Chanukah - A Tale of Two Cities
EJD
Chanukah is more than just dreidels and Chanukah gelt. Every holiday has its fun things, but it is easy to miss the real meaning of the feast by too much attention to its lighter things. What is needed to bring freshness to the holiday is to consider a tale of two cities.
Chanukah is the story of the Second Temple's rededication. It had been a functioning temple until a sinister character arrived to defile it. That villain was Antiochus IV, also known as Antiochus Epiphanes. He was a madman who thought of himself as the "appearance" of God, "epiphany" means appearance in Greek. He was the great power in the region and a ruthless despot in the ancient near east. It wasn't until a brave family rose up to fight this villain that the Temple could be restored. That family was the Maccabiah family with its famous personality of Judah Maccabiah, the hero of Chanukah.
The story of Chanukah has a precursor in another story found in the book of the Prophet Daniel. This story too was a tale of desecration and rededication. It was an account of another cleansing and another obtaining of liberty.
In Daniel chapter five is found the story of the mysterious hand writing on the wall. This is where we get the expression "the handwriting is on the wall" which means it's a done deal, the outcome is certain. The Babylonian king named Belshazzar threw a party. It was a time of real debauchery. He thought to add spice to the party by using the holy vessels from the Beit HaMikdash HaRishon. This is Hebrew name for the First Temple in Jerusalem built by Solomon and later destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BCE. Included among the holy vessels was the Menorah, the sacred seven-branched candlestick that lit up the inside of the Temple. These holy vessels were captured as spoils of war by the Babylonians and were kept in the state treasury until this party.
This king Belshazzar was the son of king Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar had an amazing encounter with the God of Israel. He had several dreams which were interpreted by Daniel the Prophet. One of those included his humbling experience before Almighty God in chapter 4. Nebuchadnezzar knew not to mess around with the God of Israel. He recognized that his kingdom existed because of God. His son probably heard those stories from his father. Thus Belshazzar knew better. He was not ignorant. His stunt of debauchery and desecration brought a mighty visitation by the God of Israel:
"So they brought these gold cups taken from the Temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank toasts from them to honor their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. At that very moment they saw the fingers of a human hand writing on the plaster wall of the king's palace, near the lampstand (Menorah). The king himself saw the hand as it wrote, and his face turned pale with fear. Such terror gripped him that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way beneath him" (Daniel 5:3-6 NLT). That very night Belshazzar and the kingdom of Babylon fell by the military victory of the Medo-Persian conquerors. The kings Darius and Cyrus dammed up the Euphrates river. They entered into the city by the conduit used by the river. Babylon was history. The sacred vessels returned to a more dignified setting. The Jews were to return later to the land and restore the Temple because of that night.
Antiochus also knew better. His kingdom that he inherited was the result of Alexander the Great. Alexander had conquered the mighty Persian empire. Before Alexander went on his expedition and conquest he had a dream. The ancient Jewish historian Flavius Josephus wrote about Alexander's dream and its fulfillment. This dream took place in Macedonia. As Alexander was engaged in many battles and on the march, a lull in the fighting occurred. Returning from Egypt, he was on his way to Persia. One of his stops was Jerusalem. He expected to do battle to capture the city, but instead of warriors he encountered another march. It was a sight he had seen before. This was more than deja vu. This was prophecy. It was a procession of the priests of Israel led by the High Priest. He didn't know the full implications of that sight, until he came face to face with the High Priest. The High Priest conducted Alexander into the city. As Josephus put it: "....and he (Alexander) came into the city; and when he went up into the temple, he offered sacrifice to God, according to the high priest's direction, and magnificently treated both the high priest and the priests. And when the book of Daniel was showed him, wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks should destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed that himself was the person intended." (Antiquites of the Jews, Book XI chapter VIII, sec. 5)1 Alexander went on to conquer Persia. He also agreed to allow the Jews to live under their own laws. Alexander's empire was divided into four empires after his death. One of those was the Seleucid empire of which Antiochus IV was the eighth emperor.
Both Belshazzar and Antiochus showed their contempt of God by their policy of defilement. It was God's intervention in both situations that brought a new liberty for the Jews. Cyrus the Persian king decreed that ex patriot Jews should return to the land and rebuild the Temple. The Maccabiah family ousted the Seleucids for a time and created the conditions for the rededication of the Temple. Instead of a Divine hand writing on the wall by the Menorah, it was the Divinely supplied oil that kept the Menorah lit for eight days. There was never to be another defilement by Antiochus. God intervened in the affairs of nations to allow a new liberty in Temple worship.
These parallel accounts of Belshazzar defiling the holy vessels of the Temple in Babylon and Antiochus defiling the Temple in Jerusalem illustrate the saying from the Brit Chadashah (New Testament): "God resists the proud...." (1 Peter 5:5a). While on the other hand, Nebuchadnezzar humbled himself before the God of Israel in Babylon and Alexander humbled himself before the God of Israel in Jerusalem to illustrate the other half of the saying: "....but gives grace (chesed) to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5b). Our thoughts in this holiday should cause us to remember that in Babylon and Jerusalem such momentous workings of God turned these places into a tale of two cities.
That tale is really the story of chesed. One of the meanings for that Hebrew word is grace. Thus the grace imparted to the nation of Israel in those times had two features:
- Cleansing
- New found liberty
So, also by the humility of One, the grace that brings personal cleansing and liberty is imparted today to both Jew and Gentile. That One is identified in the following: "our attitude should be the same that the Messiah Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal's death on a cross" (Philippians 2:5-8 NLT). .
1 Josephus Complete Works, translated by William Whiston, A.M., Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1960, p.244.
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