Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome to the fourth part of this series on the 'Kingdom of Our Messiah'.

Three weeks ago we looked at the chief religious symbols of the Rabbis and the Judean culture in which Yah'shua (Jesus) and the apostles ministered; two weeks ago we looked at the first two of the New Covenantised Symbols of Yah'shua (Jesus), namely, the Land and People of Israel, and the Nuclear and Spiritual Family; and last week we looked at New Covenant Torah. This week we shall examine the New Covenant Temple (the pre-Christian version of which we've already studied a lot from the Rabbinical perspective, in the first part) and then we're going to take a break for the Autumn Feasts.

So let's cast our gaze back onto the Temple once again. But before we get into that, it's important to understand that Yahweh, our Heavenly Father and the Creator of this incredible, dynamic universe, about which we are currently discovering so much in the science of Astronomy, is also a re-Creator - or perhaps a better term would be, Recycler, because He does not waste anything that may go wrong or get damaged. Since we are about to talk about the symbol of the Temple in the New Covenant, and since the Temple may be understood on many levels, we can look at any one of these levels or Temple meaning and make some important deductions that apply to nearly all, if not actually all, the rest. So 'temples', within the definition of 'a place where you can worship Elohim (God)', can include seven categories (maybe you can find more), namely:

• 1. Our physical bodies (where it has a prominent meaning in the New Covenant);
• 2. Our homes;
• 3. The Temple or singular physical structure or building during the dispensation of the Old Covenant, where Yahweh met His people Israel through the mediation of a special consecrated Priesthood employing animal and other sacrifices;
• 4. The Messianic Congregation or Assembly - indeed, you'll find some Pentecostal denominations calling their churches 'temples' and it is not uncommon for modern Jews to call their Synagogues 'temples' too (we won't include Mormon, Hindu and pagan 'temples' here);
• 5. Planet Earth (you might want to add the original Garden of Eden as a category of 'Temple' too);
• 6. The whole Cosmos; and, most important of all,
• 7. Elohim (God) Himself.

So what I'd like us to do is consider #5 from that list, the planet earth, by way of an example. We must go back in time to the Luciferian rebellion against Yahweh's Government in 'Heaven' (Ezek.28:12-17; Lk.10:18; Jude 6). You'll remember his object was complete control of the entire Universe, removing Yahweh from His Throne - a cosmic coup d'état. We are not told very much about this war in Scripture but we can deduce a number of important things relevent to our study today.

First, we know that Lucifer (or Heylel to give his proper Hebrew name) lost, was cast out of Heaven - the dimension where Elohim (God) lives (it's called simply the Shammayim, Heavens or Skies, which is a metaphor indicating that Yahweh-Elohim lives above and beyond the earth - in reality, another dimension). In the Narrative or Story Line Heylel (Lucifer) is depicted symbolically as an actual historical figure, the 'King of Type', in Exekiel 28, since the ancient City State of Tyre was in the renewed creation that we live in now, Tyre was a vitally important political and commercial centre in the ancient world in the same way that planet Earth was originally the trading-rich world of the malakim (angels) before their Fall. Hence the comparison. (This is long before mankind was created). The result of this war was the destruction of planet earth (and quite possibly other outposts in the Universe too, though we don't know for sure). So planet earth was originally a malak or angel world long before mankind came on the scene.

We could say more about this war, and the original set-up of the Universe, but permit me, so that we don't go over our time limit, to jump forward now to the Book of Genesis, and to the second verse which is not describing the original creation of the world, but rather a renewing of its face following this disasterous malak (angel) war:

"['Now' - NIV] the earth was (hayah - 'had become') a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind (the ruach) from Elohim (God) (the Ruach Elohim = Spirit of God) swept (hovered, vibrated) over the face of the waters" (Gen.1:2, NRSV).

