Dreidel Discoveries

The Finding Emet radio program is about understanding and living the truth of the Bible from a Hebrew perspective. The program features the teaching ministry of Brother Daniel Rintleman. Hanukkah is an eight-day festival that commemorates the victory of the Maccabee family over Syrian ruler Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus tried to destroy the Hebrews and their culture through Hellenization. The Maccabees led a revolt and rededicated the temple, which had been desecrated by Antiochus. The story of the oil miracle during the rededication is told, but it may be a fable. Hanukkah is not a Jewish Christmas, but it has become a big winter festival. Traditions include lighting the Hanukkiah, eating fried foods, exchanging gifts, and playing with the dreidel. Hello, and welcome to the Finding Emet radio program. Emet is the Hebrew word for truth. This program will help you understand and live the truth of the Bible from a Hebrew perspective. The Finding Emet radio program features the teaching ministry of Brother Daniel Rintleman of Emet Ministries. Prepare your heart to receive the Emet, the truth of the scriptures. More audio lessons and teaching articles are available at the www.emetministries.com website. Please visit our site to find all things spiritual, including a free online Bible search program or submit your prayer requests. That's www.emetministries.com or www.findemet.com. CD copies of this teaching are available for free by submitting a request at the website. Let's welcome our teacher, Daniel Rintleman, as he helps us find the Emet. This teaching is called Dreadle Discoveries, Dreadle Discoveries, say that with me, Dreadle Discoveries. One more time, real loud. Dreadle Discoveries. Okay, great, great, great, Dreadle Discoveries, and we're going to discover all types of things about the Dreadle. Now, you probably know what a Dreadle is, maybe you've seen one before, not a Dremel or whatever, but it's a Dreadle. There are a thousand ways to spell the word Dreadle, by the way, but the Dreadle, you know, we pull them out, we use them, people, you can buy them in stores around the Hanukkah season. Hanukkah season, technically, because there's a H at the beginning of the word. The Dreadle Discoveries is the name of this teaching. So we're going to talk a little bit about Hanukkah, wherever Dreadle comes from. You might have heard this before, but when we're done today, you will never look at a Dreadle the same. It will change the way you play with this toy, I guarantee it. So let's talk a little bit about Hanukkah. First of all, Hanukkah is an eight-day festival. We all know it commemorates the victory of the Maccabee family over the Syrian tyrant, his name was what? Antiochus or Antiochus Epiphanes. This is a historical fact. It happened around the second century before Yeshua came. And what it was, was this Antiochus or Antiochus, was this Syrian or Greek ruler who wanted to destroy the Hebrews. Now, have you ever noticed that a lot of rulers like Hitler, Nero, they just want to kill all the Jewish people, wanted to destroy the Israelites? Well, he tried to do this, and the first way he tried this was through what's called Hellenization. He championed this cause of trying to get people to be Greek. He wanted the Hebrews to be like the Greeks, wanted everybody to be the same. He said, you know, we've got this Greek culture, let's everybody do this. You know, stop worshiping this unknown god and worship, you know, this statue of Zeus or whatever it is. Be civilized. Be civilized. And he first started to try to conquer people's minds. Get this. He first started with minds, and then he began to work with the sword. Now, one of the things he did was he came into Jerusalem, and he destroyed, desecrated the temple. The temple was standing at the time, and he tore it down, and he desecrated it. And he forbid the Hebrews to circumcise their sons. Circumcision was no longer allowed to take place in Israel and in the land. He stopped Sabbath worship. No longer could they worship on the seventh day. He even did this. He required, this is historical fact. He required that the new brides that happened to be Jewish, before their marriage took place, had to spend the night with a Greek general. He sacrificed a pig on the altar, and he put to death any Jewish person who dared to observe a command of tort. So he wanted to destroy this righteous seed, you could say, of the Jewish people to push them to mix or assimilate into the normal culture. Now, how many know some people chose to go along? They traded their talits for togas, you could say. They stopped worshipping on Shabbat. And they chose not to keep Torah. You see, it's the Torah that sets us apart, right? That's what makes us different than the rest of the world. Otherwise, we're normal, if it wasn't for the Torah. Saturday Sabbath keeping, is that normal in our culture today? After eating, is that normal in our culture today? Wearing head coverings, speaking Hebrew, is that normal in our culture today? Absolutely not. In fact, it's directly opposed to our culture. And that's what Antiochus wanted to do. So he persecuted the Hebrews, and some of them, you know, gave up, they gave up or so. But there was a family of a Hasmonean priest, and his name was, one of the leaders of this family was Mattathias, or Mattayahu. He actually died in battle, but his son was named Judah, or Yehuda. His son was named Judah, and he led a revolt against this oppression that was coming against the people. And he was noted for his courage, his valor, his military genius. He led this outnumbered, out-skilled, it was like a guerrilla army, I mean, basically together. They didn't know what they were really doing, but they were able to defeat the Syrian Greek army. And it took three years of battles, of working hard to defeat them. And so as they did this, guess what, they went into the temple area, and it was totally destroyed. Picture, for example, the Crystal Cathedral, Robert Schuller's church, with the huge stained glass windows, and just clear, everywhere you could see, beautiful building, now picture it with holes in every single window. Picture the pews turned upside down, the organ just destroyed, like a grenade went off. That was what they were dealing with, times a million, because this was the holy temple of Yahweh. It was desecrated, it was destroyed, so they began to set up the sanctuary and cleanse it, and they remade some items that were missing, they washed the dirty utensils, they cleansed the whole place, and they set a date to rededicate this temple. They weren't just going to go back in after Antiochus had desecrated it, and just start worshiping Yahweh. They wanted to rededicate it, it was very important for them to do that. And their celebration ended up being eight days of prayer and worship that they did this. Now a story is told that when the priests went to light the