(Last week I had an appointment with my naturopath. As a Jewish man, and he knowing that I am a Messianic believer, we never lack for conversation. He asked why I celebrated Hanukkah since it is a post-biblical holiday (a feast not listed in Leviticus) and I said because Yeshua would never of been born had it not been for Hanukkah and also because Yeshua celebrated Hanukkah. We talked further about Hanukkah with him stating that most Jewish people today do not know about the Hellenistic aspects of Hanukkah and only the surface stories. His comments reminded me of last year when we celebrated Hanukkah and I was telling a friend about the story. What impresses me the most was their willingness to fight for what was right and leave everything they had to do so. Nowadays we get all bogged down with the things we have. Most of our time and energy is spent taking care of our "things" when in fact we need to be ready to leave at a moments calling. As a result of my conversation with my naturopath I wanted to post some historical facts about Hanukkah. —Louise)

Hanukkah: The Feast of Dedication

Written by Glenn Kay
Concord Messianic Fellowship

What does the word Hanukkah mean? This word means "dedication." The root of the word is "education" (Strong's Concordance Number 1456). This is a festival that educates or teaches about dedicating your "temple" or "life" to God. We all want to learn about the preparation of our "temples" where Yeshua haMashiach (Jesus the Messiah) lives. Our living "temples" are just as important to God today, as His Holy Temple that once stood in Jerusalem.

Introduction - I Maccabees 1:1-10

The story of Hanukkah goes back to a time after Alexander the Great had conquered most of the known world. When he died at a very young age, his four generals divided the conquered territories between themselves. The Ptolemies took the area around Egypt, and the Seleucids took the area that is today Syria. Judea was almost a no-man's land between them, fought over by both sides. Eventually the Seleucids under Antiochus IV gained power and control over Judea. In order to secure his position, Antiochus required all the captured people to adopt the Greek way of life called Hellenism. This was not a problem in most areas because the Greek culture was very respected in those times and many of the Jews adopted it and gave up the Law and teachings of the prophets. There were, however, many die hard rebels who could not give up their worship of the one true G-d and this angered Antiochus.

The Paganizing Program - I Maccabees 1:11-15 and
Desecration of the Temple - I Maccabees 1:41-64

When control seemed to be slipping, he commanded that everyone give up dietary laws, the sabbath, circumcision and any reference to the one true G-d. Michael Detwiler in an article on the internet entitled: "The Story of the First Hanukkah" says that five areas of assimilation were particularly targeted:

1. Observance of the Sabbath - On the Sabbath day, Jews recall that the world was created in six days and on the seventh day God rested. The premise of this belief is that God exists above nature, and this was abhorrent to the Greeks. "They [the Greeks] wanted Israel to act only in accord with natural laws; to honor the strong, to shame the weak, to negate themselves before the many, to disregard the few." ("The Book of Our Heritage," page 292.)

2. Observance of Rosh Chodesh (the new month) - The Jewish lunar calendar is the basis of setting dates for all of our Holy Days. During Rosh Chodesh and the Holy Days, as well as the Sabbath, Jews remember that there is a spiritual dimension in time. This was an affront to the Greek view of time as the ceaseless pursuit of material wealth and pleasures.

3. Circumcision - The physical mark on a Jewish male's body reminds him that he is a servant of God, and not his own master and, therefore, that the body must be used with restraint. This was directly in contradiction to the Greek view of the body as something that was meant only for pleasure, accomplishment, and beauty.

4. The Study of Torah- This was perhaps the most critical area that the Greeks attempted to ban from the Jewish culture. History demonstrates that the society or religious system that has failed to teach Torah to its followers has assimilated to the worldly system, and, become corrupted with fleshly and idolatrous acts, and without fail, has gradually walked away from the true God. The Torah is the bridge that connects man and God, across which they interact and communicate, and by it, God is able to fulfill His covenants and His will to man, in order to sustain and protect them. To live without it is like living without water. The Torah is the essence of true believers, it is life to our soul, and without it we have no meaningful existence. The study of Torah is one of the very first things that the Greeks attempted to remove from the Jewish people, in order to assimilate them into their humanistic and idolatrous worship of creation. "To teach others to do so" is to remove them from their life source.

5. "Nashim" - Jewish Brides - One of the evil Greek decrees was that every Jewish bride, before her wedding, was to spend one night with the Greek general. This was particularly insidious, for the Greeks understood that the foundation of Jewish life is a sound and stable family. At the root of this stability is the sanctity of the relationship between husband and wife. The bond between a husband and wife is analogous to the bond between the true Believer and the Messiah. This is why, when it comes to protecting the sanctity of married life, we cannot be too careful. And it is this very point that the Greeks sought to uproot.

To make his point, he took over the Temple in Jerusalem, desecrated all of the fixtures in the Holy of Holies, set up a statue to the Greek god, Zeus, and sacrificed a pig on the altar. To add insult to injury, he insisted that he be called Epiphanes (God Manifest). The devout Jews, however, used a play on words and called him Epimanes (Crazy Man).

Revolt of Mattathias - I Maccabees 2:1-48

He began to spread this edict out into the countryside, forcing each village to destroy their synagogues and take part in a celebration to Zeus with a feast of pork. When they came to the town of Modi'in, they came up against an old devout priest named Mattathias and his five sons. When commanded to take part in the celebration and feast, Mattathias and his sons killed the Greek soldiers and started a revolt. His son, Judah, nicknamed Maccabee (The Hammer), quickly rose to leadership of the rebels.

Judas Maccabeus becomes commander of revolt - I Maccabees 3:1-9 and
Major defeat of Syrian armies - I Maccabees 3:10-60

Facing unbelievable odds they used guerrilla tactics in their home hill country, and time after time surprised and defeated the Syrian armies sent to bring their revolt to an end. Convinced that G-d was true and faithful, the rebels pushed on to Jerusalem, drove out the Syrians, and on the 25th day of Kislev, recaptured the Temple. As they began to clean up and restore the temple compound, they found the golden candlestick or menorah, which to them symbolized the light of G-d. It had been badly damaged during the occupation, but they repaired it and looked for some of the special oil in order to light it. In one of the storerooms they found a single bottle but it was only enough to burn for one day and the procedure for making more oil took eight days. They were faced with the decision of whether to make more oil and wait eight days to light the menorah, thus giving the Syrians time to regroup and attack them, or to light it immediately and hope that the people would see that the light of G-d was once again in the Holy of Holies and perhaps join their fight.

Rededication of the Temple - I Maccabees 4:36-61

The ner talmid ("eternal light") was relit. But there was only enough consecrated oil to keep it burning for one day. It would take a week to prepare more. By a miracle of God reported in the Book of II Maccabees the light burned for eight days. By which time a new supply had been prepared. By that time, local sentiment had grown to the point that the Syrians could no longer retake Jerusalem.

Much of this story was predicted in Daniel 8:21-25. Hanukkah is only mentioned in the Bible in the New Covenant book of John 10:22-23, when Yeshua visited the temple during the "Feast of Dedication."

We as believers in Messiah Yeshua share this story of Jewish history and the miracle it involved but we also see it as G-d's hand preparing the temple for His Son Who would worship and teach there only 160 years later.

Hanukkah: The Feast of Dedication

Posted on December 12, 2009