a passage from an old Orthodox Jewish prayer
book for the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles.
This is found in the Talmud under Hallel No.
5, and it's interpreted as follows, Glory to
God in the heavens, and on the earth peace and
goodwill towards the earth. What does that sound
like? That sounds awfully familiar. God promises
in Joel 2 .28 to pour out of His Spirit on all
humanity. Welcome to Global Outpouring, where
we contend for that promise outpouring, we equip
for that outpouring, so that we may engage in
that very outpouring. I'm Philip Buss. And I'm
Sharon Buss. Welcome to the podcast today. We're
going to have a great time today because we're
going to talk about something a bit seasonal.
if this will be good for every year at this time.
The question is, should we celebrate Christmas?
There's a whole lot of people that are saying,
no, that's a pagan holiday. And there's other
people that are just celebrating Santa Claus
and reindeer and snowman and all those kind of
things. But we've done a deep dive into the history
and into what's in the word of God and even into
the stars. Thanks so much for joining us today.
We want to encourage you if you haven't already
done so to go to our website, globaloutpouring
.net. Make sure that you're on our mailing lists,
our email lists, so that we can stay in touch
with you and keep you informed of things that
are going on in this ministry. You can go to
our website and look around. There's so much
good material there for you. There's a wonderful
bookstore. There's even an app that you can get
for the global outpouring on your app store.
And we want to invite you to come to our convention
2026 in St. Louis at the Hilton Hotel by the
airport in St. Louis, Missouri. And we're going
to have a glorious time there. Make sure that
you're there. It's going to be life -changing
for you. And also we want to encourage you to
tune in on Friday nights or anytime you want
to on our YouTube channel. We have a special
thing that we do every single Friday night. We
call it Friday Night Live Worship. And we just
want to encourage you that this is an opportunity
to get to know us better and worship with us
and just have a glorious time. So it's coming
up on Christmas. And we've just finished Hanukkah.
And it's a very special time of year. And some
folks are kind of jaded about Christmas. And
some folks are all excited about Christmas. And
some folks are about all the commercialism. And,
you know, that's not really what it's about.
But, you know, are we supposed to celebrate Christmas?
Is it right to celebrate it? Is it wrong to celebrate
it? So we really want to go into this deeply
and just talk about, well, Is it right to celebrate
holidays? Yeah. So in the book of Exodus, chapter
13, 3, we're going to look at this. And Moses
said unto the people, Remember this day for which
you came out from Egypt, out of the house of
bondage. For by strength of hand, the Lord brought
you out from this place. There shall no leavened
bread be eaten. And so this was Passover. Right.
So God is commanding his people to remember the
day. Yeah. And that was an amazing thing. You
know, I had the judgment on Egypt. Oh, yeah.
Right. The firstborn, even in Pharaoh's house,
died. Right. All the firstborn and they released
them to go. And of course, you know, they didn't
celebrate this right away. They were 40 years
in the wilderness. Yeah. But the word of the
Lord given to Moses was that this day will be
celebrated when you're in the promised land.
Right. So you're supposed to celebrate Passover.
We know that. Yeah. Okay. So we also, celebrate
the Sabbath day. God says to remember it, to
keep it holy. So that's an every week remembrance.
So holidays, holy days, holidays are about remembering
something. And they're really very important
because if you remember, you know, what the Lord
spoke about, one of the reasons Israel went into
captivity the first time, that they didn't keep
the Sabbath. Oh yeah, yeah. And they didn't keep
the Sabbath of the land, you know, every seventh
year. God gives orders to have remembrance days,
have celebrations. So celebrating is a thing.
And, you know, we as Christians, we celebrate
Holy Communion, right? Jesus said in Luke 22,
19, he said he took the bread and he gave thanks
and he broke it and gave unto them saying, this
is my body, which is given for you. Do this.
In remembrance of me. In other words, remember
me when you do this. So it's about remembering
something. So celebrating holidays come because
something happened and we're going to remember
it. And we're going to, you know, bring it up
again and talk about it again. So Exodus 23,
14 says three times in the year, you shall keep
a feast unto me. So what are the three feasts?
Well, you've got Passover. Then you have Pentecost,
which is Shavuot, which celebrates the giving
of the law at Mount Sinai, which also enacts
Chapter 2. But when the Holy Spirit fell down,
that's the day they celebrate the law. Right,
the giving of the law. That's when the Holy Spirit
just came down and showed off. Yeah, in fire.
