Douglas Henney (26 Nov 2023)
"Additional thoughts on Hanukkah"


I am wondering if the first 7 days of Hanukkah might correspond to the creation week in Genesis 1, with the 8th day paralleling of Tabernacles where there was a great assembly before God in Jerusalem, and the 8th day of a circumcision and naming ceremony, especially if Jesus was born on the first day of Tabernacles.

A reason I am thinking that the creation account might specifically apply to us as new creations is because I believe the account is actually a re-creation or restoration of the original creation.  Genesis 1:1 points to the original creation and verse 2 shows something had happened that devastated something in the original creation.  See this from Isaiah 45:

18For this is what the LORD saysHe who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it [s]as a waste placebut formed it to be inhabited):

From Genesis 1:2 God is recreating or restoring that devastation.  In my mind this "recreation" points to us as new creations in Christ Jesus.

Recreation starts with God saying "Let there be light."  This points to us receiving a revelation of Jesus by the Holy Spirit.  This is expressed in II Cor 4:6:

"For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."

What happened on Day 4 of the re-creation week?

"17God placed them in the [z]expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth18and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good19And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day."

Light was separated from darkness.  Might this be when we, who are the light of the world by being in union with the true Light of the world, be separated from the darkness of this world system?

That 4th day is the middle of the first 7 days of Hanukkah if the thinking of Hanukkah paralleling the re-creation week is valid.  That will be around Dec 13 this year if the sighting of the new moon is referenced.

The Father points us to the middle of a week as being a time of possible revealing of Jesus to a select number of people.  Think in terms of John 7:

14But when it was now the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple area, and began to teach15The Jews then were astonished, saying, “How has this man become learned, not having been educated?” 16So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not My own, but His who sent Me.

Also, if Jesus was conceived on Day one of Hanukkah (another way of understanding God saying on day one of re-creation, Let there be light.), then from that day the scriptures show in Luke 1 that Mary went to see Elizabeth:

39Now at this time Mary set out and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah40and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb,

The Spirit of Jesus in Mary was revealed to Elizabeth and John the Baptist within her.   Mary was in Nazareth and she traveled to the hill country in Judea.  I am speculating that it would have taken a few days.  I am thinking it possible this was the middle of Hanukkah.

Lastly, over these many years of watching for Jesus, I have been struck by how each of the Feast seasons offer pictures of us going home.  I have struggled to think in terms of which one might finally point us to the timing of us going home.

And, as I also become aware of what it means for each of us to be in union with the Holy Spirit and the extreme of our identity being truly only Jesus Himself:

20I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and [t]the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

I am beginning to see that Jesus is the fulfillment of all feast types and shadows.  For example, of the Feast of Passover and of Unleavened Bread in I Cor 5:7:

Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.

And also of the Jubilee, as another example seen in Galatians 5:1:

1It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

So, I am beginning to think that because Hanukkah also includes all of the feasts as we think of the development of a child within its mother:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=P3ZTycF4an1v-v4x&v=NFITmt3rF-o&feature=youtu.be

that Hanukkah is the highest watch time for us who are in union with Jesus and are about to be "birthed" out of this world system when Jesus calls out to the true Lazarus (Lazarus being a Greek pronunciation of the Hebrew name Eliezar, which means "helper", a name given by Jesus to describe the Holy Spirit) from the place of death and the rags of our mortal clothing is removed and we are freed in Jesus' sight.  Note in the account of Lazarus being raised that John puts emphasis on four days.  Might this be a hint of four days into the Hanukkah week?

For what it is worth.

God bless you.

Douglas Henney
dougsspare@yahoo.com