John, the Festivals, and the Man Born Blind

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The Father made these feasts/festivals part of the covenant, they are important. I think He started them to remind the People of important events, and they are prophetic for us now.

This is a reference section.

  • Leviticus 16 – This is detailed instructions for the sons of Aaron and the Day of Atonement when they go behind the curtain into the Most Holy Place. A New Testament connection is this is what Zechariah was doing when he spoke to Gabriel in Luke 1.  
  • Leviticus 23 – These cover seven feasts and the Sabbath.
  • Numbers 28:16 to 29:40 – This covers five feasts and gives instructions for the offerings to be made for each feast.
  • Exodus 23:14-19 – This has the three feasts that all the men were to attend. Other requirements are stated and then these are repeated in Ex 34.
  • Exodus 34:18-23 – This also states that all men are to appear three times a year and then in verse 24 it has a promise about the land. (Two witnesses.)
  • Deuteronomy 16:1-17 – The three required feasts are listed with reminders of the requirements and some encouragement for the feasts.
  • Ezekiel 45 + 46 talks about offerings and specifically mentions Passover.

The festivals that I am concerned with today is the Feast of Ingathering/Tabernacles (John 7) and the Feast of Dedication or Hanukkah it is in John 10:22 (this one is not found in the Torah). The narrative of the man born blind (John 9) is in-between these two feasts. Image when there were no chapters or verses; the text flowed from one feast to the next with the conversations and the miracle in-between. There are some early manuscripts that do not have the story of the woman caught in adultery, but what a great story of redemption to have right there. Tabernacles is the end of twenty-one days, after all the crops are in, given to the Lord. The seventh month starts with Trumpets, then the Day of Atonement, and finally all of Israel celebrating the journey to the Promised Land. These three also mark the harvest seasons.

I noticed that there are many conversations from Chapter 7 to 10 that flow from the symbolism of the feast. The three required feasts for all the men to attend were: Passover, Weeks or Pentecost, Feast of Ingathering/Tabernacles.

  • Passover is the start of the Jewish religious year. It is when the Death Angel passed over Israel and struck Egypt. The first crop is barley, which is associated with the Children of Israel.
  • Weeks or Pentecost (Shavuot) marks the length of time it took Israel to get to Mt. Sinai and meet God. It is seven weeks +1 day or fifty days after Passover. This is the wheat harvest; think about Ruth and Gideon. Wheat can represent abundance and blessing, which then speaks to spiritual growth and maturity. Jesus ascended forty days after Passover, allowing the disciples to pray for ten days.
  • Ingathering/Tabernacles (Sukkot) marks the end of all the harvest (fruit); it starts on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and last for seven days. The Children are to ‘live’ in shelters of branches for this time.

God was looking ahead to the Promised Land when he gave these feasts as part of the covenant while they were in the desert.

  • Hanukkah is not in the Torah, but it is part of God’s Song. Jerusalem and Israel were under Greek control; they desecrated the Temple. When the Maccabees beat the Greeks, they wanted to rededicate the Temple for God’s use. (This Temple was built by Zerubbabel [See Haggai and Zechariah] and is known as the Second Temple; Herod used this temple as the Holy of Place in his temple.) Part of the process required that the Temple Menorah be burning using special oil. They only had enough oil for one day, but they started the dedication anyway. The Lamp burned off of that one-day supply for eight days allowing the Temple to be rededicated. This joyful holiday is noted for the miracle supply of oil and for Light.

The Man Born Blind

We do not know the exact time that this miracle took place, but it was between the end of Tabernacles (Jn7:37) and before Hanukkah. This is the time period when the barley crop is planted for the harvest at Passover. The end of Jesus’ ministry is coming, so the disciples have been with Him for three years and He is about to ride into Jerusalem to pay the Bride’s price for His Church, and say, “It is finished”.

In John 9:2 the disciples ask a question that stems from the Second Commandment (Ex 20:5); who sinned? Interesting! (Remember, the Day of Atonement has just happened, that is the day for Israel’s sins to be covered for that year.) Jesus’ answer, Neither. I will bet that many people did not understand that and it shook some religious paradigms to the core. After all it was in the Bible. Continued Study. The Second Commandment is about making idols and worshipping them, that is the sin. Illness and problems are not punishment from God. The Father is not an angry God looking for ways to hurt His Children.

