Hanukkah for Christians

Hanukkah

Hanukkah and the story of the Maccabees hands down an important message for Christians. It is the celebration and remembrance of the re-dedication of the Temple with miraculous oil that lit an eight-day fire which shines, even to this day, to a world that threatens to hold the God of Israel captive to pagan influences.

God’s dwelling place has always been set apart and dedicated to an unadulterated sacrifice which pleases God. God’s glory is a cloud and fire which by grace comes down from heaven to protect and comfort God’s people. In the Old Testament, the high priest (and later the king) is the intermediary whose feet are on earth and whose hands are raised into heaven. The priest is anointed with holy pure oil, as is everything in the place of worship. The whole earth is made sacred through the sacrifice of the high priest on behalf of the people and land.

Christians must “taste and see” that this history and wisdom that is communicated through the tabernacle, and the first and second temple, applies not only to the physical body of Jesus, but also to the Body of Christ which is the Church, both in the midst of her worship in the Christian temple and in her witness to the life of the world.

Tabernacle (Ex. 30:22-33; Ex. 40:34-38; Lev. 8:10-11; 9:23-24)

When God’s people were held captive to the pagan culture of Egypt, the Hebrew people revolted against the Egyptians and were delivered by God to be set apart out in the wilderness. God overshadowed His community with a cloud. He offered to them the exact specifications of His pure holy dwelling place called the tabernacle. The priests were anointed with holy oil—a recipe given by God to Moses. The anointed priests offered sacrifice, and fire came down from heaven to co-mingle with it (1 Chron. 21:26; 1 Kg. 18:38). The moment of sacrifice is a communal marriage of God with His people. Oil allows fire. And fire becomes love.

First Temple (Solomon’s—completed in 957 B.C.)

The tabernacle of the wilderness that traveled through exile becomes the Temple (the first one) in a place of promise and permanence in Jerusalem. The prophet and the priest, exhibited in the persons of Moses and Aaron, are expanded under the kingship of David. The temple is not only the House of the LORD; it is also now the house of David (1 Sam. 10:1). The lineage of inheritance becomes the divine “house.” One must be chosen and anointed to be ministers of fire in God’s dwelling place. Oil allows fire. And fire becomes love.

As in Egypt, so also in Babylon. The Babylonian exile in the 6th c. B.C. (586 B.C.) was not only the enslavement of the “house of David,” but also the defilement of God’s house (Jer. 52:17). The Temple had been dismantled. Her precious garden of worship had been stolen and destroyed. The oil of anointing was contaminated. The fire of God’s people appeared lost (2 Macc. 1:22).

Second Temple (completed in 516 B.C.)

But through God’s word in prophecy, God’s people made their way back to Zion. And visions became plans to rebuild the temple, for the oil to be purified, and for the lost fire to come down from heaven again and visit this holy vine. (2 Macc. 1:18-36.)

Maccabean Revolt and Hanukkah

God’s way is never easy. And keeping your house pure from outside alien influences is always a battle. In A.D. 175, Antichochus IV Epiphanes invades Judah and takes over the Jewish Temple (the second one). The precious holy materials inside are again plundered. He forbids circumcision. And a statue of Zeus is placed in the Holy of Holies. First the cultures of Egypt, then Babylon, and now Hellenism. Hellenism infects the people and their dwelling place.

The insult added to injury is that Antiochus’s invasion was prompted by a faction of Jews called the Tobians. There was a civil war within the ranks of Israel—between those who had adapted civil and religious life to be congruent with Hellenistic culture and those who maintained a traditional “setting apart” from mainstream culture. Among many of the Jewish youth who had grown up in the culture where public bathing was a central cultural, even daily, social event, there were many boys who had their circumcisions “reversed.” They changed the essential physical characteristic of being God’s people (circumcision) and were encouraged to eat pork in order to feel more socially normal and happy (1 Maccabees).

But the traditional Jews, the Maccabeans, revolted and reclaimed the Temple. There was only enough pure and undefiled oil to light the temple candles for one night. (It takes seven days to press and process pure olive oil—Num. 19:15) By a miracle of God, the oil lasted for eight days, and became the celebrated event of the “rededication of the Temple”—Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of light. Psalm 30 becomes a central hymn for this winter celebration which was celebrated at the time of Christ (Jn. 10:22).

Christ the Temple (John 2:19-21)

Jesus is the “anointed one” (messiah), the one chosen to be blessed with pure holy oil, the high priest, the king of kings. He is the messenger, the prophet, the WORD from heaven, delivered by God, and kept in the ark of human flesh. The physical material containment of the invisible uncontainable God is Mary, called the God-bearer (Theotokos). Her womb is the living Holy of Holies. Mary is the tree planted on the Holy mountain of God that burns with the fire of God but is not consumed. She gives birth but remains virgin. She is the human altar upon whose flesh fire comes down, like the altar fire of Nehemiah.

The incarnate Christ becomes a living tabernacle, the perfect cornerstone of the Temple. This is not the second Temple that King Herod had constructed as an appeasement to the Jews under Roman captivity. This is the “third temple” of God fashioned with human flesh burning with divine fire. The pure oil of Messiah allows the fire of the Holy Spirit. And fire becomes love.

The Church as Temple (I Cor. 6:19)

Like the tabernacle, the first Temple (Solomon’s), the second Temple (Herod’s), and the “third temple” of living flesh with Mary as the ark of the WORD, the Church is a God-bearer, a temple not made with human hands. The Church is the pure woman of Christ, the virgin, the bride, the mother at the foot of the cross. The Church is also the offspring of that marriage—little Christs called Christians. The “house of David” is fulfilled in the “house of Mary.” Jerusalem has blossomed into all of creation. The specific time and place of Pentecost has become a universal eternal experience of oil, fire, and love.

We must decide to keep our Christian temple pure and uncontaminated by social forces and secular gods. We must re-dedicate this temple, daily (Ex. 27: 20-21). We must use the pure anointing given to us by God’s grace. We must fight the good fight to be ministers aflame with fire. We who have been deadened by our culture, whose souls are in sheol, must rise in Christ. Hanukkah becomes Pascha. The winter festival has risen into spring. The oil of eight days illumines the glory of the eighth day! The destroyed temple has not only been re-dedicated, it has been resurrected in three days (Jn. 2:19-22). Only by this struggle remembered as a celebration in community through history, can we secure peace as the Light of the world that shines all the way into the eighth day. Eighth Day Institute stands in the front of that festival and procession of Light.

PSALM 30

A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David

1 I will extol Thee, O LORD; for Thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.

2 O LORD my God, I cried unto Thee, and Thou hast healed me.

3 O LORD, Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

4 Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.

5 For His anger endureth but a moment; in His favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

6 And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.

7 LORD, by Thy favor Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: Thou didst hide Thy face, and I was troubled.

8 I cried to Thee, O LORD; and unto the LORD I made supplication.

9 What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praide Thee? Shall it declare Thy truth?

10 Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me: LORD, be Thou my helper.

11 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;

12 To the end that my glory may sing praise to Thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto Thee for ever.