Hanukkah

Hanukkah is the feast of the re-dedication of the Temple at Jerusalem. This feast is not mentioned in the Old Testament as it occurred between the time of the last book (Malachi), and before the time of Jesus. This period of time is often called the 400 ‘silent years’. The Feast of Hanukkah, or Feast of Dedication was instituted in 165 BC when Israel defeated the armies of Antiochus Epiphanes who had desecrated the Temple ten years earlier.

THE LAST SIX MONTHS
However, the Feast of Hanukkah, called the Feast of Dedication, is mentioned in the New Testament (John 10:22). It came in November/December after the Feast of Tabernacles, which was in September/October, and before the Feast of Passover in March/April of the next year.
Jesus made visits to these three Feasts at the Temple at Jerusalem in the last six months of his ministry. Jesus placed an intense focus on the Temple during this time of his ministry, and it was his prophetic statement about the Temple being destroyed that was used to condemn him at his trial.

The first Temple visit was a secret visit when he attended the Feast of Tabernacles where the miracle of the living water that flowed from out of the rock that Moses struck with his rod was celebrated. This was when Jesus stood and invited everyone to come to him to receive the Living Water, thus prophetically declaring the mystery of his being that Rock, and that after he suffered for us on the Cross he would send the living water of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh.

The second Temple visit was an open visit when he attended the Feast of Hanukkah.
John 10:22 Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the Tf
emple, in Solomon's porch. Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, “How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

The third Temple visit, to the Feast of Passover was a dramatic and spectacular visit, when he entered Jerusalem on the donkey and the people shouted Hosannah and hailed him as King. He went into the Gentile area of the Temple and threw down the tables of the money changers. After this he was accused of blasphemy by saying ‘destroy this Temple and I will raise it up again in three days’. He then celebrated the Feast of Passover at the Last Supper with his disciples and was afterward arrested, tried and sentenced and crucified - all in that same week.

But let us look at the significance of his second visit to the Temple, at the Feast of Dedication, Hanukkah.
This was the central Temple Feast, and was also central to the heart of Jesus, expressing his dedication to his ‘Father’s house’. This was the Feast of re-dedication, the thing that Jesus came to fulfil in real time. The Temple was meant to be the meeting place between God and man, and during those ‘silent years’ before Jesus it had been desecrated and then re-dedicated. The feast lasted for eight days and it included the miracle of the eight candles being lit. (Jesus=888)

There was much discussion between Jesus and the Jews on that visit to the Temple. They had seen and heard of many of the miracles that Jesus had worked and they wanted him to declare himself as God. They did not believe that he was God or that he came from the Father. They were trying to trap him. He focusses on the works of the Father!
Vs.25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe…Vs.31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?”
The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”
Vs.38 …believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand.
Soon after this time, and before the Feast of Passover there came the greatest open miracle of all – the resurrection of Lazarus, the prelude to the resurrection of Jesus.

WE ARE NOW THE TEMPLE
1Peter 2:5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual Temple, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Jesus himself was always the Temple, the meeting place between God and man, and he dedicated that Temple, that ‘house of prayer’ to his Father. From a dedicated Temple flows forth the works of the Father. Everyone would love to see the works of the Father in these days. We are now corporately the Temple.
Does God want there to be a rededication of his Temple so that the works of the Father, the ‘greater works than these’ might be seen in these days