Okay, Shabbat Shalom everyone. Today is Chag Chanukah, the Feast of Chanukah. Today we just lit today, or we will lit the seventh candle, which reminds us of one of the days in which the lampstand in the temple in the city of Jerusalem was lit for these eight days, and of course today it is day number seven, and I would like to somehow, with the help speak a little bit from two portions of Scripture. The first one in the book of Daniel chapter 8, and the second one is found, of course, in the Gospel of John and in John chapter 10. So if you have the Word of God with you, please turn to Daniel chapter 8.

I will not read the whole verses that were read for us today in chapter 8 from verse 1 on, but I want to read verses 9 to 14. Daniel chapter 8, verses 9 to 14. And so I am reading in verse 9. And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great towards the south and towards the east and towards the pleasant land. And it walks great, even to the host of heaven, and it casts down some of the host, and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. And he magnified himself, even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away and the place of his sanctuary was cast down and an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression and it cast down the truth to the ground and it practiced and prospered verse 13 then I heard this is Daniel speaking one saint speaking to another saint said unto that certain saint which spake how long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgressions of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot And he said unto me, unto two thousand three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

Now put your finger here and tend with me please to John chapter 10. And there I want to read just a few verses as well. John chapter 10, Yohanan chapter 10, and there we read in verse 22, And it was in Jerusalem, or it was at Jerusalem, the feast of the dedication. And it was winter, and Yeshua walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews, this is the Jewish leaders, round about him, And I said unto him, How long does thou make us doubt? If thou be the Messiah, tell us plainly. Yeshua answered them, I told you, and ye believe not? The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me.

But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep are my voice, and I know them. And they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave me them is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Then the Jews, this is the Jewish leaders, took up stone again to stone him. Yeshua said unto them, Many good works have I showed you of my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?

The Jews answered, saying, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, because that thou being a man, makest thyself God. I repeat that statement, because thou being a man, maketh thyself God well beloved brothers and sisters it is always important for us when we go through a certain feast or when we talk about a certain event in Israel's history the question immediately rises up where does this feast come from how can we as believers relate to it today in this present day And what lesson does this event teach us for our day-by-day life as believers in the Lord Jesus, in the Lord Yeshua, and the Messiah?

I don't have to tell you that the word in Hebrew, Chanukah, comes from the word dedication. Chanukah is a feast or a celebration in our own Jewish history which is not found in the Tanakh, that is in the Hebrew Old Testament Scripture. And the only time that this feast or this celebration is found in the Brit HaChadasha is only in John chapter 10, where we read this verse that Yeshua himself was walking in the temple, in Solomon's temple, on that day or at that day, at the day that is called Chanukah, the Feast of Dedication, John chapter 10 and verse 22. And throughout history we have been celebrating now for 2,000 years, you might say even more than 2,000 years, the feast 2,000, about 2,200 years about, or 2,165 years about, the Jewish people were celebrating this feast called Hanukkah.

Every year we go through the very same motion. We light the candles. Day one, candle one. Day two, candle two. Candle three, candle four, candle five, candle six, candle seven, candle eight. And of course the shamash, the one, the servant, we light in the middle. And we are reminded of events that have happened years earlier in the history of the people of Israel. And it is so important to see and to learn for us today who are believers, Jew and Gentiles, who are believers in Yeshua the Messiah, in Jesus Christ, Yeshua the Messiah. It is important for us to see what's the lesson that we learn from the Feast of Hanukkah, from this event.

It's not mentioned in Leviticus chapter 23. It's not mentioned in the book of Deuteronomy. It is not mentioned whatsoever in the Tanakh, in the Old Testament Scriptures, but it is an event that happened in Jewish history which shows us God's providence, God's sovereignty over his people Israel. He is going to carry through the nation of Israel all the way to the future day where he is eventually going to restore the people of Israel, establish a kingdom where the Messiah will reign as King of Kings and Lord of lords. But until then, he allowed the Jewish people to experience trials and tribulation. And so when we find ourselves in Daniel at chapter 8, to remind you that our own forefathers were not in the city of Jerusalem, in the temple there, enjoying the things of God, because our forefathers disobeyed the Lord.

