SEASONS - IS THERE A HANNUKAH FOR CHRISTIANS?

(Wriitten by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

The year of 2016 is almost finished.  We all have given thanks and celebrated yet another beautiful Thanksgiving.  Now we are enjoying the season of Advent and preparing for the time of  Christmas.  Days and festivities are abundant here in America, yet, dare we try to squeeze in yet another traditional holiday called Hanukkah? 

In this year of 2016 Hanukkah begins at sunset on Saturday, December 24th when many of us will be celebrating Christmas Eve, and lasts throughout the next eight days.  What do Hanukkah and Christmas Eve have in common?  They both speak of the light of the World - Jesus Christ!  Please don't get this twisted up because it is something you are not familiar with.  The miracle of the light of Hannukah is a shadow of the miracle of Christ.  God's gift to all of us was foretold in that great miracle of Hanukkah in that we realized that through God all things are possible, and God DID begin to make all things possible!

 Most Christian families will laugh at the above statement.  They will simply look at you as if you have absolutely no intelligence at all, and say; “we aren’t Jewish!”   They seem to think that solved it all!   They automatically assume since they are not of the blood ancestors of Judah that they should never celebrate any Jewish holidays or holy days.  What would happen if they applied the same logic to Passover?  This statement I suppose  would be true if you only looked at bloodlines and race alone and never considered grace and adoption and the true history of the Hannukah story. 

But maybe we should take a moment to really ponder the WHOLE story.  Please do not

misunderstand and think I’m saying Christians are the “new Jews.”  Absolutely not!  I do not believe in replacement theology at all;  but there is a connection that we all hold and that connection is the belief in God and the belief of the Messiah.  Never mind right now that most authentic Jews think Jesus Christ was NOT the Messiah.  I know that – but listen to the the rest of this theory and tell me later if Hanukkah is not a Christian Holiday as well as a Jewish Holiday.

A Jewish sect of people were the first ones to mark the miracle of Hanukkah and write down the significance of the time and remember it.  That is certainly true, and also commendable.  But were they secular Jews or Christian Jews?  How could there be Christian Jews you ask?  Who do you think Jesus and the disciples were?  Let that sink into your thinking cap a bit and try to grasp the fact that most of the first Christians were from Jewish blood.  Some of the Christians were Gentiles, for sure; but the majority of the first believers in Christ were actually Hebrews, or people with ancestors from one of the twelve tribes of Israel. 

That is a very small point concerning the history we will discuss today, because when the first Hannukah happened, guess what?  Christ had not yet been born.  It wasn't about believers in Christ, it was only about believers in God.  Aren't they the same?  The Words of Jesus tell me they are!   God was just beginning, way back in those dark days, to proclaim that a Savior, a Messiah, would be born.  Is this not the same God that speaks to you and me (The Christians of today? )   I think so!  I think He is the same God!

This confusing mix of cultures and time period significance becomes even more apparent when you study the first Hannukah and you realize where and how the miracle of Hannukah was celebrated.  Some see clearly.  Some see dimly, and some do not see at all.  Is religion and following The One True God not always like this?  How can we truly discern right from wrong, truth from lies?  Let’s go back in time and look at the history of Hannukah.  Many of you may not even know the story, and many of you may not have noticed some of the astounding details of its history.

  

As we travel through the story you may be surprised to see that it has come to have prophetic implications, both about the birth of Christ and about the second coming.

 

That very first Hannukah took place long before the days of Christ and not so very long after the days of Moses.  The state of the world during that first Hannakah so resembled the state of the world we are living in today. 

That old Olive Tree called Israel had been thriving and surviving, just as God had planned out for them.  God was leading His chosen people to a place of preparing to receive a Messiah.   They had gone through the wilderness experience in the days of Moses and come out into the Promised Land where God had blessed them.  He had given them His law and they were careful to keep it.  They had passed the time of David and they had built a great Temple to honor The One and Only God of Heaven and Earth, and many worshiped God there with whole and clean hearts.  They brought their sacrifices, they made their confessions.  They worshiped in holiness.  They were constantly trying to be transformed into a people who were worthy of bearing the life of God’s Son, the Coming Messiah; who would save the world and make all the ritual and sacrifice unnecessary.  

