Hanukkah has many names: “The Festival of the Dedication of the Altar, “The Memorial of the Purification of the Temple” and “The Festival of the Lights.” Each name has historical and spiritual implications in our life today.

Most see Hanukkah as simply the story of a time in history for the Jewish people. However the more I study their history I gain insight to the heart of God and the vastness of His plan for all mankind.

When you grasp that the Jews as people were created to reveal God’s heart His ways and His Son to this planet, you can appreciate how great the war is between satan and God. It becomes clear how much effort satan puts into trying to portray God as a liar and stop His eternal plan.

From the day there was war in heaven; satan’s goal has been to establish his own kingdom and be worshiped as the supreme god. God in His mercy provided a plan for mankind. The plan which began before the foundation of the earth was pronounced to satan in the garden and declared in covenant language to Abraham. Further we find prophesied in the book of Revelation the end of the story of this earth as we know it. Here we find that out about the final chapter of God’s victory story when out of the tribe of Judah comes the Lion (Yeshua) and He brings to pass the fullness of God’s plan.

  • Rev. 13:
    [8] All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. NKJ
  • Gen: 3: [15] And I will put enmity between you (Satan) and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
  • Gen.12: [12:1] Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; [2] And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;[3] And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
  • Rev. 5[5] and one of the elders *said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.”

History records the following but there is so much in play in the spiritual realm. In B.C. 170 the Syrian-Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanies attacked Jerusalem and killed 80,000 Jews, selling many more into slavery. He destroyed the temple, stole the articles of worship and sacrificed to his foreign gods at the altar. He destroyed copies of the Law and prohibited all Jewish religion, making it a capital offence to have a copy of the Law or to circumcise a child. If a parent was found to have circumcised their son the baby was killed and the mother crucified with the son hanging around their neck.

In Dec. B.C. 168 he sent another 20,000 troops into Jerusalem, erected an Idol of Zeus, offered swine blood on the altar and turned the chambers into brothels for his soldiers.

Violence was not the only method satan employed. He also engaged the pride of the Jews themselves to eliminate God’s ways in the lifestyle of the Jewish people. Antiochus wanted to impose the Hellenistic culture on the inhabitants of his Kingdom. Many Jews embraced that philosophy to gain political and economic stature. Hellenistic Jews wanted to preserve only the aspects of Judaism that fit with the Greek ideals. To that end they chose to remove anything that separated the Jews from others. They rejected the very laws God sent down to reveal His ways to the world. Sabbath worship and circumcision were rejected and pagan sacrifice was incorporated into worship.

Do you understand how important those two aspects of God’s laws are and why Satan chose to wipe them out? Circumcision is the physical sign of covenant for the Jewish man with God. Shabbat, the covenant act of submission and trust, is so near to God’s heart that not keeping it was reason for death of the individual. Those who kept it were given the promises of blessings whether Jew or foreigner.

Enter now the Maccabees, a family consisting of a priest and his five sons; a small band of lovers of God and His ways. Interestingly enough, the commentaries of this account show two opposite opinions. Some see them as liberators esteeming the Lord and His ways. Others see them as zealots taking the Law into their own hands and interpreting it for their own interests. What I see is the very same mindsets that identify the remnant of believers today that are lovers of God and His ways.

History further records that Mattathias, an old priest of the village of Modin, killed a Hellenist Jew who accompanied a royal commissioner of Antiochus as they offered heathen sacrifice in the temple. Mattathias and his five sons then fled to the hills. Mattathias and two of his sons died within a few months. The remaining sons were Judas, Jonathan and Simon. Judas became renamed “Maccabee”, meaning hammer. By Dec of B.C. 164, under his leadership, a small band of Jewish Freedom Fighters reclaimed the temple and rededicated it to God on Kislev 25 B.C., exactly three years after its desecration.

What if the Zeal for the house of the Lord and His ways had not been important to Mattathias’ family? What If there were no more Jews? Then Messiah could not come as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. There would not be a Son of David to sit on throne as King of Kings forever. There would not be the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. God’s word would not be fulfilled. Satan would prove God not to be sovereign but a failure. So does the victory of the Maccabees then become only a triumph for the Jewish people or is that victory also part of the foundation of the faith for every Gentile that believes in Jesus as their Savior and Lord?

Sadly today the universal church is not far from the mindset of the Hellenistic Jews. A doctrine of love and acceptance without boundaries of morality and integrity in the ways of God is called God’s grace. A culture of pagan worship has crept into the church that makes place for satisfying the needs of the flesh above the ways of God. There is a culture today unwilling to acknowledge His sovereignty or understand it is that sovereignty that brought us the ultimate sacrifices of His only Son on the cross for us because of His uncompromising love for us.

