Shalom and Happy Hanukkah,
TODAY IS THE SIXTH DAY OF HANUKKAH WHICH IS AN EIGHT DAY JEWISH HOLIDAY.
AND THEREFORE OUR MESSAGE WILL BE ON HANUKKAH.
AND THE TITLE OF OUR MESSAGE IS, JEWISH DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD AND TORAH BROUGHT ON THE EVIL DAYS BEFORE HANUKKAH, WHILE JEWISH HEROISM BROUGHT ON THE VICTORY OF HANUKKAH.
Hanukkah in Hebrew means Dedication for The Rededication of The Second Temple to The GOD of Israel in 165 B.C.E./B.C. And the Rededication of The Second Temple was the result of the victory and heroism of The Jewish People and The Maccabees who heroically fought a guerilla war and won against a mighty Syrian army that ruled Israel with an evil anti Semitic iron fist.
And although Hanukkah is not a commanded Festival of The LORD, Hanukkah is Prophesied in The Bible which we will address in this study.
Hanukkah is celebrated by The Jewish People throughout the world as a great Festival of joy and happiness. It is a celebration of Jewish heroism, and an important time of remembrance for Jewish People and all peoples.
WHY IS HANUKKAH IMPORTANT FOR NON JEWISH PEOPLE?
Because, had the Syrians succeeded in destroying The Jewish People and Israel from off the face of the earth as so many nations have tried and failed, there would be no Christianity, no Holy Scriptures, and no Jewish People to write The New Testament.
And without The Jewish People there would be no Jewish Messiah Yeshua Whom Christianity calls Jesus Christ. Gentiles would have no means for Atonement, no Salvation, and no New Testament.
The only writings about GOD would be the fictions of man.
Without The Jewish People, and without The Bible, there would be no knowledge of GOD, no Word of GOD, no Laws, Teachings, and Instructions of GOD. No Teaching that there is Only One GOD and no others.
The only teaching of GOD that would exist would be heathen teachings of many gods.
Gentiles would not have the means to make atonement for their sins because there would be no Jesus Christ Who is Messiah Yeshua Whom GOD brought forth for the Atonement of many.
Prior to the days of Hanukkah, prior to 165 B.C./B.C.E. The Jewish People had The Temple in Jerusalem and their daily animal sacrifice to make atonement for their sins on The Temple Altar followed by Obedience to Torah, GOD’S Law, The Law of Moses.
But Gentiles outside of Israel had no possibility to make atonement for their sins. Gentiles had no opportunity for Salvation, no opportunity for Eternal Life in Heaven, but eternal death in hell if there were no Jewish People and no Bible to learn The Truth of GOD and His Spoken Word. And no Messiah Yeshua for the Atonement of their sins.
But fortunately, GOD Saved the Jewish People from destruction because GOD loves the world and ordained His Jewish People to write The Bible from Genesis through Revelation from Every Word GOD Spoke to Them during Biblical Times. To show the world that there is only One GOD and no others, and that GOD requires all mankind to Obey Him by being Obedient to His Word, His Laws, Teachings and Instructions that are Written in Torah, GOD’S Law of Moses. And to obey every Word GOD Speaks throughout The Bible.
Add to that, GOD so loved the world that He brought forth His Jewish Messiah Yeshua, Who is GOD ALMIGHTY, from The Jewish People some 165 years after Hanukkah to be The Atonement for the sins of many, if you follow what GOD Teaches in The Bible. And that is to Obey Every Word GOD Speaks in The Law of Moses, and throughout The Bible, and have Atonement for your sins in Messiah Yeshua. And know and believe GOD, and understand that there is only One GOD and no others.
Yet anti-Semitism, the hatred of Jewish People, is a cancer throughout the world even though Messiah Yeshua, Jesus Christ says, For Salvation is of The Jews. JOHN 4.22
THE WORLD SHOULD PRAISE THE LORD FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE.
THE TITLE OF OUR MESSAGE IS, JEWISH DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD AND TORAH BROUGHT ON THE EVIL DAYS BEFORE HANUKKAH, WHILE JEWISH HEROISM BROUGHT ON THE VICTORY OF HANUKKAH.
Jewish disobedience to GOD and Torah, The Law of Moses, that brought on the evil days before Hanukkah is foreign to Jewish ears, but we will explain that from Scripture in this Message.
Hanukkah took place when The Jewish People Rededicated The Second Temple in Jerusalem on the 25th day of The Hebrew Month Kislev in 165 B.C.E./B.C. 2,184 years ago.
