The festival of lights or Hanukkah goes back to 165 BC. This is between the closing of the Old Testament Cannon and the New Testament, thus this story is not told in the Bible. The land of Israel and her people were ruled by the Persians until Alexander the Great and his Greek troops conquered the land 331 BC. Ten years later Alexander died and his kingdom was broken into four parts (as prophesied in Daniel). With Greek rule, many Jewish people took on much of the Greek culture. Many changed their names to sound more Greek, started dressing like the Greeks, and some even went as far to go through a process of reversing their circumcision (I will not explain here, but if you are interested I can do that, just ask).
Under Greek rule the High Priest was the civic ruler and the religious representative of the people. This caused many problems as you might expect (there is great value in the separation of church and state if it done right). Things came to head when a very evil ruler by the name of Antiochus IV Epiphanies (meaning visible god) came to power. Jason was the High Priest, he had changed his name from Joshua, but he did not meet the standards of the Antiochus, thus he was replaced with Menelaus.
Antiochus did all he could to get the Jewish population to conform to the Greek way of life and worship. Those that refused faced terrible persecution, read 1 Maccabees to learn all about it. Antiochus took items out of the temple and desecrated them. The true abomination of desolation (prophesied by Daniel) took place when he offered a sow on the altar of God to Zeus.
It was during this time that an old priest named Mattathus fought back against the pagan rule. He and his five sons fled into the wilderness and formed a gorilla fighting force. As their success grew, their numbers did as well. Their tactics were different than others that had fought before them. In the past the Greek forces were able to destroy the Jewish forces on the Sabbath because they were unwilling to fight on the Sabbath. This group, which came to be known as Hasmoneans, fought on the Sabbath and used a gorilla tactics of surprise attacks and flee.
The leader of this group, after his father died, was Judah Maccabee. Maccabee means hammer, he was known as the hammer of God (a manly name to be sure). After three years of battle Judah and his men took the Temple back, forged new items for the Temple, destroyed the defiled altar and built a new one. The Temple was rededicated in 165 BC. When the prayer of dedication was given there was only enough oil found to burn for one day, however by miraculous intervention it burned for eight days. Thus the people celebrated a new festival to never forget what happened, The Festival of Lights.
In John 10:22 we see that Jesus celebrated this festival with his disciples.
Let me make a few applications for us today:
1. The New Testament teaches us we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. If we allow false gods, false allegiances, unclean thoughts, or paganism into this temple we are wrong and need to cleanse it.
2. This festival of lights reminds us of the One, True Light that has come into the world. When Jesus appeared on Christmas a light came into the world that has the power to enlighten all souls, cast out the darkness, and lead us to salvation.
3. Ponder this truth, it was during the Feast of Dedication or the Festival of Lights or Hanukkah that Jesus said in John 8:12,"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of light."
4. In Israel today it is traditional to eat fried doughnuts (oil is the key symbol). Over 17.5 million doughnuts are consumed during Hanukkah in Israel. So go eat some doughnuts and remember what God has done (if you need an excuse to eat doughnuts here it is).
Here the readings for the rest of the year:
November
25, 2013 Ezek 16, James 2, Ps
132:1–4, Prov 28:25–28
[
] November 26, 2013 Ezek 17–19, James 3, Ps 132:5–12,
Prov 29:1–2
[
] November 27, 2013 Ezek 20, James 4–5, Ps 132:13–18,
Prov 29:3–4
[
] November 28, 2013 Ezek 21–22, 1 Pet 1:1–21, Ps 133,
Prov 29:5–6
[
] November 29, 2013 Ezek 23–24, 1 Pet 1:22–2:10, Ps
134:1–135:5, Prov 29:7–9
[
] November 30, 2013 Ezek 25–27, 1 Pet 2:11–3:6, Ps
135:6–11, Prov 29:10–11
[
] December 01, 2013 Ezek 28–30, 1 Pet 3:7–4:6, Ps
135:12–21, Prov 29:12–14
[
] December 02, 2013 Ezek 31–32, 1 Pet 4:7–5:14, Ps
136:1–6, Prov 29:15–17
[
] December 03, 2013 Ezek 33–34, 2 Pet 1, Ps 136:7–11,
Prov 29:18–19
[
] December 04, 2013 Ezek 35–36, 2 Pet 2, Ps 136:12–17,
Prov 29:20–22
[
] December 05, 2013 Ezek 37–39, 2 Pet 3, Ps 136:18–26, Prov
29:23–25
[
] December 06, 2013 Ezek 40–41, 1 John 1:1–2:11, Ps
137, Prov 29:26–27
[
] December 07, 2013 Ezek 42–44, 1 John 2:12–3:3, Ps
138, Prov 30:1–3
[
] December 08, 2013 Ezek 45–46, 1 John 3:4–23, Ps 139:1–5,
Prov 30:4–6
[
] December 09, 2013 Ezek 47–48, 1 John 3:24–4:19, Ps
139:6–10, Prov 30:7–8
[
] December 10, 2013 Dan 1–2, 1 John 4:20–5:21, Ps
139:11–17, Prov 30:9–10
[
] December 11, 2013 Dan 3–4, 2 John, Ps 139:18–24, Prov
30:11–12
[
] December 12, 2013 Dan 5–6, 3 John, Ps 140:1–5, Prov
30:13–15
[
] December 13, 2013 Dan 7–8, Jude, Ps 140:6–13, Prov
30:16–18
[
] December 14, 2013 Dan 9:1–11:4, Rev 1, Ps 141, Prov
30:19–20
[
] December 15, 2013 Dan 11:5–12:13, Rev 2, Ps 142, Prov
30:21–22
[
] December 16, 2013 Hos 1–5, Rev 3, Ps 143:1–3, Prov
30:23–25
[
] December 17, 2013 Hos 6–9, Rev 4–5, Ps 143:4–12, Prov
30:26–27
[
] December 18, 2013 Hos 10–14, Rev 6:1–7:8, Ps 144:1–6,
Prov 30:28–30
[
] December 19, 2013 Joel 1–3, Rev 7:9–8:13, Ps
144:7–15, Prov 30:31–33
[
] December 20, 2013 Amos 1–4, Rev 9, Ps 145:1–5, Prov
31:1–2
[
] December 21, 2013 Amos 5–9, Rev 10:1–11:10, Ps
145:6–12, Prov 31:3–4
[
] December 22, 2013 Obad, Rev 11:11–12:17, Ps
145:13–21, Prov 31:5–7
[
] December 23, 2013 Jonah 1–4, Rev 13, Ps 146:1–4, Prov
31:8–9
[
] December 24, 2013 Micah 1–7, Rev 14, Ps 146:5–10,
Prov 31:10–12
[
] December 25, 2013 Nah 1–3, Rev 15–16, Ps 147:1–7,
Prov 31:13–15
[
] December 26, 2013 Hab 1–3, Rev 17, Ps 147:8–12, Prov
31:16–17
[
] December 27, 2013 Zeph 1–3, Haggai 1–2, Rev 18, Ps
147:13–20, Prov 31:18–20
[
] December 28, 2013 Zech 1–4, Rev 19, Ps 148:1–7, Prov
31:21–23
[
] December 29, 2013 Zech 5–8, Rev 20:1–21:8, Ps 148:8–14,
Prov 31:24–25
[
] December 30, 2013 Zech 9–14, Rev 21:9–27, Ps 149,
Prov 31:26–28
[
] December 31, 2013 Mal 1–4, Rev 22, Ps 150, Prov
31:29–31
