Hanukkah (Day 8): What’s Next?

So here we are, at the final day of Hanukkah. The eighth day. In Scripture, the number eight is the number of resurrection and regeneration. It symbolizes abundance. The Feast of Hanukkah and the Feast of Tabernacles are the only feasts with eight days. They symbolize the presence of YHWH dwelling with man. In Tabernacles, it symbolizes YHWH’s dwelling with man in the wilderness. In Hanukkah, it symbolizes YHWH dwelling with man by taking up residence in the Temple. As I thought about these connections, a realization came to me that may have been obvious to most, but impacted me greatly: we can’t have Tabernacles, unless we have Hanukkah. Let me explain.

Hanukkah (Day 7): Yeshua Keeps the Feast of Dedication

That winter, Yeshua was in Jerusalem for Hanukkah, also called the Feast of Dedication. One day he was walking in that part of the Temple known as Solomon’s Porch, and the people gathered all around him. They said, “How long are you going to keep us guessing? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly!” Yeshua answered: I have told you, and you refused to believe me. The things I do by my Father’s authority show who I am. But since you are not my sheep, you don’t believe me.

Hanukkah (Day 6): The Righteous Judge on the Day of Judgment

The final day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the day called, “Hoshana Rabbah,” is considered the final Day of Judgment. The Sages of Israel have taught for millennia that “the Feast of Trumpets is the day that judgment is rendered, Yom Kippur is the day that judgment is sealed, and Hoshana Rabbah is the day that judgment is delivered. That special Hoshana Rabbah two thousand years ago, the Righteous Judge showed how he would judge mankind.

Hanukkah (Day 5): Yeshua Goes Up to the Feast of Tabernacles

On the last day of the Feast, Hoshana Rabbah, the people were preparing for the final and most important of the water libation ceremonies. They had taken down their sukkot, and where holding the dried palm, olive, myrtle, pine and willow branches. They lined the path from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple. The priest proceeded from the Pool up the pathway, as the people shouted “Hoshianah Na! Please save us!” He poured the water into the silver cup on the side of the altar, as the priests waved the lulav and marched around the altar seven times. Suddenly, from the Temple, Yeshua stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him keep coming to me and drinking! Whoever puts his trust in me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his inmost being!” (Now he said this about the Ruach (Spirit), whom those who trusted in him were to receive later – the Ruach had not yet been given, because Yeshua had not yet been glorified.)

Hanukkah (Day 4): Yeshua’s Birth and the Feast of Tabernacles

And as Israel begins the Feast of Tabernacles, the celebration of YHWH dwelling with Israel in the wilderness, “The Word became flesh and dwelt (Greek “skenoo”, the Hebrew equivalent is “mishkan” which means, “tabernacled”) among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).”

“Christian” Anti-Semitism at its Worst

Religious scandal at Chisinau/Kishinev after almost 100 Orthodox Christians lead by their priest teared up a Jewish Menorah on the day of Hanukkah.

Hanukkah (Day 3): The Light of the World Comes to the Tiny Village of Nazareth.

“The people who walk in darkness will see a great light…For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity.” During Hanukkah, these very words of Isaiah were pronounced by an angel to a young girl in the town of Nazareth named Miriam. While the people of Israel commemorate the miracle of Hanukkah by lighting the Temple lights, the Light of the World is planted in the womb of the virgin.

Hanukkah (Day 2): The Feast of Tabernacles & The Feast of Dedication

“Whoever has not seen the celebration of the water libation has never experienced the feeling of true joy – great lamps of gold were hoisted, with four golden bowls at the top of each lamp. Four young priests-in-training would climb to the top, carrying immense oil jugs with which they would fill the bowls. Once lighted, there was not a courtyard in all of Jerusalem that did not glow with the light that emanated from the celebration in the Temple courtyard.

Hanukkah: Worshipping YHWH as HE Desires to be Worshipped

After nearly 200 years of Greek rule, the unthinkable occurred. In 167 B.C., Antiochus IV, the Selucid king of the Assyrian Kingdom and ruler over the land of Israel, placed a statue of the Greek god, Zeus, in the Temple of YHWH. He then slaughtered a pig on the altar of sacrifice, defiling the Temple…Hanukkah is more than the “Jewish Christmas” as many believe it is. It is a celebration of the people of YHWH honoring Him and keeping His commandments. It is about being willing to die, rather than bow to another god. It is about worshipping YHWH as He desires to be worshipped. And it is about YHWH’s provision.

Have we cut ourselves off from our root?

In nearly every society in which the Jews have lived for the past two thousand years, they have been better educated, more sober, more charitable with one another, committed far fewer violent crimes, and have had a more stable family life than their non-Jewish neighbors. These characteristics of Jewish life have been independent of Jews’ affluence or poverty…Thomas Sowell has concluded: “Even when the Jews lived in slums, they were slums with a difference – lower alcoholism, homicide, accidental death rates than other slums, or even the city as a whole. There children had lower truancy rates, lower juvenile delinquency rates, and…higher IQs than other children…There was also more voting for congressmen by low income Jews than even by higher income Protestants or Catholics…Despite a voluminous literature claiming that slums shape people’s values, the Jews had their own values, and they took those values into and out of the slums.” Why the difference?