The Temple was Rededicated to THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL on the first day of Hanukkah because the madman King of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanes , the Jew hater who ruled Israel at the time, polluted The Temple of GOD turning it into a pagan shrine with Greek gods, and Greek goddesses, and Greek idols, and pig sacrifices on The Temple Altar.
The Rededication of The Temple took place immediately after The Maccabees defeated a very powerful Syrian Army.
The Jewish People took back their Temple and their Country, and they kicked the Syrian King, Antiochus Epiphanes and his armies out of Their Land, The Land of Israel.
The Jewish fighters were led by The Maccabees who were a Priestly Dynasty of Levites of The Hasmonean family.
As a point of information, the Hasmonean Period in Jewish history began with The Jewish rebellion against the anti-Jewish atrocities of Antiochus Epiphanes that brought on Israel’s great Hanukkah victory.
And it was also the emergence of the three main Jewish Sects of the day. The Pharisees, The Sadducees, and The Essenes.
The Pharisees accepted The Talmud, called the Oral Law, that is a collection of Rabbinic teachings. They maintained the belief in the immortality of the soul. and they taught the resurrection of the dead, the existence of angels, and Divine Providence, GOD’S Care and Guidance over all His Creatures. And they believed in freedom of will and not predestination.
The Sadducees were a Priestly aristocracy who refused to believe in angels, in resurrection, and immortality of the soul. And did not accept the concept of a binding Talmud, The Oral Law, but adhered only to those Laws Written in Torah, The Law of Moses.
Torah, The Law of Moses, contains GOD’S Laws, Teachings, and Instructions.
Talmud is the collection of the teachings of the major Jewish scholars between 200 and 500 C.E./A.D.
The Essenes were a Jewish Religious group that flourished in Israel from the mid second century B.C.E./B.C. to the destruction of The Second Temple in 70 C.E./A.D. Most scholars believe that The Dead Sea Scrolls that are pre Christian were written by The Essenes. The Essenes held eschatological beliefs, the doctrine concerning the fate of human beings after death, and the end of human history. They believed in predestination, The Community of The Elect for Salvation, and the children of darkness for destruction.
The term Maccabee is taken from The Hebrew Mah’kah’vah meaning Hammer, or Mah’kah’veem meaning Hammers.
So this mental case Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian King, set out to destroy The Jews and end Judaism. Something the Palestinians dream about, along with others who had and have the same dream.
Among his insane edicts, Antiochus ordered the end of all Torah Observance for Jewish People. Thus if he succeeded in abolishing Torah, The Law of Moses, The Jewish People would become like the nations, godless and lawless without Torah, GOD’S Laws, Teachings, and Instructions in the sight of GOD Who separated The Jewish People from the nations to be Holy to Him.
LEVITICUS 20.26, NUMBERS 23.9, DEUTERONOMY 33.28
The reason Hanukkah is an eight day Holiday is because when The Jewish People Rededicated The Temple to The LORD, the pure Holy Oil they found in The Temple that was used for the burning of the great Seven Branch Temple Menorah was only sufficient to burn for one day. But miraculously the oil burned for eight days until more oil was provided for The Menorah to burn continuously.
Today The Hanukkah Menorah is called in Hebrew, The Hanukkiyah. It has nine branches as compared to The Menorah’s seven branches, the design that GOD showed Moses on Mount Sinai. EXODUS 25.8-9
The nine branches of The Hanukkah Hanukkiyah are for each day of the eight day Hanukkah Celebration. And the middle candle called The Shammash, meaning Servant, is used to light the candles starting with one candle on the first day and adding a candle each day for eight days.
Let’s look at The Biblical Prophesy of Hanukkah that GOD gave to The Prophet Daniel some 370 years before Hanukkah that is Written in Daniel 8. So let’s take it Verse upon Verse.
DANIEL 8.1 King Belshazzar was the last King of the Babylonian Empire. He was the King who became famous for the handwriting on the wall in DANIEL 5.5, 24-31.
Belshazzar’s Empire consisted of current day Iraq, Syria, part of Turkey, much of Iran, Lebanon, Israel, and the northern portion of Saudi Arabia.
And GOD gave Daniel a Prophetic vision. And The Vision Prophesies the events leading up to Hanukkah.
DANIEL 8.2-8 The ram is explained later in the Prophesy as being symbolic of The Great Persian Empire of 2,500 years ago.
The two horns of the ram are symbolic of the two Kings of Persia and Media. Today’s Iran is the combination of those two ancient countries.
The Persian Empire was huge. The entire Middle East from Ethiopia to India that included Israel.
And the one horn higher than the other is symbolic of Cyrus the Great, the founder of The Persian Empire.
The ram, or The Persian Empire was so powerful, no army could stand against it.
