"Hanukkah - Part 1"

by James Jacob Prasch

How does the celebration of Hanukkah, a festival NOT found in the Old Testament, provide greater insight into biblical themes such as the Messiah? How is Hanukkah handled in the New Testament?

  1. Introduction
  2. The Traditional Aspect
  3. The Historical Aspect
  4. Similarities to Today
  5. The Use of Culture and Religion
  6. The End Result of Compromise
  7. The Maccabees
  8. The Defiling of the Temple
  9. Keeping the World Out of the Gospel
  10. Small Groups

Go to "Hanukkah - Part 2".

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Small Groups

Now, that was the background. That’s what happened then, and that’s what’s happening now. So we have the traditional and we have the historical, then we have the eschatological.

In the Last Days it’ll be the same thing, a small group of people will arise like the Maccabees. Those that have insight will give understanding to the others and God begins to build an army that will withstand this landslide. Many will join in hypocrisy, there will be treason within the ranks, but in the end they win. In the end, the Maccabees won. It was prophesied by Daniel.

Well, I can tell you this: A lot of bad things are going to happen. These two beasts are going to come, but I read the end of the book – in the end we win. What is going to happen is what did happen.

The Maccabees, Jesus, King David – all had the same strategy. Things got really bad under King Saul, things got really bad under the Seleucids, things got really bad under the Sanhedrin and the Romans (Herodians). Whenever things get really bad, God begins raising up something new based on small groups.

This becomes Hanukkah -- the Hebrew feast of light and miracles, what we call in Hebrew, “Nesim v’ niflaot”.

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Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.