Just like he did on Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai
was a fire feast. Yeah. And then, of course,
your last feast, and that was Sukkot, Feast of
Tabernacles. You know, that was celebrating God
abiding with the Israelites when they were sojourning
in the wilderness. Yeah. You know, and they were
living in tents. Yeah, made of goat skins and
all kinds of things like that. Or maybe even
sticks when they first started out. And everything
was movable, be it the Tabernacle of Moses. It
was all laid out. And they had to be ready as
soon as the cloud moved. They had to pack up
and leave quick. So it was all portable. Right.
But the thing that they're celebrating on this
one, they're celebrating for seven days plus
one day. And that is a celebration of how God
protected them through all this thing. They're
40 years in the wilderness and he's providing
them food and water. Shade from the heat because
the cloud by day and the fire by night. And out
in the wilderness, it can get cold at night.
So the fire is keeping them warm. And the bottom
line is God is tabernacling with them. Yeah,
that's the most important thing. They're celebrating
the fact that we had God with us. It's kind of
like Emmanuel. There's a hint for us. There's
a hint. Okay, so I'm just going to go back for
a second here just to mention a couple of scriptures
that are talking about Passover. Exodus 12, 14
says, this day shall be for you a memorial. You
shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout
your generations. You shall keep it a feast by
an ordinance forever. In other words, this is
something you just keep doing every year. You
do this remembrance thing. And then Exodus 13
.10 says, You shall therefore keep the statute
at its appointed time from year to year. So my
point here is there's an appointed time that
you celebrate something that happened at that
time. Okay. So, you know, God set up holidays
for remembering. So after the Hebrew scriptures
are fulfilled and you get into this period of
time after the Babylonian captivity and they
come back, you know, you get a few minor prophets
that are talking about this and that and things
that are going to happen. Zechariah is stepping
up to say what's going to happen and rebuilding
the temple and that sort of thing. And then 1
and 2 Chronicles are written. And then you hear
nothing except for there are some intertestamental
books. They're apocryphal books. They're not
necessarily, like some people call them scripture.
Other people say, no, I don't think so. They're
good for history. And during that period of time,
oh, wait a minute. There is one book. I forgot.
There's one book that doesn't necessarily. have
an order from God to celebrate, but God did something
amazing for the children of Israel under King
Ahasuerus and his wife Esther. So, you know,
that story we celebrate as Purim. Right. Yeah.
So that's one more thing that, you know, it's
not one of those things you got to go up to Jerusalem
for. Yeah. It's a celebrated word. Yeah. Where
you're at, which is nice. And then there was
one more thing that happened in that intertestamental
period. And that is what we've just celebrated
last week, Hanukkah. Hanukkah, yeah. And that's
the story of when the Greeks had taken over.
And I guess it was about the fourth Antiochus
that came to the throne. He was really wicked.
When the Greeks came, you know, they were colonizers.
And they were bringing Greek culture. They thought
they had the best thing in the whole wide world.
And they wanted everybody to celebrate and do
things their way, including worshiping their
gods. And they managed to get a lot of the Jewish
people speaking Greek. And that was the reason
why there had to be a Greek translation of the
Hebrew Scriptures, which is called the Septuagint.
Septuagint, yeah. That's why there is such a
thing as a Septuagint, because a lot of the Jews
had forgotten how to speak Hebrew because they
were learning Greek. Which usually happens after
a couple of generations. Yeah. So Antiochus Epiphanes
was so wicked that he was making it illegal to
circumcise, making it illegal to say the name
of God, making it illegal to practice Shabbat
and the holidays and all of that sort of thing.
A statue of Zeus in the temple and sacrificed
a pig. Absolutely disgusting. And so that's when
the Maccabees rose up and said, no, enough of
this. And God gave them strength and strategy
to overthrow the Greeks. This is a simplistic
version. This is the super simple version. There's
a whole lot of history if you want to delve into
it. And I've been delving a bit. There's a lot
of history. But they managed to overthrow the
Greeks. Which is really amazing. Which is absolutely
amazing. And a lot of it had to do with the fact
that they knew the terrain and they knew how
to strategize within their own terrain and how
to make short, sharp victories, you know, like
in the night and things like that. And so when
they overthrew them, they had to cleanse the
temple. And that is called the Feast of the Dedication.
Okay. Which is, in Hebrew? Hanukkah. Hanukkah.
