Can’t we all just get along? Umm, no. Israel is completely surrounded by governments (and peoples) who have sworn to kill them all–men, women, and children. They can’t simply forgive and forget. They can’t turn their backs or relax even for a moment. And the Palestinians, whoever they were, whatever their origins, have been hopelessly ghettoized for so long that large segments of their population are no longer capable of living productively with others.

Israel should give the Palestinians their own country. The Palestinians are led by thugs who themselves are pawns for the neighboring Arab states that want nothing more than to kill all Jews. Every attempt at giving the Palestinians more autonomy has been doomed by political maneuvering and insane (literally!) violence against Israel. Even if Hamas and company could all be buried in a deep, mass grave, the Palestinians don’t have a great pool of leaders waiting to take over.

The Jews should give up and go home. And where would that be if not the home of their ancestors? It would make as much sense to suggest that any Cherokee who have found their way to Georgia be sent back home to Oklahoma. Even if we ignored the continuous presence of Jews and other Israelites in the Land for more than three thousand years, at the very least, they have the same right of conquest as every other people. The Coosa were driven out by the Cherokee who were driven out by the English who might soon be driven out by someone else. It’s the way the world has always worked.

The Palestinians should all move to friendlier Arab countries to be with their own kind. Again, what countries would that be? Nobody wants them. Jordan, Egypt, and Syria don’t want them. In fact, they would much rather the Palestinians stay in Israel as a destabilizing force. They are pawns without a single real friend in the world, some willingly but most probably ignorantly. They have nowhere else to go. Maybe those non-Israelis who want the Palestinians to leave Israel could volunteer their suburban homes to house a family or two or three?

There are no clear good guys in that mess, and there are far too many bad guys. The only clear thing in my mind is that the land of Israel, especially that land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, is a special place to God. He entrusted it to Israel once, and although he removed them from it for a time, he promised to give it back to them. The ultimate title to the land has already been established. It is not on the negotiating table.

“(It’s the Eighties, So Where’s Our) Rocket Packs”
from the album Vox Humana
Words and Music by Terry Taylor
©1984 Twitchen Vibes Music (ASCAP)

It’s the eighties
It’s the eighties so where’s our rocket packs?
It’s the eighties so where’s our rocket packs?
Go anywhere, we strap them on our backs
1. (It’s the eighties so where’s our rocket packs?)
I thought by now I’d walk the moon
And ride a car without no tires
And have a robot run the vacuum
And date a girl made out of wires
No thing’s don’t change that much, do they?
We are still out of touch, by now we should discover
Just how to love each other, like Klattus’ robot man
Your looks have killed again

2. (It’s the eighties so where’s our rocket packs?)
I thought by now we’d live in space
And eat a pill instead of dinner
And wear a gas mask on our face
A President of female gender
Though progress marches on, (new day)
Our troubles will grow strong
And my expectancies, become my fantasies
You turn my blood to sand, the earth stands still again

My hopes are running low
things moving much too slow
No space men up above
And we’re still so very far from love

3. (It’s the eighties so where’s our rocket packs?)
I thought by now we’d build a dome
Around the world, control the weather
In every house, a picture phone; communicate a little better
But some things never change (replay!)
You are still acting strange
No way that I can see, this way we will be free
La la la la la la,la la la la la 7,6,5,4,3,2,1 Lift off!

(It’s the eighties so where’s our rocket packs?)
Repeat 1, 2, 3
(It’s the eighties)

Numbers 7:84-86  This was the dedication of the altar, in the day when it was anointed, by the rulers of Israel: twelve platters of silver, twelve silver basins, twelve golden pans.  (85)  Each silver dish weighed a hundred and thirty shekels, each basin seventy. All the silver vessels weighed two thousand and four hundred shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel;  (86)  twelve golden pans, full of incense, ten shekels each, according to the sanctuary shekel; all the gold of the pans was a hundred and twenty shekels.

