The Spirit of Hanukkah in Messianic Judaism
“What shall be said of those Jewish Christians who, having had their hearts and minds awakened, are, like the Maccabaeans of old, fired with zeal and ardour, and seek tenaciously to cling to their Jewish national identity.”
These are words on the opening page of the December 1910 issue of The Messianic Jew: Organ of the Jewish Messianic Movement, Volume 1, Issue 1.
The same conviction that motivated the Maccabees to fight against assimilation in ancient Greece and to remain faithful to their covenant with God motivated Messianic Jews over 110 years ago and continues to motivate us today.
Israel, A Resilient Nation
God instructs the Jewish people to remain set apart and distinct from the nations of the world and to be a light to the nations so they can see God work miracles through the small people of Israel. We resist assimilation because that is the nature of being a Jew.
Later in that issue of The Messianic Jew, Jewish follower of Yeshua, Dr. A. Waldman wrote, “The Jew is the survival of an antiquity which has outlived the Pharaohs, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Grecians, etc. His nationalism is part and parcel of himself and the heritage of the heroic past, with its possible future.”
Being a Jew is to persist. It is to persist through persecution, through hardship, through periods in the wilderness and famine. In doing so, the world sees that our God sustains us. We will outlive the great powers of this world, not because of our strength, but because of the strength and the faithfulness of the God of Israel.
Jewish Identity in Messiah
This attitude of resilience remains in the hearts of Jews who follow Yeshua as the Messiah. For us, following Yeshua strengthens our commitment to Jewish identity and to encouraging Jews around us to likewise commit to their Jewish identities.
Not only does this attitude come from the conviction God has given us as Jews but it is reinforced in the teachings of the New Testament by the famed Jewish thinker, Paul the apostle. In 1 Corinthians 7:17–20, Paul wrote, “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the congregations. Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision.”
Paul wrote this instruction less than 200 years after the Maccabees resisted the assimilation efforts of Antiochus Epiphanes, who tried to force the Jewish people to literally “uncircumcise” themselves (this was a medical procedure called epispasm). Some Jews compromised and obeyed the ruler. In 1 Maccabees 1:14–15, we read, “So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, according to Gentile custom, and removed the marks of circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant.”
Paul took up the same cause as the Maccabees when he insisted that Jewish followers of Yeshua remain circumcised and “not remove the marks of circumcision.”
Gentile believer Dr. E.F. Stroeter wrote the following to Jews who follow Messiah in The Messianic Jew,
“You are to testify, in word and deed, that faith in the once rejected Messiah does not diminish or forfeit, in any degree or sense, your rightful share in all the hopes and aspirations of your nation, based on the oath-bound promises of God to the fathers. Your very title to the name, ‘Israel of God’ is secured through faith in Jesus. You owe just this testimony to your blessed Lord as the true and only Messiah of your nation. Millions of Gentiles can bear witness to His saving power and grace. You alone can and must uphold His claim upon your nation.”
The Messiah Serves Israel and the Nations
The New Testament teaches that the Jewish people should remain distinct from the nations because Israel remains set apart from the nations, and remaining set apart will bring God glory. There are still promises and prophecies yet to be fulfilled that depend on Israel remaining visibly set apart from the nations.
Romans 15:7–10 says,
“Therefore accept one another just as Messiah has also accepted you, to the glory of God. For I declare that Messiah has become a servant to the circumcised for the sake of God’s truth, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy. As it is written, ‘For this reason I will give You praise among the Gentiles, and I will sing to Your name.’ And again, it says, ‘Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people.’”
Messiah Yeshua serves Israel and the nations to bring a renewed harmony between them. Yeshua serves Israel to show that God has been truthful in His promises to bring a Messiah and to confirm the promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, namely, that Abraham will be the father of many nations and that one day Israel and the nations will be united together in peace (Isaiah 2:2–4).
A Future Peace Through Messiah
For these prophecies to be fulfilled, all Jews—especially those who follow Yeshua as Messiah—must fulfill God’s calling to be set apart from the nations. Then, the world will see God’s promises to Israel confirmed, and the nations will come alongside Israel in worshipping the one true God.
While the tragedy of conflict between Israel and the nations predates the Maccabees and continues today, tragically even by the institutional Church itself, there will be a day when Messiah Yeshua, the Light of the World, performs a miracle that we did not see during Hanukkah. He will return and bring perfect peace and reconciliation between Israel and the nations.
