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I’d
like to read a section from 1 Maccabees chapter
3. It describes one of the great battles that
the Jewish people fought against the superior
Syrian army: Now when Seron, the commander
of the Syrian army, heard that Judah had gathered
a large company, including a body of faithful
men who stayed with him and went out to battle,
he said, "I will make a name for myself and
win honor in the kingdom. I will make war on Judah
and his companions, who scorn the king's command."
And again a strong army of ungodly men went up
with him to help him, to take vengeance on the
sons of Israel. When he approached the ascent
of Beth horon, Judah went out to meet him with
a small company. But when they saw the army coming
to meet them, they said to Judah, "How can
we, few as we are, fight against so great and
strong a multitude? And we are faint, for we have
eaten nothing today."
Judah
replied, "It is easy for many to be hemmed
in by few, for in the sight of Heaven there is
no difference between saving by many or by few.
It is not on the size of the army that victory
in battle depends, but strength comes from Heaven.
They come against us in great pride and lawlessness
to destroy us and our wives and our children,
and to despoil us; but we fight for our lives
and our laws. He himself will crush them before
us; as for you, do not be afraid of them."
When he
finished speaking, he rushed suddenly against
Seron and his army, and they were crushed before
him. They pursued them down the descent of Beth
horon to the plain; eight hundred of them fell,
and the rest fled into the land of the Philistines.
Then Judah and his brothers began to be feared,
and terror fell upon the Gentiles round about
them. His fame reached the king, and the Gentiles
talked of the battles of Judah.
When most
people are asked, “What is the miracle of
Chanukkah?” the response is: “Chanukkah
is about a great miracle that took place in Israel,
when the Jewish people fought against the Syrians.
After three years they recaptured Jerusalem and
the Temple, and then relit the Menorah that gave
light inside the Temple. There wasn’t enough
holy oil, but a miracle occurred, and the oil
for one day miraculously burned for eight days
until more oil could be procured. That’s
the miracle of Chanukkah!”
But that’s
not the miracle of Chanukkah. The legend of the
oil is not found in the original accounts at all,
and it probably never happened. The real miracle
of Chanukkah is that the Jewish people were able
to overcome the vastly superior armies of Syria,
and win miraculous victory after miraculous victory.
In battle after battle, Jewish losses were minimal,
even against overpowering foes where the odds
were 10 or 15 to 1, until the Syrians were defeated,
our holy capital city of Jerusalem was recaptured,
the Temple was cleansed and rededicated for the
worship of the One True and Living God. From the
rededicated Temple the truth of the God who alone
can save and redeem mankind again shone forth
to the nations of the world.
The Chanukkah
lesson is that with faith in the God of Israel
and a dose of courage, the weak can overcome the
strong, and a faithful minority can overcome a
faithless majority. Even a faithful minority of
one - one man, one woman, can overcome the greatest
odds, the biggest forces and the most powerful
foes. This was courageously expressed by Judah
when he said: "It is easy for many to be
hemmed in by few, for in the sight of Heaven there
is no difference between saving by many or by
few. It is not on the size of the army that victory
in battle depends, but strength comes from Heaven."
The Lord
wanted us to learn this lesson from the beginning
of our history, which began with our father Abraham.
The world that Abraham was born into was a world
immersed in great spiritual darkness. Sin and
death dominated humanity. Rabbi Paul describes
their situation like this: Even though they
knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give
thanks, but they became futile in their speculations,
and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing
to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the
glory of the incorruptible God for an image in
the form of corruptible man and of birds and four
footed animals and crawling creatures. They exchanged
the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and
served the creature rather than the Creator, who
is blessed forever.
And there
were serious societal consequences to this abandonment
of God, because what we believe about God inevitably
affects our moral and spiritual choices. After
the Flood, human society rapidly degenerated until
it was characterized by idolatry and the occult,
sexual perversions and immorality, child sacrifice,
slavery, warfare, violence, cruelty, injustice
and tyranny.