The sense here is that verse 2 is speaking of a different time period than in the first verse. The Earth had become waste and empty. The second phrase, "without form, and void" (NKJV), "formless and empty" (NIV) or "a formless void" (NRSV) translates the rhyming Hebrew words tohu and bohu which literally mean, 'waste, destruction and empty' or 'chaotic, in confusion and in a state of decay.' In other words, this was a ruined world, the remains of something else.

Importantly, tohu and bohu are often used in the Tanakh (Old Testament) (e.g. Jer.4:23; Is.34:11) to depict a condition of decay, which is itself the result of transgression of Yahweh's Torah or Law. Yahweh did not create the earth as waste and empty, or in a state of decay (Is.45:18) because Yahweh is never the author of confusion (1 Cor.14:33) and these words imply rebellion against Torah. Whatever He creates is orderly, beautiful and peaceful. What we are reading here in Genesis 1:2 is a far cry from that.

The point I am trying to get across here is that the original creation of Genesis 1:1 - "In the beginning, Elohim (God) created the heavens and the earth" (NKJV), when everything was orderly, beautiful and peaceful, is an entirely separate event divided off from Genesis 1:2 by an undisclosed length of time. Whereas Genesis 1:1 is de novo, fresh or brand-new creation, Genesis 1:2 and following is renewal of the planet's pre-existing surface that includes relandscaping, followed by the re-creation of life - how, we don't know, it could have been a brand-new creation or possibly reseeding from elsewhere (though I think it was a brand new biosphere). This culminates in man who makes his first appearance on earth [1] and was clearly not a 'reseeding' - this is de novo creation. The Creation Psalm 104 clearly recaptures the original sense of this renewing and recreating action:

"Send out Your Ruach (Breath, Spirit), and Chayim (Life) begins, You renew the face of the earth" (Ps.104:30, New Jerusalem Bible - NJB)

This was a new beginning for earth and it will not be the last one recorded in the Bible for as we knew the earth is yet to be renewed one more time (Is.65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet.3:13; Rev.21:2), itself also the result of a future malak or angel war prophesied yet-to-come at the end of the Millennium. Thus the earth has been through, and will get to go through, a minimum of two renewals following the original creation. Add to this Noah's Flood inbetween, and you have three planet-wide renewals.

So this is an activity and pattern that should not seem strange to us and is the inevitable result of malakim (angels) and men being given free agency. Each age has been, and will be, different, both in terms of the physical appearance of the planet and what it is that Yahweh organises amongst the malakim (angels) and men living, and formerly living, upon its surface.

The world before the Flood was a very different place to the world after the Flood. The whole climate and the weather systems changed, for one thing. Amongst humans, a Melchizedek Order prevailed before the Flood and an Aaronic, Levitical or Mosaic Order replaced it shortly after the Flood, with an overlapping of the two systems for a while, no doubt. Likewise when Messiah came, the Melchizedek Order was restored (though completed or perfected unlike the pre-messianic antediluvial/pre-flood one), again, with a two-stage overlap period between the resurrection and ascension of Yah'shua (Jesus), and the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 and the dispersion the Nation of Judah in the 130's.

Each of these major upheavals has also resulted in a change or modification of the meaning of important symbols amongst the people who lived between these eras. We've looked at several of these so far (between the Mosaic and Messianic period) and now we come to the last of them - the Temple, which again becomes the focal point of Yah'shua's (Jesus') teachings but in a new way. In the same way that Yahweh was present in the original Temple of Solomon, when He manifested spectacularly in it at its dedication, driving everyone out because of the brilliance of His glorious presence (1 Ki.8:10-11; 2 Chr.5:13-14), so in the Gospels we see Yah'shua (Jesus) acting in such a way as to say that where He was, and where His followers were, Israel's Elohim (God) was likewise present and active in an unmistakable and spectacular way.

He demonstrated this on the Mount of Transfiguration in front of Peter, James and John who served as important witnesses during Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), to show that Messiah was the New Sukkah, Tent or Temple bathed in glory, attended on either side by Moses and Elijah, representing the Torah (Law, Teaching) and the Nevi'im (Prophets), and so confirming that He was the apex, fullness and completeness of Law, Teaching and Prophecy, the New Temple.