I am going on a “what if” journey. Did this man stay with Jesus and see Lazarus brought out of the tomb? Was he with them when Jesus washed feet? Could he have been in the Upper Room on Pentecost and spoke in tongues? Did he get picked to be a deacon? What if he did not go and wash because he knew someone in his family had sinned and he was paying the price? After all it was the Sabbath and walking and washing sounds like work. It is worth noting Jesus never told the man what would happen when he washed. The ‘traditions’ formulated while in Babylon said healing was not allowed on the Sabbath, so that was work.

Jesus was gathering fruit, planting seeds, and being the Light.

Micah and Jonathan – The Sin of Ephraim

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The first thing to deal with in this dark story from Judges 17 and 18 is the four parts of the title.

  • Micah – A family man from the Tribe of Ephraim who stole his mother’s fortune. This is not the prophet who lived at the same time as Hosea and Isaiah and spoke against The Sin that was started in this story.
  • Jonathan – A Levite who probably was a grandson of Moses by Gershom. I am giving two links that formed the discussion in the Gershom post. Judges 18:30 Hebrew Text Analysis   and   judges 18:30 jewish encyclodepidia – Search. This is not David’s friend who was the son of King Saul.
  • The Sin – Micah set up a new worship center/religion to compete with the Tabernacle that was at Shiloh, which was just down the road. (That place developed its own problems, read the first chapters of 1 Samuel.) This was the groundwork or pattern for what Jeroboam did when he left the Temple in 1 Kings 12:25. Both of these exceeded the high places of ‘prayer’, sacred groves, Asherah poles, and altars to Baal because they installed their own priest to copy what was done by Aaron’s family.
  • Ephraim – A mantle of leadership and blessing rested on the Tribe of Ephraim. Joshua, son of Nun, who took over for Moses, was from Ephraim. The land of Ephraim had been chosen to protect the Tabernacle. It’s central location and large population made it a major player in the politics of the Twelve Tribes.

Other Factors in this Story.

  • Micah’s Mom – (This part of the study went places I did not expect, so I will present the words and not my opinions.) MM cursed the silver and Micah heard it. We do not know what the curse was but it snapped Micah back to reality. This word indicates that it was serious. Strong’s Hebrew: 422. אָלָה (alah) — take, takes an oath, oaths   He returns the silver and she blesses him. (She could have had him stoned.) Then she ‘double dedicates’ the silver to YHWH. KJV says “wholly”, but that was a special decision. Hebrew Concordance: hiq·daš·tî — 6 Occurrences is the root word for dedicate and is first used when God dedicates the Levites to His service. The dedication of the silver was for a graven image, which flies in the face of God in Deuteronomy 4:16. The “to make” word is first used in Genesis 2:3 and refers to God making the earth. The words used would indicate that this was not done lightly, and she knew that she was saying. (Okay, I blamed Micah, but it seems mommy was the problem.)
  • Judges 17:6. Judges 17:6 Hebrew Text Analysis “The right” is associated with many sight and eye verses. This becomes the argument for Israel pushing Samuel to anoint a king.
  • The Tribe of Dan. The little Tribe of Dan whose land started on the Great Sea coast and was between Judah and Ephraim was a tough piece of real estate to conquer; the Philistines were happy with it. They bullied Ephriam, stole the idols and priest, and continued the sin and kept it going for years. The phrase “from Dan to Beersheba” meant all of the land Jacob’s family owned.    

This Sin made it past the sword of Samuel, King Saul, King David, and the Temple; finally, the Sin Site of Dan was closed down by the Assyrians in the days of Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah. That is several hundred years. The Assyrians, in Isaiah, even mocked the statues that they took back to Ninevah. Jeroboam had added his own golden calf statues and priest, which makes me wonder what the silversmith made for Micah. Please remember that Dan was active in the affairs of Israel during this whole time period.

