Excerpt from Cornerstone Messianic Congregation and Ministries for Hanukkah 2014 We Need Maccabees today. More than twenty-one centuries ago, the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), who sought to forcefully Hellenize the children of Israel. Against all odds, a small band of faithful Jews defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it to the service of YHWH. This small group of Torah observant believers in YHWH refused to allow the government that control their homeland to force them into being assimilated into their heathen driven, humanistic culture. They held in one hand the Word of God and a sword in the other. They refused to compromise their God, their convictions or their families on the altar of worldly lusts, greed, idolatry, and compromise. This small band of Jews fought in the hills, the valley and the plains to prevent the Greeks from subverting their faith and profaning the sanctity of their lives. The many few stood as one. They were not going to allow any government, howbeit, Babylon, Amorites, Persians, or the Seleucids to force them to bow to any false god or teach their children to follow the cultural trends of the day. In the course of the four millennia of Jewish history, many ideologies and cultures have sought to compromise our allegiance to G-d and His Torah. Hanukkah, reminds us of the continual triumph of the Spirit of Light over darkness. In 164 B.C. when those priest, who had remained faith to the Torah, sought to light the Temples menorah (the seven branched candelabrum), they found only a single cruse of kosher, olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks. Miraculously, the one-day supply burned for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity. To commemorate and publicize the workings by the mighty hand of YHWH for the deliverance of the children of Israel, as well as His manifested presence in the Temple, the sages instituted the Festival of Hanukkah. At the heart of the festival is the nightly menorah (candelabrum) lighting: a single flame on the first night, two on the second evening, and so on till the eighth night of Chanukah, when all eight lights are kindled. Each candle is lite from the Shamash; the exalted, servant candle. The Shamash represents the HaMashiach, the Light of the World. We add to our daily prayers, prayers that offer praise and thanksgiving to G-d for delivering the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few... the wicked into the hands of the righteous. But what does a festival of Lights, established in 164 B.C., have to do with 21st Century Messianic Jews living in America. We face the same humanistic, pagan idolatry that are forefathers faced. We still fight being assimilated into a culture that has removed any trace of the God of Abraham, Isaac or Jacob from the market place, academic institutions, the halls of Justice and the parliament of government. Most religions that say that share the Tanukh with the children of Israel, do not reflect those Scriptures either in service, in worship, nor in the Word of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Intellect, pleasure, entertainment, compromise, dishonor envelops not only the culture of America but those who call themselves followers of the Word of God. To combined this idolatry, people seek to discredit those who attempt to serve and honor God with their lives, in an attempt to sooth their own injured, deflated egos. They do not serve the Lord, nor do they rightly teach their child to either. But the Lord has His Maccabees; who keep their word to their own harm, who humbling seek to serve and not be served. The Lord has had and continues to have those who remain standing for what is right, after others have been seated or are lounging in sleep. So we light our candles, not to graven image, but in remembrance to the Light of Hanukkah who became flesh and dwelt amongst His people. The Shamash, the servant candle represents the Messiah, Y’shua whom we humble ourselves before, asking that His Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), fill us afresh. Strengthen us that we may not inhibit His light from shining through us to this lost and dying world. We ask forgiveness when we have not failed to allow His love to be poured through us into the lives of those for whom we have been sent. We know, that the light that shines the brightest at home, shines the furthest into the world. So Lord we ask that Your Light be upon us and through us. For you, Y’shua said, I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life (John 8:12). Vklee.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 02:52:52 +0000
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