It’s rarely easy being Jewish. From the time the Babylonians destroyed Solomon’s Temple in 586 B.C., the Jewish people have been under Gentile domination. Even today every country on Earth thinks it has the right to tell the State of Israel what to do—where to place its capital, where it can build housing for its people, and how much force it can use to defend itself. The list goes on. For centuries the Jews have suffered persecution, torture, and murder; yet God preserves them because He loves them (Dt. 7: 8; Rom. 11: 28). And they continue to be an example to the world of perseverance in the face of adversity. At sundown on December 20, Jewish peo- ple around the world will begin the eight-day celebra- tion of Hanukkah by light- ing the first of eight Hanukkah candles. Most of us know the story of Hanukkah. In the second century B.C., the evil Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV, tried to assimilate the Jewish people into Greek culture and destroy Judaism. He forbade cir- cumcision and Torah study, desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem by sacrificing a pig on the altar, dedicated the Temple to Zeus, and murdered anyone who did not conform. Some estimate he killed more than 100,000 Jews. He was so wicked and depraved that he is considered a type of the future Antichrist in the book of Daniel. In the village of Modiin in Judea, the Jewish priest
Hanukkah:
A Story of Courage
(Kenneth C. Zirkel/iStockphoto)
Mattathias refused to cooperate. He and his five sons,
one of whom became
known as Judah the
Maccabee, courageously
stood up for truth. They
killed the soldiers trying to
force them to forsake
Yahweh and led a rebellion
that resulted in the Jewish
people retaking the Temple
in 165 B.C. and restoring
worship of the one true
God: the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob.
When Mattathias and
his sons decided to defy
the authorities, they had no
idea how things would
turn out. They could easily
have been killed. Yet they
decided they would rather
die fighting for truth and
freedom than debase themselves serving a false god.
Today many Christians
around the world find
themselves in a similar
situation. In fact, Christian
persecution is so severe that
Raymond Ibrahim, with the
David Horowitz Freedom
Center and Middle East
Forum, has begun writing a
monthly column about it.
“Most religious persecution
in the Muslim world is by
far directed against
Christians,” he wrote.
by Lorna Simcox
ISRAEL MY GLORY