menorah that stands in the temple, that they did not have enough oil, set apart oil, to go in the menorah. It wasn't just any oil, it wasn't like Wesson oil. The story goes that they had enough oil for one day, and it takes eight days for this oil to be consecrated, special oil to be made. However, the story is told that the oil remained, the oil lasted, and the oil burned for eight days. That's one of the miracles that we're told about of Hanukkah. That was just long enough for that to occur. So Hanukkah is a Hebrew word for dedication. Everybody say dedication. Dedication. It means to dedicate. That's what they did. They took this temple and they rededicated it, and it's been celebrated for over 2,000 years. And if you look in the book of John, in the book of Yochanan, it says that it was winter at the Feast of Dedication, and Yeshua was at the temple on Solomon's porch. Now it's very important because Solomon's porch is historically the place where Hanukkah was celebrated at the temple site when Yeshua was there. You can actually go and study this. There's a teaching on the Met Ministries website called the Hanukkah Cornerstone, where I go and prove that that's the exact place where that took place and why that's important. Well anyway, over the years, Hanukkah's become a big winter festival. Now it does not rival Christmas. This is not, everybody say not, not the Jewish Christmas. We don't need to, you know, think of a Hanukkah bird dropping presents down or a hairy Hanukkah. You know, even some people now have these Hanukkah bushes that you put presents under. No, no, no, no, no. We're not wanting to be like the Greeks or the world. But over the years, people have kind of taken Judah and made him into a folk hero. Now Judah's called Judah the Maccabee or Judah Maccabee. Well, the Maccabee is not his last name. Maccabee is the Hebrew word for hammer, because the idea was that they hammered away. They were able to defeat and win after three years. You follow me? So he's the hero of Hanukkah plays and poems and songs, a type of Jewish warrior in modern Israel today. Maccabee, Judah the Maccabee. They took the seven branch menorah and developed a nine branch menorah for Hanukkah. Thank you. They took the seven branch that was there and they said, you know what? To commemorate this miracle, we're going to use a special menorah called a Hanukkiah. A Hanukkiah to light during these eight days. So you've got one candle that's lit each night. Now, why is it nine? Because you've got one of the servant candle called the shamash, and that's what you use to light the others. So the light of the menorah grows as the Hanukkah is celebrated. It starts with one candle, then continues on and gets greater and greater. Now, this oil miracle may be a fable. It's only found in the Talmud. It's not a historical fact. But here's something we do know. When they dedicated the temple, they had to have used oil, right? They had to have had the oil for the menorah when they dedicated the temple. So we know that oil was there. Now, another tradition that's come about is using oil to fry foods in at Hanukkah. Fried foods like latkes, potato pancakes, really, or donuts, homemade donuts used specially that you would fry at this time to eat these. So that's another one of the miracles of Hanukkah that we've been able to eat fried foods for 2,000 years and we're still around. That's a good thing that's occurred, at least another one of those. Gifts are exchanged still a days. And then chocolate coins, these are called gelt, G-E-L-T. You've seen those? You can even buy them at Walmart, I think. But these golden foil coins called gelt. And of course, there's the dreidel. Now, what's the name of this teaching? Dreidel Discoveries. There's the dreidel. Dreidel is the spinning top with Hebrew letters on the four sides. The toy is fun and, you know, gelt can be exchanged. There's different games. Does everybody know the song, I Have a Little Dreidel? Does everybody know that? Pretty much. You want to sing it with me? I have a little dreidel. I made it out of clay. And when it's dry and ready, my dreidel, I shall play. Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of clay. Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I shall play. That's great. We have a choir, a Hanukkah choir now. It has about 50,000 different verses that go along with it. It's kind of like this. You know how Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is for Christmas? All the kids know it. You know all the words. I know we don't like that song, but I have a little dreidel. It's kind of like that. I mean, it's a it's a fun. It's one of those songs that gets stuck in your head. You know what I mean? And you keep singing it over and over and over and over again. And until until you you fall over, there's nothing else to do. But don't be fooled. Don't be fooled. This is no ordinary toy. This top, the spinning top has many spiritual insights. If we can just do this, watch this, just watch it spin. If we can just watch it spin, there are many, many, many spiritual insights that we can learn from this. Now, the rabbis have told us that the prophets are like children and children are like prophets. What does that mean? It means that, you know, that the prophets saw the simplicity of the scriptures just like children do. That if we can view the world as little children, sometimes there are many spiritual principles that we can learn. Now, we know that the dreidel doesn't look very special. I mean, most dreidels are made of wood. They are not made of clay. I've never spun a clay dreidel. I guess that's all they had way back then. OK, so most dreidels are not made out of clay. They're made out of wood and mostly are square block with a pointed bottom with these four letters are found on the dreidel. And these four letters are moon, gimel, hay and sheen. And the dreidel was first used over 2000 years ago during the time of persecution by Antiochus Epiphanes. When Antiochus Epiphanes was outlawing the worship of Yahweh in the study of Torah, the Hebrew people, they face this harsh persecution. And they would meet secretly, sometimes in the woods, sometimes in their homes to discuss the Torah portion of the week. In defiance to the ban, they would still study. So the Syrian officers would be walking the streets and they would see that. Or maybe they were trying to raid the meetings. So the Jewish people got kind of smart. They would they would they tried to keep their Torah scrolls hidden and they would use them. And they pulled them out when the enemy wasn't looking. But, everybody say but, but everybody say but, but when the enemy did see it. When the enemy did view them or did take them away, guess what they do? They simply pull out their dreidel. And begin playing. They simply pull it out and begin playing. So, here comes a Syrian Greek officer, down goes my Torah scroll until they stole them all and then out comes