It was
in the midst of that dark and corrupted world
that God called Avraham Avinu, and told him that
through him all the nations of the world would
be blessed. What could one man do against a world
that had fallen so deeply into evil? One ray of
light in the midst of so much darkness? Not much,
right? But one man, one woman, who has faith in
Almighty, can be used to do remarkable things!
Remember
when Abraham’s nephew Lot was captured,
and the Lord enabled Abraham to overcame vastly
superior forces, when he took his 318 men who
were born in his house and was victorious against
the four kings and their armies who had captured
his nephew? 318 against four armies! The smaller
defeating the greater, the many being given over
into the hand of the few.
The lesson?
Victory does not come by human might or power,
but by the Spirit of God leading and empowering
human beings who have faith in God! When Israel
was close to God, we would be invincible. Thus
says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, and He who
formed you, O Israel, “Do not fear, for
I have redeemed you; I have called you by name;
you are Mine! When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you; and through the rivers, they
will not overflow you. When you walk through the
fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame
burn you. For I am Adonai your God, the Holy One
of Israel, your Savior.
Why did
God choose little Israel to accomplish the geulah
- the redemption of the world? Why didn’t
He choose a bigger and more powerful and influential
nation, like the Babylonians or the Egyptians,
to fulfill His purposes to restore the world to
Himself? Wouldn’t a bigger nation have served
Him better?
Yet the
Torah reveals that God specifically chose us because
we were not the mightiest among the nations, but
the smallest of the nations. Adonai your God
has chosen you to be a people for His own possession
out of all the peoples who are on the face of
the Earth. Adonai did not set His love on you
nor choose you because you were more in number
than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest
of all peoples... The Lord chose us because
we were small, and surrounded by larger and more
powerful nations, like a sheep among wolves, in
order that we would have to depend on Him, that
we should always know that our strength was to
be found in Him; that our small nation, if we
trusted in God, would be invincible! This is a
lesson that the nation of Israel must once again
learn in our days.
We see
the Chanukkah lesson operating in the Ye-tzee-at
Mitzraim - the Exodus from Egypt. Little Israel,
made even weaker by decades of harsh slavery,
overcame the mighty Egyptian empire, the superpower
of that day. On our own, as slaves in Egypt, we
could never have overcome the Egyptians, who were
the most powerful nation on Earth. But equipped
with a great spiritual leader, and armed with
faith in God, a nation of slaves was able to vanquish
Pharaoh and his mighty army, and walk out of the
house of bondage as a free people!
What’s
the lesson? The weak can overcome the strong,
a faithful minority can overcome the greatest
odds, the biggest forces and the most powerful
foes. Adonai is my rock and my fortress and
my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take
refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold and my refuge; my savior, You save
me from violence. I call upon Adonai, who is worthy
to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.
A short
time after leaving Egypt, while we were in the
desert, the nation of Amalek fought against us.
When Moses held his hands up, the people of Israel
prevailed, but when his hands were lowered, Amalek
prevailed. So Aaron and Hur assisted Moses, and
supported his hands, until Amalek was defeated.
The lesson: when we are close to God, near to
Him, praying to Him, trusting in Him, depending
on Him, victory is ours. When we depend on our
own strength, our own intelligence, our own power,
we will be defeated.
But this
lesson didn’t last long, because a very
short time later we sent twelve spies to spy out
the land that God was bringing us to. When they
returned from spying out the land, at the end
of forty days, they reported that the land certainly
did flow with milk and honey, and was very fruitful.
“Nevertheless” they said, “the
people who live in the land are strong, and the
cities are fortified and very large; and we saw
the descendants of Anak, who are giants, living
there. And Amalek is living in the land of the
Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the
Amorites are living in the hill country, and the
Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side
of the Jordan. We are not able to go up against
the people,” they concluded, “for
they are too strong for us.”
Then Calev,
one of the two faithful spies, tried to quiet
the people and said, "We should by all means
go up and take possession of it, for we will surely
overcome it.'' Joshua and Calev understood that
the size of the enemy doesn’t matter, because
it’s not on the size of the army that victory
in battle depends, but strength comes from Heaven.