Then, after His death, resurrection and ascension, that same New Covenant Temple glory was revealed dramatically at the First Messianic Shavu'ot (Weeks, 'Pentecost') in Acts 2 with a display of tongues of fire over each human temple accompanied by the gift to speak in power, in this case the ability to speak unlearned foreign languages for the purpose of evangelism, marking the symbolic reversal of the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel. This outpouring of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) was the demonstration or witness that the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) were themselves miniature temples of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) (1 Cor.3:16; 6:19) within the Greater Temple that is Yah'shua (Jesus), the Son of Elohim (God).

Is there any evidence that a transference of power and glory took place away from the Temple of Herod at Jerusalem and to Yah'shua (Jesus) and His talmidim (disciples)? Aside from the Transfiguration and 'Pentecost' evidence I have already presented, yes. According to Josephus, after Yah'shua's (Jesus') atonement on the cross of Calvary, part of the crimson strip of cloth which had been attached to the Azazel goat was removed and attached to the Temple door of Herod's Temple no longer supernaturally turned white at Yom haKippurim (Day of Atonements) as it hitherto had done, indicating that the animal sacrifices under the Old Order were now no longer efficacious and could no longer make atonement for the sins of Israel (represented by the red colour - Is.1:18). From now on, atonement and salvation would only be available through the glorified Messiah and through no other priest, prophet or king. Access to the Father would solely be through the Son, marking a radical, no nonsense, fundamental change in toqef or authority. There was never any going back.

This marked a HUGE change for Israel but it also became a political threat to the religious leaders for whom the Temple was the very heart of their power base. That whole system was cut from right under their feet by Yah'shua's (Jesus') claims. Not that they necessarily always cared about what He claimed, what they seemed to care about was not upsetting their unspoken masters, the Romans, and losing popularity with the ordinary people. And you know how unkindly threatened politicians in power behave.

All the temple symbols were instantly changed at the resurrection of the Saviour: from the simple Israelite man all the way up to the vast Cosmos, including planet Earth itself. Everything changed. A new reality had dawned and new symbols replaced the old ones to express and reflect that change in real time and space. What happened on that cross changed the whole of Creation, from sub-atomic particles to the billions of galaxies in the Universe. And what had once been a malak (angel) planet before the Rebellion in Heaven would, eventually, become the permanent, glorified home of mankind, at any rate of the faithful overcomers, where Yahweh would once again dwell as before He had in Eden, making it His Temple.

The Old Temple rulers, having owned most of the show for centuries, now had to yield to an entirely different system of governance. Yah'shua's (Jesus') Temple teaching, while He was alive on earth, meant there was now a rival agenda parallelling, and therefore threatening, the agenda of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Torah-Teachers (Scribes), Herodians, and indeed all the sects of that day, including the Essenes who thought of themselves as super-righteous and super-holy to whom they fervently believed the expected Messiah would most certainly come. He didn't because they were waiting, like modern Yah'shua (Jesus)-rejecting Jews, for the wrong one.

Let's take His teaching about fasting as an important example of the New Gospel Agenda. Right away, a stark difference could be observed between, on the one hand, Yah'shua's (Jesus') talmidim (disciples); and the talmidim (disciples) of John the Baptist and the Prushim (Pharisees) on the other. Let's refresh our memories:

"The talmidim (disciples) of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, 'Why do the talmidim (disciples) of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your talmidim (disciples) do not fast?' And Yah'shua (Jesus) said to them, 'Can the friends of the Bridegroom fast while the Bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the Bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins" (Mark 2:18-22, NKJV - Evidence Bible, p.1391).

