By Christine Darg

Jerusalem Channel

This month the celebrations of Hanukkah and Christmas have never been more meaningful. Both holidays center around Light in a time of gross darkness.

The Hebrew word Chanukah means “dedication” and commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus celebrated Hanukkah, which is called the Feast of Dedication in John 10: 22.

For eight days Israel and the Jews will light their Hanukkah menorahs remembering the miracle of the multiplication of oil when Jerusalem’s Temple was rededicated during the intertestamental period. Judah Maccabee was a Jewish priest (kohen) who led the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire (167–160 BCE). Judah re-captured Mt. Zion, purged the temple of Hellenistic defilement, reconstructed the sanctuary according to Torah prescriptions and reconsecrated worship of YHWH.

After Hanukkah’s eight days the festival of light will continue as believers celebrate the incarnation of the Light of the World. Many Bible scholars believe that Jesus, Yeshua, was conceived in the Virgin’s womb at the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah). (Below Judah Maccabee)

Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, is the greater Judah, the ramping and roaring Lion of Judah! (Revelation 5: 5)

Although Jesus first visited this world as the Prince of Peace, at his return He will be Ish Milchama, a man of war to put away the enemies of God. (Below screenshot of Elihana Elia’s song @Youtube)

A new level of evil was unleashed on the world October 7, the Hamas bloodfest in Israel, and subsequently pro-Hamas people have been aggressively attacking our Judeo-Christian festivals of light. In New York City they brought swastikas and genocidal chants to the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center and now in places like Colonial Williamsburg in my home state of Virginia, a decision was made against a menorah lighting ceremony — organizers feared it would be “inappropriate” due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. For the same reason Christmas was cancelled this year in Bethlehem in the Holy Land!

One of the compound names for God is Adonai-Nissi, most often translated the “Lord My Banner” introduced by Moses in Exodus 17:15. “The Lord My Banner,” could also be translated “The Lord My Miracle” because the word banner, nes in the Bible, is used to describe a victory banner but also means miracle in modern Hebrew.

For example, four Hebrew letters are written on the sides of a dreidle—the little spinning tops that children play with during Hanukkah —the four Hebrew letters stand for the expression, “Nes Gadol Haya Po”— a “great miracle happened here”. . .  referring to the miracle of oil that was supernaturally replenished eight days for the Temple menorah when the Temple was rededicated.

So in Hebrew a nes means a miracle, or a banner, an ensign. (I explain this in more depth in this week’s video.)

All of us need a miracle from time to time, and it’s important to keep our faith built up. Especially in these perilous last days we have to be sure our faith is strong and not weak—because we never know when our faith will be tested.

This compound name of God, Adonai Nissi, is a memorial to the defeat of the Amalekites who attacked Israel after they crossed the Red Sea. God said in Exodus 17: 16, “Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the LORD, the LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.”

The Amalekites were a desert tribe descended from Jacob’s twin brother Esau. Deuteronomy 25:17-18 records, “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked all the stragglers when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God.”

This ancient hatred against Israel is a demonic spirit which has repeatedly manifested itself through the descendants of Amalek, and it has infected many other peoples. Rabbinic literature presents Amalek as the arch enemy of the Jewish people. The spirit of Amalek manifests as violent antisemitism today.

Terrorist leaders and clerics in Iran and their proxies, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, etc., have called for the annihilation of every Jew on earth.

Did you ever notice this verse, “His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth?'” It is the perfect antithesis to the genocidal chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free” of Jews. The screenshot below was shared in the daily Global Prayer Gathering by the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem.

The Hamas Charter cites the Islamic hadith (tradition) that ‘Judgment Day’ will not come until the rocks and trees cry out, “O Muslims, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!” 

Recently my husband and I stood in northwest Saudi Arabia where it’s believed the Amalekites attacked Israel after crossing the Red Sea, and we saw many hills and mountains that looked like the place where Moses sat, with his weary arms being upheld by Aaron and Hur during battle.

Whenever the rod of Moses was lifted up the Israelites prevailed.

Down to this present day the Amalekite spirit still wages war against God and against his anointed. Yet the LORD promises to raise up a standard when the enemy comes in like a flood. (Isaiah 59: 19)

Our nations have rejected God’s biblical boundaries and engaged in much replacement theology when it comes to Israel. In our generation Israel has become the dividing line—people and nations are either for or against Israel, the apple of God’s eye.

The American Center for Law and Justice reports that due to the recent Gaza War the International Criminal Court in the Hague is investigating Israel – not Hamas – for alleged war crimes. The International Criminal Court’s bias against Israel is blatant. Hamas provoked the war by butchering innocent Israelis yet it is Israel that faces a legal onslaught.

The battle for the very existence of the Jewish state will continue until Jesus returns and intervenes.

If ever there was a time not to be silent, it is now!

During the Feast of Dedication, let us also purpose to re-dedicate ourselves to the Lord and to Truth.

In the Facebook screenshot below, an IDF soldier returns to his unit, making certain to include his Hanukkah menorah to commemorate the miracles of the oil and the victory of the Maccabee warriors.

Let us petition The Lord My Miracle for extraordinary miracles at this time, for the supernatural release of the captives in Gaza and for great salvations, healings, deliverances and moves of God in all the nations!

What would be your greatest Hanukkah miracle this year?

Don’t fail to ask God for it!

Maranatha!

Meanwhile, let us rejoice in this great chapter from Joel 2:

Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

2 A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.

4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.

5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

6 Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.

7 They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:

8 Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.

9 They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.

10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:

11 And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

12 Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:

13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:

16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.

17 Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?

18 Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people.

19 Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen:

20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.

21 Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things.

22 Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.

23 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.

24 And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.

27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lordyour God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.

28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.

32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.