So what's the miracle of Hanukkah? So they use
the oil in the lamp, a pure oil, you know, from
the menorah. And it talks about, you know, in
the scripture where it's olive oil beaten for
the light, which means it was pure oil because
it had to be for this. And they only had enough
for one day. And when you look at the menorah,
the big menorah, the model of it, you can see
it takes a bit of oil. And there's each one of
those cups that holds the oil. Yeah. Maybe half
a pint or something. I don't know how much it
would be. Because it burns. It burned 24 hours,
you know. And so that's a lot of oil. But they
only had enough for one day. Yeah. Because it'd
take a process to make the new oil. Yeah. Especially
the time of year and, you know, things. It's
just the whole thing. It just took a while. But
it lasted for eight days. Yes, the one day of
oil lasted for eight days. One day of oil lasted
eight days. I even remember as a little boy in
Chicago on the south side, you know, going down
a couple streets that had Jewish families living
on them. Oh, yeah. And we would see the hamakia
in the window there with all the little, I loved
the little orange light bulbs you could screw,
you know, like to have on our Christmas tree,
you know. But I didn't really know. I didn't
know much anything about Jewish culture because
my mom and dad didn't know either. Yeah. If you
don't have someone to teach it to you, you don't
know it. You just don't know. So I love the fact
that it's called the Festival of Lights because
of the lighting of the menorah. And there's something
significant about it. So you see from these things
that it's appropriate. to remember something
that happened and celebrate it. Because that
was an overthrow, getting the country back. So
why shouldn't we celebrate the birth of our Savior?
Come on. Is there any good reason why we shouldn't?
There's no good reason we shouldn't. We should
rejoice. We should be celebrating Him every single
day of our lives. That should not even have to
be said. We should be celebrating Jesus every
day. We should be praising him. We should be
worshiping him. But should we have a celebration
of his birth? And if so, when? So it's clear
that, like from the Hebrew scriptures, it's very
clear there's prophecy after prophecy after prophecy
is coming. Isaiah. Isaiah, particularly. And
it's even, of course, it's mentioned in the Gospels
and in Matthew and in Luke. Both of them tell
that story from two different angles, two different
bits of information. And you have Simeon and
Anna in the temple. Yeah. You know how the Lord
spoke to them. Right. Wow. So they're not the
only ones either. I'm sure they're not. And when
John said at the end of his gospel, if everything
that he did was ever written, the volumes would
fill up the earth, right? Isn't that what it
says? So even the apostle Paul mentions the fact
in Galatians 4 .4, it says, but when the fullness
of time had come, so there was a certain date.
When the fullness of time had come, God sent
forth his son, born of a woman, born under the
law. seed of the woman that was prophesied back
in Genesis 3. The seed of the woman is going
to crush the head of the serpent, right? So then
it's important for us to celebrate it, I believe.
That's my two cents worth. I think it's important.
But I think it's important and here's why, okay?
Yeah, you got to hear why. Don't tune out now.
So as was mentioned earlier, this idea of December
25th. So some people think that this was a pagan
tradition that came in under Constantine, and
he was a sun worshiper, and so he was going to
be celebrating the feast of the undying or unconquered
sun. I think it's Sol Invictus or something like
that. And the idea is that it's the day after
the solstice when you begin to see that it's
starting to be a shorter night and a longer day.
So the sun has conquered. You know, if you're
a sun worshiper, you're celebrating the fact
that the sun has come back from dying. And a
lot of people celebrate the winter solstice.
Right. So there's that camp that thinks that.
And then there are some scholars, or maybe they're
not scholars, maybe they're just deep thinkers.
Maybe they live in Wisconsin. someplace in the
north, you know, where they see lots of snow.
And they think that, well, it can't be December
25th because, you know, the shepherds wouldn't
be in the fields. It's much too cold. Except
they don't know what it's like in Israel. Right.
In Jerusalem. They've never been there. If you
didn't have internet back then, you couldn't
see what's the forecast today. Right. How do
you know what it's like over there? So when are
the lambs being born? So these people think that
it should be that Jesus was born in the springtime
because that's lambing season. Well, it's lambing
season in Wisconsin, probably, during the spring.
Yeah. But... It's a little bit warmer climate.
And even if it's still cold, you know, I'm a
mother, right? When the babies do, it's going
to come in its time. Yeah, that's right. And
so in actuality, the lambing season in Israel,
in the Middle East, is from November to March.
So it is entirely possible that there would be
shepherds in the fields. Even in December. Okay.
So, eh. And all of these wonderful Christmas
songs. And listen, I love Christmas music. Yeah,
you're dreaming of a white Christmas. It's actually
winter music. Well, some of it is. A lot of it.
But even some of the songs that we sing. See
amid the winter snow. Da -da -da -da. Okay. And
once in a while you find snow in those Christmas
carols. You know, Israel gets snow. Not real
often, but it doesn't last. Yeah. And maybe seven
to 10 years, you'll get an accumulated amount.
Yeah, you get a decent one that accumulates.
And the whole country will come out to see it.
