Remaining Steadfast

Part 7

5-5-24

Heb 11:35  Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 

1 Kings 17:9-24, 2 Kings 4:8-34

Tortured, beaten on a rack,

The Martyrdom of Eleazar

2 Maccabees 6:

¹⁸ Elea′zar, one of the scribes in high position, a man now advanced in age and of noble presence, was being forced to open his mouth to eat swine’s flesh. ¹⁹ But he, welcoming death with honor rather than life with pollution, went up to the the rack of his own accord, spitting out the flesh, ²⁰ as men ought to go who have the courage to refuse things that it is not right to taste, even for the natural love of life.

²¹ Those who were in charge of that unlawful sacrifice took the man aside, because of their long acquaintance with him, and privately urged him to bring meat of his own providing, proper for him to use, and pretend that he was eating the flesh of the sacrificial meal which had been commanded by the king, ²² so that by doing this he might be saved from death, and be treated kindly on account of his old friendship with them. ²³ But making a high resolve, worthy of his years and the dignity of his old age and the gray hairs which he had reached with distinction and his excellent life even from childhood, and moreover according to the holy God-given law, he declared himself quickly, telling them to send him to Hades.

²⁴ “Such pretense is not worthy of our time of life,” he said, “lest many of the young should suppose that Elea′zar in his ninetieth year has gone over to an alien religion, ²⁵ and through my pretense, for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they should be led astray because of me, while I defile and disgrace my old age. ²⁶ For even if for the present I should avoid the punishment of men, yet whether I live or die I shall not escape the hands of the Almighty. ²⁷ Therefore, by manfully giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age ²⁸ and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the revered and holy laws.”

When he had said this, he went at once to the rack. ²⁹ And those who a little before had acted toward him with good will now changed to ill will, because the words he had uttered were in their opinion sheer madness ³⁰ When he was about to die under the blows, he groaned aloud and said: “It is clear to the Lord in his holy knowledge that, though I might have been saved from death, I am enduring terrible sufferings in my body under this beating, but in my soul I am glad to suffer these things because I fear him.”

³¹ So in this way he died, leaving in his death an example of nobility and a memorial of courage, not only to the young but to the great body of his nation.

The Martyrdom of Seven Brothers

7 It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine’s flesh. ² One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, “What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers.”

³ The king fell into a rage, and gave orders that pans and caldrons be heated. ⁴ These were heated immediately, and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesman be cut out and that they scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on. ⁵ When he was utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The smoke from the pan spread widely, but the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying, ⁶ “The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his song which bore witness against the people to their faces, when he said, ‘And he will have compassion on his servants.’”

⁷ After the first brother had died in this way, they brought forward the second for their sport. They tore off the skin of his head with the hair, and asked him, “Will you eat rather than have your body punished limb by limb?” ⁸ He replied in the language of his fathers, and said to them, “No.” Therefore he in turn underwent tortures as the first brother had done. ⁹ And when he was at his last breath, he said, “You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws.”

¹⁰ After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue and courageously stretched forth his hands, ¹¹ and said nobly, “I got these from Heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again.” ¹² As a result the king himself and those with him were astonished at the young man’s spirit, for he regarded his sufferings as nothing.

¹³ When he too had died, they maltreated and tortured the fourth in the same way. ¹⁴ And when he was near death, he said, “One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life!”

¹⁵ Next they brought forward the fifth and maltreated him. ¹⁶ But he looked at the king, and said, “Because you have authority among men, mortal though you are, you do what you please. But do not think that God has forsaken our people. ¹⁷ Keep on, and see how his mighty power will torture you and your descendants!”

¹⁸ After him they brought forward the sixth. And when he was about to die, he said, “Do not deceive yourself in vain. For we are suffering these things on our own account, because of our sins against our own God. Therefore astounding things have happened. ¹⁹ But do not think that you will go unpunished for having tried to fight against God!”

²⁰ The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honorable memory. Though she saw her seven sons perish within a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord. ²¹ She encouraged each of them in the language of their fathers. Filled with a noble spirit, she fired her woman’s reasoning with a man’s courage, and said to them, ²² “I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you. ²³ Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws.”

