The might and all the resources of the empire of Antiochus
Epiphanes was turned against this little band of Israelites who refused to bow
down and worship as he commanded. The king
exhausted his treasuries and went to get more money from the people of Persia
to replace the monies he spent on fighting the men of Judas Maccabeus. He sent the entire army against them and gave
them all an entire year's wages such was his wrath against these rebels. It seems a ridiculous show of force against a
relatively small band but perhaps this would show them who was king. In addition, once the conquest was complete,
and it was indeed to be complete, not a trace of this nation was to remain,
their land would be given by lot to others.
Slave traders swept down in anticipation of the victory, eager to snatch
up all the people remaining that they might be sold to the nations. Not only were the armies gathering, so were
the vultures in preparation for the spoils of whatever was left over
afterwards.
Is there anything too difficult for Jesus? Obviously the answer is, no, He can do
anything. This scene immediately follows
the Transfiguration. He and the three
closest disciples, Peter, James and John, have just had the true mountaintop
experience and now they return to the mundane world to find a controversy
engulfing the rest of the disciples. A man
has brought his son who is possessed by a demon bent on the child's destruction
in the hopes surely of finding Jesus and all he finds are these disciples who
have tried without success to cast out this demonic power. Jesus' frustration boils over and he quickly
deals with the problem. Later, He
explains here that the problem with the disciples' efforts is a lack of
faith. In another version of the story
He says that this kind comes out with prayer.
If we put the two together we can perhaps see that the problem is that
they have misplaced faith. Their faith
might perhaps have been in their own power to do the job rather than God's. The
only way to see it sometimes is to be in over your head.
As the armies of Gog and Magog have been destroyed and the
people find themselves free of their enemies the Lord comes in judgment and
then the new heavens and the new earth come down. His kingdom has come in response to the prayers
of His people. It is impossible for us
to imagine the splendor of the new creation, we have only the fallen one as our
idea of what it might be like. As much
beauty and majesty as we see now it pales in comparison to that which is to
come. Only then will we see what a mess
we have made of God's creation and we will unreservedly give our judgment of
good to this sight. Clearly this will
not be enjoyed by all, there is a judgment and those whose actions are not in
keeping with a renewed self by the power of the Holy Spirit will not
participate in it. We need to see a
marriage of faith with action in our lives if we are to have claim on this
wonderful inheritance.
No comments:
Post a Comment