Stand tonight, again, if you don’t mind.  And let’s look at Luke, chapter 2.  Thank you all.  Luke, chapter two, beginning in verse 1.  

1.  And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

And he’s still decreeing that, isn’t he?  

2.  (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3.  And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

Didn’t say when, it just said they went.

4.  And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

5.  To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.                 

We feel like that’s perhaps the reason why he went from Nazareth all the way to Bethlehem.  He just said, “We’ll make this trip on our way to Jerusalem for the Feast of Succot.”

6.  And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.  

7.  And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8.  And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9.  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10.  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12.  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14.  Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15.  And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.                 

16.  And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17.  And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

18.  And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

19.  But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

20.  And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Father, we thank You tonight for the Word of God.  It is our living bread.  We thank You for the privilege again to be gathered into this place to sanctify and set apart Your holy Name.  We pray that You will open the eyes of our understanding and anoint us as we take a few more steps in the direction of truth.

Lord, help us to grasp, to understand, to receive, to be able to share what You have spoken.  And we’ll give You the glory and the honor and the praise, for it is in the Name of Yeshua the Messiah we pray, amen.  And the church said, “Amen.”  

You may be seated.

One of the sisters who was in the meeting in Jerusalem today, she was hearing the streaming.  She said, “There is no doubt in my mind, hearing that, that Bro. Shelley is called of God to preach to the Jews.”

Another lady who was sitting there who lives among the Jews said, “Amen.  There’s no doubt about that.”  Well that’s kind, and I appreciate that, and I have a witness that that is the truth, but who would have thought that a few minutes later we would be sitting in a restaurant and our waiter would be a Jew?

Now that would be alright if you were at a bagel restaurant, you would expect that.  If you were somewhere where they serve corned beef and stuff like that, chopped liver and all those famous Jewish dishes . . . but who would expect to find a Jew as a waiter at a Mexican restaurant in Opelika?

Seems a little strange, doesn’t it?  He said to us, “My name is . . .”  It wasn’t . . .  Ari, which is the nickname of the prime minister of Israel.  His name is Ariel or Ariel Sharon.  He had features of someone of Jewish descent.  But around his eyes he had the coloration almost of an Arab.  

And when he came back, he rushed around.  He was a good waiter.  He rushed around.  And when he finally got back to us, I said, “Your name is A-r-i?”  

And he said, “Yes.”

And I said, “What descent . . . where did that come from?”

And he said, “It’s Hebrew.  My father is Jewish.”

And I said, “Really?”  I told him that we had an apartment in Jerusalem.  And he’s off again.  And he comes back a little bit later, and I said, “Well, where are you from?”

And he said, “Well, my father lives in Jacksonville.”  There’s a large Jewish population in Jacksonville, Florida.  And he said, “My father lives there.  That’s where I’m from, but I’m here.”  And he said, “I work . . .  I’m working two or three jobs.”  “Well,” he said, “two jobs now.”

And so a few minutes later he come back, and I said, “Are you a student?”  He looked a little bit old to be a student.  I mean, it certainly happens in higher education anyway.  I said, “Well, are you a student?”

He said, “No, actually I’m a . . . I mean . . .”

I said, “Are you a student at Auburn?”

He said, “No, actually I teach at Auburn.”

And I said, “And you have to be a waiter?”  I mean, this is serious.  You know, I thought to myself, “He’s a professor at Auburn and a Mexican food restaurant waiter at the same time.  He’s shoveling tacos.”

And I said, “Why is that?”

And he said, “Well, I’ve been working here since ‘89." (Or something like that. ‘98?  Alright.)  And he said, “I’ve been working here since ‘98.”  And he said, “They don’t want to turn me loose.  They just don’t want me to quit, so I’m still working here.  It’s not that I have to.”  I said . . .  “It’s not that I have to.”

And I just thought that was strange.  And guess what kind of professor he is at Auburn?  Not a historian.  He’s a Spanish teacher.  He teaches the language of Spanish.  Those Jewish people end up everywhere.  

And I talked to him a few minutes.  He spoke a little with Sis. Joyce in Spanish, but he didn’t know much Hebrew, he said.  And I said, “Well, does your father speak Hebrew?”

And he said that he did, but he was rusty.  He said, “I haven’t seen a menorah . . .”  You know, like your light.  He said, “I haven’t seen a menorah in a long time.  You don’t see menorahs around here.”

I said, “You come to my house and you can see one.”

And he said, “But I remember when I was a little boy, my father would pray the prayers in Hebrew as he was lighting the candles.”  He said, “I remember that.”  Well he already had my full attention then.  My heart had already gone out to him, and I was already thinking about what I could get him and give him and bring it back to him and what I could do already.

It touched me because he’s come so far away from his roots.  And he doesn’t even know.  When I went out the door I said to him . . .  I leaned over to where he was standing at the counter and I said, “Hanukkah Sameach.”

