Then the LORD spoke to Moses saying, “Command the children of Israel to take to you pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually. Outside the veil of the Testimony, in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron will order it from the evening to the morning before the LORD continually: it will be a statute forever in your generations. He will set in order the lamps on the pure menorah before the LORD continually.” Lev. 24:1-4 One New Man Bible
In these verses, God is commanding that specially prepared oil be continuously brought for the priest to keep the menorah – the lamp – continuously lit. Hanukkah commemorates the miraculous provision of this specially prepared oil after the Maccabean Revolt.
About a hundred years after Alexander the Great conquered the Holy Land, his successors had long departed from his relatively benevolent rule. Antiochus Epiphanies prohibited the practice of the Jewish religion and tortuously murdered all who clung to it. Antiochus desecrated the Temple by requiring the sacrifice of pigs (a non-kosher animal) on the altar. Outraged Jews joined forces to throw off their oppressors and take back their Temple. Their unlikely military victory is not what is celebrated at Hanukkah.
Tradition says that when the Jewish people cleansed the Temple, they found only enough consecrated oil for one day. And it would take 8 days to produce a new batch of pure oil. They lit the menorah anyway. And it miraculously burned for 8 days! That is why Hanukkah is also called the Festival of Lights.
There is only one reference to it in the Bible; in John 10:22 John refers to it as the “Feast of Dedication.” During Jesus’ sermon at the “Feast of Dedication,” He gives the plainest statement of His true identity. The statement is so clear that the leaders want to stone Him for blasphemy!
I think it is interesting and ironic that at the Festival of Lights, He who is the “Light of the World,” gave the clearest statement of His identity. In other words, the “Light of the World” is shedding light on His identity at the Festival of Lights. The "Light of the World" is proclaiming the miraculous provision of Himself at the Festival created by men to honor God for the miraculous provision of light-giving oil. That makes me giggle!
Happy Hanukkah!