Chag sameach Rosh Chodesh kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah - a blessed New Moon Day and start of the 19th biblical month. We crossed the winter solstice a couple of days ago and, at least for us here in the far north, have noted the shortest day of the year which is mercifully past. For those further north within the arctic circle in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, this is a time of seemingly endless night with all the problems that light-deprivation brings. And like all North Americans, North Europeans, Russians and some others, we are having to deal with snow, ice, and the cold which as you get older becomes less and less forgiving.

You might be interested to know that there are 16 brief references to winter in the Bible, most of them incidental to travels of one sort or another, none of them positive. Winter is never a time Yahweh uses to symbolically signify something important, positive or upbuilding. Winter is an obstacle we must navigate until the cheer of spring comes along and the farmers can once again plough their fields and start planting. Anciently, as today, those able to afford it had their "winter house" and their "summer house", were told in Amos 3:15. Winter for most folks is for huddling up by the fireplace and summer for being outdoors enjoying nature. Winter is a time of rest and indeed, for some animals, a long sleep or hibernation. Thus Jeremiah, on his way to deliver a prophetic message to King Jehoiakim, records:

"It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the firepot ('brazier' - JB, NRSV) in front of him" (Jer.36:22, NIV).

A lot of you are experiencing some unusually terrible winter weather this year. It's in the -40°'s in parts of Canada with one place in Siberia that is used to temperatures as low as -71°C! I think it might be the coldest inhabited place on earth though if you want to get even colder you can go to parts of Antarctica in the winter. I can't even begin to imagine what that's like, the worst I've ever experienced being a 'mere' -36°C during my first winter in Norway. I was dressed up like a clothes store when outside. I remember seeing a frozen cat in an alley in a suburb of Oslo still standing on all four feet, poor thing. Further north in the country, up in Kautokeino, Finnmark, temperatures in the -50°'s C are normal. There you can boil up a kettle of water, go outside and empty it, and before the water has hit the ground it's already frozen as solid ice. So you can imagine the challenges 'going to the bathroom' in that climate. I often wonder what it must have been like for the children in the old school we currently live in having to go to the unheated wooden shack at the back of our property that was their only toilet in winter. But I guess they were a tougher lot back then. Mind you, I remember one old house I regularly stayed in Oslo back in the late 80's that had an outdoor toilet and shower! You had to go through the snow and ice to get to it! It was not walking carefully on the icy pathway to the house having just taken a hot shower. For most people, winter is not some romantic Sound of Music-like 'doorbells and sleighbells and schnitzels with noodles' but something to be endured, and for many of us during this economic recession this means relearning the skills of our ancestors just to stay alive and tolerably comfortable. This will be a steep learning-curve for a lot of folks.

This is the time of year when man has invented festivals to cheer him up during the long, cold gloomy nights. Yahweh nowhere commands us to celebrate anything at this time of year except the regular sabbaths and new moons to mark the weeks and the months, such as we did yesterday and are doing today. And yet we read in the Gospel of John of an incident that las led a lot of messianics frantically scurrying around in search of a God-sanctioned festival because the Jews have one:

"Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Yah'shua (Jesus) was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade" (John 10:22-23, NIV).

The 'Feast of Dedication' is better known as Hanukkah (or Chanukah) and the 'Festival of Lights' to Jews around the world as well as to most Messianics. We happen to be in the middle of that festival right now which we once observed in ignorance many years ago, uncritically imitating our first Messianic Jewish tutors when we resolved to become Torah-obedient. It's symbol is the nine-armed candlearbre, a modification of the seven-armed menorah revealed to Moses in the Torah with two extra arms added, representing the 8 days of the festival-plus-one elevated light in the middle.

Hanukkah was originally celebrated as a 'late Sukkot' or Feast of Tabernacles following the overthrow by the Maccabees of the ruling Greeko-Syrian dynasty under the pagan king Antiochus IV who terrorised Judea, forbade the observance of the moedim or divine appointments like the sabbath, new moons and festivals, and murdered anyone who broke his oppressive edicts. The 'last straw' for the Judeans, who had to endure this tyrant, was his erection of a statue of Zeus in the temple and his performance of the blasphemous sacrifice of an unkosher pig on the altar in the Priests' Court that we talked about two sabbaths ago.

This sparked a bloody revolt that lead to this dictator's ousting and a century of independence for the Judeans before the Romans were invited in as protectors and then took over, dividing the territory up amongst puppet rulers, and making them parts of the Imperial Provinces of Judea and Syria. Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles, which is a autumn (fall) festival, had already passed by uncelebrated because of the uprising so the Judeans decided, on their own initiative, to celebrate it later that same year after the liberation...in the 10th month, at this time in mid-winter. At the same time they rededicated the defiled temple back to Yahweh.