my dreidel. Well, that's that's one picture of that. They weren't really gambling. Instead, they would do this, get this. They would play as if they were playing. So it's not just a children's game. It actually started as an aid to their Torah study. And so they would also do this. They would take the dreidel, they would spin it. And let's say it landed on the gimel, the gimel. They would then take the dreidel and discuss subjects in the Torah that began with that letter. Or they say, oh, wait a minute, the gimel, you know, that's the third letter in the Hebrew alphabet. The first letter in the Hebrew alphabet is the aleph. Let's talk about the aleph. And so they talk about that. So they take this out. So maybe it landed on the noon and they talk about the nir tamid, which was the everlasting light. What if it fell on the sheen? Maybe they talked about Shekinah glory of Yahweh. Maybe shalom. Maybe the prophesied Messiah that would come from Shiloh. So they would use this dreidel. They would spin it and they would use it for their study. Now get this. The people way back then, they didn't have modern entertainment to consume their time. Their time was consumed with studying and knowing Yahweh's word. You see, we're easily distracted. Well, at least I am. I'm sure you are as well, a little bit when, you know, you've got that time to study. You've got that time to read. But it's, oh, I need to check my email. And then you're checking your email. And this link leads to that link. And that link leads to 30 minutes on the computer. And then it's, oh, I don't have time to study. I fell asleep on the keyboard again. You know that that ever happened to you? Never, never. OK, so anyway. OK, we got one in the back. So the Torah engrossed their lives. They knew the Torah. They knew the Tanakh. They knew Hebrew so well that they could do just one letter, like the hay or the sheen, and they could recall passages of Scripture and recite the glory of Yahweh. Wouldn't it be awesome if we were there? We could look at that. Wait a minute. The hay. There's all these Hebrew letters that begin with hay, all these Hebrew words and subjects or so that do this. By the way, the word dreidel is an English word in Hebrew. And in Israel today, this is not called a dreidel. It's called a sevevon. You want to say that with me? Sevevon. Sevevon. And it actually means to spin. So there's a song called sevevon, sov, sov, sov, hanukkah, ugatov, hanukkah, ugatov, sevevon, sov, sov, sov, which means dreidel, spin, spin, spin. It's a cute little song. Anyway, much better when someone else sings it. But it's much better when somebody else sings it. But this is a sevevon. So if I call it sevevon, you know what I'm talking about. The dreidel would spin and it would do that. So may we return to that awareness of Yahweh's word. I mean, we could just spin the dreidel and say, oh, this reminds me of Torah. Now, we're told this during the persecution of the Greeks that the dreidel actually led to what's called the half Torah, because during the time that Antiochus and his army was in control of Israel, they forbade them from studying Torah. But they did not stop them from studying the prophets, the writings of the prophets. And so we're actually told that before the time of Yeshua, now understand this, there was a weekly reading schedule. OK, and this is something you hear where each week we're reading. Here you go, brother. Each week we're reading a portion of the scripture. And we're going through, we're reading. Through the five books of the Bible, the first five books of the Bible in one year. OK, and. The Hebrews were doing this as well. Thank you, however, when they didn't have the Torah scrolls, what did they read? And we are told that it was during this time that they developed what's called the half Torah portions to go along with the Torah portions. Ever wonder how they got that? It was because they were not allowed to read and study Torah. So what they did was on the Shabbat. During the Hanukkah persecution. They would think about what's in the prophets that goes along with this Torah portion. And they would study it and read it. Now, today we read the Torah portion, the half Torah portion from the prophets, and we've added a Messianic portion from the New Testament as well. But it's very interesting that Hanukkah led to this. Hanukkah led to this, so who would have thought this little dreidel led to the discussion of the Torah portion every week that we have. But it did, and that's pretty neat, pretty neat how that's happened. So there's spiritual power in this toy. It's a it's a picture of freedom. Now, think about it. Children of all ages, all different cultures, for some reason, have been fascinated with spinning tops. It just so happens the Jewish spinning top is a square. Just so happens that that's the way it is. OK, so as previously stated, there are four letters on the dreidel. There's the noon, the gimel, the hay and the sheen. And these four letters stand for a sentence that says Nes gadol hayah sham. Nes gadol hayah sham. Noon, gimel, hay, sheen. Nes gadol hayah sham, which means a great miracle happened there. A great miracle happened there. Nes gadol hayah sham. It means a great miracle happened there. So if you look at the dreidel, it actually has some meaning there. First of all, a great miracle happened there. So each of these letters, of course, we know that Hebrew letters aren't just letters, don't we? They're highly symbolic. They're numbers. They're pictures. It's highly symbolic. So we're going to talk for a few minutes about how the letters on the dreidel are symbolic of our existence as humanity. Aren't we? Just like a dreidel. Don, do you ever feel like you're just spinning and spinning and spinning and then you fall down? Isn't that our day? We spin, spin, spin, and then we fall down. That's very similar to the dreidel. But we're spinning to make a difference. We're spinning to get ahead. We're spinning so we don't fall. And so if you look at these letters, let's look at what they could stand for as well. So the noon is the first letter in the word nefesh. Nefesh, which means the soul. Or when Yeshua speaks of loving Yahweh with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, he uses the word nefesh, your soulish desires. And we have to conquer our soulish desires, right? Or otherwise we walk around just like an animal, just fulfilling our lusts and our desires. These impulses will pull us away. They will pull us away from what Yahweh has for us. It tells us in the book of Romans, it says, don't you know that to whom you yield yourself slaves to obey, his servants you become? Whether slave of sin or the nefesh unto, slave of sin unto death or obedience to righteousness. We have to choose. And every day we make choices. Now the gimel, look at the gimel. It stands for guf, which is a Hebrew word for body, physical needs. Because we have physical needs. We need