Hanukkah

The Hebrew word Hanukkah means “dedication”  
and is from sunset of Kislev 24 to sunset of Tevet 2.
This post is on the last day of Hanukkah.

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It is an 8 day celebration of the re-dedication of the Temple of the Lord somewhere around 167 BC.

Though the story of Hanukkah centers around the Jewish children of God, this feast is a time to reflect on the faithfulness of God to all those who belong to Him. We who call upon Messiah have the awesome privilege of being adopted children of the Most High God, and therefore, this is a celebration which can have meaning for those of us who are Gentiles.***  This is a man-instituted feast, not a God-ordained one like the seven in Leviticus 23,* but John 10:22 mentions Messiah in the Temple during the feast of dedication, therefore Messianic Jews and numerous followers of Messiah celebrate Hanukkah today.
Many use it as a time to reflect on their lives, “re-dedicate” themselves as His people. (As the temple was rededicated then, so we who are His temples today can rededicate ourselves).

*personal note: Holidays/celebrations that honor God are good. God is concerned with our hearts; He would never advocate empty ritual over heart-felt worship, so participating in a feast should be out of love and respect for God, not pleasure of man. Messiah participated in Hanukkah, so we who are imitators of Him should consider that such celebrations bless God, as well as add depth of understanding and richness to our Christian walks.
The nuts and bolts of the history of Hanukkah are thus:  
Antiochus IV, or Antiochus Epiphanes, became ruler over Israel after the death of Alexander the Great. Wanting to be perceived as a manifest god himself, he demanded the Jewish people deny their Hebrew God and discontinue customs such as Sabbath, circumcision, and Kosher diets. Antiochus plundered the Temple of God, tearing down walls and burning Torah scrolls.
Then he ordered the Greek god Zeus be worshipped in the Temple, and desecrated the Temple by burning a swine sacrifice on the altar of God. This is what is known as the “abomination of desolation.”

Judah was the son of the Jewish Priest Matthias. He led a revolt against Antiochus with his father and four brothers. He was nicknamed “Maccabee” which means The Hammer in Hebrew.
After a 3 year war, Antiochus was defeated, and the Jewish people returned to restore and re-dedicate the Temple of God.

When they went to light the Menorah, which represents the Light of God in the Temple, they saw there was only enough consecrated oil to burn for one day. It would take an additional
7 days to consecrate holy oil. They decided to go ahead and light the menorah, and let it burn out and then re-light it when there was consecrated oil. But miraculously, the oil continued to burn for a full 8 days, just enough time for Holy oil to be consecrated. This miracle is the miracle of Hanukkah.

A regular menorah has 7 branches, representing seven days, and is lit on the Sabbath.

The Hanukkiyah has 9 branches, 8 representing the 8 day miracle, and the center branch, the Shamash, or servant candle, which is lit first, signifying that Messiah is the center from which all light flows.
On night one, one candle is lit, on night two, two candles, and so on. The candles are lit from left to right of the person facing them.

When the candles are lit, it is tradition to recite the following blessing:

BARUCH ATAH ADONAI ELOHENU MELEK HA-OLAM
ASHER KID-SHANU  B’MITZ-VOH-TAV   L’HADLIK  NER
SHEL HANUKKAH

Blessed are You O Lord our God, King of the universe, Who has set us apart by Your commandments and commanded us to kindle the light of Hanukkah.**

**(Personal note. This blessing is adapted from the lighting of the Shabbat {Sabbath} candles – which indeed God has commanded. I do not see where God has commanded us to kindle the light of Hanukkah, although, since Messiah participated in this feast, I do too).

The second blessing is:

BARUCH ATAH ADONAI ELOHENU MELEK HA-OLAM
SHE’ASAH NISIM L’AVOTEYNU BAYAMIN HAHEM BAZMAN HAZEH.

Blessed are You O Lord our God, King of the universe, Who has performed miracles for our fathers in those days, at this time.***

***Personal note: Those who have been grafted-in as adopted children of God, are also adopted children into the blessing of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; therefore we claim “our fathers” through that adoption.
{see Romans, Hebrews}

On the first night of Hanukkah, this additional blessing is said as the candle is lit:

BARUCH ATAH ADONAI ELOHENU MELEK HA-OLAM
SHEHECHEYANU, V’KIY’MANU, V’HIGI’ANU LAZMAN HAZEH

Blessed are You O Lord our God, King of the universe, Who has kept us alive and sustained us and enabled us to reach this season.
Once the candles are lit, it is time to eat, sing and play – celebration!

