Study #18: CHET

CHET IN CHANUKAH/ HANUKKAH ( THE FEAST OF DEDICATION )

Like Purim, this feast is not mentioned in the Old Teastament but ironically in the New Testament – read John 10:22.

It celebrates the rededication of the Temple after the Jews in the 2nd Century BCE defeated the ruling Seleucids ( Syrian- Greeks ). The latter tried to force the people of Israel to accept Greek culture and beliefs especially idolatry. Against all odds, a small band of 3,000 faithful Jews, led by Judah the Maccabee, defeated one of the mightiest arnies of that era numbering 70,000 in 4 decisive battles.

When the victors sought to light the Temple Menorah ( the seven-branched candelabrum ), they found only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks. Miraculously, when they lit the Menorah, the one- day supply of oil lasted 8 days until new oil could be prepared.

To commemorate this miracle, the sages instituted the Feast of Chanukah/ Hanukkah.

The main spiritual lesson we learn is that Man may impose but God disposes. The Greeks made idols in Man’s image which was an abomination in God’s eyes. They put statues of their Greek gods in the Temple and defiled it with pigs’ blood. But God is not mocked: He reinstituted the correct theology of worship – that Man was made in the image of God, not vice versa.

In John 10:22, Jesus was in the Temple on that Feast Day. And He boldly proclaimed in front of His hearers that ” I and the Father are one” ( John 10:30) – which was blasphemy in the ears of Jews who thought He was advocating idolatry all over again.

Father God, we now know the truth that our Lord was not making a false claim – that He was indeed Yeshua Ha Masiach. And we pray that the Jews will accept Him as their Messiah and “rededicate” themselves to the worship of the one true God of Isreal.