Shortly after the time of Daniel, the Israelites ere back in the Land. The Temple was restored and was functioning.

Israel was under Persian rule. Why? Medo-Persia conquered Babylon, moving the world power moved west — from the Babylonian Empire to the Medo-Persian Empire.

The name Israel, which stopped to exist in 576 B.C., did not exist again until 1948 A.D.

The Old Testament closed. There were no more God breathed writings for 400 years, and there were no more prophets of God until John the Baptist (Immerser) appeared in the desert.

Israel remained under Persian rule until 330 B.C., when Alexander the Great conquered Persia. Now this new, little country of Judea was under the rule of the established Greek Empire (comprising the whole, known world).

Alexander the Great was a strong ruler; however, after he died there was chaos. The Greek Empire was divided up between the four generals who had served under Alexander the Great. For our purposes, we will look at two of them, Ptolemy and Seleucid.

Ptolemy became the ruler over Egypt, and Seleucid became the ruler over Syria.

The way I remember that the Ptolemies were over Egypt and the Seleucids were over Syria is as follows:

Israel — once the sovereign nation of Israel— was thereafter under Babylonian rule, under Persian rule, and then, under Greek rule. For the years ahead, Israel's rule would go back and forth between the battling Ptolemies (Egypt) and the Seleucids (Syria).

The Land of Israel continued to have its flag changed, as follows:

Israel would not be sovereign in the Land again until 1948 when Israel declared itself an independent state.

Finally, the battle between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids started to be resolved. About the year 200 B.C., a Seleucid king, Antiochus III, came to power in Syria. He conquered Jerusalem from the Ptolemies, who never held Jerusalem again.

As we will see, this whole family had very modest opinions of themselves [-sic!]. We know this by the way they named themselves. Antiochus III called himself Antiochus the Great. His son, Antiochus IV, named himself Antiochus Epiphanes, which means "Antiochus, God manifested".

Antiochus III died and his son, Antiochus IV, became the Seleucid king.

Antiochus the Great was a typical tyrant; however, Antiochus Epiphanes was a crazy man. In fact, he was such a lunatic that the people named him Antiochus Epimanes, which means "Antiochus, the mad man". And they were right. He was diabolical and he was desperately — unthinkably — evil. I believe there have been few others like him.

Antiochus took control of Jerusalem. The first thing he did was to depose the Jewish high priest. That action broke the line of royal priestly succession that had begun with Aaron (Moses' brother) and had continued for 1,200 years. Antiochus stopped it! However, he still wanted a high priest. What was his answer? Antiochus appointed the high priest based on the highest bidder.

That explains why a reference in the New Testament was made to the high priest of Israel—

Caiaphas acted as the high priest that year. He was not of the royal Levitical priesthood.

As if that was not bad enough, things got much worse. Temple rituals started deteriorating, because the Israelites were threatened by Antiochus to give up their Temple worship, sacrifices and rituals, or die. Then Antiochus [who was obviously, demon controlled] really went crazy. He did the unthinkable— Antiochus defiled the Temple, including the Holy of Holies.

Antiochus burst into the Temple. He shoved the godly priests down and forced them to eat pork [contrary to God's law]. He crashed into the Holy of Holies — the most sacred place in Temple worship — and destroyed the utensils and scrolls (Holy Scriptures). Then Antiochus took a pig, killed it and spread the pig's blood throughout the Holy of Holies.

Antiochus had desecrated the Temple. The sanctuary was plundered and polluted, and it was to stay that way for six and one-half years. In addition, Antiochus stopped the Israelites from their sacrifices, offerings and Temple worship. He demanded they worship him instead.

The prophet Daniel predicted the abomination of desolation—

Messiah Jesus referred to the abomination of desolation. Remarkably, He did not refer to the desecration in the past tense. He said When you see the abomination of desolation—

I am sure the Israelites were thinking that all ready happened. Well, it had all ready occurred, but it is going to happen again during the Tribulation:

In a small village outside Jerusalem, Mattathias (descendent of the high priest, Aaron) and his five sons steadfastly refused Antiochus' officers to forsake the law and they openly resisted. After escaping to the mountains, they gathered a band of patriots who also were willing to wage a revolt against the occupying power, the Seleucids (Syria).

After the death of Mattathias, his son, Judas Maccabaeus [who was in line to be the next high priest] became the leader. Though the Maccabees (meaning, "hammer") were a small, untrained army that was always outnumbered by superior occupation troops, they crushed Syria. The Maccabees captured and liberated Jerusalem and the Temple; their aim of the Jewish rebellion had been achieved. Their remarkable victory was a miracle of God.

Then the Maccabees cleansed and repaired the Temple. They built a new altar and restored the furnishings. The incense burner was filled with incense, and they attempted to light the menorah (a seven-branched lamp stand), but there was a problem. The priests had only enough oil to burn in the lamps for one day, and it would take another eight days before new oil could be readied for use. Though they only had one day's worth of oil, they distributed it and lit the menorah lamps. Amazingly enough, the lamps burned for an additional seven days until the new oil was prepared. The continual burning of oil was a miracle of God.

The Temple functions were restored, the priests put the shewbread on the table, and the sacrificial system was reinstated. In fact, the sons of Israel had an eight-day rededication of the Temple, called the Feast of Dedication, including sacrifices unto, and worship of, Yahweh — the Giver of their miracles. This all happened December 25, 165 B.C.

