No longer in bondage to the prefect law of liberty, but instead slaves to sin. Sin is the transgression of the law 1 john 3:4 and failure to repent from the same transgression of the law ends in hell and the lake of fire forever and ever. Luke 13:3, Hebrews 10:26-27
King James Version
26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

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Found OOMs ⚡️

A botanical garden sculpture, an eerie hourglass, and the Agilite.com logo

#dailyoom

Found OOMs ⚡️

A botanical garden sculpture, an eerie hourglass, and the Agilite.com logo

#dailyoom

Found OOMs ⚡️

A botanical garden sculpture, an eerie hourglass, and the Agilite.com logo

#dailyoom

FIRST MACCABEES

CHAPTER 6

As King Antiochus passed through the eastern provinces, he heard that in Persia there was a city, Elam, famous for its wealth in silver and gold, and that its temple was very rich, containing gold helmets, breastplates, and weapons left there by the first king of the Greeks, Alexander, son of Philip, king of Macedon. He went therefore and tried to capture and loot the city. But he could not do so, because his plan became known to the people of the city who rose up in battle against him. So he fled and in great dismay withdrew from there to return to Bavel.

While he was in Persia, a messenger brought him news that the armies that had gone into the land of Yehudah had been routed; that Lysias had gone at first with a strong army and been driven back; that the people of Yehudah had grown strong by reason of the arms, wealth, and abundant spoils taken from the armies they had cut down; that they had pulled down the abomination which he had built upon the altar in Yerushalayim; and that they had surrounded with high walls both the sanctuary, as it had been before, and his city of Beth-zur.

When the king heard this news, he was astonished and very much shaken. Sick with grief because his designs had failed, he took to his bed. There he remained many days, assailed by waves of grief, for he thought he was going to die. So he called in all his Friends and said to them: “Sleep has departed from my eyes, and my heart sinks from anxiety. I said to myself: ‘Into what tribulation have I come, and in what floods of sorrow am I now! Yet I was kindly and beloved in my rule.’ But I now recall the evils I did in Yerushalayim, when I carried away all the vessels of silver and gold that were in it, and for no cause gave orders that the inhabitants of Yehudah be destroyed. I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me; and now I am dying, in bitter grief, in a foreign land.”

Then he summoned Philip, one of his friends, and put him in charge of his whole kingdom. He gave him his diadem, his robe, and his signet ring, so that he might guide the king’s son Antiochus and bring him up to be king. So King Antiochus died there in the one hundred and forty-ninth year. When Lysias learned that the king was dead, he set up the king’s son Antiochus,whom he had reared as a child, to be king in his place; and he gave him the title Eupator.

Those in the citadel were hemming Yisrael in around the sanctuary, continually trying to harm them and to strengthen the gentiles. And so Yehudah planned to destroy them and assembled the people to besiege them. So in the one hundred and fiftieth year they assembled and besieged the citadel, for which purpose he constructed platforms and siege engines. But some of the besieged escaped, and some renegade Yisraeli joined them. They went to the king and said: “How long will you fail to do justice and to avenge our kindred? We agreed to serve your father and to follow his orders and obey his edicts. And for this our own people have become our enemies; they have put to death as many of us as they could find and have seized our inheritances. They have acted aggressively not only against us, but throughout their whole territory. Look! Today they have besieged the citadel in Yerushalayim in order to capture it, and they have fortified the sanctuary and Beth-zur. Unless you act quickly to prevent them, they will do even worse things than these, and you will not be able to stop them.”

When the king heard this he was enraged, and he called together all his friends, the officers of his army, and the commanders of the cavalry. Mercenary forces also came to him from other kingdoms and from the islands of the seas. His army numbered a hundred thousand footsoldiers, twenty thousand cavalry, and thirty-two elephants trained for war. They passed through Idumea and camped before Beth-zur. For many days they attacked it; they constructed siege engines, but the besieged made a sortie and burned these, and they fought bravely.

Then Yehudah marched away from the citadel and moved his camp to Beth-Zekaryah, opposite the king’s camp. The king, rising before dawn, moved his force hastily along the road to Beth-Zekaryah; and the troops prepared for battle and sounded the trumpet. They made the elephants drunk on the juice of grapes and mulberries to get them ready to fight. The beasts were distributed along the phalanxes, each elephant having assigned to it a thousand men in coats of mail, with bronze helmets on their heads, and five hundred picked cavalry. These accompanied the beast wherever it was; wherever it moved, they moved too and never left it. Each elephant was outfitted with a strong wooden tower, fastened to it by a harness; each tower held three soldiers who fought from it, besides the Indian driver. The remaining cavalry were stationed on one or the other of the two flanks of the army, to harass the enemy and to be protected by the phalanxes. When the sun shone on the gold and bronze shields, the mountains gleamed with their brightness and blazed like flaming torches. Part of the king’s army spread out along the heights, while some were on low ground, and they marched forward steadily in fitting order. All who heard the noise of their numbers, the tramp of their marching, and the clanging of the arms, trembled; for the army was very great and strong.

