Apart from the official Hanukkah celebration, we read about a number of dedication celebrations in God's Word.
1) Dedicating the tabernacle for 12 days. Each prince of Israel dedicated the altar for a day each (Number 7:10-11, 84, 88). This was the first dedication we read about.
2) Dedicating a new house (Deuteronomy 20:5). It is biblical to dedicate a new house.
3) Dedicating Solomon's temple which he built for the Lord (1 Kings 8:62 and 2 Chronicles 7:5, 9).
4) Dedicating the rebuilt temple when they came back from Babylon--Zerubbabel's temple (Ezra 6:16).
5) Dedicating the rebuilt walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 12:27).
And there is one more! You'll never guess!
It’s found in Proverbs 22:6: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." The word "train" is “hanuk,” the verb of hanukkah, meaning "to initiate, dedicate, consecrate." It is not enough to celebrate Hanukkah for eight days. As parents, we are FULLTIME HANUKKAH CELEBRATORS!
When we realize that training our children means to dedicate them to the Lord, it gives us a much larger and loftier vision. Everything we do and plan for our children should be done in the light of dedicating them to the Lord and setting them apart for His service. It's not a one-time dedication. It’s a verb which requires daily action.
When our children are disobedient or don't complete what we have asked them to, we can sometimes be lazy and let it go. But not if we understand we are daily dedicating them to the Lord. How can we let things go when we consecrating them to God's holy service? We have the responsibility to train them to obedient so they will be obedient to the Lord!
As children get older, they can become more worldly and want to do what other worldly teens are doing. We could think, "Oh that's the stage they are going through." But not if we understand that we are daily consecrating them to the Lord. We will pray up a storm. We will fight the devil. We will work with our children to keep them on the narrow road that leads to life. We will do everything to save them from the broad road that leads to destruction. WE ARE PROVERBS 22:6 HANUKKAH PARENTS!
When we “hanuk” our children, it determines how we educate our children. It would be ludicrous to send our children into an ungodly education system each day if we are daily consecrating them for God's purposes.
As we consecrate our children to the Lord, we recognize that they totally belong to the Lord for whatever time God has for them on this earth. Above everything else, we know that we are ultimately preparing them for eternity.
Every day is a day of dedicating our children to the Lord,
Raise your vision up to God’s vision for your children!
Blessings from Nancy Campbell