John 1:5 AMPC
“Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, awesome in splendor, doing wonders?” Exodus 15:11 AMPC
The above scripture was also the motto of Judah, son of Mattatias, the leader of the Maccabees. When his father died of an illness, Judah took the lead in gathering a small band of Jewish brothers to rise up in courage and revolt against their evil Greek Assyrian oppressors during the time of Alexander the Great.
The Greeks, led by Antiochus, desecrated God‘s Temple after forbidding the Jews to worship God and follow their Torah teachings and customs. Even the flames of the menorah were put out. The enemy then erected false idols and dedicated the Temple to the Greek god Zeus by sacrificing pigs at the altar.
When Judah and his 2,000 brothers took on the 20,000 Assyrians, they were miraculously given victory by the “Arm” of the Lord. They then cleaned (God’s) house, getting rid of every false idol, and rededicated the Temple to the Lord!
Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights celebrating that rededication and God’s power and supernatural provision!
When it was time for them to light the menorah in the Holy Place, there was only one night’s worth of sanctified oil found. Yet once again, through the Lord’s creative miracle, the menorah stay lit for eight nights (8=new beginnings).
The Hebrew initials of the first line of the scripture above (Judah’s motto, Exodus 15:11) spell MACCABEE. This word is so close to the Hebrew word for “HAMMER,”Judah was given the name “The Hammer.” Since then, the name Maccabee was designated for Judah and the group of his revolutionary warriors who reclaimed Jerusalem.
Recently, I wrote a post about a Word the Lord gave me referencing Arm & Hammer baking soda and the Justice He was getting ready to bring down on the powers of darkness working against America and His people.
A few nights later, Holy Spirit woke me up in the middle of the night and gave me the word “Anvil.” After asking Him more about it and doing a little research, I realized the anvil is more than just the tool blacksmiths used to mold metal with the hammer.
The “Hammer and Anvil” is a military tactic in which there’s one force that remains stationary (holding the line) to pin the enemy while a mobile force comes from behind encircling, entrapping and defeating him.
The Maccabees victory was the first use of guerrilla warfare as well as the first war fought over principal and religious freedom, paralleling our 1776 American Revolution… paralleling our present day “Reformation.”
The “Hammer and Anvil” tactic and the Maccabees’ freedom and victory are pictures of the Lord’s battle plan to deliver America in this hour. Beloved, hold the line and let your light shine! The Lord’s explosive power will soon shock the world. His lightning Rod of Justice will expose the entirety of the deepest lies and evils. And His glory will be released for the win!
The lampstand (menorah) is the Word of God; Jesus. The Light of the world, is the center shaft. The branches on each side are the church in which the flames all point inward to Him alone, the One in our midst! No matter what you see in the natural, Jesus will illumine your darkness. It is as light to Him. And because He “snuffed out” His enemy at the cross, nothing can extinguish Holy Spirit’s fire here and now!
“And in the midst of the lampstands [One] like a Son of Man, clothed with a robe which reached to His feet and with a girdle of gold about His breast…His head and His hair were white like white wool, [as white] as snow, and His eyes [flashed] like a flame of fire. And the Ever-living One [I AM living in the eternity of the eternities]. I died, but see, I AM alive forevermore; and I possess the keys of death and Hades (the realm of the dead).”
Revelation 1:13, 14, 18 AMPC
Resting In His Love-Light,
Annalee Reyes