A festive meal is prepared for each of the 8 nights. It is common to have fried foods because they require oil to prepare them. Potato pancakes (Latkes) and fried bread with jelly inside (Sufganiyot) are favorites.

The game of Dreydel is very popular.
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From left to right the letters are : nun, gimel, hay, shin.

These letters stand for “ness gadol hayah sham” –

“a great miracle happened there”.

(In Israel, shim is replaced with peh, “ness gadol hayah po” –

“a great miracle happened here”)

Everyone should have Hanukkah gelt  (chocolate candy wrapped in gold foil to look like coins)
Each person puts a piece of gelt in the “pot” and beginning with the youngest, each person spins the dreydel. The outcome of the spin tells you what to do.

If the dreydel lands with nun up –
nothing happens.
Continue to the next person.

If the dreydel lands on gimel –
the person spinning takes the entire pot.
(After this, everyone puts in another piece to replenish pot).

If the dreydel lands on hay,
the spinner gets half the pot.
(if uneven, lesser half).

If the dreydel lands on shin –
spinner must add a piece to the pot.

Five women in the Lineage of Messiah

There are several lists of generations in the Bible. Each one is important. The Old testament is rich in relating how God accomplished His purposes through His people and in recording the lineage of Messiah.

About a year ago I was struck by the list in Matthew 1. It is unique in its Genealogy of Christ in that it lists five women. That is significant. It is the only place where women were viewed as important enough to include in a genealogy, and these women held the honor of being in the lineage of Messiah! Wow!

And it occurred to me that most of them probably didn’t even know that they would bear this honor. They were women who struggled and faced adversity and risked scandal and shame, and even possible death to just live their lives as faithful. As I read Ruth, I was struck how we read in a few minutes what spanned a lifetime. And …with the hindsight of knowing how it all turned out!

These women lived their lives day by day, just like us, with times of sorrow and times of joy. I’m sure they asked God “why” sometimes, just like I do. Certainly Ruth had moments when she doubted if staying faithful to Naomi and her God was really worth all the hardship she was enduring. How many nights must she have cried herself to sleep; her life could not have gone the way she’d dreamed. I mean, one day she was a blushing bride, then she lived with her husband for ten years but had no children – (she must have longed for one desperately). Then both she and her sister-in-law joined their mother-in-law as widows and found themselves in poverty. Talk about hard times! And that is just chapter One!

The five women listed are:

Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah, who took desperate measures at great risk to bear a child as promised to her by law and custom. She was a young girl who endured much pain and sorrow and was not treated with proper respect, yet she acted with dignity, using wisdom and shrewdness that God honored in the end. {Genesis 38}

Rahab, a harlot (probably not by choice), who courageously sheltered the Israelite spies, testified to the greatness of God, saved her family from death, and found favor to become the wife of Salmon, and the great-grandmother of King David. Did she have a clue her life would be so radically changed that day she harbored spies of the Lord? Did she even dare to dream that a woman such as her would find favor to be chosen in the Messianic lineage? (Joshua 2)

Ruth, traveling to a foreign land, where she was the outsider, and poor at that, gleaning wheat in the hot sun instead of returning to her family in order to be faithful. It took a lot of courage to do what she did, and she eventually enjoyed the rewards of her faithfulness. But I wonder, did she ever know this side of Heaven how the incredible story of her life would inspire so many, and that she would be distinguished as worthy to be listed in the lineage of Messiah? Oh, and these three women were all Gentiles.

Next is Bathsheba. She was a beauty who had her life turned around because the King lusted after her, got her pregnant, and then had her husband killed so he wouldn’t get caught. We read about King David weeping over the death of this child. Certainly Bathsheba cried many tears, and endured many sorrows before she became mother of the next King. As wife and mother of earthly Kings, did she ever entertain the true Kingdom that favored her?

