The Israelites were G-d’s people who had moved to Egypt to survive a famine. After the Egyptians forced them into slavery, Moses went to Pharaoh and demanded he let the people go. He refused, so G-d stretched out His arm and released 10 terrible plagues as mighty acts of judgment. After enduring nine plagues, Pharaoh still refused to let the people go.

The final judgment came when the tenth plague killed all the firstborn throughout the land. The Israelites saved themselves by applying the blood of an innocent lamb to the doorposts of their houses, causing the plague to pass over them. That night Pharaoh finally released the Israelites, and they departed for the promised land of Israel as redeemed people.

Redemption happens when someone buys back his property that had become the property of someone else. Pop bottles are redeemed when we put them into the machine and the supermarket buys them back. In the same way, G-d redeemed his people. The Israelites went down into Egypt a free people, but became enslaved by the Egyptians, so G-d redeemed them with His “outstretched arm and with great judgment,” setting them free and making them His people again.

After G-d redeemed his people, he set up Passover as a perpetual annual holiday to recount and celebrate this great act of redemption. The sacrificed lamb became known as the Passover Lamb.

It was during the Passover holiday 1,500 years later, in the promised land of Israel, that G-d redeemed all who would put their trust in Yeshua the Messiah with, again, an “outstretched arm and with great judgment.” Mankind was enslaved by sin, and since G-d is a just god, mankind could become free only once justice had been served. Instead of sending plagues on the human race, however, G-d took the judgment upon Himself. He came to Earth in the form of a man and stretched out His arm—in fact, both His arms—allowing Himself to be nailed to a cross.

Hanging on the cross as the lamb of G-d who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), Yeshua’s (Jesus’) blood was applied to the cross to cause G-d’s judgment to pass over those who put their trust in His sacrificial death for their redemption. Amazingly, the pattern of the blood on the cross was the same as the pattern of the blood on the doorposts of the Israelites’ houses in Egypt.

When most people think of a just and holy G-d bringing great judgment, they think of Him sending something like the 10 plagues. But thank the Lord that His ways are higher than our ways and that He chose, on that day in Jerusalem long ago, to take the judgment we deserved upon Himself to redeem all who will put their trust in His Messiah.

Chanukah commemorates the courageous uprising of the Jews against the Syrians, the guerrilla war they waged to reclaim their religious freedom, and the great victory they enjoyed as a result of God’s miraculous intervention.

The struggle began around 170 B.C.E. when the Syrian-Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes ruled over Israel.  Wanting a unified empire, he imposed Greek culture on all the nations he ruled. In Jerusalem, he erected a statue of the Greek god Zeus in the Temple courts and commanded the Israelites to worship it. Pagan altars were erected throughout Israel and the Jewish people were forced to use them to sacrifice pigs, which God called unclean.  The penalty for disobedience was death.  Bible study, keeping the Sabbath, circumcision, and celebrating holy days as commanded in the Bible were forbidden.  The Syrians also sacrificed a pig to Zeus on an altar they built on top of the Temple’s altar of burnt offering.    

A Levitical priest named Mattathias moved with his family from Jerusalem to the small town of Modi’in to escape the persecution.  When the king’s officers tried to make Mattathias offer a pagan sacrifice, he refused and fled to the wilderness.  Others joined him, forming an army that became known as the Maccabees.  For three years, this ragtag band of farmers fought against the mighty Syrian army and achieved amazing victories through God’s grace.

Finally the Maccabees launched a surprise attack, recapturing Jerusalem and the Temple.  They cleansed the Temple, and three years to the day after the Syrians had profaned it, rededicated it to the Lord with great joy. It was also decided that this re-dedication should be observed every year as the Festival of Dedication, or Chanukah.

Today, Chanukah is celebrated by lighting candles in an eight-branched menorah each evening to remember God’s miracle with the Temple oil. When the Maccabees regained control of the Temple, they found enough oil to light its Great Menorah for only one day, and, according to the Law of Moses, eight days were required to consecrate more oil. However, God made this little bit of oil last eight days until more could be prepared.

Looking at history through a spiritual lens, the Maccabees’ victory had a significant effect.  Defeat would have meant the end of Biblical Judaism and the Jewish people’s assimilation into Greek culture.  If that had happened, Yeshua (Jesus’ Hebrew name) could not have come as the Messiah. He could only come to an Israel that lived according to the Law of Moses so he could redeem mankind as the sinless Lamb who had not broken the Law. Therefore Chanukah should be celebrated by everyone who appreciates the coming of Yeshua.

Giving Biblical evidence of the early Believers’ jubilant worship practices, Heidler explained how it disappeared as the Greek philosophies of stoicism and asceticism took hold. The result was a religion that saw poverty and suffering as virtues and expressions of passion as evil.