So they said to the people: “Do not
fear the people of the land, for they will be
our prey. Their protection has been removed from
them, and Adonai is with us; do not fear them.”
But the
majority of the people listened to the ten spies,
and looked at the outward circumstances, and the
size of the Canaanites and the strength of their
walled cities, and did not have confidence in
the God who is able to give the stronger into
the hand of the weaker, and they refused to enter
the land and fight against the Canaanites. Instead,
they wanted to kill Moses and Aaron, Joshua and
Calev and return to Egypt!
The Lord
was so angry with their unbelief that He wanted
to destroy Israel, and start a new nation with
Moses. But Moses interceded for us, and instead
God punished us with wandering in the wilderness
for forty years, until that entire faithless generation
died off.
The lesson?
If you diligently obey the Lord your God, Adonai
your God will set you high above all the nations
of the Earth... Adonai will cause your enemies
who rise up against you to be defeated before
you; they will come out against you one way and
will flee before you seven ways... But if you
do not obey the Lord your God, Adonai shall cause
you to be defeated before your enemies; you will
go out one way against them, but you will flee
seven ways before them, and you will be an example
of terror to all the kingdoms of the Earth.
Forty
years later, under Joshua’s able and spiritual
leadership, a new and faithful generation began
the defeat of these nations. What exemplified
the kind of victories we achieved? The battle
of Jericho, when the men of war were instructed
by God to walk once around the strong walls of
that city for six days, and on the seventh day,
walk around it seven times, and then the seven
cohens blew on their shofars, and the walls came
crashing down, and the mighty city of Jericho
was defeated. Did we employ weapons to tear down
strongholds like battering rams? Did we dig to
undermine their foundations? No. Our first major
victory inside our new land was a miraculous one,
to teach us that though we walk in the flesh,
we do not war according to the flesh, for the
weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but
divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
We are destroying speculations and every lofty
thing raised up against the knowledge of God,
and we are taking every thought captive to the
obedience of Messiah.
The book
of Judges records that our nation once again turned
our backs on God, and so the Lord gave us into
the hands of Midian for seven years. The Midianites
would invade with the Amalekites and confiscate
everything, including our food. Things got so
bad that we were forced to live in the caves and
strongholds in the mountains.
Due to
our suffering, we began to turn to the Lord, and
God chose Gideon to lead the Jewish people in
battle and defeat the Midianites. Gideon assembled
an army, but the Lord said to Gideon, “The
people who are with you are too many for Me to
give Midian into their hands, for Israel would
become boastful, saying, “My own power has
delivered me.”
So whoever
was afraid was encouraged to leave, and 22,000
people left, but 10,000 remained. But that was
still too many to face 120,000 Midianites. 12
to 1 odds were still too small! So the Lord winnowed
the army down again, and everyone who drank water
by putting their hand to their mouth, 300 men,
were chosen, and the other 9700 men were dismissed.
Ah, that’s better. 300 against 120,000 -
400 to 1!
Then Gideon
and his three hundred men came to the Midianite
camp at night, and they blew trumpets and smashed
pitchers that were in their hands, so that the
torches inside the pitchers were suddenly revealed.
The Midianite army panicked, they fled, and the
Lord set the sword of one Midianite against another.
The rest of the men of Israel were summoned and
they pursued the Midianites. They captured the
two leaders of Midian, killed them, and in the
ensuing route, killed 120,000 Midianite soldiers.
The Jewish people were delivered from their oppression,
and we once again learned the meaning of Chanukkah:
that victory is not accomplished by might, nor
by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord.
Sampson,
even though he was the strongest man who ever
lived, was really an ordinary man. He was only
strong when he was close to God. It was the Spirit
of God who gave him power, as he remained faithful
to God. When he wasn’t full of faith, he
lost his great strength. Once, under pressure
from the Philistines, Sampson was captured by
his own people, and turned over to the vastly
superior Philistine forces. Even though he was
bound with two new ropes, when the Spirit of the
Lord came upon Sampson, the ropes that were on
his arms were like flax that is burned with fire,
and his bonds dropped from his hands. He found
a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and with it killed
a thousand Philistine men. One ordinary man overcoming
a thousand!
