This year we have a historical event happening on December 25 that has only occurred four other times in this century—Christmas Day and Hanukkah which is the Jewish Feast of Hanukkah or Festival of Lights coincide! The first day of Hanukkah occurs at sundown on December 25 and ends on sundown January 2. It occurred in 1910, 1921, 1959 and in 2005. The next time the first day of Hanukkah and Christmas overlap will be in 2035! Jesus’ declaration as the Light of the World underscores His mission to bring spiritual illumination to humanity. Paul reveals in Galatians 3: 28 that “In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free.” And in Romans 2: 9-10 he says “All are one in Christ, and salvation is available to all who believe.” Nothing is random in God’s plan of the ages and I believe that God is speaking to both Jews and Gentiles at such a time as this as He echoes His message that Jesus is the Light of the world from eternity to eternity!
It is important for us to go back to the principle of first-mention in Scripture to Genesis 1: 3-5 and 14-18 to the word “light.” Light in these verses refers to physical light but which also pictures Jesus as the Light as the Word was spoken and light appeared. According to John 1 we learn that in the beginning the Word was with God and the Word was God; all things were made by Him; in Him was life and life was the light of men; and the light extinguished and overcame the darkness. This is exactly what we see occurring in Genesis. In the original language “light” in these passages means “made to appear, made visible.” Light, the sun and moon, were created “in the beginning.” (Genesis 1:1) We know that physical light is necessary for physical life. Plants will never move away from the light—they are drawn to the light. Likewise, we are learning more and more about the benefits for health and well-being of vitamin D3 which comes from sunlight. In the same way, spiritual light is necessary for spiritual life, and this can be a good test of our standing in Christ. The believer will always tend toward spiritual things; he will always tend toward fellowship with God, prayer, and the Word of God. The unbeliever always does the opposite because light exposes his evil, and he hates the light. (Jn. 1:5, 3: 19-20) Jesus’s earthly life serves as a beacon, pointing to His eternal life and the divine light He offers. His resurrection demonstrates his victory over death and darkness, making Him the exclusive source of Light and Life.
Light is a symbol in Scripture, often representing God’s presence, guidance, and redemption in the Old Testament. The Prophet Isaiah has many prophecies pointing to Jesus’ coming to this world. Isaiah 9: 1 says “The people walking in darkness will see a great light. Upon those dwelling in the land of the shadow of death, light will shine.” In 60: 1-3 he gives Israel this promise: “Arise, shine, for your light has come! The glory of the LORD has risen on you. For behold, darkness covers the earth, and deep darkness the peoples. But the LORD will arise upon you, and His glory will appear over you. Nations will come to your light, kings to the brilliance of your rising.” The prophet Micah appeals to Israel to seek God: “But I—I will watch for the LORD. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I have fallen—I will arise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD is my light.” Daniel blessed the God of heaven in 2: 22 “He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what lies in darkness and light dwells with Him.” Many of the Psalms testifies of the light of God. Psalm 18: 29 says, “For You light up my lamp. The LORD my God shines in my darkness.” David said in Psalm 27:1 “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; whom should I dread?” Psalm 36: 10 says “For with You is the fountain of life—in Your light we see light.” Psalm 44:4 says “for it was not by their own sword that they took possession of the land, nor did their own arm save them. But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face—for You favored them.” LORD is the preincarnate word for Christ yet all the revelations pointing to the coming of Jesus their Messiah were not realized by the Jewish people as He was rejected by them at His coming.
It is important for us to set the stage for the celebration of Hannukah—the Feast of Lights. Israel, the chosen people of God, experienced a time of great silence between the completion of the Old Testament canon of Scripture and the appearance of the Light of the World. The Jews had been in captivity for 70 years but most of the nation was still dispersed throughout the Persian Empire, more as colonists than as captives. A remnant, chiefly of the tribe of Judah, with Zerubbabel, a prince of the Davidic family, and the surviving priests and Levites had returned to the land under the permissive decrees of Cyrus and his successors and had re-established Temple worship. In 198 BC Judea was conquered by Antiochus III the Great and annexed to Syria. The Jews at first were permitted to regulate their own lives by their own laws under a high priest and a council. In 171 BC Antiochus IV Epiphanes (the small horn of Daniel 8:9), after repeated interferences with the Temple and priesthood, plundered Jerusalem, profaned the Temple by offering a sow upon the great altar, erected an altar to Jupiter and slew many of the inhabitants. All of this prompted a revolt by the Maccabees lead by a priest of great sanctity and energy of character. He and his family were able to regain possession of Jerusalem and purified and rededicated the Temple, an event celebrated in the Jewish Feast of the Dedication or Hanukkah. When they sought to light the Temple’s Menorah (the 9-branched candelabrum) they found only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks. Miraculously, they lit the menorah, and the one-day supply of oil lasted for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity. One candle is used for each of the eight days of Hanukkah and the center candle (known as the servant light) is used to light the others. It is important for us to note that the “servant candle” is used to light the other candles as Christ came as a Servant to manifest His light to the world! (Phil. 2: 5-8) Jesus is the exclusive source of spiritual light, guiding humanity away from darkness and sin. His life and teachings serve as a beacon, pointing to His eternal life and the divine light He offers.