He has raised a man by the name of Nebuchadnezzar. 605 BC, he started to take the Jewish people down to Babylon where they were singing this song by the rivers of Babylon. There we sat down and we wept as we remember Zion. There they that took us captive said unto us, sing unto us one of Zion's songs. And we said, how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? What a sad, every time I read Psalm 137, it breaks my heart. It really breaks my heart to think of the favored people of God, the chosen people, weeping by the rivers of Babylon. Sad, looking back, remembering, wow, we remember those days of old when we had the temple in Jerusalem.

So God, in his grace, in spite of the disobedience of his beloved nation, Israel, he still gave them a hope. He showed them, listen, I'm going to restore you after 70 years back to the promised land. You're going to rebuild the temple in the promised land. And you're going to rejoice and enjoy my presence once you be returned from captivity. And sure enough, after 70 years, he restored the Jewish people with Cyrus. And named by the name of Koresh, a Persian king, became, you might say, the anointed of the Lord, the only Gentile that we read about him as an anointed, according to the prophet Isaiah, whom God had raised him to lead and to allow the Jewish people to return to the promised land.

And sure enough, eventually they rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem, which we know it as the second temple. But in between, this thing happened, the restoration of Israel, Daniel was there in Babylon and God somehow in a supernatural way have lifted him up, you might say, and gave him a vision of a future day, how things will happen in the days when the Medo-Persians will rise and they will be defeated by the Grecians and how in the time when the Greeks will come there will be a wicked man by the name of Antiochus who will desecrate not only the first temple anymore but the second temple which Israel, the Jewish people rebuilt after the 70 years captivity in Babylon so in Daniel chapter 8 we see really a vision that Daniel received and he shared it with Israel and you and I who believe in Yeshua the Messiah who believe in the fundamental truth of the Bible in the present days of the church age we also believe that this indeed was a Revelation from God and you notice how actually this chapter began I didn't read the first verse it says in Daniel 8 verse 1.

In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me even unto me Daniel now notice the word vision there is a difference between vision and a dream a dream in Hebrew is halom a vision in Hebrew is chazon two separate, two different Hebrew words a dream is something you see when you sleep a vision, a chazon you see when you are awakened similar to chazon Yohanan the book of Revelation where Yohanan, John, the evangelist receive a vision from the Lord of the glorified Messiah in Revelation chapter 1 and the Messiah showed him of things that are going to happen in a future day from even our point of time things that haven't yet happened during the tribulation and the eternal order and the Messianic kingdom this is a chazon, a vision and as Daniel received that vision he was carried you might say by the Spirit of God and he was placed in the time of the Persians and the Grecian days and he received an information of what's going to happen and so Daniel shared this with us.

And you notice that in verses 1 and 2 which I didn't read we find out that Daniel verse 2 says and I saw in a vision and it came to pass when I saw that I was in Shushan the palace which is in the province of Elam and I saw a vision and I was by the river of Ulai. He gives us the time and the place. Shushan was the capital city, the palace was right there, similar to the Shushan that we read in the book of Esther. He also gave us even the location, he said, I was by the river called Ulai. He was there by the river, all of a sudden He see that vision that God had given to Daniel through the angel.

In verses 3 and 4, he saw a vision of a ram, which really represented the Persians, the Medo-Persia. And in verses 5 to 8, what did he see? A goat, which represents the Grecians. In fact, if you go further in the book of Daniel, chapter 8, you will see that Daniel, or the book, interprets itself. The goat and the ram. The ram represents Medo-Persia. If you read in verse 20 of this chapter, and the goat represent the Grecians a little bit later in the very same Daniel chapter 8. So what does he see? A ram and a goat. The ram represent the Persian, the Medo-Persia, which was the empire of these days.

And then following him, he sees a goat. And I want you to notice, according to these next verses, especially verse 8, that eventually that goat, something happened in this goat. Notice I'm reading verse 8. Therefore, the he-goat, this is the Grecian, was very great, and when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and for it came up four notable ones towards the four winds of the heaven. If we'll just for a moment see that vision, you can just go back to that previous picture, and you can see the ram and the goat, and you can see now that there is a fight that is going to happen, and that's how the Lord presented before Daniel that there will be a fight that the goat will eventually defeat the ram.

