IT TAKES A HAMMER TO DRIVE A NAIL

Judas Maccabeus - A.K.A. The Hammer

“The sages decreed on the 8 day festival…because they realized that the miracle of the lights would shine forever with a message of hope, because it was part of the light that would glow with the coming of the Messiah.”

IF NOT FOR THE MACCABEES . . . 

Could The Maccabees, and the true historical story of Hanukkah, have set the stage for the coming of Yeshua?

The Maccabees story is the incredible story of Israel's independence approximately 2,200 years ago. 

Nes Gadol Haya Sham - A Great Miracle Happened There.

Dreidel/Sevivon with letters
Nun, Gimel, Hei and Shin 

The Maccabeus family, called "The Maccabees) and their followers fought amazing battles in order to expel pagan rituals, Hellenism, defeat the Seleucid Empire and eventually drive the "Abomination of desolation" (an altar to Zeus) out of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in 167 B.C.

After the Maccabees restored the Holy Temple and the story we know today as Hanukkah, the historical events continued and the Maccabees continued to fight on. 

Here is a video which tells the history of that period from a military perspective.

https://youtu.be/TaanPpi8LK0

In 161 BCE, according to 1 Maccabees 8:17–20 and Josephus, Judas Maccabeus made a treaty agreement with The Roman Republic, which wasn't even an Empire yet, to help protect Judaea from the Seleucids.  It was the first recorded contract between the Jewish people and the Romans. It essentially invited the Romans to Jerusalem. 

The Hasmoneans were direct descendants of the Maccabees. Their rule began the Hasmonean dynasty of ancient Judaea. This was the last time when Israel was an independent kingdom.

The Hasmonean dynasty ruled Judea and surrounding regions from 140 - 37 B.C. Judea gained further autonomy and expanded into the neighboring regions of Samaria, Galilee, Iturea, Perea, and Idumea. 

The Hasmonean dynasty was replaced by the Herodian period. In 40 B.C. Herod, who was a friend of the Roman leaders, was appointed “client” king of Judaea by the Roman Senate 

Herod was of Edomite descent. That would make him a descendant of Jacob's brother Esau. The physical description of Esau, as blood red (adom) and covered in hair (se’ar) foreshadows his future as the founder of the Edomites who live near Mount Seir.

"Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, with his livestock, all his animals, and all his possessions, which he had gathered in the land of Canaan, and went into a land away from his brother Jacob." Genesis 36:6-7

In the Bible, Esau is the ancestor of the Edomites who live on Mount Seir, southwest of Judah. The rabbis come to associate Esau and Edom with Rome and Christianity.

Herod was an Edomite and although of Jewish faith, he was allied through his mother with wealthy Arabs across the Jordan River. During Herod's reign Jerusalem became a great metropolis of the Hellenistic Age during which Jerusalem was ruled by a series of Roman procurators including Pontius Pilate.  Paganism and corruption returned. 

"Herod the Great" was also known as a "madman." Jews who also hated Roman oppression were looking for the Messiah to come riding in on a colt, the foal of a donkey as prophesied.  Isaiah 53 rings to mind for Jews at the time.

The stage was set and Herod knew it. Try as Herod did to find and kill the prophesied baby Messiah, he could not. How did he know to expect him?  Magi (wise men) from the same court as the Prophet Daniel tipped him off.

The Maccabees changes the world.  Lord Rabbi Sacks z"l tells how. The Maccabees set off a series of events that lead to Roman domination and the crucifixion of the Nazareen Yeshua. While Jews celebrate the "Miracle of the Oil," Christians celebrate Christmas, but it was the Maccabees who set the stage for both.  

When you read the Books of Maccabees (1 and 2) you see strong shadows of the Resurrection and the martyrdom of the Disciples. Those aspects are left out of the Hanukkah story as it was written hundreds of years after the Books of Maccabees and told by rabbis to this day. Perhaps that made the Pharisees uncomfortable, I don't know. But it is easy to lose sight of the actual historical story of Hanukkah and how closely events in Judaism and Christianity are related. 

Judas Maccabeus is known as "the Hammer" because Maccabee means "hammer." He was a fierce warrior for justice.  He brought the hammer down on the Seleucids and Hellenized Jews as well.

The Maccabees brought in the Romans and their method of capital punishment know as crucifixion which nailed a person to a cross and raised them up. For Christians, seeing Jesus up on a wood pole is a reminder of when God told Moses to wrap a bronze serpent on a pole. 

Numbers 21:6-8

The Lord sent against the people the venomous snakes, and they bit the people, and many people of Israel died.

The people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that He remove the snakes from us." So Moses prayed on behalf of the people.

The Lord said to Moses, "Make yourself a serpent and put it on a pole, and let whoever is bitten look at it and live." 

Moses made a copper snake and put it on a pole, and whenever a snake bit a man, he would gaze upon the copper snake and live.

Both Hanukkah and Christmas fall on the the 25th, just on different calendars.  You might say it takes a Hammer to drive a nail.  

One day maybe we can come back together?  Surely this is possible with the Messiah.

P.S. Remember the 13th of Adar and Mordechai day. 

🙏