A strange thought that is strictly my own; did this worship area get recycled into the birthplace of Pan in the Caesarea Philippi region? That is where Jesus went to proclaim He was the Rock of God’s Kingdom. “A little sin” can go a long way and do a lot of damage, but our God is greater.

How do I end a post like this? These two chapters should have never happened, but they did.

Mica(h) | The amazing name Mica(h): meaning and etymology

Jonathan | The amazing name Jonathan: meaning and etymology

Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah in the Shadow of Assyria

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Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah is the introductory post of this study. These men and at least four other prophets wrote under the shadow of the Assyrian winged lion. The kings of Assyria changed but their shadow stayed over the Levant for years. People think Babylon was terrible, it was, but Assyria regularly took Babylon to the ground, literally, several times. They deported Israel/Samaria and imported people who became known as the Samaritans and defeated all of Judah except Jerusalem. The destruction and deportation of Lachish was made into wall art in the royal palace in Ninevah. So, unless Babylon or Chaldeans are mentioned, destroying armies spreading over the land are Assyrians.

I listed these men by the kings listed in the first verse of their books. Jeroboam II king of Israel was a grandson of Jehu. However, there were six more kings of the Northern Kingdom before Assyria took them away: Zechariah (Jehu’s grandson, the last, 2 Kg15), Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah son of Remaliah (see Isaiah), and Hoshea (2 Kg 17).

  • Amos prophesied in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel. His words were directed at both Israel and Judah. Israel in this book may cover both the northern and the southern kingdoms.
  • Hosea prophesied in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel. His words were directed at both Israel and Judah, but Ephraim is used many times.
  • Isaiah prophesied in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. His focus was Judah/Jerusalem, but Israel (the north) is in this Book.
  • Micah prophesied in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

These prophets did not list kings as a timestamp in their books. So, I will give some things that may put them in the same general time period as our first four prophets.

  • Joel – He talks about Mount Zion and Jerusalem several times. 2:1 has a mighty army coming to the land, and locust. Amos also has a vision of locusts.
  • Obadiah – Verse 18 speaks of the house of Jacob and the house of Joseph being on fire. Esau was in this verse, and most prophets had bad things to say about them. Verse 20 says ‘the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sephard’; this is possibly Sardis, Turkey which is north of Ninevah. Captured Jews could have been sent here away from the captives of the North.
  • Jonah – 2 Kings 14:25 is his timestamp and the fact that he was called to Ninevah. The capitol at Ninevah was the third city built to be the royal city of Assyria and was constructed by Sennacherib. That puts it in our time period and helps to explain why he was pillaging all of these little countries.
  • Nahum talks about Ninevah in 2:1.

Shared visions, prophetic themes, and similar words are part of the reason for this study. The other reason is we ignore a great enemy of Israel that did many things to the people and the land. There are lessons for our present time before Babylon rules and then, is finally destroyed.

Daughter Egypt and “Her” – Assyria

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Questions. When studies collide, you get questions. Daughter, Egypt, and Assyria have generated studies and questions, and it seems they are doing it again. In 2026, I changed my Bible reading from going cover to cover to focusing on Psalms, Isaiah, and the New Testament. Quess what; I have been cover to cover because of looking up references. Some of the biggest question makers have been Isaiah reporting God’s thoughts on daughters, Egypt, and Assyria.

Isaiah was in the cohort of Prophets who lived and wrote during a time period when Assyria was bullying the Levant. Amos, Micah, Hosea, Nahum, and Jonah all witnessed their parts of the action in 2 Chronicles and 2 Kings from Jeroboam II and Uzziah/Azariah through the fall of the Northern Kingdom to the start of King Manasseh. These men came, spoke, and wrote God’s words and thoughts to Jacob’s children; yes, they are still speaking to us today. When you read Isaiah, it is good to remember what Assyria was doing to the nations.

  • Samaria had been defeated and carried off as slaves.
  • All the fortified cities of Judea had been captured and many people were deported.
  • The Philistines had called for Egypt to help them against Assyria. Egypt did not show up.
  • Jerusalem had an 11th hour event and faced destruction.
  • The nations around Israel (many of them enemies) were either defeated/crushed or ‘laid down and let Assyria walk on them’. (they made treaties and started paying them off) But literally, they laid on the ground, and the Assyrian king would walk on them.
  • Egypt could not help the ‘little guys’ because they were not strong enough to defeat Assyria.

