Jesus’ Culture

Fast forward some years. In my early 20’s, I came to saving faith in Jesus as my Messiah. I did not come to believe in Him as a way to escape my Jewishness, to assimilate, or as a reason to put up a Christmas tree. Rather, as I recognized that the Jewish Bible promised a Jewish Messiah to the Jewish people, it was clear that Yeshua of Nazareth, the one the western world calls Jesus, is the only one who matched the prophecies found in the Hebrew Scriptures.

As a believer, I now wanted to understand what the Jewish holidays truly meant. I found that many believers from non-Jewish backgrounds also had a new interest in the Jewish roots of their Christian faith. 

So for all of you, whether from Jewish or non-Jewish backgrounds, here are some Hanukkah basics: Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is celebrated for eight days beginning on the 25th day of the month of Kislev, a Hebrew month that runs from approximately the middle of November through the middle of December. The word Hanukkah in Hebrew means “dedication,” as the holiday commemorates the rededication of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem for the service of God following the victory over the Hellenist Syrians in 164 BCE. This period is sometimes known in Christian circles as the “400 Silent Years,” between the Old Testament’s closing and the New Testament’s opening. In reality, those years were not silent but rather momentous. They were foretold in the Book of Daniel.

The background is simple: After returning to the land from the Babylonian captivity, the spiritual state of our Jewish people declined. When Greek Hellenism was introduced to Israel due to Alexander the Great’s occupation of the Holy Land, aspects of Greek culture were attractive to some Jewish people. Some Jewish families ceased to circumcise their sons and abandoned the food regulations of the Mosaic Law. Others went further and placed Greek idols in their homes. These serious compromises and assimilations weakened the Jewish people to the point where the Syrian Hellenists, heirs of Alexander the Great, made a bold demand of the remaining Jews – to give up the worship of the God of the Scriptures and fully adopt Greek paganism or be killed.

The Maccabees, sons of the Jewish Priest Mattathias, led the Jewish people in a hard-fought revolt against the Syrians. They finally entered the Temple, which the Syrian invaders had defiled. They cleansed it and dedicated it anew to the service of God. Then, the Maccabees celebrated the first Hanukkah in memory of their victory.

Jewish tradition relates how the Judean heroes, led by Judah Maccabee, wanted to rededicate the Temple but could not find enough undefiled oil to light the seven-branched Menorah (lampstand) that stood in the “Holy Place” of the Temple. However, in one of the Temple rooms, they found a small jar of oil, enough for just one evening. Miraculously, this small amount of oil kept the Temple lights burning, not for one night, but for all eight nights, until new oil for use in the Temple could be made. The kindling of the Hanukkah lights remembers this miracle according to Jewish tradition. Other Jewish sources point out that the older and probably more accurate reason for the eight nights of celebration is the effort by the Maccabees to make up for the missed eight-day celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, which they had been unable to observe in Jerusalem due to the Syrian occupation.

Messiah Yeshua observed Hanukkah throughout His life and is seen traveling in the New Testament to be in Jerusalem during this Holiday (John 10:22-30). Did you catch the irony? The one biblical mention of the Jewish Holiday of Hanukkah is in the New Testament as it is being observed by Jesus, both of which are rejected by the majority of Jews. On that occasion in Jerusalem, Yeshua made a clear claim to be the Messiah, v.23-25.

Lessons Learned

Today, the essential observance associated with Hanukkah is the kindling of the Hanukkah lights on the Hanukkah Menorah, the nine-branch lampstand used only for this holiday. One additional light is kindled each night, beginning with one candle on the first night of Hanukkah and ending with eight on the final evening. The chanting of traditional blessings and the singing of songs accompany the lighting. The ninth branch is the shamash (the servant light) which is lit first and used to kindle the other lights of the Menorah each evening.

We find several important lessons in Hanukkah for all believers:

• Even when times are difficult for our Jewish people, God always keeps His Covenant promises to us (Gen 12:1-3) by sending us a prophet, leader, or hero to guide us back to God’s truth, helping us triumph over our enemies. While God used the Maccabees, the greatest example of this is the arrival of Messiah Yeshua, who provided a permanent atonement and a way back to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
• Accommodation with the sin and neo-paganism of our world is just as toxic to believers today as it was to the Jews of the Maccabean era.
• The goal of the pagan Hellenists was to destroy the Jewish people as a nation. If they had been successful, there would have been no Tribe of Judah, no virgin Mary, and no Jesus! Without Hanukkah, there would be no Christmas.

Three Jewish holidays can be summed up in three humorous phrases.
They tried to kill us. We won. Let’s eat. 

Those holidays are Passover, celebrating the victory over Pharaoh and his armies; Purim, which remembers the triumph of the Jews of Persia when Haman had conspired to have them all killed; and Hanukkah. Specific foods accompany all three celebrations. 

No Compromise

The message is the same whether you spell it Hanukkah, Chanukah, or any other variation. As believers, we know our effectiveness for Yeshua is compromised by entanglement with today’s equivalent of paganism. We should be modern-day Maccabees, solely devoted to the God of Israel and His Kingdom.

This year, Hanukkah aligns with Christmas. The eight-night celebration begins at sundown on Dec. 18th and ends at sunset on Dec. 25th. Consider bookending your family’s  Christmas celebration with the reading outlined below.

Remember. A young Jewish boy might be outside your home looking at your window this holiday season. Without Hanukkah, there would be no Christmas.