Each tribe of Israel made the same offerings regardless of size or wealth. A peace offering was a community bar-b-que, but Judah, with 186,000 soldiers, offered the same number and type of animals as Manasseh with 32,000 soldiers. This is indicative of Israel’s non-communist, republican form of government. Although Levi had a special role (and did not participate in this round of offerings), every other tribe had an equal voice and responsibility in the national government. The same principle is apparent in the annual half-shekel owed by every man of twenty years and older, whether rich or poor. Every man of Israel was a landowner, and, although not every man could be in leadership, every man had a say in how his nation, his tribe, and his village would be governed.

• Taking the Tenth, Fred
• Thoughts from a Disordered Mind, Fred
• Iraq War, Unjust, Illegal, and Immoral, Paul Surlis
• Our Drug Laws, Scott Morgan
• Eminent Domain Abuse, John Kramer

And that’s just a tiny fraction of what goes on all over the world. Every day we see corrupt, lying politicians (and others) seeming to get away with murder and theft. Did you notice that God referred to this behavior as unfaithfulness against YHWH? It won’t last forever. The accounts always balance in the end.

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio…”

Marriage in the Bible

Genesis 44:27-28 And your servant my father said to us, You know that my wife bore me two sons. (28) And the one went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces. And I never saw him since. (29) And if you take this one also from me, and mischief befall him, you shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.

I frequently wonder if Jacob knew the details of the future history of his sons. Although he certainly only meant Joseph and Benjamin here, his words and the story that followed prophesied of events centuries away.

In the 8th century BC, the Assyrian armies captured the northern kingdom of Israel and scattered her inhabitants across the Ancient Near East. Many of the old prophets referred to the northern kingdom as Ephraim, the son of Joseph. Ephraim didn’t stop in Persia but continued across the whole globe. In their long diaspora they have forgotten their identity and have become lo ami.

Three hundred years later, Judah was invaded and scattered by Babylon. When the two kingdoms split during the reign of Rehoboam, Benjamin became part of the southern kingdom known as Judah. Remember that Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin. Unlike Ephraim, Judah never forgot their identity. They have remained a relatively distinct people to this day.

This is the explanation of the prophecy:

Ephraim is Jacob’s first son, Joseph. He was taken away, and, to all appearances was destroyed forever. Judah, including the tribe of Benjamin, is Jacob’s second son. He was also taken away but was never in any real danger of being annihilated. Both of Jacob’s sons were restored to him, and both of the houses of Israel will also be restored to their Heavenly Father. The house of Judah is returning to the Land en masse while the house of Israel is awakening to their identity and bringing much of the rest of the world with them. The first stage of Hosea’s words concerning Israel was fulfilled millennia ago (Hosea 1:9). The second stage is coming to pass right now (Hosea 1:10), and the third stage, the reunification of the entire nation under the singular banner of the Messiah (Hosea 1:11), cannot be far behind!

1. Should Yeshua’s birth be celebrated?

I can’t think of any reason why not. It was one of the greatest events in history, and God has a history of wanting people to celebrate great events. As long as it doesn’t violate any of God’s other commands, why not? Celebrate your own birth and those of your family and friends while you’re at it.

2. Should Yeshua’s birth be celebrated on December 25th?

This is, perhaps, a thornier question. I don’t think many people seriously believe Yeshua was born on that date, but is that a problem? We should celebrate his birth in some fashion every single day! Since nobody can be absolutely sure on which day he was born, why shouldn’t we just pick this one?

There is nothing inherently evil about any particular day on the calendar. October 31st is a day that God made just like December 25th, July 4th, and April 12th. There is nothing wrong with having a party, inviting friends and family to your house for a feast, or even exchanging gifts on those days. However, there may still be a problem!

God told Israel (with whom we have been joined) to “learn not the way of the heathen,”¹ and to “learn not to do after the abominations of those nations.”² Of course, he did not mean “Don’t do anything that pagans do.” That would be absurd. Pagans sing, dance, and eat cookies, and there is nothing at all wrong with those things. God’s intent seems to have been to say, “Don’t adopt religious practices in order to emulate pagans or that are specifically pagan in nature.” Does a peculiar celebration of Yeshua’s birth held on December 25th pass or fail this test? Here are the apparent facts:

a) Yeshua was almost certainly not born on December 25th.
b) The date appears to have been chosen sometime in the fourth century by gentile church leaders with little to no understanding of Torah and Jewish customs.
c) A few church leaders of the day believed Yeshua had been born in December, but most seem to have settled on that day specifically because it was already a well-established pagan holiday. The Roman church, especially, has a very long history of adopting pagan traditions and redressing them in quasi-biblical trappings.

