It’s Hanukkah! Happy Hanukkah everyone.
There is so much I’m learning! There is so much to learn! Being a student of the Bible, and the rich history we have as the Creator’s dear children just NEVER GETS OLD.
This week the Spirit led me to study the historical events behind the Jewish holiday Hanukkah. I was actually totally unprepared for how emotionally raw this study would leave me and all week I’ve been wondering why in the world this incredible, miraculous story is not also celebrated and honored by more people, especially Christians. Looking at hard things in our history is painful, but there is power in remembering and honoring and gleaning from the events of the past. I’ve been reading stories about the heroes of faith who stood bravely against an evil King, one as horrifying as Hitler nearly 200 years before Jesus was even born. His name was Antiochus Epiphanes and he was the third successive king of the Seleucid Empire after Alexander the Great’s Kingdom was divided. Antiochus waged an all out war against the Jewish people, thinking their ways antiquated and himself a savior of the new hellenized world.
I have to confess, I’ve known very little about this Jewish holiday before this week. The basic story of Judah Maccabees I became somewhat familiar with as an adult, but as a child I knew nothing of its history. Even last year, our first year wanting to understand and participate in this holiday Jesus Himself grew up observing, we focused mainly on the miracle of the story without delving too much into the crazy historical context - which I have to say takes the whole thing to the next level. This story is incredible.
So for you hungry, I’d love to share what I’ve learned and why I think this story should be taught and remembered in our CHURCHES and at HOME with our children.
Hanukkah actually has many names: Chanukah (the traditional spelling), the Feast of Dedication, the Festival of Lights and the Festival of Miracles which all relate to the 8 day celebration that begins on the 25th day of the month of Kislev (Chislev) in the Hebrew calendar. It is not one of the Lord’s appointed feast days given to Moses in Exodus 23, yet it is a powerful time of remembrance of this historical victory or ‘independence day’ for Israel and all those who have been grafted into the branch of Israel.
Within the DNA of Hanukkah is the struggle between two kingdoms, light and darkness. I have to tell you, within this story I’ve found a very timely message for myself, and I hope, for you too.
So here’s the story:
In 168 BC, the Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes invaded Jerusalem and captured the city. He was a deeply vain king, taking on the name Epiphanes (God manifest) and creating coinage that read ‘Antiochus Theos Epiphanes’ meaning ‘God made manifest.’ He was determined to be an important Greek-Selucid figure in history and was consumed with zeal to further ‘hellenize’ the world with Greek culture and religion. When he captured Jerusalem, he declared war on the Hebrew people, their God & their customs; making it illegal - punishable by death - for the Jews to keep Sabbath, the biblical feasts, the new moon celebrations, dietary laws, circumcision, the laws of family purity, and even banning the name of God from being spoken. He is rightly to be understood as a type of Antichrist who brutally persecuted the Jews during this time.
Not only did this eccentric, nick-named ‘mad king’ desecrate God’s altar by ransacking Solomon’s Temple, breaking the menorah, shattering the vessels of holy oil and erecting a statue of Zeus in its place on the 15th of Kislev (December of 168 BC), but he came back ten days later on the winter solstice (which has been celebrated throughout antiquity as the birthday of the sun god) and offered up a pig (the most profane sacrifice of all according to the Torah), and demanded that the Jews bow down before it under penalty of death. (This happened on the 25th of Kislev)
He specifically singled out God’s Word, requiring all copies of the Torah and the holy writings to be confiscated and burned. Anyone who was found to be in possession of these scrolls would be immediately executed. Women who were discovered to have circumcised their sons were hung, with their infants hanging around their necks, and their whole families killed.
The tragedy of Chanah and her seven sons really had me unglued, but it was this story of unwavering faith and loyalty to God that produced the difficult but meaningful questions in my heart regarding my own faith and how it undoubtedly will be challenged in the days ahead. Am I willing to count the cost? Am I raising up children who will be?
Chanah and her seven sons were captured for refusing to eat pig’s meat and were then systematically, from oldest to youngest, tortured and killed in front of her. This went on until at last dear Chanah had but one son left, a seven year old boy. The story recorded in II Maccabees, chapter 7 is absolutely heart wrenching and details their torture and courageos stand for Yahweh. Chanah was asked by the King to speak to her youngest son after Antiochus had offered him gold and fame if he would renounce the God of his fathers. She tricked him however, and urged her son in the Hebrew tongue not to be afraid and to remember God’s mercy and goodness and before she was even done speaking to him, the boy replied this absolutely stunning response recorded in verses 30-38.
