 is in the ongoing present tense – “cleanses”).

So you looked into every crevice of your couch and chairs and under cabinets – so what, if you or I continue to wallow in self-pity, worry, anxiety or fear – instead of trusting in our King, who has offered to take all of that from you, if you would just surrender it to Him.

So personalize it. Verbally with your lips and even more so with your heart – recognize Yeshua as the object of everything we do at Passover season.

Don’t keep this Passover with “old leaven” – old sinful habits we hang on to.

1 Corinthians 5:8 -- “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”.

Sincerity and truth aren’t pieces of bread – but Paul is pointing us to the spiritual point of all that we’re doing. So he speaks of the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. It’s way beyond bread and wine and leavened bread or matzah or vacuuming our house.

Remember Yeshua said, “this is the NEW COVENANT in my blood which is shed for you” (1 Cor. 11:25). He also reminded us – that in the new covenant – our focus is “in remembrance of ME” – of Christ. The Exodus 12 Passover pointed to Yeshua. Remember HIM – much more than the symbols of Ex. 12.

LOOK TO Yeshua in all of us. Rejoice in his victorious resurrection. It is by his LIFE that we are saved. We’re forgiven by his Blood, but saved by his life, being lived anew in you (Romans 5:10-11).

Spiritual meaning, focus on that. When you drink of the wine, remember the Bible also focuses a lot on “the CUP”. Drinking of one’s cup meant willingly accepting what God has in store for each of us – whether it seems good or bad. Even Yeshua, in the garden of Gethsemane, asked if there was any other way than to drink of that cup – but always ended it with our perfect example of “not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:41-44).

So as you look for leaven, look for true leaven of hypocrisy, of malice and wickedness that remains in your life; items you haven’t surrendered yet. Where are we still hypocritical?

*** Passover is a memorial of God’s RECONCILIATION with you – even though he opened the way while you and I were still ungodly sinners. He died for the ungodly – including you and me (Rom 5:6-11 – please read it).

If we don’t forgive and reconcile with everyone who has issues against us, or we have issues against them – our prayers at Passover won’t mean much, frankly. Reconcile with anyone you’re not at peace with. Maybe your daughter, your son, your husband, your father, your mother – your neighbors, your work associates, anyone you are not at peace with.

Good scriptures to review: Romans 5:9-11; Matthew 5:23-24; Matthew 6:11-14. I’ll have a sermon soon on Reconciliation with everyone possible and forgiving everyone with whom you’re at odds.

As you wash other’s feet this year – remember Yeshua already washed his/her feet – and yours too. You’re just acknowledging God has already cleaned them up, and you as well. It’s more than just being a humble servant.

*** Be SURE you EAT unleavened bread each day, focusing on what that pictures! FEAST ON MESSIAH! He’s what the bread pictures.

The Passover season and days of unleavened bread is not just about NOT eating leavened products – but EATING unleavened bread. That pictures the life of Yeshua, the bread from Heaven (John 6). Again, look at the spiritual meaning! This is much more than just eating matzah for a week.

We all want the resurrected Jesus living in us more and more. With every piece of unleavened bread, remember – and say in your heart, “Dear Savior, my beloved king, come and BE my new life. We are what we eat. I want to fully devour your way of life and I invite you as my Savior – not just one time but day by day! Yeshua, BE my life. I want to FEAST on you during this special time. I love what you’ve done for me, - yes for ME --, and I praise you Father in heaven for resurrecting your Son, my King! Now may I glory in his resurrection being lived out anew in me.”

As you eat the unleavened bread, remember the righteousness you seek is not what comes from your own obedient actions now – but the righteousness that is from God, by faith, as HIS GIFT (Rom 5:17) to you. That’s what the UNLEAVENED bread pictures. And of COURSE, as I’ve been saying, surrender and change and obey as well.

But in fact, we don’t want the righteousness that comes from our own efforts (read Philippians 3:8-11) but that which is from God by faith in Christ’s life. ALL our righteousness is Christ. Philippians 1:11 says “…being filled with the fruits of righteousness that are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” – not to your glory for all you have done.

Sure – unleavened bread also pictures – as we always hear – humility, and not being all puffed up. But in a nutshell, we’re really picturing a new life; Yeshua is now our life and our righteousness. See also Colossians 3:1-4 again.

I have several sermons on God’s righteousness you can find on this website. And please read these verses below, also.

** Romans 9:30-33; Romans 10:1-4.

** Romans 3:19-26. Verse 20 – all the law-keeping you can do won’t make you righteous enough. Just ask Job. V. 25-26 – God wants us to see HIS righteousness at work in us, not our own attempts at it. Then read Romans 4:20-25 – Abraham’s faith resulted in God’s righteousness being imputed to him, but not to him only, but to us also.

***REMEMBER TO ALSO BE FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT of faith. I’ll give a full-fledged sermon on just this magnificent point: remember we’re in a WAR against evil spirits. We are to be AWARE of that and fight HARD.

This includes bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (please read 2 Cor. 10:3-6). TO do that, we have to be into God’s word enough that clear Biblical teaching comes to mind with every errant thought. We recognize the attack – often coming as something we’d carnally like to do – capture it, demolish it with the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17-18), and then continue to dwell on what GOD says to you about that thought. Think on GOOD things. Let’s get off the negatives, the worries, the fears.

Paul’s not fooling around here. It’s a real war. And in the end, he declares he has “fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith”,   (2 Timothy 4:7-8). He goes on to say he was certain of receiving the crown of righteousness and that we all should look for that too.

So have a wonderful Passover season. Know God would do all of it, even just for you.