Observations generate questions that lead to studies. An observation of Isaiah is that he refers to Daughter and Virgin Daughter Zion many times, he also writes about other nations as daughter. Does he refer to Daughter Egypt? No, that will be found in Jeremiah; who also talks about daughters many times. Daughter Zion and Daughter Zion #2 and Daughter Zion Observations cover a lot of ground and in those studies questions about our Father and daughters have come up; my study for this post started at least one more.

Daughter Egypt

Egypt and Assyria were not nice to Israel. But in God’s plan there is hope and redemption held out to them and the other nations that choose to serve and praise God. In God’s plan, as talked about by Isaiah, a Highway of Holiness will be made to link those nations to Jerusalem. Imagine how Isaiah must have felt when he got that word and wrote it down; then gave it to the people.

Jeremiah, with Baruch recording, also had much to say about Egypt. The main idea was simple, DO NOT GO TO EGYPT FOR HELP. In Jeremiah’s lifetime Babylon was the bully who beat Assyria and Egypt. Chapter 46 God addresses Egypt and other nations and here it reflects the fact He did not want Jerusalem thinking Egypt could help. 46:11 talks about Virgin Daughter Egypt going to Gilead (a part of Israel on the east bank of the Jordan) to get medicine for healing. The term ‘virgin’ here started another level of study. 46:19 speaks to what Babylon would do to Egypt and signals that they will be no help. Translators starting with the Geneva Bible arrange the thought here a little different. Jeremiah 46:19 Hebrew Text Analysis  46:24 continues with ‘they will be given to the people of the north’. On level one that would be Babylon, but on level two it talks to Greece and Rome. Don’t miss the      BIG takeaway, God calls Egypt daughter and virgin daughter; that may mess with some people’s theology.  My observation (not an answer) is that God has a bigger thought for that nation than we do.

Assyria

I am including Assyria to help me sort my thoughts on a very complicated topic. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel are about 100 years after Isaiah, but the political climate had not changed much. Those men lived under the shadow of Egypt and Assyria and then felt the iron rod of Babylon. One thing I did not find was God saying Daughter Assyria. The best I could find was a reference to ‘her’ in Ezekiel 32:22,23. Your favorite translation may add some confusion here as the core of those verses talk about Assyria as a woman; except the GNV and KJV started talking about Asshur (Assyria) as a ‘him’. Yes, that was a name of the main male Assyrian god.

This opened up the fact that God refers to cities, regions, and nations as women. Not all cities and nations are called daughter, but He refers to them in female terms. I do not think that is a mistake and actually is very important. Well, you now can see a future study.

Seven Miracles in John and the Feast

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This continuation of my study of the miracles in the Gospel of John will focus on them in conjunction with the appointed feast and sacred assemblies found in Leviticus 23. In Chapter 20:30,31 John states the reason he was writing: 1. To highlight SOME of the miracles Jesus did. 2. To show these miracles as proof that Jesus was the Son of God. (I feel John was making a defense and creating an offense against the ‘false brothers’ who were coming.)

Who, why, and how someone decided that there were only seven miracles must have been a product of Common Core math (that is a joke). I will repeat some information from my first post and from +1, +1, +1. There are many books, articles, videos, and sermons on the Feast; please read several because of the vast number of viewpoints on this subject.

See Leviticus 23, Exodus 23:10-17, and 34:18-23 for these special days. In keeping with why John wrote his gospel, these feasts speak to and about Jesus’ mission.

  1. Sabbath, the day of rest each week.
  2. Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits are together in the first month of the Jewish religious year.
  3. Feast of Weeks or Pentecost is fifty days/seven weeks (plus one day) after the wave offering of Firstfruits. This is around the barley harvest that we find in the Book of Ruth.
  4. The seventh month has three feasts on different days: Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement/Yom Kippur, Feast of Tabernacles. The Day of Atonement is/was the most important, and these kept you involved from the 1st to the 21st of that month. This was after all of the harvesting was done, so it was a big deal each year.
  5. Hanukkah or the Feast of Dedication is not in Leviticus or Exodus. It is a celebration when a miracle of the temple lamp stayed burning for eight days on a one-day supply of oil. In Father God’s Song that miracle of oil and light could be the birthtime of Jesus. Yes, I calculated the months/days from the information in Luke and the 12 Days of Christmas, December 25th to January 6 or Epiphany, are reasonable.