Even in
his death, having been captured for his lack of
faith, and with his eyes ruined, he placed himself
between two pillars on which the Philistine temple
of their god Dagon rested, and pushed, and the
pillars buckled, and the roof of the temple came
crashing down, and approximately 3,000 Philistines
were killed. One man - blinded, weakened, overcoming
thousands. The lesson? “My grace is sufficient
for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most
gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my
weaknesses, so that the power of Messiah may dwell
in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses,
with insults, with distresses, with persecutions,
with difficulties, for Messiah's sake; for when
I am weak, then I am strong” - in a word,
Chanukkah.
How can
we forget the story of young David against the
giant Goliath? Once again, God allowed us to be
defeated and oppressed by our enemies. This time
it was the Philistines. So, King Saul and the
men of Israel decided to do battle with the Philistines.
Then a champion came out from the armies of the
Philistines named Goliath, who was more than nine
feet tall! He was encased in very heavy armor,
with a huge sword, spear and javelin. He was an
invincible fighting machine. He challenged the
army of Israel to meet him in single combat. When
the men of Israel saw him, they fled and were
greatly afraid. None of the great soldiers of
Israel dared fight him, but young David, without
any armor, armed only with his stick, five stones
from the brook, and his sling, and a great faith
in God, had the confidence to face the Philistine
giant.
Goliath
wasn’t impressed with young David, and cursed
him by his gods. Then David said to Goliath, “You
come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin,
but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts,
the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have
taunted. This day Adonai will deliver you up into
my hands, and I will strike you down and remove
your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies
of the army of the Philistines this day to the
birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the Earth,
that all the Earth may know that there is a God
in Israel, and that all this assembly may know
that the Lord does not deliver by sword or
by spear; for the battle is Adonai's and He will
give you into our hands.''
David
ran toward Goliath, put a stone in his sling,
slung it and struck Goliath, and the stone sank
into his forehead. Then David took Goliath’s
own sword and cut off his head with it. When the
Philistines saw that their champion was dead,
they fled, and the army of Israel slaughtered
the Philistines. Israel once again learned the
Chanukkah lesson: The Lord does not deliver by
sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord's
- Chanukkah.
An incident
from the life of the prophet Eliyahu further illustrates
this truth. Even though most of Israel was entrenched
in apostasy, Elijah challenged the false prophets
of Baal and prophets of the Asherah. King Achav
gathered all of Israel and brought the prophets
together at Mount Carmel to meet the challenge
of Elijah.
Then Elijah
said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet
of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men.
I am only one against 450, and behind them stand
a powerful king and queen. But earthly power,
and false spiritual power don’t matter.
To prove this, let us have two oxen; and let the
prophets of Baal choose one ox for themselves
and cut it up, and place it on the wood, but put
no fire under it; and I will prepare the other
ox and lay it on the wood, and I will not put
a fire under it. Then they will call on the name
of their god, and I will call on the name of Adonai,
and the God who answers by fire, He is God.''
And all the people said, “That’s a
good idea.''
The prophets
of Baal went first, cut up their ox, called on
the name of Baal from morning until noon, but
when nothing happened, then intensified their
efforts and cut themselves with swords and lances
until the blood gushed out on them, but there
was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid
attention, for their gods were false.
Then Elijah
built an altar, and made a trench around the altar,
arranged the wood and cut his ox in pieces and
laid it on the wood. Then he had water poured
all over it, prayed to the Lord, and fire fell
from Heaven and consumed the burnt offering and
the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked
up the water that was in the trench!
