October 30, 2013 – 2 Maccabees 15 

We close Maccabees with a final successful battle.  They turn to God in humility and prayer and God delivers them from their enemies.  The end result for the enemy was a little disturbing, cutting off his head, and his arm, then ripping out his tongue.  2 Maccabees was very descriptive on the deaths of enemies.  If the point was to give hope and dissuade turning from God that is the weapon they used the most.  Enemies of God meet with horrible ends.

And when you get the more detailed version of these events, where as 1 Maccabees seemed more of an overview, you get a real sense that before every battle Judas and the others took great care to pray and humble themselves.  They have a very strong faith.  They constantly bring up the past battles in which God aided Israel and go into battle supremely confident that God is with them and in control.  They seem to have no doubt that if it is God’s will for them to win, no odds are going to matter.  I think, when you hear Christ talk about faith of a mustard seed and moving mountains we mentally roll our eyes.  Judas wasn’t moving mountains, but he was saving Israel and defeating armies of larger sizes.  Maybe we need to look at the “mountains” in our lives and not roll our eyes at Christ by taking what He says literally.  Look at Maccabees as a testament to what faith in God can accomplish and pray for that faith.  Talk to God about what your “mountains” are and then ask for the faith you need to move them.  True and genuine faith in large amounts is not needed, IF it is true and genuine.  Think of it this way, if true faith the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain, how much of our lukewarm faith will it take to move a molehill.  Truck loads of lukewarm faith, which might be what we have a lot of, probably won’t move an ant hill.