The Significance of Hanukkah in Prophecy
The prophetic significance of
the Hanukkah festival is most clearly seen in its negative aspect, that is,
pointing to an event when the rebuilt Jerusalem Temple will be defiled. This
future defilement will be so severe that it we have no record that the Temple
survived it. Jesus speaks of it as a punctuation mark in a future period of
turmoil and trouble for the Jewish nation. This very important but highly
emotive piece of information was delivered when He was nearing the time of His
death. During those last days He often spoke about future events. So when He
left the Temple for the last time as a free man and walked towards Bethany,
Jesus paused on the slope of the Mount of Olives at a place that overlooked the
Temple buildings—He had more information to impart!
Their location and the comments of the
disciples provided the perfect opportunity for what we now call ‘the Olivet
discourse’. The location, because they were overlooking the Temple and had
a direct line of sight to the entrance of the Holy Place, and beyond that to
the giant veil which would be breached at the time of the crucifixion; and the
comments of the disciples, because they were lost in admiration for the Temple
complex. Jesus used the occasion to warn them that the rejection of His
Messianic claim by the nation’s leaders would lead to difficult times when the
Temple would be destroyed. That would be in the then near future, but He also
had advice for a generation of Jews in a more distant future:
“… when you see the ‘abomination of
desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place”
(whoever reads, let him understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee …
For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the
beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those
days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those
days will be shortened”
(Matt. 24:15–22).
Here He refers to the section of
Daniel’s prophecy that is illuminated by the event that gave rise to the
Hanukkah Festival. He spoke of a time yet to come when there will be a period
of great tribulation for the Jewish nation which will far exceed the
persecution under Antiochus. It will be similar in character to the atrocities
committed by the Syrian tyrant but in quality and quantity far worse. This
future persecution of the Hebrew people will go far beyond the ambition to make
them conform to the culture of the world; its aim will be to exterminate them.
Set in a large, world-wide context, the background to these troubles will be
the war in heaven between the archangel Michael (and the forces for good) and
Satan (with his fallen angels). That war will end with defeat for Satan, who
will be cast down to the earth. The Scripture reference is:
“And war broke out in heaven:
Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels
fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any
longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that
serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole
world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him”
(Rev. 12:7–9).
This is another step in Satan being
‘the cast-down one’. He had been cast
down before; Jesus spoke of his first
fall from grace, which occurred before the
foundation of the world; “I saw Satan fall like lightning
from heaven” (Luke 10:18). This seems to be the event that Isaiah
described?
“How you are fallen from heaven, O
Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!
“For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven, I will
exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the
congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the
heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’
“Yet you shall be brought down to
Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit” (Isaiah 14:12–15).
Satan said, “I
will ascend” but God has said, “you shall be brought down”.
His fall is yet to include the bottomless pit (Rev. 20:2, 3), and the lake of
fire (Rev. 20:10).
During the tribulation period, Satan
being cast down to earth is bad news:
“Woe to the inhabitants of the earth
and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he
knows that he has a short time”
(Rev. 12:12).
This particularly impacts on the
Hebrew nation for part of his strategy is to persecute the Jews to extinction:
Jesus warned of it: “unless those days were shortened, no flesh (that is, no Jewish flesh)
would be saved” (Matt.24:22). This is preceded by an arrangement that will
be established between the Jews and the Anti-Christ. “Then
he (the Anti-Christ)
shall confirm a covenant with many for one week” (Dan.
9:27). The ‘week’ is a week of years, that is, seven years. The signing of this
covenant will be at the beginning of a seven year period of tribulation when a
world-wide persecution of God’s ancient people is planned. Those Jews who are
party to the agreement believe their accord with the Anti-Christ will save them
from the oppression, but they will have a rude awakening.
During the first half of the
tribulation a large number of Jews are persecuted and many will be martyred but
those who are party to the covenant (the “many” of Daniel 9) will escape the
worst of it. They will be permitted to occupy Jerusalem and operate the Temple
(a Temple that was not sanctioned by the Lord).
The priestly culture based on the Mosaic Covenant will function on the Temple
Mount (just as it did before Antiochus Epiphanes began to interfere). The priesthood
will offer their intercessions; festivals will be observed (from Passover to
the feast of Tabernacles, even to Hanukkah); and sacrifices will take place.
Because of the pact with the charismatic world leader (Anti-Christ), a large
section of the nation will be lulled into a false sense of security. But
as always, Satan (Anti-Christ’s
master) is following a hidden agenda.