In other words, the goat represents Greece, will defeat the Middle Persia, and then out of this he goat will rise as it says here a notable horn you notice verse five it says and the goat had a notable horn now that notable horn represent Alexander the Great which is seen here and then ultimately Alexander the Great this this amazing warrior who died very young at about 33 years of age, because he was drunk, he was overtaken by drinking, and eventually he died. And so we read in verse 8, and he got what's very great, this is Daniel 8.8, and when he was strong, the great horn was broken, died, eventually Alexander the Great died at about 33 years of age, And it came to pass, it said, and for it came up four notable ones towards the four winds of heaven.

In other words, there were four generals who took the Grecian kingdom and divided it into four sections. And you can see Cassander here in the north here. You see Ptolemy here. And then you can see the Selysis here, and you ultimately see as well the fourth one I don't see. Oh, yeah, here, Lysimachus. So there are four generals. Each general took a portion of the world empire that was under the control of Alexander the Great, who died when he was only 33 years of age. This is history that one needs to a little bit read and get some information on that. But now here's the passage that leads us to the Feast of Hanukkah.

Here's the passage from verse 9 on to verse 14. Daniel received that vision from God about the man that will rise up to power. And that man was a wicked man by the name of Antiochus IV, which we read about him earlier. He called himself Epiphanes, he called himself Antiochus God Manifest. He claimed to be divine. He demanded from the Jewish people to worship him. He wanted them to recognize him as a God himself. In fact, he's a type and a picture of the counterfeit Messiah who will rise against the Lord Yeshua the Messiah during the tribulation period and he will be the one, the Antichrist that will oppose Yeshua the Messiah and the people of Israel during the tribulation period.

Now notice what we read about this wicked man that rise of a little horn in verses 9 and 10. Notice that this is where we read, we began the reading today. In verse 9 it says, Out of one of them came forth a little horn which waxed exceedingly great towards the south and towards the east and towards the pleasant land. In other words, there was raised a man out of one of those four Kings, the generals from the armies, you might say, of the Grecians. And this wicked man, he is called here the little horn. This is Antiochus' epiphanies. He claimed himself to be God-manifest. He was exceeding, he works great.

He became very powerful. And what did he do? He marched towards the south, this is Egypt, towards the east, this is Mesopotamia, and also he marched towards the pleasant land. This word for pleasant land applied to the land of Israel, the land that God had chosen to give to our people of all the people of Israel. So he was a powerful king, and he was the Syrian king, and he eventually took over many of the areas, and he was so powerful that he came towards the pleasant land, and there, beloved brothers and sisters, he demanded from our own Jewish people to worship him and to recognize him as a God manifest.

Now, what did he do? In the next verses, again, Daniel received that. It is written clearly here in Daniel chapter 8 in verses 11 to verse 14, we see the desecration that this wicked man had accomplished in the land of Israel among the Jewish people. So notice what we read here. I'll read, first of all, verse 11. In verse 11, this little horn, this Antiochus epiphanies, he number one exalted himself. Notice that it says here in verse 11, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host. First thing, he exalted himself. He claimed to be God manifest. He lifted himself up. This is exactly a type and a picture of this anti or counterfeit Messiah who will exalt himself one day in the future.

Day during the tribulation, according to the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation, that he will exalt himself and claim to be God. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 said that he will sit in the temple making himself as if he is God. He will claim to be divine. This is in the future day. But this man Antiochus, about 168 BC, now we are speaking about, we receive a Revelation earlier of the thing that will happen at the time where he will be the king called Antiochus Epiphanes. Notice what it says in verse 11, secondly, about him. Not only that he will magnify himself, even to the prince of the host, whenever you read the word host, it's always in relationship to Israel.

The Lord is the Lord of hosts, Adonai Tsevaot. He is the God of the armies of Israel. So in other words, he will exalt himself above Israel and above the God of Israel. Then we read here in verse 11b, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away. You notice that word for daily sacrifice in Hebrew, we call it hatamid. Hatamid, in other words, God said to Israel in the book of Exodus that you will offer sacrifices morning sacrifice, evening sacrifice morning sacrifice, evening sacrifice these were daily sacrifices that were to be offered by the people of Israel according to Exodus chapter 29 without a stop which is a picture and a type of the Mashiach that will come in a fullness of time who will once and for all remove the sin from this world when he will die on the cross, on the tree and pay for the price of the sin of this world, well, what does he do?

