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Hanukkah begins on the 25th Kislev (at 6pm on Dec 10th) and an important Biblical event happened on this day of Kislev. According to Jewish records, on 25th Kislev, in the ninth month of the first year of God's revised calendar, all the components for the tabernacle in the wilderness were completed and inspected for purity of adherence to God's blueprint:

Exo 39:32  Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting was finished; according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the Israelites had done.

Exo 39:43  And Moses inspected all the work, and behold, they had done it; as the Lord had commanded, so had they done it. And Moses blessed them.

Moses had come down from the mountain on Yom Kippur with the blueprint for the building of this tabernacle, and on 11th Tishrei, he commissioned Bezalel and Aholiab and every wisehearted man in whom the Lord had put wisdom and understanding to do the work (Exod 36:1,2). It took a phenomenally short 12 weeks to complete every small detail of God's instruction; to put together the components of His will on earth as it was written in Heaven.

The tabernacle components passed the authenticity test on what would later be the first day of Hanukkah—the day the celebration of the recapturing and cleansing of the temple from pagan hands began. How interesting as there are never any coincidences with God. He had recaptured His people from the clutches of Egypt and put them through a progressive cleansing and recommitment to purity of covenant relationship His way and then He issued instructions to create a dwelling place for His presence in their midst in the form of the tabernacle. This very detailed and expertly crafted construction would be the setting in which His manifest presence would ground and display itself as a cloud.

Ready, Steady....Wait!

Now I don't know about you, but when I acquire a new garment or pair of shoes, I cannot wait to wear it and usually appear the very next day with my new outfit all put together for anyone to see. But God's ways are not our ways. Having approved every small detail of the work of these wisehearted men, He puts the whole project on hold for THREE MONTHS!!

Exo 40:1  AND THE Lord said to Moses, Exo 40:2  On the first day of the first month you shall set up the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting [of God with you].

Exo 40:16  Thus did Moses; according to all that the Lord commanded him, so he did. Exo 40:17  And on the first day of the first month in the second year the tabernacle was erected.

Now why on earth would God go to all the trouble of getting the tabernacle components crafted in record time, only to let all the parts wait in the wings until His appointed day of first use?? The answer is kairos timing. Everything that happens in the Kingdom of God must be synchronized to dovetail with a multitude of other things He has been busy with. And sometimes it looks like God is doing absolutely nothing in the lives of His people. I cannot find any record in the Word of what occurred during those 3 interlinking months between the work of the tabernacle being finished and approved (Exod 39:43) and the seven day training period for the first priests just prior to Aviv 1st (the process of which is laid out in Exodus 29)!  It was wilderness life as usual during that time— manna pickup in the morning, prepared and eaten during the day...and tomorrow, wake up and do it all over again.

From 25th Kislev to 23rd Adar, no visible advancement concerning God's tabernacle in the wilderness was evident in the earth. Everyone had given sacrificially and generously. All the parts were fully constructed according to the pattern. Everything was ready to provide the setting in which God would manifest Himself, but those finished components were then laid aside until the appointed time of being launched into permanent use. And, most importantly, it was not until the inauguration and anointing of the appointed priests had been fully accomplished, right at the end of the waiting period, that the whole blueprint for tabernacle function was seen clearly by God's people.

What can we glean from this? You may have been diligently carrying out every step of the preparation process God has instructed you to complete. You know you are appointed to be a part of what God is doing in the season ahead for the Bridal Company. Then the time comes when, using the wisdom and understanding He has given, you have fulfilled all His expressed requirements and He comes and inspects what you have done. You receive His seal of approval. Yes, you exactly match the DNA blueprint Heaven has drawn up for your part in His Kingdom purposes.

It seems logical that the next step would be to issue more instructions and to set things in motion; for God to connect you to others who are also parts of His plan for the wilderness tabernacle—then He must come and inhabit and fill this portable tabernacle you have all diligently worked towards completing. But no, it seems the 25th Kislev, first day of Hanukkah, marks the beginning of a waiting period in which no further instruction is received on the topic and no further action is carried out.

In today's climate of fast-encroaching darkness, this seems crazy! Wouldn't it be sensible to assemble the tabernacle parts, bone to its bone, make strong connections, start the inauguration of the endtime priests immediately and put them to work, so that the manifest presence of God in our midst can combat the dense darkness? Well, that's how the human mind would think!

The kings of the earth are assembling themselves against Him, spouting their threats for world domination, and taking counsel against God and His anointed—time seems to be of the essence if you are looking from an earthly point of view. But psalm 2 tells us that God sits in Heaven and laughs! He says He HAS 'set' His king on His holy hill, Zion.

