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Hanukkah - The Setting
Part 1 of 3
I followed two women as they walked into the Temple. My heart sank as I listened to their conversation.
“I hate this time of year.”
“Too much to do?”
“No, I just hate having Christmas shoved down my throat.”
I knew exactly what she was talking about. As a Jew, I identified with those feelings. During the Christmas season (which seems to get longer each year), the Jewish people feel completely isolated and separated from their neighbors, from their friends, and from society as a whole.
I knew that isolation. Feeling that I was different was not a good feeling. The message being communicated was that I was missing something very special.
Well, we were missing something. We were missing all the fun and fanfare: Christmas trees; family dinners; parties and of course, presents.
But today Hanukkah, which was a relatively minor holiday has now become so exaggerated that it competes with Christmas and Jewish children need not feel left out. They have their own parties, decorations, and presents. Eight days of presents!
To tell you the truth, when I was growing up my family gave into social pressure and had a Christmas tree. Oh sure, we put a Jewish star on top and called it a Hanukkah bush, but it was a Christmas tree nonetheless. It was a gorgeous tree. Tall – stretching from the floor to the ceiling. We spent days decorating it. Each piece of silver tinsel had to be draped separately and carefully. After we’d created a masterpiece, mom and dad would then cover the tree with angel hair making its appearance on Christmas morning truly magical. But then, one year it all stopped.
I was 16 and my younger brother’s bar mitzvah approached. I insisted - as only a teenager can - that we were wrong. We were Jewish and we shouldn’t be celebrating Christmas, I argued. Besides we had moved across the street from the rabbi and what would he think? I queried.
So, reluctantly my parents agreed, and that year we only observed Hanukkah. We put the Hanukkiah in a place of prominence. We diligently lit the candles, we reminded ourselves of the legend of the oil, and we prayed over the candles and sung the Hanukkah songs:
“Who can retell the things that befell us, who can count them? In every age a hero or sage can to our aid.”
“O Hanukkah o Hanukkah come light the menorah. Let’s have a party , we’ll all dance the hora.”
But, I had to admit. Something was missing.
I felt more Jewish celebrating Hanukkah.
But I didn’t feel closer to God.
I determined to study more about the origins of Hanukkah, and in my journey, I found a rich, historical heritage.
And I found God through Jesus Christ, His son.
As I began my study, I only knew it had something to do with Judah Maccabee and that there was a battle with the Greeks. I knew that the Temple had been desecrated and that it had to be cleansed and rededicated. Tradition says when it was time to light the Eternal Light, there was only a small amount of oil. Miraculously that oil lasted for eight days, hence the eight days of Hanukkah.
Though today the oil’s replenishment is the celebrated miracle, there is a much greater truth. Do you know what it is?
It is the miracle of faith.
The central issue of Hanukkah is God’s faithfulness to a small group of faithful men and women who chose to serve Him regardless of the personal cost or consequences. Hanukkah’s truth celebrates God’s miraculous victory to a small group of farmers and merchants over a much more powerful and well-equipped army.
These Jewish men and women, a righteous remnant, refused to be part of the world around them. It was a world of compromise and idolatry. Instead they insisted and fought for the right to worship and obey their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the God of the Bible.
Are the Jews still fighting for the same right today? Or are they perverting the commandments of God? Perhaps what they are insisting on today is a misconception of what they think God has asked them to do. Jewish tradition runs so strongly that it often blurs what God has told them in the Bible – God’s word.
The truth of Hanukkah challenges each of us, regardless of our religious background - will we follow the commands of God without compromise or conditions?
THE JEWISH WORLD IN THE TIME OF HANUKKAH
Jerusalem 165 BCE
The society in Jerusalem of 165 BCE (Before Common Era) was marked by tremendous fragmentation and cultural diversity. From the time of their deportation to and return from Babylon, the Jewish people had departed from their Biblical moorings. While in exile they began to reject or reinterpret God’s commands and obligations to fit their current situation and/or individual desires.
The clergy became corrupted through the lure of political power and social acceptance. Debate, argument and the “rights” of the individual challenged and then replaced all forms of authority. With the continual suppression by foreign powers there was a demand for religious equality and tolerance. Not the least of influences was the Greek focus on physical and sexual pleasures. Isn’t this a remarkably similar description of our society today?
PRE-HANUKKAH HISTORY
Breakdown of Traditional Values
Over the previous two hundred years the Jews had been under the domination of one foreign power after another. Alexander the Great (336-323) had perhaps the greatest and most lasting influence. The Greeks controlled their subjects through the process called Hellenization. Rather than allow the subjected people to maintain their own culture, they encouraged or forced them to adopt the Grecian culture – from language, to dress, to religion.
Daniel 9-12 is a historically accurate description of this time. In fact it is so precise that many scholars insist it had to be written after the fact! But it is likewise clear that Daniel records include our prophetic future.
