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WITHOUT HANNUKAH,
THERE COULD BE NO CHRISTMAS
By Messianic Rabbi Ed Rothman
The Time: 168 BCE. The
Place: Mohdeen, a village several miles northwest of Jerusalem.
The People: Mattathias, a Hasmonean priest who served in
the Temple & Apelles, a Royal officer with soldiers sent from
Anitochus Epiphanes. The Situation: Antiochus (Opposer, withstander) Epiphanes (G-d manifest),
a vile ungodly, power hungry descendent of Seleucid. He ruled the
portion of the empire conquered by Alexander the Great that included
the area from Syria to the Mediterranean Sea. He was a type of the
false Messiah spoken of in the books of Daniel & Matthew.
The Jewish people have always been different from all the other
peoples of the earth. Exodus 19:5 says, "If you will obey My
voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar
treasure unto Me from all other people: for all the earth is mine."
The Torah, the Sabbath, their language, customs and dress have kept
them separate from the other nations for several thousand years.
Antiochus commanded that all the peoples under his authority become
Hellenized (Greek in speech, customs, religion & thought). He
believed that this would consolidate his control over everyone in
his kingdom, but underestimated the unwillingness of the children
of Israel to serve the false gods of their oppressors.
Antiochus was a man on a mission. He was obsessed with wiping out
anything that stood in his way of total cultural domination. He
forbid any Jew to worship the G-d of Israel by observing the Sabbath,
keeping kosher or circumcising their sons. He forced Jewish brides
to spend their wedding night with one of his officers, thus defiling
them, intending to eventually erase our identity as a unique people.
He sent his soldiers all over Israel to enforce these malicious
edicts.
Throughout the land of Israel, many Jews relented, for fear of
dying a gruesome death. But when the troops came to Mohdeen, they
met their match in Mattathias and his sons. Apelles, the royal officers,
sent by Antiochus, ordered Mattathias to sacrifice a pig to Zeus
(chief of the Greek gods), eat its meat and repudiate his faith
in the L-RD G-d of Israel. He rose up and killed the soldier for
ordering to commit blasphemy. Immediately his sons joined him and
slew the other soldiers. They fled to the hills of Judea and started
a revolutionary war for independence from the despot, Antiochus.
Through G-d's supernatural intervention, this small band of guerilla
warriors fought bravely for 3 years and overthrew the numerically
superior Seleucidian forces. Mattathias' son, Judas the Maccabee
(the Hammerer), led the revolt and succeeded in throwing off the
tyrannical hold of Antiochus. Some scholars believe that G-d spoke
of this great victory in prophecy (Zechariah 9:8-17), to give them
hope to fight until the battle was won.
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