Serving and Standing Firm

As I have gotten older I have become more interested in history and learning about the past. Recently, I did a study about Hanukkah, also called the Festival of Lights. Although Hanukkah is not a God-given holiday, it has at least two meaningful and personal applications for Christians. As you see from the title, this is part 1. This month we will be learning about where Hanukkah came from. Next month I will share two meaningful lessons I have learned in this study of Hanukkah.

Hanukkah is not a God-given holiday. It is a man-made holiday that celebrates a great military and spiritual victory by God through the Jewish people during what many would say was one of the darkest times in Jewish history.

There are about 400 years between the Old and New Testaments, and it was during this time that the nation of Israel was subjugated under the rule of Alexander the Great. Alexander was a relentless general but he was also very wise. After succeeding his father as king of Macedonia he quickly conquered the Persian Empire. He did all this by the age of 33. He also died at the age of 33. After his death, his kingdom was divided between the forces of his leading generals. Two of the resulting empires were known as the Ptolemaic and the Seleucid Empires. The Ptolemaic Empire was in Alexandria, Egypt. The Seleucid Empire was in Antioch, Syria, and located right in the middle of these warring Empires was little ole Israel. As the empires continued to grow with animosity toward each other, Israel caught the consequences of their animosity.

The darkest time for Israel came around 168 BC when Antiochus Epiphones was ruler over Seleucid. It was during this time he tried to conquer Egypt. On his quest to deliver a knockout blow to Egypt, the Romans from the West stepped in and stopped his plans. Rome demanded he retreat to Syria or they would smash them. This of course infuriated Antiochus, sending him into an evil tempter tantrum. Traveling back through Israel he took actions that he thought would eliminate his troubles with the Jewish people while reaffirming the dream of Alexander the Great to create a one world people and culture. Antiochus decreed that the Jewish people had to change. If they did not comply, they would be executed. The Jewish people could no longer circumcise their children, celebrate their festivals, keep the Sabbath, offer sacrifices, read or even be in possession of the Torah. In addition to these prohibitions, they were commanded to build altars to Zeus, the main god of the Greeks. On these altars they would sacrifice swine, an unclean and abhorrent animal to the Jews. These changes stunned the Jewish people, but they were forced to show their allegiance anyway. There was no middle ground. Either they would serve Jehovah and keep His commandments, paying the penalty with their lives, or they would cave to pressure and follows the Greeks.

Without a doubt, this was a very difficult choice. Sadly, many of the Jews chose to compromise. They reasoned it would be better to be alive as an apostate than to die being faithful. Those who chose to compromise became known as Hellenized Jews, and they were not looked upon favorably by the faithful Jewish people. The tension between them can still be seen in the first century church (Acts 6:1). The faithful Jews who did not give into the decrees and culture under Antiochus were brutally tortured and executed. Thousands of Jewish people suffered under Antiochus' wicked and evil rule.

Not long after Antiochus set the decrees and the temple was defiled, he and his soldiers discovered a small town northwest of Jerusalem called Medin. It is here that we find a brave and noble man named Mattathias. Mattathias had five sons. Due to the decrees of Antiochus, Mattathias and his sons had fled to the hills, and many men had chosen to follow them. Over the next year Mattathias and his men attacked many Syrian outposts, destroying idols and alters. At the end of that year Mattathias died, but not before instructing his son Judah Maccabeius to continue the fight.The odds these men faced were overwhelming, but through this they became greater warriors. One of the missions was to finally go up to Jerusalem, and what they saw upon their arrival took their breath away. The holy curtains had been torn down, the temple doors burned, and the alter had been defiled with an idol of Zeus and the remains of swine. The temple had been neglected and desecrated for years.

Despite the circumstances, Judah Maccabeius and his men rose up. They cleaned the temple consecrating it again to the Lord. On the 25th day of Kislev (ninth month of the Jewish calendar after the exile) in 165 BC, exactly three years to the day the temple was destroyed by Antiochus and his men, Judah and all the people of Israel dedicated the temple to the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. This was a great time in Israel, a time of rejoicing and feasting, a time of music, praying and worshipping God. The amazing celebration lasted for eight days. After the festival ended, Judah Maccabeus decreed that this festival should be instituted as an annual celebration. For eight days the Jewish people shall celebrate, memorializing the restoration of the temple and worship. This is where the Festival of Lights, or Hanukkah, comes from. The festival of Hanukkah is a joyful holiday!

Embodied in this joyful celebration are some great spiritual and meaningful lessons for Christians today. Next month we will explore two of these lessons to see what serving and standing firm looks like.

God bless you, Job 28:28

Kingdom Kid

DPC