When all
the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and
they said, “Adonai, Hu Ha Elohim - the Lord,
He is God; Adonai, Hu Ha Elohim - the Lord, He
is God.'' Then Elijah had the 450 false prophets
of Baal, and the 400 false prophets of the Asherah
captured, and killed them all, and a great victory
was accomplished by the one against the many!
One man standing up against 850 false prophets
backed by a wicked and powerful king and queen.
Then Elijah’s
successor Elisha kept warning the king of Israel
about the military plans of the Syrians. God kept
revealing to the prophet Elisha the battle-plans
of the king of Syria, so that the king of Israel
was able to escape harm. The king of Syria was
enraged, and thought that there was a traitor
in his midst, giving military information to the
king of Israel. But one of his servants said,
“No, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet
who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the
words that you speak in your bedroom.''
So the
king of Syria sent horses and chariots and a great
army to capture or kill Elisha, and they came
by night and surrounded the city where Elisha
was. Now when Elisha’s servant got up early
the next morning, and went outside, he noticed
that an army with horses and chariots had surrounded
the city. They were trapped! And his servant said
to Elisha, “Alas, my master! What shall
we do? We are only a few against a well equipped
army.”
But Elisha
had a Chanukkah kind of faith in God, and he answered,
“Do not fear, for those who are with us
are more than those who are with them.'' Then
Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord open his
eyes that he may see.'' And the Lord opened the
servant's eyes and he saw that the mountain was
full of horses and chariots of fire all around
Elisha. When the army of Syria came down to him,
Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, “Strike
this people with blindness.'' And the Lord heard
the prayer of Elisha, and the Lord struck them
with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
Then Elisha
said to the blind enemy army, “This is not
the way, nor is this the city; follow me and I
will bring you to the man whom you seek.'' And
he brought them to Samaria. When they had come
into the capital city of Samaria, Elisha said,
“O Lord, open the eyes of these men, that
they may see.'' The Lord opened their eyes and
they saw; and behold, they were in the midst of
Samaria - not where they wanted to be, weaponless
and surrounded by the army of Israel!
Once again
we see the Chanukkah truth: “Though an army
encamp against me my heart will not fear; though
war arise against me, I will be confident.”
A few, with God, are really the majority, for
the reality is that those who are with us are
more than those who are with them, because there
are invisible and invincible armies that surround
us.
In the
reign of good King Hezekiah, the king of Assyria,
a powerful Middle Eastern empire, captured all
the fortified cities of Judah. He then sent his
forces to capture Jerusalem. His officers publicly
mocked the God of Israel, and then faithful king
Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, and that night a
angel sent by the Lord went and struck 185,000
Assyrians; all of them were dead. So Sennacherib,
king of Assyria lost his army, lost the war, and
returned home, and was assassinated. The lesson?
The Lord is my light and salvation; whom will
I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom
will I dread? Greater is He that is in us, than
he that is in the world!
After
this the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together
with some of the Meunites, came to make war against
good king Yehoshaphat. It was a great multitude,
and Yehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention
to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout
all Judah, and the righteous gathered together
to seek help from Adonai; and they came to Jerusalem
and prayed.
Then Yehoshaphat
stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem,
in the Lord’s house, and he prayed, “O
Lord, the God of our fathers, are You not God
in the Heavens? And are You not ruler over all
the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are
in Your hand so that no one can stand against
You... For we are powerless before this great
multitude who are coming against us; nor do we
know what to do, but our eyes are on You.''
Then in
the midst of the assembly the Spirit of the Lord
came upon Yahaziel, and he said, “Listen,
all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and
King Yehoshaphat: thus says the Lord to you,‘Do
not fear or be dismayed because of this great
multitude, for the battle is not yours but God's.
You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves,
stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your
behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.”
Those
who sang to the Lord and those who praised Him
in holy attire, went out before the army and said,
“Hodu l’Adonai kee l’olam chasdo
- Give thanks to the Lord, for His lovingkindness
is everlasting.'' When they began singing and
praising, the Lord set ambushes against the sons
of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, and they were routed.