And he said, “Well, that’s like Happy Hanukkah, isn’t it?”

And I said, “It is.”

And when I was going on, he was practicing, “Sameach, sameach, sameach.”

What a paradox that God places the son of a Jew as a Spanish teacher at Auburn and works at a Mexican restaurant, and God sends us in there to teach him Hebrew.  You know, that just is not coincidence.  It’s a God incidence.

My wife . . .  I’d never been to that restaurant before because most all Mexican restaurants are about the same to me.  I like Mexican food, but I’ve never thought it was a Sunday thing.  It’s a little heavy for Sunday.  But I went anyway because they’ve got such good cheese dip, my wife kept saying.  “You’ve got to have the cheese dip.”

So I went, and the cheese dip was good.  When we got in the van, my wife said, “Did you like it?  Did you enjoy it?”

I said, “Well, yes, it was alright.  I like it ‘cause it’s nice and clean.”  The restaurant was really clean and neat.  But I said, “I can’t say the food was any better there than it is at any of the other Mexican restaurants, but I’ll be going back.”  

I said, “But I’m going back.  And next time I come, I’m going to bring him something, and I don’t know what it is just yet.  But I’m going to bring him something.  If God loved me enough to place him in the same county with me, then surely the Lord . . .”

And he’s far enough away from his roots, I can teach him some of what his roots are and he won’t argue, see?  Yes, Lord.  Yes.  Hallelujah.  He said, “Oh, I’d like to get to Jerusalem sometime, too, if I could ever get the time.”  Hallelujah.

You just never know what the Lord’s doing.  My, my, my.  He has a mandate.  He doesn’t even realize.  He has a mandate from God to get home.  A mandate from God: “Get back where you belong.”  That’s not ugly.  That is a wonderful promise from the Lord.

Alright.  Would you tonight just let me say . . .  Not say too much tonight, took so much time this morning.  I don’t know if anything has been made clear to you yet or not, but I am so blessed.  As I was sitting in the chair tonight . . . my legs gave out a little.  I danced a little much.

I was sitting in the chair, and I began to think, “You know, in some way, this is like meeting the Lord all over again.  It’s like getting saved all over again.  It’s like God just giving you something new to hold onto and make you appreciate something new.”  I appreciate that.

I said, “Lord, “You’ve just become new to me again.  And I see that great fulfillment.  And I, again, I appreciate the ministry that Bro. Branham had.  He mentioned Jewish things.  He helped develop in people’s minds and hearts a love for Israel.

And I don’t know the reasons why that he never . . .  God never moved him very deeply into the different feasts and . . .  although he referred to them many times.  I don’t know why.  But I know that it was in God’s program and in God’s plan.

And I know that in Bro. Branham’s mind, he knew that Jesus was not born in December.  And of course, the next logical explanation for that birth would be the spring because if you take these things and you add nine months to the sixth month of the year, you’re going to come back to the spring, to March or April.  You’re going to see that and begin to understand and so forth.

But we know tonight that the Messiah had to fulfill every part of every feast.  And it was . . .  It’s believed by many people that the coming, the birth of Yeshua, fulfilled the feast of Passover - that He was born at Passover time.

But listen to me.  It was not the birthing of the lamb that was significant at Pesach.  It was what?  The death of the lamb.  It was the killing of the lamb.  It was the blood being shed by the lamb.  And that’s why God allowed Yochanan, John the Baptist, to be born at Pesach time as a forerunner of the things that would come.

He allowed Yeshua to be conceived.  Some who study believe . . . go as far as to say that on the second day . . .  I have no idea what day.  But many, not just one, but many sources believe that the Holy Ghost overshadowed Mary on the second day of Hanukkah.  

I don’t know what day of the week it was or how many days into Hanukkah it was.  But I’m thoroughly convinced that a great miracle happened there.  I’m convinced of that.  And it wasn’t just oil lasting for eight days, but it was the Light of the World coming into the world.

And then the Feast of Tabernacles came around.  Just a little bit of review now before we say some other things.  The Feast of Tabernacles came around.  And we read here in Luke, chapter 2 . . .  In a moment, I’m going to show you a chart that will help you a lot, I think.

In Luke, chapter 2, we read about this decree that went out that all the world would be taxed.  I mentioned this morning for you that were not here, or didn’t hear the hookup, that historical documents prove . . . not one, but several, that when a decree of worldwide taxation was given, you had one year to report to the headquarters, to the capital of your province, to present yourself for the census.

And so we’ve always believed that everyone went to Bethlehem at the same time because of the census.  But a closer examination of the Scripture will help us to understand that Joseph didn’t just go for the census.  But he was going to Jerusalem anyway because it was commanded of him by God to make that pilgrimage, or aliyah, the ascent of worship three times a year:  at Passover, Shavuot and at Succot or the Feast of Tabernacles.

