Then came Hanukkah; it was winter in Jerusalem. Yeshua was walking in the Temple around Solomon’s Colonnade. (John 10:22–23 TLV)

The Miracle of Preservation

Many are surprised to learn that the only Bible verse mentioning Hanukkah includes Jesus. That is simply because the holiday commemorates an event that occurred after the Tanakh (the Old Testament) was written, approximately 165 BC. A Greek king named Antiochus invaded the Jewish nation and demanded that our people abandon the God of Israel and his ways.

The Feast of Hanukkah commemorates the victory that God gave the Jewish people over Antiochus and his mighty army. We call the holiday Hanukkah (dedication), because the high point of the victory was rededicating the Temple in Jerusalem.

God made many specific promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He vowed to preserve and sustain their descendants forever. In fact, he staked his reputation on the continuation of those promises when he declared, “If this fixed order [of the sun, moon, and stars] departs from before me . . . then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever” (Jeremiah 31:36).

Many enemies have attempted to annihilate the Jewish people throughout history. Antiochus was one of the worst. But God has always preserved us.

Jesus at the Temple on Hanukkah

The Jewish people of Jesus’ day were well aware of the events that had led to the Feast of Dedication when they approached him in the holy Temple on Hanukkah. It was in the context of that recent history that they said to Jesus, “If You are the Messiah, tell us outright!” (John 10:24 TLV).

They had reasoned that if Jesus really was the Messiah, he would have the power to preserve the Jewish people from the tyranny of the Romans, just as God had preserved them from evil Antiochus. Jesus answered them with a rebuke, “I told you, but you don’t believe!” (John 10:25 TLV).

Jesus boldly asserted his Messiahship. He wasn’t the hero we expected, but he was the hero who came to rescue his people once and for all.

My sheep hear My voice. I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life! They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. (John 10:27–28 TLV)

Jesus’ power to preserve was not a temporal, physical power. It was eternal and spiritual, and it was based on faith in him as the Holy One of God. The victory he offered was not over Roman oppression but over the oppression of sin, death, and dark spiritual forces.

The rededication of the Temple at Hanukkah was a reminder of God’s power to keep his promises and preserve his people Israel. But Jesus once declared, speaking of himself, “Something greater than the Temple is here” (Matthew 12:6 TLV). And he made another astounding claim: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30 TLV). Remember, this is Hanukkah. Fresh in our people’s minds was the fact that they had rightly rejected the false claims of Antiochus. Now here is Jesus, standing in the Temple saying that he and the Father are one.

The reaction of the leaders was predictable: “Again the Judean leaders picked up stones to stone Him” (John 10:31 TLV). And if he hadn’t been who he claimed to be, if he hadn’t already performed signs and wonders before their eyes, they would have been absolutely right to have done that.

The Miracle of Immanuel

When my people rejected Antiochus, God kept his promises, miraculously preserving them. But when the Jewish leaders wrongly rejected Jesus’ claims that day, they missed an even greater miracle than Israel’s against-all-odds victory over the overwhelming Greek army. They missed the miracle of Immanuel, God with us. That miracle gave Jesus the right to claim power to preserve those who come to him.

God does keep His promises, even when we fail to recognize them. He said through the prophet Isaiah,

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

Jesus fulfilled these promises from God. In him, God has proven his faithfulness to Israel and to all the world.