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Sukkoth, Jewish Temple Holiday of Light:
A biblical holiday connected with lights is Sukkoth.
Along with Passover, it is one of the holy (and happy) times that the
Children of Israel were given to remind them of being delivered from bondage.
Because one of the names of the “Deliverer” is “Light,” it
becomes apparent that the term “light” is a repetitive symbol of the Lord.
Sukkoth with its lights is also the time to remember Solomon’s
dedication of the temple, the Lord’s house.
The temple became the symbol that set the people apart from others.
They and their temple were to be an “ensign” to the nations.
That ensign was a “light” to the world in its day and would be so
again in latter-days.
“The same Prophets who have contemplated and described the . . .
reunion of the tribes of Israel . . . have also predicted that . . . a new
dispensation should be manifested . . . "An Ensign" for the people.
In short . . . a new organization . . . and government of a renovated
world.” (Parley
P. Pratt, Key to Theology, Ch.9, Pg.76 - Pg.77)
Light
Spreads From Jerusalem:
It was the practice to light fires on mountain tops every Sukkoth
holiday. Seen
by a distant village, they would light fires on their mountain tops, and in that
way the lights spread throughout the diaspora of Jewish communities, mountain to
mountain. Later,
in 164 B.C.E. when the success of Judas the Maccabee in taking the temple out of
the grasp of the Selucid occupiers was celebrated, the practice of lighting
candles (eight days of Hanukkah) expanded to lighting fires on mountain tops
again.
“In
the days of the Temple . . . Golden candlesticks, 50 cubits high, were lit with
wicks made out of worn-out garments of the priests, and the light emitted was
so bright that “there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that did not
reflect the light of the Bet ha-Sho'evah.” Men of piety and good deeds
used to dance before the candlesticks with burning torches in their hands,
singing songs and praises . . . countless Levites played on harps, lyres,
cymbals, trumpets and other musical instruments . . .”
(Encyclopedia Judaica Jr.)
Lights
Are Dimmed Commemorating Temple Destruction:
When the temple was destroyed, a mourning holiday, Tish’ah Be-av, was
instituted and on that holiday lights are diminished.
“Tish’a Be-av,
(the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, usually falling within the
first week of August) is the traditional day of mourning for the
destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem . . . in the year 586 B.C.E., the
Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar stormed the great Temple built by Solomon, turned
its marbled columns and gilded rooms into a useless pile of rubble and exiled
Jerusalem's inhabitants . . .”
“This
tragic day has therefore been set aside as a time of sadness for all Jews, who
are required to fast the whole day and observe most of the mourning rites which
apply in the case of a death in the family, such as not wearing shoes or sandals
made of leather.
At the evening service in the synagogue, all decorations are removed from
the ark, the lights are dimmed, . . . the whole congregation sits on low
benches or on the floor listening in hushed silence to the mournful notes of
Eikhah, the Book of Lamentations written by the prophet Jeremiah, an eyewitness
to the destruction of the first Temple.”
(Encyclopedia Judaica Jr.)
Desecrating
the Temple Was a Capital Crime with the Penalty of Death:
Capital crimes included adultery, murder, blasphemy, and rebellion of
children against their parents.
“Children may not abuse their parents.
According to the Bible, if a son is extremely rebellious and incorrigible
and refuses to mend his ways (ben sorer u-moreh), his parents may agree
to bring him to the town elders for judgment and punishment, which could be
death by stoning.
However, there is no record of such punishment ever having been carried
out.” (Encyclopedia
Judaica Jr.)
Biblical
Stoning or Casting Down:
A truer understanding of the process of stoning would give added insight
to the New Testament account of a woman brought to Jesus.
The procedure included causing death by precipitating the convicted
person over a cliff (an abandoned stone quarry could be an execution site).
That included the participation of one of the witnesses.
The second witness threw or placed the “first stone” on the body in a
process of burying the convicted.
The stoning was the burying, yet depriving the convicted of a mourning
chamber. (An
explanation about the procedure of stoning adds to the comments made in Lesson
10, “Take My Yoke Upon You and Learn of Me”.)
“Our
Rabbis taught: Whence do we know that it [the execution] was accomplished by
hurling down?
Scripture states, And he shall be cast down.
And whence the necessity of stoning?
Scripture states, He shall be stoned.
And whence do we know that both stoning and hurling down [were employed]?
From the verse, he shall surely be stoned or thrown down . . . we know
that if he died through being hurled down, it is enough . . . the same procedure
is to be followed for [all subsequent] generations . . .”
(Talmud - Mas. Sanhedrin 45a)
It should be noted that the Hebrew rendition of stoning including
“hurling” or “laying on hands;” to “cast” or “throw” down is not
as recognizable in the English King James Translation of Exodus 19:13 and
Leviticus 24:14.
The
Meaning of Casting the First Stone”
Now, consider the story of the woman brought to Jesus.
Wisely and compassionately, the Judge of Israel, our Advocate with the
Father, the Atoner for our sins reminded the Pharisees that they had a legal
system. In
effect, was He saying, “Where are your witnesses?
What would cause you to come to me when you have a procedure for the
witnesses to do their legal duty?”
Yet, at the same time, He had them examine their own lives (and lusts?).
“Where is the witness - without sin, let him cast the first stone?”
When they all left, Jesus, the ultimate Judge and Advocate, said,
“Neither do I accuse thee, go thy way and sin no more.”
Hopelessness and darkness were turned to lighted hope.
She was saved.
“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world:
he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of
life.” (John
8:9-12)
Jehovah,
“I Am,” Is Never Said in Hebrew:
Jehovah is His name.
Salvation is what He provides.
Jehovah means “I Am” - and “I Am” is so sacred that it is not
repeated; even modern Hebrew does not have a first person conjugation of
“I am.”
The shortened version of Jehovah is “Jeho” and connected to the
abbreviation of “salvation” it is pronounced Jeho-Shua.
By the time Jeho-shua was transliterated into Greek and then into Latin,
it became pronounced “Je-sus,” and in English, Jesus.
He is the
“I AM” who “saves.”
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