But instead of returning to the old cycle or tavnith (pattern) of festivals, it was decided - again, by human fiat and not by any command of Elohim (God) - to retain this 'late Sukkot' and transform it into a special 'Feast of Dedication' or 'Festival of Lights', adding the fable about a miracle that never took place (when special oil was supposedly supernaturally replenished) to give it a mystical element and an air of authority. Today it's known as Hanukkah and has since evolved into a kind of 'Jewish Christmas' with its own version of a Jewish-looking 'Satan Claus' called 'Hanukkah Harry', illuminated Christmas Tree known as the 'Hanukkah Bush' and all accompanied by the exchanging of presents.

Before I share the prophetic word I have for you today, and with this background in mind, let's return to John 10 again. By this time, in the first century AD, the 'Festival of Lights' had had all kinds of new features added to it to make it quite the spectacle, lighting the whole city of Jerusalem up much as our own Western cities are by gigantic illuminated Christmas trees. So eye-catching and breath-taking was this display that it came to assume an importance and prominence in the Jewish calendar that outshone even the seven authentic annual festivals. It has become a major highlight of Judaism, just as Christmas has become for Christians and non-Christians alike (from whom it was originally stolen or 'culturally appropriated') and the festival that is especially enjoyed by children because of all the pretty lights, much as Holi is by the Hindus with all its pretty colours.

Messianics claim Yah'shua (Jesus) endorsed Hanukkah by celebrating it Himself but in reality He could no more have endorsed it than He would have endorsed Aaron's 'Golden Calf Festival' celebrated, supposedly, in 'honour' of Yahweh to alleviate the boredom and suffering of the wilderness journey in Sinai while Moses was up in the mountain communing with Yahweh. As we know that particular man-made festival during the Exodus quickly degenerated into a pagan orgy and was followed by a terrible judgment from Heaven involving bloodshed. Hanukkah was not so blatant but blasphemous nonetheless. Why? Because at its heart lay a counterfeit satanic light that soon challenged the 'Light of the World' (Jn.8:12; 9:5) Himself as we read in John:

"Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Yah'shua (Jesus) was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade. The Judeans gathered around Him, saying, 'How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Messiah (Christ), tell us plainly.'

"Yah'shua (Jesus) answered, 'I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in My Father's name speak for Me, but you do not believe because you are not My sheep. My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are echad (one).'

"Again the Judeans picked up stones to stone Him, but Yah'shua (Jesus) said to them, 'I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me?'

"'We are not stoning you for any of these,' replied the Judeans, 'but for blasphemy, because You, a mere man, claim to be Elohim (God).'

"Yah'shua (Jesus) answered them, 'Is it not written in your Torah (Law), 'I have said you are elohim (gods)'? If He called them 'elohim (gods),' to whom the Davar Elohim (Word of God) came - and the Scripture cannot be broken - what about the One whom the Father set apart as His very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse Me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am Elohim's (God's) Son'? Do not believe Me unless I do what My Father does. But if I do it, even though you do not believe Me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.' Again they tried to seize Him, but He escaped their grasp" (John 10:22-39, NIV).

Two different lights - the Light of the World and those celebrating the lights of Hanukkah - are set in direct opposition to one another, a reason why Yah'shua (Jesus) chose to speak explicity about both His Messiahship and His Deity at this moment in time because of the stark contrast between the two. And, perhaps not unsurprisingly, again - in our day - so many Messianic are blending or mixing Talmudic Judaism and its traditions, with its counterfeit light, with Messianic Israel and the Besorah (Gospel, Good News) of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) who, as we discussed yesterday, made atonement for the sins of Judeans and the whole world through the shedding of His life-blood on the cross of Calvary, demonstrating that He had done so by means of the resurrection He wrought in the spring at Yom haBikkurim, demonstrating Yahweh's power in the spring, not in the middle of the 'bleak mid-winter' at the Winter Solstice, and which He released to believers in the summer time at the first Messianic Shavu'ot (Feast of Weeks, Ekatost, 'Pentecost'). Do you see how disjunctive prophetically and symbolically these two glittery man-made winter feasts of Hanukkah and Christmas are with the Light that is Messiah? They're symbolically all wrong - out of prophetic season.

Which brings us back to Aniochus IV Epiphanes, that antichrist who claimed to be the incarnation of a god, which is the meaning of Epiphanes from which we get Epiphany (the manifestation of Christ to the magi) in the orthodox Christian calendar. This is important because of the way it neatly ties into our current Book of Revelation course that we're taking another break from this week. Turn with me again, if you will, to Matthew 24, but this time starting at verse:

"So when you see standing in the qadosh (holy, set-apart) place (the first of the two rooms in the temple) 'the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the navi (prophet) Daniel - let the reader understand - then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now - and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There He is!' do not believe it. For false Christs and false nevi'im (prophets) will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect - if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time" (Matt.24:15-25, NIV).