Daniel 11 records the division of Alexander’s kingdom among his four generals. Of the four, the two most prevalent are Ptolemy of Egypt and Selucid of Syria. These two generals fought over Israel continuously, each having a “turn” at ruling the Jewish people.
The Jewish people were split in their preferences. While the Ptolemys exerted greater economic hardship, they allowed the Jews greater religious freedom. Under the Egyptians, Israel was also able to be self-governing. The High Priest acted as both the religious head and a political representative. The Selucids however, were Hellenizers. To rise in their Grecian society, one had to become “Greek” in word, thought and deed.
In 198 BCE, after a hundred year reign, the Ptolemys were defeated by the Selucids. Full allegiance and participation in the culture proved loyalty to the crown and thus brought economic, social and political benefits. By 175 BCE, the traditional disciplines of Jewish life had been destroyed. The influences of foreign cultures, intermarriage, language challenges, and advancing technology gradually eroded hallowed Jewish practices.
As Jerusalem became a commercial center, many of the more liberal Jews saw the benefits of embracing the Hellenistic life style. They chafed under the restrictions of religious life and wanted to enjoy the sensual pleasures and freedom of their neighbors. They pursued social acceptance, ignoring the emotional, physical and spiritual cost.
To the Hellenists, social acceptance meant participating in sports. Sports and the gymnasia were the center of the Greek culture. That posed a problem for the circumcised Jewish men because the Greeks performed their games in the nude. Thus the cost of assimilation required the men to undergo the painful surgery to remove the sign of their circumcision. By this act the Jews were turning their back on the commandments of God. It was more important to them to be accepted by the Hellenists rather than to be accepted by God. Like Esau, they were despising their birthright, and revoked the sign of their covenant with God.
In opposition to these apostates were those who remained faithful. These religious Jews held to the Word of God. The Temple, not the gym, was the center of their lives. So once again, God’s faithfulness pulled a remnant aside for Himself.
Rise of the Synagogue and the Scribes
According to the Bible, the Jews were to worship at the Temple and the priests were the messengers of the Lord (Mal. 2:7). It was up to the priests to decide matters of ritual and morals. But during the exile when the people were away from the Temple, the priests’ authority was challenged.
Along with the establishment of the synagogue came the rise to power of the scribes. Unable to fulfill God’s commandments about Temple worship, the scribes, not the priests, became the spiritual leaders. The scribes were well versed in the Laws of Moses, and they devised a religion, which could be followed outside the requirements of the Temple. They developed rites that did not need sacrifices or the authority of the High Priest – in fact, they could be practiced anywhere.
Thus, these “new rites” took root, and grew to Judaism as we know it today.
When the Jews returned to Jerusalem, to the Temple and to the priests, the scribes refused to give up their influence. And as the scribes came under the Hellenistic influence, they developed the skills of debate. Soon a good argument, based on the wisdom of man’s religion and philosophies, challenged the wisdom of God and the principles of His Bible.
Corruption of the Priesthood
With their religious authority questioned and rejected, the priests buckled under pressure and came under the influence of the materialism of the day.
There arose priests who sought to accommodate traditional Judaism to the culture of the times. "Their intention was to preserve those characteristics of the Jewish religion which suited Greek taste, but to remove everything which smacked of the separation of the conservatives.” (Bickerman). This is why the Judaism of today looks so different than the Judaism of the Bible.
The compromising of the priests soon led to their corruption and involvement in political alliances. In 173 BCE, Jason, brother of the High Priest Onias III, bribed the emperor and replaced his brother. One year later, in 172, the king replaced Jason by an even more wicked brother, Menelaus. It was through the support of Menalaus that the gymnasia was built next to the Temple!
The following year, Menelaus murdered his brother, Onias III, who had been a legitimate High Priest. For the next eight years, the office was filled with illegitimate priests. 1
The Cry for Religious Tolerance
With the fragmentation of society, political and religious alliances, and the constant flow of foreigners around the city, soon the cry for religious tolerance was heard. In those days, every ancient reign owned a god. Their gods and their religions were territorial and exclusive. No foreigner or outsider was able to sacrifice to gods outside their “zone.”
Those effects trickled into Jerusalem in 175 BCE. Though Israel’s God was the true God, the Jews, feeling the pressure to permit spiritual diversity, still encouraged everyone to worship their own “cultural” deity.
The foundation of the Hanukkah story is God’s insistence that He is the one true God. He is neither exclusive nor tolerant. He is NOT exclusive because He invites everyone to come and worship Him. But He is not tolerant of other gods. He is a jealous God, commanding the people to have no other gods before Him. He is ready and eager to accept all who will believe in Him and He is intolerant of any who will not.