For the sons of Ammon and Moab rose up against
the inhabitants of Mount Seir destroying them
completely; and when they had finished with the
inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one
another. No one survived.
The lesson?
The Lord is God in the Heavens, and ruler over
all the powers on Earth. Power and might are in
His hands so that no one can stand against Him.
Even though we may be powerless before a great
multitude who are coming against us, we don’t
need to fear or be dismayed, for the battle is
not ours but God's, if the Lord is with us.''
That’s Chanukkah my friends!
When we
come to the time of the Brit Chadasha, the New
Covenant, would we expect God to work any differently?
No. God delivered the many into the hands of the
few, strong into the hands of the weak, for in
the sight of Heaven there is no difference between
saving by many or by few.
When the
Son of God came into this world, He did not come
with great outward strength, power and glory.
He left behind His mighty and divine powers in
Heaven, and humbled Himself, and became a weak
human being.
After
nine months being in Mary’s womb, the Messiah
was born - small, weak, helpless, dependent, unable
to survive on His own. Think of it! Immanuel,
God with us, the same One who created the Earth,
and the mighty sun, the moon and stars, who made
the galaxies and set them in their places, became
a frail human child!
The redemption
of humanity - your salvation and my salvation,
your eternal life and my eternal life, your ultimate
relationship to God and mine, was all centered
in that one, small frail baby, who could be held
in the hand of his father Joseph! The hopes and
fears of all the years could be found in that
child born in Bethlehem. Is it any surprise that
years later Yeshua taught His little flock, “The
kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which is
the smallest of seeds...”
Well,
from the beginning of His incarnation, Yeshua
had powerful and dangerous enemies. Satan, who
is like a great red dragon, powerful, cruel, curring
and dangerous, “stood before the woman who
was about to give birth, so that when she gave
birth he might devour the child.” Satan
used one of his choicest servants, wicked King
Herod, one of the most powerful men in the world
of that day, a murderous tyrant, with spies, armies,
strong fortresses, great wealth, got wind of the
birth of Yeshua, and plotted to destroy Him. What
could the holy family - Miriam, Yosef, and Yeshua,
who were small and poor, do against all the evil
might of Herod? They could do enough. They could
have faith in the Lord and listen to the warning
sent by God in a dream, and flee to Egypt, where
they were safe. The weak overcame the strong.
When Yeshua
became an adult, large crowds followed Him, and
many disciples, but by His death, He was left
with very few. Most abandoned Him in His time
of need. But because of His great faith in God,
from that beaten, bloodied, crucified body, God
raised Him back to life, and Yeshua overcame the
powerful forces of sin, Satan and death!
He appeared
to His eleven disciples, and from that small beginning,
those eleven men - who were not rich, not powerful,
not politically or economically influential, God
used them to turn the world upside down. A movement
of faith, light, salvation, redemption and goodness
began with those few men, and has spread to every
nation in this world.
The lesson?
“For consider your calling, brothers, that
there were not many wise according to the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen
the foolish things of the world to shame the wise,
and God has chosen the weak things of the world
to shame the things which are strong, and the
base things of the world and the despised God
has chosen, the things that are not, so that He
may nullify the things that are, so that no man
may boast before God. Let him who boasts, boast
in the Lord.”
Congregation
Shema Yisrael is not very big. Outwardly we are
not that impressive. Most of us are not doctors
or lawyers, or wealthy, successful businessmen,
but that’s OK, because with God, size and
outward strength don’t matter. It’s
faith in God, trust in the Messiah, empowerment
of the Holy Spirit that matters, and that we have.
We know that it is easy for many to be hemmed
in by few, for in the sight of Heaven there is
no difference between saving by many or by few.
It is not on the size of the army that victory
in battle depends, but strength comes from Heaven.
I’m excited, because the miracles of Chanukkah
and the Incarnation are at work in our midst,
in my life and your life and our lives together!
My friends,
the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout
the Earth that He may strongly support those whose
heart is completely His. Will you be that man,
that woman, whose heart is completely his, through
whom God can do great things?
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