What's sometimes hard to understand for most is that Yah'shua's (Jesus') prophecy is speaking on at least three different prophetic levels about events at three different time periods that resemble one another in respect of these being cataclysmic events. When Yah'shua (Jesus) spoke these words, one of the three events was past and two were future; today, two are in the past and one is future. When Yah'shua (Jesus) pointedly said, "let the reader understand", He was indicating the multi-layered nature of His Davar (Word) on the prophetic spiral like the one we use to illustrate the repeating annual festivals of Messianic Israel starting at Pesach and ending at Sukkot. They were asked to recall what Daniel had prophesied of which the first manifestation was the terror of Antiochus IV which was still relatively fresh in the people's memory. He intended that to be the springboard of their understanding of what was about to happen in the mmediate future as well as in the distant future which is now very near for us. This is the way nevi'im (prophets) densely pack prophecies of different events from disparate periods of time together which only the Ruach (Spirit) can properly unpack! By this means Satan is also kept ignorant of the future, a reason he closely monitors what nevi'im (prophets) are saying in every generation.

For some reason Mark, who was recounting Peter and who wrote the first of the four Gospels, mentions winter but not the sabbath (Mk.13:18) which could either mean Yah'shua (Jesus) related the same prophecy more than once and worded it slightly differently (as we know happened in the telling of other accounts such as the feeding of the multitudes and the cleansing of the temple) or Matthew added a detail which he learned of later from another witness which Mark had missed or Peter forgotten. Now Yah'shua (Jesus), I believe, mentions the Sabbath here not as necessarily a reminder to us to continue observing it at a time when Christendom has almost universally rejected it for 'Sunday' worship and Messianism for 'Saturday' worship (though that could be true at the third level as we'll see), but because both winter and the sabbath would have presented themselves as OBSTACLES or IMPEDIMENTS to escape or flight from a city under siege - winter, because it would be perilous on account of the elements and the unavailability of food in the fields which would have been harvested in the autumn (fall) and the gleanings long since gone; and because at that time (on the second level, when Pharisaic Judaism prevailed), because of the shutting of the city gates and the over-strict rules (which Christ criticised more than once) and popular scruples about movement on the Sabbath. But those extra rules and scruples aside, fleeing on the Sabbath in the normal course of events would have meant not travelling further than the ordinary sabbath day's journey of about our modern mile, a little more than a kilometer, not nearly far enough to get safely away during an enemy siege and occupation of the surrounding territory.

As you have probably figured out, the first level clearly has something to do with Daniel's prophecy, reminding the reader of the privations under Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who set up an 'abomination of desolation' in the temple in his day (that we've already talked about); the second is concerned with the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in AD 70 - and you will recall, that in the last Judean revolt, in the second century, the Romans finally levelled Jerusalem, removing 'the Judean problem' once and for all, and built a statue of Jupiter on the Temple Mount, the Roman 'abomination of desolation'; and, lastly, the third level with the end-time tribulations - our own current Penultimate Judgment and the Great Tribulation soon-to-come (in the generation that follows my own). As I will argue later on in our Book of Revelation course, this end-time Temple refers, on the most important level, not to a building but to the Temple of the Body of Christ (1 Cor.3:16; 6:19) and the compromises so many end-time believers will make to save their lives - by taking the Mark of the Beast they will, in effect, install the 'abomination of desolation' in their own temple bodies about which speculation is currently rife (RIFD chips, vaccine DNA modification, graphene and G5, triple helices, etc.) that I have no intention of spending time on today because the Mark of the Beast is essentially spiritual - a choice worship Self and belong to Satan.

In light of the horrid winter conditions currently in some parts of the world like Canada that I mentioned, with temperatures down in the minus 40's, fleeing from an oppressor would hadly be practical, would it? - a reason I have been urging people for many years to get out of the cities as soon as possible and out into a well-provisioned place of refuge in the countryside.

Let me remind you of the words of the navi (prophet) Daniel by way of encouragement:

"At that time Michael [the archangel] shall stand up,
The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people;
And there shall be a time of trouble,
Such as never was since there was a nation,
Even to that time.
And at that time your people shall be delivered,
Every one who is found written in the book [of life]" (Dan.12:1, NKJV).

The Judean historian Josephus tells us that "the multitude of those who perished (in Jerusalem in AD 70) exceeded all the destructions that either men of Elohim (God) ever brought upon the [known] world". He added: "The number of those that perished during the whole siege [of Jerusalem] was 1,100,000", the cost for defying Rome, and all this in the space of 5 months. So when Yah'shua (Jesus) said that "no one would survive" (v.22) or "there should no flesh be saved" (KJV), He is saying (on the second level of the prophecy about Jersualem) that 'no inhabitants of the theatre of war would be left alive' (the reason they were told to flee to the Judean hills) and the "elect" who are to be delivered are the first century believers living in the city and area at the time in AD 70, for whom the days of the terrible siege are shortened to five months.