And they happened in to Bethlehem and her . . .  God had all of this arranged.  When I say “happened in,” I don’t want you to think it was just an accident because the Old Testament prophet had already spoken and said, “Blessed are you, Bethlehem Ephratah.”  Beautiful things were spoken about that little city four miles south of Jerusalem.

A redeemer is going to come out of this little place called Bethlehem.  Why Little Bethlehem?  Anybody heard the message?  Why Little Bethlehem?  How many of you remember hearing Bro. Branham preach about Why It Had to Be Shepherds?  He said, “I can tell you right now that there were no shepherds in the field.”

He believed that the reason perhaps that the shepherds were in the field is because it was Pesach time, spring, and the sheep were giving lambs at that time.  But if Yeshua was born as I see and believe that He was at Succot, what was actually happening, probably, is this was the last few weeks that the sheep were out in the field.  And this was a time that the shepherds allowed them to eat their fill because what they were doing is they were taking on fat because just a few weeks after Succot, winter sets in in the Land of Israel.  And it can be rainy and cold and even snow.  And the sheep would not be able to go out and graze in the field.  And the provision that was taken for the sheep to last them through the winter was not always enough.  

So the shepherd would allow the sheep to roam freely in the field to get them fat, to eat as much as they could to store up that fat in the winter time.  I want you to see those shepherds in the field with me right now, and their sheep are eating everything in sight and getting fat for the winter.  

And no telling what they’re talking about.  They’re probably talking about getting ready to go up to Jerusalem to worship for Succot ‘cause even though they were just shepherds, they loved the God of Israel - no doubt about it.  

And as they were talking . . .  But you know, that’s kind of presumptuous.  I don’t know what they were talking about.  They might have been talking about the price of tea in China.  But it doesn’t matter what they were talking about.

All of a sudden, that heavenly realm as it had done several times in the past six to twelve months, that heavenly realm broke forth into the earthly realm.  And an angel of the Lord stepped down into that field just outside Bethlehem and spoke these words.

And I want you to know that it’s not presumptuous of me to tell you that the angel didn’t look like a woman with long flowing golden curly hair and the feminine waist and features of a woman.  But this was a messenger angel who came.  Perhaps it was Gabriel who had already made that journey several times from the heavenly realm to the earthly realm.

And now he begins to declare, not to the king on the throne, hallelujah, not to the priest in the temple, but to the lowly little shepherd boys in the field, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior.”  What a word, “Messiah has come.”

And they began to be so excited that they ran into the limit, the city limits of Bethlehem.  But remember that if this is true, the inns were full, the streets of Bethlehem were crowded, and there were literally thousands of succas everywhere, thousands of temporary booths that would be up for these eight days of Succot.

How did they know which of these succas?  They found it.  I don’t know if it was because they saw the star that the wise men saw.  I don’t know if it was just because the Holy Ghost led them there.  But they ended up in this succa.

I found a Scripture this afternoon that I want to share.  I’m a little out of order with different things, you’ll forgive me.  But I found a little Scripture here that I wanted to share with you.  Genesis.  I almost got emotional there.  Why, why, why, why, why, why a little Kentucky gentleman who didn’t speak very good English, had very little education, why would God reveal Himself to him?  

Why would God reveal Himself to these lowly little shepherds in the field?  And even more personal than that, why would God show up in my life?  This is the true definition of grace - unmerited favor.  Why would God show up in my life . . . let me see . . . even a few months ago in Jerusalem . . . let me see His Angel?  Why would God do such things like this?  Because He loves us.  

Genesis 33 and 17 said,

17.  And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him an house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth (or Succot).

This is an important Scripture because that word “booth” - the succa or the succot - that is the same word.  This word is booth in English.  In Hebrew, it’s the same.  And so when the translator was putting that together he was saying, “And Jacob made a journey to this place and built booths for his cattle, succas for his cattle, tabernacles for his cattle.”  And because Jacob built succas there for his cattle, the name of the place is called, “Succoth.”

Now the reason why . . . I found that this afternoon . . .  The reason why I wanted to share that with you is it establishes the fact that the word “succa” or “succot” was also used in reference to a place where cattle could be kept, not only a religious structure, but it can also be a place where cattle are kept.

So we don’t know if this succa that Mary and Joseph ended up in . . .  We don’t know if it was a succa that was built specifically for the keeping of tabernacles or if it was a succa that someone had built to keep their animals in in preparation for the winter.

But by God’s divine design, Mary and Joseph ended up in that place.  And remember . . . this is the sad thing . . . remember that everything I can read in history tells me that most of the translators who translated the Bible into English had very little understanding of Hebrew practices.

I find that a little bit disturbing that we have so based our faith on a Gentile perspective.  The word “manger” is not in Hebrew, but it was the concept that these Englishmen who had lived in the hills and dales of England . . .  And when they thought about a barn, when they read this story, they were seeing a barn.