But appearing on the scene is Greece, the male goat in The Prophesy. The notable horn, or great horn, is symbolic of The King of Greece, Alexander The Great.
And the Greek armies led by their twenty year old King Alexander The Great destroyed The Persian Empire.
GOD gave this Prophesy to Daniel some 200 years before Alexander was born.
GOD rules in the Kingdom of men, and He will give it to whomsoever He will; good or bad, weak or strong, base or elite.
DANIEL 4.17, DANIEL 5.21
Greece then became a great Empire spanning three continents. Asia, that included the entire Middle East to India, that included Israel, and Africa, and Europe. But the great horn that was broken was its King, Alexander The Great. He died at the age of 33.
The four notable horns that replaced Alexander The Great were four of his Generals who ruled The Empire. And one of those Generals was Seleucus who ruled Syria and Babylon, which is current day Iraq, and Phoenicia that is current day Lebanon, and Israel.
Toward the four winds of Heaven perhaps means that GOD gave those four Generals the power to be the most powerful kingdoms on earth in its day.
DANIEL 8.9-10 The little horn that descended from the Syrian General Seleucus of Syria years later was Antiochus Epiphanes, the Jew hating King of Syria who brought on Hanukkah. He was a madman who persecuted and killed Jews, desecrated The Temple in Jerusalem with idols of Greek gods and Greek goddesses. And he hated GOD, and GOD’S Torah, The Law of Moses.
When a person does not obey Torah, GOD’S Laws Written in The Law of Moses in the first five Books of The Bible, that person, in The Eyes of GOD, hates GOD. DEUTERONOMY 7.9-11
Antiochus Epiphanes hated GOD. And that is a picture of the future anti Christ.
Teaching that The Law of Moses is abolished is hating GOD. But Repentance is taught by GOD in EZEKIEL 18.21
The Pleasant Land is Israel. And The Pleasant Land Israel has been conquered numerous times by Gentile nations.
First Assyria conquered northern Israel in 722 B.C.E./B.C. Then the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and southern Israel in 586 B.C.E. Then the Persians, the Greeks, an the Syrians under Seleucus. Then the Romans, followed by the Byzantine Empire, the eastern part of the late, great Roman Empire. Then the Muslim Arabs is 600 C.E./A.D. Then the Turks, the Egyptians, and then the Crusaders who slaughtered thousands of Jews and Muslims and outlawed Jews from living in Jerusalem.
Then the Muslims again under Saladin conquered Jerusalem. Yet the Crusaders kept up their raids of death in Israel. Then the Mamlukes, soldier slaves of Egypt. Then the Ottoman Empire in 1517.
Even Napolean took his shot at Israel in 1799. And he had some victories in Gaza, Haifa, Hebron, and Jaffa. But by June in 1799, GOD laid upon Napolean and his French army a plague that decimated them. And they left Israel and returned to Egypt.
From 70 C.E./A.D. the year the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and The Temple to the end of The Second World War in 1945, most Jewish People were in exile throughout the world. And just a small population of Jewish People remained in Israel during the conquerings of The Land.
DANIEL 8.11 Antiochus the madman magnified himself against The Prince of The Host, The Mighty GOD, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace Who is The Messiah Yeshua, The Prince of The Host, The Jewish People.
Hebrew Bible ISAIAH 9.5, Christian Bible ISAIAH 9.6
And Antiochus Epiphanes called himself GOD, saying he is GOD manifested.
AND ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES ENDED THE SACRIFICE AT THE TEMPLE.
And the place of Antiochus Epiphanes’ sanctuary was The Temple of GOD. But GOD would throw down the madman’s sanctuary, The Temple, because Antiochus hated GOD, hated The Jews, and polluted The Temple with his idols and pig sacrifices.
The anti Christ will be the same kind of person as the madman from Syria. And he will have the same ending. Death by The Hand of GOD.
DANIEL 8.12 THIS IS SOMETHING THAT IS NOT WIDELY KNOWN AMONG JEWISH PEOPLE. IT IS WRITTEN BY THE PROPHET DANIEL IN DANIEL 8.12 THAT JEWISH DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD, WHICH IS DISOBEDIENCE TO TORAH, GOD’S LAWS WRITTEN IN THE LAW OF MOSES, BROUGHT ON THE EVIL TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE THAT LED TO HANUKKAH.
DANIEL 8.12 READS IN THE STONE EDITION TANACH; A SET TIME WILL BE ALLOTTED FOR (THE DISCONTINUATION OF) THE DAILY OFFERING BECAUSE OF SIN. IT WILL THROW TRUTH TO THE GROUND, AND IT WILL ACHIEVE AND PROSPER.