And sweet Mary, mother of the Son of God. A teenager, whose betrothed didn’t believe her when she said she was pregnant with the Messiah. It must have broken her heart to risk telling him everything and have him see her as a liar and a harlot. (What had saying "yes" to God gotten her into?) But he must have loved her, because he was going to put her away so she would not be stoned. She must have wondered if she would have the courage to raise this child alone, even if she knew God would somehow provide. I think that night they both shed tears. But God set Joseph straight and together they raised the Son of the Most High God!

Luke 2 tells how when they came to the temple to present Jesus to the Lord, they offered two turtledoves. This shows just how poor they really were. Leviticus 12 says a lamb for a burnt offering, and a turtle dove for a sin offering, but vs. 8 “if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtle doves..one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering.” And what strikes me here is that they were very poor materialistically, yet they held the greatest treasure of Heaven and earth in their hearts and their arms!

And Mary, I’ve heard a few sermons about how she “treasured” things in her heart as if this was something bad, but I don’t see it that way. She may have not known the gravity of what all being the mother of God would require, but she did know that one day her son was going to be called upon to save His people (Matt 1:21), and that meant she was going to have to let him be the man He was called to be and let Him go – share Him with the whole world. Every moment she had him was precious to her. Children grow up all too quickly, and treasured moments all too soon become sweet memories.

So, anyway, this year I have been focusing on the lives of women in the Bible. When I am on my face before the Lord crying my heart out, wondering what my life story will one day look like, I ponder the lives of these women who found favor in the eyes of God, and ask myself if I even have a fraction of their strength or character. These were not perfect women - just available to God, and that gives great hope! God seems to like to use our weaknesses to glorify Himself. Yea!

I have spent a lot of time in Esther this year – oh how I love her story! And the life of Anna, the prophetess who witnessed Jesus being blessed by Simeon in the temple, and started giving thanks to God. She gives me pause. She was totally devoted to God, continually giving herself to fasting and prayer, for over 60 years! What compels a person to live such a life, and what riches in Heaven are reserved for one such as that? It makes me weep to know what a wretch I have been, and yet God, in His unchanging faithfulness, still has a plan and purpose and can use someone like me for His Kingdom. I really learned that last year when I was given my first song from the life of Gomer (Hosea). Very little is said about her as a person, except that she was a harlot who Hosea took for a wife, and she tore his heart out by her harlotry so that Hosea could adequately express the sorrow of God over the unfaithfulness of His people. But the story has a happy ending. Fairy tales and soap operas have got nothing new. Why resort to fiction when there are real life stories that are better? Every heartache. . . every sin. . . every victory. . . has already been told in the life of someone who God used in the history of His Creation, if we just take time to ponder their journeys…

Bride of Christ

How the Jewish Wedding custom
paints a picture of
Jesus as the Bridegroom
and the church as His Bride

Jesus referred to Himself as the Bridegroom:
And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. "(Matthew 9:15)

1
The prospective bridegroom took the initiative and traveled from his father’s house to the home of the prospective bride.

Christ left His Father’s house and came to earth to gain
a Bride for Himself. (Ephesians 5: 25-28)

2
The young man prepared a Ketubah, or marriage contract (or covenant) which he presented to the intended bride and her father, which included the negotiated “Bride Price” which was deemed appropriate to compensate the young woman's parents for the cost of raising her, as well as being an expression of the man’s love for his intended.

Christ paid the price for His Bride with His own blood.
(I Corinthians 6: 19-20)

3
If the proposal was accepted, the woman would drink wine from a cup (representing a blood covenant) offered by the young man, and they would be betrothed. The betrothal was binding and could only be undone by a divorce with proper grounds, such as the bride being found not to be a virgin.

God made a covenant like a marriage covenant with his people. Isaiah and Hosea both portray the unfaithfulness of an adulterous people

(sin and idolatry), but the faithfulness of God.
For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. For the Lord has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you," says the Lord, your Redeemer. (Isaiah 54: 5-8)
God offered Israel a formal, written marriage contract - the Torah. The contract was a blood covenant (bride price ) in the blood of the Passover lamb, when God took Israel out of Egypt to be his own. (Exodus 12: 13-14) Israel accepted this proposal, saying "All that the Lord has spoken we will do." (Exodus 19: 7-8) The first cup of Passover, the cup of Sanctification is an acceptance of God’s proposal, signifying that those who call upon Him are set apart exclusively for Him.The believer in Christ has been declared sanctified as the Bride of Christ. (Ephesians 5: 25-27)The third cup of Passover, the cup of Redemption is the “Communion” cup in which believers partake to honor our Lord, and signify our devotion to Him until He returns.