shelter, we need food, we have physical needs that we have. And Yahweh has promised, Yahweh has promised that he will meet our needs. You hear me? I've never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging for bread. But the guf reminds us, the gimel on the dreidel reminds us that, you know what, we desire to have our needs met. But many times don't we get our needs and our wants mixed up? But many times don't we get our needs and our wants mixed up? We want that fancy big new house. But we really just need a one bedroom shack. You know what I'm saying? Maybe not that bad. But Philippians 419, it says, Yahweh shall supply all of my needs according to his riches in glory. The sparrows, what do they do? Do they worry about what they're going to eat or where they're going to sleep the night? No. And aren't we worth more than sparrows to him? We've got to be on guard about the guf because the appetites of our body controls us. The book of Proverbs says this, Proverbs 23, 19, it says, Put a knife to your throat. Put a knife to your throat. I call those eyeballs. Put a knife to your throat, it says, if you are given to gluttony. You know what gluttony is? It's too much. If you're never satisfied, it's greed. Because you can be a glutton over, it doesn't have to be just food, but it can be food as well. I'm a glutton to chocolate. OK, I'll just tell you right now, I'm a glutton for pain. I have five children. I am a glutton. I am a glutton when it comes to some of that. Yes. So, you know, put a knife to your throat if you're a man given to gluttony. Overindulgence. Isn't that one of the seven deadly sins? Yeah. So we've got to bring our cravings under subjection. You know, a half a gallon of ice cream should be enough at one sitting. We don't need the full gallon, right? OK, just making sure. So take a look here at the sheen. It looks like a W and it's the letter of the Hebrew word Shech. Shech, which means reason. I'd like to reason out in your mind. It's a picture of our mind, our intellect. That we can allow our mind to be conformed to Yahweh's word. Amen. What does it say in Romans chapter 12? Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, by your reason, by your Shech. Reason. Listen, I think that many of us, the first words that we say is not mama or dada. I don't know about you, but it's probably why. Why? We want to know why. There's nothing wrong with asking why. Great book out there you can buy. You can rent or get from the library called The Jewish Book of Why. A great little book tells you why there are things that are out there that are done. But asking why, there's nothing wrong with that. We've got to make sure that we're going to the right source for why. That Yahweh's word is his instruction book and it will verify with the rest. So there's nothing wrong with our mind, but we shouldn't allow the power of reason to push us away. So you see here already, we've got the Gemel, which is the body, OK? We've got the Nun, which is in the fesh. We've got the sheen, which is the shek or the reason. So we got body. We got soul. We got our mind. And the hay is symbolic of the word ha-kol, ha-kol, which means the all, all of it, everything. Ha-kol, which means the all. Everything must be given over to Yahweh. Everything must be given over to Yahweh, our good days, our bad days. What did Yeshua say? He repeated the words of Deuteronomy chapter six. What's the greatest commandment? Love Yahweh with all your heart, with all your soul and all your might. And then love your neighbors yourself. Guess what? That's all on the dreidel. The greatest commandment is on the dreidel. Love Yahweh with all of your heart. What's your heart? That's your desires. That would be the Nun from the nefesh. Love Yahweh with all your mind. What would that be? That would be the sheen for the shek. Love Yahweh with all of your heart and all your soul and all of your might. That would be for the body, the guff or the gimel. And that's all of you, which is symbolic, of course, of the hay, ha-kol. Everything must center around our desire to walk in the Spirit. Get this. When you spin the dreidel, it has a center point that it spins around, doesn't it? Guess what? Our center point should be Yeshua's word, Yahweh's word in our lives. His Spirit in our lives that we desire to walk in that. So what's stopping us from walking in His love or His joy or His mercy? The dreidel can help us out with that. Now, when the dreidel's spinning, everybody has a dreidel. Would you like to try, practice? Here's what I would like you to do. I'd like you to spin your dreidel and see if you can tell what letter it's on while you're spinning it. It's impossible, isn't it? Unless it's going really slow. You see, our life, our life's a lot like this dreidel. See, we're spent, our life is spent trying to bring all these areas under subjection. When you spin the dreidel, you can't tell what letter it's on. And that's just like with us. We need to be spinning in the extent that Yahweh is moving in us, that we're loving Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. That we don't focus on our pain or our problems, our perceptions or whatever's going on, our bodily desires, our wants, our mind or reason or so, but we reflect on the Master Yeshua. Isn't that holiness? Isn't that what Yahweh wants to be? Think about it. When you're spinning this dreidel, all the letters become one. That's what Yahweh wants with us, for us to become one with Him. And how do we do that? It says in John chapter 15, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask anything in my name and I'll give it to you. He says it brings your father good pleasure when you abide in him and you bear fruit and this fruit would remain. Now, guess what? The letters of the dreidel are also symbolic for the numbers. In Hebrew, there's not a separate numbering system. There's Aleph, Bet, Gemel, Dalet, Hay, which is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And this is called Hebrew numerology or what's called gematria. Now, we're not using this for astrology or some craziness or trying to worship numbers, but we can see patterns that each Hebrew letter is assigned a number. For example, the name of Yahweh is the Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, 10, 5, 6, 5 equals 26. OK, and there's many numbers and meanings that go along with that. So, it's a calculation of numbers or something. So, if we take a look at Nun, Gemel, Hay, and Sheen, the Nun is the number 50, the Gemel is the number 3, the Hay is the fifth letter of the Aleph-Bet, which is symbolic of the five books of Torah, and the Sheen is the number 300, 300. So, Nun, Gemel, Hay, and Sheen, 50 plus 3 plus 5 plus 300. I'm not very good at math, but I think I can add that, 358, 358. And so, in gematria, what you do is you take a word or you take a letter, you add it up and you say, OK, here's the sum I got, 358. What other words equal that in Hebrew? And