Antiochus, Haman, Herod, Hitler, Ahmadinejad and a host of others used by the enemy of our King Jesus have tried to thwart God’s plans by destroying the Jewish people to no avail. History over and over again shows the hand of the Lord fights with and for the Jewish people against all odds. In fact, the miracle of the Six Day War was fought on the same mountain as the Maccabees. Also as with the Maccabees, the Israeli army was seriously out-numbered. So, my friend, your God will also fight for you against all odds. It may not always look as you would suppose but His promise that He will never leave you or forsake you stands firm for He watches over His word to preform it.

It was 250 years after the Maccabees took back the temple that Josephus, a Jewish historian, first called the holiday The Festival of Lights because of the lighting of lamps in Jewish homes. He writes, “Giving this name to it, I think, is from the fact that the right to worship appeared to us at a time when we hardly dared hope for it.””

About a century later in the Mishnah (the oral law first written), it was named Hanukkah, (Dedication). The Mishnah states that outside the entrance of each house the Hanukkah lamp was positioned to affirm publicly the Hanukkah miracle. The lamps, inserted into glass lanterns to prevent the wind from extinguishing them, where placed on pedestals.

I believe this practice is the reference Jesus made in Luke 11:33 “No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light.”

Approximately 600 years after the event the Talmud, the rabbinic commentary on the Old Testament, records the famous story of the miraculous jar of oil that burned for eight days. So it may have been that the story of the oil was passed down by oral law and put in the Talmud years later; however, oil or no oil, the victory was nothing short of a miracle. I also believe, unbeknownst to Josephus when he called Hanukkah the Festival of Lights, he was speaking prophetically. I think when he identified that the freedom of worship given to the Jewish people at that time he was speaking of the type and shadow of the true freedom that would be realized when the Light of the World would come and through his death and resurrection and establish the Kingdom of God on the earth.

The miracle story of the oil was about keeping the light of the menorah burning. To me the revelation of what the menorah represents brings the understanding of this holiday to its fullness. Lighting the Hanukiah, (the 9 branch lampstand), is simply a tradition that gives us an opportunity to remember the triumphant story of the Maccabees; but understanding the full revelation of the menorah gives us a better reason to celebrate not only for 8 days but throughout eternity. I am going to show you why I believe that the menorah is a picture of Yeshua and His body (us). In my understanding the victory of the Maccabees preserved not only God’s plan but gave a place of honor to His Son and His bride by making sure the temple menorah stayed lit.

There are numerous teachings available about the seven Spirits of God revealed to us in the scripture below.

Rev.4:5 “Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.”

However in this article I just want to point out that the earthly replica of God’s lampstand has heavenly origins and prophetic significance. Let’s put our focus here on the instructions given to Moses by God to craft the original menorah in the tabernacle. The first thing I want to point out is the last line of this passage. God instructs Moses to make sure he reproduces this instrument of worship for the tabernacle exactly as he was shown on the mountain. Understand that Moses was shown the heavenly model found in the throne room. To me the menorah is a tangible picture of heaven touching earth.

The Golden Lampstand

Exodus 23:[31] “Then you shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand and its base and its shaft are to be made of hammered work; its cups, its bulbs and its flowers shall be of one piece with it. [32] “Six branches shall go out from its sides; three branches of the lampstand from its one side and three branches of the lampstand from its other side. [33] “Three cups shall be shaped like almond blossoms in the one branch, a *bulb and a flower, and three cups shaped like almond blossoms in the other branch, a bulb and a flower—so for six branches going out from the lampstand; [34] and in the lampstand four cups shaped like almond blossoms, its bulbs and its flowers. [35] “A bulb shall be under the first pair of branches coming out of it, and a bulb under the second pair of branches coming out of it, and a bulb under the third pair of branches coming out of it, for the six branches coming out of the lampstand. [36] “Their bulbs and their branches shall be of one piece with it; all of it shall be one piece of hammered work of pure gold. [37] “Then you shall make its lamps seven in number; and they shall mount its lamps so as to shed light on the space in front of it. [38] “Its snuffers and their trays shall be of pure gold. [39] “It shall be made from a talent of pure gold, with all these utensils. [40] “See that you make them after the pattern for them, which was shown to you on the mountain

God required was that the lampstand be made of pure gold. Gold is a precious metal that in processing is subject to seven levels of increasing heat in the refiner’s fire. It is a soft and malleable metal that can be pressed into shape without breaking. It is found in the veins of rocks.

If in fact we as His bride comprise part of the living menorah today, than we also are subject to the refiner’s fire seven times. Seven is the number of completion. Therefore, it may be said that He refines us in His fire until He sees we are complete, ready for His will. We should be soft and malleable in the Father’s hand so He may press us into shape without breaking. Our substance is found in the veins of the Rock of Ages the Blood of Yeshua, the King of Kings. We should be as pure as gold to carry the Light of His Presence into the darkness of this world.

The menorah was to be made of one solid piece of gold, “one beaten work”, rather than be composed of several pieces joined together. Yeshua expressed that in the following passages:

John 17:21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

Paul continues in Ephesians to reveal the work of the cross to bring unity to the Jews and Gentiles.

