But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15
Tomorrow night at sundown Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights begins for eight days. Now you may be thinking, if it’s tomorrow night, why am I reading about it today? Because Hanukkah has a rarely told backstory that is very relevant to today and will encourage you. Hopefully you will share this amazing story of persistence, faithfulness to God and His power to intervene for those who won’t compromise and will stand on His Word.
Alexander the Great has died and four of his generals are jockeying for power to rule the territories he has left. This left Ptolemy in control of Egypt and the Land of Israel and Seleucus grabbed Syria. There was a continual fight for Israel, especially Jerusalem for the next 125 years. Finally, the Selucians won control and Antiochus III ruled. At first he left things as they were, the Jews were allowed to worship Jehovah God as they always had. But after a defeat by the Romans, Aniochus decided the region needed to be Helleneized, which meant the monotheism of the Jews had to go. But because of Jewish push back, he relented. But when his son Aniochus IV Epiphanes(God manifest) came into power everything changed.
He banned many traditional Jewish religious practices: Antiochus stole many of the sacred ceremonial pieces from the Temple. Sacrifice was forbidden, sabbaths and celebrating feasts were banned. Circumcision was outlawed, those who circumcised their babies were killed along with the rest of their families. Altars to Greek gods were set up along with animal sacrifices. The most horrendous and insulting was the idol of Olympian Zeus was placed in the front of the Temple and pigs were sacrificed to him on the altar.
Many of the Jews were seduced and assimilated into the Hellenistic culture, but finally Mattathias a Preist, was being forced to sacrifice a pig on the altar and instead he killed the Greek official. He and his five sons, literally ran for the hills and they lived there planning to fight their way back and recapture Jerusalem and cleanse the Temple. Although Mattathias died, his son Judas Maccabeeus became the leader. They continued to worship God as He had instituted and believed that He would give them the power and wisdom they needed to attack and win against the oppostion. They were right. They stood their ground and freed villages and reinstituted true worship and circumcision. Finally they relcaimed the Temple and cleansed it from the abomination that had been taking place there. But there was just one problem, there wasn’t enough Temple oil to light the Lamstand, we’ll continue that part of the story tomorrow.
It’s easy to see the parallel of the time of Daniel, the Maccabees and now. We too are living in a culture that wants to inhibit our worship of Jeshovah God. We are being persecuted for things that only a few short years ago would have been unimaginable. And just like history reminds us, some will jump ship, but God is looking for those who will deligently worship Him and trust Him to empower us to take a stand and stand along with us. The enemy is trying to make himself look more powerful than he truly is, so we will become fearful and give up. But why would we ever give up when we have the backing of Almighty God! Think about Abraham, Moses, David, Gideon, David’s Mighty Men, the disciples after the Upper Room experience, I could go on, but none backed down because they knew the power of God. Do you? If your answer is yes, keep praying, keep believing, keep standing and we will see the work of our “against all odds God!”
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