And when they read this story, they were seeing a little wooden trough for feeding the animals.  And they chose to use the word “manger” because they were interpreting it . . .  God bless them, help them, but they were interpreting it as we all do in light of our knowledge, in light of our understanding, in light of our culture.

And that’s why . . .  You don’t have to agree.  But that’s why God is calling people back to their roots.  Your genealogy may not be Jewish, but if you believe in the Messiah as your Savior, the roots of that faith came from God’s revelation to the Jews.

You can’t get it any other way than how it was given to us.  And I can hear Bro. Branham when he said in California . . .  He said, “We owe a great debt of gratitude to the Jewish people because they gave us the Word.”

Unfortunately, between they and us stood English translators who did the best they could.  And this is not to un-inspire the Book, but it is to encourage you to look a little deeper sometime than the surface.  And don’t put Jesus in that little wooden cow trough.  

I find that a little strange because one of the believers wrote a song . . .  I think it was . . . Geraldine Younce is who it was, I think.  It might have been one of the brothers.  But I think it was the sister-in-law, Geraldine, who wrote a song that said, “They’ve got Him back in the manger again.”

This church world has got Him back in the manger again.  Did you notice the emphasis that the church world places on the baby in a manger?  I mean Christmas is the thing and not becoming less of a thing, becoming more of the thing.  

My mother was in a wedding in the Methodist church Friday night, and right in the sanctuary is the tallest old Christmas tree you could ever find in the world when Jeremiah 10 plainly tells us, “Learn not the way of the heathen.”  It’s the heathen that cut the trees down out of the field and affix them to the floor with hammer and nails and decorate them and deck them.  The heathen do that.

And look, today the Methodist church does that, places it right in the sanctuary with a gold crown on top.  That makes it holy.  And places a dove as an ornament and that makes it holy.  It would be like placing a Bible in a haunted house and thinking that that made it holy or painting a cross with your finger and fingerpaint on a crystal ball and saying that makes it holy.

Somebody said, “This is how we worship God.”  And you know what?  God does not receive worship that He does not inspire.  Only God-inspired worship is received and acknowledged by God.  That’s Bible.  And so, we can’t take the things that God has rejected and use those things to worship God.

And somebody said, “That makes me sad.”  Why?  The Bible is full of God-ordained and instituted ways that you and I can come and worship God according to His Word, His plan and His program.  And God is more honored in that.  He’s more honored by someone who claims to be a Christian who will light the Menorah as Jews have done for thousands of years and do it in the Name of the coming of the Messiah.  

God is more blessed and more pleased with that kind of act of faith and sacrifice than He would be of giving all the Christmas presents in the world and all the things that the world is so crazy about.  You know all of that.  I don’t have to tell you.  But perhaps we can learn even more why God has brought us to this place.

Here they find . . .  Now, I’d like to share this with you.  Let me just see what I’ve missed.  If you’d like to read . . . I won’t read it now . . . but if you’d like to read some references to Succot, you can find it in Leviticus, chapter 23, verses 34 through 43.

In I Kings 12:32, it’s called “HaHag” which means “the festival.”  It begins with the Sabbath.  It ends with the Sabbath.  The last day of the feast is called Simchat Torah.  And it’s a special time because it’s the time that the Jewish people take the Torah scroll out of the ark.

In the synagogue, there is a cabinet that sets in front of the synagogue and sometimes, it’s recessed into the wall.  It has wooden doors, generally, and when you open those doors, there’s a heavy velvet curtain that is most of the time highly decorated and adorned with silver thread that covers the ark.  It’s called the curtain of the ark.  It’s split down the middle which also represents the rending of the veil.

And they pull those curtains back.  And sitting there in this ark are the different Torah scrolls that have been dedicated and given to the synagogue.  A Torah scroll is one scroll containing the five books of Moses all on one scroll.  Many different sheets of parchment is what’s used today.

In more ancient times and in some circles, animal hide and skin is still used.  I’ve seen one that was made from animal hide.  Most today would be made from parchment.  And it is sewed together.  The pieces of this Torah scroll are sewed together with twine made from gut.  And you can be sure that it’s not catgut.  And it’s not chitlins either, pig insides, but set apart got or gat, I think it’s called.

And they sew it together, and then they tie it onto wooden spindles, and it rolls.  It’s placed . . . if you’re Sephardic, it’s placed in a wooden case that’s highly decorated.  If you’re Ashkenazi, meaning European Jew, it’s placed in a velvet cover with beautiful ornamental designs and sometimes in silver or gold threads an inscription to a memorial of a loved one that the scroll is dedicated in their memory.

In the Ashkenazi synagogue, they often put beautiful silver ornaments on top of the handles of this Torah scroll.  And sometimes they even put a shield with a chain around its neck with a large breastplate in front of the Torah scroll.  