Yehudah with his army advanced to fight, and six hundred men of the king’s army fell. Eleazar, called Avaran, saw one of the beasts covered with royal armor and bigger than any of the others, and so he thought the king was on it. He gave up his life to save his people and win an everlasting name for himself. He dashed courageously up to it in the middle of the phalanx, killing men right and left, so that they parted before him. He ran under the elephant, stabbed it and killed it. The beast fell to the ground on top of him, and he died there. But when Yehudah's troops saw the strength of the royal army and the ardor of its forces, they retreated from them.

Some of the king’s army went up to Yerushalayim to attack them, and the king established camps in Yehudah and at Mount Tzion. He made peace with the people of Beth-zur, and they evacuated the city, because they had no food there to enable them to withstand a siege, for that was a Shabbath year in the land. The king took Beth-zur and stationed a garrison there to hold it. For many days he besieged the sanctuary, setting up platforms and siege engines, fire-throwers, catapults and mechanical bows for shooting arrows and projectiles. The defenders countered by setting up siege engines of their own, and kept up the fight a long time. But there were no provisions in the storerooms, because it was the seventh year, and the reserves had been eaten up by those who had been rescued from the gentiles and brought to Yehudah. Few men remained in the sanctuary because the famine was too much for them; the rest scattered, each to his own home.

Lysias heard that Philip, whom King Antiochus, before his death, had appointed to train his son Antiochus to be king, had returned from Persia and Media with the army that accompanied the king, and that he was seeking to take over the government. So he hastily decided to withdraw. He said to the king, the leaders of the army, and the soldiers: “We are growing weaker every day, our provisions are scanty, the place we are besieging is strong, and it is our duty to take care of the affairs of the kingdom. Therefore let us now come to terms with these people and make peace with them and all their nation. Let us grant them freedom to live according to their own laws as formerly; it was on account of their laws, which we abolished, that they became enraged and did all these things.”

The proposal pleased the king and the leaders; he sent peace terms to the Yehudym, and they accepted. So the king and the leaders swore an oath to them, and on these terms the Yehudym evacuated the fortification. But when the king entered Mount Tzion and saw how the place was fortified, he broke the oath he had sworn and gave orders to tear down the encircling wall. Then he departed in haste and returned to Antioch, where he found Philip in control of the city. He fought against him and took the city by force.

FIRST MACCABEES

CHAPTER 5

When the nations round about heard that the altar had been rebuilt and the sanctuary restored as before, they were enraged. So they decided to destroy the descendants of Ya'akov who were among them, and they began to kill and eradicate the people.Then Yehudah attacked the Edomy at Akrabattene in Idumea, because they were blockading Yisrael; he dealt them a heavy blow, humbled and despoiled them. He also remembered the malice of the Baeany,who had become a snare and a stumbling block to the people by ambushing them along the roads. He forced them to take refuge in towers, which he besieged; he put them under the ban and burned down their towers along with all who were in them. Then he crossed over to the Ammony, where he found a strong army and a large body of people with Timotiyos as their leader. He fought many battles with them, routed them, and struck them down. After seizing Yazer and its villages, he returned to Yehudah.

The gentiles in Gilead assembled to destroy the Yisraeli who were in their territory; these then fled to the stronghold of Dathema. They sent a letter to Yehudah and his brothers saying: “The gentiles around us have assembled against us to destroy us, and they are preparing to come and seize this stronghold to which we have fled. Timotiyos is the leader of their army. Come at once to rescue us from them, for many of us have fallen. All our kindred who were in the territory of the Tobiads have been killed; the gentiles have captured their wives, their children and their belongings, and they have slain there about a thousand men.”

While they were reading this letter, suddenly other messengers, with garments torn, arrived from The Galil to deliver a similar message: that “the inhabitants of Ptolemais, Tyre, and Tzidon, and the whole of gentile The Galil have joined forces to destroy us.” When Yehudah and the people heard this, a great assembly convened to consider what they should do for their kindred who were in distress and being attacked by enemies.

Yehudah said to his brother Shimon: “Choose men for yourself, and go, rescue your kindred in The Galil; my brother Yonathan and I will go to Gilead.”

He left Yoseph, son of Zekaryah, and Azaryah, leader of the people, with the rest of the army in Yehudah to guard it. He commanded them, “Take charge of these people, but do not join battle against the gentiles until we return.” Three thousand men were allotted to Shimon to go into The Galil, and eight thousand men to Yehudah, for Gilead.

Shimon went into The Galil and fought many battles with the gentiles. They were crushed before him, and he pursued them to the very gate of Ptolemais. About three thousand of the gentiles fell, and he gathered their spoils. He took with him the Yehudym who were in The Galil and in Arbatta, with their wives and children and all that they had, and brought them to Yehudah with great rejoicing.