This blog is going to be sharing what Zola Levitt wrote in October 2008. Zola Levitt was from that wonderful species – the Jew who comes to Jesus Christ and accepts His Jewish Savior. Hallelujah. Yeshua, whose name means “Salvation”, their Maschiach  - their Messiah.  Zola wrote a piece tying the gestation and birth cycle to holydays.  I thought it was just fascinating, so here it is, with very little editing to keep it brief and to fit my blog limits.  Remember the correlations are based on the Hebrew calendar and months.  Their “seventh month” for example, usually fits in to our mid-September to mid-October.  I added some of my own comments in brackets:

Zola Levitt discovered an amazing correlation between the Seven Feasts of the LORD and the gestation of a human baby, from conception to birth. While preparing for writing a new book for new parents, Zola contacted a gynecologist for some help in understanding gestation. 

During that session, the gynecologist shows him a series of pictures, pointed to the first one (an egg and a sperm) and said:  “On the fourteenth day of the first month, the egg appears.” The statement struck a chord in his Jewish mind because that was the date of Passover….

The gynecologist continued: “The egg must be fertilized within 24 hours or it will pass on.”  This reminded Zola of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the seed or grain that “fell to the ground and died” in order to produce a harvest, the first fruits of which were presented to God.

Next, the gynecologist said, “Within two to six days, the fertilized egg attaches itself to the wall of the womb and begins to grow.”  And sure enough, the Jewish evangelist thought, “The Day of Firstfruits is observed anywhere from two to six days after Passover.”    [This was the day in John 20 where Messiah first went to heaven to be accepted by His Father, as the real first Fruits to be accepted in behalf of the spiritual harvest.]

Next, he was shown a photo of an embryo [first 8 weeks] showing arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes, a head, eyes, etc.  The caption said “FIFTY days”.  The gynecologist continued, “Around the fiftieth day, the embryo takes on the form of a human being. Until then, we don’t know if we have a duck or a tadpole.”  Zola thought, “That’s Pentecost!”  [Some feel this is also when the first resurrection will take place, when we will be like Him – 1 John 3:2]

The next picture showed the fetus at seven months. The gynecologist said, “On the first day of the seventh month, the baby’s hearing is developed. For the first time it can hear and distinguish sounds outside of the womb.”  Zola knew that was the date for [Yahweh’s] festival of Trumpets.

The gynecologist continued, “On the tenth day of the 7th month, the hemoglobin of the blood changes from that of the mother to a self -sustaining baby”.  Zola thought, “That’s the Day of Atonement, when the blood was taken into the Holy of Holies”.

Next, the gynecologist said, “On the 15th of the 7th month, the lungs become fully developed.  If born before then, the baby would have had a very difficult time breathing.”  And Zola thought, “That’s the Festival of Tabernacles, a time of celebrating the Temple, home of the Shekinah glory or Spirit of God.”  In the New Testament, the Greek term ‘pneuma’ normally translated as “breath”, is applied to the Holy Spirit.”

Birth takes place on the 10th day of the ninth month. Eight days after birth in Jewish families, a baby boy is circumcised. Zola noted that the 8 days of Hanukkah are celebrated right on schedule, nine months and ten days after Passover.  [Jesus made it a point to be in Jerusalem for Hanukkah – called “the Feast of Dedication” John 10:22]

No human being could have understood the gestation period 3,500 years ago [when Yahweh revealed the seven Feasts of Yahweh to Moses and the nation of Israel].  The establishment of the seven Feasts of the LORD was given to Moses by the LORD Himself. Its correlation with the human gestation period is not only remarkable; it proves “Intelligent Design”.  It proves there is a Creator God who guides the affairs of man.

That was the blog or article by Zola Levitt. I thank Zola and his organization for posting this. Feel free to share this blog and this website with other believers, especially those who keep Yahweh’s feasts.

(This blog includes links to other topics on Deleavening and preparing for Passover so we’re ready for this wonderful evening.) 

Did you realize the Lord’s Passover is almost here? The night we do the footwashing service and eating the emblems of a piece of broken unleavened bread with a small vial of red wine – is almost upon us.

Some of you prefer to drink grape juice as your “fruit of the vine” but the Greek word “oinos” clearly refers to red wine, as in the wedding feast miracle of Cana in John 2.

So with Passover almost here, has each of us given it the proper attention it requires before participating? Arriving at the service at the last minute, all disheveled, roaring into the parking lot straight from work – without forethought – simply is not giving our God the respect he deserves.

Why is this topic so vital?

Read 1 Corinthians 11 carefully, especially verses 17-34.

Paul warns against taking the body and the blood of Yeshua in an unworthy manner has serious consequences. He even says that by not regarding the Body of Christ with deep honor, God is letting some believers die, and not be healed. 

But he also says clearly, that once we have done a proper self-examination, we absolutely SHOULD take of the body and blood of Christ (bread and wine), knowing we absolutely need to acknowledge we need His cleansing and covering of his life and death over us.

We must start looking for the Spiritual intent in everything we read, and not just the obvious physical illustration.

And surely, you’ll be deleavening your home before Passover, as we’re commanded to be unleavened. But let me give my annual caution: don’t be so focused on the physical act of deleavening that we give scant attention to spiritual deleavening and preparation!

Many of you are exhausted by the end of deleavening. But be sure to spend extra time in thanksgiving and repentance as you pour your heart and soul out to our Father and our Savior for giving you the first fruit calling to be part of his Family right now!