No expense is generally spared, and to have one made today kosher is from $25,000 up because if one mistake is made in that parchment, that piece of parchment in its entirety has to be destroyed.  It cannot even be used.  And it can take three to five years to put together a Torah scroll.

A special scribe is writing the law of God down by hand many, many hours of the day.  If it had not been for men like this, we wouldn’t have what we have today and call it a Bible.  It was because of scribes who carefully wrote it down.  

It was also because of a strange group of men who made their home on the shore of the Dead Sea, the Essenes, who lived a very communal and almost cultic life.  But they gave themselves to purity and cleanliness, and they mikveh’d and mikveh’d and mikveh’d and mikveh’d.  They ritually bathed several times a day.  And often they had vows of silence.  They ate in silence, and it was an unusual community.

But they gave themselves to copying the holy writings.  They’re the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls and much has been learned because of their faithfulness.  You know it may sound corny, but I just want to thank God.  I do.  I hope it doesn’t sound too . . .

But I just want to thank God that He had somebody who was more interested in recording the Words of God than what was going on in Greece or Rome.  Somebody was more excited about the Holy Writ than he was the Olympics that was taking the world by storm.

I appreciate how God preserved . . .  And even those . . . these English translators may have . . . something may have been lost in its essence of translation . . . We have the Holy Ghost from God today to take this Word and show us, teach us, inspire us and reveal it to us so that when we come to the end of this thing nothing is lost that God would have us to know.  That’s where we’re headed.  Nothing is lost.  This is God.  

And on Simchat Torah, they take these scrolls, brother, out of the ark and they dance.  The rabbis, the leaders, go around the bema, the platform, like this.  This is shaped very much like a bema.  And the scroll would be laid out, and every person that makes aliyah, he comes to the Torah.  He doesn’t touch it.  But he comes to it.

A pointer is used and usually a cantor, one who sings or chants the Torah . . .  Most people are not skilled in chanting this way, and so, often times . . .  When I was . . . when we were in the synagogue on Simchat Torah, a young man, a wonderful cantor, was there.  And when it come time for this person to walk up, this young man would sing their verse.  And they’re ceremonially making aliyah.

At least seven times, every Torah comes out of the ark.  And at least seven times, the leaders of the synagogue dance around the bema - at least seven times - celebrating the giving of the Law.  And not only that, it is believed that it was on the eighth day . . .

It is the eighth day of Succot that the Word of God becomes alive.  The Torah becomes alive.  They believe that.  It’s the life.  It’s the consummation of the giving of the Torah.  They have finished their cycle of reading.  It’s going to get juicy in a moment.

They’ve finished their cycle of Torah portion.  Their year of weekly Shabbat portions has come to an end and on Simchat Torah, they begin a new cycle, a new year of reading the portions because remember that the Jews are reading the same portions of the Bible together every week, the same portion every week.  And they’ve been doing it for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years.

Do you know what the Torah portion is for a time like this, for a week like Hanukkah?  Anybody know?  It’s okay.  It excites me.  It’s the story of Joseph.  Didn’t you hear Bro. Branham say, “Joseph is a perfect type of Jesus”?  Joseph . . .  

Guess where it comes to for Hanukkah - Joseph revealing himself to his brethren.  And every Hanukkah, the Jewish people read the Torah portion about Joseph revealing himself to his brethren.  That’s exactly . . .

The prophet took that very story and told us that there would come a time that Jesus would reveal Himself to His brethren.  Those . . .  Listen . . .  Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, counted him as one that was dead.  But when they needed salvation from starvation, it was Joseph that God exalted and placed on the throne.  It was Joseph that gave them their life back.  It was Joseph that gave a double portion to Benjamin, the youngest son of his father.  It was Joseph that protected his father in his old age.  

And here they stood before him, not knowing who he was, thinking that by now he was surely dead.  And what was his reply?  “You meant it to me for evil, but God meant it to me for good.”  And then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.  “Oh, this is our brother.”

It’s a wonder they didn’t pass out in the floor thinking that now he was going to raise up and kill them.  This very scene is going to repeat itself not too very far in the future when our Lord Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, is going to come and reveal Himself to his brethren, not with anger, not with vengeance because they sold him into slavery and caused this great thing that happened . . .

You know, they put in motion . . . in their religiousness . . . they put in motion an action that would cause the Lord to be crucified.  We just have to say what the Bible said.  He came to His own, and His own received Him not.  

But to as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to be the sons of God.  One day, as Joseph revealed himself to his brethren, our Lord Messiah is going to do the very same thing - reveal Himself to His brethren.

What are these scars in Your hand?  And the Bible doesn’t say He’s going to say, “You did it.  Your fathers did it.  They were all murderers.”  He’s going to say, “This is that which I received in the household of My friends.”