they're connected with meaning, they're connected with meaning. What other words are connected? So, guess what? 358, what do you think equals 358? Well, guess what? The rabbis, if you were to go to a rabbi and say, dear rabbi, what's 358 in gematria? Oh, that's Nakash, Nakash. That's Hebrew for serpent. Serpent, snake, Nakash. The snake, evil, rebellion. Adam and Eve, tempted by the serpent, eventually sinned. Of course, what was the Messianic prophecy? He shall bruise your heel, but you shall crush his head. From that time forward, what has the dragon done? What has the serpent done? He's waged a vicious war to destroy the seed of righteousness. Over and over and over again, historical accounts of the Jewish people trying to be annihilated. Antiochus, Herod. If Herod would have been able to kill all the boys, would Moshe would have been able to come and rescue the people from Egypt? Would the Messiah have been able to be born from that lineage? No. Of Judah? No. If Antiochus would have been able to kill all the Hebrews, would Yeshua have been able to come? No. So the event surrounding the first Hanukkah was just another attempt of the serpent. Because he knew that if he could destroy the Jewish people, then he could stop the Jewish Messiah. So what did he do? The enemy persecuted, he killed, he raped. He ridiculed, he slaughtered, he mocked. The Hebrew culture was invaded and the Torah was forbidden. The temple was desecrated. The enemy tried, but did he win? No. And guess what? We face the same struggle. Say this with me. It's the same. It's the same. What does John 10.10 say? I've come that you might have life and have life in abundance. But the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. The numbers on the dreidel remind us of the enemy, of the serpent, of the dragon that attacked. That used Antiochus' epiphanies. Do you know what the word epiphanies mean? If you have an epiphany, some churches celebrate the festival of epiphany. It means God with us. Antiochus said, you know what? I am God. They don't need to worship Yahweh. I am God. They need to worship me and Zeus and these other people. Very similar to Revelation. A very picture of antichrist. The dragon wants you to do the same thing he wanted them to do back then. Mix the faith. Compromise. He wants you to assimilate, to mix in. Lose your saltiness. He wants you down. You hear me? HaSatan, the dragon, the serpent, the Nechash wants you depressed. He wants you ineffective for the kingdom. And he will try to stop us. What did he do? What did he do to those in Israel? He tried to stop them from studying Torah because he knew if I can keep them away from the Torah, they will lose their effectiveness. That's what he did. And yet through the power of the dreidel, it was able to help them be strong. He's trying to do everything he can to destroy us. What does he want us to do? He wants us, the serpent wants us to rebel and fall like Adam and Eve did. So if you want to have power over the enemy and victory in your life, who wants victory? Show of hands. Only a few hands at a time. OK, if you want to have victory and power in your life, guess what? Remember the dreidel. We are more than conquerors. Romans chapter 8 says that. We are more than conquerors. Say that. More than conquerors. Antiochus and his army might conquer the Holy Land because they did, didn't they? They trampled the temple, they desecrated the holy place, but we are more than conquerors. We are greater than him. We are more than conquerors through Yeshua. The weapons of our warfare are mighty in Yeshua for the pulling down of strongholds. It says, therefore, put on the full armor of Yahweh that you may be able to stand against the wiles and the works and the schemes of the enemy. Just imagine this. You've got this band of brothers called the Maccabees. They're poised to fight this Assyrian army. They've got this huge army coming against them. They're under-trained. They're outnumbered. It'd be like a kindergarten class fighting the U.S. army. The odds of winning are simple. Slim to none. But do you know what happened? A great miracle happened there. Neschadol ha-Yasham, Yahweh came through for them, the remnant, and he saved them. History repeats itself, does it not? He's doing the same today. He's doing the same with you. The serpent might have brought about the fall of Adam and Eve. The serpent might have been about the destruction of the temple, and he wants you to fall the same way. But listen, every time the dreidel spins, that serpent, the Nekash, the serpent falls. Every time the dreidel spins, that miracle that happened in Israel, the message is sent. Every time the dreidel spins, that serpent, that dragon is reminded of the power of Yahweh to save to the uttermost. That's powerful. But each time we take this little top between our fingers, the devil loses. Every time we pray in spite of how we feel, it's like spinning the dreidel. He loses. Every time we love instead of hate, we believe and have faith, regardless of how bad it looks, the serpent's grip slips. The letters on the dreidel do equal 358, which is the word for serpent. But do you know what else they spell? 358 is also Mem Shin Yod Chet, which is Hebrew for Mashiach, which is Hebrew for Messiah. Even in the name Mashiach, it shows us that he will bruise your heel, but you shall crush his head. Even in the name of the serpent, every time he hears Nekash, he's got to remember Mashiach, Messiah's got me. I can't win. But you know what? I'm going to try. I'm going to get Melanie down the best I can. I'm going to get Michelle down the best I can. Jeremiah is not going to win. I'm going to keep trying. Oh, no, Jeremiah, don't pick up that dreidel. Don't spend it. Don't spend your life on Yeshua. I'm going to fall. I'm going to fail. The serpent falls by the Messiah, not by our own self. But we've got to be the one that go in his power, just like Judah the Maccabee. Remember Judah, Yehudah the Maccabee. He led this revolt against the desire of the snake. OK, and it's from the lineage of Judah that what? Messiah comes. It tells us in 1 John 3, 8, Yeshua came to destroy the works of the devil. It's what it says of the Nekash. Everything that the enemy wants to do, Yeshua came to destroy. You need to hear that today. Because sometimes we just feel like he's got us where he wants us. And the truth is, he's under our feet. We're not under his. We have power and authority. The Messiah came to destroy what the devil was doing. Yahweh wants you well. The enemy wants you sick. It's pretty simple. Yahweh wants you at peace. The enemy wants you on your last nerve. Yahweh wants you to have friends. The enemy wants you to be alone. Yahweh wants you blessed. The enemy wants you depressed. Yahweh wants your needs met. What does the enemy want to do? Steal, kill and destroy. Yahweh sent Yeshua to destroy the works of the devil. Let's say that again. Messiah came to destroy the