What's going on here? What's Yah'shua (Jesus) trying to tell His listeners? Well, what isn't going on, as is often suggested by Bible commentators, is that all this has something to do with 'patterns of religion'. What's not happening is that the two groups - the followers of John and the followers of the Pharisees on the one side (who practiced the outward observance) were interested only in externals while Yah'shua (Jesus) was only interested in the heart. We have to get out of this antinomian, lawless Protestant mindset that has been drummed into us which is used to justify ignoring Yahweh's external mitzvot (commandments) of the Torah.

Why isn't this an external versus internal issue? Quite simply - and again, this shows the vital importance of knowing your history - fasting for Yehudim (Judahites) in this period of time (and remember, we're talking 1st century, 2nd temple Judaism) was not simply an ascetic discipline to bring the flesh into subjection to the spirit (as we might perhaps do when we fast for something): the fasting of that day very much had to do with Israel's present condition - she was still in Exile and the Pharisees wanted to ensure that everything was done properly to ensure an end to that exile.

More specifically - and this really is the key - all this fasting had to do with the earlier destruction of the Temple and the lessons to be learned from that. You see, in addition to the seven annual festivals given by Yahweh to Israel, which on one level were all pointers to the redemptive work of the Messiah but on another - the one the leaders and people understood best - symbolically celebrated the blessing of Israel's Elohim (God) upon His Land and His people - drew together the two major covenantal themes of Temple and Land. The three 'major' or 'pilgrim' feats - Pesach (Passover), Shavu'ot (Weeks, 'Pentecost') and Sukkot (Tabernacles), which celebrated the Exodus from Egypt, the giving of Torah on Mount Sinai, and the Wilderness Wandering on the way to the Promised Land, respectively - these three focussed attention on key aspects of Israel's Story; and the annual retelling of that Story encouraged the people to think of themselves, year after year, generation after generation, as the Creator's 'Free People' who would be redeemed by Him and so vindicated in the eyes of the world. This theme was further amplified by the prayers appointed for these different occasions.

As if this weren't sufficient, the Pharisees invented two extra festivals, nowhere commanded by Yahweh in the Torah, to emphasise this point to a feverish pitch, thereby crossing the border between genuine faithfulness to Yahweh to a passionate man-centred nationalism that relied heavily on the teachings of the Pharisees and ruling classes. As you have no doubt already guessed, I am speaking of Hanukkah Feast of Dedication) - which celebrated an actual historical event (the overthrow of Antiochus Epiphanes by Judas Maccabbeus and his followers - and Purim (Lots) which is based on a semi-fictional story found in the Book of Esther (which was not, by the way, in the original Tanakh [2], being entirely absent from the earliest one we possess). Purim (Lots) re-enacts a fiercely nationalistic story in which the plot of Haman the Amalekite to destroy the Yehudim (Judahites) in the Persian Empire is reversed. The point is, these two extra, apocryphal festivals, which were inserted for observance in the winter months when Yahweh ordained there be no annual festivals, simply drove home the now highly politicised message about the Land and the Temple but in such a way as to overshadow everything else, thus distorting the original, divinely-intended, symbols of Land and Temple, both of which would come to be lost in the apostles' and the next generation's day.

So these nine festivals - seven authentic and two man-made - had the effect of encouraging the people, who faithfully and enthusiastically joined in to think of themselves as some special élite automatically deserving of rescue from any tyrants who might come to oppress them if only they observed everything right externally. The more they 'observed' these external requirements, they concluded, the more deserving they surely would be of deliverance from Rome. It's why the Pharisees were so meticulous in promulgating the letter of the law, inventing their own burdensome rules to ensure no one accidently 'crossed the line' into apostacy and so risk endangering Israel's worthiness for deliverance.

The Pharisaic idea - noble in one respect but utterly misguided in another - was that if everybody enthusiastically joined in devoted Torah-observance, their worldview would precisely match that of the Pharisees, which they assumed, in most cases, matched that of Yahweh Himself; and in so doing this, they would contribute to guaranteeing five basic precepts, namely that:

• 1. There was One Elohim (God), Yahweh;
• 2. Israel was His people;
• 3. The land of Israel was qadosh, holy, set-apart or sacred;
• 4. The Torah (Law, Teaching) was inviolable; and
• 5. Redemption was certain.