Then He’s going to do for them what Joseph did for his brothers.  Come on in and eat the bounty.  Reap the benefits and the blessings.  Take what you need.  You don’t have to die.  Take what you need.  I’m giving you the land.  

Then shall the Words of the prophet be fulfilled when he prophesied that, “All Israel shall be saved.”  How?  The prophet tells us in the Word, “In a day.”  In a day, in this revealing of Himself.  Oh, what an exciting time.  

It’s an exciting time in the synagogue, Simchat Torah.  They’re dancing.  They believe that on this day, the Torah actually becomes alive.  The word they use in English is “come to life.”  It sounds to me like John 1:14.  We quote it so often.  We often quote John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”

But John 1:14 said, “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.  And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

If it’s true, what I believe is true . . .  If it’s true that John the Baptist was conceived . . . six months later Mary came, Hanukkah time, after having just conceived our Lord . . .  John truly was born around the first day of Passover and circumcised on the last of Passover . . .  And a few months later, if our Lord was really born at Succot, Feast of Tabernacles, perhaps even on the first day of Succot, then we know . . .

If it was the first day, speculative, if it was the first day . . . I think it must have been.  Somebody said, “How could you get such an idea?”  Because the Bible teaches us, and we’re able to understand, that we know exactly what day Jesus died in the year because it’s exactly at the day and the time that the lamb was slain for Pesach.  Not just the day, time of year, but the day and the hour.  He didn’t just fulfill it in a season.  He didn’t just fulfill it in a day.  But he fulfilled it to the hour.  That’s my God.  Get that if you don’t get anything else.  That’s my God.  He’s meticulous and accurate.

So why not believe that perhaps He was born on the first day of Succot?  And then what would happen to Him on the eighth day?  He would be circumcised.  Now the Bible clearly tells us . . . verses that I’ll have to share with you when I come home ‘cause I’ve got them, many verses here.  I’m a little excited, sorry.  I know you’re perhaps not.  But I just can’t help it.  I can’t help it.

If in fact . . .  We know from the Scripture . . .   I’ll give you these verses that 30 days after the birth of Yeshua, Mary was unclean.  How many of you know that from the Bible?  For 30 days, she was considered unclean in her blood.  And she was not permitted to go up to the Temple because of the uncleanness of her body.

And what did she have to do when she wanted to be cleansed?  She had to bring a sacrifice.  And if she couldn’t afford the first choice, we know in the Bible that the second choice for the poor people was two turtle doves.  

And we read, right in the Bible, Mary and Joseph going up, which would have been approximately 40 days after the birth of Yeshua.  They would’ve been going up to dedicate him.  And it was at that time that they met Anna, the prophetess, and Simeon, the great seer of Israel, who held the hope and the consolation of Israel in his arms and said, basically, “I can die now.  My eyes have seen Yeshua.”  Isn’t that what he said?  He said, “My eyes have seen the salvation of the Lord.  Mine eyes have seen Yeshua Adonai, the salvation of the Lord.  I’ve seen him.  I’ve held him.”

And what this indicates is that as was the custom, the boy was circumcised at home, not at the Temple, generally at home.  And so on the eighth day . . .Yeshua . . . the foreskin of his male member was cut off as a sign.  

Now, listen.  The first thing that happened when the Seals were being played in Jerusalem . . . there’s a place in the Seals where Bro. Branham says very emphatically, “Jesus was not a Jew.”  There was a Messianic Jew, a Jew who knows Messiah, and his wife who never came to another service again.

And I’ve already explained to you that I am fully in agreement with the concept of what Bro. Branham was saying.  However, I have to tell you that He had to be a Jew in the spiritual sense of being a Jew or He is not the Messiah.  He cannot be.  

Now what Bro. Branham was teaching to us is very important because he said, “Where did His seed come from?  His seed did not come from Joseph the Jew.  His seed came from God above.  Therefore, He’s the son of God, not the son of a Jew.  He’s not a Jew in the sense . . .”

But on the eighth day, He was a Jew.  On the eighth day, He was circumcised as all the other sons of Israel are circumcised.  And if this is accurate, look at the imagery that you might get.  You may not get it, but I could just jump right out of my skin.

Look at the imagery.  What is the eighth day, that great day of the feast?  Remember later when Jesus stood weeping, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would’ve gathered you as a hen would her brood and you would not.”

But what is it?  It’s the day that the Jewish people believe that the Torah becomes alive.  It lives.  And Jewish historians say that in ancient times, the last day of Succot was not just about dancing around with the Torah, but there were actually Jewish people who did acrobats.

They were so excited that this Book has become a living Book, that they would do flips and cartwheels.  Not just dance a little religious dance, but really celebrate, almost like the circus.  Really celebrate the fact that this Torah given as the instruction of God to Moses has become living, a living reality.  We celebrate it.

