Festival of Lights
Fulfilled by Jesus when the Light entered the World. John 10:22-29
Also known as the Hanukkah, or Feast of Dedication, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the re-dedication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE. This Jewish ‘Feast of Dedication’ (Hannukah as it is also called) honors the re-dedication of the Jewish temple after it had been defiled by the forces of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The Festival of Lights proclaims the cleansing of the temple and its altar by Judas Maccabees in the aftermath of the Old Testament incident on which Daniel’s ‘Abomination of Desolation’ was based. The desolating sacrifice was instituted on the 15th day of Chislev (1 Macc.1:57), a lunar Hebrew month which correlates with the Christian solar month of December (December 8, 167 B.C.). The temple was purified three years later on the 25th day of Chislev (1 Macc.4:52), an event commemorated by Hannukah. (December, 164 B.C.)
Ten days in December separate these two events, the same number of days that often separate Hannukah from Christmas. The coincidence in the two dates and their season (winter/December) are so striking that there can be little doubt that they, too, are portents of the future. The true re-purification of God’s temple occurred, not by the hand of a Maccabee, but with the birth of Jesus Christ.
So we see Jesus the Light of the World Enter. It is very possible that this was the Conception of Jesus.
John 1:9-13 and John 8:12