Religion rather than Relationship
Finally into this mix were those who found solace in their evolving “religion.” The traditions of man, which had begun developing outside the Temple, were becoming more important than the personal relationship God offered to His people. Perhaps motivated by the deterioration of the traditional values of their fathers, this group was determined to avoid God’s punishment of another exile. Therefore they demanded more of themselves (and others) than God did. If one prayer was considered acceptable, how much more would two or three or four prayers be?
In Review:
Let's review the five characteristics about the society of Israel in 175BC:
1) It was a time of tolerance when everyone wanted the right to do their own thing.
2) It was a time when argument challenged authority and God’s word was reinterpreted to accommodate the times.
3) Religion and the traditions of men replaced the simplicity of a relationship with God by grace through faith.
4) Many rejected the commandments of the Bible to enjoy the pleasures of the licentious world around them.
5) The high priestly office was compromised and filled with men who were more involved with money and politics than the worship of the God of Israel.
This was the setting of the Hanukkah story. In spite of the strong challenges in a rebellious culture, there remained a righteous group of men, women and children.
These were God’s faithful! They did not compromise. And, they faced persecution and death.
Are we Americans any different in today’s changing world than those people in Jerusalem, 175 BCE?
I think not.
Today, cultural diversity and division abounds. Groups form around color, age, nationality, and political parties. Tensions continue to mount between parents and children, labor and management. A recent magazine cover shouted, “No more melting pot, now a stew!”
But unlike the Jews of 175BCE, Americans are NOT a conquered people. We are a nation, united by a single constitution, and a single moral and religious foundation -- the Bible. But sadly, even the church of Jesus Christ is fragmented. Jesus said, “You will know they are Mine by the way they love each other. He prayed, “May they be one as we are one.”
Are we? Are we one?
Another similarity to the early Jewish struggle to maintain righteousness is the confusion regarding tolerance. We strain to tolerate religion, life styles, and even death. In the election of 1994, the state of Oregon voted on several life and death issues, all under the heading of tolerance:
*tolerance to grant special rights to a group who practice what the Bible calls deviant behavior.
*tolerance to allow patients to demand their doctors kill them.
* tolerance to kill our unborn babies.
Yet in the area of religion, tolerance looks a bit different.
*we prohibit Bible reading in our schools.
*we label Christians as dangerous.
*we embrace Satanic worship, New Age and religions which reject or pervert the Bible.
The secular world and even Christian circles fuel “tolerance” by liberal media tactics and lobbyists who are hired by the power structures to maintain the world’s standard of living.
Daniel Moynihan argues that society can handle only so much deviant behavior before it overloads and begins to accept the behavior as normal. Without a doubt, the media has greatly contributed to that overload. Historically, except for some of our own founding fathers, political leaders have not been forces for morality.
Is it not time for the Church to break out of its own compromising position and stand firm, as did the earlier Jewish remnant? Are we in “shape” to accept the persecution which that righteousness will surely bring?
Compromise leads to death, but unity with God brings life. Can we find it in our hearts to reject the death of man-made religions and stand on the Bible?
For the past 30 years, new generations have searched for spiritual enlightenment everywhere but the Bible. Utopia, not hell is preached. Religions of the world have replaced a personal relationship with YHWH, the God of Israel, through faith in Messiah Jesus. This, too, faced the early Jews, who watched their traditions fade into other cultural movements.
Today, as in 175 BCE, God’s truth, as revealed in the Bible, stands as the ultimate authority. It’s absolute. It is the authority over life and death, and it is manifested in Messiah Jesus. He said in the book of John, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”
SO WHAT?
We who are “born from above” by God’s grace through faith in Jesus the Messiah are being challenged by the world around us. As long as we are in society, Jesus warns us that we will have trouble and be persecuted for our faith. He asks the same of us today that He has asked of all who would follow Him throughout the ages. “Do you love Me enough to follow all My commandments?” Love of God must result in the fruit of total dedication and obedience – regardless of personal cost or circumstances.
The world hasn’t changed much since 165 BCE. Nor have the desires and pulls of our flesh. What is the first struggle between parent and child of any nationality? “No!”
Therefore, as we look at the nine-pronged candelabra of Hanukkah (Hanukkiah), let us remember that the real miracle of Hanukkah is the victory God gave to the righteous remnant who chose to depend on Him to overcome the pull and lure of the world.
The struggle is not new, but through the power of the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, we can say along with the Apostle Saul (Paul), “What a wretch I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death (and sin)? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24-25)
Amen to the grace of God that He has chosen a righteous remnant from 175BCE, and from this modern age to stand for Jesus Christ.
Are you a part of that righteousness? I hope so!
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1 Josephus’ account is filled with all the mystery, intrigue, violence and bribery of a modern day novel
Hanukkah part 2: The Story
Hanukkah part 3: The Claims of Jesus At Hanukkah (John 10:21ff)
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