Getting ready to celebrate the Feast of dedication that Messiah Jesus celebrated: Feast of Dedication in the book, The Feasts of the Lord by Kevin Howard and Marv Rosenthal. Id like to share some of it with you. Hanukkah is described in the books of Maccabees, valuable historical records. Hanukkah is the Hebrew word for dedication, and it celebrates the rededication of the Temple after it was desecrated by the Gentiles. The Hanukkah story focuses on the epic struggle and one of the greatest Jewish victories of all time - the independence from Greco-Syrian oppression in 165 BC. As you know, Israel is located on a land bridge between Asia, Africa and Europe. As the Greeks came into prominence, many of the Jews wanted to Hellenize or become Greeks in language, thought and actions. They were referred to as the Hellenists. Those who were committed to preserving the pure worship of Yehovah with the Torah were called Orthodox. In 171 BC Antiochus IV came to the Seleucid throne in Syria. Believing that he was deity in the flesh, he referred to himself as Antiochus Epiphanes (Antiochus, the visible god). Some called him Epimanes or madman. In 168 BC he was upset with the guy he had made High Priest in Jerusalem, and began to destroy Jerusalem, killing tens of thousands, before turning to the Temple. Soldiers hacked and smashed porches and gates. They stripped the Temple of its golden vessels and treasures. Then Antiochus erected an idol of Zeus, that bore the image of his own face, and offered a pig on the altar. All of this is described in I Macc. chapter 1. The faithful fled to the caves of the Judean hills. The Maccabees, lead by Mattathias began a revolt. He was a descendant of Aaron therefore of a priestly family. He had five sons, but Judah stands out as the leader after his fathers death. The story of their exploits gives testimony to the miraculous works of Yehovah. Of course they started out in prayer, as you can read in I Macc. 4:28+. I love the prayers of the Israelites: Blessed are you, Savior of Israel, who shattered the might of the Philistine champion by the hand of your servant David, and delivered their camp into the hands of Jonathan son of Saul, and his armor bearer. Crush this expedition in the same way at the hands of your people Israel; make them ashamed of their forces and their cavalry. Make cowards of them, undermine their confidence in their own strength, and may they reel at their defeat. Overthrow them by the sword of those who love you, and all who acknowledge Your name (Yehovah) will sing your praises. They were outnumbered 6 to 1, yet with Yehovah on their side, they defeated the enemy and when Jerusalem was again safe, they rebuilt the temple. This is told in I Macc. 4: 36-51. First we find the description of the temple; a wilderness, the altar desecrated, the gates burned down, and vegetation growing in the courts.... Mourning and grief followed as they tore their garments, mourned bitterly, put dust on their heads,a and prostrated themselves on the ground. Next was finding priests who were still faithful, or as it says in the Bible, blameless in observing the law. They were needed to do the purification, which a layman could not do. Here, it is important to remember that the Maccibee family was a priestly family. First they dismantled the old altar or as it says, they demolished it, and deposited the stones on the Temple hill to wait for a prophet to inquire regarding the final disposal of the stones. They took unhewn stones to make a new altar, restored, purified, brought back the menorah, incense altar, and table, and made new sacred vessels to use in the sacrifices. When they set out the 12 loaves of bread and put up the curtains they had completed the job and began with a sacrifice on the new altar and a celebration. When they started celebrating they could not stop. They are described as joyful, celebrating and dedicating. There was no end to the rejoicing among the people. It was exactly a year after the abomination. If only we would rise up to the abominations in our culture. The story of the oil is purely a rabbinic story, as the Pharisees and Sadducees began their quest for power. Of course, the traditional game of the dreidel has nothing to do with the events, it is just a game of gambling. Hanukkah is usually celebrated in homes, which is a bit different than in Yeshuas days, where he went to the temple to celebrate it, according to John 10:22-23. An oversized Menorah is used. It has 4 branches on each side of the servant candle and is called a Hanukkiyah, with one candle being lighted each of the 8 nights, until on the last night, all 9 are lit. Notice the Yah on the end of the word, whenever we see that, we know that it is referring to Yehovah or Yahweh. Our present celebration includes food that is deep fried in oil, like potato pancakes, or doughnuts, gift giving and singing. We dont need to stick to any of the traditional foods, in our celebration. Even if we now have no physical temple, we know that our bodies are the Temple! Let us rejoice for what Yehovah has done in our lives.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 05:05:10 +0000
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