He's not only magnifying himself against God, the God of Israel, but he also, what does he do? He took away the sacrificial system, the daily sacrifice. Can you imagine what it meant for our own Jewish people who constantly were offering morning sacrifice, evening sacrifice? We call it tamid all the day. Every day they were offering sacrifices continuously. And here we can see that he stopped it. He said, as he said, the daily sacrifice, he took it away. He removed it. So the Jewish people could no longer come into the temple and offer sacrifices to the God of our fathers who demanded that from Israel to be offered.

Thirdly, according to verse 11, not only this, but he cast down God's sanctuary. You know, we just sing, in your holy sanctuary, the sanctuary in Hebrew Mikdash is the place where God set his name. It's a place where you might say that the people of God can gather around him and worship him. It is a holy place where God set his name there in the temple, in the temple in the city of Jerusalem. Well, what does this wicked man do? He's not only priding himself and magnifying himself, he's not only stopping the ordinary day-by-day sacrifices which were supposed to be offered every day, but he cast down the sanctuary.

And that means that you might say he defiled the temple in the city of Jerusalem. And he cast this down, or you might say removed the word here, He kind of cast it aside, set it aside that the people of Israel did not have the privilege to approach the presence of God in the temple in the city of Jerusalem. What a situation Daniel received information about through the angel that spoke to him in Daniel chapter 8. But beloved, not only that, because immediately verse 12, 13 and 14, we see what God actually allowed to happen. You know that sometimes, because of man's disobedience, God allows things to happen in the life of even God's people.

You and I sometimes wonder, how can God allow certain things to happen here in this world? How can God allow these things to happen? Can't he just change the situation? Can't he just fix all our problems and not allow us to go through sufferings, tribulations, problems, all these things that every one of us as believers experience in our lives? We sometimes pray. In fact, we were just praying earlier before we started the meeting. We prayed for this one who is sick, for that one who is not feeling well, for that one who has a need, for this one who has a problem. We prayed for those needs all the time.

And God could very quickly remove those problems and make us very healthy, in a good shape, in a good situation. He can fix all our problems in a moment. But we learn that on the one hand, God allows us to go through these experiences because we are part and parcel of a fallen creation. As Romans 8 says, the whole creation is groaning And not only the world, but even we ourselves as believers, we groan within ourselves. We are waiting for the day when the Lord will come and take us to be with Him in glory. On the other hand, when we disobey the Lord, when Israel disobeyed the Lord, or the church, the assembly, the people of God disobeyed the Lord these days, what do you think God will do?

He has to discipline us. This is discipline of love, but He has to. And so we read here that God allowed Antioch, this Antiochus epiphanies, to do what he did. Because notice what it says in verse 12, And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice. Notice the word given. In the Hebrew it simply means that the Hebrew word is Natan. God allowed him to do what he did. Because apparently there was things that have happened already now after the temple was rebuilt again and again there was a time in our history that we failed God again. Just look at the church history of 2,000 years.

Look at history. Look at Revelation 2 and 3 how the Apostle John received the Revelation from the Lord and how God is speaking to all these seven churches of Asia Minor and says, I have something against you. Today, Ephesians, it says, you have left your first love. And you can read it throughout chapter 2 and chapter 3 against every local assembly. The only assembly that he didn't have something against is the church that he calls Smyrna, the suffering assembly, that the Lord did not rebuke them because they suffered for his name's sake. They stood for the truth of the word of God. So it's the same in Israel history.

In our present day history, God will discipline his people and he will allow at times things to happen to them. And so we read here twice in this passage. Verse 12 says, And host was given him against the daily sacrifices by reason. Why? By reason of transgression. When sin rises up among God's people, God will discipline his people. This by reason of transgression looked in both ways. On the one hand, it looks about the transgression of this wicked man by the name of Antiochus Epiphany, but it also by the reason of the transgression that Israel have committed instead of following the Lord I don't have to read to you but if you remember the whole book of Daniel began in chapter 1 in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem and he besieged Jerusalem and the Lord gave to him Jehoiakim the king of Judah and his hand with part of the vessels of the house of God which was carried into the land of Shinar into the house of his God and he brought the vessels unto the treasures of his God.