works of the Nekash. Evil falls when the dreidel spins. And we win. And we win. And we need to be reminded of that. Now, I want to show you this. Hanukkah is directly connected to the Messiah and the Messiah's power. In the book of Genesis chapter 46, bear sheet 46, it's talking about Jacob, Judah, Joseph. And here in this passage, Jacob was going to be reunited with Joseph. You should know the story. But in Genesis 46, verse 28, it says, And he sent Judah before them unto Joseph to direct his face unto Goshen. And they came into the land of Goshen. So they're getting ready. Jacob is getting ready to meet Joseph. He's been separated by years and by tribulation, by famine. And who does he send first to meet Joseph? He sends Judah. Like Judah the Maccabee that went first for us. Like Yeshua from the line of the tribe of Judah. But where does he go? He goes to Goshen. Which is where Joseph was. Now, why is it important? To Goshen is spelled Gemel, Sheen, Hay, Nun. The word there, it says he went to Goshen or unto Goshen. And the Hebrew is spelled Gemel, Sheen, Nun, Hay. Excuse me. Goshen, Hay. Goshen, Hay. He sent him to Goshen, unto Goshen. Here's a connection. Judah was the son of Joseph, which was the father of his tribe. Judah the Maccabee was the leader of the righteous rebellion against assimilation. Yeshua is the lion of Judah. A Judah figure is coming back to bring us together. Judah went first to bring Israel back together. Who is Israel? The sons of Jacob. You follow me? Judah went to bring Israel, the sons of Jacob, the family of Jacob back together. A Judah figure, which is Mashiach 358, right on your dreidel, is coming. Now, the rabbis tell us that the four sides of the dreidel are symbolic of the four exiles that have conquered the Israeli people. Because again, through the years, the enemies tried to get us out of the land, tried to defeat us and get us down to destroy the righteous seed. So that first captivity was the Babylonian captivity. We remember that Babylonian captivity when Daniel was taken away in the Babylon. How long did that captivity last? Seventy years. Seventy year exile. And when that ended, the Persian captives, the Persian rule occurred. That's when Haman, that's when Haman and his evil folks tried to destroy the Israelites. Later, guess what the Greeks came about, the Syrian Greeks with Antiochus Epiphanes trying to exile us and destroy us. This competitive culture, sporting events, philosophy swayed the Israelites. Let's get them away from spirituality. And finally, what was that last that came in 70 A.D.? The Romans, the Roman Empire. The rabbis tell us that the four sides of a dreidel are symbolic of the Babylonian exile, the Syrian armies, symbolic of the Persians and finally of the Romans. Because the Romans, we are still victims of that Roman exile. Is the temple standing today? Is the church polluted with Roman Catholicism, Roman ways? I mean, think about it. How much of the Greek and Roman culture is there? We are victims of this. If the four sides of the dreidel are symbolic of those four major exiles. Guess what? And we recognize we're at the Roman exile, the end of the Roman exile, we pray. What does that show us? It's about over. It's time to go home. It's time for the restoration. In Acts chapter one, turn with me there. Acts chapter one. What did Yeshua say? Yeshua was about to ascend into heaven. And they come to him in verse six. And they say, when they were therefore come together, verse six, they asked him, Master, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? You came as a suffering servant. Are you coming now as a conquering king? Is Israel going to be restored? Are the twelve tribes going to come back together? We have a temple. Everything's good. But what does he say? It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the father has put in his own power. But you shall receive power when the ruach ha'qodesh, the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You shall be my witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. Then he was taken away into the heavens and then turned over to Acts chapter three. Verse 17, and it shall come to pass in the last days. I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heavens above, signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapors of smoke. Talking about the end of days and signs and wonders. And then. Acts chapter three, verse 20 and 21. He shall send Yeshua the Messiah, which before was preached unto you, whom the heavens must receive until the restoration of all things which Yahweh had spoken by the mouth of this holy prophet since the world began. That heaven is holding or Yeshua is there until the restitution, the restoration of all things. And then. The culmination, Yeshua shall return. Now, what does that have to do with Hanukkah? We talked about Messiah coming to restore Israel. When the Messiah returns, he splits the eastern sky over Jerusalem. All of Israel will be restored. Then the pain will disappear. So the dreidel points us to that. The dates of Hanukkah show us an important timetable. Now, what is the dreidel spell? Neskado Hayasham, which means what? A great miracle happened there. Follow me here. Don't lose me. In 1948, a long awaited event occurred. The Jewish people were back in their homeland. And you know what happened to the dreidel? It changed. A change occurred to the dreidel in 1948. Because there were the people there. They were in the Middle East. They were in Israel celebrating Hanukkah, and they could no longer say a great miracle happened there. You know why? Because they were there. They couldn't say a great miracle happened there. They were in their homeland. So the rabbis got together and they said, we have to change the dreidel. Now, today in Israel, if you were to go to Eretz Israel, the land, you would see. But it no longer says a great miracle happened there. It no longer has, if you look at it, the noon, the gimel, the sheen, and the hay. But it has noon, gimel, hay, and the letter pay. The dreidels in Israel are different than the dreidels in America, because in Israel, their dreidel says a great miracle happened here. A great miracle happened here. Noon, gimel, sheen, hay. The miracle of the Maccabean victory happened here. The dreidel points to the miracles that took place in Israel. The Maccabean revolt, the resurrection of Yeshua, the rebirth of the nation that we know about. Now, I think we minimize it sometimes, but I really believe that the restoration of Israel as a sovereign nation was the sign. Everybody say the sign. The sign that we are living in the end of days. It said about the timetable, the time clock. The exile of the land was over. The dreidel was changed. Hanukkah would never be the same. We would never be the same. Bless our those who recognize the importance of the restoration of Israel. Now, many of us think of 1948. That's the year that Israel became a nation. We