Day 2 of 8 Days of Hanukkah

Prophetic Symbolism Part I

Hopefully, you’ve read and are familiar with the story of Hanukkah from Day 1

In Days 2, 3, and 4, I’m going to show you how the story gives us a picture of the biblical end times and the coming of the Antichrist. One of the most popularly known parts of the end times is the appearance of the Antichrist and his “Abomination of Desolation,” which is mentioned six times in the Bible by four different people over a span of 600 years.

Using that event as the focus of the Hanukkah story, I’ve broken the story into three parts and their prophetic symbolism as follows:

I - The Time Preceding Antiochus IV and His Abomination of Desolation

Part I shows how the wars and turbulent geo-political landscape of 2500-2200 years ago preceding King Antiochus IV’s invasion of Israel and desecration of the Jewish Temple on Kislev 25, 168 BCE are symbolic of the wars in modern history and what is and will be happening in geo-politics in the end times preceding the revealing of the biblical Antichrist. 

II - King Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Abomination of Desolation

Part II shows how King Antiochus IV’s invasion of Israel and his desecration of the Temple (the Abomination of Desolation) are symbolic of the time in the future when the biblical Antichrist will reveal himself on the global scene and his Abomination of Desolation will take place in, presumably, what is a yet-to-be-built, new Jewish Temple in Israel.

III – The Maccabean Revolt After the Abomination of Desolation

Part III shows how the historical “Maccabean Revolt,” which followed Antiochus IV's Abomination of Desolation, led by Judas Maccabee with a small remnant of devout Jewish people against Antiochus IV and his army is symbolic of the future conflict between the Antichrist and his international forces (political, economic, and military) against anyone or any nation who defies him and his rule, particularly the defiant Jewish people and the defiant Christians.

Today in Day 2, we will cover Part I below.

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I - The Time Preceding Antiochus IV and His Abomination of Desolation

What we’re identifying here are the world wars, the world super-powers that came and went, the changing geo-political (and cultural) landscapes, and the foreign nations’ control or influence upon the nation of Israel in the centuries preceding Antiochus IV’s invasion of Israel in 168 BCE. Then we will compare that to the 20th century CE and more recent events in history regarding Israel.

To start, let’s summarize middle eastern history leading up to the time of the story of Hanukkah in the context of the vision which the biblical prophet Daniel saw in Daniel 7:2-7.

Daniel 2:2-3 2 Daniel spoke, saying, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea. 3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other.

Explanation Daniel is seeing a big-picture, fast-forwarded vision of the four major gentile nations that will rule the world concerning Israel. “The world empires of Scripture became the world empires as they seized and held Babylon. In the providence of God, world rule, originally intended for the Jews, was now vested instead in Nebuchadnezzar, the first Babylonian king of prophecy, the first king to conquer Jerusalem and hold it in bondage to Gentile power.”[1]

 

Daniel 2:4 4 ”The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.

Explanation This is the rise of the Babylonian empire. Noteworthy events listed as follows:

2000 BCE Babylon Empire controlled the Fertile Crescent[2]

605 - 562 BCE Nebuchadnezzar II is king of Babylon.[3]

597 – 539 BCE Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II captures Jerusalem, and the Jews are exiled in Babylonia.[4]

 

Daniel 2:5 5 “And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: ‘Arise, devour much flesh!’

Explanation This is the rise of the Persian empire which conquered the Babylonian empire. Noteworthy events listed as follows:

539 BCE Fall of Babylon, conquered by Cyrus of Persia. Return of the Jews to Israel[5]

485 BCE Babylon is destroyed by Xerxes, King of Persia.[6]

 

Daniel 2:6 6 “After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.

Explanation This is the rise of the Greek empire which conquered the Persian Empire. Noteworthy events listed as follows:

480 - 323 BCE Classical Period in Greece.[7]

479 BCE Xerxes' Persian forces defeated by Greece in Plataea, effectively ending Persia's imperial ambitions in Greece.[8]

336 - 323 BCE Reign of Alexander the Great (over modern-day Greece, the Mediterranean, the middle east and into Asia and India).[9]

 

Daniel 2:7 7 “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.”

Explanation This is the rise of the Roman empire which conquered the Greek Empire. Noteworthy events listed as follows:

100 - 44 BCE Life of Gaius Julius Caesar, founder of the Roman Empire.

