HANUKAH - Dedication
The word HANUKAH, which means dedication, celebrates a great Miracle that God performed among his people.
In the days that marked the rise of this festival, the Temple and the Walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt again, but the people were dominated at this time by people of Greek origin, and by a Monarch named Antiochus Epiphanes, one of the men, more merciless and evil that ever lived, prefigures the Antichrist, who will still reign over the nations of the earth, and will rise up against God and his people.
With a terrible persecution, against the people of God, in order to exterminate them, this man, forbade the Worship of Our God, forbade the circumcision of boys, symbol of Covenant with the Lord, forced the Jews to sacrifice animals, to idols, and himself, placed a statue of his Greek god called "Zeus", inside the Holy of Holies, in the Temple of the Lord, and there he sacrificed pigs (an animal considered unclean by the Word of God), to mock the Lord and of your people. Not satisfied, he smeared pig feces on the walls of the Temple, doing what was prophesied by Daniel as the "DESOLAR ABOMINATION". A man descended from the priests of the House of Aaron, called Judah Maccabeus, (son of Mattathias, who had started a revolt one day when he saw another Jew go up to sacrifice to the gods of the Greeks, without offering any resistance and so he was taken by wrath, and slew the Jew and the Greek, and rallied an army, to fight against the oppressors), he led the people in retaking Jerusalem, and the Hand of God was with him.
Before long, this uprising was successful, and they repossessed the Temple of the Lord and the city of Jerusalem. Upon entering the Temple and contemplating that desolation, they were all motivated to clean and purify the House of God, and to restore the Worship and Worship to the Lord.
When it was about to get dark, they searched all over The Temple for the oil that was used to light A MENORAH, The Candlestick with Seven Arms, and realized that there was oil only for that night. This oil to be produced, according to the Lord's command, by the priests, took 7 days, and then they had to choose: The Light of the House of God, will be extinguished for a few more days, or "NO MATTER, GOD MUST BE WORSHIPED TODAY , AND THE LIGHT OF THE HOUSE OF GOD SHOULD BE TURNED ON TODAY".
They opted not for logic but for the love of the Lord and the desire to worship the God who had given them such a great victory over their enemies. They then lit O MENORAH, and immediately began to produce more olive oil for lighting.
In the morning of the next day when the Light should be going out, they realized that the flame was still very much alive and they thought that maybe there was more oil than they imagined, but when the Light stayed until night, they were sure that a Miracle, was if manifesting there before your eyes. The Light remained on for the seven days, and on the day when more oil had already been produced and sanctified, the Light began to descend until it went out.
The willingness to "DEDICATE" (HANUKAH), or in the case to Rededicate, the House to the Lord, was rewarded by God Himself, with a tremendous Miracle.
This story is told in the Book of Maccabees, an Apocryphal, historical Book, which, because it was written and lived in the inter-testamental period, when there was no prophet in Israel, is not included in our Bible, but every year thereafter On that date, the people gathered and gathers to celebrate the "Feast of Lights", or the "Feast of Dedication", because "A GREAT MIRACLE HAPPENED THERE". This phrase in Hebrew is: "NES GADOL HAYAH SHAM", and a play with a kind of top, helps to teach the children what God accomplished in those days in Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus himself sanctifies this Feast, participating in it: "The Feast of Dedication was celebrated in Jerusalem.
"It was winter. Jesus was walking in the temple, in the Portico of Solomon." (John 10:22-23)
A candelabra with Nine arms is the symbol of the Party, with one of the arms called SHAMASH "Servant" being distinguished from the others, as it is from this flame that all the others are lit. Of course, Jesus is identified in this picture, for He is the Servant of God, who IS the Light, who illuminates our lives. The Light that is in us comes from Him. He enlightened us. He alone has eyes like flames of Fire.
In this Feast we light the lights that represent each of the days that God kept the fire lit by Miracle until the oil was produced. Today we Re-dedicate to each light that is lit, one of the areas of our lives. We ate foods made with oil, and a delicious sweet is eaten on this day: O Sonho, a food of Jewish origin.
As John's own text declares, this Feast takes place in winter, more precisely in the month of December, close to the Christmas Celebration. We clearly know that Jesus was not born in winter, because at his birth there were shepherds in the field with the sheep, a scene impossible to be seen in Israel's harsh winter.
Rather, Jesus would have been born on the Feast of Tabernacles, which takes place exactly nine months after the Feast of Hanukah. There is an understanding that it was exactly in these days that the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary announcing the Birth of Jesus to her.
"Behold, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, whom thou shalt call by the name of Jesus.
This one will be great and will be called Son of the Most High; God the Lord will give him the throne of David his father;
He will reign forever over the house of Jacob, and his kingdom will never end "(Luke 1: 31-33).