That word 'set' means 'to pour molten metal, to anoint a king'. God is saying He is one step ahead of them; the setting in place of one who will break them like a potter's vessel has already been accomplished. Well, yes, as far as all the components for the tabernacle being complete, that box is ticked. But the joining together in appointed endtime connection, joint to socket, has yet to take place. And yet, our mysterious God sees the end from the beginning and announces it already done! Just like Mary, singing in the house of Zachariah during Hanukkah and announcing the completed works of the hand of God, while it is still only a minute fetus in her womb. Mary is celebrating Tabernacles, God in the midst of us, as the DNA in the chromosomes just begin to release their instruction for assembly of the Son of God in her womb. She heard the sound of the blueprint and, with the eye of faith, declares it done!! Isn't that what all pregnant women do? Having discovered they have conceived, they tell everyone they are going to have a baby! Right at the beginning of the process, when the DNA blueprint is implanted in the wall of the womb, they announce the end result!

And so it is with God. He looks at everything unfolding in the earth realm; at the plots and plans of the kingdom of darkness, and He laughs. He announces at Hanukkah that He has already poured out the anointing oil for kingship even though the inauguration week for the Melchizedek priests is almost 3 full months away. He speaks as if the tabernacle parts are fitly joined together and the anointed priestly kings are stepping into their first day of service on 1st Aviv.

He knows the individual parts of His endtime wilderness tabernacle look fairly powerless on their own and the enemy thinks he has no opposition to his diabolical schemes. That's because he has no clue about the design of the finished holding place for God's glory; he can't picture the setting all assembled together when he glances dismissively at the individual parts of the bondslave company. This is one of the reasons why God keeps the parts separate—He is protecting His prototype from destruction. As long as the enemy has no clue what the finished product looks like, he cannot destroy it, which, by the way, is why God had Jesus born in a stable in obscurity and grown until the age of two before the wise men showed up and Herod got to hear of Him.

Fitly Set

Recently, the Lord instructed me to do an in-depth study on the month of Adar, which is the last month of the Jewish year. It is followed by Aviv. Every time I heard the word 'Adar', I would see a jewel being set in place in the setting that had been crafted for it. Now, on looking into Hanukkah, I understand that what I am seeing is the jewel of the tabernacle being set up in the midst of the encamped tribes of Israel in the wilderness, and even the priestly corporate 'jewel' being placed within the setting of the wilderness tabernacle, whose individual parts have been assembled and firmly joined together to best display the jewel they will cradle.

Do you remember I shared in 'Impartation and Overflow' that Mary spent 3 months with Elizabeth in the house of Zachariah? These are the same 3 months in which the completed tabernacle components seemly lay idle. But Zachariah means 'God has remembered' and the Hanukkah is the time records are written in God's Book of Remembrance of those who fear Him and who speak often to one another and  meditate on His Name. They will be His jewels in the day He openly displays them. How do you display a jewel? By setting it in place in its crafted and assembled setting.

When God looked from Heaven at that meeting between Mary and Elisabeth, He saw four faces— Mary, Elisabeth, John and Jesus. He saw the completed work this foursome would allow Heaven to accomplish in the earth. He saw His divine blueprint fully manifested in the earth realm. But the eyes of man (and the enemy) saw only an old woman in her 6th month of pregnancy and her niece spending time together. There was no outward evidence of the cataclysmic change the fruit of their wombs would bring. The enemy just saw two individual parts of the full setting God had crafted to display His will in the earth and he had no clue what the full blueprint looked like. If he had, he would have tried to destroy those two woman right then, during Hanukkah. THIS is why God sits and laughs. He has everything ready to obliterate the enemy's schemes step by step and NONE of it is visible to the naked eye at this juncture!

So beloved remnant of God, stop striving to bring forth what God has shown you by the Spirit. Enjoy the upcoming Festival of Light. Psalm 36 describes how the children of men feast on the abundance of His house and drink of the stream of His pleasures and see light in His light. This is a time of celebrating the fact that God can use a small company to achieve great exploits. The Maccabees went into battle with the might of the Roman military machine and God gave them victory because their goal was the honor of the Kingdom of God and His temple. And so it shall be again. In a time of dense darkness those who know their God will be strong and do exploits.

In the days after Hanukkah, it may seem to you that you have come to some kind of spiritual halt, that no progress is being made. Is it the enemy causing problems? Are you under attack? Such uncertainty can cause anxiety and stress—especially if you keep looking at what the enemy is doing and achieving day after day! But you must rest in God's wisdom. He can see His Kingdom calendar. He knows exactly when the perfect time is to quickly bring all the parts of the tabernacle together, then commission, anoint and train all involved and meet His deadline for full manifestation right on time with Heaven! During the week of Adar 23-29, the tabernacle was erected each morning and dismantled each evening; Moses served as the High Priest and initiated Aaron and his four sons into the priesthood. Then, on the 'eighth day'—the 1st of Aviv, the tabernacle was 'permanently' assembled (that is, put up to stand until the Divine command would come to journey on).