*** he warns against divisions in the body of Christ v.18.

*** he explains the way they were keeping this special evening could not be called the Lord’s Supper (verse 17-22).

Then in 1 Cor. 11:23-26 that we do what we do on Passover night to remember HIM. HE was what all the Passover sheep, all the unleavened bread all pointed to. We remember HIM as our focus on Passover night – not so much the Exodus 12 Passover. Interestingly enough, when we read all of Christ’s words at his Passover, his entire conversation is about the spiritual, with no reference to Exodus 12. Exodus pointed to HIM. He’s the point.

So as we prepare for Passover, remember that: Yeshua is the reason! He’s the point. He’s what the whole evening is all about. It’s fine to talk about “when I see the blood of the lamb” over your lintel – as in Ex 12 – but be sure to make the point that we’re talking about Yeshua’s blood, Yeshua’s life shed for each of us.

Though it is a sober and serious night of remembrance, Passover should not be a dirge! We know what happened after Passover. Our Savior was resurrected. He lives. There is victory in his blood – and so when we come together, there should be quiet celebration of victory over sin and honor to our majestic King, the son of God.

Paul goes on to explain that we must examine ourselves and then yes -- then eat of the bread and drink of the cup in a worthy manner, lest we bring judgment on ourselves. Be sure to read 1 Cor. 11:27-32. Paul also says it could even be a big reason why we’re not seeing more healings than we do nowadays, because we’re not loving and esteeming all those “in Christ” as we should – the body of Christ.

I’ve been healed of cancer, enlarged organs, and God has used me to pray for some who were instantly healed of serious strokes and severe back pain. Others have not been healed. But God has not stopped healing. If we’re not seeing as much healing nowadays – it’s more likely our fault. Yeshua has not retired or quit healing.

So get ready for the pre-Passover prep – and for Passover itself. There are numerous pre-Passover and Passover topics on this website you can check out:

Blogs or sermons on deleavening:

Don’t miss all your “hidden” leaven https://lightontherock.org/blogs/don-t-miss-all-your-hidden-leaven?highlight=WyJkZWxlYXZlbiJd

As we focus on physical leaven, be sure we don’t miss the real POINT of deleavening and what the UNLEAVENED bread pictures? Here’s another blog that might be useful to you:

https://lightontherock.org/blogs/what-s-your-focus-as-you-deleaven?highlight=WyJkZWxlYXZlbiJd

Without proper forethought and planning and time on the spiritual, our deleavening may fall far short of perfect. This is worth a read too: https://lightontherock.org/blogs/perfect-deleavening?highlight=WyJkZWxlYXZlbiJd

Are we trying to pick leaven OUT of our lives – instead of learning the lesson of the days of deleavening? What was it? That we CAN’T pick out leaven from a loaf of bread. We have to discard it and replace it with new, fresh unleavened bread. We can’t just pick this or that sin out of our lives either. That would be like trying to pick leaven out of a loaf of bread. We cannot do it. What do we have to do?

We have to throw out the whole loaf. We throw out ALL of our old way of life, our old desires, and all our secret sins. Our bodies, our lives, now become the habitation of God himself, so we do a special housecleaning and self-examination of what quality of abode we are providing as the House of God – ourselves!

This means total and complete surrender to our new King, Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah. We have to give up our entire former carnal self in complete surrender now and ask HIM to BE the new unleavened (sinless) life inside us that we need to have. We ask Yeshua to reign in us. Ask Him to purge evil thoughts and lusts and ungodly ways from our minds as we pray more than ever and study the word of God more than ever. BY doing that, we experience the “washing of water BY the word” (Ephesians 5:26).

ARE you in God’s word daily? More so now than usual? We need that, to be spiritually washed and unleavened before holy God. And we need to be praying more than ever. Satan’s demons have stepped up their activity drastically. We must and will defeat them in Christ.

This is what true pre-Passover deleavening focus should be all about – even as, indeed, we put out the physical leaven. But remember, there are even leavening agents in the air. We’ll never get rid of it all ourselves. Our focus must be on Christ, who is the point of all this.

You may want to also review some of the full-length sermons I’ve given in the past on Passover. Here are a few of my favorites:

Are you Crucified with Christ? I promise this will touch your soul. Type in the search bar “Crucified with Christ.”

Fresh Look at the Passover Emblems (March 2010) Type in “Passover Emblems”. We do a deep dive into the bread, the wine, the foot washing and much more. The Afikomen.

When I see the Blood, parts 1 and 2 – just type in “see the blood” into the search box. IN Passover we see the Love of God and his severity as well. The “Crimson thread” of Passover through the Bible – like Isaac carrying the wood; the nuances of Exodus 12, which all pointed to Christ.

How Christ fulfilled the Passover in Intricate Detail (April 2010) – just type in “Intricate detail” into the search box.

Let’s be ready for Passover 2021 – spiritually, mentally, and physically. It’s a great evening, a great time, and we’re washed, clean, forgiven, justified, reconciled, restored, accepted, and delivered – by what this day means.  

Jesus came the first time to make the way possible as the Lamb of God for the family of God to come before him cleansed and forgiven as we come under his blood – AND to preach and tell us about the kingdom of God.

The next time he comes, it is to take over the reins of power and start to literally rule as King of kings. Let’s be sure we’re there with him, as we come roaring back from the wedding supper in Heaven with Christ our king. Those with him are the “called, chosen and faithful.” Revelation 17:14.

OK, I’m way too late posting this for this year to have any effect but hoping it will help more of you next year understand why many of God’s children do not get involved in most of the world’s holidays - - yes, including seemingly innocent Valentine’s Day. Some of you have kept it for years and may fear having to try to explain to loved ones why you won’t keep it any longer. If you come to that conclusion, do so well before Valentine’s Day next year at least.

Remember we are told to come out of Babylon, this world’s system led by the god of this world Satan (Revelation 18:4). “Coming out” will include no longer participating in its cherished holidays if they go against God’s ideals. So I don’t keep Valentines, and add to that – New Year’s Day, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas.

