Oil and Light

I was surprised to see on a sweet Christmas card this season friends who read this blog and enjoy it.  And I felt a bit guilty that there have been over six silent months between blogs.  I am thrilled to announce that I was lost in Baby Land since July: My little grandson Ronen was born and I was blessed to be at his birth and for a couple of months afterward as a professional Grammy.  Then there were a few visits they made to us in God’s country taking many hikes, flower-smelling, and bottle feedings perched on the side of a mountain overlooking an alpine meadow and the grand beyond. I have been unashamedly lost in time, and now return to the site with renewed vigor to share some encouragement of our soon-coming-for-us-King.

Ronen and Grammy in the Last Best Place

 So Christmas and Hannukah began on the same day this year producing a kind of symbolic explosion.  Light, Jesus, Holy Spirit, zeal, and miracles swirling together like a supernova giving us a beautiful picture of our Savior who began His earthly assignment as a baby; a big baby full of light.  And the story of the victorious comeback and the miracle of the oil and light. *Very condensed, in the second century B.C., the Syrians were ruling over the Land of Israel and imposing their Hellenistic culture on the Jews. They desecrated the Temple and stole the menorah, so a band of warriors (led by the sons of Mattathias the priest and known as the Maccabees), retook the city and Temple. As the menorah had been stolen, they began to make a new one and discovered that there was only enough Holy oil to last one day.  Miraculously, the oil lasted eight days giving the priests enough time to make and sanctify more.  The miracle signified a great national and spiritual victory stoking the embers of hope that would be needed to burn for millenia.  (*Some facts derived from My Jewish Learning, The History of Hanukkah | My Jewish Learning.)

Although Hannukah is not a Biblical celebration, we know Jesus commemorated it because John 10 states that He was walking in Solomon's Colonnade at the Feast of Dedication (Hannukah). Jesus is walking in the Temple and the Jews are challenging Him to say plainly that He is the Christ. I love that He calls them out and says, “I already did” and then schools them again on the parable of the Good Shepherd.  They even tried to stone Him, but the Bible says Jesus “escaped their grasp” (John 10:39).  A "ha ha" moment. Go Jesus. Here is the real Light of the World, walking in more zeal than the Maccabean zealots, using His words to stop the mouths of the people some of whom couldn’t perceive that God was standing in front of them.  The Light of Israel was burning in the Temple just as Isaiah said He would (Isaiah 10:17).

The Hannukah account is amazing but there is a follow-on story that is also historically and contemporarily significant.  It has to do with religious factions, desert mystics, and treasures hidden for thousands of years. My next blog will delve into the enigmatic Essenes of Qumran, the keepers of the scrolls, whose accurate prophecies may explain why they disappeared from the historical record and give us clues as to the end of the age.

I heard it said recently that the prophetic events that are happening now will not stop and life return to normal. I agree.  We are rushing headlong toward the end of the Age of Grace and the last of the last days. This is the time to make sure we have extra oil and are watching for Jesus, the true Light of Israel, whose coming for us is closer than we ever imagined.

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