December 15, 2012
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Happy Hanukkah!
DAY SEVEN -- Shabbat Shalom!I normally don’t post much of anything on Shabbat, but I read something this month that took my breath away… about Hanukkah in the Old Testament. Wait, you say, Hanukkah isn’t IN the Old Testament! That’s what I always believed, too – that the only reference was in the New Testament, when Messiah Yeshua was in the temple for the Feast, and declared Himself (ironically!) the ‘Light of the World’.
But it’s true – Hanukkah IS in the Old Testament… and would you believe it’s RIGHT in my beloved Leviticus 23? I kid you not. Turn to Leviticus 23, and take a look:
Lev 23:1-2 ……. Intro to the Feasts.
Lev 23:3-4 ……. The Sabbath, our weekly Feast.
Lev 23:5 ………. Feast #1: Pesach/Passover
Lev 23:6-8 ……. Feast #2: Unleavened Bread
Lev 23:9-14 …… Feast #3: Firstfruits
Lev 23:15-22 …. Feast #4: Shavuot/Pentecost
Lev 23:23-25 …. Feast #5: Rosh Ha’Shana/Feast of Trumpets
Lev 23:26-32 …. Feast #6: Yom Kippur/Judgment Day/Day of Atonement
Lev 23:33-44 …. Feast #7: Sukkot/Feast of TabernaclesAnd that’s the end of the chapter. Except… it isn’t. Whoever put in the chapter/verse designations SUPPOSEDLY did so splitting things up where there were subject changes. This is NOT the case with Leviticus 23. Someone split off at the wrong place. Because what’s next?
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, ‘Command the children of Israel, that the bring unto thee pure oil – olive beaten – for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually. Without the vail of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the congregation, shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning before the LORD continually: it shall be a statue forever in your generations. He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the LORD continually. Leviticus 24:1-4
Did you see that?! Lamps burning continually during a ‘Feast of Lights’. It happens ‘in the congregation’ – before the people, and like Genesis 1, it specifies that ‘all day’ means evening unto the morning. More, it says that this is to be done ‘forever in your generations’, just like the other feasts.
This should NOT have been separated from the others, because it is another feast commandment… to celebrate Hanukkah!! And what’s amazing? The Hebrews didn’t have our chapter/verse designations, so the command to celebrate Hanukkah wasn’t ‘cut away’ from the collection of feasts for them… which is WHY we find Messiah celebrating it (called ‘Feast of Dedication’) in the temple. It’s something christians did – taking a feast out of the grouping! The Jews have ALWAYS celebrated it – even before Antiochus Epiphanes – because they knew Torah pre-destined it!
Hanukkah *IS* in the Old Testament, right where it belongs! I’m still trying to figure out if Leviticus 24:5-9 is a reference to Purim or not… but that’s irrelevant. The point is, Hanukkah is there! And we’re commanded by Yehovah to celebrate it for ALL generations. Y’don’t see that about X-mess, now do ya?
((Anna is GEEKED!!!))May it make the day extra special and bright!!
Comments (4)
I am going to look this up for you because I think it is important to understand and right this very second I don’t have it all together but I will give you what I have off the top of my head…
Poke around the 25th chapter of Exodus and on for a few chapters and read what it says about the lamp (menorah) the seven lamps also mentioned in Rev. The lamps of the temple were to burn continually – never being extinguished (unless maybe they had to move I don’t know for sure why they would extiguish them – but the lamps of the temple are Very symbolic and prophetic of the presence the Lord and when the flame goes out it is a bad bad omen)
I am sure every one know the reason why the lamp burning for 8 days was So Important was that it took 8 days to consecrate new oil and that way the Lamp Could Stay Lit Forever!
So the festival of lights was not an 8 day “thing” it was just a period of supernatural grace so the people could prepare to have the light burn continually.
Anyone catching my drift here?
One more thing – upon re-reading the story in Maccabees (yay for keeping my catholic bible)
It specifically says the reason why they celebrated for 8 days was because they were unable to participate in Sukkot because they were hiding in caves during war – so it was like a The second passover given to the people who were unable to celebrate passover at regular time.
—Chapter10 2nd Maccabees – On the anniversary of the day on which the temple had been profaned by the foreigners, that is, the twenty-fifth of the same month Kislev, the purification of the temple took place.The Jews celebrated joyfully for eight days as on the feast of Booths, remembering how, a little while before, they had spent the feast of Booths living like wild animals in the mountains and in caves.
Carrying rods entwined with leaves,- beautiful branches and palms, they sang hymns of grateful praise to him who had successfully brought about the purification of his own place.By public decree and vote they prescribed that the whole Jewish nation should celebrate these days every year.—
Another interesting tid bit is that it says (in chapter one book two) -
Since we shall be celebrating the purification of the temple on the twenty-fifth day of the month Kislev, we thought it right to inform you, that you too may celebrate the feast of Booths and of the fire that appeared when Nehemiah, the rebuilder of the temple, and the altar, offered sacrifices. For when our ancestors were being led into captivity in Persia, devout priests at the time took some of the fire from the altar and hid it secretly in the hollow of a dry cistern, making sure that the place would be unknown to anyone. Many years later, when it so pleased God, Nehemiah, commissioned by the king of Persia, sent the descendants of the priests who had hidden the fire to look for it. When they informed us that they could not find any fire, but only a thick liquid, he ordered them to scoop some out and bring it. After the material for the sacrifices had been prepared, Nehemiah ordered the priests to sprinkle the wood and what lay on it with the liquid.This was done, and when at length the sun, which had been clouded over, began to shine, a great fire blazed up, so that everyone marveled.—-
So the whole thing seem to be a theme of second chances. Re-dedication. Hope in the face of hopelessness.
600 years later the Talmud records the story of the miraculous oil burning for 8 nights – long enough to make more – so the light could be burning continually before the Lord. But at the time of Yeshua there would have been no story of one night of oil lasting eight days.
That’s all I got so far.
Eight millennia – seven ‘corruptible’ ones, then the eighth ‘eternal’ one. We’re wrapping up the sixth, the seventh being the ’1000 years’ of Christ’s reign at the end of which Satan is loosed again… the eighth being what follows.
0000-1000 = Adam
1000-2000 = Noah
2000-3000 = Abraham
3000-4000 = Davidic
4000-5000 = Messianic Day #1
5000-6000 = Messianic Day #2
6000-7000 = New Millennium
7000-8000 = Eternal Light
More foreshadowing. And very apt, too, considering the times. Layer upon layer. But set up long before the Greek Empire existed, or the Maccabee’s rebellion… long before even the Messianic Days (symbolized by the Samaritan’s coins). Amazing. And christians don’t even realize. They have thrown out the feasts for paganism-laced ‘holi’days and have forsaken the Truth that sits so amazing before our eyes…!
And…..somewhere….I think Chronicles, there’s an 8 day festival to dedicate/re-dedicate the Temple (TorahClass mentioned this). But I NEVER noticed that in Leviticus!