Its that season again everywhere we look there are lights!Even in the nations in the southern hemisphere, where Christmas is in the summer season, there are still lights to celebrate the ONE,

 WHO WAS and IS and always will be, the light of the world. Jesus, whose Hebrew Name is Yeshua.

The birth of the Messiah over 2000 years ago is what we remember at this time of the year.

It is the celebration that heralded salvation for mankind, which was prophesied 700 years before inand fulfilled in 

Matthew 4:12-17; Mark 1:14-15; Luke 4:14-15)

There is another ‘Festival of Lights’, at this time in Israel’s Calendar; called by a Hebrew word, phonetically transliterated as both, Chanukah or Hanukkah.

The Hebrew word means ‘dedication’ and is therefore also called the Feast of Dedication.

Although Chanukah/Hanukkah is thought of by most as an exclusively Jewish holiday found in the Old Testament, in reality the only place it is mentioned is in the Gospel of John 10:22,23

‘At that time it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, it was winter, and Yeshua/Jesus was walking in the temple, on Solomon’s porch.’So it would seem the most famous person ever to celebrate the festival of Chanukkah was Jesus, the one who is the light of our lives.We all called to be the light of the world and not hide it under bushes or anything else for that matter!

so lets take a look at what Chanukkah is and how it involves a menorah!
In a nutshell, Hanukkah is historical and documents record that the first Chanukah/Hanukkah Was performed on the 25th of Kislev in 164 BC.

This feast commemorates the Jewish peoples freedom from Greek rule and the purification and rededication of God’s house, the Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BC.

This victory climaxed with the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in 164BC Not surprisingly Israel’s national symbol on their parliament building the knesset and their National Seal is the seven branched menorah.

It was described in Exodus and stood in the Holy place and it’s not the star of David symbol, that is usually associated with the nation.Israel is called to be a light to the nations. Are we living a life full of light?Are we constantly filled and refilled with Holy oil, so we can stand in the Holy place in worship and then take the light to those around us?It’s our heritage and our national calling to live life as a holy menorah of the Lord.Jesus said, ‘I am the light of the world’; and we are to let the light of His indwelling presence shine forth and then, He can draw all people to Himself Hebrews 1:9.

We must be filled up with the oil of His Holy Spirit and the fire of His will must burn brightly in every one of us.Olive oil symbolizes knowledge of Torah which provides spiritual illumination. We are to be the heavenly light in the world’s darkness.Whether you are Jewish or not, if you are born again you are grafted into the Olive tree of Israel you are a citizen and a part of Israel.   Ephesians 2:14, 15Whether you know it,

or believe it,

or not;

that’s what the Scriptures say.Jesus was Jewish, descended from the children of Israel. You cannot separate Him from His roots, any more than we can deny our own families heritage, or the Judaeo-Christian/Hebrew roots of our faith.Hanukkah is a time to appreciate all we have to be thankful for.We express our thanksgiving to God for protecting us and providing for our needs.Chanukah begins on the twenty-fifth day of the Jewish month of Kislev. The Jewish calendar is primarily based on the lunar cycle, and its dates fluctuate with respect to other calendar systems.Thus the first day of Chanukah can fall anywhere between November 28th and December 26th. this year it , begins at sundown on Tuesday, 12 December 2017. The Jewish festival of rededication, also known as the Festival of Lights and the feast of dedication and It is referred to one time in Scripture in the Gospel of John 10:22,23Both Christmas and Chanukah are actually known as the “Festival of Lights.”  The focus of each holiday is about God showing His salvation and supernatural miracles that lasted eight days and continues to illuminate our lives even now.For believers, Christmas celebrates the miraculous virgin birth of Jesus/Yeshua, the Light of the World, who was born to save the world from their sins.

Mary and Joseph were traveling to Bethlehem to register during a Roman census, and the shepherds still had their flocks out by night (Lk.2:1-8). Shepherds would likely not have had their flocks out at night in December because it is too cold, which is an interesting point.

(food for thought!)It’s also unlikely that any ruler would compel people to travel many miles mostly on foot or riding animals, to register for a census when the likelihood of bad weather would have made such an effort self-defeating. Some scholars say it is possible that Jesus was born on one the appointed festival dates, likely in the fall around the time of Sukkot, and not in the winter, as His coming then and in the future are in fulfillment of the promises foreshadowed in the annual cycle of feasts of the Lord. (All 7 Feasts are discussed in earlier posts.)

