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Matthew 24 and Chanukah: Why Yeshua warned believers to run to the hills
Why Yeshua (Jesus) went to the Temple on Chanukah, aka the Festival of Dedication and the Festival of Lights, wrapped in the history recorded in 1-4 Maccabees.
Those are prequels of sorts to the Gospels. You see why the Romans are in the Holy Land, why Yeshua warned in Matthew 24 that in the last days God’s people will have to “run to the hills,” and what the “abomination of desolation” (Dan. 11:31; 12:11; Matt. 24:15; Mark 13:14) actually looks like.
The date of this discussion is a triple header: Shabbat, Chanukah and Rosh Chodesh (New Moon). We will do a deep dive into centuries of history from the life of Yosef (Joseph) to the Maccabees.
The title for the Torah reading מִקֵּץ Miketz (Genesis 41:1–44:17) means “from the end,” related to the “end of the two years” (Gen. 41:1). The sages and later commentators have noted over the centuries that this phrase points to the future.
Two major themes of Miketz:
* The rise of Yosef (Joseph) to power. Key to this is the God given insight into pharaoh’s dreams which positions him as the savior of Mitzraim (Egypt) and Israel.
* Yisrael’s descent into Mitzraim. Famine drove the people of Israel into Mitzraim for food. This was the Lord’s doing. There was food in Egypt because of God’s provision.
Like Yosef’s staying true to the LORD while being surrounded by temptation and being framed in Mitzraim, if you keep and develop a good character, it will shine through, no matter your station. If you puff yourself up and live as a phony, people will see that. If you live in righteousness and humility, people will see that too.
Israel’s “bailout” from the famine led to the “house of slaves” (Ex. 13:3, 14; 20:2; Deut. 5:6) just before the Exodus. Yosef tells the brothers that God worked it all out for good (Gen. 50:20), a thought the apostle Paul echoes many centuries later (Rom. 8:28).
‘Who is like You among the gods?’
The Maccabean movement overcame a far larger, better-trained and equipped army under the second century B.C. Seleucid king Antiochus IV, aka Epiphanies, who profaned the Temple. Antiochus IV did not begin his rule as a reign of terror for the Jewish people. His oppression came a little at a time. There were some in the Jewish community who had no problem with assimilating Greek culture or blending Judaism with Hellenism.
The Temple in Jerusalem had been defiled for seven years before the Maccabees reconquered Jerusalem and restored the Temple. They weren’t able to celebrate the eight days of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths)1 during its regular appointed time, so when they finally had the Temple cleaned up, they decided to have a second Sukkot beginning on Kislev 25 (25th day of the ninth month of Israel’s calendar). That is now the holiday we call Chanukah.
Here are some lowlights of the atrocities under the forced assimilation under Antiochus IV:
“In those days went there out of Israel wicked men, who persuaded many, saying, Let us go and make a covenant with the heathen that are round about us: for since we departed from them we have had much sorrow.” (1 Maccabees 1:11 Benton’s translation of the Septuagint)
“and spake peaceable words unto them, but all was deceit: for when they had given him credence, he fell suddenly upon the city, and smote it very sore, and destroyed much people of Israel.
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By Hallel FellowshipWhy Yeshua (Jesus) went to the Temple on Chanukah, aka the Festival of Dedication and the Festival of Lights, wrapped in the history recorded in 1-4 Maccabees.
Those are prequels of sorts to the Gospels. You see why the Romans are in the Holy Land, why Yeshua warned in Matthew 24 that in the last days God’s people will have to “run to the hills,” and what the “abomination of desolation” (Dan. 11:31; 12:11; Matt. 24:15; Mark 13:14) actually looks like.
The date of this discussion is a triple header: Shabbat, Chanukah and Rosh Chodesh (New Moon). We will do a deep dive into centuries of history from the life of Yosef (Joseph) to the Maccabees.
The title for the Torah reading מִקֵּץ Miketz (Genesis 41:1–44:17) means “from the end,” related to the “end of the two years” (Gen. 41:1). The sages and later commentators have noted over the centuries that this phrase points to the future.
Two major themes of Miketz:
* The rise of Yosef (Joseph) to power. Key to this is the God given insight into pharaoh’s dreams which positions him as the savior of Mitzraim (Egypt) and Israel.
* Yisrael’s descent into Mitzraim. Famine drove the people of Israel into Mitzraim for food. This was the Lord’s doing. There was food in Egypt because of God’s provision.
Like Yosef’s staying true to the LORD while being surrounded by temptation and being framed in Mitzraim, if you keep and develop a good character, it will shine through, no matter your station. If you puff yourself up and live as a phony, people will see that. If you live in righteousness and humility, people will see that too.
Israel’s “bailout” from the famine led to the “house of slaves” (Ex. 13:3, 14; 20:2; Deut. 5:6) just before the Exodus. Yosef tells the brothers that God worked it all out for good (Gen. 50:20), a thought the apostle Paul echoes many centuries later (Rom. 8:28).
‘Who is like You among the gods?’
The Maccabean movement overcame a far larger, better-trained and equipped army under the second century B.C. Seleucid king Antiochus IV, aka Epiphanies, who profaned the Temple. Antiochus IV did not begin his rule as a reign of terror for the Jewish people. His oppression came a little at a time. There were some in the Jewish community who had no problem with assimilating Greek culture or blending Judaism with Hellenism.
The Temple in Jerusalem had been defiled for seven years before the Maccabees reconquered Jerusalem and restored the Temple. They weren’t able to celebrate the eight days of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths)1 during its regular appointed time, so when they finally had the Temple cleaned up, they decided to have a second Sukkot beginning on Kislev 25 (25th day of the ninth month of Israel’s calendar). That is now the holiday we call Chanukah.
Here are some lowlights of the atrocities under the forced assimilation under Antiochus IV:
“In those days went there out of Israel wicked men, who persuaded many, saying, Let us go and make a covenant with the heathen that are round about us: for since we departed from them we have had much sorrow.” (1 Maccabees 1:11 Benton’s translation of the Septuagint)
“and spake peaceable words unto them, but all was deceit: for when they had given him credence, he fell suddenly upon the city, and smote it very sore, and destroyed much people of Israel.