The Temple that the Jews intended to be dedicated to the worship of YHWH will
be forcibly taken and used for the worship of Himself and his prodigy. This is
in harmony with his ancient ambition. He has always wanted worship. Remember
how this selfish ambition was expressed in Isaiah’s writings, the ‘I wills’ of
Satan:
“I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars
of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the
congregation on the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the
clouds,
I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:12–15).
His
blasphemous ambition was restated at the time of the incarnation when he
offered power and wealth to the Messiah if He (Jesus) would worship him
(Satan). Revelation 13:4 tells us that during the tribulation he will get
people from all nations to worship him and the Anti-Christ.
“So they worshiped the dragon who
gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like
the beast?”
But
God dealt with his unlawful ambition before the foundation of the world by
casting him down and will do so again.
But before that will happen, the New
Jerusalem Temple will be dedicated and function as in days of old. Israel will
celebrate the feasts, and remember their deliverance from Egypt in the Spring,
and confess their sins on the Day of Atonement in the Autumn. During this
period they will still maintain their original stance whereby they rejected the
Messianic claims of the Lord Jesus. This is regardless of the fact that there
will be Jewish evangelists preaching that Jesus Messiah had already died as
their Passover Lamb, and borne away their sins like the Scapegoat, and been
raised from the dead at the Feast of Firstfruits. But Satan will have lost the
battle in heaven and will commit himself to causing as much distress as he can
to any and all Jews on earth. His anger will overflow because he cannot stop
God’s army of Jewish evangelists (some 144,000 of them) preaching throughout
the world, leading souls to salvation in Christ. Those that hear them and
recognise Jesus as their Messiah and Redeemer will not be offered a way of
escape from persecution – indeed many will be martyred - but they will receive
the gift of eternal life.
During this time, Satan will deduce
that it is not in his interests that the Temple sacrificial system should
continue. The Sanctuary ritual, rich in spiritual significances, coupled with
the witness of the gospel preachers, might change the mind-set of the nation’s
leaders. They may even realise that Jesus had been their perfect sacrifice.
With such a possibility and an operating Temple they might even call for the
return of their Messiah. What if they confessed their sins on the Day of
Atonement and in repentance and faith uttered the Messianic greeting from the
Hallel, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”? This, of course, would signal
Satan’s doom. The Bible tells us the Adversary will return to an old but often
successful strategy – get God’s ancient people to sin – then God will judge
them. Perhaps idolatry might work for him—it worked in the past – it took care
of the ten tribes and ultimately cost the nation the land, the city and the
Temple when the Chaldeans invaded. All he needs to do is to replace the worship
of YHWH in the Temple at Jerusalem with the worship of another. He will elevate
the reputation of the Anti-Christ. As events unfold his plan takes shape. It
will be in two familiar stages – death and resurrection! But God is never taken
by surprise and He who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. He has
provided pertinent information in the writings of His seers. Daniel reveals
that the Anti-Christ will be killed in a quest for domination: “…
he shall come to his end, and no one will help him”
(Dan. 11:45), and John tells us he will be resurrected later: “and
I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound
was healed” (Rev. 13:3). This will lift the standing of the
Anti-Christ to an all-time high, and
according to Revelation 13, the inhabitants of the earth will worship him as
king and God. The centre of this idolatry will be the Temple in Jerusalem. The
worship of YHWH and the sacrificial system will end just as Daniel predicted:
“Then he shall confirm a covenant
with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to
sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate” (Dan. 9:27).
This then is the event referred to in
the Olivet discourse of the Saviour:
“Therefore when you see the
‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the
holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), “then let those who are in
Judea flee to the mountains”
(Matt. 24:15–16).
But neither in Matthew nor in
Revelation is there given any description of what the abomination is. But there
is extra information provided by Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians. Paul
wrote:
“Let no one deceive you by any
means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the
man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself
above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he
sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God”
(2 Thess. 2:3–4).
In these verses the Anti-Christ is
described as seating himself in the Temple of God declaring to the world that
he is God. Here we have echoes of the activities of Antiochus Epiphanes. But
Antiochus erected an image of Zeus. The Anti-Christ goes one step further and
commissions an image of himself to stand in the Jerusalem Temple. Satan approves and
gives life to it (Rev.13). This image remains there for 1,290 days (a little
over three and a half years).
The Bible makes this event pivotal in
the unfolding of the tribulation period. It is the final attempt by Satan to
get the Jews to commit to idolatry - but their Babylonian exile cured them of
that particular sin, and they will not go back to it, whatever the inducement.
Next Time: A
national Hanukkah
