Hanukkah pronounced Chanukah, means dedication and is known as the Festival of Lights. It is an eight day holiday that commemorates victory over the Seleucid king Antiochus IV who had erected a statue of the pagan god Zeus in the temple at Jerusalem he further defiled it by sacrificing pigs on the alter. When a Greek official tried to force a priest named Mattathias to make a sacrifice to the pagan god, he killed the man and the Jews rose up and fought for their liberation from the Greeks and Hellenists by joining Mattathias and his five sons known as the Maccabees. Antiochus underestimated the will and strength of his Jewish adversaries and sent a small force to put down the rebellion. When that force was annihilated, he led a more powerful army into battle only to be defeated. In 164 BC when Jerusalem was recaptured by the Maccabees and the temple was purified, it gave birth to the holiday known as Chanukah, celebrating the messianic-like victory of the Maccabee’s deliverance of Jerusalem and the rededication of the temple. It was a foreshadowing of a future event when the Messiah comes to purify and deliver his people from the oppressor forever. This year Chanukah begins on Christmas (Messiahmas) Eve! This has only happened four times in the last one hundred years. Even though we don’t know exactly when Yeshua was born, it is always joyful time to celebrate His birth, it is especially meaningful to see Chanukah celebrated at the same time of the Messiah’s nativity as we take a trip through bible history and connect the dots. The old testament (Torah) is the foundational basis for the new testament, both are two halves concerning the beginning and the end of all things. Here we will look at the old testament prophetic promises and the new testament fulfillment of those promises up through the birth of Jesus the Christ (Yeshua the Messiah).
In a veiled comment found in the old testament (Torah) we see this reference to the coming of a Messiah immediately following the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, when the Lord spoke to the tempter.
Messiah would be born of a woman.
OT - “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
(Genesis 3:15)
NT - But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law. (Galatians 4:4)
Messiah would come from the line of Abraham.
OT - The Lord speaking to Abraham made this promise, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.” (Genesis 12:3)
OT - “and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” (Genesis 22:18)
NT - This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham: (Matthew 1:1)
NT - They are Israelites, and to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ. God who is over all be blessed for ever. (Romans 9: 4-5)
Messiah would be a descendant of Isaac.
OT - The Messiah would come through the lineage of Isaac; But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. (Genesis 21:12)
NT - the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, (Luke 3:34)
Messiah would be a descendant of Jacob.
OT - And down through Jacob; “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the people of Sheth. (Numbers 24:17)
NT - Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. (Matthew 1:2)
Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah.
OT - The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. (Genesis 49:10)
NT - the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, (Luke 3:33)
NT - For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. (Hebrews 7:14)
Messiah would be heir to King David's throne.
OT - When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.(2 Samuel 7: 12-13)
OT - Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and for evermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.(Isaiah 9:7)
NT - He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.”(Luke 1:32-33)
NT - the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh (Romans 1:3)
Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.
OT - The Lord spoke through the prophet saying, “But you, O Bethlehem Eph′rather, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.
(Micah 5:2)
(Micah 5:2)
NT - After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1-2)
NT - So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, (Luke 2:4-6)
Messiah would be born of a virgin.
OT - Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)
NT - Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emman′u-el” (Matthew 1:18-23)
NT - In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1: 26-35)
Messiah would be called Emmanuel.
OT - Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)
NT - “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (Matthew 1:23)
NT - In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirin′ius was governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Luke 2:1-7)
In April 2017 Easter and Passover will intersect and we will look at the connection between those two events and examine the significance of the remaining prophecies that have been fulfilled by the life, death and resurrection of Yeshua the Christ along with the promise of His victorious return as the avenging “Lion of the Tribe of Judah.”
No comments:
Post a Comment