I saw a Facebook post from Maria Brown about Valentine’s Day. I’ll be the first to say, that like many of the other holidays rooted in paganism, I realize we don’t follow or keep the original ways the day was kept. But please also remember, that the practice of re-labeling pagan days, does not change its roots!

Most of the remainder is Maria Brown’s write-up on the day.

Is Valentine's Day God Blessed?

Valentine’s Day seems so innocent and beautiful! After all it is a time to show love and appreciation to that very special someone with flowers ,candy and small gifts. But is it what Jesus would do?

The history of Valentine’s goes back to pagan practices of the Roman sexual fertility festival of Lupercalia. Lupercalia was an ancient, possibly pre-Roman pastoral annual festival, observed in the city of Rome from the 13th to the 15th of February to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility. This Roman festival was supervised by a corporation of priests called the Luperci.

The origins of the festival are obscure, although the likely derivation of its name from lupus (Latin: “wolf”) has variously suggested connection with an ancient deity who protected herds from wolves and with the legendary she-wolf who nursed Romulus and Remus. As a fertility rite, the festival is also associated with the god Faunus (Pan).

Each Lupercalia began with the sacrifice by the Luperci of goats and a dog, after which two of the Luperci were led to the altar, their foreheads were touched with a bloody knife, and the blood was wiped off with wool dipped in milk; the ritual required that the two young men laugh. The sacrificial feast followed, after which the Luperci cut thongs from the skins of the sacrificial animals and ran in two bands around the Palatine hill, striking with the thongs at any woman who came near them. A blow from the thong was supposed to render a woman fertile.

In 494 CE the Christian church under Pope Gelasius 1 appropriated the form of the rite as the Feast of the Purification. ( Encyclopedia Britannica)

The wicked ruler Nimrod was the origin of the legend of Pan. A wolf hunter and strong man.

Genesis 10:19 “He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, ‘Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord”.

“My Valentine” comes from the practice of during the Lupercalia women would put their name in a box and which would be drawn out by the city’s bachelors to pair off for sexual immorality for the coming year. Sometimes (not usually) these ended in marriage later.

The early Catholics wanting to convert pagans adopted the pagan practice along with other pagan celebrations. But changed them to be more mellow giving them new names.

But Jesus ( Yeshua) would not celebrate this day because we are instructed in Jeremiah and other scriptures not to learn the ways of the heathens. God has His own holyday celebrations in Leviticus 23.

Jeremiah 10:2 “Thus saith the LORD, ‘Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.”

MARIA BROWN

Thank you, Maria, and History channel. Back to Philip writing now – so though these days may seem fun and innocent enough, I will not participate in them. God wants us having nothing to do with pagan holidays. It’s that simple. We are to come out of Babylon – the moniker for this world’s system.

You can Google what was written above and see it’s all there in the history channel. We didn’t make all this up.

https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day-2

And Cupid? The fat little naked cherub boy who shoots golden arrows of love. That’s all rooted in paganism and pagan gods as well. Here’s what this source says, underlines are mine for emphasis.

“Cupid is often portrayed on Valentine’s Day cards as a naked cherub launching arrows of love at unsuspecting lovers. But the Roman God Cupid has his roots in Greek mythology as the Greek god of love, Eros. Accounts of his birth vary; some say he is the son of Nyx and Erebus; others, of Aphrodite and Ares; still others suggest he is the son of Iris and Zephyrus or even Aphrodite and Zeus (who would have been both his father and grandfather).

According to the Greek Archaic poets, Eros was a handsome immortal played with the emotions of Gods and men, using golden arrows to incite love and leaden ones to sow aversion. It wasn’t until the Hellenistic period that he began to be portrayed as the mischievous, chubby child he’d become on Valentine’s Day cards.”

So why should I participate in a day – as sweet as it seems – that goes back to the fanciful Greek god of love, Eros? Now you know why. Remember too, that Satan presents his ways to us as beautiful, for he comes as an angel of light, but he’s really all about darkness.

2 Corinthians 11:14-15 “And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.”

WHO is truly God over all the earth – God the Father, or Satan? So many of the people I grew up with use 2 Cor. 4:4 and say “that’s it – Satan’s the god of this world or age. He rules it, he decides everything and that’s just the way it is.”  

If they don’t go that far, they really do believe our Heavenly Father has kept His hands off this world until Christ returns.

Well, HAS God washed his hands completely of this age and this world and lets Satan do whatever he wants?  I think many don’t rightly understand this concept.

Satan is correctly and definitely called “the god of this age” 2 Cor. 4:3-4. 

“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

But I wonder if some of us carry this too far and give Satan way more power than he really has? Can Satan do as he pleases, if this is his world, his age? Or does he have to submit to God’s will and God’s rulership over the earth?  What do you think? How would you explain it?

First let me assure you that I  know there are many scriptures that tell us Satan has a lot of power right now over the age and world in which we live.

*** He has deceived the whole world (Rev. 12:9)

*** He is called the “prince of the power of the air”  (Ephesians 2:2)

*** The whole world is under the sway of the wicked one -- (1 John 5:19). 

*** Satan gets involved in our issues and sometimes we forget that our real enemy is the one who is actually called “the Adversary” – as that is what “Satan” means (Ephesians 6:12). 

But I want to remind all of us that in spite of his power, Satan can go only so far.  Remember how Satan complains about the “hedge of protection” God had placed around Job and his family, and sometimes over whole nations, like Israel at various times?             

Job 1:9-12

So Satan answered YHVH and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!"

12 And YHVH said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person."  So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.”

