Hanukkah
Begins in the evening Sunday, December 2 and ends in the evening of Monday, December 10
Bill will be presenting information and background on Hanukkah December 1st, at Firekeepers Fellowship in Farmington NM.
Please Join Us!!!
Hanukkah is known by three names: Hanukkah or Chanukah; Feast of Dedication; and Festival of Lights.
It is an eight-day celebration commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem. It starts on the 25th day of Kislev (Jewish Calendar), and may occur between late November to late December.
It is called the Festival of Lights because of the menorah in the Temple. After the revolt when they rededicated the Temple, they only had enough ritual olive oil to last one day. So they chose to use it, knowing it would only last for one day. Miraculously the menorah stayed lite for eight days, enough time to make more of the ritually pure olive oil for use in the menorah. Today we commemorate this event with a candelabra (the menorah is a oil lamp), called a “Hanukiah,” This 9 place candelabra is light every night of the eight day celebration. One candle is the servant candle and is used to light the other candles, and the first night only the servant and one candle are lite. Each night an additional candle is light until the eighth night all eight are burning together.
It was at this time (feast of dedication) Yeshua told the people plainly exactly who He was. The ones that were not of “His sheep” understood exactly what He was saying because they picked up stones to stone Him. This was the first place Yeshua publically declared His deity and achad (oneness) with the Father.
John 10:22-30 At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, ” I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. “But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. ” My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ” I and the Father are one.” NASU
John 10:31-38 The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘ I SAID, YOU ARE GODS’? “If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘ I am the Son of God’? If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” NASU