Chanukah & Christmas Countdown

In the last blog, Chanukah, Christmas, and the One New Man, we started a discussion concerning the differences between how Jewish and Gentile believers in Yeshua practice, express, and celebrate their faith. At no other time of the year are these differences more evident than around the respective holiday seasons. This year, Chanukah and Christmas occur at almost the same time on the calendar. Chanukah, an eight day celebration, begins at sundown on December 20th.

A common theme in both Christmas and Chanukah celebrations is “light.” Before reading further in this blog, set your heart on Messiah by listening to a song for Chanukah by Zemer Lavav called Yeshua is the Light.

Starting with Genesis 3:15, through all the Jewish writers of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), God began to provide hundreds of prophetic clues to the identity of Israel’s coming Messiah.

Throughout the Tanakh (an acronym for the Hebrew Bible), the many prophecies concerning Jesus’ first and second coming provided rock solid proof that Jesus is God’s promised Son. Taken together, these prophecies are startling in their attention to the smallest details.

Disciple Daily is a network of Jewish and gentile believers that are working together in disciple making ministries around the world. Whether Jew or gentile, there is no distinction in what believers identify as the single most important ingredient to our holiday celebrations. Messiah Jesus is indeed, the reason for the season. As the holidays approach, all of us around the Disciple Daily network would like to encourage you to try something a little different this year as part of your holiday preparations.

Did you know that there are 22 characters in the Hebrew Aleph-Bet? A friend of mine has developed a very creative and interactive evangelistic website built around these characters. For each one, a carefully selected Old Testament prophecy about Yeshua’s coming was selected. Jewish believers from around the world were recruited to write a brief explanation of their fulfillment in Yeshua. Our prayer for the Messiah Comes website is that both Jewish and gentile believers would learn to use it along with the Hebrew Scriptures to introduce unsaved Jewish people to their Messiah everywhere.

When our children were growing up, my wife would hang something we called the Countdown Calendar in our kitchen right after Thanksgiving. Starting on December 1st, each morning, our kids would discover a small piece of candy or a surprise of some kind in the pocket of the calendar that corresponds to that date.

Borrowing from the idea of our Countdown Calendar, we want to provide a “treat” for your family’s enjoyment every morning from December 4th all the way through Chanukah and Christmas on 25th. That is a total of 22 days. If you are on our ePistle distribution list, every morning during this period you will find a prophecy “treat” in your email from Disciple Daily. Your tasty morning treat from the Word of God will be a brief blog article on that day’s highlighted Messianic prophecy. Each email will link to the Messiah Comes website page that corresponds to that day’s designated prophecy.

There will also be some suggestions for how you might use these offerings in a number of different ways as together we count down the month to Chanukah and Christmas.

Listed below are some practical ways to use the daily offerings for your consideration:

• Each day, study the designated Messianic prophecy on the Messiah Comes website on your own. Don’t jump ahead. Completely devour and digest the daily lesson. Consider memorizing the Old Testament passage. Meditate on it and talk with God about what you are learning about His Son. Be sure to ask God to give you opportunities to use what your are learning with those He has strategically placed in your life.
• Make each day’s blog a centerpiece of your nightly family discussions at the  dinner table. If you don’t normally eat together, make an effort to do so. Every one of the 22 commentaries on the Messiah Comes websites are ideal for daily family devotions and discussions.
• Make flash cards of the Aleph-Bet characters and learn them together while you are discussing prophecy and its importance as a family.
• Make simple Christmas tree decorations of the Aleph-Bet characters with the Scripture reference to the Messianic prophecy of the day. Help your children memorize the verse and prepare them to explain it to the visitors who will be in your home during the holidays.
• Discuss the details of each prophecy’s fulfillment in Jesus. Because the prophecies concerning Yeshua’s first coming were all fulfilled literally, discuss together how the as of yet unfulfilled prophecies about His second coming will also be fulfilled literally.
• Create a “Top Ten” list of the unsaved people in your personal circle of friends and family. Pray for their salvation continuously through the end of the year and that God would introduce you to others who need to hear the Good News and see it in action through you!
• Be pro-active. Ask for permission to forward each daily blog article to Jewish and gentile unbelievers during this holiday season. Explain that you want to do this because you love them, and want the best for them, forever. You will find a simple “forward email” button at the bottom of each Disciple Daily ePistle. Just copy and paste the emails addresses of your friends and family into the boxes provided. There is even a space for you to share any comments of your own that you think your recipients should consider.
• Don’t be shy. Follow up periodically with the people you are sending the emails to. Be ready to discuss any questions they may have.
• Print the 22 commentaries out and distribute them in your own local congregation and encourage others to participate in our Chanukah & Christmas Countdown.

I can’t think of a better gift from our God during this coming holiday season than to have multiple opportunities to witness others coming to faith in Messiah Jesus because of God’s work in our lives. As Jewish and Gentile believers, this holiday season let’s sing together of the great things He has done!

And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. (Luke 2:7-16)

P.S. – The image at the top was taken at a church near one of the many grazing areas for sheep in Bethlehem. You are invited to view the Bethlehem Collection on Disciple Daily’s flickr page. Feel free to use any of the images on our site for your own personal use. if you want to use them for anything else, please ask before doing so.