Yeah. That's what's amazing about Israel. And
it's dangerous. Yeah, because they don't know
how to drive in it. Right. So looking into some
of the deep digging I have done here, there was
an article online, and I'll put a... I'll put
several links in the show notes to some of the
stuff that I've been looking at. But there's
an article about how December 25th became Christmas
that's out there under biblicalarchaeology .org.
And I'll just quote a little bit, a few sentences.
It says, the earliest mentioned of December 25th
as Jesus' birthday. comes from a mid -4th century
Roman almanac that lists the death dates of various
Christian bishops and martyrs. The first date
listed, December 25th, is marked Natus Christus
in Bethlehem Judei. I presume that's Latin. Christ
was born in Bethlehem of Judea. So that's mid
-4th century. So about 400, they use CE, which
is... Common era. Common era. You know, we grew
up saying A .D. It's Anno Domini. It's a Latin
term. A .D. stands for Anno Domini, the year
of our Lord. Year of our Lord. Yeah. So A .D.
and C .E. mean the same thing. Basically, it's
talking about the common era. So in about 400
C .E., Augustine of Hippo mentions a local dissident
Christian group, the Donatists. who apparently
kept Christmas festivals on December 25th, but
refused to celebrate the Epiphany on January
6th, regarding it as an innovation. So they were
already celebrating January 6th. And in their
minds, I think, instead of calling it Epiphany
back then, they were thinking of that as the
birth of Jesus. And you'll find, I believe, that
Orthodox Christmas is actually January, on that
date. So that's where there's a discrepancy between
East and West in the church as to when to celebrate.
Some say December 25th and some say January 6th.
And then going on, it says the first mention
of a date for Christmas around 200, the year
200. And the earliest celebrations that we know
about, 250 to 300, come in a period when Christians
were not borrowing heavily from pagan traditions
of such an obvious character. So they didn't
get it from the sun worshipers. It wasn't their
idea to mix that together. They just thought
it was really cool that it ended up on the same
day. So the December 25th. feast seems to have
existed before 312, which was the year of Constantine's
conversion. So all the folks that are saying,
oh, it's just a pagan tradition that came in
with Constantine. Well, no, apparently not. Apparently
not. And then it was only in the 600s that the
church leaders began suggesting. to turn pagan
temples into churches and taking the pagan holidays
and turning them into feast days for the saints.
So it was later that that idea of mixing the
pagan dates in order to get the pagans to come
to church. See, that was their heart. It's not
that they were trying to dilute the Christian
traditions. They were trying to gather in the
pagans because they're used to celebrating those
things. Let's turn it into a Christian thing.
And there's some merit to that. I'm not going
to argue that one way or the other. I think their
hearts were in the right place. So maybe December
25th could be a thing. It's obviously not a pagan
thing, like we've been instructed. You know,
a lot of the things that come into our experience
that we learn, we learn from people who are speculating.
And the more you tell it, the more it becomes
truth to you. You know, it's kind of like the
laws so -called, like Jesus called them the traditions
of men. They're added. The more you keep a tradition,
the more it becomes law to you. Right. So a lot
of the things that we've been taught are speculation
rather than based in fact. Okay. So as I was
preparing for this. And just meditating on how
to bring this. And I felt like this was the heart
of God to talk about. Should we celebrate Christmas?
So I was reminded of a video that we saw years
ago. We had the DVD. We probably still have the
DVD. And we still have a DVD player. Just don't
look at it very much. No, we haven't. I think
we pulled it out a couple of years ago, a few
years ago. Anyway, it's probably a decade or
so ago that Rick Larson came out with this video
called Star of Bethlehem. interested, and I really
believe he was moved by the Holy Spirit, to question
what was the star of Bethlehem? And can we find
out what it was? Can we determine something about
the actual birth of Jesus? So I went looking
for it on YouTube because I didn't want to go
looking for it in the DVDs. I thought, maybe
it's out there on YouTube. Let me have a look.
Well, before I got there to find it, I found
something. So Scott Christie posted this on his
YouTube channel. And he takes, I don't know if
it's the same software because I didn't go find
the DVD or find it on YouTube. I don't know.
But he's using software called Stellarium to
follow the star as the wise men did 2 ,000 years
ago. And we'll post a link to that in our show
notes. He takes this and shows it on the screen.
And what Rick Larson was talking about in his
video was that he saw that the planet Jupiter,
which is called the king planet. Yeah, it's massive.
Yeah, it's the biggest of the planets. That because
it's a planet. All the planets are kind of known
as roving stars because they're not stars, they're
planets. And so they're in orbit around the sun,
just like the earth is in orbit around the sun.
