Happy Hanukkah!

Did you know that Jesus celebrated Hanukkah? He did. And even though most Christians do not celebrate this Jewish holiday, trust me on this: without Hanukkah, we would not have Christmas. This year Hanukkah runs from sundown on December 7th through December 15th. My synagogue is having a Hanukkah party this weekend. 🙂

Then came Hanukkah; it was winter in Jerusalem. Yeshua was walking in the Temple around Solomon’s Colonnade. Then the Judean leaders surrounded Him, saying, “How long will You hold us in suspense? If You are the Messiah, tell us outright!” Yeshua answered them, “I told you, but you don’t believe!”–John 10:22–25

Hanukkah, also called the Feast of Dedication, honors a series of battles that took place during the four hundred “silent years” between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New. Hanukkah would not exist but for a group of brothers who came to be known as the Maccabees. (For the complete story of the Maccabees’ war, read my novel Judah’s Wife.)

After the death of Alexander the Great, the Greek general Seleucus took charge of the land of Israel. His descendant Antiochus Epiphanes invaded Jerusalem, desecrated the Temple, and declared that anyone who observed the Law of Moses would be put to death. 

Unbelievably (to me), most of the people in the land capitulated to the Seleucid’s demands. They started eating pork, attending gymnasiums, and they adopted the Greek language and clothing. Some of the men actually tried to “undo” their circumcisions! (Don’t ask, because I haven’t a clue.) Those folks were called “Hellenists” or “Hellenes.”

But God always preserves a remnant. Some people refused to capitulate, and were tortured and executed. Their stories are told in the book of Maccabees, which is part of the Apocrypha.

One family decided to worship the true God alone no matter what the cost. When two Seleucid officials came to their small town and demanded that Mattathias ben Johanan, a Levite, make an offering to Zeus, Mattathias killed the king’s representatives. His five sons took up the cause of righteousness, and the strongest of them, Judah Maccabees, aka ‘the Hammer,’ (sounds like someone from Jersey, doesn’t he?) sent out a call for men who would fight for the freedom to worship God.

With God’s help, Judah and his brothers took a group of untrained farmers and created a guerrilla army. After months of fighting, they defeated the Selucids’ highly trained military force, complete with battle elephants!

When Judah’s men recaptured the city of Jerusalem, they rebuilt and rededicated the Temple, held a feast, and decreed that an annual Feast of Dedication should be observed so no one would forget how God had preserved His people.

If not for the miracle Hanukkah commemorates, the religious distinctiveness of the Jewish people would have been obliterated. Just as God heard their cries when they were enslaved in Egypt, He heard their cries under Seleucid oppression and Roman occupation.

He sent a Deliverer, Judah the Hammer.

Our world is not so different from that of the Intertestamental Period. Divisions among people have never been more pronounced. Many who call themselves Christians have drifted from the foundations of the faith and are more concerned with fitting into our godless culture than remaining true to the Word of God.

Our situation is not as dire as that faced by the people of Israel under Seleucid oppression, but the clock is ticking . . . and hope is born of suffering. We wait, looking toward the sky, because our Messiah is coming again. 

This month, we celebrate His first coming. May we soon celebrate His second.

It’s not too late for you to join our advent discussion group on Facebook! We’re reading STAR OF WONDER, one selection each day, to prepare our hearts for Christmas!

~Angie

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Angela Hunt

Christy-Award winner Angela Hunt writes for readers who expect the unexpected in novels. With over five million copies of her books sold worldwide, she is the best-selling author of more than 165 works ranging from picture books (The Tale of Three Trees) to non-fiction books, to novels.

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