"The Second Passover"
an excerpt from The Seven Shepherds: Chanukkah in Prophecy
The Seed pattern for Chanukkah in the Torah is the example of the Second Passover for those unable to celebrate at the appointed time, and Leviticus 23 gives two sets of instructions for the celebration of Sukkot, one for a seven-day celebration, and one with eight days.
Two kings of Israel observed double feast celebrations, a double Passover (2 Ch 30), and a double Sukkot. The Prophet Haggai prophesies of an event that begins in the Ninth Month (Kislev 24), but it is based on something that happened before, when the foundations of the Temple were laid:
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Set now your heart from this day and before, from the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, back to the day when the foundations of the Sanctuary were laid; set your heart: is there any more seed in the silo? Even the grapevine and the fig tree and the pomegranate tree and the olive tree have not borne their fruit. But from this day on I will provide blessing. (Haggai 2:18)
Only the celebration of Chanukkah falls on the date specified by Chaggai.
When King Solomon celebrated the inauguration of the First Temple Sanctuary, he declared a double Sukkot celebration. (1 Ki 8:65-66) The Prophet Haggai prophesied of the 24th of Kislev as a time when a Sukkot-like blessing would begin. Haggai plants clues linking the Seed of the Torah and the celebration of Channukah by posing a question of the priests concerning what is “clean” or “unclean”:
- Then Haggai said, ‘If one who is unclean from a corpse touches any of these, will the latter become unclean?’ And the priests answered, ‘It will become unclean.’ (Haggai 2:13)
If a man had become unclean because of a corpse, this was the criterion for establishing a second celebration of Passover as explained in Numbers 9:9-10. Historically, Channukah was a late eight-day celebration of Sukkot because the Sanctuary had not been cleansed from unclean things after the war with the Greeks.
This second Sukkot was known as the Feast of Dedication, and the celebration continues every year as a minor holiday. The annual commemoration is so important that in John 10:22-23, Yeshua made his declaration of unity with the Father and his dedication to call to His sheep while he was in the Temple at Chanukkah. Yeshua said His sheep would recognize his voice at Chanukkah.
Yeshua said His sheep would recognize his voice at Chanukkah.
At Chanukkah, Yeshua’s disciples are not walking in the Temple, but they are walking Temples of the Holy Spirit, for Yeshua called the Father’s sheep out of the abominations of desolation in their lives. Sukkot is a thanksgiving celebration, and the second Sukkot, Chanukkah, also is a time for gratefulness to the One who has called mankind out of darkness into His marvelous Light. The Heavenly Father has performed great miracles in purifying the corpses of human hearts that were once dead in trespass and sin.
May we all arise and SHINE!
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Please join us on Shabbat at Jacob's Tent's Chanukkah conference for an inspiring message of resurrection: Shine. It will build upon the Sukkot Sheni.
Details for tuning in to the conference are found below under Shine Your Light.
We hope to be back on schedule with The Footsteps of Messiah Part Four next Shabbat.
In the meantime, please enjoy last week's presentation on A Brief History of the Beast via YouTube or Podbean. If you enjoy the podcasts, we have good news. We'll be uploading Torah portions from past years onto Podbean once we return home and can retrieve the files for Nicci to format. We're also looking into an alternate, additional platform from YouTube due to the increasingly severe restrictions on Scriptural content. We'll supply you with information when the new platform is ready to go. For those who prefer YouTube, don't worry. We're not planning to go anywhere until they kick us off!
SHABBAT SHALOM!
