Informing our view of scripture and prophecy through the Feast of Dedication.
Video with slides below via Rumble
Audio only via Spotify below
Today’s message is about how important Hanukkah is to the faith once delivered to the saints even though the majority of beliers don’t understand this remembrance at all.
The word chanukkah is spelled a few different ways in English because the first letter is not an English letter. This word is pronounced like you are clearing your throat. Regardless of how it is pronounced or represented in English, the word is very important. It means dedication and, in context, the dedication of the temple. This is the word used in Torah when talking about dedicating and consecrating the Levitical service. This festival is not part of Yahweh’s appointed times outlined in Leviticus 23, but it was definitely part of Jewish life in the first century. Yeshua was at the temple for the Feast of Dedication recorded at John 10:22 and they asked Him if He was the Christ, meaning Messiah, specifically at that time. For those of us who have studied Chanukkah, this banter has quite a lot more meaning and none of it has to do with miraculous oil.
If you want to know the official story on Chanukkah, please read the 1st book of Maccabees. It’s available at the link that follows or in any version of the LXX Brenton Septuagint Translation Maccabees I 1 (ebible.org)
The books of Maccabees aren’t considered scripture, which is why they are not included in our 66 book bibles. They used to be in family bibles in a special section called “the Apocrypha” which means “these books are important to the faith but are not considered to be inspired”. They and a couple other books that aren’t in our bibles are in the LXX because they were considered important enough to be preserved by the Rabbis who made that first translation of the Hebrew bible into Greek about 120 years before Yeshua. 1 and 2 Maccabees are very true recordings of history and they chronicle why there came to be a Feast of Dedication.
The absurdly abridged true version of Chanukkah is that it’s the observance of the temple being cleansed and re-dedicated after the Greeks defiled it under Antiochus Epiphanes. When the Greeks took over Judea, many Jews joined Greece even to the point of un-circumcising themselves. The Greeks burned the Torah scrolls and did horrible things to children who were circumcised and their mothers. The Greeks wanted to erase the faith of Abraham from the face of the earth and bring their blended pagan worship to Judea. A small band of true believers fought back against this and prevailed over much time. Their leader was called Judas Maccabeus, meaning Judah the Hammer, because he was successful in defeating the impossible-to-defeat Greeks. The Greeks defiled the Temple with the abomination of desolation and did other horrific things. The Maccabee family pushed Greece out of Judea which allowed for the Temple and Levitical service to be restored and all the paganism to be eradicated from the Holy Land. Once the Temple was restored, the menorah was lit to show the people everything was back the way it was supposed to be and they celebrated by having an 8 day festival in winter like Sukkot. There is no record of a miracle of oil in the books of the Maccabees, the Festival is 8 days long because it mirrored Sukkot.
Now that you have an absurdly abridged version of Chanukkah, let me explain what they were really asking Yeshua in John 10. They were asking Him if He was a messiah like Judas Maccabeus. They were asking if He was going to lead a rebellion against Rome and restore Judea like the Maccabees did prior. And He didn’t really answer their question.
Now we come to the Matthew 24 connection. Matthew 24 is where most of Christianity looks to read about Yeshua speaking of His return, which is often equated erroneously with the end of days. The end of days is 1000 years after His return, but that’s a story for another today. Today, let’s address Matthew 24 where the banter starts with Yeshua’s disciples marveling at the Temple.
Slide 2 Yeshua left the temple area and was going on His way when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. But He responded and said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.” (Mat 24:1-2)
In an earlier message I spoke about how the destruction of the temple, but really the destruction of all Judea, in AD70 proves Yeshua to be the Messiah. These verses are that reference. In reality, Yeshua’s response at Matthew 24:2 should be in all caps, signifying it’s a call back to an Old Testament prophecy.