In recent years, the yoke of Greek philosophy has broken off and the joy has been returning to the Body. Followers of Yeshua have broken centuries-old traditions and incorporated joyous praise songs, clapping, lifting hands to the Lord, shouting and sounding shofars into their worship. There have even been individuals who dance spontaneously and dance worship performances by dance groups

The final phase of restoring joyous, passionate worship in the Body will come through ring dancing, which has been a distinct part of Messianic Jewish worship from the beginning of its revival in the 1970s. It is called Davidic Dancing, after King David, who danced with abandon before the Lord as described in 2 Samuel 6. The Bible also refers to dancing as a normal form of worship in Psalms 149, 150, and Exodus 15.

Several of the early Church fathers wrote that participatory ring dances were normal forms of worship for several centuries, according to Heidler. You may have seen trained dance teams perform these joyful and worshipful circle dances during a time of worship.

Davidic dancing becomes a restoration of joy when a congregation transitions from its people observing the dance as a worshipful performance to a significant number of the people participating in the dances. It’s similar to the difference between one listening to a person sing a beautiful worship song to the Lord and one singing a song to the Lord with the rest of the congregation.

When the congregation—young and old, men and women—participates together in a worshipful circle dance, it is a true restoration of joy to the Body. It is also a beautiful prophetic picture of Yeshua’s followers moving together in unity.

In Biblical times, Jewish children learned to read Hebrew by studying the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. Then they memorized it by putting melodies to the words and chanting them. By the time they were young teenagers, they had the Torah committed to memory.

This method of Scripture study resulted in much of the population knowing a significant portion of the Bible by heart. This knowledge was important because access to the written word was very limited. Each village had only one copy of the Old Covenant, or Old Testament, on scrolls in the synagogue. The scrolls were hard to transport, and it was difficult to roll and unroll the scrolls to search for a specific passage.

We can see the evidence of this widespread biblical knowledge in the New Covenant, or New Testament. Its authors, except for Paul, were not scholars, yet they frequently and accurately quoted passages from the Old Covenant in their writings. It also enabled the early followers of Yeshua (Jesus’ Hebrew name), who were not just Biblically literate, but also able to quote the Scriptures from memory, to spread the Good News quickly without copies of the Old Covenant to distribute.

When Christianity became Rome’s state religion, the Roman leaders followed the practices of pagan religions. Only the leaders were initiated into the “sacred mysteries,” while the common people worshiped in relative ignorance. Only ordained priests could read and interpret the Bible. Later, church leadership also resisted attempts to translate the Bible from Latin into the common languages. In fact, they discouraged people from learning to read at all. By the Middle Ages, most people were illiterate and those who were literate had no access to Scripture. These policies enabled leaders to maintain control over the people and to implement many unbiblical practices. Unfortunately, similar policies are still in place in many parts of the world.

When the printing press was invented, G-d began re-connecting the Body of Messiah to this vitally important Jewish root. The written Word became much more accessible, many more people learned to read, and the Bible was translated into many languages. The development of books made searching for a specific passage much easier than it had been with scrolls. Now, in the digital age, we are even able to carry electronic versions of the Bible in our pockets to read, and our ability to study the Bible has also been tremendously enhanced with instantaneous word or subject searches with computer software or on the Internet.

Praise the Lord that we live in a time when G-d has restored a widespread knowledge of His Word—an important Jewish root— so that today all who have a hunger to know the Word, like our ancestors in Biblical times, can easily satisfy that hunger.

At the heart of the atoning process was a ritual involving two goats, described in Leviticus 16. One goat was sacrificed in the Temple to atone for the nation’s sin and/or transgressions. The second, called the scapegoat, was sent into the wilderness to atone for iniquity, or the carnal nature.

Most people who read about the scapegoat in the Bible think it was the fortunate goat. However, Jewish sources explain that this goat was not so fortunate. Instead of being humanely sacrificed, it was pushed off a high cliff and died a painful death. Of all the sacrifices in the Bible, it was the only inhumane one and the only sacrifice made for iniquity, showing that, in G-d’s economy, iniquity required a greater price than sin or transgression.

Isaiah predicted that the Messiah would fulfill the Yom Kippur atonement 600 years before Yeshua (Jesus) walked the earth, using Hebrew words that describe the ritual for each of the two goats. Isaiah 53:5 says the Messiah was “wounded (kholal) for our transgressions; He was bruised (duekah) for our iniquities. (NKJV)” Kholal is the Hebrew word for a wound made by a sharp instrument as was done to the sacrificed goat, and duekah the Hebrew word for the bruising that resulted from the scapegoat’s fall.

