A warning for our post-modern, neo-pagan time.
Verse 10 in chapter 5 from the book of the prophet Ezekiel [who (as most of us may recall) had been sent into exile by the river Chebar in the land of the Chaldeans] states:
“Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in the midst of you, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds.”
“Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in the midst of you, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds.”
 |
| Holy Maccabees |
That book was written sometime in the early 6th century BC after the deportation of Judah’s King Jehoiachin to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar .
Now why did this deportation from the Promised Land occur? The very next verse, number 11, tells us why:
"Wherefore, as I live, says the Lord God, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will cut you down; my eye will not spare, and I will have no pity."
God allowed the Babylonians to devastate the land of Judah because God’s Chosen People had rebelled against the Most High. In other words, the Chosen People had rejected God and God, ever being the consummate Gentleman, respected their wishes and let them reap the consequences of their choice. Those consequences were subjugation under the Babylonian yoke, and starvation to the point where those left in Judah resorted to cannibalism.
Why was I reminded of this on the day after Thanksgiving? Because of the Scripture readings in the liturgy for November 24, 2017.
The Old Testament reading from 1st Maccabees 4:36-59 recalls the re-dedication of the Jewish Temple after Judas Maccabees and his comrades retook it from the pagan Seleucids. This was the establishment of the Feast of the Dedication which Christ Himself celebrated in John 10:22-23.
You see, after the Babylonian Exile, King Cyrus of Persia had released the deported Jews to return to the Promised Land. Under Nehemiah and Ezra they repaired much of the Temple which Solomon had built and Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed. Then Alexander the Great came along (as Daniel describes in chapters 7 through 11 of his book of prophecy) and swept away the Persian Empire (which had succeeded Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian Empire as described in Daniel chapter 5). Alexander’s Empire broke up into four pieces which Daniel describes as the four beats (Daniel chapter 7): Ptolemaic (Egypt), Seleucid (Syria), Pergamon (Asia Minor) and Macedon. The Seleucid kings terrorized the returned Jewish exiles in the 2nd century BC. Antiochus IV Epiphanes (their mad king) even went so far as to sacrifice to Zeus Olympus a swine in the Holy of Holies within the Jewish Temple that Nehemiah and Ezra had restored a few hundred years previously (Christ recalls this in Matthew 24:15). God raised up a man named Mattathias and his seven sons (called the Sons of Hammer or the Maccabees) to oppose the pagan Seleucids and defend the freedom of the Jewish people to worship in peace (1st Maccabees chapter 2). All this is recorded in the books of 1st and 2nd Maccabees. When Judas Maccabees and his soldiers recaptured Jerusalem, they rededicated the Holy of Holies and instituted what is now called Hanukah (1st Maccabees 4:36-59 and 2nd Maccabees 10:1-9)
The point in all this is what the children of Israel had to endure as a result of their apostasy. And sadly it didn’t end there. Again by the time of Christ they had forgotten their roots, being divided into Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots and Herodians. Today’s Gospel reading in Luke 19:45-48 recalls the time when Jesus entered the Temple and drove out the money changers with whips, declaring:
“My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.”
This reading immediately succeeds the prophecy in Luke 19:41-44 where Jesus declares:
“If this day you only knew what makes for peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
This prophecy was fulfilled in AD 70 when Roman General Titus began the Great Siege of Jerusalem. Once again, just as occurred in the time of Nebuchadnezzar and in the time of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the city was sacked and the Temple destroyed. Why? Because the Chosen People had rejected their Messiah: apostasy again.
We all are horrified when Sacred Scripture says things like this: “Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in the midst of you, and sons shall eat their fathers…” But are we not doing this today with the abortion of 55+ million unborn babies since the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v Wade in 1973? Are we not doing this by harvesting their corpses for stem cells and internal organs to be sold on the open market? Is this not cannibalism? And do we expect God’s mercy on these babies to be any different than what it was in 570 BC when Ezekiel wrote his deadly pronouncement?