What a joy that while these priests and rabbis and leaders were in their places of worship dancing around with the Torah celebrating the giving of the Law and the Law becoming a living reality, somewhere near Jerusalem someone was circumcising the Messiah.

If He was born on the first day of Succot, He was circumcised on the last day, the eighth day.  Somebody said, “Oh that’s nice.  It’s a possibility.  It’s a nice thought.”  Oh my, but you don’t understand.  The Jewish people do not believe that a baby boy has become totally alive . . . totally born is the way they would express it in English.  “He’s not complete.  He’s not born complete until he’s circumcised.”  They’ve believed that for centuries and centuries.

He’s not given a name, in most cases, until he’s circumcised.

They rejoice.  They hold him.  They kiss him.  They love him.  But they don’t believe that he becomes a living heir of Israel’s God until he’s circumcised.

And on that day, that eighth day after his little life has started, he becomes a living son of Israel.  He becomes alive.  What a thought.  You got it?  Simchat Torah.  They believe the Word becomes alive.  Perhaps our Lord was circumcised on that day and fulfilling the very concept that on the eighth day, a son becomes alive.  He’s now a real living entity.

God, I believe, was fulfilling His pattern, His program, His types and anti-types right down to the last letter.  These things are not fulfilled by even the stretch of the imagination if we believe that Yeshua was born on December the 25th.  

And there is also no way that these things can be.  They believe that at Tabernacle time, the Shekinah becomes flesh, that it takes on a physical form.  It has been believed for years that during this one feast on this one day commemorated as Simchat Torah, the Shekinah, the Glory of God, becomes tabernacled with men.  Did you get that?

On the eighth day of Succot, they believe the Shekinah, the glory of God, becomes tabernacled among men.  And here is Yeshua becoming what?  Tabernacled.  God, what was He?  He was God tabernacled.  The Word, the Torah, the living instruction of God became flesh and dwelt among us.

And as He was becoming a living son of Israel, as He was being circumcised, the leaders of the Land were dancing about their places of worship, the Temple, and the neighborhoods even, worshiping, celebrating.

Those who couldn’t go to the Temple danced in the streets celebrating the fact that the Torah has become a living entity and the Word of God is tabernacled with men.  And that’s exactly what was happening.  And they were totally unaware of it as the world is unaware of it today.  Every little detail.  Anybody still awake?

Bro. Billy, real quick . . .  I’m not going to be here for a while.  Real quick, put up that big graphic.  The thing that makes that graphic so impressive is to be able to count down the numbers: four, five, six and so forth.

This is a real nice graphic that I want you to have a copy of because I believe it will help you very much.  We’re going to start right here where we started this morning in the month of Sivan which is in correlation with our May and June, Shavuot time.

We place the conception of John the Baptist after the third Sabbath of the month.  Alright now, we’re going to count.  One month, two months, three months, four months, five months . . . see we’ve just passed Tabernacle time, five months.  We’re at Hanukkah time, six months.

That’s when Mary received her visitation from the Angel of the Lord, perhaps even the 25th of Kislev, the beginning of Hanukkah.  Six months, seven months, eight months, nine months.  It places the birth of John the Baptist either at the end of this ninth month, or because it didn’t start at the very beginning . . . let’s go back up to the top.  Scroll back to the top.

It places his birth, perhaps, right here because remember how the month is divided.  This was February and March.  This is March and April.  It places the birth of John at perhaps the fifteenth of Nisan which is the first day of Passover.  

Alright, let’s go back down to Hanukkah time.  Back down here.  Scroll down.  Right here . . . The conception of Yeshua at Hanukkah time.  Well, then, let’s go . . .  One month.  Let’s scroll down.  Two months, three months, and then back up to the top.  

Starting over in the year - remember that was the first month of the year according to the Bible - fourth month, fifth month, sixth month, seventh month, eighth month, ninth month, placing the birth of Jesus right here at the time of Succot in correlation with our month of September and October.

It’ll help you when you can get a copy of that.  And I’ll make sure when I return to help you get a copy of that graphic.  Someone put that together and did a very wonderful job helping you to place the months in correlation with the Gregorian month, with our month, place it all in order there.

Now what about the “word” graphic?  Can we just show the one that’s just words?  The third one.  Let’s just see that real quick, and we’ll close.  Now this places some things here also that helps us a little bit.  But you won’t understand this as much unless you have this to show you the Gregorian month in correlation with the Jewish month of the year.  But this is a little graphic.  You can get a little copy of this, too, if you want to.

Gabriel meets Zacharias in vision the week prior to Pentecost (the week prior to Shavuot or just at the time of Shavuot) placing the conception of John the Baptist the week after Pentecost, after the Sabbath, the last Sabbath of Pentecost.  

And if this was true, then six months later Mary conceived here - placing the conception of the Lord during the time of Hanukkah, around the 25th of Kislev, which would be in the month of December, always in the month of December.

Alright.  Let’s get the rest of it.  