In fulfillment of this prophecy, Yeshua later died like the sacrificed goat for mankind’s sin and transgressions. As the goat’s life blood flowed from a wound made by a sharp instrument, so too, the Messiah’s blood flowed from wounds made by sharp nails, a whip and thorns piercing His flesh.

But the greater price of iniquity also needed to be paid, and so He endured the greater suffering of the scapegoat as He was beaten and bruised. Modern medical science has discovered that bruising is actually internal bleeding. Though it wasn’t apparent, the bruising inside the scapegoat after its fall and inside Yeshua following His beating provided the blood shed required by atonement.

The Yom Kippur sacrifices, including the scapegoat’s painful death, enabled G-d’s presence to dwell in the Temple. In like manner, Yeshua’s atoning sacrifice did more than bring us forgiveness of sin; it enabled G-d’s presence to actually dwell in His followers, whose bodies are called Temples of the Holy Spirit, despite the fact that they—and we—still has have our carnal natures.

Yom Kippur sacrifices have not been made for 1,940 years since the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, but many Messianic Jewish synagogues still fulfill the Scriptural command in Leviticus 23:27 to have a holy convocation on Yom Kippur. Consider attending Yom Kippur services at your local Messianic synagogue to do the same.

The correct meaning of Eph. 2:15 is most clearly explained in the Complete Jewish Bible, a paraphrased translation of the Scriptures: by destroying in his own body the enmity occasioned by the Torah, with its commands set forth in the form of ordinances. He did this in order to create in union with himself from the two groups a single new humanity and thus make shalom.”

It is unfortunate that spiritual leaders have taught from the pulpit, reading from their Bibles, that the Messiah did away with the Law so it is no longer important to follow. The dangerous spiritual effects are clear in the Barna report (see “The Law is Abolished! Really? Part 1”). This teaching lessens our fear of G-d and creates a cavalier attitude toward our actions. It produces the mentality that we can do whatever we want because G-d’s grace is so great we can just ask for his forgiveness, and he will give it to us.

It is true that if we sincerely regret what we did, repent, seek his forgiveness and turn from our sin, he will forgive us. But there will always be consequences for our actions, says Paul.

“Don't delude yourselves:  No one makes a fool of God! A person reaps what he sows. Those who keep sowing in the field of their old nature, in order to meet its demands, will eventually reap ruin; but those who keep sowing in the field of the Spirit will reap from the Spirit everlasting life. (Galatians 6:7-8)”

When we sin by breaking G-d’s laws, we give our adversary, haSatan, the legal right to bring the curse of the Law upon us. This is the ruin we will reap. Galatians 6:8 in the New King James Version reads, “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption.” The curse will bring corruption, or ruin, to our flesh, such as physical disease, as well as ruin our finances, relationships and productivity for the Kingdom of G-d. Thankfully, Yeshua redeemed us from these curses (Gal. 3:13). When we repent, we can break their power over our lives, though we will still have to live with the lasting consequences.

Let us embrace the words of the Psalmist:

“How happy are those whose way of life is blameless,

Who live by the Torah of Adonai!

How happy are those who observe his instruction,

Who seek him wholeheartedly!...then I will not be put to shame (Psalm 119:1-2,6)  

Yeshua criticized the Oral Law and its value over the Torah during an encounter with the Pharisees and Torah teachers (Mark 7:5):

The P’rushim (Pharisees) and the Torah-teachers asked him, “Why don’t your talmidim (disciples) live in accordance with the Tradition of the Elders, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?”

Yeshua answered them, “Yesha`yahu (Isaiah) was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites — as it is written, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me. Their worship of me is useless, because they teach man-made rules as if they were doctrines.’

“You depart from God’s command and hold onto human tradition.

Indeed,” he said to them, “you have made a fine art of departing from God’s command in order to keep your tradition!

“There is nothing outside a person which, by going into him, can make him unclean. Rather, it is the things that come out of a person which make a person unclean!”

Before the Jewish people could take the salvation message to the Gentiles, the enmity between the two peoples needed to be broken.  Yeshua’s death and resurrection brought the final blood atonement that removed all of man’s sin, making those who put their trust in the Messiah spiritually pure. This broke the enmity. All men were now clean, as Adonai explained to Peter when he wanted him to take the salvation message to a God-fearing Roman soldier (Acts 10:28).

So we can see that Yeshua upheld and even added to the Torah, but not the Oral Law. The early spiritual leaders of the Messianic Body, including Paul, confirmed, lived and taught the Written Law, but declared the Oral Law unnecessary to keep as a Believer in Messiah. Putting Eph. 2:15 into this Biblical and Jewish cultural context, we begin to understand that what was abolished was the provisions of the Oral Law that created enmity between Jews and Gentiles. The difference between the Torah and Oral Law was so obvious during Paul’s time, he expected readers to understand that was the context in which he was writing. He never would have expected readers or translators to interpret the verse as Yeshua abolishing G-d’s Law.