I have heard there is a list of things the Messiah had to do to prove Himself to Israel and become ‘the Man’ in Psalm 110. So, in John 2:8 when the leaders asked for a sign, and in 6:30 the people asked for a sign, this is what they were looking for; Jesus did not perform for them. However, in John 2:23 Jesus did miracles and the people believed, I guess some of the leaders were not paying attention. Nicodemus did pay attention, so in Chapter Three he talked to Jesus. In John 6, Jesus had given them the sign of feeding 5,000 men and their families, with leftovers just like Elisha in 2 Kings 4:42,43.

This is lagniappe, John the Baptist is compared to Elijah; that would make Jesus like Elisha. In my first post many of those signs I attributed to Elisha. The Elisha connect may explain why John added 4:54 about Cana/Galilee and leaving Judea; Elisha started his ministry at the Jordan near Jericho which is the territory of Judea (These are really the only two numbered miracles and they are specific to Cana).

John | The amazing name John: meaning and etymology

I will tell on myself, the first two times through this list I did not include the Sabbath. Jesus did miracles on the Sabbath to show that the Son of Man was Lord of the Sabbath. Reflect on John 5:17 “My Father is always at work…” and John 6:29 “The work of God is to believe in the one He has sent.”

Now, I will attempt to sort out the Feast and Miracles in John.

  • Chapter 1 tells of Creation 1:3, Jesus’ birth 1:14, John the Baptist 1:15, and Nathanal’s vision 1:47.
  • Hanukkah to Passover, Chapter 2, the miracle of the wine
  • The first Passover in His forty months of ministry. 2:23, Jesus did miraculous signs that the people and Nicodemus saw. 3:14-15, Jesus’ foretells how He dies for our salvation.
  • Pentecost to Day of Atonement may be indicated by 4:35 with the “months to harvest”. In 4:46 Jesus has returned to Cana and does a long-distance healing of the son in Capernaum.
  • Seventh month- the Day of Atonement, 5:1, and a special Sabbath 5:9 Jesus heals an invalid of 38 years and in verse 25 may foretell of raising Lazarus. 38 years is the length of time the Children wandered after Mt. Sinai.
  • Second Passover is approaching, 6:4, 6:5 starts the feeding of the 5,000 and 6:16 has Him walking on water. 6:2 crowds followed Him because of healings. 6:14 because of this sign the people knew this answered a sign.
  • Day of Atonement/Feast of Tabernacles and Jesus is in Jerusalem for several chapters. 7:22,23 are questions about the Sabbath. 9:1 starts the narrative on the man born blind and his healing; verse 16 concerns the sabbath, again.
  • Hanukkah, 10:22 and 22-42 centers on the sabbath again.
  • The final Passover and its time of purification, 11:1 to 19:31 (indicates a special sabbath). 11:1 is the story of raising Lazarus; Jesus was on the east bank of the Jordan. He crossed the river and went back. His ride into Jerusalem is like Joshua, David and Elisha’s crossing the Jordan. 12:12 starts His final Passover and ends with His death and resurrection.
  • Firstfruits, 20:19 is Jesus appearing to the Eleven and others in a locked room.
  • Firstfruits to Pentecost, Peter’s second catch of fish and his restoration.

Remember John’s purpose in writing, he chose certain things to prove Jesus as the Son of God. He does not write a complete history, as is seen by Chapters 6 and 7. Celebrating the second Passover and Pentecost is not mentioned but goes to the Day of Atonement in Chapter 7.

Observations and Reflections

  1. John does not talk about Jesus and the Feast of Weeks/Pentecost; what are your thoughts as to why.
  2. Matthew, Mark and Luke share some of the same miracles as John, but include many others. Why?
  3. You can extend this study by going through Matthew and see how miracles and feasts are handled in that Gospel.