Miracles of the Season

Hanukkah begins in the evening of December 7. In light of this festival, I invite you to ponder two miracles celebrated in this season: the miracle that led to the celebration of Hanukkah and the miracle of the birth of the “Light of the world” – Jesus.

The word Hanukkah in Hebrew means “dedication”; that’s why it’s called the Feast of Dedication. This is the time of year when my Jewish people will celebrate and recount the story of Hanukkah by saying, “Nes Gadol Haya Sham,” which means “a great miracle happened there” in Hebrew. A great miracle happened there — there in the land of Israel.

“What is the Feast of Dedication?” you might wonder. Now, the feast of Dedication commemorates a legendary miracle and the heroic freedom fighters of Jewish folklore.

Traditionally Hanukkah is celebrated for 8 days. In the 1930s we as a Jewish people began the tradition of giving each other gifts on each night. Why the 1930s? Well, you see that was the time when the celebration of Christmas started becoming more commercialized. In North America especially, Hanukkah gained increased importance with many Jewish families, especially among secular Jewish people, who wanted a Jewish alternative to the Christmas celebrations that often overlap with Hanukkah. During Hanukkah, it’s tradition to chant Hanukkah prayers as we light the candles on the Menorah during each of the 8 nights of Hanukkah.

The Historical Background: From 175-168 B.C. Jewish people in Judea were being persecuted by the Syrian/Greek Emperor Antiochus IV, who was part of what was known as the Seleucid Dynasty.

• Antiochus plundered the Temple, and murdered the priests. He was not exactly a nice guy—-he actually took the name “Epiphanies “meaning” the manifest god. In response, the Jewish people called him “epimanes”- meaning the mad man. 
• Antiochus campaigned for the honor and worship of himself as god, and amazingly this was foretold centuries earlier by the Jewish prophet Daniel in Daniel 11:31, 36.

On the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev, 168 BC, Antiochus sacrificed a pig on the Temple altar in the Holy of Holies, thereby “desecrating the Temple,” and also erected a huge statue of himself in the Temple and demanded that the Jewish people worship Him. 

What resulted was the revolt of the Jewish Priests, called Hassidim, and freedom fighters, better known as the Maccabees, all who refused to bow the knee to Antiochus. This group of Jewish freedom fighters fled Jerusalem to plot their response. The Maccabees are a great example of not compromising one’s faith, even amidst pressure and persecution to bow the knee!

On the 25th of Kislev, exactly three years after the desecration of the Temple, in 165 BC, Judah Maccabee, the third son of Mattathias, along with 3,000 freedom fighters, called the “Maccabees”, defeated Antiochus’ army of 47,000 soldiers, and retook Jerusalem. And on the 25th Kislev, 165 BC, as the Jewish people celebrated their victory, the Temple was cleansed and rededicated. Hence the name Hanukkah, or in English: dedication!

So far, so good. Historically, we know the victory and the rededication of the Temple are true. But what about the miracle of the light? And why is Hanukkah also sometimes referred to as “The Festival of Lights?” The legendary miracle of light is found in Rabbinic writings, but in no other sources. The Temple menorah, with seven branches, was lit continuously. It could never go out. In fact in synagogues today, there is a light called the Ner Tamid or Eternal Flame that never goes out.

Legend has it that as the Temple was cleansed, and the menorah was to be lit once again, there was only enough oil to last one day. Yet, miraculously, the menorah remained lit for eight days, enough time for the priests to press the olives to make the oil for the menorah to stay ablaze continuously. And so we say in Hebrew – Nes Gadol Haya Sham – which means “a great miracle happened there.”

Now let’s focus on another miracle of light – the miracle of the birth of the Light of the world, Jesus! 

Jesus often ministered during Jewish Feasts. In John 2 Jesus cleanses the Temple of the moneychangers and merchants during Passover. In John 7-8 we find Jesus ministering during the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. And, in John 10:22-33, we see Jesus testifying that He is Messiah and God during Hanukkah. (In John 10:22, note that the “Feast of Dedication” is Hanukkah.)

If you remember, the Lord had been testifying about Himself earlier in the gospel of John. In John 4, when Jesus was speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, he proclaimed He was Messiah. The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He” (John 4:25-26).

In John 8:12 Jesus declared, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

And in John 8:58, Jesus after stunningly declared His deity, “Before Abraham was, I AM” – the Jewish audience tried to stone him then, as they clearly understood His words. 

Why? Remember when the Lord sends Moses to the Israelites to be their deliverer, the Lord instructs Moses, “Tell them I AM sent you!” Here in John 8 Jesus couldn’t have been clearer, but they wouldn’t believe.

You see, many Jewish people in the First Century held the expectation that Messiah would be a military leader, overcoming the Roman yoke. But Jesus didn’t fit the bill, as he came to deliver people not out of political bondage, but rather spiritual bondage (see Isaiah 53:4-6).

In John 10:25-33, the people will respond to Jesus’ testimony by trying to stone Him (John 10:31).

Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God” (John 10:32-33).

Why did they respond that way? Well, perhaps because Jesus made the same claim as that mad man Antiochus had on that Hanukkah 200 years earlier. And even though it was 200 years earlier, it would have been a story handed down from generation to generation, the story of a man who stood in the same place as Jesus, claiming to be God.

The difference here is that Jesus is God, as He not only declared, but clearly demonstrated through His signs, wonders, and miracles!

Nes Gadol Haya Sham: A Great Miracle Happened There.

“In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us . And we beheld His Glory, as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14).

As followers of Jesus, we His children can also say today, Nes Gadol Haya Po – meaning “A Great Miracle Happened Here” — here in our hearts. For when we trust in Him He dwells in us through the person of the Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKadosh!

Jesus is the Light of the world, and His light is the glory of the Father shining in us and through us. As He instructs us in Matthew 5:16: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

As we remember and rejoice in the Lord during this advent season, may we take advantage of opportunities to give testimony of the miracles of the incarnation and the new birth, dedicating ourselves to the Lord! Amen!

“Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life” (Philippians 2:14-16).