I have received a number of inquiries and have engaged in a few discussions regarding the time of Yeshua’s birth, or Christmas. For the sake of stimulation, I have attached [again for some of you, but with a few revisions] a “time-line”, and the response below to a specific question (also with minor revisions). God bless you all as you celebrate HIM!
As for the date of Yeshua’s birth, God in His sovereign wisdom, has left it a bit ambiguous, befitting the mystery of it all! In a similar way, there is controversy over the day and the year of His death. How much more so, then, the day and hour of His return! However, He has not left us in confusion, and gives sufficient evidence from both the Scriptures and, I would say, from tradition to help us be in the right season and time-frame. There is no specific verse that I am aware of that explicitly indicates the date of the Savior’s birth. Yet Christian tradition, whether Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, or free all place the time of His birth in the winter, with which Hanukka corresponds in Jewish history and tradition. The Feast of Tabernacles follows the finished sacrifice for sin, and is a time of great rejoicing because God is in the midst of His redeemed and holy people, and all Israel will know and accept the Father and the Son. Jesus appeared at a time of great expectation, as witnessed by other so-called messiahs who showed up about the same time (Acts 5:33-39), but He also came to those dwelling in darkness, and His own did not receive Him or recognize Him for being who He Is. We despised and rejected Him, a complete contrast to the type and shadow of the meaning of Succot. His first coming was hidden and concealed but to a few; Yeshua’s second coming will be revealed to all.
Winter is also in God’s purposes, and every day of the year is His, both through creation and by redemption. Even if, for argument’s sake, Dec. 25 is the date on which some of the pagan gods were “born”, so what!? The God of gods came into the world that day in the person of Jesus Christ and has made it His day of celebration! Every knee will bow and every tongue confess — even of angels and demons, and the devil, too — that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father! The last days began, and the overturn of the prince of darkness was on the threshold; and the battle today, as the time approaches, is great. Will we wholly identify with Jesus and God’s Word in this sinful and adulterous generation? Truly, this issue is a testing of our hearts: will we who confess the name of Messiah concede a day, even this historically holy day, to Satan!? Will one verse which mentions that God “tabernacled” with us be used to build a whole edifice without sufficient foundation?! In any event, Succot actually means more properly Feast of Booths rather than Tabernacles. This whole issue has only brought confusion and division within the Body of Christ. What must the unbelievers be wondering! Better to say we aren’t sure than to denounce what was holy as pagan, and to make up something else without substance! This makes our sin worse than those who did not know what they may have done, or may have done right without understanding. But surely, the Holy Spirit has seen to it that the Word of God was and is fulfilled. The Church is the Bride of the Lamb, and it is not Him who brings shame to His own, but we who both shame Him and ourselves.
Both the celebration of the Birth and Hanukkah are called the Festival of Light, and Jesus IS that Light, and this light is eternal, which the number 8 also symbolizes. It is interesting, too, that in John 10 the religious Jewish authorities insist that Jesus tell them plainly who He is, and that this took place at Hanukka, which is in winter (which is the original Greek, even though, for some reason, some translations say autumn/fall). The Maccabees are referred to as saviors, and here is Yeshua demonstrating that He is the true Savior! His many good works were the light which glorified God His Father (Mt 5:14-16). The Sun of Righteousness appeared with healing in His wings.
Because YHVH God uses both the sun and the moon for His calendar, He is able to maintain order and use those two lights for signs (Gen 1:14). Israel’s lunar calendar is periodically adjusted subject to the solar: the sun rules the day; the moon rules the night. The sun has its own light; the moon has none of her own, but is able to reflect that of the greater light. Hanukka will shift over approximately a three-week period, but is still considered a winter holiday (whether meterologically or astronomically). Christmas, representative of the true Light who came into the world, into the darkness — although the Light was present (refer to Gen 1:3-5, 14-19) — is fixed on the given solar date. The 24th/25th of December is in the winter (in the northern hemisphere), and in some years perfectly corresponds with the 24th/25th of Chislev, the ninth Israeli month. The Talmud (if I remember correctly) even refers to what is December 31/January 1 as the circumcision of Yeshua. The 31st of Dec/1st of Jan. is the 8th day of one born on Dec. 24/25. Hanukkah is 8 days long, signifying the eternity of the true Light, and the ninth servant candle (the shamash) is the only one which is lit every night, and it is used to give light to the other lights, which have no light of their own. The light increases as the holiday progresses. For us as believers, we, who have received the Light in us through the Holy Spirit’s indwelling all who are born-again from above, are to be an intensifying and growing light in this present darkness. Jesus is the Servant and Eternal Light: God is light; Jesus is the Light of the world; the new creation will have no need of the sun or the moon, but the Lamb will be the Light of the new heavens and the new Earth.
In Haggai chapter 2, there are very interesting references to the 24th of the ninth Israeli month, and what YHVH God intended to do “from that day forward”. The foundation of the second Temple was laid; God was going to bless His people in grace, not by merit; Zerubbabel, a direct ancestor of Yeshua, was designated to be the chosen governor [through whom would continue the Davidic Messianic lineage]; and God was going to begin the overthrow of the kingdoms of this world. The night of the 24th starts the beginning of the next day, the 25th: thus, Christmas eve; Erev Shabbat; beginning of the Day of Atonements (Lev 23:26,32); etc. (Note: the resurrection of Yeshua on the morning after the Sabbath (Lev 23:10-14) changes the reckoning for us in Christ, since we have now become sons of light and of the resurrection, with the prophetic outlook towards the new heavens and new Earth where there is no darkness forever and ever! Hallelu-Yah!)
Yeshua said that the scroll of the book is written about Him. The significance of the 24th of the ninth month of God’s redemptive calendar given to Israel (within the creative calendar for the world as a whole) is that this is the appointed time of YHVH to have the Jewish shepherds in Israel receive the glad tidings of great joy that “there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord!” And the world woke up to the dawn of a new day, full of hope and expectation from God.
Thank-you for your love and prayers and encouragements to us. May 2007 be a year of awakening and sanctification for the Bride of Messiah.
To God be the glory!