Eph.2:11 “Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh… [12] remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. [13] But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. [14] For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, … so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, [16] and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity…. [19] So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, [20] having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, [21] in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, [22] in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”

How does the menorah show that we are one with the Lord and one with each other? It has a center shaft and six branches that extend out from that center shaft. The Hebrew word for shaft is loins. Out of the loins of Yeshua, the center shaft, comes His bride, represented by the six branches. Six is the number of man. The single central branch was more elaborately adorned than the others and a little taller, thus having preeminence, yet all the branches were part of and came out of the same shaft. It was a beaten work, not a cast work, but beaten by the hammer blows of divinely endowed craftsmen.

Yeshua is described as a beaten work in Isaiah 53:3. “He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. [4] Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. [5] But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.”

The body of Christ is also compared to a beaten work in 2 Cor.4:8. “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; [9] persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; [10] always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body…”

From one piece of beaten work there were distinctive parts. Perhaps this was to demonstrate that we who are of many talents and functions are to be as one.

Romans 12:4 “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, [5] so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”

God chose to adorn the menorah with blossoms from the almond tree. The almond tree is the first tree in Israel to bloom in the spring and produce fruit. The Almond also denotes promptness and soon fulfillment of God’s word.

Jer. 1:11 “The word of the LORD came to me saying, “What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.” [12] Then the LORD said to me, You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it.”

The Lord caused the almond branch to bud in order to reveal His choice of Aaron for the holy priest hood. It produced fruit overnight. This speaks of resurrection. The root word in Hebrew for almond is ”shakod” which means ” watching the awakening one””.

The symbolism of the almond blossoms on the menorah speak of several things. If we look to the menorah as representative of Israel, the body of Messiah and Yesuha himself; we see the importance of Israel as God’s first born people and Yeshua His first born son. We understand the typology of Yeshua being the first fruit of the Harvest of souls unto eternal life and our priest of the order of Melchizedek, the head of His bride a kingdom of priests.

The menorah was the only light in the Tabernacle just as we through Yeshua are the only light in the world. It had a threefold purpose in the Holy Place.

First, it shed light on the Table of Showbread (Ex 26:35).

The showbread is also known as the bread of His presence or the bread of His face. John 6:48 “I am the bread of life.” There were 12 loafs representing all 12 tribes of Israel to include the whole congregation of His people.

Secondly, the menorah served to shed its light before the Lord.

Ex 40:25 “He lighted the lamps before the LORD, just as the LORD had commanded Moses. [26] Then he placed the gold altar in the tent of meeting in front of the veil; [27] and he burned fragrant incense on it, just as the LORD had commanded Moses. [28] Then he set up the veil for the doorway of the tabernacle.”

Before I go onto the third purpose of the menorah in the tabernacle let me talk to you about the fact that the light was never to go out. The maintenance of the light in the lampstand was the direct responsibility of the high priest, (Ex. 30:7). Yeshua is forever our High Priest making intercession for us before the Father. The lamps were dressed and filed each morning and lighted each evening. Thus the lamps burned continually (Lev. 24:2,3). How does that translate to us today? Every night from evening to morning the trimming of the wicks and the addition of fresh oil ensured a bright light.

What do we as believers do to trim our wicks and add His oil, the oil being indicative of the Holy Spirit? The priests of old as a type and shadow of the ways of God had dedicated times daily to insure the light would forever be burning. Selah!

Third, the menorah shed its light upon itself and thus displayed its beauty

His beauty is depicted in Psalm 27:4 “One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD and to meditate in His temple.”

Psalm 45:11 describes our beauty in His eyes, “Then the King will desire your beauty because He is your Lord, bow down to Him.

When you see the menorah whether you are Jew or a Gentile, remember that God has ordained this lamp for you. It represents God’s character, His body and His desire to give illumination.

Psalm 132:17 “There I will cause the horn of David to spring forth; I have prepared a lamp for mine anointed.”

1 John 1:15 “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”

The menorah symbolizes the salvation of God in 1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

The menorah is a perfect portrait of the Messiah. Both in the Hebrew Scriptures and the Apostolic writings He is uniquely the Living Menorah. It is a picture of heaven touching earth.

Rev 1:12 “Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; [13] and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. [14] His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. [15] His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.”

Jews consider the menorah to be symbolic of their calling to be a light to the nations. God established them to be a reflection of the Light of God to the world. Those who are grafted in through the blood carry that same mandate.

Isa 42:6 “I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people,

As a light to the nations, [7] to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon

and those who dwell in darkness from the prison”.

And, yes, you can find Hanukkah in the New Testament in John 10:22 “At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; [23] it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon.”

Perhaps this year you might want to consider celebrating this season of rededications as a time to celebrate the Light of Messiah a time of rededication of you as the Temple of God, a place where His spirit dwells.

As you light the 8 lights 8 being a number of new beginnings look with anticipation to the newness of intimacy and revelation God has for you.