Then that would place the birth of John the Baptist at Passover time, the first day of Passover which would be the 15th of the month of Nisan, placing the circumcision of John the Baptist at Passover time, the eighth day, the last day, which would be about the 22nd.

Adding all the weeks in between this, it would place the birth of Yeshua at the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles, perhaps the first day of Tabernacles, and His circumcision on Simchat Torah, on the 22nd of the month which is the last day of Succot.

Now the thing you remember is these holidays are always the same day on the Jewish calendar.  They don’t change.  But they’re not always the same day on our calendar.  And so that is the thing you have to keep in mind.  There are always . . . because the Bible gave the day that Passover was to start.  And the Bible gave the day that Shavuot and Succot was to start.  But it will not always be the same with our calendar.  The Jewish calendar we talked about this morning was based on the moon.  And the calendar that we use is based on the sun.

There are a lot of people who study the calendar even today, and the Karaites . . . they make corrections to the calendar because the Jewish calendar is kind of fixed as well now.  But the Karaites believe that the actual first day of the month is not what the calendar says, but it’s the day of the new moon.  They’re not only a handful.  They are thousands, several thousands of people who actually keep a calendar according to when the moon comes up . . . today all these thousands of years later.

I’m going to close as the musicians are coming.  Lots of things we can look at at another time.  If He was who He said He was, He must fulfill the things that the Father revealed in the wilderness.  He must.

Some of you haven’t uttered a sound since I said what I did about Yeshua and His Jewishness.  I think I’ve explained it already several times before.  But just so you’ll understand again.  The reason why Bro. Branham perceived that He was not a Jew is because He didn’t have the natural seed of a natural father.

However, the rabbis believe that . . .  And I’m not saying this is right.  I’m just telling you what they observe today, that you are not a Jew because your father is a Jew.  But you’re a Jew because your mother is a Jew.  That’s how it’s perceived today in the Jewish faith.

In fact, if your mother’s a Jew and your father’s a Jew, you’re a Jew.   But vice versa, religiously in a lot of circles of Judaism, if your father is a Jew and your mother is not a Jew, you are not considered Jewish.  And so this is very strange.

But we understand why Bro. Branham was saying it that way.  But you’ve got to understand, you can’t cause a Jewish person who has looked his whole life for the Messiah, you can’t sit down and say to him, “Yeshua is the Messiah, but He’s not a Jew.”

He can’t . . .  Well, you can if you want to, but I’m not going to because he can’t perceive that.  He can’t fathom that because it doesn’t even fit the type of the Old Testament.  It doesn’t fit the Old Testament Scripture.

The revelation that Bro. Branham had was bringing it in from another angle showing people that He came from God the Father.  But in the sense of His everyday life, how do you think He lived?  He lived not as a Gentile, He lived as a Jew.  He worshiped as a Jew.  He wore the tzitzit as a Jew.  He went to the Feast of Dedication as a Jew.  He worshiped in the Temple as a Jew.

So this is not contradicting.  It’s just giving a little further understanding.  Here He came, fulfilling all that was spoken of Him.  We’re blessed tonight to receive Him and know who He is.  Hallelujah.

Let’s stand tonight.  Bless Your holy Name.  Bless Your holy Name.  Hallelujah.  Hallelujah.

What does Bethlehem mean?  The house of bread.  Beit-lechem, the house of bread, or some say, “God’s bread.”  God chose Bethlehem as the house of bread, as the place where Yeshua would be born.

His mother placed him in a place where bread was kept, food was kept.  And He Himself declared, “I am the Bread of Life.  Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness.  That wasn’t enough.  It sustained them through their day.  I am the Bread of Life.”  

It’s a real joy, really, to know Him isn’t it?  Let’s sing our praises to Him for a moment.  

We bless You, Lord.  Hallelujah.  

“Hallelujah to the Lamb . . .”

“Emmanuel . . .”

Would you sing again and worship the Lord?

“Emmanuel . . .”

“We’ll walk in the light . . .”

Let’s worship Him again.  We worship You, tonight, Lord.  We lift You high.  From the inner man, from our inner being, from the inside of the inside, we glorify You.  We lift You up.  We exalt You.  We bless Your holy Name.  We thank You, Lord, for how You came, the Torah made flesh.

We thank You for how You came.  Oh, shine on.  Shine in us.  We bless You.  (Tongues)  

“Shine all around us . . .”

We give You glory and honor and praise.  Hallelujah.  We exalt You, oh Lord.  Hallelujah . . .  Bless the Lord.

Was there anyone tonight who needed urgent special prayer?  Hallelujah.  Hallelujah.  We’re not going to prolong the service, but if you need . . . if you’ve got an urgent need, you come.  We’ll lay hands on you and pray.  If not, we’ll just pray a prayer of faith where you are knowing that God is able.

Alright.  May the Lord bless you.