The Christmas Thing

People often wonder why I do not celebrate December 25th. They know I love Jesus (who I call by His Hebrew name, Yeshua) so they can't understand why I would be opposed to honoring His birth.

In a nutshell, I do not celebrate December 25th because of Exodus 32.

Many people know the story of the golden calf - even those who do not study scripture are somewhat familiar with it. Moses was up on the mountain talking to Adonai. Aaron, the priest, made an idol of a calf from the gold jewelry the people gave him. What many people do not realize is that Aaron took it upon himself to proclaim the next day as a "feast to the LORD" (please see verse 5) How can you make an idol, which is a false god, then use it to worship Adonai?

Oh sure, he had built an altar so the people could offer some sacrifices on it, but Adonai never told him to do this. It all looked and sounded a tiny bit holy but it was really just putting some "lipstick on a pig" as the saying goes! The righteous sounding festival was really just a party of human reasoning, idol worshipping, sinful, flesh that quickly turned into a full blown mess. To make a long story short, it did not please Adonai and did not end well for the people.

I have gone into the town square and sang "Oh Christmas Tree" with the crowd as they lit up the beautiful idol. I have put the idol in my home and greatly admired it along with the beautiful gifts underneath it. I used to go to the family gatherings and we even had a cake that said, "Happy Birthday, Jesus" on it. It was ok because I made sure to celebrate Jesus' birth...right?

Yeshua quoted Duet. 8:3 when He said, "...man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." (Matt. 4:4) God's Word is the Bible. I do not see where He has told us the date that Yeshua was born - let alone, where He says we should celebrate it.

Adonai said to Moses, " the people...have corrupted themselves!"(Ex.32:7) and later in the passage He calls them a "stiffnecked" people. This is certainly not a compliment and it is very evident that He is not happy with what the people did.

I want people to know that I love Yeshua with all of my heart but I have made the choice to forgo the man made traditions and to honor His Sabbath and appointed times instead (please see Leviticus 23) . I hope people will not take my word for this but study the passages and search the scriptures for themselves. Truly the Lord does look at our hearts but we must strive to have hearts that only want to do things His way. May it not be said that we are corrupt or stiffnecked!

Oh, and I forgot to mention; Santa just creeps me out!