“King Antiochus, what are you waiting for? I refuse to obey your orders. I only obey the commands in the Law which Moses gave to our ancestors. You have thought up all kinds of cruel things to do to our people, but you won't escape the punishment that God has in store for you. It is true that our living Lord is angry with us and is making us suffer because of our sins, in order to correct and discipline us. But this will last only a short while, for we are still his servants, and he will forgive us. But you are the cruelest and most disgusting thing that ever lived. So don't fool yourself with illusions of greatness while you punish God's people. There is no way for you to escape punishment at the hands of the Almighty and all-seeing God. My brothers suffered briefly because of our faithfulness to God's covenant, but now they have entered eternal life. But you will fall under God's judgment and be punished as you deserve for your arrogance. I now give up my body and my life for the laws of our ancestors, just as my brothers did. But I also beg God to show mercy to his people quickly and to torture you until you are forced to acknowledge that he alone is God. May my brothers and I be the last to suffer the anger of Almighty God, which he has justly brought upon our entire nation.”
Infuriated, Antiochus ordered the boy to be tortured even more severely than his older brothers who had their tongues, hands and feet cut off before they were brutally killed.
As difficult as it is to hear these stories, I was struck with the thought that these beautiful people are the Jewish heros of my faith, and this is my heritage in Jesus. I cannot change the fact that I am not Jewish, and I want to be clear, I’m not trying to be! But it does not change the fact that I am part of spiritual Israel - as Paul lays out in the book of Romans (chapters 9-11) and the significance of that should not be absent from my walk with the God of Israel. If Judah Maccabee and his four brothers had not led a revolt against the tyranny of the man who declared himself “god made manifest,” and been supernaturally empowered to be victorious - then my Jesus would not have had a temple to be dedicated in! There might not have been surviving copies of the Torah! And the national identity of Israel as it was could have been erased from history! But God always creates a way through for His People. He always saves His faithful remnant.
Judah Maccabbee (Judas in Greek) and his four younger brothers were invigorated with the faith of their Fathers, knowing that the God they served was a God of impossible wonders. They raised up a revolt (known as the Maccabean Revolt) against the Greek-Selucid armies and went from town to town, gaining victory over their oppressors. 1 Maccabees 4 records an early victory at Emmaus with impossible odds:
“Now Gorgias took five thousand infantry and one thousand picked cavalry, and this division moved out by night to fall upon the camp of the Jews and attack them suddenly. Men from the citadel were his guides. But Judas heard of it, and he and his warriors moved out to attack the king's force in Emmaus while the division was still absent from the camp. When Gorgias entered the camp of Judas by night, he found no one there, so he looked for them in the hills, because he said, "These men are running away from us.
At daybreak Judas appeared in the plain with three thousand men, but they did not have armor and swords such as they desired. And they saw the camp of the Gentiles, strong and fortified, with cavalry all around it; and these men were trained in war. But Judas said to those who were with him, "Do not fear their numbers or be afraid when they charge. Remember how our ancestors were saved at the Red Sea, when Pharaoh with his forces pursued them. And now, let us cry to Heaven, to see whether he will favor us and remember his covenant with our ancestors and crush this army before us today. Then all the Gentiles will know that there is one who redeems and saves Israel."
The text says they ‘crushed’ the Greeks at Emmaus and this was just one of many miraculous victories spanning a seven year period of time. Imagine a ragtag group of farmers, villagers, scribes and passionate young Hebrew men without proper armor or weaponry, fighting against the might of the Seleucid Empire with their cavalry and trained warriors! El Elyon is the Most High God, you guys! He has no equal, and your enemies are His enemies! There is nothing He can’t do!