All of this was deeply engrained in the collective psyche of first century Judea, thanks to the Pharisees. Even the symbol of Rosh Chodesh, the monthly New Moon festival, was reworked to reinforce the last point, namely, that after a period of darkness and a period of suffering, Israel would be restored. But that wasn't all the Pharisees emphasised. You see, in addition to all this - that is, the authentic annual festivals, the new moon and sabbath assemblies, and the two unauthorised festivals of Hanukkah and Purim - the nevi'im (prophets) had, by revelation, authorised for the House of Judah specifically (but not the other tribes who were in exile still) some extra fasts (to the big one on Yom haKippurim) in the 4th, 5th, 7th and 10th months, what are sometimes called the Minor Judahite Fasts, that commemorated these four actions of the Babylonian:

• 1. Breach in Jerusalem's Walls (4th month);
• 2. Destruction of the Temple (5th month);
• 3. Murder of Gedaliah (7th month); and
• 4. Siege of Jerusalem (10th month)

These four fasts underlined, re-emphasised and reminded the Yehudim (Judahites) even more that Israel was still waiting for her real redemption from exile. Zechariah promises that one day these four fasts would be turned into feasts of celebration:

"Then the word of Yahweh of hosts came to me, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be[come] simcha (joy) and gladness and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah. Therefore love emet (truth) and sdhalom (peace)'" (Zech.8:18-19, NKJV - EB, p.1308).

Here's the big question: how could this prophecy be fulfilled for the House of Judah (notice it is not addressed to the ten tribes led by Ephraim exiled by Assyria who did not witness the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple or Babylonian exile) except by the real return from exile - which, by implication, had still not taken place at the time when Zechariah 8 was written? [3]. So this is the picture you need to hold in your minds as you understand how Yah'shua (Jesus) redefined both the authentic and the false view of these Judahites who were rightly expecting deliverance from exile but in the wrong way. No 'Judas Maccabeus' was coming this time round, no man-made Hanukkah II festival, like the first, original Hanukkah before it (which was actually a late Sukkot originally) would follow his expected liberation of Judah from the Romans.

So do you understand why, given all their intense mental prepping, how the Temple of Herod at Jerusalem had become so central to their belief about deliverance from exile represented by the Roman occupation? They thought they could be liberated from the Romans in the same way they were from the Greeks, and they fully expected their Messiah to look something like Judas the Maccabee or Barabbas the Zealot. They also expected the Temple to be properly rebuilt, something that Zecharaiah and other post-exilic nevi'im (prophets) were very concerned about. That is what Yah'shua (Jesus) meant when speaking of the wedding guests not being able to fast while the Bridegroom was with them! The party - the feast, the messianic banquet, symbolised by Sukkot (Tabernacles) especially, was in full swing and nobody wants miserable faces at a wedding. Now true, these was only a foretaste of the Final Sukkot, that will reach its climax at the Second Coming, but it was vitally important nonetheless. This was a time for celebration and feasting, not rumbling tummies and long faces! For those who recognised Yah'shua (Jesus) as the true Messiah, the four Judahite fasts were OVER and Zechariah's prophecy had been fulfilled! Indeed, Yah'shua (Jesus) was telling the people to stop fasting because Yahweh was now doing what He promised through His revealed Messiah albeit it not in the way they were expecting. (They could return to fasting later after His Ascension). The great blessings of exile's end, Yahweh's return and the rebuilding of the Temple, were now happening for those with spiritual eyes to see. Elohim (God) was taking the symbol of the Temple to a wholly new and higher level of understanding [4].

