Hello John and Doves,
Hanukkah is a rabbinic
holiday. Rabbinic holidays are the second major
category of Jewish holidays. They were created,
mandated by the rabbis since arriving in the Promised
Land.
Hanukkah (Chanukah) is
the most well-known of the rabbinic holidays. It is
also called the Festival of Lights and the Feast of
Dedication. The eve of Hanukkah is the twenty-fourth
day of the ninth month, so Hanukkah begins on the evening
of the twenty-fourth day of the month of Kislev. The
day of Hanukkah is the twenty-fifth day of Kislev.
The only reference to
Hanukkah in the New Testament is in John 10 where Jesus
walked in the Temple.
John 10:22: Now it
was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was
winter. And Jesus walked in the Temple, in Solomon's
Porch.
The Jews in Jesus' day
were very much aware of what happened on Hanukkah, what
happened in the Temple with King Antiochus IV and what
happened in the revolt against him.
Antiochus placed idols
in the Temple, sacrificed a pig upon the altar and took
the name of 'God manifested', Epiphanes. Changing
his name to Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The Jews knew
Antiochus was 'just a man' and that he wasn't god.
This was done on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month.
The High Priest and his
5 sons led an army of Jewish dissidents to revolt against
the Seleucid Dynasty headed by King Antiochus IV.
Their revolt was successful and the Seleucid army was
defeated and run out of Jerusalem on the twenty-fourth day
of the ninth month. Exactly three years after
Antiochus declared himself god.
Jews that opposed Jesus
placed themselves around Him on Solomon's Porch that day
very and deliberately demanded of Jesus "If you are THE
MESSIAH, tell us plainly? So they were now setting
Jesus up to declare Himself as 'God manifested' as
Antiochus had done. They could then turn the people
against Him in a revolt and effectively destroy His
ministry/kingdom.
John 10:25-29: Jesus
answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe.
The works that I do in my Father's name, these testify
about 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. I give them eternal life, and they
will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My
Hand. My Father, who have given them to Me, is
greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of
My Father's hand."
And then Jesus really
hit it home: "I am my Father are one." John
10:30
And with that "the Jews
again picked up rocks to stone him". John 10:31
It is written that they
again picked up rocks. This implies they had already
picked up rocks before they asked Him to tell them who He
was. They knew what His answer would be; they were
ready to attack Him, they even said they weren't stoning
Him for any good work, "but for blasphemy! You are
just a man, and here you are claiming to
be God!" John 10:33. At the Temple, on the Feast of
Dedication! They'd seen this before.
Jesus responded to them
"How can you say to the one whom the Father has
consecrated and sent into the world, 'You're blaspheming,'
because I said, 'I'm the Son of God'? John 10:36
After this they tried to
seize Jesus, but He escaped from them.
It was on this day,
Hanukkah, that Jesus declared Himself the Messiah, the Son
of God. Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Dedication, on the
twenty-fifth of Kislev.
When Jesus spoke of His
sheep and that no one could snatch them from His hand -
'snatched' in Greek ἁρπάζειν (harpazein)
means "to seize, snatch, take by force, to pluck".
This is the same word used in several other verses.
In 2 Corinthians 12:4 when Paul was caught up into
Paradise; in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 when Paul was describing
the Rapture 'will be caught up together'; in Acts 8:39
when the Lord 'caught away' Philip; and in Revelation 12:4
and the woman's child was 'caught up' to God.
Could the use of this
word to 'seize, snatch, take by force' In John 10 be a
reference to the Rapture? "..we who are alive, who
are left, will be caught up together with them in the
clouds.." 1 Thessalonians 4:17 Could the
reference of His voice to call His sheep be a reference to
"For the Lord Himself will descent from heaven with a loud
command.."? 1 Thessalonians 4:16
Jesus talked about His
sheep being already in His hand and that He gives them
eternal life. He said this on Hanukkah. Since
this happened on the twenty-fifth day of Kislev
(Hanukkah), might this be a veiled reference to the
Rapture taking place on the twenty-fourth day of Kislev
(the Eve of Hanukkah)? (See my other letters today
about the Eve of Hanukkah)
"Was Christ saying that
the Rapture will have taken place and that He will have
already snatched His believers from the Earth, making it
impossible to snatch them back again? This seems
like a viable conclusion and fits very nicely with the
links between the day before Hanukkah and the prophecies
about it."
Will this Hanukkah season
be just another 'Festival of Lights' or will something
amazing happen again?
Pray for the peace of
Jerusalem!
Maranatha!
Chance
(The blowing of the
trumpet in Jewish tradition is linked to the raising of
the dead to life and sounding the alarm for battle.
So the 'last trump' may be for the 'raising of the dead to
life' and not associated with a Feast Day, if one is
expecting the Rapture to occur on a Feast Day.)