God seems to have a habit of grouping significant events around particular days. Some of those days correspond to the Biblical Feasts, some of them don’t. Since Yeshua is the focus of the Law, I’m willing to bet that all of the major events of Yeshua’s life took place on or around one of the seven feast days. Here are a few examples:

a) Passover/Unleavened Bread/Firstfruits: Death and resurrection
b) Shavuot: Teaching in the temple as a child (and the giving of the Holy Spirit, aka Pentecost)
c) Rosh Hoshana: Second coming?
d) Yom Kippur: Day of judgment
e) Sukkot: Arrival in the Promised Land. Both times.

There are some very good reasons for supposing that Yeshua was actually born during Sukkot. While I haven’t done the math myself (other trustworthy individuals have and you are welcome to check their work), it appears that John the Baptist was born around Passover. Yeshua would have been born six months later, which is about the time of Sukkot. Also, Old Testament prophecies talk of God tabernacling among his people, and tabernacling is what Sukkot is all about.³

I am not saying that everyone must celebrate Yeshua’s birth during Sukkot or that anyone must celebrate his birth at all. I’m not even saying that it is wrong to celebrate his birth on December 25th. I am saying that the choice of that date seems to have been inspired by a desire to emulate a pagan religious practice.

Which brings me to Christmas trees.

3) Should believers have Christmas trees?

The origins of the Christmas tree are shrouded in even more mystery than the origins of December 25th as Christmas. There are a lot of theories with very little historical documentation. Here are some better attested facts:

a) Evergreen branches and lights were used as decorations by the Romans to celebrate Saturnalia. Some Christians retained this practice and might have incorporated it into their Christmas celebrations.
b) Many ancient peoples used evergreen branches as winter decorations to symbolize life against the cold of the season.
c) some ancient peoples used evergreens to ward against evil spirits.
d) The first Christmas trees, as such, appear to have originated in Germany in the late Middle Ages. Nobody seems to know who started the custom or why.

There is nothing inherently wrong with decorating your house with evergreens. However, the date of Christmas was specifically chosen to correspond with Saturnalia, and evergreen branches and wreaths were used as decorations for that holiday. It seems to me that decorating with those objects as part of a Christmas celebration is dangerously close to emulating pagan religious practices while saying you are doing it for God. Maybe early Christians copied Saturnalia customs and maybe they didn’t, but Paul said to avoid the appearance of evil. If you have evergreen decorations in your house normally, I don’t see any reason to take them down, but I wouldn’t put them up just for Christmas.

Christmas trees are almost certainly related to the many customs of decorating homes with evergreen branches during the winter. That, in itself, poses no problem, and the pagan roots of putting decorated trees indoors seem dubious. However, consider these words of God given through Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 10:2-4 Thus says the LORD: “Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, (3) for the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman. (4) They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move.

Clearly, God did not intend Jeremiah’s audience to interpret this as referring to Christmas trees or even their analog in that day. The very next verse explains that he was talking about idols, carved figures used in the veneration of deities, but God’s perspective is not limited to what’s happening today. He knew 2500 years ago that we would be cutting trees down, prominently displaying them in our homes and buildings, decorating them with silver and gold, and bowing down before them to receive their gifts. And he knew that we would be reading Jeremiah’s book. I don’t believe in coincidences, so I’m going to play it safe and not put a Christmas tree up in my home.

Further reading:

-http://www.orlutheran.com/html/chrtree.html
-http://kimber64.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/how-does-the-messianic-community-celebrate-christmas/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas
- http://www.gracecentered.com/christian_forums/theology/christmas-should-it-be-celebrated-or-rejected-you-decide!/
-http://www.fullquivermission.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1271

Update: Jim Staley has a pretty good sermon on the subject of whether or not it even matters how and when we celebrate the birth of Yeshua. Not perfect, but good.