As the fame of Judas began to grow, the king became
angry. Antiochus had heard enough about
this hero of the Jews and was determined to destroy this people
altogether. His anger caused him to make
decisions that depleted his treasury and forced him to go to Persia to seek
additional funds. While he was gone he left Lysias in charge of both the
regional affairs of the Middle Eastern portion of the kingdom as well as the
guardianship of the king’s son. Lysias
was commanded to destroy the people of Judea and Jerusalem, to wipe them off
the earth. His response was to send
40,000 troops and 7,000 cavalry against them.
If you think of William Wallace, immortalized in the movie Braveheart,
you will have some sense of the force of Judas Maccabeus against whom Lysias
sent this army. It would have been a
rout that would barely have been a fight at all they were so outnumbered and
they had no cavalry.
The Reformation Bible study notes make the comparison with
Moses coming down the mountain and finding faithlessness when Jesus here comes
down from the mount of Transfiguration to find the disciples unable to heal the
boy with the demon. The problem seems to
be that “the disciples” are unable to heal they boy. Have they lost their faith or is the problem
that their faith, at least in this instance, is grounded in themselves rather
than in God? I have certainly heard
people say that others didn’t get healed because they lacked faith but here the
faith that isn’t in evidence isn’t the faith of the man who brought his child
but the disciples who can’t heal him.
The disciples’ question to Jesus after He rebuked and cast out the demon
perhaps gives us the insight we need, “Why could we not cast it out?” If their faith is not in the healer but in
themselves then healing is unlikely.
The new creation comes down out of heaven. All the language points back to Genesis and
the creation of all things for, as we are told, the old heavens and earth have passed
away and the sea is no more. The language
is also incredibly similar to the book of John when it speaks of God dwelling
or tabernacling among His people. That
language is found in John’s statement, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among
us.” We need heroes but what we really
need is the Alpha and Omega to act to make all things new. We are called to be faithful, conquerors, and
as we do we are God’s children and He is our God. If we would share in the rewards of eternal
life in the new creation, we must heed the warning in verse 8 regarding who
will not share in that blessedness. Faith
is knowing these words are trustworthy and true and acting in accordance with
your knowledge.
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