28 | To the Jew First
account of former saints’ sufferings. Says the Jewish historian:
‘They were whipped with rods, and their bodies were torn
to pieces, and they were crucified while they were still alive
and breathed!’ The apostle wrote of the same heroes of faith:
‘They were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they
might obtain a better resurrection; and others had trial of
cruel mockings and scourgings, yea moreover of bonds and
imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder,
were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered
about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted,
tormented (of whom the world was not worthy); they
wandered in deserts and mountains, and dens and caves of
the earth’ (Hebrews 11:35-38).”
JUDAS THE HAMMER
And then followed the spectacular ride of the five sons of that
devout priest Matthias, of the house of Hsmonaeus, and so his
family were called Hasmonaeans. This faithful priest has five sons,
of whom perhaps the most picturesque was Judas. So powerful
and so persistent were the exploits of this Judas, that they gave
him the name of Judas the Maccabean, which means, “Judas the
hammer.” Upon these Maccabeans centered and concentrated the
most fiendish darts of satanic fury; it would appear as though hell
itself was to be overturned in the devil’s desperate determination
to destroy the Jews. The deliverance of God came finally when
under the consummate skill of Maccabean leadership the great
battle against the forces of Lysias ended in a wonderful victory
for the Jews. The camp of the Jews was pitched at Mizpeh. With
ashes on their heads and sackcloth on their bodies, they fell down
before God in prayer and in confession. Eleazer, the brother of
Judas the Hammer, read from the Holy Scriptures as they fasted
and humbled themselves before the mighty One who had been
their help in ages past. He was their reliance in the hour of trial
now approaching. For their battle cry they took the words, “The
help of God” and so it was that God gave them victory.
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