David planned a magnificent Temple for worship, and his son Solomon carried out the plan.  Soloman had lived as the wisest and most blessed king of the earth before he too fell into sin in the end.   One Temple was destroyed and another came to be built.   The kingdom of God’s people then saw many kings and rulers and they often fell into sin, once they fell so hard they were exiled for 70 years from The Promised Land so that God could make up in the land the time of the lost Sabbaths they had not kept.  

Whenever the people followed God (the same God we worship today) He blessed them.  Whenever they did not, He turned His face and they fell into captivity.  The Greeks tried to conquer the world through Alexander The Great, a pagan man who did not know God.  When God’s people responded to his rule because of their earthly lusts and desires, God turned His back and did not look upon them.  They suffered. 

Finally the ancestors of Abraham came to that dark time of history, the period of time between the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Syrian rulers supported the rule of the pagan Greek religions and cultures.  They worshiped Zeus and a host of other foreign and fake mythological gods.  None of their thinking came from the God of Israel who had formed a whole nation and led them from slavery to safety, which included parting the seas and raining food down from heaven, to mention just a few of the miracles of The One True God in looking after His people. 

With the coming of the Greek and the Syrian people into their lives immorality and idol worship were rampant in the land.  False religions were being forced upon the people of Israel, the little remnant that had survived so much captivity, yet always turned back to God.  

Antiochus IV, who was a shadow of the antichrist was actually spoken of as The Son of Perdition in the Holy Scriptures that recorded this time of history.  He and his men came into the happy peaceful lands and saw that as long as the people worshiped the One True God of Heaven and Earth their government would have no power.  These people groups began to force their mythical gods on the remnants of Israel.  Slowly they infiltrated the Second Temple.  The plan was to divide and conquer through false religion.  The godless leaders saw religion as the opium of the people, not as a way of knowing and worshiping The One True God.  They used religion to get their way, just as many before them and after them have also done.

It was somewhere between 167 – 160 BC when the Seleucid Empire took control of the land

by invasion and infiltration techniques.  They quietly and unnoticed at first seeped into the cities and the even seeped into the Temple.  They began to pervert the things of God, slowly and methodically.  Antiochus issued decrees forbidding the religious practices of those following The One True God.  There was no Messiah yet, but by all they had to proclaim, these professing believers living and worshiping in the temple times were the pre-Christians, the precursers of the Church of Jesus Christ,  because they followed The Father of the Messiah; God.  

Can you see how both The Christians of today and the Judean bloodline of the Jewish people too would BOTH identify with this time of trouble?  The God of Heaven and Earth, the One that Abraham knew, the ONLY TRUE God was being profaned.  Can you not picture your own self as a true believer in this scenario and know that YOUR God was being profaned?  Would you not fall into the group of people who were suffering this terrorism in its day had you been living there in that time?  I see nothing “un-Christian about this remnant people myself!  They were following the same God that we follow today, yet without even knowing the Messiah yet!  Now that is faith!

Antiochus was a cruel ruler who used religion to achieve his means of power.  He wanted these strong God professing people out of his way so that he could rule the land his way, the way of immorality and idolatry and evil.  Could this possibly be happening again in our own modern world?  You bet it could.  

Right now, look at the ancient times and get the story of Hannukah planted into your head and heart, because God was sending a message.  It was a multi-leveled message and it was prophetic for meany reasons.  

The Godly people of the day realized that God was preparing a people for something greater, something more wonderful.  There would be pain and suffering along the road to that special day.  This time period experienced great pain and suffering.   We should not forget what these faithful people experienced and went through from the enemies of God.  We should be remembering them, as well as recognizing those of our own times who suffer the same.

Antiochus took over the Temple in his jealousy.  He first tried to sneak in.  He set up men who were corrupt, men he would use to brainwash the people into thinking and worshiping his way and his gods.  Many fell for this evil plot, even among the faithful.  You could say they were victims of their own culture.   Not a man named Mattathaias though!  No!  Mattathaias would only follow God.  He would be true to God’s law.  He would not profane God’s Holy Temple by bringing in the thoughts and ways of the pagans.

Mattathias was one of the truest priests in the land and when the Seleucid Empire set up their pagan gods and commanded him to be their priest in God’s Temple, Mattathias refused to obey.  They sent another man in Mattathias’s place.  Mattathias would not stand for this.  He slayed the man who replaced him, noting his inability to stand for God’s truth.  It was not that the man offered worship to the idol that troubled Mattathias the most, it was that he did it in his place, in the name of Mattathias.  Mattathias could not stand for such falseness toward the people that he loved and the God that he served.  He defended his faith, even with the sword. 

