Why Christmas Lights?

Other than the obvious the Star of Bethlahem.

What about the Feast of Dedication also called the Festival of Lights?

It all started between the old and new testaments...

The story takes place about two-hundred years before the birth of Christ during the time of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. A small group of Israelites led by a family of Aaronic priests called the Maccabees had risen against their Greek Syrian oppressors in what is called the Maccabean Revolt.

This rebellion was not just a fight against a foreign occupying presence, but a spiritual battle against the assimilation of the Jewish people into Greek culture and idolatry. The sacrifice of pigs had desecrated the Temple,

The 8 days of the "Feast of Dedication" beginning on the 25th Day of the 9 month Kislev (our December) was to celebrate the Maccabees victory over the Greek oppression and rededication of the temple in Jerusalem.

It was called the "Festival of Lights" because upon recapturing the temple, the priests discovered there was only one crucible of pure olive oil, enough to burn for only one day.

Nevertheless, they filled the menorah cups and lit the lamps with this small amount of oil they had found. Miraculously, the oil in the cups of the menorah was enough to keep the menorah burning for eight days,

The festival of lights reminds us that without it, there would be no Christmas. Antiochus was a genocidal maniac who wanted to destroy the Jewish people. He’s not the first, nor is he the last. If he succeeded, then Jesus—the son of David and the son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1)—would not have been born.

God preserved the Jewish people so that the Jewish Messiah could be born. The angel told Mary, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:32–33).

John 10:22–23 tells us, “Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts . . .”

Jesus left Galilee to celebrate this feast in Jerusalem. It was there He revealed His own deity, declaring, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).

This story is a prophetic revelation of the return of Christ and the rebuilding and re-dedication of His earthly Temple in Jerusalem, but more significantly, the restoration and re-dedication of the Jewish people as God’s bride.

We, who are in Christ, have become the temples of the living God—circumcised in the heart by the burning fire of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus returns for us, it is written, “the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

The "Festival of Lights" reminds us that God is eternal and that He is the light of all men.

Like the supernatural presence of God expressed through the eternal flame burning for the Maccabees... Jesus became the incarnate, physical expression of God's presence, the LIGHT OF THE WORLD, who came to dwell among us and give us the eternal light of God's life.

It is interesting that they were encouraged to place the menorah in a window or door viewable to the public, to proclaim the miracle of God.

Jesus made a similar proclamation when He said to His disciples, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16).

When you turn on your Christmas lights remember the miraculous story of provision of the "Festival of Lights" and may His eternal light burn forever in our hearts and may we let our lights shine for the world to see the love and glory of our King.