Most of you know the story of Job pretty well. Later on God let Satan affect Job’s person – his body, and Satan covered him with painful boils.  But notice that – especially when it comes to the people of God (you and me and others), Satan can go only so far. God keeps him restrained unless for God’s own purposes, he allows certain trials like he did Job, for Job’s sake. That should encourage you.

God also puts shields of protection around US and our family as well (Genesis 15:1; Psalm 5:12).  We’re told the Angel of YHVH encamps around God’s people (Psalm 34:7). We must not let the hedge or wall of protection get torn down – or we will be bitten by the serpent (Ecclesiastes10:8).  Satan had to ask for Peter (Luke 22:31-32), Yeshua said, but our Savior told Peter that he was praying for him. WOW.  The Son of God intercedes for us and keeps Satan at bay!

Luke 22:31-32  And the Lord said, "Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.  32 But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren."  

I love that verse. What a great big brother we have in Yeshua.

So it’s clear, especially regarding God’s children, Satan cannot touch you or hurt you or do anything to you and me without God’s explicit permission for God’s purposes – like in Job’s case. So though he’s god of this age, his power is limited.

Now what about elections and all that? Is it Satan who is putting rulers and presidents in place? Not at all. God is the one who puts or ALLOWS certain ones to be put into office as Romans 13:1-2 clearly tells us. But that doesn’t mean He is always thrilled about it. He was very unhappy with Israel for rejecting him – God – as king and insisting on having a human be their king as  you can read in 1 Samuel 8. Neither does it mean that since God is the one who puts or allows world rulers to be in place – that they are good people. God chose Jeroboam to be the House of Israel’s first king when they split from Judah. But Jeroboam was a terrible king, but God had his own reasons for selecting him.

God also makes clear in Hosea that he allows rulers but doesn’t always approve of them or like them. So God decides who rule—and then they’re handed over to Satan as part of his kingdom (for now). That’s why we read of “the prince of Persia” for example in Daniel 10:12-13, 20. That was one of Satan’s high demons orchestrating what happened in Persia.

Hosea 8:2-4  Israel will cry to Me, 'My God, we know You!'  3 Israel has rejected the good; The enemy will pursue him.  4 "They set up kings, but not by Me; They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them.  From their silver and gold They made idols for themselves — That they might be cut off.”

Notice how when we reject God and “the good” – the enemy, just another name for Satan, is allowed to pursue us.  Now verse 4—notice what he says about the leaders we want to choose.  And notice when we go after idols or anything we put ahead of God himself, we end up being cut off from God. We can’t have our cake and eat it too. We can’t claim to serve God while acting like one of Satan’s children.  We can’t mix the two!  It’s time for us all to turn 100% to our God. 

But notice too: God IS involved, especially with his family today and with the nations that made up Israel of old. 

So among those not yet called OUT of this world, yes – Satan is their god and leader. Yeshua even called Satan their FATHER (John 8:44). Yeshua clearly calls Satan “the ruler of this world” (John 14:30) and he reigns in darkness. 

But Satan can only go so far. How do we square the verses that call Satan the ruler of the world and verses that say God is over all the earth?

God is STILL ultimate ruler over the kingdoms of the earth.

** Psalm 47:2 “For YHVH Most High is awesome;  HE is a great King over all the earth.”    GOD is the ultimate king over all the earth – not Satan!

** Psalm 83:18 – “…YHVH is Most High over all the earth.”

How about this one in the New Testament: Yeshua/Jesus is “ruler over the kings of the earth”  (Revelation 1:5). 

So you may have come to believe that Satan is the real ruler over all the kings of this age and this world, but that’s simply not what scripture says. God is MOST HIGH. Period. Once God FIRST selects or allows the world rulers, then those rulers and their people come under Satan’s sway after that, but God still picks or allows them first (Romans 13:1-2). But this also explains why Satan could offer the kingdoms of the world to Jesus, in one of the temptations in Matthew 4:8.

Yeshua told Pilate that he only had as much power as God allowed him to have.  John 19:11 – ‘Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin."

Paul explains what happens and how God is calling his chosen family first fruits OUT of Satan’s kingdom of darkness. Read Colossians 1:13 several times please. 

Colossians 1:12-14   “giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

So though we are in this world, we’re not “of it”. God is our head, our ruler, and we’re part of HIS kingdom – not the kingdom of Satan and his darkness. No, we’ve been called out of that. Our main focus has to be on heavenly things now. But those not yet called out of Satan’s kingdom – are indeed ruled by him, with certain limits, as I’ve explained.

So – though Satan has been ALLOWED a lot of power – let’s not think of him being more powerful than he is. And remember this, especially in these perilous times. “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world”  (1 John 4:4).   

But we must also remember, if we want to have God’s protection and God’s involvement, we must be rejecting any involvement with Satan’s way.

Let’s focus much more of our remaining time seeking our true wonderful Abba – who happens to be God Most High, king and ruler over all the earth and the universe. He’s elevated Christ to become “king of kings and Lord of lords”, but even then, always with God the Father himself as the exception. Our Father, and HIS Father, is God MOST High (1 Cor. 15:20-28).  

1 Corinthians 15:28 – “Now when all things are made subject to Him (God the Father), then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.” 

I recorded an audio sermon that goes in many reasons people give why they just don’t get around to praying “as much as I should”. I hope you benefit from the full-length sermon on it. But in pondering it some more, I think one of the biggest reasons takes a 2^nd look. 

In my new audio sermon, I mentioned many things that keep us from praying -- like putting other things first (we call it being “busy”). Or sometimes we feel unworthy to come before God due to some recent sins. Those can certainly keep our prayers to a minimum. Much more is mentioned also in the sermon. But one way or another, since there’s hardly anything more important than prayer, we have to find a way to pray more.

