Maccabees and the current climate

There has been much hue and cry about the events taking place in the Church lately. Some say that the Pope has gone too far. Others say not far enough and leave us wondering how much worse it can be. Yet others don’t even realize that anything is going on. Most all descry the suffering and hardship we are set to endure. Where is God in all of this?

Right where He has always been, loving and caring for us. But where are we? Whose side are we on?

In 2 Maccabees Chapter 6, the Jews are facing yet another persecution. Chapter 6: 1-2 says, “Not long after this, the king sent an Athenian senator to compel the Jews to forsake the laws of their fathers and cease to live by the laws of God, and also to pollute the temple in Jerusalem and call it the temple of Olympian Zeus.” Evil things were carried on in the temple. Verse 6: “A man could neither keep the sabbath, nor observe the feasts of his fathers, nor so much as confess himself to be a Jew.” Verses 7-9 continue, “On the monthly celebration of the king’s birthday, the Jews were taken, under bitter constraint, to partake of the sacrifices; and when the feast of Dionysus came, they were compelled to walk in the procession in honor of Dionysus, wearing wreaths of ivy. At the suggestion of Ptolemy a decree was issued to the neighboring Greek cities, that they should adopt the same policy toward the Jews and make them partake of the sacrifices, and should slay those who did not choose to change over to Greek customs. One could see, therefore, the misery that had come upon them.”

But has God forsaken His people? Certainly not. The writer says in Verse 12 – 13, “Now I urge those who read this book not to be depressed by such calamities, but to recognize that these punishments were designed not to destroy but to discipline our people. In fact, not to let the impious alone for long, but to punish them immediately, is a sign of great kindness.” Verse 16 says, “Therefore he never withdraws his mercy from us. Though he disciplines us with calamities, he does not forsake his own people.”

God was giving the Jews a chance to repent and turn their hearts back towards Him. No matter what they suffered or even if they faced death, if they persevered in love and obedience to God, their ultimate reward would be great. 

A scribe named Eleazar was being forced to abandon the laws of God by eating “swine’s flesh.” But rather than having his life spared if he did this, he chose death “welcoming death with honor rather than life with pollution.” His friends urged him to pretend to acquiesce so that he could live and no one would know. But it wasn’t just about his own life. He worried that it would look to everyone, especially the young, that obeying God wasn’t important. In Verses 24 – 26 he says, “Such pretense is not worthy of our time of life,’ he said, ‘lest many of the young should suppose that Eleazar in his ninetieth year has gone over to an alien religion, and through my pretense, for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they should be led astray because of me, while I defile and disgrace my old age. For even if for the present I should avoid the punishment of men, yet whether I live or die I shall not escape the hands of the Almighty.” He concludes by saying, “Therefore, by manfully giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the revered and holy laws.”

So that’s it. Whether it is the Church or the government, there is a higher law. Which side will you be on?