God gave Nebuchadnezzar the ability to carry our own Jewish people to Babylon earlier already. That's why Daniel is there. Now he's showing us what's going to happen during the Grecian, the wicked Grecian era which they have committed such a terrible thing in the temple But there is a reason why sometimes God allows things to happen in the life of his people. And so we read in verse 12, And the host was given unto him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression. And what did he do? This horn, this man, it cast down the truth to the ground, and it practiced, and it prospered. In other words, God had allowed Antiochus' epiphany to prosper in his doing, but up to a certain time, in a certain point of time.

Because God, in his grace, is intended to restore the people of Israel and to rededicate the very temple. Now we are talking about the second temple here in Daniel 8, while in Daniel chapter 1, the first temple was already taken and burned by Nebuchadnezzar. Earlier, a few years earlier, think about it, brothers and sisters. God is righteous. He's just. And He speaks to us again and again. He's not only called us unto salvation, but He called us unto walking with Him and living for Him. And when we don't, He will allow us to experience the consequence of our wrongdoing. And so we read in verse 13. Of Daniel chapter 8, that an angel now, Daniel is hearing the voice of an angel.

It says here in verse 13, then I heard again, he says, one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, how long, how long shall the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden down under foot in other words even the angels think about it the angels angels like Gavriel or Michael angels that we do know those that are especially angels which were raised for the people of Israel or for raised for certain nations and so on you might say Daniel is hearing one saint speaking to another saint, the Hebrew word for saint is kadosh here, one angel speaking to another angel and asking the Lord, you might say, or asking one another, how long God allowed, going to allow this to happen?

It says here, how long shall this vision, the chazon, concerning this daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation, to give, notice here's the word give again. To give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden down on the foot. How long time will you allow the temple to be in such a condition? How long time you will allow the Jewish people to suffer persecution from Antiochus Epiphanes? How long? And so he gives him an answer. And the answer is coming really in verse 14. That is where we will conclude in this portion. In verse 14, then he said unto me, for 2,300 days, Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

In other words, after 2,300 days, the Hebrew word here, night and days, the word end in Hebrew does not exist. Evening, morning, Erev, Yom. It doesn't speak of two separate, It speaks of one day, 2,300 days, just like in Genesis chapter 1, it was evening and morning the first day, evening and morning the second day. Erev, Yom, Boker is the first day, the second day. It speaks about 2,300 days before finally the temple will be cleansed. So we know very well what happened. 2,300 days from about 168 BC to about 165, even though there was a reign of this wicked king longer than that, but specifically he desecrated the temple in the city of Jerusalem at about 168 BC on the 25th day of the month of Kislev.

And then on 165 B.C., on the 25th day of the month of Kislev, again, the Hebrew month of Kislev, the people of Israel, through a man by the name of Matathias and his five sons, especially the Yehuda HaMakabee, the Hamers, they have fought against the Grecian. They have fought against them. They oppose them who sought to destroy the Jewish people who killed so many Jews who stopped them from worshipping on Shabbat who stopped them from keeping kosher you might say who stopped them from eating food that is not offered to idols who stopped them from reading the Torah who stopped them from committing or having circumcision he did not want anything that had to do with the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob practiced by the Jewish people he wanted to Hellenize them but he could only do it for a season because then God raised this family, the Maccabees they have organized a military you might say, a mountain army you might say, that they fought against the Grecians and they chastened them out of the land there's a story about Matathias, the father of these five sons that in a city of Modian the Syrian Grecian army came and asked the Jewish people to offer pig on an altar there and one of the Jewish people was going forward to offer that pig and Matatayas Matityahu took a sword and he killed him.

