Hanaukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, began the year following the miracle when one day’s worth of kosher oil was used to light the menorah for eight days. This miracle occurred after the reconsecration of the Second Temple, Herod’s Temple, in Jerusalem on Kislev 25, 3597 AM or December 24th 165 BC, exactly 3 years to the Jewish date after it was desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes according to Josephus. The Winter Solstice and Kislev 25 do not always fall on the same date but on this very momentous occasion that year, it did!
Why is that important? In my post regarding Daniel’s 2300 Evenings and Mornings Prophecy, the end of the 2300 prophetic year cycle for when the Third Temple will be reconsecrated also falls on the Winter Solstice, December 21, 2100 AD with Hanukkah starting 6 days later on December 27, 2100 AD (during the 2-week Temple dedication festival) as shown in my post about the Joel 2:31 Solar Eclipse. That means 2 of the 3 Jewish Temples were/will be dedicated or rededicated on the Winter Solstice as well as the calculated date for the Immaculate Conception, December 23, 3 BC, which is chronicled in my post When was Jesus Christ Actually Born?. I can only speculate that Solomon’s Temple was dedicated on the Winter Solstice as the year construction began according to 1 Kings 6:1 puts the date at “… the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel” (970-931 BC). 1 Kings 9:10 says that it took Solomon 20 years altogether to build the Temple and his royal palace, putting the completion year at 947 BC. As mentioned before, the Winter Solstice is a very symbolic event when the Earth’s orbit around the sun begins its journey where sunlight increases over the length of each day for the first half of a year in the northern hemisphere, symbolizing God’s presence as Light by virtue of his entrance into the world, specifically Jerusalem, whether through a physical Temple or through Jesus Christ, the Temple He said Himself that He could rebuild in 3 days in John 2:19.
It is interesting to note that as the Second Temple was being built, there was a group of Jews who were rather disappointed with the lack of size and grandeur compared to the First Temple. While the original Ark of the Covenant was not present in the Second Temple, the attendees of its dedication in 515 BC witnessed no miracles as compared to the chronicled miracles witnessed at the First Temple dedication when the altar was lit by fire from Heaven and the Temple had been filled with the Lord’s Shekinah Glory. Not until the Second Temple’s rededication’s in 165 BC on the Winter Solstice (Kislev 25 = December 24th) did a miracle occur that later became known as Hanaukkah. While I can not find any historical dates for exactly when Solomon’s Temple was dedicated, I wonder if it wasn’t dedicated on the Winter Solstice on or about 947 BC. I also can’t help but wonder what miracle(s) will be performed at the future dedication of the 3rd Temple in Jerusalem on December 21, 2100. The common timing thread among these temple/advent miracles is the Winter Solstice, a celestial event that God chose to mark significance in His plan to reconcile humanity with Himself.
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