Celebrating Freedom  

   Despite all their trials... 

400 years under Egyptian rule, a 40-year exodus that could have taken weeks, good and not-so-good kings, troubles within and without, Assyrians, Babylonians, eviction by Romans in A.D. 70, the Holocaust  

...Jewish people have something to celebrate, their own 4th of July moment.

   Hanukkah (pronounced kha-nu-kah) is an eight-day remembrance of the time (about 167 B.C.) Antiochus IV surrendered his hold on the Beautiful Land and his intention to force Jews to adopt Greek culture and beliefs. Judah Maccabeus and his volunteers wore out the tyrant. He took his army back to Syria, the Seleucid Empire. 

Good riddance! 

   The fact that most of the New Testament was written in Greek is evidence of the success Antiochus IV had, while it lasted.  

   Jews recovered Jerusalem and rededicated the second temple. They had enough olive oil to light the temple menorah for a day. But the flame burned for eight days, until new oil could be ceremonially ready for use. 

   That was long ago, and the nation was again lost for a very long time. 

   From that "miracle" came the annual Festival of Lights. You've seen menorahs, with four holders on each side of the center - the shamash or "attendant." One additional lamp is lit each nightfall, the eighth being (December 5 this year). 

   Jews have menorahs in homes and synagogues. Menorahs now are seen in city halls, legislative buildings, malls and parks around the world. 

   The fact that Jewish people clung to their identity for some 2,000 years - while other dispossessed people never recovered - tells us much about God and his plans. 

   We just wonder why they don't light candles in memory of their fight for national sovereignty in 1948. Or maybe they do. 😄 One day the world will know that 1948 is far more significant, and that Messiah is the King of kings!        

            Jimmy