That is why those Zionist Christians and Messianics, who are excitedly waiting for the construction of Ezekiel's 'Third Temple in modern-day Jerusalem, have totally missed the mark, along with their Messiah-rejecting Jewish friends who are still thinking in the old Pharisaic way, and are hopelessly mixing up the two symbols - the old and the new - together. They have failed to realise that Ezekiel's Temple will never be built now because it was a conditional promise to the exiles long ago if they would repent. And they wouldn't, so no temple. Finito. (See the 13 Scrolls of Ezekiel). Instead they would get a very inferior Second Temple presiding over an inferior period of Israel's history in which mosty of her kings would be apostate reprobates.

What's worse (for the Zionists), we're told in the Book of Revelation exactly what the New Covenant Temple would consist of and look like so there can be no excuse for mistaken identity by 'Christian/Messianic Zionists' still looking for a bricks-and-mortar structure like the old one:

"I did not see a temple in the city, because the Master Yahweh (Lord God) Almighty and the Lamb (Yah'shua/Jesus) are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of Elohim (God) gives it light, and the Lamb is its [menorah] lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendour into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut (at night time), for there will be no night there. The glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life" (Rev.21:22-27, NIV).

Would you rather have that or the preparatory Solomonic Temple with its obligatory blood-letting and no permanent assurance of salvation all over again? But I get it - it's 'strong medicine', wanting to build a majestic building that might possibly recreate, with some divine assistance, after 3,000 years, the glory of Solomon's Temple, for churches and synagogues to enjoy, starved as they are of the miraculous and supernatural on a scale remotely close to the manifestation of Heaven at Solomon's Dedication. But it's wrong, it belongs to an old, superceded covenant that only pointed to the Messiah which the New Jerusalem life actually contains for real. The New Jerusalem, coming to this physical earth as it one day will, has no stone temple or Levites who were, as John MacArthur once famously said to Ben Shapiro (who agreed with him), little more than butchers. Today's New Covenant Cohenim (Priests) are not butchers but shepherds. Today's Cohenim (Priests) have different tasks. We are to preach about the Blood spilled by our eternal Cohen Gadol (High Priest) once and for all for the permanent erasure of sin for those who will follow all truth and obey in the supernatural spiritual empowerment that the ancient Israelites never even dreamed of. The counterfeit temple that the Jews are chafing at the bit to build, for which they have all the materials ready, as David once did, will almost certainly be erected in Jerusalem but it will be without divine approbation. Such a structure would instead be used for the self-aggandisement the Antichrist in which he will blasphemously proclaim himself to be the Creator.

So if we ask ourselves what Yah'shua's (Jesus') attitides were to the dominant symbols of the Pharisaic Judaism of His day (which has more-or-less been carried over into our own day in modified form by the Talmudic Jews, lacking a temple as they have for nearly 2,000 years) and if we compare that to His chosen symbols, we find that the Temple and the Torah still dominate the landscape, as we would expect. Yah'shua's (Jesus') criticism of the Pharisee, Sadducee and Torah-Teacher (Scribe) version of these symbols was sharp and severe. Why? Because Israel's appropriation of her national symbols at that time was leading her to ruin, just as today Christian and Messianic Zionists who are doing similar things, are leading themselves to judgment and ruin if they do not repent.

Yah'shua (Jesus) was warning of this tendency to distort the emet (truth) in the clearest way possible, whilst at the same time inviting all who would do so to make teshuvah - to repent - and come with Him in His perfected way of being Israel - the New Covenant way. Therefore He cried: "...unless you repent, you too will all perish (like those who died when the tower of Siloam [5] did when it collapsed onto them)" (Luke 13:5, NIV). In my view, the tower of Siloam (which in the Hebrew means 'sending forth') was a prophetic picture of the Temple which would fall onto the heads, metaphorically speaking, of all those who insisted on relying on it to stay on track with Yahweh after the Messiah had come, after He had redeemed Israel out of Exile on the cross, He who is the Temple. This was a tower next to the Pool of Siloam where, you will remember, Yah'shua (Jesus) healed the blind man (Jn.9:6-7,11)

The New Temple, Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself, sends us forth as witnesses into the world, as little temples or templets filled with, and guided by, the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) (1 Cor.3:16; 6:19), to bring His healing and redemptive message. He ends each individual 'exile' from Yahweh's presence because of sin by reconstituting the People of Elohim (God) into a new Body. But we, for our part, have to let go of our false religion, because the true and the false cannot co-exist. The Kingdom of Elohim (God) and our private kingdoms, agendas, plans, designs, ambitions and hopes cannot occupy the same space inside the temples of the Ruach (Spirit) that are our physical bodies dedicated for service to Him.