That is to say, GOD assigned a time for The Daily Sacrifice at The Temple to be discontinued because of sin, Jewish sin to The LORD Their GOD by disobeying GOD’S Laws, Teachings and Instructions Written in Torah.
And the madman Antiochus Epiphanes was the Judgment GOD used on The Jewish People to persecute and kill Jews, and throw The Truth to the ground because of their sin against The LORD Their GOD. The Truth is Torah. And it will succeed. That is, the madman Antiochus would succeed, and he did just that.
LET’S LOOK AT DEUTERONOMY 28.15 IN TORAH. BUT IT SHALL COME TO PASS IF YOU WILL NOT OBEY THE VOICE OF THE LORD YOUR GOD TO OBSERVE AND DO ALL HIS COMMANDMENTS AND HIS STATUTES WHICH I COMMAND YOU THIS DAY, THAT ALL THESE CURSES SHALL COME UPON YOU AND OVERTAKE YOU.
THE NEXT 52 VERSES DESCRIBE GOD’S CURSES FOR DISOBEYING TORAH, THE LAW OF MOSES.
THESE WORDS OF GOD SPOKEN BY HIS PROPHET MOSES APPLY TO ALL THE WORLD.
DANIEL 8.13-27 Then Daniel heard an Angel, A Holy One, speaking to another in the vision. How long will there be no sacrifice? How long will The Temple be desecrated? How long will the Jewish People be persecuted and killed?
And he answered, for six and one half years. Then The Sanctuary will be cleansed and purified, and made right. And (Syrian) rule upon Israel will come to an end and the persecution and killing of the Jewish People will stop.
And the angel explained why all the trouble, death, and killing of Jewish People. Because of Jewish sin, Jewish disobedience to GOD. Jewish disobedience to Torah, GOD’S Law of Moses.
IN VERSES 23-25 AND THE ANGEL TOLD DANIEL, AT THE LATTER TIME OF THEIR KINGDOM WHEN THE TRANSGRESSORS HAVE COME TO THE FULL, THAT IS TO SAY, WHEN THE SIN OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE IS COMPLETE, A KING OF FIERCE COUNTENANCE, AND UNDERSTANDING DARK SENTENCES SHALL STAND UP. THAT KING WAS ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES THE JEW HATER.
AND HIS POWER SHALL BE MIGHTY, BUT NOT BY HIS OWN POWER. HIS POWER CAME FROM GOD THAT WAS GOD’S JUDGMENT UPON HIS JEWISH PEOPLE FOR THEIR SINS AGAINST HIM BY DISOBEYING TORAH, GOD’S LAWS, TEACHINGS AND INSTRUCTIONS THAT ARE WRITTEN IN THE FIRST FIVE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE.
AND THE MADMAN SHALL DESTROY WONDERFULLY, AND SHALL PROSPER, AND PRACTICE, AND DESTROY THE MIGHTY AND THE HOLY PEOPLE, THE JEWISH PEOPLE.
AND HE WILL SUCCEED AND DESTROY MANY PEOPLE. HE SHALL ALSO STAND AGAINST THE PRINCE OF PRINCES WHO IS THE JEWISH MESSIAH YESHUA, GOD ALMIGHTY. BUT ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES WILL BE BROKEN WITHOUT HAND. GOD WILL KILL HIM. AND GOD DID KILL ANTIOCHUS BY SICKNESS A YEAR AFTER HANUKKAH.
AND BECAUSE OF JEWISH HEROISM, HANUKKAH HAPPENED. THE JEWISH PEOPLE DROVE THE SYRIANS OUT OF ISRAEL AND REDEDICATED THEIR TEMPLE TO THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL.
HANUKKAH IS NOT ONLY A GREAT CELEBRATION FOR JEWISH PEOPLE, BUT HANUKKAH IS A LESSON OF CRUCIAL IMPORTANCE FOR JEWISH PEOPLE AND ALL THE WORLD TO OBEY GOD. TO OBEY GOD IS TO LIVE YOUR LIFE IN OBEDIENCE TO TORAH, GOD’S LAW OF MOSES, THE FIRST FIVE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE, AND HAVE ATONEMENT FOR YOUR SINS THROUGH FAITH IN THE JEWISH MESSIAH YESHUA WHO IS GOD ALMIGHTY. BECAUSE GOD BLESSES THOSE WHO OBEY HIM, AND CURSES THOSE WHO DISOBEY HIM.
READ DEUTERONOMY 28 AND ROMANS 3.29
Shalom,
Ira Weinstein
www.bethelohenu.org
bethelohenu@gmail.com