Yehudah Maccabeus and his brother Yonathan crossed the Yarden and marched for three days through the wilderness. There they met some Nabateans,who received them peaceably and told them all that had happened to their kindred in Gilead: “Many of them are shut up in Botzrah, in Bosor near Alema, in Chaspho, Maked, and Carnaim”—all of these are large, fortified cities - “and some are shut up in other cities of Gilead. Tomorrow their enemies plan to attack the strongholds and to seize and destroy all these people in one day.”

Thereupon Yehudah suddenly changed direction with his army, marched across the wilderness to Botzrah, and captured the city. He put every male to the sword, took all their spoils, and set fire to the city. He led his army from that place by night, and they marched toward the stronghold. When morning came, they looked ahead and saw a countless multitude, with ladders and machines for capturing the stronghold, beginning to attack. When Yehudah perceived that the struggle had begun and that the noise of the battle was resounding to heaven with trumpet blasts and loud shouting, he said to the men of his army, “Fight for our kindred today.” He came up behind them with three columns blowing their trumpets and crying out in prayer. When the army of Timotiyos realized that it was Maccabeus, they fled before him, and he inflicted on them a great defeat. About eight thousand of their men fell that day.

Then he turned toward Alema and attacked and captured it; he killed every male, took spoils, and burned it down. From there he moved on and took Chaspho, Maked, Bosor, and the other cities of Gilead.

After these events Timotiyos assembled another army and camped opposite Raphon, on the other side of the wadi. Yehudah sent men to spy on the camp, and they reported to him: “All the gentiles around us have rallied to him, making a very large force; they have also hired Arabians to help them, and have camped beyond the wadi, ready to attack you.” So Yehudah went forward to meet them.

As Yehudah and his army were approaching the flowing wadi, Timotiyos said to the officers of his army: “If he crosses over to us first, we shall not be able to resist him; he will certainly defeat us. But if he is hesitant and camps on the other side of the river, we will cross over to him and defeat him.” But when Yehudah reached the flowing wadi, he stationed the officers of the people beside it and gave them this order: “Do not allow anyone to encamp; all must go into battle.” He was the first to cross to the attack, with all the people behind him, and all the gentiles were crushed before them. They threw away their arms and fled to the temple enclosure at Carnaim. But Yehudah's troops captured the city and burnt the temple enclosure with all who were in it. So Carnaim was subdued, and Yehudah met with no more resistance.

Then Yehudah assembled all the Yisraeli, great and small, who were in Gilead, with their wives and children and their belongings, a very large company, to go into the land of Yehudah. When they reached Ephron, a large and strongly fortified city along the way, they found it impossible to go around it on either the right or the left; they would have to march right through it. But the people in the city shut them out and blocked up the gates with stones. Then Yehudah sent them this peaceful message: “Let us cross your territory in order to reach our own; no one will harm you; we will only march through.” But they would not open to him. So Yehudah ordered a proclamation to be made in the camp that everyone should take up positions where they were. When the men of the army took up their positions, he assaulted the city all that day and night, and it was delivered into his hand. He put every male to the sword, leveled the city, took spoils and passed through it over the slain.

Then they crossed the Yarden to the great plain in front of Beth-shan; and Yehudah kept gathering the stragglers and encouraging the people the whole way, until he reached the land of Yehudah. They ascended Mount Tzion in joy and gladness and sacrificed burnt offerings, because not one of them had fallen; they had returned in safety.

In those days when Yehudah and Yonathan were in the land of Gilead, and Shimon his brother was in The Galil opposite Ptolemais, Yoseph, son of Zekaryah, and Azaryah, the leaders of the army, heard about the brave deeds and the fighting that they were doing. They said, “Let us also make a name for ourselves by going out and fighting against the gentiles around us.” They gave orders to those of their army who were with them, and marched against Yamnia. But Gorgias and his men came out of the city to meet them in battle. Yoseph and Azaryah were routed and were pursued to the frontiers of Yehudah, and about two thousand Yisraeli fell that day. It was a great setback for the people, because they had not obeyed Yehudah and his brothers, thinking that they would do brave deeds. But they were not of the family through whom Yisrael’s deliverance was given.

The valiant Yehudah and his brothers were greatly honored in all Yisrael and among all the gentiles, wherever their name was heard; and people gathered about them and praised them.

Then Yehudah and his brothers went out and attacked the Edomy in the land toward the south; he took Chevron and its villages, and he destroyed its strongholds and burned the towers around it. He then set out for the land of the foreigners and passed through Marisa. On that day some kohanym fell in battle who had gone out rashly to fight in their desire to do brave deeds. Yehudah then turned toward Azotus in the land of the foreigners. He destroyed their altars and burned the carved images of their elohym; and after plundering their cities he returned to the land of Yehudah.

Kindle your lights before sunset on 11-29-2024.

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Yeshua confirmed that the Lord or Adonai spoken of in Psalm 110 is the Messiah (Mat 22:44), and the meaning of much of the Psalm is clear. But what does the final verse mean?

He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.

https://soilfromstone.blogspot.....com/2018/02/messiah