Slide 3 “Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come the one who makes desolate, until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, gushes forth on the one who makes desolate.” (Dan 9:26-27 NASB)
This is how the NASB reads for this prophecy. The NASB is based on the Masoretic text, the Hebrew Bible that from about 1000 AD. It is a good thing for us to use a Tanakh, or Old Testament, based on Hebrew, because it preserves (or restores) how these words should be represented. And you can see in the English here that the temple is going to come down and that’s associated with “abominations”. Now let’s take a look at how the LXX represents this. The LXX is a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures from about 120 years before Yeshua. I referenced it earlier when I recommended everybody read 1 and 2 Maccabees. This translation was made before Yeshua and since the New Testament was written in Greek, and based off of the LXX, oftentimes our NT references match the LXX better. Check this out.
Slide 4 And after the sixty-two weeks, the anointed one shall be destroyed, and there is no judgment in him: and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary with the prince that is coming: they shall be cut off with a flood, and to the end of the war which is rapidly completed he shall appoint the city to desolations. And one week shall establish the covenant with many: and in the midst of the week my sacrifice and drink-offering shall be taken away: and on the temple shall be the abomination of desolations; and at the end of time an end shall be put to the desolation. (Dan 9:26-27 Brenton LXX)
Doesn’t this sound a whole lot more like Matthew 24 than the Hebrew translation? I think so. The reason I wanted to show this to you is because of the phrase “abomination of desolations” and that the Temple and all Judea were going to be destroyed. You can see very clearly that this abomination had already happened once and is going to happen again. And the reason Matthew 24:2 should be in all caps, showing it’s a reference to the Tanakh (the OT), is because Daniel prophesied the destruction of the second temple and all Judea being associated with the Messiah.
Slide 5 And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Yeshua answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will mislead many people.” (Mat 24:3-5)
There’s a separation in my bible between verse 2 and 3 that was put there by the NASB translators. It’s not supposed to be there. What did the false messiahs say in the first century? They said the Rome was going to be purged and the temple restored at that time. This was what the people wanted and why they asked Yeshua if He was the Messiah at the Feast of Dedication – they believed erroneously the next Messiah would RESTORE Judea even though the Bible said that the DESTRUCTION of Judea was associated with the coming of the Messiah.
Slide 6 “Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let the reader understand— then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get things out of his house. And whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those women who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days! Moreover, pray that when you flee, it will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.” (Mat 24:15-20)
He goes on further in Matthew 24 to talk about wars and rumors of wars and then He gets to this. Almost all of Christianity doesn’t know that the abomination of desolation has already happened. Twice. I implore you all to read 1 Maccabees and then you will understand that He was quoting it here. He was telling them to reference Daniel 9 and 1 Maccabees to understand the future prophetic proof of Him being the Messiah was that the temple was going to be defiled again as it had been before, but that next time, which was in AD 70, was going to lead to a complete destruction of Judea. 1 Maccabees talks in great detail about not going back and a slaughter the revolutionaries endured on the Sabbath after they rebelled against the Greeks. He was telling them that not only was He not there to restore Judea but that the next step in the plan of Salvation after His death and resurrection was going to be the destruction of the Temple. Those who came to understand this knew to leave Jerusalem when Hadrian’s army approached in AD70 and flee to the mountains. Those who didn’t, well, it didn’t go well for them. See The Temple and the Messiah – First Century Christianity for details.
So what do we do with Chanukkah, the Feast of Dedication? Brothers and sisters, we need to understand it and let it inform our view of the first century faith. We also need to understand it to inform our view of future events. The Feast of Dedication happened as a remembrance of the Jews getting rid of paganism and restoring Judea to proper worship and governance. This is a foreshadowing of the entire world getting the same treatment. We look forward to Judea being cleansed of its sins and the true, never defiled temple coming down from heaven when the Messiah returns. We look forward to a time when we will live in a world with a proper religion and governance, with Yeshua as our King and Yahweh as our God. My family lights a 7 candle menorah during Chanukkah to remember the rededication of the temple and looking forward to the eradication of all the sin and paganism we are surrounded by. This is just a tradition we have and not a commandment since Chanukkah is not a commanded festival in the Torah. But Yeshua did observe it and John recorded it, so we should do something for it. And the most important thing we can do for it is to read about it. Shalom.