Best Hanukkah Gift Ever
As a boy growing up in a politically liberal, all-guns-are-anathema family in New York City, my interest in firearms was suppressed. After moving from the city in my early twenties, I finally got to indulge my childhood fascination. My new non-gun-averse friends took me plinking for gophers and hunting quail and deer. I was a failure as a hunter…but I had a blast anyway.
My wife, Cynthia, was not wild about guns but she patiently indulged me as these opportunities arose. So, you can imagine my utter shock and elation when for my thirtieth birthday she surprised me with a twelve-gauge shotgun!
Had I purchased one for myself, it would have been a brand new semi-automatic shotgun, with interchangeable choke tubes and barrels, shock suppression, and every other bell and whistle available. Yet not even a rig like that could top Cynthia’s gift – a well-used pump action shotgun lacking all of the afore-mentioned.
What made this gift outstanding was not the shotgun itself but what it represented – a priceless self-sacrificial love. That shotgun said to me that Cynthia understands and cherishes who I am and acts on it at personal expense. The gift I was given was vastly greater than the one I might have chosen for myself.
The best gifts are not beautiful, expensive, or even what we think we want. The best gifts are meaningful; they say, “I love you” by communicating, “I understand who you are.”
It was during Hanukkah that Yeshua (Jesus) pointed to Himself as just such a gift. With the Maccabee victory over the Greeks on their minds during Hanukkah (the Feast of Dedication, John 10:22ff), the Jewish leadership at the time of Jesus had a vivid mental picture of the “gift” they wanted.
When they said, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” They were asking, “Are you the gift we want, a Maccabee-like Messiah who will ascend David’s throne as king in Jerusalem, vanquish our Roman overlords, drive them from the land, and bring peace, prosperity, and justice to Israel, thus establishing God’s promised kingdom throughout the earth?” Nothing less would make them happy.
Yeshua replied, “I told you, and you do not believe” and explained why many were struggling to recognize Him as Messiah. He was offering something greater than mere political deliverance (John 10:28). Then He shocked them by saying, “I and the Father are one,” a direct claim to deity and equality with God!
Why, at Hanukkah, did Yeshua point to His deity in response to their question about the Messiah? Because He was offering a gift vastly more valuable, the one they would not have chosen for themselves.
Like us, the religious leaders of Yeshua’s day thought they knew that what they needed and wanted could be provided by political, economic, and social means. They assumed that if God provided the right man to rule on Israel’s throne with enough power and authority, he would rid them of their enemies, bringing peace and prosperity to their nation.
Yeshua knew that even if they got what they wanted, it would not be enough.
The Maccabees themselves experienced this. Their 165 BC victory over Antiochus IV Epiphanes and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple, both hard-won military and political struggles, were short-lived. By 67 BC the corruption of Israel’s leadership, themselves descended from the Maccabees, resulted in a civil war, and the conquest of Jerusalem by Rome’s General Pompey.
Yeshua understood the reason for this failure. Until our in-born rebellion against God’s rule in our lives is transformed, and His Kingdom is established on earth, we are doomed to live out the same failures and defeats, generation after generation.
In the wake of the horrors of October 7 in Israel and the subsequent display of worldwide antisemitism, my people (the Jewish people) are longing once again for our enemy’s defeat so we can live in peace. And like our ancestors, the Maccabees and the people of Yeshua’s day, my people’s hope is in military and political leaders. They are unaware that even the best outcome of the current conflict will be temporary.
What we really need is not new leaders, but new life, something God alone provides. By pointing to His deity during Hanukkah, Yeshua is saying, “I am the gift you really need, offered in love and at great personal cost.”
As we pray for Israel’s military victory over Hamas, and a just and peaceful political future for Gazans and Israelis alike, let us not fail to pray for many to find the narrow path leading to life, and the lasting peace of Messiah’s millennial rule on earth.
“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. ”
May we be among the faithful who cry out night and day, longing for the justice of Messiah’s return!
“…now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? ‘I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?’”
Written by Dan, Life in Messiah Board member
What gift have you received that meant more than its price tag?
Will you join us in praying for the Jewish people and Israelis to see the Light of Messiah this Hanukkah season?
Don’t know much about Hanukkah? Read more here.