Rededication from Defilement: an audio meditation
Several years ago i started observing the “Feast of the Dedication”. It's the eight-day Jewish winter holiday commonly known as Hanukkah. Hanukkah literally means dedication and it commemorates a time in Jewish history when the Temple was rededicated back to the LORD after it had been defiled.
(More on the history of Hanukkah below.)
So...what's the big deal?
New Testament Scripture says over and over that GOD does not live in temples made by human hands, but that WE are the temple of the Living GOD; He dwells IN us.
I simply see Hanukkah as a time marker just before the new year. As the temple of the LORD, it's a kind of wake-up call on the calendar to rededicate myself to Him again for the next twelve months.
I ask the LORD if there is any way i have chosen to be more like the world than like Him.
I ask Him to cleanse me of any hidden defilement from the previous year and then to restore His light, His presence in me.
Psalm 139:23+24 is a great prayer to use for such a purpose.
After doing study on these verses, here’s my personal version...
Search me thoroughly O GOD; explore me and know the inner workings of the heart.
Examine me deeply and know my disquieting, anxious thoughts…those thoughts that agitate, distract and divide my mind.
Cause all impurities to be removed from the gold of my being.
See if there are any idolatrous pathways I’m walking on.
Give attention to my sorrowful habits and the direction of my life.
And lead me back to YOU, the glorious everlasting way of true life.
I recorded an audio prayer (above) from Psalm 139 that invites GOD to search us and cleanse us of any and all defilement as we desire to be rededicated back to Him. May it bless you and bring His presence to you in a new way.
(If you are interested in knowing more about my path of study and how i create a personalized scriptural prayer contact me at david@the-heart-trust.com.)
David
The story behind the Feast of Dedication is essentially this:
Around 200 years before the birth of Jesus, Jerusalem was under the rule of the Greco-Syrian empire. Because of political and economic reasons, some of the wealthy Jewish families chose to adopt the Greek way of living and repudiate their Jewish heritage. These Hellenized Jewish men went as far as to “remove their marks of circumcision” to be like the Greeks around them.
In 168 BCE, Antiochus Epiphanes came to Judea. He cozied up with the Hellenized Jews who had already left their faith. He eventually outlawed Judaism and persecuted to the death those who disobeyed. He sacked the Temple, placed a statue of Zeus there and sacrificed pigs on the altar, thus defiling that holy space.
Judah Maccabee (“the Hammer”) and his brothers led a two-year uprising that brought deliverance to the Jewish people from Greco-Syrian control.
After the enemy was defeated, Judah and his brothers found the Temple abandoned, profaned, and the gates burned down. They chose qualified priest who purified the Temple and removed everything that was defiled and unclean. They repaired the Temple, inside and out. They made new utensils for worship, and rebuilt the alar of incense. When the rededication process began, there was only enough oil to fuel the Temple lights for one day. Miraculously, the oil fed the flames for eight days until the newly untainted, properly prepared oil was ready for temple service.
Judah, his brothers, and the rest of Israel decreed that this rededication should be celebrated each year, lasting for eight days. It was celebrated in Jesus' time (John 10:22) and is still celebrated today.