And so they're moving in different ways and they
don't seem to make any sense compared to the
rest of the stars. But in this particular place
in time, he's able to look at it in the software.
He's able to see any given date. from any place
on the planet. It's very significant that you
can look back through time and see where all
of the stars are or were or will be. You know,
you can push it forward or you can look in the
past. Where is it if you were in Timbuktu? Yeah,
that's amazing. You can see anything. So he could
look at what the stars looked like in the sky.
around the time when Jesus was born. And, you
know, there's this thing about, it was decided
that Herod died in 4 BC. So Jesus must have been
born before that because Herod was alive, right?
Yeah. So the thing about that is... 4 BC. Yeah,
4 BC, like that's a head scratcher, right? Yeah.
So I went digging for that one too. And discovered
that... They came up with this idea of he died
in 4 BC because the history that was written
was that there was a, was it a solar eclipse
or a lunar eclipse? There was an eclipse. There
was an eclipse. Okay, there was an eclipse. I
forget whether it was solar or lunar. But there
was an eclipse in 4 BC before Passover, which
was what, that was the words. I don't know if
it was Josephus. I didn't get those. dates down
or that information down. But there was an eclipse,
but actually it was only a partial eclipse. But
there was a full eclipse in the year 1 BC or
like zero. So it would have been after Jesus
was born. So that puts it a little bit closer
to what the stars were showing. Okay. So we can
throw out that 4 BC thing as another tradition
that somebody came up with. Because when that
information was put together, they didn't have
all of this software that you could see what
was going on and see where and when all the eclipses
were. And you didn't have access to the internet
and AI and all the things that you can use now
to help you find out the details. Okay. So this
software looks at Jupiter showing up in the constellation
of Leo. Okay. Remember, these are the wise men,
magi. They probably weren't really kings. Yeah.
But they were probably really wealthy. Yeah.
And they're probably, how many were there? Well,
tradition says there's three. Right. Why does
it say there's three? Gold, frankincense, and
myrrh. Exactly. They had three gifts. It doesn't
say that there were three men. Well, what if
they had three people bringing frankincense?
Yeah, exactly. I mean, it was probably an entire
entourage. Entourage, because they came from
a long distance, and so they would probably have
to have their own people that are like soldiers.
Right. Because, you know, you're going to run
into stuff along the way. And the miracle of
the two, they're going through Roman territory.
I don't know if anybody's ever thought of that.
The Romans hadn't gotten there yet. Oh, they
hadn't? Not in that part. The Romans weren't
in the east. It was Parthians. And that's part
of the reason why they put Herod in, why the
Romans put Herod in, because he was like a buffer
between them and the Parthians. Okay. We're getting
some real history here, too. I've been learning
a little. Yeah. So these wise men were probably
astronomers or astrologers. There's some speculation
maybe they had been trained by Daniel even in
Babylon. We don't know where they were. We just
know that they were in the east. They came from
the east. So they were looking at the stars.
And what Rick Larson found and what Scott Christie
found, I'm assuming it was Scott Christie that
made the video, It's at least on his YouTube
channel. What they saw was that Jupiter had come
into Leo, the constellation of the lion, right?
So it came in conjunction. In other words, they
lined up together to make a brighter star because
there's two stars. Makes a brighter star. So
they're lining up with Regulus, which is the
heart star of Leo. It's the star that's at the
heart. of the lion. And interestingly, I thought
this was fascinating. It's a blue -white star,
Regulus. And what is Israel? Blue and white.
Yeah, everything's blue and white. Everything's
blue and white, yeah. Colors of the flag. Right.
So you've got Jupiter, the king star, and Regulus
is also a king star. So Jupiter's the king planet
in conjunction with the king star in Leo. So,
Where is he that is born king of the Jews? Why
would the lion represent the Jews? Lion of the
tribe of Judah. Exactly. So this software traces
this activity of what's going on in Leo with
Jupiter and Regulus. And at the same time, if
you look further down beyond the horizon, actually
south, that it's kind of like what Revelation
12 says. There appeared a great wonder in heaven
or a sign in heaven. A woman clothed with the
sun and the moon under her feet and upon her
head a crown of 12 stars. Okay, so right under
Leo at the time of this, the sun is in the constellation
Virgo. Interesting that that would be the Virgin.
Okay. So we're talking about the Virgin Mary,
right? Yeah. And the moon is under her feet.
So you can see that in this program, in this
software program. And upon her head, you could
possibly say that Leo would be representing the
12 tribes. Okay. Possibly. Yeah. Okay. Maybe.
