What is the Feast of Dedication?
of the celebration of Chanakah!
The holy Feast of Dedication (Chanakah), also called the Feast of Lights, is an eight day celebration in honor of the Israelites’ victory in reclaiming The Most High’s holy temple, after it had been captured and defiled by the Greeks.
Background
To make a long story short, Israel fell into sin and began to worship the gods of the other nations when the Greeks began to rule. They wanted to avoid conflict with the nations, but instead, they gave up their only defense against the nations…The Most High!
An especially wicked king of the Greeks, Antiochus Epiphanes, wasn’t satisfied with the Israelites worshiping false gods and the Living God at the same time…he wanted the holiness of Yahawah’s temple to be defiled also.
So he entered Jerusalem, and the holy temple, stole all the holy vessels, and began to sacrifice unclean animals on The Most High’s’ altar! He also made it a law for everyone to make unclean sacrifices to the false gods of the Greeks, under penalty of death!
Things got worse and worse for the Israelites after this…until one righteous man, Mattathias, and his sons, took a stand for righteousness and began to fight back against the Greeks and their wicked laws. They refused to sacrifice according to the king’s law, and stirred the righteous remnant in Israel to band together and fight!
After a years long war, and with the blessed help of The Most High, the wicked were driven out. The holy temple and all of the holy vessels were reclaimed for righteousness by the children of Israel! And so we call this the Feast of Dedication, because at this time, the temple of Yahawah was re-dedicated to Him.
We can also rejoice during this time for our own temples, our very selves, being re-dedicated and redeemed to The Most High through the sacrifice of Christ, our loving Savior!
Significance and Symbolism
Chanakah is one of the holy days of the children of Israel that was not given to us directly from The Most High, but was declared as a yearly celebration by the leaders of Israel. Still, this feast holds great spiritual significance and symbolism, especially when we think of how the story of the loss and reclaiming of the temple applies to us as individuals!
“And so they kept the dedication of the altar eight days and offered burnt offerings with gladness, and sacrificed the sacrifice of deliverance and praise.”
– 1 Maccabees 4:56
For example, the temple was lost in the first place because of the Israelites’ sin, and unwillingness to face conflict with the nations who served other gods. In our own lives as believers, we have to expect conflict in our lives, because we live in a fallen world. By giving up the fight, and becoming and behaving like the unbelieving world, we give up our defenses and become overtaken by wickedness…our temple is lost.
And like Antiochus Epiphanes, our enemy the devil is never satisfied with us crossing the righteous line only halfway. He wants to destroy us completely! Also, like Mattathias and his sons, we see that the only way for us to have victory over sin and wickedness is to take a stand, and be bold in our faith in Yahawah and Yahawashi. We must take the time, and do the work of repentance and walking daily with our God and Christ. If we resist the devil, he will flee from our temples!
Observance
To keep the Feast of Dedication:
- Observe from the 25th day of the 9th month through the 1st day of the 10th month
- Have holy convocation (gather together in worship) on the first and last days of the feast. Treat them as sabbath days, doing no servile work. Cooking is allowed on these days though.
- Light your menorah (a candlestick with seven slots) on each day of the feast.
- Sing praises to Yahawah and Yahawashi for their goodness and mercy!
Scriptures
If you would like to dive deeper into learning about this holy feast, the full story can be read in 1 Maccabees chapters 1 through 4.
The only other mention of Chanakah in the Bible can be found in John 10:22. Read to the end of the chapter, and see if you can find how the passage relates to Chanakah and its meaning!