Incidentally, by what name do we know this holiday?

The Feast of Dedication (also referred to as the Feast of Lights) is not one of the biblical feasts of Leviticus 23. However, the Jews celebrating Hanukkah is comparative to the regenerate celebrating Christmas (celebrated birthday of Jesus of Nazareth).

It has oftentimes been said that Christmas should not be celebrated, because it was not included as one of the biblical feast/holy days. Whenever I hear that I think The Feast of Dedication is not listed as a biblical feast, and yet the Jews have observed it since its history. Even Messiah Jesus observed the Feast of Dedication—

The Maccabean revolt and the Temple rededication are documented in the Apocrypha in the book of 1 Maccabees. It is one of those books that God did not inspire, yet it is a great book of history.

Conversely, the book of 2 Maccabees is an awful book, containing a little bit of history but horrible theology. For example, 2 Maccabees tells the read they can be redeemed through good works and baptism (immersion). Obviously, these instructions are not God's truth to man; they are man's lies to man.

For a brief period under Maccabean rulers, everything seemed to be right again, including the following:

• The Maccabees became the priests. Who were they? They were the descendents of the high priest, Aaron.
• For an interlude, Israel had sovereignty.
• Messianic expectations were rekindled; many wondered Is this the time of Messiah? Some even wondered if one of the Maccabees was Messiah. As we will see, it was not the time.

When man makes something, it will deteriorate. Even if we make something good, it will decay. In fact, even if man makes something religious, it is going to ruin.

When I think of the Maccabees, I recall this principal for the following two reasons:

The Maccabees consisted of brave, courageous men who did the right thing. They were true to their faith, and from what I can tell, their leaders were redeemed. However, do you know what group they later became? The Pharisees.

Remember: The Maccabees had endured a time of great warfare. Although they had conquered the Seleucids (Syria), driven out Antiochus Epiphanes and restored the Temple, there was still war, or a continual threat of war, with the Seleucids. To top it off, the Maccabees were also uneasy with the Ptolemies (Egypt).

The Maccabees recognized their need for some kind of security, because they knew they could not sustain the fighting. After reviewing their situation, they looked to the western horizon at a new, non-allying power in Europe, the Romans. The Maccabees approached the Romans and signed a treaty with them. The treaty worked this way—

The Maccabees sincerely believed what they were doing was right. Actually, whenever I think of the Maccabees, I think of a verse that is repeated twice in the Scriptures:

That principal accurately portrays the way of the Maccabees. Signing the treaty with Rome seemed right to them, but in the end (70A.D.) it led to the destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem.

With the desecration of the Temple, Biblical Judaism ended and Rabbinical Judaism began.

I am convinced the problem with the human race, including the regenerate, is as follows:

We know when we do things that seem bad in God's eyes; they are bad! And generally, the secular world agrees with much of what is bad, including crime, adultery, drug use, and so on.

It is when the human race starts doing things that they think are right, because they appear to be so right, and yet in the end, since they do not line up with God's direction, they are not right.

Israel had a little window of sovereignty at that time. But Syria, though somewhat cooled because of the Roman treaty, continued to be threatening to Israel.

Another player entered the picture — a nation south and east of, and near to, Judea. The nation was Idumea. That name might not sound familiar, but its previous name would: Edom. From where did the nation of Edom descend? From Esau. The governor of Idumea, Antipater, was a direct descendent of Esau.

Antipater watched the situation between Israel and Syria. He knew about Israel's pact with Rome, but he also knew Rome was far away from Israel and Idumea was very close. With that in mind, Antipater signed a pact with two other countries to attack Jerusalem.

According to the treaty, should Rome have responded to the attack on Judea that was led by Idumea? Technically, no. The treaty stated that Rome was to come in only if Syria attacked Judea. Rome rationalized the situation — That is close enough. Somebody attacked them, so we will go in.

The [Roman's] pretext was to deliver Jerusalem based on the terms of the treaty. Instead, Rome betrayed Judea and they captured Jerusalem for themselves. Oh, Rome did drive the enemies out — I will give them that — but they captured Jerusalem in 63 B.C. That is why Rome was ruling Israel at the beginning of the New Testament.

If that was not bad enough, do you know what Rome did next? Rome's General Pompey appointed a ruler over Jerusalem; guess what his name was? Antipater.

So Rome—

• Went into Judea when they were not supposed to,
• Presented a false pretense of protecting Israel from their attackers, and then they
• Appointed the man, the originator of the attack, as the ruler of Judea.

Question: Why did the Romans go to Judea? To get Jerusalem.

Antipater was not a very common name to us, however, he had a son whose name we do know: Herod.

This family was like the Seleucids; they also had humble opinions of themselves -sic. Herod named himself Herod "the Great". Even worse than him being the king of Judea, he was called The king of the Jews.

Back To: Matthew Series Page

wgmeditors@qwest.net

© Worldnet Grace Ministries

This data file is the sole property of Worldnet Grace Ministries. It may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data file must contain the above copyright notice.

This data file may not be copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances, displays, or other products offered for sale, without the written permission of Worldnet Grace Ministries. Requests for permission should be made in writing and addressed to:

Worldnet Grace Ministries, PO Box 130006, The Woodlands, Texas 77393, USA