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Bible Nuggets (more Coming Soon...)

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1) John 10:22-23 describes Jesus being at the temple during a Feast of Dedication. That "unknown" feast is actually Hanukkah. Hanukkah in Hebrew is the word for dedication (or rededication). 

2) Without the events of Hanukkah, there is no Jesus, no Christmas. You see, about 165 years before the incarnation, the Maccabees fought back and cleansed and rededicated the temple that Antiochus the 4th had desecrated by slaughtering a pig on the altar. Without a kosher (i.e., ritually clean) temple, Messiah could not become our righteous substitute since that required that he observe all the laws of Moses (i.e.,Torah commandments) which required a ceremonially clean temple. So, without Hanukkah, there is no righteous substitute who could impute his righteousness to us.

Last but not least, the spiritual symbolism behind Hanukkah and the opportunity for believers today is not the rededication of a physical temple, for there has been no temple for about 2000 years since its destruction in 70 AD, rather the rededication of the "new" spiritual temple of God, which is us as He has taken residence in us through His Spirit who indwells us. The season of Hanukkah, observed as an 8-day festival like Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles/Booths, presents an opportunity for us to examine ourselves, return to our first love (Revelation 2:4-5) and rededicate ourselves for Yeshua's sacred use today, just like how when He came the first time, he needed a kosher physical temple to complete his mission. He is still looking for kosher vessels, not made of stones or human hands, but a temple made of living stones that he has purchased and redeemed with his own precious blood (1 Peter 2:5), set apart for works that he prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).