It talks about the... third part of the stars,
cast them to the earth. The dragon stood before
the woman, which was ready to be delivered for
to devour her child as soon as it was born. And
she brought forth a man child who was to rule
all the nations with a rod of iron. And her child
was caught up unto God and to his throne. And
the woman fled into the wilderness. So, you know,
there's, I believe that there are more than one
ways to interpret the scripture and the prophetic
things can often be prophetic of more than one
thing. And scriptures, like the scripture that
says, out of Egypt have I called my son. Okay,
so we know that that's also talking about Egypt
and how the children of Israel came out of Egypt
at Passover. We celebrated that. We just talked
about celebrating that. And it also is referring
to when Herod died and Jesus came. back out of
Egypt. They had fled to Egypt. I'm getting ahead
of myself. But anyway, so you have this picture
of the dragon ready to eat up the baby. And if
there ever was a dragon in a man's suit, it was
Herod. The worst of the worst. Yeah, he was absolutely
wicked. But to get the favor of the Jews, he
was building the temple, the second temple. Right.
And really doing an amazing job on it. Yeah,
and he built a building for the cave of Machpelah
where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and possibly
the 12, well, 11 of the sons were buried there.
Because we know that Joseph was buried up in
Shechem. In fact, we were just there a few years
ago. And that building is still standing 2 ,000
years later. Yeah, amazing. After Herod had it
built. I mean, that's a stunning thing. You can
look at it and know that it's Herodian. Yeah.
There's the graves of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Right. They're all buried there. Yeah, and their
wives. And their wives. Yeah. And it's like a
neutral place for Jew and Muslim. Yeah. Yeah,
it's true. Very interesting. So it's there to
this day. Yeah. So, I mean, this is a historical
figure, but he was so wicked. He wasn't even
of the descent of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
So how Jewish was he? Well, his grandfather had
converted to Judaism under the Maccabees. Okay.
That was not the very first group of Maccabees,
but a few generations on. I think it was John
Hyrcanus was the one that... got real zealous,
I'll say, about making people choose if you're
going to serve God as a Jew or if you're going
to die. And so there was a lot of forced conversion
of the Edomians. And the Edomians were descendants
of Edom. You hear Edomian, Edom, which is descendants
of Esau. This is a people group that has an ancient
hatred for the Jews because there's a jealousy
there. You know, Jacob and Esau, there was a
fight there. Isaac and Ishmael. Well, this is
Jacob and Esau we're talking about right now.
So there's the Isaac and Ishmael issue and there's
the Jacob and Esau issue. And then there's the
sons of Keturah. There's a lot of issues. We
won't go into that right now because we're trying
to stay focused on Christmas. So anyway. Herod's
father was involved in the court in Rome, and
he pulled his son in to get favor. And one thing
led to another, and he was appointed to be king
of the Jews. And when he was appointed that and
unanimously ratified by the Senate, the Roman
Senate, they went out and celebrated by offering
a sacrifice to Jupiter. Wow. King of the Jews.
King of the Jews. What's wrong with this picture?
And he was so jealous that he even had one of
his wives killed and her sons that she had with
him. I won't take time to go into that. But he
dealt with things by eliminating his enemies,
killing them. So there was a lot of blood on
his hands. Sounds like a lot of that going on
today. Absolutely. So he, I think, I'd never
seen it before, but he looks like he was in that
particular picture. Herod was the dragon that
was waiting to gobble up the baby because he
was the one that had all the babies killed, right?
Yeah, up to two years. Right. So the reason why
he's asking the wise men about... When did you
first see this? So that he could eliminate his
enemies. Yeah. And if you're wondering why up
to two years, you know, well, it says in Luke,
when you read the story, it says the young child.
It doesn't say baby. Right. It says the young
child because Jesus was already born, but he
was still in Bethlehem. Right. And if you read
that and they brought gold, frankincense, and
myrrh to the young child. So he wasn't a baby.
He was older. And so that's why Herod figured
the timing up. That's why we'll say up to two
years. So we'll add a little extra just to make
sure we got him. We're going to get this king
that was born because I'm the king. And I was
appointed. And it's all about me. That's exactly
what Herod was all about. So let's look at Luke
chapter 1 to get a... biblical handle on when
was Jesus born. Because there's some clues in
the scripture. So in Luke chapter 1, we see that
the angel Gabriel meets up with Zacharias in
the temple while he's offering the incense. And,
you know, he berates him for his unbelief and
makes him be quiet until the baby is born. Because
he's, you know, he and his wife. had not been
able to have a child. And, you know, there's
something about this barren wife thing, barren
woman, that the baby that comes from the barren
woman is a special baby. I think we mentioned
that before. And so this is a very special child,
John the Baptist, right? So it says, I don't
want to go too much into that story, but it says
that In the days, I'm in Luke chapter 1 and verse
5, there was in the days of Herod, the king of
Judea, okay, so he was the king of the Jews,
a certain priest named Zacharias of the course
of Abiah, and his wife was of the daughters of
Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. So let's look
at the course of Abiah. What does that mean?