After regaining control of Jerusalem, the people set to work immediately purifying the Temple and creating a new menorah. There was but one small jar of holy oil that had not been shattered, and the Priests knew it would last but one day. Even so, they rededicated the Temple to Yahweh and prayed the light on the menorah would not go out. And here lies the story behind the names ‘Festival of Lights’ and ‘Festival of Miracles’ - because the light of the menorah miraculously remained lit for 8 whole days until more oil arrived to maintain it. Everyone knew this was a miracle and sign from Yahweh of His favor and love for them. Imagine it, during the darkest month of the year, and a time when great spiritual darkness oppressed the land, God illuminated His Temple with supernatural light, reminding His People that His light will always expel the darkness. It also speaks of the coming of Jesus, the Light of the world.
Learning the gruesome details of the persecution, martyrdom, and immense courage of the Hebrew people in the face of great evil has left me, as I said, quite undone this week. We are in the last days, there’s no dancing around that anymore. We have so much to be doing and learning and growing in. Knowing our history and the kind of sold out love our faith will require of us in the days ahead is paramount. Our faith grows and swells when the testimony of God’s goodness is shared. This is most definitely a testimony to be shared in this season of winter solstice and great spiritual darkness.
In John 10:22, John records that Jesus was in the Temple, walking through Solomon’s colonnade on the Feast of Dedication. He was in the Temple remembering the love, faith and courage of His People ON Hanukkah! The Feast of Dedication had been celebrated by the Jewish people for some 200 years before Jesus arrived on the scene in Judea, so it was only natural that He was raised remembering and celebrating this eight day festival every month of Kislev or December.
1 John 2:6 says, “Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.”
There is so SO much that can be unpacked from this story - especially given the spiritual landscape of the world we live in today. But one of the things that really jumped out at me this year was that Jesus, the disciples AND the early “Church” all participated in the remembrance of this miraculous time in the month of Kislev. It’s my conviction that 1 John 2:6 should be taken literally and this is one of the things I’ve really tried to apply to my life. If Jesus led through servant leadership, then I want to lead through servant leadership. If Jesus observed the biblical seventh day Sabbath, then I want to observe the biblical seventh day Sabbath. If Jesus remembered the Feast of Dedication every year, and observed the Feasts God gave Moses as a ‘permanent sign unto the people’ in Exodus 23, then I want to do all those things too! The question ‘what would Jesus do’ or rather ‘What did Jesus do?’ has quite literally become my measuring rod for how to live. But this shouldn’t be a novel idea for ‘Christ followers,’ right?
To wrap this up, I’ve felt a call deep in my soul this week to focus my heart to put my attention on purifying God’s Temple once again. One of the wonders of the New Covenant is that Jesus made a way to inhabit our bodies as His Temple on earth. What a mystery that God would choose to house Himself within our weak and broken, earthen frames! Oh that we would take this possession seriously.
Is there deep darkness covering the land today? Is the antichrist spirit at work in the world? Is the war of the kingdoms playing out every day in our lives? Has it crept into His Temple? Your home? Your body? Kindle the flame that expels the darkness. Press into Jesus, the Light of the world. Purify your temple, rededicate yourself to the Lord, and cry out with me those ragged and honest words David offered up in
Psalm 139:23-24
“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.”
As I mentioned before, there really is so much to be extracted spiritually from this story. I would love to hear how God is revealing Himself to you in this time and how your family celebrates the Festival of Lights.
This week, our home is lit with a beautiful, whimsical glow of twinkle lights and candles in every room. We woke up yesterday to cheerful original songs from Seraphina singing giddily of her excitement for Hanukkah. We each opened a present and tried to make our day as pleasant and festive as possible, amid school, work, a midwife visit and rehearsal for our play, followed with a special dinner where we lit the Shamash candle and the first candle of Hanukkah. As I type these words, the family is stirring again and soon we will eat breakfast, open another little blessing and prepare our home for a small gathering of friends and family for a special Shabbat dinner tonight on the second night of this beautiful festival.
All my love to you my friends,
Natalie
For those wanting extra Scripture reading:
1 Corinthians 3:16-17
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”
1 Corinthians 6:20
“For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
Psalm 19!
Isaiah 9:2-7
"The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined.
You have multiplied the nation
And increased its joy;
They rejoice before You
According to the joy of harvest,
As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
For You have broken the yoke of his burden
And the staff of his shoulder,
The rod of his oppressor,
As in the day of Midian.
For every warrior’s sandal from the noisy battle,
And garments rolled in blood,
Will be used for burning and fuel of fire.
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."
& Isaiah 60!
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