think of that. Now, that's partially true. However, it was in the month of Kislev. When does Hanukkah occur in the month of Kislev? On November 29th, 1947. In the same month of Hanukkah. That the United Nations, the UN, made a decree, a proclamation stating, giving the land back to the Jewish people. It did not come into fruition until May of 1948. However, in 1947, the commandment went forth. Starting that prophetic time clock. Now, listen to this. Daniel chapter nine. Turn with me there, if you'd like. What I believe was the commandment that went forth to tick, tick, ticks. In 1947, not 1948. Daniel nine, verse 23. Dreidel discoveries. Who'd have thunk there'd be so much in a dreidel. Daniel nine, verse 23. At the beginning of thy supplications, the commandment came forth. And I'm come to show thee, for thou art greatly beloved. Therefore, understand the matter. Consider the vision. Yeshua speaking here. Yahweh is speaking here through Daniel. What does he say? Understand it. Consider it. Understand it. Consider it. Know it. Don't be mistaken. Don't be confused. Consider it. What are we supposed to understand? What are we supposed to consider? He says the sign, the commandment that came forth. We're supposed to understand and consider. Now look at verse 25. Know, therefore, and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the prince shall be seven weeks. Three score and two weeks. The street shall be built again. The wall, even in trubulous times. Do you see that? He said, consider the vision. He says from the from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the prince shall be seven weeks, three score and two weeks. The street shall be built again. The wall, even in trubulous times. Which means if we can determine when the going forth of the commandment is, we can then look at seven weeks and three score and two weeks and get an idea of the rebuilding of the wall and the temple and Yahweh restoring his kingdom. So we could plot the verses. This is what's called, you know, the 70 weeks of Daniel or something like that. It goes on to talk about this. Jesus says there'll be no sin, that most holy will be anointed. And we got to see a starting point here. Now look at Daniel 9, 24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision of prophecy and to anoint the most holy. So what's going to happen at the end of these 70 weeks? Sealing up the prophecy, anointing the most holy. This is what's called the 70 weeks of Daniel. But we've got this other part and then we've got the 70 weeks. Now, you've got a starting point and you've got an ending point and 70 weeks in the middle. The end is Yahweh's rest. The start is some day of 70 weeks. In the Hebrew, the word for weeks is Shavua. We say Shavua Tov, which means have a good week. We have the Feast of Shavuot, which is the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. In the Hebrew here in Daniel, it's a Strong's number 7620, which means Shavua. It actually says seven, a period of seven days or years, a week or Feast of Weeks. In the original Hebrew, it's in plural form, meaning Feasts of Weeks rather than just one Feast of Weeks. The verse actually reads this. Here's how it reads in the Hebrew. Seventy Shavuot or 70 Shavuots are determined upon the people. Shavuot is what? The Feast of Weeks. Pentecost, as the church calls it. OK, that's what it is. So in the Hebrew, it actually reads this way. It reads this way. Seventy Shavuots are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city. Now, how many Feasts of Weeks happen each year? One, correct? There's one Feast of Weeks every year. OK, so you've got 70. What I believe is 70 years. Seventy Shavuots. Now, people will do all types of stuff. They'll say, well, there's 69 and then there's a stopping point. But you're going to wait for 490 years and there'll be another starting point. Then you've got to wait another seven years and then the fine may come. But then the church may be raptured over here. But then it may be raptured in the middle. But you know what? All this might have happened in 70 AD with the pre-preterist idea of what happened in tribulation. All we're really doing is waiting for the imminent return of Yeshua. Anybody confused? OK, that's exactly right. But all that's out there. People have all types of thoughts or so. So let's plot it. Let's think about it. In verse 25, it says, from the going forth of the commandment to restore. Look at verse 25. From the going forth of the commandment to restore. Verse 25, there shall be seven weeks, three score and two weeks. How many is that? There shall be seven weeks, three score and two weeks. OK, so a score is 20. So there's three score. That's 60. So there's seven plus two. So that's 69 weeks. There's 69 weeks from the what? The commandment. There's 69 weeks from the going forth of the commandment. Are you there? You with me? Everybody there? Daniel 9.25. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince, seven weeks, three score and two weeks, or 69 weeks. Now look at verse 26. Look at verse 26. After three score and two weeks. How many? How many weeks is that? That's 62, three score and two is 62. Weeks and I believe years from the going forth of the commandment. After three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not from self, the people of the Prince shall come destroy the city of the sanctuary and therefore shall be with the flood until the end of the war of desolations are determined. OK, so here's what we've got. 62 weeks or what could be considered 62 years. What's the difference between the 62 year prophecy and the 69 year prophecy? What's 69 minus 62? Seven. Thank you, math scholar in the corner. That's right. There's seven years. Now, how long do we know the tribulation shall be? The great tribulation shall be. That's right. There'll be three and a half years of tribulation. Thank you. It's a great tribulation. So seven years. All right. OK, so we've got that seven year time. That leads us to that. Verse 27 of Daniel chapter nine, he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. One week, that'd be seven years, wouldn't it? And in the midst of the week shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease and overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate even until the consummation and the determined shall be poured upon the desolate. So we've got the seven year period, this prophetic week that's occurring. Now, where and what is the starting point? Where and what is the starting point? And what I submit to you today, that could be the starting point was 1947, not 1948. 