Tag: Chanukah

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Appointments With God Chanukah Discussions Prophets and Writings

Haggai and Chanukah: How Messiah fills God’s House with greater glory

Heaven calls us to be “ambassadors” of the Messiah (Christ) and “temple(s) of God” (1Cor. 3:16; 6:19), and Yeshua (Jesus) called His body a temple (John 2:19–22).

The prophet Haggai’s message was that the House of God is not a building, but it does reflect the heart condition of the people. Haggai proclaimed that the glory of God and foretold a time when God will fill His house with a greater glory than He did when Solomon commissioned the first Temple (Hag. 2:9). That greater glory arrived when Yeshua stepped foot into the Temple during the Festival of the Dedication (Chanukah, John 10:22-39) in fulfillment of what that prophet foretold would be a crucial work of the Mashiakh (Christ).

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Apostolic Writings Chanukah Discussions Torah

Matthew 24 and Chanukah: Why Yeshua warned believers to run to the hills

The righteous didn't suddenly become righteous, they just didn't go over the cliff with everyone else." Adobe Spark Banner Art

Why Yeshua (Jesus) went to the Temple on Chanukah, aka the Festival of Dedication and the Festival of Lights, wrapped in the history recorded in 1-4 Maccabees.

Those are prequels of sorts to the Gospels. You see why the Romans are in the Holy Land, why Yeshua  warned in Matthew 24 that in the last days God’s people will have to “run to the hills,” and what the “abomination of desolation” (Dan. 11:31; 12:11; Matt. 24:15; Mark 13:14) actually looks like. 

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Apostolic Writings Appointments With God Chanukah Discussions Prophets and Writings Torah

Chanukah: Dare to be a Daniel, Joseph, Judas Maccabeus

Lighting the Chanukkah lights at Chabad Hanukkah lighting in Montgomery Village, Santa Rosa, Calif., on December 26, 2016. Photo by Tammy Quackenbush

Yosef (Joseph) a betrayed brother turned slave turned prime minister in Mitzraim (Egypt). Daniel a war captive turned wise man turned second to an emperor in Babylon. יהודה המכבי Yehudah ha-Makabi (Judas Maccabeus) a priest of Yisrael turned leader of a successful insurrection against the Seleucid empire’s campaign of forced conversion. Yeshua ha-Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ) in the Temple during the Festival of Dedication. These four accounts may seem to quite disjointed, but the conjunction of the Torah reading מקצ Miketz/Miqetz (Genesis 41:1-44:14, “from the end”) and the celebration of Chanukah/Hannukah helps underscore that ongoing lessons from both help us understand what Yeshua meant by “the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13 NASB).

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Apostolic Writings Appointments With God Chanukah Discussions Prophets and Writings

Chanukah: Prophecy and memorial for conception of Messiah and declaration of His mission

Jeff

What does ‎Chanukah (Festival of Dedication) have to do with believers in ‎Yeshua (‎Jesus)? It’s in the ‎Bible, and Yeshua celebrated it. In doing so, He gave one of the most startling teachings about Himself (John 10:22-38). As well as a remembrance of the perils of giving up God’s words to fit in or save one’s neck, Chanukah is a memorial of the great miracle of the conception of the ‎Messiah — ‎Immanuel (God With Us) — through Miriam (Mary) (Luke 1; 1Chronicles 24; Haggai 2).

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Apostolic Writings Discussions

Luke 21:5-38: Birth pangs of the coming of Messiah

Jeff

Yeshua repeated warned His disciples to “be ready” for the Day of the Lord. Take note that Yeshua said, “When you see the abomination of desolation” and refers His listeners to the book of Daniel. Yeshua is warning us that the “abomination of desolation” was not a one-time event.

The main reason the Temple was desecrated and destroyed was due to syncretism — blending of belief systems. The reason God destroys the Temple is not because each were and will be flawed but the hearts of the people were flawed. Let’s learn from history and not repeat it.

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Appointments With God Chanukah Discussions

8 miraculous women of Chanukah

8 miraculous women of Chanukah: Sarah, Rivka (Rebekah), Raqel (Rachel), Shimshon's (Samson's) mother, Channah (Hannah), Shunami (Shunammite) woman, Elisheva (Elizabeth) and Miriam (Mary)

The eight days of Chanukah (Festival of Dedication, John 10:22–39), historically parallel the eight days of Sukkot (Festival of Tabernacles). But there is a startling parallel to eight women in the Bible for whom having children would have been miraculous — including the mother of Yeshua (Jesus) — yet these women dedicated themselves to God’s mission to restore the Earth.

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Apostolic Writings Appointments With God Chanukah Discussions Prophets and Writings Torah

It’s all about Yeshua: Multilayered message of God’s Living Temple of hope for humanity

Yeshua/Jesus cleanses the Temple of money changers and merchants. (Photo by LUMO project via Freebibleimages.org.)

It used to be common to ask, “What would Jesus do?” Well, why did Yeshua visit God’s House on an extrabiblical Jewish festival — Chanukah — to make one of the most startling statements about God’s love for humanity? Why did the “disciple whom Iesous loved” record it? Rather than focus on layers upon layers of manmade tradition about a winter celebration of the birth of Yeshua, let’s dig through a number of layered messages that actually are in the Bible about God’s dedicating of a Living Temple — the Messiah — among humanity that could never again by left desolate or destroyed.