So I’m going to focus on one of the key reasons I mention in the sermon but will draw out a bit further in this blog.

Think back when you fell in love with your sweetheart. Did you find it hard to find time to be together? Of course not. You two were inseparable. You probably – if you were like most – spent a lot of time in person AND on the phone when you couldn’t be in person. You enjoyed the time together. You looked forward to the next one and it couldn’t come soon enough.

I believe this is a huge key in helping us pray more often than we do. We are supposed to be getting married soon – once more – but this time it’s with Yeshua/Jesus Christ. We love Yeshua. And we adore our father – God Most High, God the Father. So when you love and adore someone, you’re there, often, and it’s enjoyable.

I believe this is the bottom line of rapturous prayer: you’re in love with your fiancé Yeshua and adore our Father. Like when you were dating the one you would marry, you will find it easier to pray when you deeply love the one you’re praying to!

But all too often, being in love gets to be old hack. We take our “loved one” for granted. Do you remember the song “You’ve lost that loving feeling”? Some of the words say, “You don’t close your eyes anymore, when I kiss your lips…”… “you’ve lost that loving feeling, and it’s gone, gone, gone….”

We can lose that first excitement and that “first love”. I know, I know – to love Christ is also to obey him (John 14:15). To love Him is also to love his brethren, the poor of his flock – “I was naked, and you clothed me, hungry and you fed me” and so on in Matthew 25:34-40. So it’s much more than a “loving feeling”. I get that. But I still also feel that I want a wife who not only does the work of being a housewife, but also loves to be with me, loves to go for walks with me, loves to hug and hold me – and me to hold her – even while we both do the works for each other that prove our love. I still like having “that loving feeling”.

So we can lose that first love. That’s what happened to Ephesus church. They still did all the works – but they weren’t excited about the relationship anymore, or so it seems. That’s what happens to US when we don’t pray “as much as I know I should”.   We’ve lost that excitement. If we had it in the beginning, we have to find a way to re-ignite it, to rekindle that fire of that first amorous desire to be together always. Here’s what’s said to the church:

Revelation 2:3-6 --- “…and you have persevered and have patience and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. 4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place — unless you repent.”

Pray to Yeshua and God our Father about this very situation. TELL God that you want to love Him deeply and always. Pray for that first love. We should ask for what we know God wants us to seek – and that certainly includes having a deep love for Yeshua and God. “Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you” – Yeshua teaches in Matthew 7:7. We can ask and pray for restoration of the kind of love for God that He enjoys.

The Ephesians’ zeal was noted, but their love was waning. All gifts of God’s spirit without love ends up being nothing (1 Cor. 13:1-4). First love. “First” refers to the earliest, chief, best. So they continued working hard but lost their sense of PRIORITY. Other things were starting to crowd God out. That can happen to us as well.

We are to seek FIRST the kingdom of God and his righteousness as Matthew 6:33 says.

Let’s make prayer a faithful habit. We wake up and can’t wait to talk to our hero and Savior Yeshua and his/our Father.

God’s given us a special hotline (called “Prayer”) to his presence – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from anywhere in the world, for as long as we wish to talk – and listen. Let’s take advantage of this great and awesome gift from God.

So let’s pray! Let’s pray a lot, lot more than many of us have been. And check out my new AUDIO sermon on it too about what to do when we’re not feeling motivated to pray, to talk with the greatest, most loving Being in the universe!

My wife and I commented on our daily walk around the neighborhood today how many homes had Christmas decorations – but a few did not have any. Our home was among the “did not have any” group.

Satan appears as an angel of light, especially perhaps at Christmas. Christmas songs are admittedly beautiful. The lights and mystique of the season are alluring. But any of you who have been coming to my website and reading my blogs and hearing my sermons know that we don’t, and we must not participate in Christmas.

I love, love, love the story of my Savior being born in a manger in Bethlehem. The shepherds and the angelic choir, and then some time later the visit from the magi, are details I just love. BUT… if you use the Search bar on the home page, then type in “Christmas”, a lot of my sermons and blogs will show up explaining why true believers will have no part of Christmas.

It's not about the true date of Christ’s birth. If the date was important, God would have told us. What was important is that God’s son was born and came to be our Savior.

In today’s short blog, I want to address just one point. Many concede that Christmas December 25^th is a long-standing day that celebrates pagan gods. Just do your own Google, Bing, Edge or Duckduckgo search. Type in “Pagan origins of Christmas” and see what pops up.

Here's the one point: People might say to you – “If we all know the true pagan roots of Christmas, so what? I’m not worshiping pagan gods, Christmas trees or yule logs. I’ve put Christ back in the center. He’s the reason for the season. SO if I focus on Christ, how could there be a problem with that?”

Besides the many scriptures where Yehovah Elohim (The LORD God) says we are NOT to worship him the way pagan people around them were worshiping their gods, there’s another central point: God hates it even MORE when anyone puts HIS NAME on to the pagan worship that he says he detests. Putting God’s name on to a pagan worship does not make it OK with God.

Here's how I prove that. Remember the gold calf? That was one of the biggest sins Israel ever committed, especially in light of how soon it happened after the huge miracles of God delivering them out of Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea on dry land, the daily manna, and much more. So in Exodus 32 the rabble wanted to build a gold calf and worship it. Let’s read what happened, and especially focus on verse 5’

Exodus 32:1-6 “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."

2 And Aaron said to them, "Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." 3 So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf.

Then they said, "This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!"

