Chanukah - The Feast of Dedication
Chanukah (also spelled chanukkah and several other ways) is the festival celebrated sometime in lateNovember through late December.It falls on the 25th of Kislev (Chislev) of the Jewish calendar.Kislev iseither the 9th month (biblical calendar) or the 3rd month (traditional calendar).
This year it starts sundown on the December 4.
The Chanukah is NOT found in the Hebrew Scriptures because the event it celebrates did not happen until 165 BCE, or almost 300 years after the last book of the Tanach (Hebrew Bible) was completed.
However, it is found in the Gospel of John in the New Testament! According to the account in John (10:22) Yeshua (Jesus) answers the question of who he is by declaring “I and the Father are one!” Yes on this festival Yeshua dedicates himself. He unequivocally declares His equality with God, His deity!
Chanukah lasts 8 days. According to Talmudic tradition it recalls the so-called miracle of the oil that lasted for 8 days when only enough was found for one day
The Chanukah recalls the victory by God through the Maccabees over the Syrophoeniciancontrolled temple in Jerusalem. What a mighty miracle! God preserved His people and therefore the Messiah could come forth. Without the miracle, we would not have had Jesus!
The event of this victory is found in the Apocryphal books I and II Maccabees. In this account, the celebration of the 8 days is the celebration of the Festival of Booths (Sukkot) celebrated approximately two months late because the Greekswere controlling the temple. At every dedication of the Temple Sukkot was celebrated. You might say, it was at the feast of Sukkot that the Temple was dedicated. (See 2 Chron 7, Ezra 7). The word dedicated in Hebrew is the word “Chanukah.”
Spiritually, it is a wonderful time to rededicate ourselves to our walk with God, our submission to Yeshua’s guidance and permitting Him to mold us into the person we are being changed.
For more information about the history see Maccabees I and II