On the third level, this is a GLOBAL event, where 'Jerusalem', as we have seen in recent studies, represents 'Rome', 'Babylon' or the lands where the whole Babylonian system prevails in the very last days which are yet to come of which we are getting a foretaste right now. The "shortening" of the "days" in the third level of this prophecy that is of the Great Tribulation of the final Anti-Messiah or Antichrist, of whom Antiochus IV Epiphanes was a type (like many others who have come since), will only occur when Yah'shua (Jesus) returns and destroys Babylon 'in one day' otherwise more than half the world population would perish. Note also that the end-time Jerusalem, with its casualties numbered only in the thousands according to the Book of Revelation, apparently fares a lot better than the Jerusalem of AD 70, if Josephus' statistics are to be believed (some say they are exaggerated).

So are we all clear now about the at least three different levels that Yah'shua (Jesus) is speaking on as a navi (prophet)? In prophetic view, in His day (early 30's AD), was, of course, the siege and destruction of Jerusalem that would follow about 40 years later (in AD 70) in the days of many of the apostles; and when John wrote His last works, this would have been 20 years in the past, at the very least. Juxtaposing the prophetic time-lives is clearly seen to be important, then.

Which brings me to our day and a message I want to share with you, now that we have a clear (and I hope, solid) context. This is a vision I saw on Monday, 12 December (11 days ago) at 10.25 a.m. in the middle of the current 'bleak mid-winter' forced on us. It also for those elsewhere in differenjt climates and circumstances who, though warm, are suffering from drout and famine in East Africa, not forgetting those suffering in areas of persecution such as Nigeria and Pakistan or those suffering from both cold and starvation brought upon by war in the Ukraine. This vision is given for both fellow believers looking for reassurance and for the wicked who, I repeat, will be defeated in their bold attempt to hurriedly seize world power and turn their subjects into slaves. So listen closely!

I saw a massive tsunami-like wave in the sea moving slowly from the east in a westerly direction. It was met by a smaller wave, less than half its size, rising up from the west and moving in an easterly direction. As the smaller wave lost momentum and the tip of its wave started breaking inwards, so the much larger wave that was towering far above it, slowly envelopped the smaller wave until the latter had been entirely swallowed up. The larger wave then began diminishing in height and the sea became calm by the by.

This is a prophetic illustration of what is happening right now, and is about to happen. The larger wave is Yahweh and His agents in the nations He is using, and the smaller wave the Enemy and his agents. Now there were other visions but I do not feel led to share them right now. None of this is to say that troubles, whether economic, political, social or otherwise, are about to suddenly end, because I believe these waves are depicting events over a longish period of time (several years) as represented by their very slow movement. The vision seemed to be playing in slow-motion of something, from Yahweh's perspective, is moving very fast. So don't suppose everything is going to resolve in just a few weeks or months. The upshot of the message is that the western wave will be swallowed up by the larger, more powerful eastern wave and there is nothing that the western wave, and its handlers, can do about it. The smaller wave will collapse once the larger one meets it head-on. So carry on as before, keep your hatches bolted down during the winter months and patiently await the spring as Yahweh deals systematically with His enemies. Keep prepping and do whatever you need to do, in righteousness, to survive and prosper now and in the near future.

This is the message I have for you today. Until next Sabbath, Yahweh bless you all in Yah'shua (Jesus) our Messiah. Amen.

Comments from Readers

[1] "Shalom and thank you, brother, for sharing the word! I found myself thinking of that passage ("pray your flight be not in winter or on a sabbath") this past few days, though I didn't know you would be teaching about it. I'm in Minnesota, United states, and the ground freezes hard as Rock here for many months every year (usually 7 months). It would be impossible to pitch a tent with tent pegs in such ground. Just driving in a car is risky enough. Thank you for explaining the man made laws that made travel hard. I wasn't aware of those. Abba told me years ago, a time is coming when we will not be able to use our phones or drive on the roads. I do not know if we can use landlines, or no phones at all. I don't know if we can bicycle or walk, or must avoid roads completely. I do know the adversary wants to control us, especially our travels. The last few years, I note a strong attitude of rebelliousness in most people, even christians. Most people get angry over things they cannot control. This is it only a normal human reaction, but also is a reaction the demons have when they're not in control of a person or situation. We must walk carefully. This year for the 1st time ever, both husband and I were too sick to celebrate anything (Yule or Hanukkah). But I don't feel deprived. I am glad your dear Mrs is alright to return home. I know life here is hard, but we need to borrow both of you for a while longer" (BFM, USA, 28 December 2022)