Because he was going to offer a pig on an altar worshipping Antiochus Epiphanes think about that and a miracle of miracle have happened because in these days after they cleansed the temple that's why in Hebrew we call it Chanukah Chanukat Habayit here we see it the sanctuary shall be cleansed re-dedicated Chanukat Habayit in other words after 2300 days the sanctuary the temple will be re-dedicated and they took the image of Zeus from the temple they cleansed the temple and they wanted to come to light the menorah and they couldn't find oil because you need to have a special oil to light the menorah which has seven lamps and they found, this is a legend now they found a little pot in Hebrew we call it kad katan a small little pot they took it and they were putting oil enough in those seven lamps, one, you might say, lampstand with seven sticks and they finally fill it up and they wanted, they knew that it will last only one day.

And as they lit it, they continue to prepare for oil which will take another eight days for the new fresh oil to be able to light the lampstand. And that's the miracle of Chanukah. That's why we light the candles for eight days because it is a miracle that in a miraculous way God had allowed the little pot that was sufficient enough to light that menorah for only one day in a supernatural way. God had allowed this to continue on until they made fresh new oil suitable for the lighting of the menorah And sure indeed, the miracle of Hanukkah have happened. And that's why we sing in Hebrew, we say, A great miracle happened here.

Jews who live outside of the land of Israel in the diaspora, they say, A great miracle happened there. And the children singing, they light every day together, the menorah and they're always being taught of the way God had preserved the people of Israel, even though, beloved brothers and sisters, Israel was not in a state of obedience. God had to discipline them and ultimately allow them to experience trials. Now, please turn with me to John 10, and I'm just going to make a couple of remarks here. Now, John chapter 10 goes very much along with Daniel chapter 8 because what happened in Daniel chapter 8 happened about 195 years earlier. By the time that we get to the New Testament, Yeshua, the Messiah, was born.

He's the one that was born to be a light of the world. He was born to the virgin Miriam. He was born in the city of Bethlehem. He lived in the city of Nazareth. He ministered in the Galil as well as in the city of Jerusalem. And as you can see how he is now appearing in John, Yohanan 10, in the very same temple that was rededicated by the Hashmonaim, the family of Matityahu and those who led a campaign against the Grecians. And here is the Messiah appear on the scene here now 195 years, something like that, later on. Now you can just imagine. He is a man like everybody else.

But he was seen apart. He was the Mashiach. He fulfilled the Scripture that said, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel, God with us. He fulfilled the passage in Isaiah 9-6 that he will be the one in the prophet Isaiah that spoke about the one that will be called El Gibor, the mighty God. Aviad, the everlasting Father. Sar Shalom, the Prince of Peace. That's the one. He's appearing now and he's now standing before the Jewish leaders, the spiritual leaders of Israel in John 10. When? The Feast of Dedication. It says here in John 10, 22, and it was in Jerusalem, the Feast of Hanukkah, Dedication, and it was winter, verse 23, and Yeshua walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.

Notice this, beloved brothers, by that time, the little temple that was desecrated by Antiochus' epiphanies and rededicated by the Hashmonaim was a small temple. By that time that Yeshua the Messiah came, the Grecians were removed from being an empire and the Romans took over. First the Babylonians, then the Middle Persians, then the Grecians, and by the time that Yeshua the Messiah came, Our own people were under the occupation of the Romans. Herod had enlarged the temple. This temple is the second temple, but an enlarged temple. You know what Herod did? He took a mountain, Mount Moriah. He put around it walls. One of them is called today the Wailing Wall.

And he filled it up with all kind of ground, stones, sand. And he made the flat place and he enlarged the temple in the city of Jerusalem. If you go today, you will see Temple Mount is a huge spot. And right there we have one of the walls that he used to make this square, you might say, and to have this flat mountain in the middle, in the top. That's called today the Wailing Wall. This is where our own people, I remember in 1967, my father took me there by the hand after the war, the Six-Day War. It was the first time that I ever seen the Wailing Wall.

He held me by the hand. I was 12. And I went over the walls that were broken from the war, the 1967 war. And finally, you come and you see the wailing wall, the temple, grounds. And you just imagine how it was standing there years ago, where God had blessed Israel. And he wanted Israel to enjoy his presence there in the temple in Jerusalem. And today there is constant friction between the Jews and the Arabs over whose land it is, whose mountain it is. And we are told that this is not our city, that this is not the promised city, the promised land. While throughout Scripture, throughout history, you see that this is the land that was given by God to His own nation, Israel.

