Menorah – Middle light, Ner Elohim, the Westernmost Lamp, the Lamp of God, the Servant Lamp –Specially prized.

• The Ner Elohim Lamp quit burning in 30 AD.
• From the Talmud: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot [‘For the Lord’] did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson-colored strap become white; nor did the westernmost light shine. (Yoma 39b)

 

• Genesis 1:3-5 - Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” There was an evening, and there was a morning: one day. [1]
• Light was created the first day.

 

• Genesis 1:14-19 - 14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will serve as signs for seasons and for days and years. 15 They will be lights in the expanse of the sky to provide light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night—as well as the stars. 17 God placed them in the expanse of the sky to provide light on the earth, 18 to rule the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 Evening came and then morning: the fourth day. [2]
• The sun was created on the fourth day.
• Menorah- Picture
• How many days were in the Creation?
  - 7 Days
  - 1-3 – 4 – 5-7 Days

 

• From Josephus (an unredeemed Jew who was an historian):

Over against this table, near the southern wall, was set a candlestick of cast gold, hollow within, being of the weight of one hundred pounds… It was made with its knops, and lilies, and pomegranates, and bowls (which ornaments amounted to seventy in all); by which means the shaft elevated itself on high from a single base, and spread itself into as many branches as there are planets, including the sun among them. It terminated in seven heads, in one row, all standing parallel to one another; and these branches carried seven lamps, one by one, in imitation of the number of the planets. These lamps looked to the east and to the south, the candlestick being situate obliquely. (Antiquities, Book III, Chapter VI, Paragraph 7)

• Josephus realized that the sun, located at the center of our solar system, was providing light for the planets visible to early man.
• Mercury, Venus, Earth (or moon), Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
• It seems therefore, that he concluded the sun served as the middle lamp (Servant Lamp) of our universe.
• If this is so, the sun is a picture of “the Son” who is the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5)
• “The Son” that Josephus failed to recognize as Savior!

 
The Legend of Azazel

• Day of Atonement – All sin would be atoned for one day of the year.
• Hebrews 9:6-7 – With these things prepared like this, the priests enter the first room repeatedly, performing their ministry. 7 But the high priest alone enters the second room, and he does that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.[3]
• What is the difference between atonement and forgiveness?
  - Covered but not removed
• High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies twice.
  - 1st time with the blood of a bull to cover his own sin.
  - Then two goats were brought to the High Priest, lots were cast and one of the goats was sacrificed.
   - The High Priest would then take the blood of the sacrificed goat into the Holy of Holies and offer it as sacrifice for the rest of the Jews sins… to be covered.

 

• Leviticus 16:8-10 - After Aaron casts lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other for an uninhabitable place (Scapegoat or Azazel), A, (Lit for Azazel) B, (Perhaps a term that means “for the goat that departs,” or “for removal,” or “for a rough, difficult place,” or “for a goat demon”)[4] 9 he is to present the goat chosen by lot for the Lord and sacrifice it as a sin offering. 10 But the goat chosen by lot for an uninhabitable place is to be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement with it by sending it into the wilderness for an uninhabitable place. [5]

 

• From the Talmud:
  If you assume it was Rabbai Johannan ben Zaccai [who made the rule], was there in the days of Rabbai Johannan Zaccai a thread of scarlet [which turned white]? Has it not been taught: Rabbai Johannan Zaccai lived altogether a hundred and twenty years. For forty years he was in business, forty years he studied, and forty years he taught’, and it has further been taught: ‘For forty years before the destruction of the Temple the thread of scarlet never turned white but it remained red.’ (Rosh HaShana 31b)
• They tied a red ribbon on the scapegoat which turned white as it ran away.
• During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot [‘For the Lord’] did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson-colored strap become white. (Yoma 39b)

 

• From the Jewish Encyclopedia:

Day of Atonement – A man was selected, preferably a priest, to take the goat to the precipice in the wilderness; and he was accompanied part of the way by the most eminent men of Jerusalem. Ten booths had been constructed at intervals along the road leading from Jerusalem to the steep mountain. At each one of these the man leading the goat was formally offered food and drink, which he, however, refused. When he reached the tenth booth those who accompanied him proceeded no further, but watched the ceremony from a distance. When he came to the precipice he divided the scarlet thread into two parts, one of which he tied to the rock and the other to the goat’s horns, and then pushed the goat down (Yoma vi. 1-8). The cliff was so high and rugged that before the goat had traversed half the distance to the plain below, its limbs were utterly shattered. Men were stationed at intervals along the way, and as soon as the goat was thrown down the precipice, they signaled to one another by means of kerchiefs or flags, until the information reached the high priest, whereat he proceeded with the other parts of the ritual.
 
The scarlet thread was a symbolic reference to Isaiah 1:18; and the Talmud tells us (ib.39a) that during the forty years that Simon the Just was high priest, the thread actually turned white as soon as the goat was thrown over the precipice; a sign that the sins of the people were forgiven. In later time the change to white was not invariable: a proof of the people’s moral and spiritual deterioration, that was gradually on the increase, until forty years before the destruction of the Second Temple, when the change of the color was no longer observed (i.e. 39b).
 

• Hebrews 10:12 - But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.[6]
• The sacrificial system that had been in effect for years was not obsolete because of Jesus’ blood.
• Mishnah – 220 AD – Oral Law written down
• Talmud – 600 AD – Expanded w/ stories (Tradition written by unredeemed Jews)

 
9 - Lamps
Zechariah – Additional two branches to serve as resource to make sure the other 7 branches remained lit.

• Persians – 400 years of silence between testaments
• Alexander Great and the Greeks defeated the Persians
• Divided into four regions
• Syria - Antiochus Epiphanes defiled the Temple Mount
• Maccabees came in and rededicated the Temple Mount. There was enough oil in one branch to relight the Menorah and it burnt for 8 days.
• Two additional branches were added during the days of the Maccabees restoration and is related now to Hanukah.

[1] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ge 1:3–5). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ge 1:14–19). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Heb 9:6–7). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[4] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Le 16:8–10). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.\
[6] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Heb 10:12). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.