Hanukkah & Yeshua

I feel compelled to write about Hanukkah, since in the light of recent events, this Jewish festival has become famous. Hanukkah is also referred to as the Feast of Dedication or Festival of Lights. Although this feast is not directly mentioned in the Old Testament (in Leviticus) where all the other feasts were described (apart from Purim, in Esther), Jesus observed this celebration, hence it is pertinent, as His followers, we understand its significance. 

Hanukkah or Chanukah (חנוכה) are both accepted English spelling for the Hebrew word which means to dedicate or inaugurate. Feast of Dedication commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt. The events are mentioned in the apocryphal book of Maccabees, the feast was instituted B.C. 164 to commemorate the purging of the temple after its pollution by Antiochus Epiphanes (B.C. 167), and the rebuilding of the altar after the Syrian invaders had been driven out by Judas Maccabaeus. The Talmud (rabbinical writings) tell us that a 7 lamp Menorah was lit which burned miraculously for a week, hence the celebration lasts for 8 days.

Many biblical historians place Jesus’ birth in September rather than December. Around the feast of tabernacles (Sukkot), when the people remember God’s dwelling and presence in the wilderness. In that case the “Light of the world”, Yeshua would have been conceived around the “Festival of lights” or Hanukkah. If you believe in December birth then the “Light of the world” was born during Hanukkah!  Either way, God is a God of details, but  since ‘When’ is not as important as ‘Who’, so we’ll defer the debate.

John 10:22 NLT
[22] It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication.
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.10.22.NLT
Here we see Jesus observing the feast and in the temple grounds where He was cornered as asked point blank if He was the long-awaited Messiah. Expecting a quick fix to their nationalistic trials they missed His vision for the eternal fix. Their hunger for the Messiah led them to Him during the Hanukkah, but they didn’t recognise their Messiah. They missed out due to the mismatch between their expectations and God’s provision!

So many times the answers we seek may not be the answers we get because our near-sightedness will never comprehend eternal significance. 

Even as Jews celebrate the temple dedication and Christians celebrate the birth of Yeshua, let’s remember that we are the temples and His Holy Spirit resides in us.

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Christmas!