31 BCE Greece absorbed into Roman Empire.

 

The story of Hanukkah occurs as the Greek empire is being conquered by and absorbed into the Roman Empire, about 150 years after the death of Greek ruler, Alexander the Great.  

Alexander the Great died in 323 BCE during the time known biblically as the “Time Between the Testaments” (the approximately four and a half centuries between the time of the book of Malachi and the birth of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament). 

After Alexander’s death, his empire was divided among four of his generals (represented by the four wings and four heads in Daniel’s prophecy). These four generals became the kings of their respective territories of the Greek empire. Of the four generals, General Seleucus became ruler over Syria, Upper Asia, Babylon, and the East. General Ptolemy became ruler over Egypt, “Palestine” (Israel) and Arabia.

Summarizing the above, there were roughly six centuries in which the global super-power that governed most of the land ranging from modern-day Europe, across the middle east, to Asia changed four times through the course of world and regional wars. Those global super-powers were the ancient empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and the Roman Empire, which came to power in the century preceding Christ’s birth. 

All during this time, the world saw a massively, changing geo-political landscape in which, as Phillips describes it: “Each of the four empires rode to power on the crest of a tidal wave of war.”[10] And each of those empires held control of, or influence over, Israel.

Now let’s understand that to see its prophetic symbolism of modern history. 

The Ottoman Empire ruled over land in the middle east that included Israel from c.1300 to 1922, while the British Empire ruled over most of the world in the 19th century CE. World War I changed the global, geo-political landscape. After World War I, the Ottoman Empire was replaced by the modern state of Turkey and many of its territories became mandates under British or French rule. The land of “Palestine” (a name given to the land of Israel by the Romans, in mockery of Israel’s ancient enemy, the Philistines) came under British rule.

“At the war’s end, the future of Palestine was problematic. Great Britain, which had set up a military administration in Palestine after capturing Jerusalem, was faced with the problem of having to secure international sanction for the continued occupation of the country in a manner consistent with its ambiguous, seemingly conflicting wartime commitments.”[11]

The land of Israel became full of conflict between the indigenous Arabic peoples and the waves of Jewish immigrants to the land from Russia and eastern Europe in the early 20th century. In 1922, the League of Nations (predecessor to the United Nations) approved a “British Mandate” where England maintained administration over “Palestine” and the area east of the Jordan River, while international and local politics remained in conflict over how to apportion land for the Arabic and Jewish people in Israel.

World War II brought more changes to the global, geo-political landscape. With the rise of Nazi Germany before and during the war, along with the Holocaust, more Jewish people fled the terror of Hitler and migrated to Israel.

At the conclusion of the war, the British Mandate ended, and Britain, “...unable to find a practical solution, referred the problem to the United Nations, which in November 1947 voted to partition Palestine. The Jews were to possess more than half of Palestine, although they made up less than half of Palestine’s population. The Palestinian Arabs, aided by volunteers from other countries, fought the Zionist forces, but by May 14, 1948, the Jews had secured full control of their U.N.-allocated share of Palestine and also some Arab territory. On May 14, Britain withdrew with the expiration of its mandate, and the State of Israel was proclaimed. The next day, forces from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded Israel.”[12]

Following the Jewish declaration of its independent state, Israel has endured five wars, the “Al-Aqsa Intifada” (2000-2010), and the current war with Hamas. All of which have been started or provoked by Arab nations against Israel since 1948.

In conclusion, you can see how the turbulence of world and regional wars, along with international political conflict regarding Israel was a significant characteristic in ancient time preceding the story of Hanukkah. 

Likewise, we see very similar global events in the last 150 years or so leading up to the prophesied re-birth of the nation of Israel in 1948, the last 75 years of Israel's struggle with the antisemitism of the world and international organizations, such as the United Nations, and the more current, global, anti-Israel response to the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.

 

ENDNOTES

[1]Exploring the Book of Daniel – An Expository Commentary, Phillips, John, p.112

[2] World History website. Babylon Timeline. https://www.worldhistory.org/timeline/babylon/ Accessed 8 December 2023.

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid

[6] Ibid

[7] Ibid

[8] Ibid

[9] Ibid

[10]Exploring the Book of Daniel – An Expository Commentary,  p.113

[11] The Encyclopedia Britannica Online. https://www.britannica.com/place/Palestine/World-War-I-and-after

Accessed 8 December 2023.

[12] World History website. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/state-of-israel-proclaimed Accessed 8 December 2023.

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