As Gentiles did not follow the same cleanliness and food laws, Jewish people hesitated to interact with Gentiles. One could touch a Gentile who had a skin disease or recent bodily discharge and become unclean. Or a Gentile could offer his Jewish guest unclean food or a chair that the Gentile had sat on and was now unclean. Since a Jewish person never knew whether his host was clean or unclean, every time a Jewish person left a Gentile’s house, he would have to go through the purification process.

As time when on, the rabbis created additional laws as protective “fences” around God’s laws to help ensure that they would not break God’s laws written in the Torah. These became part of the Oral Law, and eventually were written down in the Talmud. While nothing in the Torah said Gentiles themselves were unclean, the Oral Law eventually said Gentile’s homes were ritually unclean (Ohalot 18:7). As a result, Jewish people refused to enter their homes.

If Jewish law made Gentile products and practices unclean, it would have been only human, all too human, for people to have extended the description, ‘unclean,’ to Gentiles themselves,” says David Stern in his Jewish New Testament Commentary” (pg. 259). “Such attitudes would have not been so much taught as caught, absorbed from the total milieu; and the influence of these attitudes would have quickly become pervasive.”

It was these provisions of the Oral Law that brought enmity, or a hatred, between Jews and Gentiles. But God wanted to bring atonement and salvation to the Gentiles too (Romans 1:16, Luke 2:32). His plan all along was to bring it through the Jews (Isaiah 49:6). While he created the cleanliness laws for the Jewish people to protect them, to teach them about sin and holiness, and to set them apart as a holy nation, man added to those laws. And true to man’s sinful nature, the Oral Law became elevated above God’s Law.

In Matthew 5:17-18, Yeshua said, “Don’t think that I have come to abolish the Torah (Law) or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish, but to complete. Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud (the smallest Hebrew letter) or a stroke will pass from the Torah—not until everything that must happen has happened.”

Saying he came to “complete” suggests something was missing. Yeshua added the missing elements in his interpretation of the Law. Not only should you follow the Torah with your actions, you should follow it in your heart, he said during his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Then he added, “Whoever disobeys the least of these mitzvot (commands) and teaches others to do so will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven, but whoever obeys them and so teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 5:19).”

Finally, giving his life as a sacrifice also completed the Torah’s way of atoning for sin and iniquity. Could he have given any greater support?

Paul also followed the Torah and taught Messianic Jews to do the same (Acts 21:20-25). As more non-Jews began to follow Yeshua, Paul and the other apostles began to wonder exactly what laws the Gentiles should follow (Acts 15). Some believed they should be circumcised and follow the Torah of Moses. In Jewish thought this means both the Written Law and the Oral Law. The Written Law contains moral and spiritual laws, as well as laws specific to the Jewish people, such as circumcision.

After much debate, the apostles concluded that while God gave the moral and spiritual laws in the Torah to everyone to keep, he did not require Gentiles to keep the Oral Law or laws from the Torah specific to Jewish people, other than four relating to food and sexual immorality.

A 2006 Barna study proved this trend, showing eight of 16 moral and sexual behaviors of Born Again Busters (those born between 1965 and 1983) as similar to those of non-Born Again Busters. For example, 59 percent of Born Again Busters believed cohabitation was morally acceptable, with 80 percent of non-Born Again Busters agreeing. Only 33 percent of Boomers (those born before 1965) took that stand.

“The same response pattern was evident when it came to gambling, sexual fantasies, abortion, sex outside of marriage, profanity, pornography, same-sex marriage, and the use of illegal drugs,” said the report called “A New Generation of Adults Bends Moral and Sexual Rules to Their Liking.”

David Kinnaman, director of research, said the study “paints a compelling picture that moral values are shifting very quickly and significantly within the Christian community as well as outside of it.”

An increasingly relativistic society would explain such behavior in those who don’t follow Biblical principles, but how can one explain such behavior in those who pledged to follow these principles and the God who put them in place?

The root cause could be found in Replacement Theology, and the translation and interpretation of several passages in the Bible, including Ephesians 2:15, which reads in the New King James “…having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace.”

Replacement Theology is the belief that all of God’s plans and promises for Israel were transferred to the Church when the Jewish nation’s leaders rejected Yeshua as the Messiah. It began to emerge during the time of Rabbi Sha’ul (Paul) and became the dominant theology by the time of Emperor Constantine in 325 C.E. As a result, a hatred developed for all Jewish things developed, and Replacement Theology became the theological justification for outlawing Jewish cultural practice and stating the Jewish laws were invalid, even for Messianic Jews. If any Jewish practices or laws were followed, one would be excommunicated from the Church.

Next week we will discuss how this thought continues today.