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Rededicating our Temples in the Fall Festivals
We have just embarked on a wonderful journey through the Fall Festivals. We went from Rosh HaShana through the Ten Days of Awe, and Yom Kippur followed by 5 days of preparation for Sukkot. It all culminated with Shemeni Atzarat (8th day), and Simcha Torah, the joy of the Torah!
This is a collection of back-to-back appointed times or moedim, when we enter deep introspection and preparation of our temples to glorify G-d. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 asks, “Don’t you know that your body is a temple for the Ruach HaKodesh who lives inside you, whom you received from G-d? The fact is, you don’t belong to yourselves; for you were bought at a price. So, use your bodies to glorify G-d.”
We started with Yom Teruah aka Rosh HaShana, when we heard the shofar in anticipation of the second coming of our L-rd Yeshua. As Revelations 11:15 describes, “The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our L-rd and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.’”
During the ten days following Rosh HaShana, the Days of Awe or Yamim Noraim, we prepared ourselves and our temples to stand before G-d during Yom Kippur. 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, “We must all appear before the Messiah’s court of judgment, where everyone will receive the good or bad consequences of what he did while he was in the body.” CJB
We have searched ourselves for any sinful ways over the past year that may not be pleasing to G-d, according to I Corinthians 11:31. “If we would examine ourselves, we would not come under judgment.” By making teshuva/repentance on Rosh HaShana and the Days of Awe, we make a 180-degree turn back to G-d, and back to following the Torah! Once we have repented through Yeshua, we are cleansed of sin and we are sanctified, set apart for G-d.
During the week of Sukkot, we build sukkahs as a testimony to the nations of the G-d who longs to gather them in. G-d loves and cares about all of Creation--not just the Jews, but the goyim/nations/Gentiles as well. Interestingly, Sukkot is the only festival where sacrifices were made for the Gentiles. 70 bulls were sacrificed, and the sages tell us that 70 corresponds to the primary languages of the nations. It speaks to the unification of all people to HaShem.
We are thereby reminded that G-d’s plan includes the nations! It always has and always will. As Isaiah 56:7-8 says, “I will bring them to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Adonai Elohim says, he who gathers Isra’el’s exiles: ‘There are yet others I will gather, besides those gathered already.’”
The Fall Festivals foreshadow the time when G-d will dwell or shakan with us again as He did in the Gan Eden. Sukkot is also known as Tabernacles, when G-d commands us to simulate dwelling with Him for seven days as we shakan in the sukkah. Shakan also means to abide. Therefore, in one word we are taught not only to dwell with G-d, but also to abide in Him.
Through these high holy days, we are not just preparing our own temples for G-d and his Ruach Hakodesh to dwell in, we are also helping HaShem bring the nations to Himself. G-d desires all of his creation to be reunited with Him. The moedim, provide a perfect picture of the restoration of all mankind from the sinful fall of Gan Eden, back to himself.
The Eighth Day
After Sukkot, on the eighth day, we come to Shemeni Atzarat, and a foreshadowing of the time when all things will be restored as it was in the Garden or Gan Eden. This illustrates the perfect harmony of holiness, righteousness, and purity when we will all shakan with G-d in the new heaven and earth. Isaiah 66:22-23, “For just as the new heavens and the new earth that I am making will continue in my presence, says Adonai, so will your descendants and your name continue. Every month on Rosh-Hodesh and every week on Shabbat, everyone living will come to worship in my presence, says Adonai.”
Following the eighth day is the time to celebrate Simchat Torah, Joy of the Torah. This points to a time when all souls will abide in G-d and His Torah. It will be a time that we all will live in a true covenant relationship with our G-d and Father. We rejoice in the day when Yeshua will put all sin under His feet, and we are all reunited with our Father forever!
Isaiah 2:1-4 “This is the word that Yesha’yahu the son of Amotz saw concerning Y’hudah and Yerushalayim: In the acharit-hayamim the mountain of Adonai’s house will be established as the most important mountain. It will be regarded more highly than the other hills, and all the Goyim will stream there. Many will go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Adonai, to the house of the G-d of Ya’akov! He will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.”
On this day of Simcha Torah we sing and dance with the Torah circling the altar of G-d seven times, the seven hakafot/circles, symbolizing the seven days of Creation which were for the purpose of learning and fulfilling Torah.
Chanukah
The Fall Festivals or moedim are soon followed by Chanukah, a time of celebrating the rededication of the temple and a rededication of our temple. On Chanukah, the number eight shows up again as we light an eight-branched candelabra known as a chanukia. The chanukia is lit for eight days in remembrance of when the Maccabees cleansed the Temple after the Greek/Seleucid leader Antiochus defiled it by sacrificing a pig on the altar. The Jewish Temple was overrun by enemies just as we are in a constant struggle with the enemy who wants to overrun and defile our temples.
Yeshua represents the middle candle on the Chanukia. The candle called the shamash or servant. The flame of the servant candle is the light that is used to light all the other candles. Yeshua is the light of the world that rekindles the Temple menorah.
Just as the sukkah is displayed as a public visual for the world to see, so is the menorah during Chanukah. Jewish tradition says that every Jewish home should display a menorah in a window for the world to see! The eight candles represent the miracle of G-d that kept one day’s supply of oil burning for eight days, while the Temple was restored and rededicated.
As Yeshua was raised up for all to see. The center candle on the menorah stands above all the others for all to see. In ancient times when there was no electricity, the menorah served as a light for all to walk by. Yeshua is this light who gives us the light to walk by and the life, (ohr ha-khayim). As John 8:12 says, “Yeshua spoke to them again: ‘I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light which gives life.’”
Every year G-d provides us with a dress rehearsal in His moedim. As we walk through these appointed times, we retell the greatest story ever told: the redemption of mankind!
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