(I Corinthians 11:25)

4
The young man would then give gifts to his beloved, and then take his leave. The young woman would have to wait for him to return and collect her. Before leaving the young man would announce, " I am going to prepare a place for you" and "I will return for you when it is ready". The usual practice was for the young man to return to his father's house and build a honeymoon room there. This is what is symbolized by the chuppah or canopy which is characteristic of Jewish weddings. He was not allowed to skimp on the work and had to get his father's approval before he could consider it ready for his bride. If asked the date of his wedding he would have to reply, "Only my father knows."

Christ returned to His Father’s house following the payment for His Bride. (John 6:62)
At the end of the Passover meal, the one Jesus so earnestly desired to eat with His disciples, Messiah washed their feet, and then told them he was to be betrayed, die, and go where they could not follow. Then He had to tell Peter that he would deny Christ three times.

But then, Jesus spoke these comforting words:
"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. (John 14: 1-3)
What beautiful words of comfort! The Bridegroom was leaving, but only for a little while! Earlier Jesus had told them: "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24: 36-37)

5
During the period of separation and waiting, the bride would be making herself ready so that she would be pure and beautiful for her bridegroom. During this time she would wear a veil when she went out to show she was spoken for (she has been bought with a price). It was the custom for a bride to keep a lamp, her veil and her other things beside her bed. Her bridesmaids were also waiting and had to have oil ready for their lamps.

The parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins in Matthew 25 quickly follows Jesus explanation that no one knows the day or hour of His coming. Since this was the wedding custom of the day, the relevance was perfectly clear to all who would have heard it.

6
When the time was ready, the groom, best man, and other male escorts traveled to the waiting bride’s house. It was not uncommon for this to be a torch-light procession at night. (Thus a reason for there to be oil in the virgin’s lamps for the journey to the groom’s). The procession would blow a shofar when they were a certain distance away so the bride and her maids could be ready by the time the party arrived. Then they would return to the groom’s father’s house for the wedding celebration.

Christ will come from His Father’s house in Heaven accompanied by an angelic host. (John 14:3) His return will be preceded by a shofar blast, and the Bride will be caught up with the Lord to be with Him forever.

(I Thessalonians 4: 16-17)

7
After the ceremony, the couple would retire to the privacy of the wedding chambers. The groom’s best friend would wait outside until the groom told him that the marriage had been consummated. The proof of this was the bed-sheet bearing the blood shed by the bride as a result of her first sexual intercourse. This is notable for two reasons. It speaks of purity before marriage, but it also shows a blood covenant (the most solemn and binding kind) such as God's covenant with his people. Then, the wedding feast would begin and last for seven days!

Christ’s union with the church will take place in Heaven for all eternity.
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; (Revelation 19:7)
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, "Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb. (Revelation 21: 2, 9)
Matthew 22: 1-14 is the parable of the wedding feast. It describes the feast that was the custom of the day.

It ends with “many are called, but few are chosen” (v. 14)
And the angel said to me, "Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." And he said to me, "These are the true words of God." (Revelation 19: 9)

The “Best Man”

John the Baptist declared, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. (John 3: 27-29) This could seem to indicate John the Baptist is like unto the best man. In the Passover seder, the door is opened to look for Elijah, for whom there is an empty place at the table.

Elijah, who did not see death, but was swept to Heaven by a great whirlwind in a chariot of fire, was expected at Passover to announce Messiah, Son of David.

We who know Messiah know Elijah did indeed come!

Zacharias, a priest, was serving in the temple at the altar of incense, when an angel of the Lord appeared before him and foretold the birth of his son, who was to be called John... "And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." (Luke 1:17)

Yeshua said: “For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.” (Matthew 11: 13-14)

This John declared:

“Behold, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world.”

(John 1: 29)