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Part Three:
Seven Shepherds
vs
The Red One
Maybe a better title would be The Circumcised Heart vs The Red One.
In last week's newsletter, we referenced the Jewish expectation of the Seven Shepherds during Chanukkah. It explains why Yeshua (salvation) was challenged specifically about his Messiahship during Chanukkah at the Temple:
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Bare Your holy arm and hasten the end for salvation - Avenge the vengeance of Your servant's blood from the wicked nation. For the triumph is too long delayed for us, and there is no end to days of evil, repel the Red One in the nethermost shadow and establish for us the seven shepherds.
The siddur explains the key players of the Chanukkah liturgy: "The Red One (Admon) refers to Esau/Edom, whose descendants brought the current exile. The seven shepherds of Micah 5:4 will conquer Israel’s oppressors.” (Scherman, p. 832) The Red One whose descendants brought the "current exile" is Rome. In Daniel's vision of the Beast, Rome's iron legs were mingled with clay in the feet and toes, representing the many beast "systems" that have now infected the nations of the world.
The Chanukkah prayer refers to the Seven Shepherds and Eight Princes prophecy of Micah, which gives us a glimpse of how the Kingdom of Heaven will one day defeat and repel the infected world systems. The central shepherd of the seven is thought to be David, and the eighth of the princes to be Messiah. (Micah 5:5)
Although Roman Christianity went to a solar calendar and began to observe "Christmas," they retained the date of the 25th (although it now fell in a solar "month" of December instead of Kislev). Their holiday still includes original Chanukkah symbology associated with prophecy and its institution as a second Sukkot: shepherds and sheep, the birth of a king, a prince of peace, a sukkah, a light to the nations, etc. as depicted in the Gospels. When King Messiah returns and re-calibrates the earth with its Scriptural calendar month, Chanukkah will not be so hard for them to understand. They've been awfully close to the Chanukkah prophecies of Messiah in the Books of Haggai and Micah all this time!
King Messiah will rule and reign during the Seventh Millennium, preparing the world for the Eighth Millennium, a period associated with "circumcision." A circumcised heart no longer struggles against the Spirit of its Creator and no longer desires to dominate the Creator with its own will. The Red One is simply the great world systems attempting to keep human pride over its Creator alive and dominating the rule of the world (or so it may seem).
The Feast of Trumpets (Rosh HaShanah) kicks off the fall season of feasts that includes Atonements and Sukkot. Sardis, which represents Rosh HaShanah in the Book of Revelation, literally means “Red Ones.” Enemies scatter when the Torah goes forth on Shabbat, and the Red Ones along with the Wicked One are scattered in winter, Chanukkah.
The other mention of “winter” in the Brit HaChadasha (New Testament) was the inquiry addressed to Yeshua in the Temple:
- At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, ‘How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.’
King Solomon dedicated the First House, so it was no accident that Yeshua was questioned in the portico of Solomon. Are you the Prince of Peace? Are you the prophesied Eighth Prince King Messiah? “The Jews” ask Yeshua if he is the 8th Shepherd Prince desired at Chanukkah to deliver the Temple from the Romans, Edom, the Red One, The Wicked, the Abomination that Causes Desolation. Because Messiah Son of David is the last of the seven shepherds, the Jews say that it is time for Yeshua to speak plainly…and he did!
Yeshua spoke of himself as the central Shepherd, the Son of David, calling sheep, but he says that the doubters cannot hear his voice. In the desire for short-term deliverance from Rome (also called Edom), the doubters had forgotten long-term salvation spoken of by the prophets in the context of the Seven Shepherds. Deliverance from the Red One is not merely deliverance from Rome or any other regime in a given generation, but deliverance from the Red One within the man that wars against the Ruach Adonai (Spirit of Adonai).
Apart from the Ruach, the man is nothing more than a human who conforms himself to the image of the beast-serpent, icons in Revelation that are familiar to Bible readers. Because Adam and Eve disregarded the Spirit of the commandment and conformed themselves to the soul-driven desires of the beast, they fell to their earthy, animal nature. Without the Ruach, what differentiates a man from a beast? Such a man becomes a Red One, for his base substance was taken from the earth (adamah) like a beast, and the earth’s Hebrew root is also the root of the color red (adom).
Like every human being who has ever lived, those who challenged Yeshua in the Temple at Chanukkah were looking for the “Red One” to be vanquished outside of themselves. If only Assyria, Babylon, Greece, or Rome could be vanquished… Those things, however, are outside the control of the individual. The Red One within is under control of the individual with the help of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Comforter sent from the Father.
The serpent-beast appeals to a human being at the level of his soul (appetite, emotion, desire, and intellect). He entices the soul to dominate the ruach within a man. If the serpent can seduce the man with his “red” desires to dominate the Ruach within, then the beast is the victor. The man’s ruach, however, longs to connect with the Ruach HaKodesh, the Spirit of God that sets him apart from the animal kingdom. The evil inclination may be described as that animal soul striving against obedience to the spiritual commandments, for Paul writes that the Law is spiritual.
If the Law and commandments are only the letter, then they are earthy. If they are engaged with the power of the Ruach HaKodesh, then they are spiritual and holy, as Paul writes. The letter is engaged with the short-sightedness of an animal. The spiritual commandment that gives life to the letter requires long-term vision. The Adversary’s greatest weapon of temptation is to entice a human being into short-sighted benefits, just as he attempted to entice Yeshua during his forty days in the wilderness.
A circumcision of the heart is necessary to fully appreciate and obey the Word with gladness. It is an Eighth Day condition, different from the shepherding of the Seventh Millennium in which King Messiah will rule with a rod of iron. Those who cheerfully acknowledge their Creator as King will enjoy the Eighth Day. Those whose souls are still not transformed will no longer endure, for they cannot rule over their Creator. They cannot be saved for life.
At the conclusion of the 7th “Day” millennium, John writes that the Adversary, who had been bound, will be loosed again to sift those unready for the Eighth Day Millennium. In Jewish tradition, the Adversary (satan) is a Yetzer Hara, the Evil Inclination. The Eighth Day is for the circumcised, just as the first feast is Passover. A Jewish baby boy must be circumcised on the eighth day to remind him daily that he must engage the commandments of the covenant with long-term vision, that is, the Ruach HaKodesh. This is prophecy.
Sukkah 52b records several names by which the Evil Inclination is known:
• The Enemy
• Stumblingblock
• Heart of Stone
• The Hidden One
• Unclean
• The Uncircumcised
All through Scripture there are clues to the final battles for the hearts of human beings. The circumcision always has been a prophetic reminder to Israel that the world to come may only be engaged by those circumcised in heart and body. Like the resurrection that knits, forms, and fuses the spirit, soul, and body together, circumcision will be a final rejection of the Adversary, for the Eighth Day eternal circumcision of the stony heart is the sign of the New Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
On the eighth day, there is no requirement to dwell in sukkot, nor are ushpizin (Seven Shepherds) sent to judge the sukkah. What (or who) happens in the eighth generation?
The Seventh…no...the Eighth Great Shepherd of all Princes, the Prince of Peace, Yeshua. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah who said to his sheep, “If you love me, keep my commandments”:
“THIS ONE will be our peace...”
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