His Inheritance Ministries

John 10:22 (NKJV) Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter.

John 10:22 (ISV) Now Hanukkah was taking place in Jerusalem. It was winter,

Yes, Hanukkah is in the New Testament!

I think that it is wonderful that there is a holiday for the Jewish people to celebrate during Christmas time. Maybe some of them don’t feel so left out, especially the children! Nowadays in the USA, people celebrate Christmas from the end of Thanksgiving till maybe January 6th, though Yeshua was not born on December 25th. The Messiah’s nativity took place probably on Nisan 1 (video or article).

The FEAST of LIGHTS

Hanukkah, meaning dedication, is also called the Feast of Lights. It celebrates a miracle that happened more than a century before Christ was born. It is not one of the Feast Days of the LORD, yet Yeshua celebrated it for it speaks of Him!

The Maccabees, Jewish warriors, relit the Temple Menorah, restoring the light in the House of the LORD, after its desecration under Antiochus IV in 164 BC.

“They made new holy vessels and brought the lampstand… and they lighted the lamps that were upon the lampstand, and they gave light in the temple.” (1 Maccabees 4:49–50)

An account from the Talmud states that one day’s supply of this special oil burned for eight days in the Temple Menorah, until the new pure priestly oil could be prepared. Quite a miracle!

(Incidentally, in Zechariah 4, a menorah is described.)

THE MENORAH

The Menorah personifies the Messiah!

The Temple Menorah was made of gold, alluding to holiness and purity. It had one central shaft and six branches coming from it. Symbolically, Christ is the “central shaft” and He alone supplies the oil of the Holy Spirit to the other six branches. He is the servant lamp who sets on fire all others.

JOHN 1:9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

In the temple, there was no natural light. However, the menorah provided the light consistently and continually.

This reminds me of these Scriptures about the New Jerusalem:

REV 21:22 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.

So Hanukkah celebrates the Temple light, but Yeshua, the Lamb of God, is the true, living Light!

Yeshua declared:

John 8:12 … “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

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See this article for a comparison between physical light and Divine Light which is an explanation of the triune nature of God: THE TRUE LIGHT

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Give a GIFT of Truth!
Recommendations from the Institute for Hebraic Christian Studies in Houston, Texas.
O Little Tower of Bethlehem: Isaiah and Micah relate the prophecies of the Messiah’s birth to children: the Lamb of God will be born in the Tower of the Flock where the shepherds birth Passover Lambs! This book is based on Scripture and archaeology but is not your westernized version of the Messiah’s birth.
It could be ordered thru Trilogy Christian Publishing (TBN), Barnes & Nobles, Amazon, and other book outlets.