 However, the history of Chanukah is very interesting because it celebrates two miracles:

Chanukah celebrates the miraculous salvation of Israel as a tiny group of Israelites liberated the Temple from the mighty army of a vast Greek empire 164 years before Messiah Jesus/Yeshua’s birth. The second miracle was God’s provision of Holy oil for the Temple Menorah.

If the Jews had been wiped out during the warfare, the Messiah would not have been born, which in itself is a great reason to celebrate.

This 2nd century BCE victory of a small, greatly outnumbered and out-armed army of Jews, known as the “Maccabees,” over the mighty Greek army that occupied the Holy Land. The rebellion was in response to the Greek attempt to force a Hellenistic Godless lifestyle on the Jewish inhabitants of Israel.

The Maccabean Revolt was a Jewish rebellion, lasting from 167 to 160 BC, led by the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire and the Hellenistic influence on Jewish life.The name Maccabee may come from the Hebrew word for hammer, or for hitting. It is also an acrostic for Mi Kamocha Ba-Elim Hashem! (Who is like You among the mighty, O God!) In the Hebrew, Chanukah is pronounced with the letter chet. The chet’s “ch” sound is not enunciated like the “ch” in child; rather it’s a guttural, throaty sound—like the “ch” in Johann Bach—which does not have an English equivalent. The letter “H” is the closest, but it’s not really it. So while some people spell and pronounce it “Chanukah” and others settle for “Hanukkah,” they really are one and the same.Chanukah means “dedication” or “induction.” Following their victory over the Greeks, the Maccabees rededicated the Holy Temple and its altar, which had been desecrated and defiled by the pagan invaders.

The word Chanukah can also be divided into two: Chanu—they rested, and Kah—which has the numerical value of 25. On the twenty-fifth day of the Hebrew month of Kislev the Maccabees rested from their battle, and triumphantly marched into the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, ready to rededicate it.

The chanukkah menorah has 9 branches for lights the weekly Shabbat Sabbath menorah has 7 branches for lights. In addition to the eight main lights, the menorah has an extra helper candle called the “Shamash.” Since the Shamash does not count as one of the eight regular lights, your menorah should have the Shamash set apart in some way ― either placed higher than the other candles, or off to the side.On each of the eight days of Chanukah, the menorah is lit, a nine-branched candelabra, after nightfall (aside for Friday afternoon, when the candles are lit shortly before sunset). On the first night kindle one light plus the shamash (attendant or servant candle), on the second night kindle two lights plus the shamash, and so continue until the eighth night when all eight lights are kindled, plus the shamash. The menorah lights can be either candles, or oil and wicks.

The ninth candle is called the ‘shamash’, ‘servant’ or ‘attendant’ candle. It is used to light the other ones.This is significant as representing Jesus who as Servant and the Light of the world lights every other light.

Around 170 BC the Greeks under Antiochus the 4th Epiphanies, desecrated the temple

by sacrificing a pig at the altar. Idols were set up in its courts and it became in effect a pagan temple filled with degradation.Antiochus tried to eliminate Judaism, not so much by killing the Jews as by forbidding the practice of Judaism.. Reading Torah was forbidden, along with circumcision, honouring the Sabbath, and celebrating the seasons of the Lord. In 167 BC a priest by the name of Mattityahu Hasmonea started guerrilla warfare along with his sons and a few followers.As previously noted, his motto was from Exodus 15:11; Who is like you Lord among the gods? Mi camokha ba’elim Adona’y.

The initials of those words spell Maccabee which is the name that was later applied to Judas and his followers. Although spelt differently in Hebrew, their Hebrew word for hammer sounds like Maccabee. Therefore he was called the hammer, so the books of Maccabees history written in the apocrypha were about their successful wars. In 164 BC they took over the Temple.This was the first war fought over a principal, religious freedom, and was the first successful guerrilla war. And they drove out the invaders.

The Temple had been defiled and desecrated during the Greek rule but once the Maccabees recaptured it, they needed to repair cleanse and re-dedicate the Temple right away that is why it is called the Feast of Dedication.They removed the idols, cleansed its courts, repaired its chambers, restored its vessels, and went to rekindled its holy lampstand in preparation to rededicate it to God. The kindling of a seven-branched Menorah (candelabra) was an important component of the daily service in the Holy Temple.But a problem arose on that joyous day!

When the Maccabees liberated the Temple from the hands of the Greek invaders, they found only a small cruse of pure and undefiled olive oil fit for fueling the Menorah.