If you want proof of what I have said this morning, go to the Gospel of John, chapter 11, where Yah'shua (Jesus) performs His greatest miracle of all before His arrest, and that's where we'll end today. Yah'shua (Jesus) had just raised Lazarus from the dead in front of multiple witnesses - a previously dead man, His best friend, whose corpse was decaying after four days of entombment in that hot climate:

"The result of all this was that several of the Judeans who had come to Mary, and who had seen what He had done, believed in Him. BUT some of them went off to the Pharisees and told them what Yah'shua (Jesus) had done. So the chief priests and Pharisees called an assembly. 'This man is performing lots of signs. If we let Him go on like this, everyone is going to believe in Him! Then the Romans will come and take away our holy place (Temple), and our nation'" (Jn.11:45-48, KNT [6]).

The Pharisees and other leaders had many reasons for their unbelief in all these astonishing signs that the Messiah had given for three years. They feared to lose many things but their greatest fear was misguided religion: the loss of TEMPLE and NATION (the Land of Israel), the very thing the Zionists want to bring back again, so desperate are they that they have fallen for a look-alike possessing that old, false spirit that Messiah came to condemn and set-aside! They lost the Temple and Nation anyway, but not for the reasons they supposed (a dangerous sign-worker), but because they rejected their King and His new symbols.

We face no lesser challenge. Are we all willing to let go of our religion, in whatever form or shape it may currently occupy - our denomination, our doctrines, our 'experiences', our hopes, our fears, our reputations, in order that we might possess Christ and His Eternal Kingdom? That's the real challenge at this time of penultimate Judgment. Letting go of those false things we are clutching onto for dear life is going to feel the same way as it did for the chief priests and Pharisees of Yah'shua's (Jesus') day. Are you ready to let go of your Calvinism, your tongues, your denominational pride and history, your private theologies, your attachment to prosperity, your cessationism, your unbelief in the Living Temple? Are you willing to have all your Christian symbols - the visions and hopes that you cling onto based on your private interpretations of Scripture and all the supernatural charismata you have experienced that you're convinced came from Yahweh - your visions, revelations, 'words' of wisdom, your favourite preachers and teachers, and so on? Is clinging onto all these impure and useless things worth it if it means losing the Living Christ, the Living Kingdom, and forfeiting the Sukkot anointing He wishes to give the Remnant to equip them for what lies ahead?

Ask Him what he wants you to let go of. Be prepared to do so no matter how much it may hurt, no matter how crazy it may sound, no matter how 'unreasonable'. The Pharisees weren't all bad. They were misguided because they failed to understand the Scriptures which we all think we know so well. That is the choice today. The altar of sacrifice awaits your offering, as it did Abraham's, of his son. Know that you will get back everything that was pure, qadosh (holy, set-apart), and praiseworthy. Yahweh bless you as we now approach the autumnal feasts where these things matter so much. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] See Genesis 1: How Old is the Creation?
[2] See the story of the Old Testament (Tanakh) canon
[3] See N.T.Wright, The New Testament and the People of God: Christian Origins and the Question of God (SPCK, London: 1992), pp.234-5
[4] N.T.Wright, The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is (IVP Academic, Downer's Grove, Illinois: 1999), p.71
[5] Or 'Shiloah' (Is.8:6)
[6] N.T.Wright, Kingdom New Testament (Harper One, NY: 2011)

Acknowledgements