5 So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, "Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD." 6 Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

Aaron tried the same ploy that Christians try to do who know better about Christmas. Aaron – Moses’ brother -- was going to let the Israelites have their pagan gold calf idol, but Aaron thought if he could just re-label it, and make it look like they were really worshiping the LORD (Yehovah) – as verse 5 above clearly says – that this would make it OK with God, and OK to have this pagan worship. Aaron made it a “hag” or “chag” – a festival to God.

            That’s the same as Christmas, folks. Think of Christmas as the gold calf. God wants to be worshipped in spirit and truth – and there’s not much true about Christmas festivities. Santa and the flying reindeer are a lie; not truth. And saying Yeshua/Jesus was born on Dec 25 is a lie, not truth.

So did God feel the gold calf was OK as long as they followed Aaron and said they were really worshiping the LORD, and in fact announced it as a “chag” – a feast day – to Yehovah. Did that make it alright, or did it in fact anger God even more? Remember Exodus 32:5 – as it shows us we can’t just re-label pagan worship and claim it’s OK now since we put God’s name on it. No, it made God even more angry. Let’s continue in Exodus 32 now to read what God said about Aaron’s strategy.

Exodus 32:7-10—“And YHVH said to Moses, ‘Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!'" 9 And YHVH said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! 10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation."

Does that sound like God was pleased at putting his holy name on their orgiastic worship of a gold calf? Is it any different when people put his holy Son’s name smack dab in the middle of pagan Saturnalia festivities – and worse? Re-labeling makes it worse in God’s eyes, obviously – not better.

We cannot make a pagan-rooted season suddenly OK by putting God’s name on it. It doesn’t work that way. That just makes it worse. Those of you seeking to please our God will do what pleases him, not what angers him. As a result of Aaron’s relabeling, 3,000 Israelites died that day for that terrible sin.

If this helps you understand better, then I pray you all will have the desire to step out in faith and no longer participate at all in festivities that anger our God even more so – because they put his holy name on to what had been festivities to pagan gods, to Saturnalia parties and worse. We will be held accountable for what we know and understand. To whom much is given, much is required.

So let’s worship our God in spirit and in truth – and nothing less.

At a recent sabbath fellowship I was asked what I thought of the new “peace deals between Arab states and Israel: are these a good thing or a bad thing, from especially God’s point of view?”  I thought that would be a good topic to cover today.

Peace is usually better than being at war, right? There is a time for war too! (Like Dec 7, 1941;  Ecclesiastes 3:8). But what does God have to say about peace in the Middle East involving Israel especially? The question I was asked got me thinking and I hope this blog will get you thinking too.

We might be seeing a series of major prophecies happening before our very eyes that is setting up the final years before Christ’s return.  Today I want to focus on just one: “For when they say, ‘Peace, peace’ – then sudden destruction.” 

1 Thessalonians 5:2-3  “For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.”

In a sermon I gave recently about “as in the Days of Noah”, the one thing that Yeshua focused on about the days of Lot and Noah was this one thing: the “end” came suddenly. We always think of the evils of those times, but the FOCUS was on the suddenness of destruction that hit them all. 

Paul says in 1 Thessalonians that before the sudden destruction of the very end time, there will be a lot of people lauding peace … probably in several places, even while there continue to be wars and rumors of wars. So it’s a strange time.

So what am I talking about? The Middle East, a perennial powder keg for war.  Tiny Israel has been surrounded for many decades by Muslim nations many times its size, who are intent on Israel’s (and America’s) total destruction. We were told for years and years that no peace was possible between the Palestinians and Israel until Israel had agreed to give Palestinians what they considered their own land to have their own independent country – meaning the West Bank.

But now all of a sudden – 4, and soon 5, Arab countries have initiated free interaction with Israel, which many are likening to peace treaties. How important is this?

The old preconditions before any established relations could start, meant of course Israel giving up the “West Bank” – which frankly was the core of  the Israelite tribe of Manasseh and part of Ephraim and maybe part of Issachar.

And for years, the surrounding Arab and Muslim countries lived by that understanding: no peace with Israel until Israel gives the Palestinians the West Bank to have their own country.  And never forget that GOD, who decides all nations’ boundaries, gave the land of Canaan to Israel. God considers it HIS land, in fact, and gets very upset when anyone tries to “divide up” HIS land (Joel 3:2;  Jeremiah 12:14).  Please take time to read the scriptures.

So though active war and bullets aren’t being exchanged every day between Israel and its Muslim neighbors, there certainly hasn’t been much peace. In fact, over the past few years many, many thousands of rockets have been fired against Israel from Hamas in Gaza and by the Hezbollah in Lebanon. So when peace is ever mentioned or concluded, that sounds like a good thing.  And it’s better to live in peace than always being on the edge of all-out war.  I agree with that.

So just be aware = that before the final events leading to Christ’s return, yes, there’s going to be a lot of violence and war – BUT, that will all be preceded by a time when the middle east especially SEEMS to be in a state of PEACE. Soon after I write this in December 2020, we may well see more major Arab countries pursuing peace with Israel as well. I’d really take a lot of notice if I see Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq do this.

Peace is nice. But don’t let yourself be caught off guard because of “peace”.  The scripture I started with, in 1 Thessalonians 5, goes on to say in verses 4-6 that God’s children are children of light and we should not be among those caught off guard. No, we’re watching, we’re on our toes, we’re praying, we’re close to God, we seek Him, and we won’t be caught off guard by cries of “peace, peace.”  Peace is a good thing. But we must not let it cause us to start thinking “all is well in the world”.  It surely isn’t!  We need God’s kingdom to come and we stay on our toes.