Is this a clue? It's a mystery. So in 1 Chronicles
24 .10, we see that David has set things in order
for the priests. By this time, there's lots of
priests. There's lots of people that are descended
from Aaron. So now they don't have to be there
24 -7, 365, or 360 as the Hebrew calendar would
have. They can take turns. So it's giving the
divisions. In chapter 24 of 1 Chronicles. And
you come to verse 10 and it says, well, let me
just give it verse 5. Thus they were divided
by lot, one sort with another, for the governors
of the sanctuary and governors of the house of
God were of the sons of Eleazar and the sons
of Ithamar. And then it goes on. I'm going to
skip some. You get to verse 10. The seventh to
Hakos, the eighth to Abijah or Abiah. Abiyahu
probably. So when you've got it Greekized, it's
of Abaya. So if you start counting at the beginning
of the year, and everybody is doing their course,
the course of Abaya was probably the third week
of the Hebrew month Sivan. So around, according
to this stellar thing, it looks like in 3 BC,
The month of Sivan began May 15th. So the course
of Abaya would have been the third week of Sivan,
so around June 1st to the 7th. Or if you're looking
at the month of Sivan, it would be the 18th through
the 25th of Sivan, assuming that they start on
Shabbat. Okay? So then he goes home because he's
been stricken dumb to make sure that he will...
follow through to do his part so that they can
have a baby, right? I'm trying to be delicate
here. So he's got to do his part in order to
make this prophecy come true. So he goes home
and he does his part with his wife. And so then
fast forward six months. And the angel Gabriel
comes to Mary and says that, you know, you're
going to have a baby and it's going to be the
son of the highest. And maybe I should read a
little. You shall conceive in your womb and bring
forth a son and call his name Yeshua. He shall
be great. and shall be called the Son of the
Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him
the throne of his father David, and he shall
reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of
his kingdom there shall be no end. No end, yeah.
And so she says, how is this? How can that be?
I haven't ever known a man. The Holy Spirit shall
overshadow you. Exactly. And then he says, behold,
your cousin Elizabeth, she has also conceived
a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month
with her who was called Maron. For with God,
nothing shall be impossible. Okay. So if Elizabeth
got pregnant the first part of June, six months
later is the month of December. Okay. And what's
going on in December? Do we have any kind of
a feast in December? Yeah, the Festival of Lights.
Yes. So wouldn't it be appropriate that the light
of the world would be conceived during the Festival
of Lights? Exactly. Because it's the start of
it when you start the light of the candles, and
here's the start in the womb of the Messiah to
be. Exactly. She conceived in December. When
is she going to give birth? September. Okay.
What feast do we have in September? Feast of
Tabernacles. Okay. Now let's look at the stars.
So what we find in the stars is, so in 3 BC,
Kislev 25, which is the beginning of Hanukkah,
falls on December 2nd. We don't know exactly,
you know, did the Holy Spirit come over her as
soon as Gabriel left. We don't know the timing
on that. We don't know. But we know approximately.
So if she conceived on the beginning of Hanukkah,
the light of the world, then if you go by the
conception date, if the conception date was actually
the 2nd of December, He would have been born
September 7th, which is Erev Yom Kippur. Wow.
The atonement day. The atonement day. He came
to be our atonement. The most holy day of the
year in the Hebrew calendar. Yeah. But according
to this stellar thing, in 3 BC, I was looking
at 3 BC, the month of Sivan actually begins May
15th on our calendar. And so the course of Abiah
being the third week, so June 1st through 7th.
So around the 8th, you know, somewhere in that
vicinity is when John the Baptist is conceived.
And then Gabriel comes. So according to the stellar
software, this sign happened on the 12th of September.
which was in that year, looking at the Hebrew
calendar, that was the beginning of Sukkot, the
first day of Sukkot. Now, in Sukkot, there's
a thing about, if you look at Numbers 29, there
were a whole lot of sacrifices made during Sukkot.