This may seem like a depressing message for the Thanksgiving weekend which has now passed us. But we must recall that just as God is all love and all merciful, He is also all holy and all just. We as the United States of America must return to our Judeo-Christian roots, repent and offer thanksgiving up to the Father for the sacrifice which His Son made for us on the Cross. That is the ultimate Thanksgiving (the Eucharistia) which sadly the Chosen People did not learn.
Now why did this deportation from the Promised Land occur? The very next verse, number 11, tells us why:
"Wherefore, as I live, says the Lord God, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will cut you down; my eye will not spare, and I will have no pity."
God allowed the Babylonians to devastate the land of Judah because God’s Chosen People had rebelled against the Most High. In other words, the Chosen People had rejected God and God, ever being the consummate Gentleman, respected their wishes and let them reap the consequences of their choice. Those consequences were subjugation under the Babylonian yoke, and starvation to the point where those left in Judah resorted to cannibalism.
Why was I reminded of this on the day after Thanksgiving? Because of the Scripture readings in the liturgy for November 24, 2017.
The Old Testament reading from 1st Maccabees 4:36-59 recalls the re-dedication of the Jewish Temple after Judas Maccabees and his comrades retook it from the pagan Seleucids. This was the establishment of the Feast of the Dedication which Christ Himself celebrated in John 10:22-23.
You see, after the Babylonian Exile, King Cyrus of Persia had released the deported Jews to return to the Promised Land. Under Nehemiah and Ezra they repaired much of the Temple which Solomon had built and Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed. Then Alexander the Great came along (as Daniel describes in chapters 7 through 11 of his book of prophecy) and swept away the Persian Empire (which had succeeded Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian Empire as described in Daniel chapter 5). Alexander’s Empire broke up into four pieces which Daniel describes as the four beats (Daniel chapter 7): Ptolemaic (Egypt), Seleucid (Syria), Pergamon (Asia Minor) and Macedon. The Seleucid kings terrorized the returned Jewish exiles in the 2nd century BC. Antiochus IV Epiphanes (their mad king) even went so far as to sacrifice to Zeus Olympus a swine in the Holy of Holies within the Jewish Temple that Nehemiah and Ezra had restored a few hundred years previously (Christ recalls this in Matthew 24:15). God raised up a man named Mattathias and his seven sons (called the Sons of Hammer or the Maccabees) to oppose the pagan Seleucids and defend the freedom of the Jewish people to worship in peace (1st Maccabees chapter 2). All this is recorded in the books of 1st and 2nd Maccabees. When Judas Maccabees and his soldiers recaptured Jerusalem, they rededicated the Holy of Holies and instituted what is now called Hanukah (1st Maccabees 4:36-59 and 2nd Maccabees 10:1-9)
The point in all this is what the children of Israel had to endure as a result of their apostasy. And sadly it didn’t end there. Again by the time of Christ they had forgotten their roots, being divided into Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots and Herodians. Today’s Gospel reading in Luke 19:45-48 recalls the time when Jesus entered the Temple and drove out the money changers with whips, declaring:
“My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.”
This reading immediately succeeds the prophecy in Luke 19:41-44 where Jesus declares:
“If this day you only knew what makes for peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
This prophecy was fulfilled in AD 70 when Roman General Titus began the Great Siege of Jerusalem. Once again, just as occurred in the time of Nebuchadnezzar and in the time of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the city was sacked and the Temple destroyed. Why? Because the Chosen People had rejected their Messiah: apostasy again.
We all are horrified when Sacred Scripture says things like this: “Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in the midst of you, and sons shall eat their fathers…” But are we not doing this today with the abortion of 55+ million unborn babies since the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v Wade in 1973? Are we not doing this by harvesting their corpses for stem cells and internal organs to be sold on the open market? Is this not cannibalism? And do we expect God’s mercy on these babies to be any different than what it was in 570 BC when Ezekiel wrote his deadly pronouncement?
This may seem like a depressing message for the Thanksgiving weekend which has now passed us. But we must recall that just as God is all love and all merciful, He is also all holy and all just. We as the United States of America must return to our Judeo-Christian roots, repent and offer thanksgiving up to the Father for the sacrifice which His Son made for us on the Cross. That is the ultimate Thanksgiving (the Eucharistia) which sadly the Chosen People did not learn.
No comments:
Post a Comment