Happy Hanukkah Everyone!

Happy Hanukka!

Almost 1300 years ago, the evil Greek king Antiochus Epiphanese placed a statue of himself as the god Zeus in the temple at Jerusalem. Furthermore, in a effort to stamp out Judaism, He banned circumcision and sent soldiers to force Jews to sacrifice pigs to small versions of the idol. One family led by Yahuda Makavi (Judah Maccabee or “Judah the Hammer”), became the rallying point for an insurgency that pushed the Greeks out of Israel and reclaimed the Temple. The story goes that when the temple was reclaimed, the Greeks defiled all the vials of Holly oil for the menorah but one. It took seven days of to make new oil to the exacting standards of the Torah. With faith, the Aaronic priesthood went ahead and lit the Menorah which “miraculously” burned for eight days, rather than one, until more oil could be prepared. That is why we celebrate Hanukkah for eight days with candle lighting.

This story does not appear in our Bible. The Holiday is not mentioned in it either. It does appear in yours however…

John 10:22-23 22 And [Jesus] was at Jerusalem [for] the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. 23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch…

Hanukkah means “dedication” in Hebrew and refers to the re-dedication of the temple. Hanukkah is the feast of dedication that Jesus was celebrating at the temple. Note what he was NOT celebrating…

His Birthday! 🙂

So when you ask yourself, “What would Jesus do?” Well… Jesus would celebrate Hanukkah!

And you can too!