Every day there were bullocks and rams. and lambs
and a goat every day during Sukkot. And it also
says, and I'm not sure whether this is law or
tradition, but it says that the shepherds would
stay in the fields with the flocks. The flocks
couldn't be kept in their corrals because they
want to make sure that nobody gets bruised. You
can't have a bruise on a lamb that's going to
be sacrificed. So they had to keep them out in
the fields. I looked at the numbers and every
day for the first seven days, there are two rams
and 14 lambs without blemish of the first year
for seven days. On the eighth day, there's one
ram and seven lambs. And I'm not counting the
bullocks because they're not going to be in the
fields with the lambs. Also, there was to be
one kid goat for each of the eight days of the
atonement. So that's a total of 15 rams, 105
lambs and eight kids. So that's 128 animals to
keep from getting blemished. Wow. Not to mention
the rest of the flock of ewes that produced the
lambs. And also, it was traditional that those
lambs for that feast came from Bethlehem. Okay.
So there you have it. Okay. So if Jesus was actually
born on September 12th. He was born on the first
day of the Feast of Tabernacles that year because
the Feast of Tabernacles falls on the 12th. It
starts on the 12th that year. And so he would
have been circumcised on the eighth day, which
is the great day of the feast. Wow. So he would
have been circumcised and called Yeshua on the
eighth day, the great day of the feast. He didn't
go to the temple until 30 days later. for the
sacrifice of Mary's purification. Sorry, that's
a little different. So it's only like eight miles
from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. So that's like a
half a day's journey with some sheep. You know,
you get them to walk there. You just do it for
that day and they're there. So here's another
little interesting piece. I found this in...
I had it written as a note in my Bible. Somebody
quoted it and I wrote it in. So then I went out
to find it today. And David Yaniv wrote a book
called The Birth of Messiah. And he says, now
the most interesting liturgy of the Hosanna liturgy,
a passage from an old Orthodox Jewish prayer
book for the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles.
This is found in the Talmud under Hallel number
five, and it's interpreted as follows. Glory
to God in the heavens, and on the earth peace
and goodwill towards the earth. What does that
sound like? That sounds awfully familiar. Peace
on earth, goodwill towards men. Exactly, exactly.
And so there's a whole lot of strength to the
idea that Jesus was born during Sukkot. And these
people that were looking at the stars, They're
thinking that that's when he was conceived. And
so then he would have been born in June. But
there's nothing on the calendar, nothing on the
Hebrew calendar that has any significance at
that time. So I think it makes way more sense
that he was actually born during Sukkot on that
date. And that perhaps that June date was when
the Magi decided, you know, maybe we need to
go and celebrate this. And so at some point,
they started their journey. And guess when Jupiter...
Now, let me just explain this real quickly, that
because of the orbit of the Earth and the orbit
of Jupiter, it appears that Jupiter first goes
one direction and then the other. And at some
point, it looks like it stops and it goes the
other direction. So the day that it stopped over
Bethlehem, so you can see on this program, you
can see from the position of the sky over Bethlehem.
The day that it stopped over Bethlehem was December
25th. That's quite amazing. So yes, it's okay
to celebrate on the 25th of December if you want
to. But I remember when we went to the Philippines
years ago, we were told that in the Philippines,
you celebrate the birthday of Jesus in all the
months that end in ber. So September, October,
November, December, you're going to celebrate
for four months. And I wonder if that's what
we'll do in the millennium when Jesus comes,
that we'll have a four -month celebration of
his birth, you know? I just think it's wonderful.
And just as a comment, I remember that the Queen
of England, Queen Elizabeth, she was born in
April. And so... The weather's not very good
in England in April to have parties outside and
parades and things like that. So they had a certain
date in June to celebrate the Queen's birthday
because the weather's more likely to be good.
So you don't have to celebrate your birthday.
In fact, in our family, we tend to celebrate
birthdays on the weekends closest. to the birthday.
You don't always get to celebrate right on the
birthday. And I remember that there was a thing
some years ago. I don't remember who the seer
was, somebody who sees in the Spirit, and Jesus
appeared to her dressed in a beautiful royal
red robe with some kind of gold trimmings and
so on. And he was saying, I'm just happy that
they're celebrating my birthday. Something along
those lines. I'm sure I haven't got it exactly
right. But it was very significant to me, and
it stuck in my heart, that it's okay for us to
celebrate his birthday whenever it works out
to celebrate his birthday. Just celebrate it.
Because that's when people are at least a little
bit open to, okay, what's the real story behind
Christmas? Well, this is it. And it's in the
stuff. The stars are showing the truth of the
word of God. It's there. And it's to be celebrated.
And we want to celebrate it. So we just want
to invite you. Come and worship. Come and worship.
Worship Christ, the newborn King. Amen. Amen.
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Until next time, this is Sharon Buss. And I'm
Philip Buss. God bless you with His overwhelming,
loving presence.