Dedication is an eight-day process that requires the use of sanctified oil for the menorah in the holy place, first room of the sanctuary. Tradition says that they could only find one day supply of oil, and it would take eight days to produce new pure oil. Rather than wait eight days to sanctify more, they began the temple sanctification process with a one-day supply. The Lord through a creative miracle made that one day supply last for eight days. For this reason and it is also called the Festival of lights.   

That gave the priests enough time to make more oil.
Historical documents record that the first Chanukah/Hanukkah Was performed on the 25th of Kislev in 164 BC.

This feast commemorates the Jewish peoples freedom from Greek rule and the purification and rededication of God’s house, the Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BC.This victory climaxed with the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in 164BC.God has another sanctuary another Holy dwelling place He has created for His Presence. Each of us was created to be the dwelling place of God’s presence, the Holy sanctuary /Temple of his glory.

Man was created to be God’s temple but now the world is filled with the sanctuary /temples of desecration. Every life is made to be a sanctuary /temple filled with God’s presence but without God’s presence we become a sanctuary /temple desecrated, defiled, darkened, filled with idols, a sanctuary /temple created to be Holy but fallen from its true purpose.

We are to open the doors of our life and let God come in. We are to let him take out our idols, cleanse our impurities, restore our purpose, right at the heart, and fill our life with His presence. And when we rededicate and re-consecrate the sanctuary /temple to God, He will fill it with His Glory. Then, when we become the sanctuary /temple of God, life, our life becomes Chanukah/Hanukkah.

Ezek. 36:25–27; Jn. 10:22,23; 1Cor.3:16; 2 Cor. 6:16–7:1

The festival of lights commemorates the victory of God’s people over evil. There’s more to it, as it contains mystery. It’s not only a commemoration but a prophetic shadow.

It begins when an evil king set up an idol in the Holy place, causing the desecration of the temple, the abomination desolation.Messiah Jesus, speaks of an abomination desolation yet to come in the last days. So Chanukah contains a prophetic blueprint of that which will take place at the end of the age.

The account begins with the apostasy of God’s people. The people who know God and who were to keep His ways, even His ministers, turned away from God, and embraced the weight of the Godless and so it is now, the current spirit of the age.

And so it will be in the last days. There will be a great falling away, a great apostasy. The account goes on to document the rise of a world culture that seeks to merge all cultures into one and to compel everyone to abandon their faith. Any culture, Faith, people, or person, that stands in its way, it seeks to stamp out.

So it will be at the end of the age, a global culture, and the persecution of God’s people, a civilization that criminalizes the ways of God, abolishes the word of God, overturns the order of God, blasphemes the name of God, desecrated the sacred things of God and wars against the people of God, so it will be at the end days.Back then, even though most went along with the apostasy and the darkness; there was a remnant, who would not go along with it, who held strong and they became the resistance, the Maccabees. God anointed them and empowered them to overcome the darkness and to let in the light, so it is the Festival of lights.

We need to learn the Maccabee blueprint and follow its keys!

When we light the lights of the Menorah, during this weeks festival, this is how we overcome.

We fight the darkness by shining into it, the light of God; we stand with Him and will not be moved. We fight the fight by lighting up the darkness.

Dan. 11:32; Zech. 9:1314; Eph. 6:10–20; Rev. 12:11.
Jesus

Yeshua

is the Light that cannot be hidden.The Scriptures attest that Yeshua is the true Light (אוֹר אֱמֶת) that comes from eternity to give light and revelation for all mankind:

הָאוֹר הָאֲמִתִּי הַמֵּאִיר לְכָל־אָדָם
בָּא אֶל־הָעוֹלָם

ha’ohr · ha’amiti · ha’me’ir · lekhol · adam
ba · el · ha’olam

“[This is] the true light that shines to all men
who come into the world”
(John 1:9)

῏Ην τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν, ὃ φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον
ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον 

In the Gospel of John it is recorded that Yeshua said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (i.e., ᾽Εγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή). The Greek word translated “truth” in this verse is aletheia (ἀλήθεια), a compound word formed from an alpha prefix (α-) meaning “not,” and lethei (λήθη), meaning “forgetfulness.” (In Greek mythology, the “waters of Lethe” induced a state of oblivion or forgetfulness.)