From Laidback to Frantic

Imagine the time from Kislev 25th to Adar 23rd—nothing significant happened. Previously, there had been the busyness of completing all the components for the tabernacle, and then a fairly long period of absolutely nothing significant happening in the Kingdom business department! And then that last week before Aviv clocked in must have been frantic! Imagine putting everything together to form the tabernacle EVERY morning and dismantling it EVERY evening for a whole week. They must have been exhausted. It reminds me of the last part of labor; the time when the mother says she can't do one more thing and the doctor says, "Just one more push!" And then the face of what God has been crafting in secret is seen.

Exo 40:34  Then the cloud [God's visible presence] covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle!

The setting components which will form the surroundings in which God will display His endtime jewels to their best advantage are just about ready now. He knows how they will be fitted together but when Hanukkah kicks in, these approved parts are still separate and disconnected from each other for 88 days before they will be fitly joined together. Those 7 days of the inauguration of the first priests of a new order can be likened to the polishing and setting in place of a cut jewel, before it is finally cemented into its appointed endtime role of displaying the glory of God in the earth on the eighth day.

God has Thought of Everything

King David was fleeing from the flood of the dragon spewed through his son Absolom and when he got to Mahanaim, there was a feast already set up and waiting for him and his household. It was the place prepared, the setting for the king in exile to rest in. In the same way, in Rev 12, we hear about a place which has been prepared for the woman fleeing from the dragon. Here everything needed to protect and provide for her for 3&1/2 years is already in place by the time she arrives there. She brings nothing except herself and is the jewel set in place in the setting prepared for her. I am convinced that during the description of the dragon spouting a flood to destroy the woman, God is sitting in Heaven and laughing to Himself. He knows about the wings of a giant eagle; He has them up His sleeve before the dragon is even cast down. Before he opens his vile mouth and spews His poisonous flood, those wings were crafted and dispatched secretly to make their appearance at the perfect moment of crisis. Mind you, the appearance of those wings doesn't stop the dragon; he goes on to make war with the remnant seed, but the woman is lifted above it all and moved away from the place of the flood. The earth helps her by diverting it and she moves on to the appointed place of setting.

So, Beloved, do not be afraid. You can't see those wings now, but they exist, ready and waiting to transport you to the setting prepared for you—in the exact spot God has been preparing a place to nurture and protect you. Just as He found His people wandering in the wilderness and bore them on eagle's wings and brought them to Himself, so He will do the same again. God is going to lead you, instruct you and protect you. He is going to carry you.

Deu 32:10  He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.  Deu 32:11  As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, He spread abroad His wings and He took them, He bore them on His pinions.

Hanukkah was likened to a second Tabernacles by the Maccabees. It was especially joyful because they had spent Tabernacles hiding like hunted animals in caves and forests:

2Ma 10:1  Now Maccabeus and his company, the Lord guiding them, recovered the temple and the city: 2Ma 10:2  But the altars which the heathen had built in the open street, and also the chapels, they pulled down. 2Ma 10:3  And having cleansed the temple they made another altar, and striking stones they took fire out of them, and offered a sacrifice after two years, and set forth incense, and lights, and showbread. 2Ma 10:4  When that was done, they fell flat down, and besought the Lord that they might come no more into such troubles; but if they sinned any more against him, that he himself would chasten them with mercy, and that they might not be delivered unto the blasphemous and barbarous nations. 2Ma 10:5  Now upon the same day that the strangers profaned the temple, on the very same day it was cleansed again, even the five and twentieth day of the same month, which is Kislev. 2Ma 10:6  And they kept the eight days with gladness, as in the feast of the tabernacles, remembering that not long before they had held the feast of the tabernacles, when as they wandered in the mountains and dens like beasts. 2Ma 10:7  Therefore they bare branches, and fair boughs, and palms also, and sang psalms unto him that had given them good success in cleansing his place. 2Ma 10:8  They ordained also by a common statute and decree, That every year those days should be kept of the whole nation of the Jews. 

The victory over their enemies and the re-established functioning of God's temple was a source of intense joy for His people. Let's celebrate this feast by another of its names, the Feast of Dedication—by rededicating our earthen vessels to take their assigned place in God's endtime purposes, knowing that His intent is to display His glory in His wilderness tabernacle. Who is it He is setting in place on mount Zion in these days? It is the 144000; the bondslaves of the Lamb who bear His seal upon their foreheads and follow the Lamb wherever He goes. This is the company who will execute the judgements described in psalm 2. These are the ones who kiss the Son, who are openly displayed as His jewels in the earth.

Selah