1948 was when Israel became the commandment. But in 1947. Is when the commandment went forth November the 29th in the month of Kislev in the month of Hanukkah, the commandment went forth. I'm going by what we know at our calendar. OK. Hold on. If the commandment just follow me here, if the commandment went forth in 1947. If the commandment went forth in 1947, which is just what we read on November 29th, the United Nations recognized the state of Israel. And then it tells us. But there will be from 1947, there'll be 70 weeks. Know, therefore, and understand from the going forth of the commandment, Daniel 925, to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until the prince Messiah shall be seven weeks, three score and two weeks, which is sixty nine weeks. Then we read about the 70 weeks and and then the sixty two weeks. And I believe. For my studies that 1947 could be that going forth of that commandment being spoken, which means that the commandment is going to go forth in the month of Hanukkah in the month which means if you take. 1947 plus 70 equals. 2017. OK, 1947 plus 69 equals 2016. 1947 plus 62. Equals. 2010. So therefore plotted what could be, because as we know, the Hebrew calendar overlaps some of these years, what could be the start of tribulation in 2010, between 2010, 2011, the return of Messiah seven years later, between 2016 and 2017. And the last day. And the last day. Now, I want to show you something else. I want to show you something else. When Israel came back to the land or Jewish people came back to the land, it fulfilled what Matthew 24 said. What do you say, Matthew 24? This generation shall not pass until all these things be fulfilled. Is that what he said? Now, what generation? If you look at the generation that experience those things, it could very well be the generation that experienced the return of Israel. Now, how long is a generation? 40 years or sometimes in the Bible, it's 50 years. Sometimes in the Bible, it's 70 years. Sometimes in the Bible, it's 100 years. 2017 fits those. Let me show you this. We know that Yeshua did not return 40 years after 1947, did he? So that would be 1987. Yeshua didn't come back. OK. Or even 1967, 40 years later, that'd be 2008. Yeshua didn't come back. However, that was the year of the Israeli Hezbollah war. That's something to consider. But a generation could also be a 50 year jubilee. Add 50 years to 1967, which is when Jerusalem became the capital. What do you get? 2017. 1967, when Jerusalem became the capital, plus a generation of 50 equals 2017. OK, follow me here. That, OK, that's interesting. Now, a generation could be 70 years. 70 years. Take 1947 plus 70. What does that bring us to? 2017. 2017, yet again. A generation could also be 100 years, couldn't it? Well, in 1917, something very prophetic occurred. On the third day of Hanukkah in 1917, General Allenby, British General Allenby, on the third day of Hanukkah in 1917, led his outnumbered forces, marched them into Jerusalem and into the land of Israel. And Hanukkah of 1917 marked the end of the huge Islamic or Turkish Ottoman Empire that had reigned for 400 years, and the rescue of Israel out of the hands of foreigners. And in 1917, he made what was called the Balfour Declaration. And the Balfour Declaration in 1917 stated this. This land belongs to the Jewish people, and we are returning it to them in 1917. That occurred in 1917, by the way, in the middle of Hanukkah. Another commandment that went forth, and it fits our generations, because 100 years to 1917 plus 100 years equals 2017. So we have here a couple of witnesses that could point to this. That could point to this return of Yeshua, of the Mashiach. Remember, what does the letter spell? It spells Mashiach. It spells Nakash. It spells serpent. That Yeshua is going to bring this about, a possible timeline of Yeshua's return. Now, so what does that show? Time is short if he's coming back in 2017. Time is very short. One final lesson from the dreidel, in view of the end times prophetic timetable that may occur. What happens to a dreidel? It falls, doesn't it? Why does a dreidel fall? Because it's always off balance. Our faith in the end days will falter if we are not balanced. If we seek to focus on one area, even if it's a good area, then we will fail during the end of days. We've got to learn from the dreidel and be strong. We've got to know the letter of the law and flow in the spirit of the law. We've got to balance out faith and works. Our actions got to be full of justice and mercy. Hosea chapter 3 verse 5 says this, that during the next few years, it says it in Hosea 3, 5, that many shall come to Yahweh trembling into his blessing in the last days. That in the last days will come trembling unto his blessing. You notice that? So you've got blessing and trembling. You've got to balance here. Listen to these words from 2 Peter, 2 Timothy. The day of the master Yahweh will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away a great noise. The elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth and the works that are in it shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of person should you be? How now should you live in your conduct, in your Shabbat guarding piety, looking forward to earnestly desiring the coming day of Yahweh, in which the heavens shall be on fire and shall be dissolved. The elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for renewed heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells. How now shall we live? It tells us here. We should live with holy conduct and Shabbat guarding piety or godliness. Following Yeshua. Balance. Not falling over. Not every time something's wrong, oh my goodness. Not walking in fear. Not focusing on just one area of Scriptures or this or whatever, but knowing the time, considering the vision, looking at the dreidel and say, you know what? I'm going to be balanced. I'm not going to spin and turn all my days, but I'm going to be faithful. We should pray. We should plan. We should be careful not to assimilate into the nations. Hanukkah and the dreidel reminds us of the battle and the victory of Yeshua over the remnant, our remnant over the multitudes. Yeshua came through for the Maccabees. He came through for the Hebrew people and he will rescue us. He's promised that. He is restoring and he is returning to destroy the works of the devil. Not just later, but now and today. So we need to let it. We need to allow it. So my prayer is that when we spin this dreidel, we look at it never again the same and we see all that Yahweh has for us and we say, come quickly, Yeshua. Come quickly, Master Yeshua. Thank you again for listening to the Finding Emet radio program. Please visit our website to learn more about the Emet, the truth of the scriptures. Search the Bible, submit your prayer request, or read an article on various subjects. The website is www.FindEmet.com. That's www.FindEmet.com. CD copies of this teaching are available for free by submitting a request at the website or write to us at Emet Ministries, 1310 Trent Street, Newberry, SC 29108. That's Emet Ministries, 1310 Trent Street, Newberry, SC 29108. Thank you again for listening to Finding Emet with Daniel Rendleman. May you find the Emet and may the Emet, may the truth set you free.