Chanukah: the Rekindling of RighteousnessT
What if Chanukah is more than just candles and presents? What if it isn’t really the memorial of a miracle? What if the real Chanukah story is actually a rallying cry for the Jewish People, and a graphic exhortation to all who have dedicated their lives to serve the Messiah Yeshua?
oday, the occasional, passing homage to the real story of Chanukah is too oſten lost in the buzz of wintertime festivities. As a result, what many
do not remember about Chanukah is its unsetling, unsanitized, and all-too-important origins.
Te real story of Chanukah is a story of turmoil and upheaval for the nation of Israel. It is a story about the atempted assimilation of the Jewish People, and the anti-Semitic spirit set against them. It is a story of sin and corruption; oppression and persecution; liberty and— ultimately—victory.
Te real story of Chanukah begins approximately 200 years before Yeshua, with the latest of Israel’s foreign dictators, Antiochus Epiphanes, slaughtering many of the people of Israel, plundering the city of Jerusalem, and taking women, children, and livestock captive. He then enforced the widespread adoption of his very own one- world religion that could seal the fate not only of Israel, but of all the surrounding nations.
With so many Jews having already willingly subjected themselves to Antiochus’ rule, the next step in securing Israeli acceptance of his religion was to make the keeping of Torah and the continuation of the Temple service crimes against the state. By the abolition or abrogation of anything related to the Torah and the Temple service, everything that defined and distinguished Israel from the nations would be eliminated. Te king’s scheme was ingenious, the goal astonishingly self-evident: Cause the Jews to “forget” who they are, and one can rule the world. Jewish Voice Today 23
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