CHANUKAH - Festival of Dedication

It is Israel's festival of celebrating the deliverance from all our enemies starting from the ancient Egypt, Babylon, Haman, Antiochus the Fourth.  In modern Jewish concept it is also all the other enemies - those of the Inquisition, the Holocaust etc. 

We remember that in a the small town of Modi'in, a godly priest named Mattatias and his five sons resisted the Mad Antiochus IV and eliminated his soldiers.  One of his sons called Judah, nicknamed Maccabees (or hammer) was the hero of the group, and led the whole country with few resources, few weapons, fighting a strong army with soldiers, and chariots, and horses and elephants etc. 

Maccabees also recaptured the temple, cleansed it, and re-dedicated it to the Lord God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Then they celebrated with the Inauguration of the first Festival of Chanukkah in 160 BCE.  The tyrant only ruled for three and a half years. As we light the Chanukiah may we be reminded of the Messiah Yeshua, He is the Light of World, the Conqueror of all Darkness.