Mattathias and his five sons fled to the wilderness of Judah after this.  Antiochus would

have their heads on a platter if he could.  About a year after Matthathias died, his son Judah led an army of Jewish descendants to victory over an army of the Seleucid Empire in gorillia warfare and won.  

In this dark time, there were many ancestors of Abraham who had become Hellenized and they had gone the way of the Greeks both out of disloyalty to God and out of fear and out of the fact that they were more financially profitable if they did so.  Judah proclaimed these men traitors.  At first his fight was only against his own who had turned to tyranny and allowed Antiochus to take over their system of worship and life without a fight.    Then the Seleucid army joined in with the Hellenizes and Judah wound up fighting both people groups.   

Judah’s group of gorilla fighters became known as The Maccabees.  The Maccabees destroyed all the pagan altars that had been set up in their former cities.  They had a small rag-tag, worn and torn army, but they kept hammering away at God’s enemies.  Thus they gained their name “Maccabees” which means “hammer” in Hebrew.  

After they had won many, many seemingly impossible victories, the Maccabean army entered Jerusalem and cleansed the temple.  They re-instituted Jewish worship (remember Christ had not yet come) and they ordained Jonathan Maccabee to be the high priest of the Temple. On seeing this Antiochus IV stormed the temple with a great army, but Antiochus IV was killed and his men fled away from the mighty strength that God gave the Maccabees who defended His Temple well.  

On that defeat the reigning Syrian leader restored religious freedom to Jerusalem.  It was a great impossible victory!  It was a victory for God!  This victory, once again, preserved the sanctity of life for the chosen people of God.  It preserved the bloodline of Christ!

When the Temple was ready to be rededicated they proclaimed the festival of Hanukkah for the first time.  It was to be a great celebration of religious freedom for God’s people.  Everyone was free to come to the Holy Temple that had been ceremonially cleansed and restored.  They were once again free to worship in the way that God had given them to worship Him all alone.  What a fantastic moment in history!  If you believe in God, whether you are of Jewish blood or not;  can you not see the significance of how this great victory helped to bring the truth of Messiah to you down through the years?  Is it not cause for all the earth to celebrate?

Celebrate they did!  In the excitement of the celebration the remnant of the Maccabees could only find one small container of oil that the seal of sanctification had not been broken on.  They did not think it would be enough to last for but one day.  They decided to use it anyway.  The lighting of the lights of the Temple were so important!  It was like a beacon to the world saying "God is In His Holy Temple."    It was a sign to the people that God was still with them.  They lit the lamps with the sacred oil. 

To the great surprise of all, the oil of the Menorah of the Temple miraculously lasted for eight days!  Thus, the celebration of the festival went on for eight days, setting the tradition we follow today.   They would have oil for every day!  It was a HUGE miracle in the eyes of the people and a true witness and testimony that God was with them.  

This very festival celebration also came to signify the fact that God was the bearer of the light of the world, Our LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Hannakah was a foretelling of the things to come for those who would have eyes to see and ears to hear.  Many agree that the lights of that great first Hannukah were the prophetic proclamation of the promise of God to send forth the Messiah.  

The lights of Hannukah stand for the hope of those who have faith in God to always save them.  The lights remind the people of God to continue to persevere even in times of great suffering.  Could there ever be a more Christian message than this one?  I think not! 

Hence, me and my house will forever remember the day and celebrate the whole eight days of the festival of lights just as Jesus Christ did with Mary and Joseph during the days of his childhood and in the days He became a man.  For what is faith without hope?  What people would chose to worship such a miraculous God?  Hopefully, the Christians of America as well as The Jews of Israel.  We all know Him.  Let His house not be divided.  Let us proclaim and bring forth the joy of the Father Of All.  Let us remember and celebrate our Creator who once said “Let there be Light!”

This year when I speak and wish everyone a blessed Christmas Eve, I will be adding Happy Hannukah Everyone!  

If you come to see me this season you will see a Menorah and a Christmas Tree displaying the truth of the fact that Jesus Christ is The Light of the World!  Our Menorah will be out on the table with the candles lit and burning through all eight days days after the first day that falls on Christmas Eve.  Before we celebrated the incarnation of The Christ Child, we also will be celebrating the hope that His coming will bring to the world, that of peace on earth and goodwill toward men.