²⁴ Anti′ochus felt that he was being treated with contempt, and he was suspicious of her reproachful tone. The youngest brother being still alive, Anti′ochus not only appealed to him in words, but promised with oaths that he would make him rich and enviable if he would turn from the ways of his fathers, and that he would take him for his friend and entrust him with public affairs. ²⁵ Since the young man would not listen to him at all, the king called the mother to him and urged her to advise the youth to save himself. ²⁶ After much urging on his part, she undertook to persuade her son. ²⁷ But, leaning close to him, she spoke in their native tongue as follows, deriding the cruel tyrant: “My son, have pity on me. I carried you nine months in my womb, and nursed you for three years, and have reared you and brought you up to this point in your life, and have taken care of you ²⁸ I beseech you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed Thus also mankind comes into being. ²⁹ Do not fear this butcher, but prove worthy of your brothers. Accept death, so that in God’s mercy I may get you back again with your brothers.”

³⁰ While she was still speaking, the young man said, “What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king’s command, but I obey the command of the law that was given to our fathers through Moses. ³¹ But you who have contrived all sorts of evil against the Hebrews, will certainly not escape the hands of God. ³² For we are suffering because of our own sins. ³³ And if our living Lord is angry for a little while, to rebuke and discipline us, he will again be reconciled with his own servants. ³⁴ But you, unholy wretch, you most defiled of all men, do not be elated in vain and puffed up by uncertain hopes, when you raise your hand against the children of heaven. ³⁵ You have not yet escaped the judgment of the almighty, all-seeing God. ³⁶ For our brothers after enduring a brief suffering have drunk of everflowing life under God’s covenant; but you, by the judgment of God, will receive just punishment for your arrogance.

 ³⁷ I, like my brothers, give up body and life for the laws of our fathers, appealing to God to show mercy soon to our nation and by afflictions and plagues to make you confess that he alone is God, ³⁸ and through me and my brothers to bring to an end the wrath of the Almighty which has justly fallen on our whole nation.”

³⁹ The king fell into a rage, and handled him worse than the others, being exasperated at his scorn. ⁴⁰ So he died in his integrity, putting his whole trust in the Lord.

⁴¹ Last of all, the mother died, after her sons.

Heb 11:35  Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 

Daniel 12:1-2

Dan 12:1  “At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book. 

Dan 12:2  And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. 

Dan 12:3  Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness Like the stars forever and ever. 

“Better resurrection” refers to better than those who were raised from the dead, just to die again…

Compare Hezekiah 2 Kings 20…

Heb 11:36  Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.

Joseph- Gen 39:20

Micah – 1Kings 22:1-27

2Chron 18:26

Jeremiah – Jer 20:2,  Jer 37:15

SEE Hanani – 2Chron 16:1-10

Heb 11:37  They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—

Stoned- Zechariah (son of Jehoiada), 2 Chronicles 24:20-22

Sawn in two – Tradition says that Isaiah was sawn in half with a wooden saw by Manasseh…

Slain with the sword – The prophet Uriah was killed with a sword by King Jehoiakim in Jeremiah 26:23

History also tells us that several mass murders were committed during the period of the Maccabees between OT and NT…  

Heb 11:38  of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. 

1Ki 18:4  For so it was, while Jezebel massacred the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah had taken one hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty to a cave, and had fed them with bread and water.) 

1Ki 18:13  Was it not reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, how I hid one hundred men of the LORD’s prophets, fifty to a cave, and fed them with bread and water? 

In 1 Kings 19 Elijah hid in a cave from Jezebel…

See Ez 34:1-6

Heb 11:39  And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,

What promise?

John 1:29  The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 

Heb 11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 

Heb 11:40  God having provided something better (stronger)  for us, that they should not be made perfect (complete) apart from us.

Eph 2:1  And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 

Eph 2:2  in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 

Eph 2:3  among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. 

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 

Eph 2:5  even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 

Eph 2:6  and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 

Eph 2:7  that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 

Eph 2:8  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 

Eph 2:9  not of works, lest anyone should boast. 

Eph 2:10  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. 

What do we do with this?

Heb 12:1  Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 

Heb 12:2  looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Communion:

1Co 11:23  For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 

1Co 11:24  and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 

1Co 11:25  In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 

1Co 11:26  For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. 

1Co 11:27  Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 

1Co 11:28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.