When the new-born Jesus was dedicated at the Temple, a righteous man called Simeon pronounced that he would be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel” (Luke 2:32).
Yes – Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah, who changed the world forever, is the glory of Israel. For most of us, everything that came before was BC (Before Christ) and everything since has been AD (Anno Domini, in the Year of our Lord).
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As the songwriter Stuart Townend put it, “What a Saviour, what a friend, what a glorious mystery; once a babe in Bethlehem, now the Lord of history.”
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The Jewish people have brought great benefits to the world with their skills, their insight, wisdom and business sense (which my grandma had in bucket-loads). But the greatest gift they have left us is Jesus, who has brought light and immortality to the nations.
Christmas this year precisely coincides with Hanukkah. And that, in my opinion, is perfectly appropriate because it is essentially a Jewish festival. For I am persuaded that, in deciding on when to mark the incarnation of Christ (i.e. when God took on human flesh), Jewish followers of Jesus, who of course made up all the original disciples, reckoned they already had a suitable feast – Hanukkah!
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Also known as Chanukah, it was all about restoring light to a dark world through the re-dedication of the Temple, which took place on the 25th of Kislev (or December in the Gregorian calendar). And there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Jesus was actually born on that day!
It makes sense because Jesus is the perfect embodiment of the temple restoration; he referred to himself as the temple that would be raised up on the third day.
The menorah that is said to have kept on burning miraculously for eight days with only enough oil for a day was surely a picture of the ‘light of the world’ (John 8:12) who had come to rescue his people from their sin and waywardness just as the Maccabees had done less than two centuries earlier.
Hanukkah is also a great reminder to Jewish people that God has their back, especially when a faithful remnant is prepared to make a stand for him.
It is well to remember that Jesus himself attended this festival, and it was there in the temple courts that his opponents threatened to stone him for blasphemy in view of his Messianic claims to divinity (John 10:22-39).
I am aware that far too many ‘Christians’ have persecuted the Jews over the centuries, but don’t get too distracted by that. Don’t throw the baby out with the dirty bathwater! For those persecutors had forgotten – or perhaps never knew – that Yeshua was not only a light to the nations, but the glory of Israel!
My precious Jewish friends, the real Jesus is your friend and brother just as your patriarch Joseph was, even after his brethren threw him down the well. When they finally recognised who he was, now the Prime Minister of Egypt, Joseph sent his Gentile courtiers out of the room as he wanted to embrace his brothers in private. It was a family affair, and emotions would be riding high.
In the same way, Yeshua is now drawing his people back to the land of Israel so he can reveal himself to them there and give them a great big collective hug as he brings peace to their hearts and to a world in conflict.
Christmas/Hanukkah this year takes place against the backdrop of the Gaza atrocities and all that has since followed that dreadful massacre 14 months ago.
There are obvious comparisons with the David and Goliath battle as retold in 1 Samuel 17, especially as Jesus is descended from David. The Philistine giant from Gaza1 was a great deceiver, paralyzing the troops of God’s people into fear and cowardice with his threatening propaganda. But the Lord looked for a man to challenge him, and he found a young shepherd boy, who understood that the battle was the Lord’s.
Too many in the West, including Christians, look on in fear as the ‘Gazan giant’ (of Iran and her terrorist proxies) deceives and intimidates, daring not to say anything that might offend.
But the young Davids of today’s Israel are rising up as they come to see that God really does have their back, with countless miracles helping them to defeat enemies on seven fronts who dare to come against the armies of the Lord. It is not for nothing that their hugely effective missile interceptor is known as ‘David’s Sling’.
The light of the world is also the glory of Israel. Happy Christmas; Happy Hanukkah!
1The Philistines – long extinct and who did live in the vicinity of Gaza – are not to be confused with today’s Palestinians.
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