Whether they deserve it or not, it's not an issue. God disciplined them when they disobeyed Him. He removed them when they disobeyed Him. But here is the Mashiach, finally come. Galatians 4 and verse 4, In the fullness of time, God sent His Son, made of a woman, the Virgin Miriam, made under the law. He was living among our own nation at the days when the law, before He fulfilled the law fully, when He died on the cross. He was there in the midst of Israel. And there, beloved brothers and sisters, he was appealing to the leaders of Israel. And they come to him. You know, it says here in verse 24, the Jews, this is the Jewish leaders, they came about him and they said to him, how long you make us doubt?

If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly. Are you the Mashiach? Well, how long you make us doubt? Tell us if you are the promised Mashiach. Are you the Messiah? Yes or no? Tell us. We want to know. And you know, he already said to them earlier that he was the Messiah. But again, brothers and sisters, in a time of disobedience, when the nation was not ready to accept the Messiah, they didn't want to accept him. Just the same like at the time of the Babylonian, when Nebuchadnezzar was given by God to destroy the temple. Just the same like in the time of this Antiochus Epiphany who God had allowed him to do what he did in 165 BC.

Now again, look at the repetition. And I'm making it always apply this to the age in which we live. Look at the repetitions of disobedience in the body of Messiah already for 2,000 years. People deny in the professing church, deny that Yeshua is God. Deny the divine, the fact that the word of God is indeed was given to us by God. It is by the divine inspiration had been given to us. It's not different. The same thing. In fact, the only thing different is that the church is far more responsible under grace than Israel. We're under the law. And so we find out that he's come, they approach him and they said to him, well, tell us, are you the Messiah?

I know that, but he answered them. He said to them, I told you, verse 25, you did not believe me, the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. He said to them, and he continued and he said to them, but ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep. And as I said unto you, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I'll give unto them eternal life, And they shall never perish, neither shall any man be able to pluck them out of my hand. And he continues, he says, my father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand.

And then he added, in verse 30, I and my father are one. You see what he was saying to them in this 10th chapter in the Feast of Chanukah when he was speaking to the leaders of Israel? He was saying to them, you know what? I and my father are one. I already told you that I am the Mashiach, but you didn't want to believe. You should only search the Scripture, John 5. Search the Scripture for in them you say that you have eternal life and they are they which testify of me. John 1.1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God verse 14 and the word became flesh he became a man and he dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth I told you but you didn't believe I already shared this fact with you but you did not believe And that's why he said to them in the next, he said, my sheep, those that will believe, I mean, they will hear my voice.

And I'm telling you, I know them and they will follow me and I will give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. You know, a true sheep will follow the Lord. You know, we can't fool God. We can't sneak from the side. We are either in or we are out. We are either sheep or goat. We are either a believer or an unbeliever. We are either saved or we are lost. But my sheep, Yeshua says, they will hear my voice. And they will follow me, and I'm going to tell you, dear Jewish leaders, I will give unto them not only life for 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years, but I'm going to give them eternal life.

Eternal life, beloved brothers and sisters, look at us. Just go through some pictures that you had five years ago, 10 years ago, 15, 20, 25, you see how your life and mind pass so fast. And it is only for us who know the Messiah that we have a hope. Hope beyond the grave. It is appointed unto man once to die and after this judgment. God is going to deal with mankind but he wants people to turn their hearts to him. He want mankind to accept him as the Mashiach. I have told you already, he said to them, but you didn't believe. You just didn't believe. You know the king of Israel by the name of Shaul, the first king of Israel, when God took away the kingdom from him, he said, I play the fool.

I thought I was smart. But I play the fool. The fool says in his heart, No God. The wise man built his house upon the rock. The foolish man built his house upon the sand. And how we ought to be thankful that we became sheep that belong to the shepherd. And he said, I'll give them eternal life. They shall never, listen to that, never perish. You cannot become a sheep and then later on, Next week, become a goat and become a sheep and then become a goat. You are either a believer or you are an unbeliever. You are either saved or you or I were never saved in the first place.

