THE final biblical holiday of 2024, Hanukkah, begins the evening of December 25.
While Hanukkah is not the first festival one thinks of when it comes to the Rapture, there are at least 10 corresponding themes:
1. THE 9th MONTH
Hanukkah occurs in the 9th month, Kislev. The number 9 appears 49 times (the number of Jubilee) in Scripture, and signifies completeness or finality.
2. MIDNIGHT OF THE YEAR
Astronomically, the year is a circle. Dividing the circle into halves at the spr... moreBy T W Tramm
THE final biblical holiday of 2024, Hanukkah, begins the evening of December 25.
While Hanukkah is not the first festival one thinks of when it comes to the Rapture, there are at least 10 corresponding themes:
1. THE 9th MONTH
Hanukkah occurs in the 9th month, Kislev. The number 9 appears 49 times (the number of Jubilee) in Scripture, and signifies completeness or finality.
2. MIDNIGHT OF THE YEAR
Astronomically, the year is a circle. Dividing the circle into halves at the spring and fall equinoxes, the winter solstice around Hanukkah marks the halfway point, or ‘midnight,’ of the darker half of the year. This is significant because midnight is when the bridegroom, a type of Jesus, comes to gather the virgins: “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!” (Matt. 25:6).
3. THIRD WATCH OF THE YEAR
Dividing the circle of the year into four ‘watches’ at the equinoxes and solstices, the winter solstice around Hanukkah marks the end of the third watch. In Luke, Jesus warns that He may come during the third watch: “And if he shall come in … the third watch, and find them so [watching], blessed are those servants” (Luke 12:38 KJV).
4. TEMPLE DEDICATION
Hanukkah commemorates the cleansing and rededication of the Temple to the Lord, after the Jews recaptured it from the Greeks, who had defiled it. The cleansing and dedication of the Temple foreshadows the dedication of the ultimate “temple,” the Church, at Jesus’ coming (1 Cor. 3:16, 17).
5. SECOND FEAST OF TABERNACLES
Hanukkah, the festival that commemorates the rededication of the Temple, is patterned after the original feast of dedication, the Feast of Tabernacles (1 Kings 8:1–21; 2 Macc. 1:9, 18). Since Hanukkah is essentially a delayed observance of Tabernacles, some rabbis teach that it marks the true conclusion of the High Holy Days.
6. JESUS AT THE GATHERING PLACE
In John chapter 10, it is on Hanukkah that Jesus appears at the area of the Temple called Solomon’s porch (vv. 22, 23). Solomon’s porch was a place of assembly for the early Church, and is believed to be the location of the gathering of the saints on the first Pentecost, when the Church Age began (Acts 2; 5:12).
7. SPIRITUAL HARVEST
In John chapter 4, it is around Hanukkah, when spring is yet four months away, that Jesus surveys the spiritual field and deems it ripe for harvest: “You have a saying, ‘Four more months and then the harvest.’ But I tell you, take a good look at the fields; the crops are now ripe and ready to be harvested!” (John 4:35).
8. ENOCH AND HANUKKAH
The name Enoch means “dedicated” or “consecrated,” and is derived from the same Hebrew word Hanokh used for Hanukkah. This is significant because Enoch, who was supernaturally taken up to be with God, is a picture of the raptured Church. What’s more, Enoch was raptured when he was 365 years old (Gen. 5:23, 24), the same number of days in the Gentile–Gregorian calendar year, which happens to end on the last day of Hanukkah in 2024.
9. A GREAT SHAKING
It was on Kislev 24, the date that would later become Hanukkah Eve, that God gave Haggai a prophecy about a great shaking at the end of the age:
“The word of the Lord came to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying … I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will [in the distant future] overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the [ungodly] nations” (Hagg. 2:20–22; Heb. 12:26).
Similarly, the Rapture will cause a great shaking of the heavens and earth (Rev. 6:12–17).
10. A TIME OF SHOPPING AND FEASTING
Kislev, the month of Hanukkah and Christmas, is when people worldwide are shopping and feasting. This is significant because Jesus says people will be “eating, drinking, buying and selling,” when Judgment Day arrives (Luke 17). Moreover, it is said that they will be “planting” and “marrying.” Kislev–December, the final month of fall, is when wheat and barley are planted in Israel, and is considered an auspicious month for weddings.
In summary, Hanukkah is:
• A time of completion.
• ‘Midnight’ of the year.
• The ‘third watch’ of the year.
• A time of Temple dedication.
• A delayed Feast of Tabernacles.
• A time when Jesus is at the Temple.
• A time of spiritual harvest.
• A time of shaking or judgment.
• A time of buying, selling, eating drinking, planting and marrying.
The rapture themes of Hanukkah remind us that the ultimate festival of dedication is near. Soon, on a day no one knows, the ‘Temple’ that has been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb—the Church of Jesus Christ—will stand spotless before the Lord.
7. Viewing Hanukkah as a time of “spiritual harvest,” it is interesting that on Hanukkah Eve in 2024, the Moon, a symbol of the Church, will occult the star in Virgo named Spica, meaning “sheaf of grain.”
9. Haggai chapter 2 implies that Kislev 24 is when the foundation of the Temple was laid. It is believed that this day was kept as a day of gathering in the Temple, commemorating its foundation, which is why the Greeks chose it as a day of defilement, and why the Jews chose it as a day of dedication. https://www.thetorah.com/.../the-biblical-building-blocks...
12. Hanukkah events in modern times:
• On Hanukkah Eve in 1917, British forces liberated Jerusalem from centuries of Muslim–Turkish rule.
• The week before Hanukkah in 1947, the UN voted in favor of the creation of an independent Jewish state in the Land of Israel.
• The week before Hanukkah in 2017, Donald Trump became the first foreign leader in modern history to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
