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).
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.
The births of Yokhanan ben Zakharyah (John the Baptist) and Messiah Yeshua are amazing in that they illustrate how God planned throughout time to “pitch His tent” among mankind in a physical way and hadn’t abandoned the work He started in Israel. God foretold of the coming of a herald for the Messiah via the prophet Malachi announced the arrive of that messenger to Yokhanan’s father, a righteous priest in a priesthood led by wicked men. The coming of the herald and the Messiah followed a specific plan. The seven “oracles” in Luke 1-2 show that the same plan God put in place at the beginning of time still was active even at a dark point in Israel’s history.
Yeshua (Jesus) said His “time” had come at that Passover He died as the Lamb of God. Yet, likely there was an “appointed time” for His conception and birth that was in line with “appointments” the LORD already had established.
Many claim that the birthdate of Yeshua (Jesus) isn’t recorded in the Bible, but the historical references in Luke 1 and the prayer of Miriam (Mary) on the day the angel Gabriel announced the conception of Messiah in her carry the themes of dedication to God, the focus of Chanukah, the Festival of Dedication.
The accounts in the Bible about the births of Yochanan the Immerser and Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) seem to point to their being born around the times of the Biblical festivals of Passover and Tabernacles, and for very good reason based on their missions.
Point is, the Bible teaches clearly that Yeshua wasn’t born on Dec. 25.
Explore the timing of the births of Yochanan the Immerser (John the Baptist) and Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) from descriptions in the Apostolic Scriptures and the prophetic messages of the Biblical celebrations of Passover, the Feast of Tabernacles and Chanukah.