So after warning about peace and safety (or security), Paul is inspired to tell us all this. And what he says is much more apropos to US even, than it was to his audience in the first century. Please read it carefully and thoughtfully. I’ll start with the verses we started this blog with, but please keep reading to what our true FOCUS should always be. 

1 Thessalonians 5:2-10  “For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.”

4 “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.
7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.”

Hanukkah (also spelled Chanukah  - but pronounced with the H sound in  Hanukkah) – is here. What is it? Why are more and more Christians, even Sabbath keepers, recognizing and keeping Hanukkah?  Some feel it is merely a Jewish counterbalance to Christmas. Others believe it is a Jewish festivity not mentioned in Scripture. What’s true? Should you and I – believers in Yeshua - -keep Hanukkah?  What did Jesus do about Hanukkah? Yes, we’re actually told in Scripture!  Read the rest of this blog to learn what Hanukkah is about, what Yeshua did during Hanukkah, whether or not believers can participate in some way and what lessons we can learn from this holiday.

In Scripture, Hanukkah is called “the Feast of Dedication”, since the name “Hannukah” means “to dedicate” or “dedication”.  It is not one of Yehovah’s holy feasts listed in Leviticus 23, so let’s me make it plain from the start: Hanukkah does not rise to the level of Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). It is a national holiday celebrating the Jewish victory over the Greek conquerors and how the Jews cleansed the temple and witnessed the miracle of the lights. This “feast” is also called the Feast of Lights. But it is not a holyday. Only Yehovah can make a day sacred or proclaim a “holy convocation”.  But having said that, surely our God is NOT displeased with Hanukkah! Read on.

Hanukkah is also about the triumph of good over evil.  Against all odds, our great God brought victory to the Jews who had rededicated themselves to returning to God and cleansing the temple.  In the times in which we live today, there’s a great lesson here for us. God shows us that – especially when He’s involved – light will trump darkness every time. 

John 10:22-23
Now it was the Feast of Dedication [Hanukkah] in Jerusalem, and it was winter. 23 And Jesus [Yeshua] walked in the temple, in Solomon's porch.

It was while in Jerusalem during Hanukkah that Yeshua proclaimed Himself divine (“I and my father are one” – John 10:30).

So Yeshua was in the midst of the festivities – in the temple mount area there would have been plenty of Hanukkah festivity going on . IF it were wrong to participate in Hanukkah, the temple would be the last place you would want to be during the 8 days of Hanukkah.  So my first observation is that it is OK to participate in Hanukkah and we could learn some things from it.  Neither would it be wrong to choose not to have anything to do with it. It’s not a pagan holiday. But neither is Hanukkah one of the commanded “moedim”, or divinely appointed festivals of our Creator.

Daniel 8:22-25 prophesied of the time when Alexander the Great’s generals, who divided up his empire, would conquer the Promised Land and desecrate the temple. Years after Alexander’s death, the area of Judea finally came under Antiochus IV “Epiphanes”.  The time period was approximately 165-163 BC when the events which led to “Hanukkah” took place.

Antiochus was intent on “Hellenizing” the Jews, making them accept Greek culture.  Many Jews did, to curry favor with the rulers.  Some quit circumcising their boys. They started dressing, speaking and acting like Greeks and began to drop their Jewish heritage. This is also part of the lesson of this feast: remaining faithful to Yah’s word. Nation states that resisted the Greek empire’s moves, were left out of commerce and deemed “backward”.  If you wanted to be successful, it was tempting to give in to Hellenism.  Many began to practice their faith in secret. Others outwardly in public behaved as Greeks, but in private as Jews. That is – until the Greeks imposed the death penalty for those secretly holding on to their faith.

Antiochus also defiled the temple and altar by sacrificing a pig on their altar. Then he erected a status of Zeus in the very Holy of Holies. Can you imagine the Jews’ consternation over this?  Some believe this was the first “abomination of desolation” prophesied by Daniel in Dan. 11:31-32.  So Jews revolted.  Finally Jews, led by Judah Maccabee, drove out the Greeks in 163 BC and took over Jerusalem and their temple once more. (You may have heard about the Maccabeans. This is what all that was about.)

When they went to light the menorah, they discovered they had only enough of the special oil to last one day. It would take eight more days to find or produce more of this oil. This didn’t stop them. They lit the menorah anyway and the little oil they had for one day somehow miraculously burned for the entire 8 days until more oil was ready.

Thus began the eight-day Feast of Dedication to celebrate this miracle, their great deliverance from oppressors and the dedication of the newly cleansed temple. This explains why it is also called the “Feast of Lights,” when celebrants bring their candles or 9-branched candelabras. Why 9?  
Eight of them recall the eight days they had light even when there should not have been enough oil. The 9th is the "Servant" candle used to light the others. [Many believers see Yeshua in the Servant candle.]. Apparently more and  more candles are lit as the feast progresses. Just one the first night, then two on the second, and so on, until all 8 lights plus "the Servant light" are burning in Jewish homes. Jews today also exchange gifts, have big parties, lots of food and special Hanukkah items.

Many Jews probably gloss over the real meaning of the day, much like Americans may refer to Thanksgiving Day as “turkey day”. Some have virtually turned it into a “Jewish Christmas” with their elaborate decorations and Christmas-like gift-giving. I can’t recommend anything that smacks of turning this holiday into a Christmas equivalent. Hanukkah should remind us that God delivers us from those who try to destroy His people or from those who keep us from worshiping Him in spirit and truth.

IF we understand the real history and background to the original Hanukkah, we could ponder: 
•    How much would we be willing to give up in our worship and service to Father in heaven?

•    Will we compromise when the end-time prophesied “Beast system” forces a false worship on all believers – or die—as Antiochus Epiphanes did to the Jews of 165 BC?