Truth is therefore a kind of “remembering” something forgotten, or a recollecting of what is essentially real.  Etymologically, the word aletheia suggests that truth is also “unforgettable” (i.e., not lethei), that is, it has its own inherent and irresistible “witness” to reality. People may lie to themselves, but ultimately the truth has the final word… “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). Greek scholars note that the word lethei itself is derived from the verb lanthano (λανθάνω), which means “to be hidden,” so the general idea is that a-letheia (i.e., truth) is non-concealment, non-hiddenness, or (put positively) revelation or disclosure.  Thus the word of Yeshua – His message, logos (λόγος), revelation, and presence – is both “unforgettable” and irrepressible.

Jesus/Yeshua is the Unforgettable One that has been manifest as the express Word of God (דְּבַר הָאֱלהִים).

Jesus/Yeshua is the Light of the world (אוֹר הָעוֹלָם) and the one who gives us the “light of life” (John 8:12). Though God’s message can be suppressed by evil and darkened thinking, the truth is regarded as self-evident and full of intuitive validation. (see Rom. 1:18-21).The Hebrew word for truth (i.e., emet: אֱמֶת) comes from a verb (aman) that means to “support” or “make firm.”  There are a number of derived nouns that connote the sense of reliability or assurance (e.g., pillars of support). The noun emunah (i.e, אֱמוּנָה, “faithfulness” or “trustworthiness”) comes from this root, as does the word for the “faithful ones” (אֱמוּנִים) who are “established” in God’s way (Psalm 12:1).

A play on words regarding truth occurs in the prophet Isaiah: אִם לא תַאֲמִינוּ כִּי לא תֵאָמֵנוּ / im lo ta’aminu, ki lo tei’amenu: “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all” (Isa. 7:9; so Faith Establishes the Sign). Without trust in the LORD, there is no stability… Truth is something trustworthy, reliable, firm, certain or sure.  In colloquial English, for example, this idea is conveyed when we say, “He’s a true friend…”, indicating that the loyalty and love of the person is certain. The familiar word “amen” likewise comes from this root. Speaking the truth (dibbur emet) is considered foundational to moral life: “Speak the truth (דַּבְּרוּ אֱמֶת) to one another; render true and perfect justice in your gates” (Zech. 8:16).

Jesus/Yeshua repeatedly said, “Amen, Amen I say to you….” throughout His teaching ministry, to stress the reliability and certainty of God’s truth (Matt. 5:18, 26, etc.). Indeed,

Jesus/Yeshua is called “the Amen, the faithful and true witness” (Rev. 3:14).

The relationship between the Hebrew and the Greek ideas seems to be that the revelation of God – the aletheia – is reliable and strong. The source for all truth in the universe is found in the Person and character of the LORD God of Israel. The self-disclosure of the LORD is unforgettable – both in the factual and moral sense – as well as entirely trustworthy. Aletheia implies that truth is something that should never be forgotten. Hence we are regularly commanded and encouraged not to “forget” the LORD (Deut. 8:11, Psalm 103:2, etc.), to “remember” His covenants, to “keep” His ways, to “guard” His precepts, and so on.During this Chanukah Season, and always, may the LORD God of Israel help us walk in the unforgettable and irrepressible radiance of His glory.

May God help us shine with good works that glorify God’s Name (Matt. 5:16). “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’ (יְהִי אוֹר וַיְהִי־אוֹר), has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus/Yeshua the Messiah” (2 Cor. 4:6).
כִּי־עִמְּךָ מְקוֹר חַיִּים
בְּאוֹרְךָ נִרְאֶה־אוֹר

ki · im·me·kha · me·kor · cha·yim
be·or·kha · nir·eh · ohr

“For with You is the fountain of life;
in Your light do we see Light”
(Psalm 36:9)There seems to be some confusion surrounding the actual spelling of Chanukah. Part of the reason for this confusion may be due to the fact there is no exact English translation of the Hebrew word for Chanukah.

mmm received numerous emails requesting whether these different spellings might also be different holidays. To help clear up some of the confusion here are a number of the different spellings one might encounter Chanuka; Chanukah; Chanukkah; Channukah;  Hanukah; Hannukah; Hanukkah; Hanuka; Hanukka;  Hanaka; Haneka; Hanika; Khanukkah

While in the West, the most common spellings are “CHANUKAH” or “HANUKAH“, rest assured that they are all the same celebration.

Whether lighting the lights or not, Happy Hanukkah to every reader!More details can be found on last years posts at

https://www.minimannamoments.com/chanukah-or-hanukkah/

Hanukkah/Chanukah and Believers Today

Hanukkah/Chanukah and Believers Today