"We had a wonderful Sukkot in the Land. And then when we woke up on October 7th, something had changed. And I guess long story short: k-boom. A lot of k-booms. And you find out who you are inside. I think when the k-booms start going off, and you have no control over them... You know, I think most people are used to–at least familiar with-weapons, that it’s probably not going to go–it’s not supposed to go off-unless you do specific things to make it go off. But when you have no control over what’s going over your head, it’s a completely different dynamic.
And so, I’m still learning how to deal with that one. I’m not used to being shot at. It’s different. So I’m glad to be here tonight. It’s good to be back with Jacob’s Tent. And the larger tent that we see often around the feast times. And what I want to do tonight is not necessarily seem Chanukah-forward. But I think we’re in a time where we need to be encouraged because if you’re like me, since October 7th, you’ve kind of been stuck in a certain place.
It’s hard to know what’s on the horizon, but you definitely know what’s behind you. And so you’re beginning to ask yourself: “All this that I’ve been learning, you know He’s brought me out of some system that I was in and maybe happy with, maybe unhappy with, but He brought me out of that system. And I can’t help but think He brought me out for some reason in this generation in particular. I wasn’t born in a different generation. I was born into this generation.
And we know every generation has its tribulation. That’s not new. Is this the tribulation of our generation? And I think the answer’s going to be “yes” to that. I’ve not experienced anything like this. I’m used to them lobbing rockets at Sukkot, that’s what they do. If you didn’t go to Israel because they lobbed a few rockets, you would never go to Israel. But this is different. And it really feels as though everything we have been doing has prepared us for this moment in time. What’s on the horizon? We don’t know. That’s why I feel a little bit stuck in a certain place. I feel like everything’s outside our control right now, but hasn’t it always been? It’s always been outside of our control. He’s been preparing us for this time when it’s going to feel so much as if things are out of our control. And the good news is, there is no Plan B.
In the beginning, there was plan A. We would like to think that our sin is just so powerful that Adonai just has to keep coming up with new plans like B, C, D, E, F. He never did. He never changed His mind. He never changed the goal. Now, it might be taking us a little longer to get there, but He hasn’t changed His mind, and the purpose for which you have been called hasn’t changed because there is a war in Israel. That has not changed. He has been preparing you for this moment.
What I want to do is take a look at the history that has brought us to this point. We might call it prophecy, we might not. I mean, what people usually call prophecy, I just call deep Torah study. There’s no prophecy without Torah. And so as we look at some of the prophecies, and tonight I want to look at a passage in the Song of Songs of all things, we think it’s a love song but it’s actually a prophecy of the return of the exiles. And this is the way that the rabbis construe it. This is not Hollisa Alewine sitting too long with too many cups of coffee. This is the way the rabbis have put it together. The only thing I can see that’s missing from the way they’ve put it together is the fact that they haven’t yet recognized Yeshua as that Messiah that they’re talking about.
Part of that you can see even in the gospels when it was teaching about the circumstances surrounding Yeshua’s birth. We have all sorts of things: Shepherds by night. Stars. We have peace on earth.
