John 10:22-33 – Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” 31 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” 33 “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
The Festival of Dedication was once called the Feast of Maccabees and is today called the Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights. Remembering that these feasts are in commembrance of an event or person in which God gave a victory. Hanukkah is remembering when the Maccabees overthrew the Seleucid empire whose king Antiochus Ephiphanes profaned the Jewish Temple by setting up a pagan god in the temple to be worshipped. This is an act that will be repeated by the Antichrist. (Matthew 24:15-16) The Maccabees retook the temple and the temple was rededicated to the one true God. This happened during the period between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
According to rabbinic tradition when the Jews were reclaiming the temple they could only find one small jug of olive oil that only had enough oil to light the menorah for one day. Instead the oil lasted for eight days which the Jews considered a miracle. It is to celebrate the rededicating of the Temple and the miracle of the one day of oil lasting for eight days that Hanukah lasts for eight days. Another name for Hanukah is the Festival of lights.
It was at that time of this Festival that the Jews approached Jesus and asked Him (demanded of Him) when Jesus would plainly tell them if He was the Messiah or not. Jesus replied “I did tell you, but you do not believe.” Jesus pointed that the things He had done and said were evidence that He was the Messiah, but they did not receive the signs and rejected His words. Yet both were working in union to declare the majesty of Jesus. The both bore witness of who Jesus was. All who were seeking the Lord, who were truly relying on the scriptures to lead them to the Messiah, would recognize Him by the signs He performed and the works He did. Those who had right hearts would recognize Jesus and follow Him. Those whose hearts were not for God would not recognize and would not follow Him and thereby lose their souls.
All who heard and heeded Jesus’s words and saw the signs He was giving as proof of who He was, Jesus said would have an eternal life that no being could take it away from them because it was God Himself who gave them the eternal life. Brothers and Sisters, what God gives to us no one and nothing can take from us. Like our salvation, what God gives is between us and God and no one and nothing can come between us and God, as long as we cling to Him and His promises. The love of God, the joy of God, the peace of God that He has given to us is always and forever ours and cannot be taken away, just as the eternal life He gives us cannot be taken away. Cling to faith in God and in His Word and be safe. Who can push God back to separate Him from us? No one and nothing can. God has put in His bond within those who believe in, obey and follow Jesus. No one and nothing can push God from us. We are safe as long as we love and so believe and obey Jesus. Now, and forever.
Because these men, who could quote the scriptures but never had scripture illuminated to them by God did not believe in the only Son of God, they could see but not understand the signs and the words that Jesus gave them. Committing the sin of unbelief they accused Jesus of being the sinner. This is what sinners still do. In the absence of rightness in their souls they accuse others of what they are doing. Liars think all others also lie. Cheaters think all others cheat. These priests who blasphemed God by teaching error to the people thought Jesus was a blasphemer. They were blind and deaf to the ways of God. Titus 1:15 “To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.”
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, Oh man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 – The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.