No one trick Yeshua, the Messiah, who knows the heart of all. And then he said, my father that gave them to me is greater than all. And not only that no man is going to be able to plug them out of my hands, But no man is going to be able to plug them out of my father's hand. God the Father, who sent his son to become the Mashiach. The Messiah of Israel and the Savior of this world. And then he said that amazing statement in verse 30. He says, I, Yeshua the Messiah that is here, and my father, we are one. We just recited a few moments ago, Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad.

Here O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. That word for Echad is a compound unity. It's not Yachid, it is Echad. The Father and the Son and the Spirit, one God, three persons in the Godhead, one single God. We don't have three gods. Thank God for that. So when the moment that he says, I and my father are one, look what happened. The Jewish people took stones again to stone him. Now do you think they were wrong to do so if he was not divine? They were thinking in their mind, wait a minute, wait a minute, 195 years ago, there was a man by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes who call himself God, Antiochus, God manifest.

He claimed to be God. Look what he did to the temple in Yerushalayim. He desecrated it. And now, 195 or 200 years later, here's another man come by the name of Yeshua. He claims to be God. You see, they would be 100% right if Yeshua was not divine. They would be 100% right because it is blasphemy to claim to be God when you are a sinful man. But this man, the man of sorrows, he is the God-man. He is the Emmanuel. He is the mighty God, El Gibor. He is the man that was born in Bethlehem to the virgin Miriam. He is the sinless one. He is the fulfillment of all what our forefathers were speaking to our own people Israel that they will bring the sacrifices, bring it again day by day and it pointed to Yeshua, to the Messiah, to the Mashiach that will come in the fullness of time.

Now he is appearing there in the temple, the rededicated temple and extended and expended by Herod the Great. He's claiming to be divine. The problem, beloved brothers and sisters, or we should say the mistake of our own people in first century is that they did not accept the fact that he was the Messiah. And that's why they took up stones and they were ready to stone him. But he just paused them for a second and he said to them, many good works I've showed you for my father. For which of those works do you want to stone me? Why do you want to stone me?

I've done miracles in your midst. I've healed the sick. I've raised the dead. I have gave the blind men to see. I have enabled the lame men to walk. The blind men see and the lame men walk in Yeshua's name. For which one of these works that I did you want to stone me? Why do you want to stone me? And look at the answer. The Jews, that is the Jewish leaders, Answering said, verse 33 of John chapter 10, For good work, we stone thee not, but because of blasphemy, because you being a man, you make yourself God. That is one of the greatest mistakes in Israel's history, is to deny the Messiah who had to be divine.

Otherwise, he can't be the Mashiach. Because all of us, Jew and Gentile alike, we've all sinned. We've all inherited a sin nature which we could never redeem somebody else. We could never die on behalf of someone else. But he is the sinless one. He took upon himself the nature not of angels but the seed of Abraham he was born as a descendant to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob a Jewish man but a sinless, perfect man who lived a perfect life in order to die a substitutionary death and he was buried and rose again on the third day and he is seated at God's right hand fulfilling this promise in Psalm 110 sit down at my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool and this Lord Yeshua the Messiah is now in heaven at God's right hand the work of redemption is finished we don't need to do anything anymore than just believe what must I do to be saved believe on the Lord Yeshua the Messiah and you shall be saved For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Beloved brothers and sisters, this is Hanukkah. Hanukkah, dedication, is linked with a person. And that person is none else but Yeshua, the Messiah himself. Who appealed to Israel and appealing to you and I today who ever listened to me. He's appealing and says, today if you hear his voice, harden not your heart. Take him as your Messiah, Lord and Savior. Accept him into your heart and become a child of God. We look forward for this day when he's going to come again and take us to be with him in glory. Can we say Amen to that? Amen. You may close your Bibles, please. Our God and our Father, we want to thank you for the written Word of God, both the Tanakh as well as the Berit HaChadashah, the New Testament.

We thank you for the gift of salvation that was given to us. We thank you for Yeshua, who loved us and gave himself for us. We thank you for the dedication of the temple that led to the coming of the Messiah and eventually becoming, presenting yourself as the light of this world. Father, bless your word, we pray, for we ask it now in Yeshua's name. Amen. Amen. Let's stand, please. Let's sing another song in closing. Number 55.