The path of salvation is lit by Jesus who appeared as God in the flesh—a light to the Jews and the Gentiles. When Jesus said in John 8: 12 “I am the light of the world,” He asserted His deity. He is the eternal self-existent “I Am Who I Am, the Creator of the sun, moon and stars.” (Ex. 3: 14) He is the originator and template of the glory of light. He is the Lord who is light as John wrote, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1: 5) He is the agent of the divine life that shines from the Father, who dwells in light and unapproachable glory. Following Jesus is the condition of two promises in John 8:12. First, His followers will never walk in darkness, which is a reference to the assurance of salvation we enjoy. As true followers of the Light, we will never follow the ways of sin, never live in a state of continually sinning but daily confessing our sin according to I John 1: 9 so that we stay close to the Light of the World. The second promise is that we will reflect the Light of Life. Just as He came as the Light of the World, He commands us to be “lights,” too. In Matthew 5: 14-16 we see believers depicted as the light of the world. Just as the moon has no light of its own, reflecting the light of the sun, so are believers to reflect the Light of Christ so that all can see it in us. The Light is evident to others by walking in the Light through the power of the Holy Spirit. We are called to emulate His light by living according to God’s standards and point others to His greatness. Through faith and obedience, we become the light of the world, shining a light that brings glory to God. Like the song says: “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.”
The question is: “What is God saying to Jews and the Church as Christmas and Hanukkah coincide this year?” God is speaking all the time, but the question is “Are we listening?” We are to look back in the Bible for paradigms as God’s ways are unchanging. Psalms 77: 10-11 says: “And I said, this is my infirmity; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the LORD; surely I will remember thy wonders of old.” The first Hannukah occurred after King Cyrus opened the way for the Jews to return to Israel and rebuild the Second Temple. The passage in Daniel 11: 21-45 leaps from the account of Antiochus Epiphanes to a time after the Church Age at the time of the end before the return of Christ to earth. (v. 35) His attitude and actions toward Israel brought him into prophetic light. It is a picture of the Antichrist or willful king—a supreme ruler, who will “magnify himself above every god” who arises and enters the Third Temple desecrating it and sets himself up to be worshiped as God. Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 24: 25 to His disciples as a fulfilment of Daniel’s reference to the “abomination of desolation” that honors the “god of forces.”
Now, how does this relate to us today? In 2017 President Donald Trump declared Jerusalem as capital of Israel on the 70th anniversary of their return as a nation. The Jewish people compared this action to the role Cyrus played concerning the return to the land of Israel that led to the rebuilding of the Temple. They even minted a coin with Cyrus and Trump’s picture on it and sold them to help to raise money for the reconstruction of the Third Temple. The Temple Institute has all the furniture ready, the materials to build the Temple, the priestly garments and young men preparing for priestly duty whose feet have never touched the ground to be contaminated! A new altar was built in accordance with all the Jewish laws pertaining to the Temple vessels and infrastructure and is ready for the yet-to-be built Third Temple. On December 10, 2018, on the last day of Hanukkah the Jews sacrificed lambs near the Temple Mount outside the old city of Jerusalem! This lit the fire for the Palestinian protests and violence that we are witnessing today! The Jews rejected the Lamb of God and are creating the old sacrificial system. Now, that Donald Trump is coming back the Jewish Midrash are hinting that Trump will return glory to the Western World by Building the Third Temple! The Simchat Torah War in Israel occurred October 7, 2023, was on the 8th Day of the Feast of Tabernacles 50 years to the day of the Yom Kippur War—a Jubilee. That Feast is a time of great repentance before the Harvest. In Matthew 24: 14-15 we read: “And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whosoreadth, let him understand.” Jesus points to a Great Harvest of souls before the Tribulation and abomination of desolation in the Third Temple. In verse 24:4 Jesus said in relations to these events, “Take heed that no man deceive you.”
A Messianic Rabbi, George Whitten, who is a close friend of Jonathan Cahn summons Jews and the Church to arise in the spirit of the Maccabees and stand firm, take action and bring back revival. He draws these lessons from the first Hanukkah: 1. Know God first. 2. Know the Word. 3. Stand firm in the power of the Holy Spirit. 4. Fight for the souls of men. Has God time stamped the events of this time according to the Scripture? Consider these current events: on January 8, 2023, work was begun on Jerusalem’s 2000 year old Pilgrimage Road preparing for modern revival; the Biblical 1 ½ acre Siloam Pool (II Kings) next to the Temple Mount is being excavated in preparation for cleansing before going into the Temple. (Isa. 12: 1-6) Peter preaching in Acts after Pentecost took the 3,000 conversions to the pool of Siloam for baptism. It appears that God is getting ready to do a new thing that is prophesied in Scripture. Zechariah 12: 10 says: “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” And in Romans 11 we read: “And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for your sakes; but as touching the election, they are beloved for the Fathers’ sake…For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” God is showing up and revealing His glory. “Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended…I the LORD will hasten it in His time.” (Isa. 60: 19, 22) The LORD IS JESUS—THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD!