Is the Story of the Maccabees about to be replayed today in G-d’s Final Dramatic Act?
The Modern Celebration of Hanukkah
It was the year of 167 BCE, the Syrian King Antiochus IV Epiphanes headed towards the Land of Israel in Judea preparing to exact his justice upon the Jewish people who had revolted against dominion over them. The high priest of Jerusalem at that time was still under the authorized lineage of Zadok, the high priest of the era of King David where Onias III was the 44th High Priest in lineage from Zadok the High Priest.
The High Priestly Lineage of the House of Zadok – BibleSearchers Reflections Genealogies
There was chaos in the Jewish government in Jerusalem for Hellenization was spreading quickly throughout the land of Israel not unlike Americanism’s Hellenistic culture is today forcing Grecian democracy upon the nations of the world, while at the same time asserting overwhelming control over the politics and polity of the Jewish people living in the Zionist State of Israel.
There were two bidders for the control of the office of the High Priest in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem which had been taken control by the Syrian government earlier. Then as is now, money, graft and fraud were alive and well. In those days, Jerusalem was controlled by Jason the Apostate and Menelaus who were bidding to keep control of the high priest office for themselves.
The Evil Shepherds in the Final Years before the Era of the Messiah
Shimon Peres, Arial Sharon and Ehud Olmert: Were they the “Evil Shepherds” or the “Erev Rav?
Zechariah 13:7-9 – “O sword, arouse yourself against My shepherd (PM Arial Sharon) and against the man who is My colleague! (Later President Shimon Peres) - the word of HaShem, Master of Legions, “Strike the shepherd and let the flock disperse! And I will turn My hand against the lesser leaders. (PM Ehud Olmert and President ) There will be in all the land – the word of HaShem to the portion [of the population] will be cut off and perish, and the third will be left in it. I will bring that third into fire and purify it as one purifies silver, and I will refine it as one refines gold; I will call out in My Name, and I will answer it, I have said, ‘It is My people,’ and It will say, ‘HaShem is my G-d”
Fraud and associations with the criminal elements in Jerusalem have for decades been widely known to the Israeli public but were especially highlighted in the media announcements in 2005 when it was charged that Sharon’s son, Omri and Gilad Sharon were involved and Omri faced up to seven years in jail if convicted of charges of alleged laundering of illegal campaign contributions through front companies used to fund his fathers’ bid (PM Arial Sharon) for the leadership of the Likud party six years earlier. This was during the infamous Gush Katif expulsion of the Orthodox Jewish people living in settlements along the Mediterranean Sea near Gaza in 2005.
Wandering down the Repulsive Path of the 2005 Expulsion of the Orthodox Settlers from Gush Katif in Gaza
Go to Part One: “The Expulsion of the Jews from Gaza by the Government of Israel”
Go to Part Two: “The Expulsion of the Jews from Gaza by the Government of Israel”
Your might want to Read the Following:
Does G-d allow Jewish-Anti-Jews, Secularists, and Leftists to govern the Last State of Israel that He intends to Redeem at the Time of the End? – Destination Yisrael
Gush Katif: Past and Future – Arutz Sheva
Gaza: Blame the Left for This War – Artuz Sheva
Later PM Ariel Sharon and his sons faced separate investigations and charges about a $1m (£527,000) loan from a British businessman living in South Africa that was allegedly illegally used to repay the illicit campaign contributions after they were uncovered. A third case surfaced about which Sharon accepted money, while a cabinet minister, persuading the Greek government to allow a business associate of Sharon to build a casino on an Aegean island. Is this what we would call a righteous government?
With the infamous stroke of PM Sharon which occurred as Sharon (“My Shepherd”) and Shimon Peres (the man who is My colleague) were sipping tea together, the former “Lion of Judah” collapsed with a haemorrhagic stroke by the suspected hands of the Israeli President Shimon Peres at that time. Numerous investigators including Barry Chamish, an Israeli private investigator, have written volumes implicating the “dirty deeds” committed by Peres while being the President of Israel, but also acting as the Israeli Vatican’s Jesuit emissary seeking control of the State of Israel and numerous religious properties in the land of Israel.
If that was not enough, the President of Israel during the days of the Jewish Expulsion from Gush Katif, President Moshe Katsav had his presidency racked with controversy by the allegation of rape of one female subordinate and the sexual harassment of others. In 2007, Katsav resigned from the office of the president in 2007 and when his plea bargain was rejected, in an unprecedented case of social injustice, President Moshe Katsav was convicted on December 30, 2010 of two counts of rape, obstruction of justice and other charges and convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison after the Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and was sent to the Maasiyahu Prison in Ramla for seven years of incarceration.
It was the next Israeli “Bad Shepherd” of Israel, PM Ehud Olmert, who became enmeshed in the Talansky Affair when Morris Talansky, an American businessman and fundraiser and close associate with PM Ehud Olmert. Olmert was accused by his own aide, Shula Zaken, of paying for family vacations by double billing Jewish organizations through the Rishon Tours travel agency. Olmert also was charged with granting personal favors to attorney Uri Messer when he served as trade minister in the Investment Center case.
All of these cases arose after Olmert became prime minister in 2006, but extended back to the years in which Olmert was the mayor of Jerusalem and later a government minister. Upon the charges of indictment, Olmert resigned from the office of the prime minister in September 2008 and the investigators for the police made recommendation for him to be indicted.
Finally in May, 2014, Olmert was sentenced to six years in prison, a two-year suspended term, and a fine of NIS 1 million ($289,000) for accepting bribes in the real estate scam known as the “Holyland affair”. He was ordered to report to prison on September 1, but the prison date was suspended pending his appeal. The Holyland affair is considered one of the worst corruption scandals in the Israel’s history.
In the meantime, Benny Tavin, a former aide to Olmert’s associate, Shula Zaken was discovered dead. Yet, he was suspected to have been suicided by a gunshot to the head while sitting in his car outside a Tel Aviv cemetery and the gun still laying by his side. This occurred while Olmert’s aide, Shula Zaken had turned state witness against Olmert, her former boss, and whose testimony also implicated Benny Tavin for offering Zaken a bribe for her silence during the ongoing corruption trials of former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert. She served a 11 month prison sentence when she plea bargained against Olmert, her former boss, as he was facing numerous other criminal charges of corruption.
Yet, Benny Tavin, a close associate of both Olmert and Zaken was himself indicted in the scandal called the “fictitious invoices” that shook apart the leading Likud Party in Jerusalem and threatened again Olmert, the Likud party treasurer of that era. Olmert though acquitted, the court did eventually convict Benny Tavin by proving phony invoices to Likud party donors and Tavin did serve eight months in prison. Though the stench of corruption continued to rock the life of former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert even when he was acquitted in two major corruption cases in 2012, was later in 2014 found guilty of graft and corruption and sentenced to jail in 2014.
You might want to Read the following News articles on PM Olmert’s Corruption Scandals:
The judge’s masterstroke in playing Olmert’s bureau chief
Olmert's branding as a traitor - a long unfolding drama
Olmert could face new evidence during Talansky and Rishon Tours appeal
Olmert's bureau chief set to begin serving 11-month sentence July 15
Supreme Court to hear Zaken-Olmert tapes before revisiting Talansky affair
Olmert aide Shula Zaken starts prison term for bribery in Holyland affair
The Abomination of Desolation and the Evil Shepherds in Jerusalem in the Era of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes and Today
The era of the last PMs of Israel before the heralded “Era of the Messiah” is expected to begin during the Jubilee year of 2017, we are reminded of how close this era was also in replication to the corruption of the political leaders of the Jewish people right before the famous “Abomination of Desolation”. It appears that HaShem was giving us a mini-vignette of a great dramatic play. This was when the Syrian King Antiochus IV Epiphanes desecrated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, took away the Golden Menorah and erected an idol to Zeus in the Temple and thereby profaned G-d’s most holy site of the Jewish people in the year of 167 BCE. Will the final act of this Drama be replayed again at the Time of the End?
During this infamous era just prior to the “Abomination of Desolations” the reigning rule of the High Priest of Israel, Jason the Apostate, the brother to the reigning High Priest Onias III, had already given many indications to his friends and colleagues of his attachment to the Grecian Hellenistic party just before the era of the Maccabees. The Greeks we must remind ourselves were part of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel.
It was Jason who constructed a Grecian gymnasium in Jerusalem plus also an Ephebeum, a place for gymnastic exercises were practiced in the ancient Greek Palaestrae, where the sport of wrestling and boxing was conducted. It was also Jason who introduced many Grecian customs that were opposed to Jewish Torah culture and lifestyle. Jason also secured the privilege for the Jerusalemite Jews to gain the “privileges” and title as a citizen of Antioch for a fee f 150 talents, not much unlike modern Jews that carry dual citizenship between Israel and the United States.
Not only that, the Hellene Jason sent Jewish representatives to a duplication of the Olympian games that was celebrated in the city of Tyre for King Antiochus IV. At that time Jason presented a 300 drachmas sacrifice to the Grecian god, Hercules for whom the games were dedicated. And we ask, who were the idol worshippers?
Yet, the Jewish Hellenists that were a part of the Tobiads plotted Jason’s overthrow, for they believed that Jason was partial to traditional Judaism. So Jerusalem in the second century BCE was already under a cultural siege by the Greeks.
At the head of the Tobiads stood Menelaus, in which one of his diplomatic missions was to travel to Syria as an emissary to King Antiochus IV Epiphanes in order to pay the annual tribute from Jerusalem to Syria. At that time, Menelaus, also played the dice and outbid Jason and secured for himself the office of high priest. Menelaus then became Onias IV, the 46th High Priest, who was the son of Manasseh the son of Onias II, the 42nd High Priest (HP) and the 10th HP in descent from Seraiah the last High Priest of Solomon’s Temple.
Understandably, this “bid” was for the religious office of the high priest whose integrity and righteousness was to be beyond repute. The High Priest was not to be stained with corruption and scandal. When Menelaus did return, he was accompanied with an officer sent by Antiochus with a troop of Cyprian soldiers to be used to subdue any opposition forces or riots fomented by the opposition followers of Jason. The Syrian officer was also there in the city of Jerusalem to also collect the money promised by Menelaus as a bride for the holy office of the High Priest of Israel.
Menelaus' first act as the new High Priest was to seize the sacred vessels in the Temple stores in order to meet the obligations he had incurred. This act came to the ears of the former high priest Onias III who had been deposed, and it was Onias III who publicly accused Menelaus of robbing the Temple. The latter, afraid of the consequences of this accusation, induced the king's lieutenant Andronicus, who had already collected his share of the plunder, was to get rid of Onias III before a formal complaint had been lodged with the king.
Looking at this era from the eyes of the author of II Maccabees, it was the High Priest Menelaus who persuaded Antiochus IV to Hellenize the traditional Orthodox worship in Judaism. Out if this forced revisionism there rose up an uprising of the Judeans under the guidance of the priestly family called the Maccabees. During the first years of the restoration of the Jewish worship Menelaus still remained (though only nominally) high priest. He is said to have been put to death by Antiochus V Eupator when the latter made definite concessions to the Jews, the reason assigned being that Menelaus, by his evil counsel, was indirectly responsible for the Jewish rebellion. As BibleSearchers Reflections wrote:
BibleSearchers Reflections – “The appointment of an “overseer of the sanctuaries” that was to include the Temple in Jerusalem was the Seleucid attempt to harmonize the entire province under the Hellenistic ideals of global harmony. Then as today, the Grecian concepts of global harmony were not directed from the courts of heaven by the G-d of Israel, but administrated from the halls of governance of imperial minded rulers. This global infringement on the Jewish religious autonomy included Syrian authority over the revenue to the temple and the calculation of the taxes that were due to the Syrian royal throne.
Within ten years (167 BCE), the armies of the new Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV Epiphanes entered the gates of Jerusalem, robbed the Temple treasury, massacred the Jewish population and desecrated the Most Holy Place. By 165 BCE the land of Judea was in full revolt by the Maccabean priests.
Preceding the “abomination of desolation”, the vacuum of power became apparent after the death of the Syrian King Seleucus IV in the year of 175 BCE. The Egyptians under the Pharaoh Ptolemy VI moved north to occupy Judea in 170 BCE. Antiochus IV countered and defeated the Egyptians (169 BCE) taking control of most of Egypt and Cyprus. Victory was short lived, for Roman stepped in with intervention and deprived him of his enlarged empire. This set the stage for the Jewish revolt under the Jewish priest, Judah Maccabee in 165 BCE.
The facts are that Antiochus IV never did achieve any permanent military achievements. To bolster this deficiency, he returned to the source of his power, Grecian Hellenization and the lavish adoration to the Grecian gods of his forefathers. Across the Eastern Mediterranean seaboard, he became a lavish patron of the shrines to the Grecian god, Zeus and especially at the Temple of Zeus in Athens, the cult of his father. This adoration grew when he began to truly believe that he was the manifestation of the supreme god, Zeus. He began to use the epithet to his name, “Epiphanes” meaning “Select of God”. Here rose the incarnation of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Where he could not succeed militarily, he sought to do by political and cultural power, until he sought to assume absolute power as he became personally responsible for all the cults within the Seleucid Empire.
In 175, when Antiochus IV Epiphanes ascended to the royal throne of the Seleucids, he replaced Onias III the High Priest with his brother, Jason. Antiochus IV’s father, the Syrian Emperor Seleucus IV Philopator, more than a quarter of a century prior, became the first foreign power to take control of the highest non-political office of the Jews, the High Priest of Israel. Though Jason was also the son of Simon II, the brother of Onias III, he was not the eldest living son and thereby not the legitimate high priest. Jason thereby accrued the title, “Jason the Apostate”, for he bought the office of the high priest.”
Accordingly Onias III was betrayed and decoyed from the protective walls of the sanctuary at Daphne, in which he had sought refuge. His life was quickly terminated. Menelaus continued to plunder the treasures of the Temple until violence and riots racked the Holy City and Lysimachus, the brother of Menelaus met his death. He then brought before the Syrian king an accusation against the people of Jerusalem. He charged that they were partisans of the Egyptians and persecuted him only because he was opposed to their party intrigues. This accusation caused the execution of several Jews in Jerusalem, who, although they proved beyond any doubt that Menelaus and Lysimachus had desecrated the Temple, were sentenced to death.
Although during the three years of his pontificate Jason had given many proofs of his attachment to the Hellenistic party (by building a gymnasium in Jerusalem and by introducing many Greek customs) the zealous Hellenists of the stamp of the Tobiads plotted his overthrow, suspecting him of partiality to traditional Judaism. At their head stood Menelaus.
Having been sent to Antiochus to pay the annual tribute, Menelaus took the opportunity to outbid Jason and secure for himself the office of high priest. An officer named Sostrates was sent by Antiochus with a troop of Cyprian soldiers to subdue any opposition that might be attempted by the followers of the deposed high priest Jason and to collect at the same time the sum Menelaus had promised.
Menelaus' first act was to seize the sacred vessels in the Temple stores in order to meet the obligations he had incurred. Even to the ancient Greeks (Lost Ten Tribes) this was a heinous act of sacrilege. Then this act of desecration came to the ears of the deposed high priest Onias III, Onias III publicly accused Menelaus of robbing the Temple. The latter, afraid of the consequences of this accusation, induced the king's lieutenant Andronicus, who had had his share of the plunder, to get rid of Onias III before a formal complaint had been lodged with the king.
While King Antiochus was busy subduing Egypt, and bringing this ancient empire under Syrian control, a rumor spread across the empire the King Antiochus had been killed. During this era, the deposed High Priest Jason gathered a force of 1,000 warriors and attacked the city of Jerusalem by surprise. The High Priest appointed by Antiochus, Menelaus, who had offered a higher bribe for the office was forced to flee Jerusalem during a riot and escaped to the Ammorites to save his life.
King Antiochus IV Epiphanes was enraged that a Jewish High Priest had now made himself equal to himself, the king of the Syrians and defeated the ruler who he had set upon the throne of Jerusalem, so King Antiochus stormed back to Jerusalem in the year of 167 BCE, toppled the walls and restored Menelaus back to the office of the High Priest and hereby executed also many Jewish peoples. As the Book of Maccabees reported:
2 Maccabees 5:22-24 – “When these happenings were reported to the king, he thought that Judea was in revolt. Raging like a wild animal, he set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm. He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants. In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery.
This was about the era in which Antiochus sought to consolidate his hold over his empire and the entire region. One way to do that was to assist the Hellenized Jews. To do so, Antiochus made the Jewish religious rites and traditions kept by observant Jews illegal. The worship in the temple had now been profaned by Antiochus’ ruling order to worship Zeus as the supreme god of the Jews (2 Maccabees 6:1–12).”
The concept of worshipping another god was anathema to the Jews. When the Jerusalem Jews refused to worship the “Image of the Beast” erected by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, an army was sent to enforce the ruling of the Syrian tyrant. The city of Jerusalem was destroyed, numerous Jews were slaughtered and the Greek fortified military citadel called the Seleucid Acra that is believed by some archeologist to have been constructed along the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount.
The Book of Maccabees where this expose in Greek-Jewish polity was written reported that soon to erupt would be a massive genocide against the Jews in Jerusalem.
2 Maccabees – 6:1-11 – “Not long after this the king sent an Athenian senator to force the Jews to abandon the customs of their ancestors and live no longer by the laws of God (Torah); also to profane the temple in Jerusalem and dedicate it to Olympian Zeus, and that on Mount Gerizim to Zeus the Hospitable, as the inhabitants of the place requested...
They also brought into the temple things that were forbidden, so that the altar was covered with abominable offerings prohibited by the laws (of Torah). A man could not keep the Sabbath (Shabbat) or celebrate the traditional feasts, nor even admit that he was a Jew.
At the suggestion of the citizens of Ptolemais, a decree was issued ordering the neighboring Greek cities to act in the same way against the Jews: oblige them to partake of the sacrifices, and put to death those who would not consent to adopt the customs of the Greeks. It was obvious, therefore, that disaster impended.
Thus, two women who were arrested for having circumcised their children were publicly paraded about the city with their babies hanging at their breasts and then thrown down from the top of the city wall. Others, who had assembled in nearby caves to observe the (Shabbat) in secret, were betrayed to Philip and all burned to death.”
After ten years of this infamy, in the year of 167 BCE, the armies of the new Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV Epiphanes entered the gates of Jerusalem, robbed the Temple treasury, massacred the Jewish population and desecrated the Most Holy Place. By 165 BCE the land of Judea was in full revolt by the Maccabees.
Ancient Greek and Modern Euro-American bid for World Dominion
Go to “The Land and the Zionist State of Israel”, Part One
Go to “The Land and the Zionist State of Israel”, Part Two
And so today, the American government controlled by Obamagog, is using a Jewish emissary, the “Jewish non-Jew”, Secretary of State John Kerry to continue the pressure upon the State of Israel to abandon the Heartland of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The forces against the Nation of Israel centered in the land of the habitation of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel are coalescing their power and influence to force a resolution in the United Nations to give the land to the Amalekite followers of the modern day Haman the Agagite (Descendant of King Agag of the Amalekites) of the Agagites.) called Hamas and the Palestinian peoples. As Giulio Meotti recently wrote:
Giulio Meotti – “Arab spokesmen, unlike their Israeli counterparts, are not ashamed to be “intransigent” or to cherish territory.
Arab spokesmen, unlike most of their Jewish counterparts, are not ashamed to make the Temple Mount the center of their new war against Israel.
Arab spokesmen care so much about the site that they can claim that Abraham wasn’t a Jew, that Jews never had a Temple in Jerusalem, that Jews in Biblical Israel are “the descendants of monkeys and pigs”.
Arab spokesmen were so skillful and able to manipulate history that today the UN, Europe, America and the chattering classes, which have no religion at all, are all reinforcing the Arab claim that any who died on the Temple Mount were martyred defenders of holy places, mowed down by savage, unprovoked “Israeli settlers”.
But the world's feeble attempts to erase Jewish history from Jerusalem and the Land of Israel don't cut the mustard. The contrary proof is simply undeniable and overwhelming. And those who advocate the Arab view are liars and charlatans.
But at this point, only people like Moshe Feiglin can peacefully liberate the Temple Mount. Because Israeli as a nation and as a state is losing the holy site. Those who ascend, like Feiglin and other brave people, are the only obstacle to the Temple Mount's final Islamization.
One of those heroes once told me: “I would sell my mother to have a minute of freedom in the Temple Mount”.
A few weeks ago, Yehuda Glick was almost murdered for having tried to pray as a free Jew on Temple Mount. Terrorists also planned to target Feiglin and other figures related to the Temple Mount movement. But the Israeli authorities, instead of showing braveness and attachment to their own history, appeased the Arab-Islamic fury and closed the Temple Mount again. It is as if nothing happened in Jerusalem in the past month.
But Jews are stronger than their leaders. A few weeks ago, I visited Jerusalem and I wanted to see the synagogue in Agassi Street, Har Nof, where four rabbis had been killed by Israeli Arabs. In the synagogue of the massacre I met a rabbi, Avraham Nadler, who told me: “The terrorists targeted us because we, the religious Jews, are the symbol of unity of the country. We must grow and get stronger after the attack”.
The Israeli authorities must show the same fortitude and moral clarity in front of anti-Semitism and terrorism, which is now focused on Temple Mount.”
In the days of the Syrian Abomination of Desoation, the internal source of political and religious dissent came from the Office of the High Priest after the Syrians became involved in Judean internal polity and foreign relationship.
So today, while Obamagog is dangling American weaponry to the Israeli military, his Jewish Secretary of State, John Kerry, a Sabbatean Apostate Jew who does not believe in the G-d of Israel is again trying to force the Netanyahu government to extinguish more settlement homes considered to be built in Shomron, where the Capital city of Samaria was once located and also in the region of mountains of Judea.
Back in Jerusalem, even the integrity of the Netanyahu government is openly being questioned on the policies of open building contracts for residential homes in Jerusalem for the Arab population while denying building contracts for Jewish construction for Jewish residents in Eastern Jerusalem. This is in essence the denying or instituting a Jewish building freeze in Eastern Jerusalem. At the same time, 2,500 Arab housing units were released in Al-Sawahir Al- Gharbiyya, an area that already has 3,000 illegal Arab housing units as Pax Americana settles over Israel.
In essence, Netanyahu, who was trained by the leaders of the Council on Foreign Relations that control American Foreign Policy, the mandates by the G-d of Israel are going unheeded, yet let us now be dismayed. If was the new President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, who recently joined the residents of Nitzan for a Chanukah candle lighting ceremony and spoke these words, “Despite the long time (ten years) that has passed since that event, my heart still aches when I remember Gush Katif – its productive workers, its youth, its children.”
Yet even with the promises of the government, in July 2014, 50% of the 9,500 residents that were expelled from their homes and businesses are still homeless. Yet in the region of their former homes along the Mediterranean coastline unemployment in 2005 was 4%. Today these same settlers in Nitzan suffer 16% unemployment. Yet in the eyes of the new President, Reuven Rivlin, the mantle of the Zionist State of Israel has a defining spiritual and moral reality. It was these words that their new president stated that gave them hope that the government of Israel is not turning either to the right or to the left but rather being elevated to a new state of spiritual consciousness that is directed by the hand of HaShem himself, the Master of Legions and the Creator of the Universe.
President Reuven Rivlin – “But the images of our people, who were sent into exile in their own lands when they were evicted from their homes, were very hard for those who saw them. Soldiers and residents stood looking at each other, together, to prevent the State of Israel from falling victim to violence. From you, residents of Gush Katif, I learned what Zionism is; How to start over after the great trauma, whose youth who were removed from their homes by IDF soldiers themselves took upon themselves the defense of their country.”
With the collapse of the 2014 Netanyahu government and the call for new election on March 17, 2015, we can begin to perceive that the politics of the State of Israel appears to be quite similar to the era of Jason the Jewish High Priest and Menelaus. The political fight to control the Office of the High Priest by bribery and graft is not unlike the recent accusations and legal sentencings against the Sharon family, the corrupted PM Ehud Olmert and the infamous legacy of former President Shimon Peres. With the inauguration of the new observant President of the State of Israel, Reuven “Rubi” Rivlin, the Jewish people, the people began to have a new hope that an observant President can begin a new era of righteousness and honor in the politics of Israel according to the mandate of the Divine.
Zechariah 8:9-17 – “Thus said HaShem, Master of Legions: Let our hands be strong , you who hear these days these words from the mouths of the prophets, which [were spoken] on the day that the foundation was laid for the Temple of HaShem, Master of Legions – the Sanctuary – to be built. For before those days, people had no earnings, nor were there earnings from animals, those who travel back and forth had no peace because of the enemy; and I set everyone, man against his neighbor.
But now, not as in earlier days, am I toward the remnant of this people – the word of HaShem Master of Legions. For [now] the seed is of peace: The vine gives forth its fruits, the land gives forth its produce, and the heavens give forth their dew. (have you seen the rising rainfall in Shomron, Judea and in Jerusalem since Succot 2014?) I have bestowed all these upon the remnant of this people.
And it will happen that just as you, O House of Judah and House of Israel, had been a curse for the nations, so will I save you (Jews and Lost Israelites alike) and you will be blessing. Do not fear, and let your hands be strong!
For thus said HaShem, Master of Legions: Just as I had planned to be misfortune upon you when your forefathers angered Me – said HaShem, Master of Legions – and I did not relent [from doing so], so have I turned back these days and planned to benefit Jerusalem and the House of Judah.
Do not fear! These are the things that you should do: Speak the truth with one another; and in your gates judge with truth, justice and peace. Do not think evil toward one another in your hearts and do not love false oaths, for all these are what I hate – the word of HaShem."
So today, the Jewish holiday called Hanukkah has evolved over the centuries to a major feast whose story parallels that of the Exodus, the destruction from Rome and the modern day Holocaust when again the “Indomitable Jews” returned from utter destruction of their cultural way of life and again rebuilt Jerusalem and the Zionist State of Israel.
The Chanukah story weaves itself throughout the tapestry of Jewish life, for it is more than just a story of the miracle of oil, or even the reclamation or restoration of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Chanukah is a narrative story that is for all Jews, Israeli and Zionists and will soon become the narrative of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel, when in turn they also will be reclaimed, redeemed and restored to the land of their forefathers in preparation for their final physical and spiritual evolution, the rise of Greater Israel; in Lebanon, Syria, ancient Basham, Ammon and beyond into Greater Israel that is under the rule of the Maschiach ben Dovid (Messiah son of David). (Ezekiel 36-37).
As Steven Shamrak recently wrote in the Shamrak Report out of Melbourne, Australia:
Shamrak Report – “The name of Jewish holiday, Hanukkah, is derived from a Hebrew word - meaning "to dedicate." It used to be a minor Jewish festival with no Biblical source. The Chanukah story permeates Israel. It is not just the story of the miracle of the oil, or the reclamation and restoration of the Temple. It is the story of Jewish victory over oppressors, of defending our homeland against those who seek to delegitimize our connection to it and destroy our nation. It is a narrative that all Jews, Israelis and Zionists, can relate to very strongly, as it is a story that has played out many times throughout our history.
Hanukkah is one of the quintessentially Zionist holidays. It is a holiday of freedom, celebrating the victory of the Maccabees over the Syrians. It reaffirms the centrality of Israel and of Jerusalem in Jewish cultural life. Without love of Israel and Jewish national existence, Hanukkah has no real meaning.
Hanukkah is a holiday of Jewish national liberation. Unfortunately, most of our current spiritual leaders are defining Hanukkah mainly as the Feast of Lights! They deliberately do not emphasize that this miracle was the reward for determination and courage exhibited by Jews in the fight for liberation of our land!
From the very beginnings of the Zionist movement, the story of the Maccabees would serve as an inspiration. As Theodore Herzl wrote, "The Maccabees will rise again.” Vladimir Jabotinsky similarly declared: “Yes, they have arisen – the children of those whose ancestor was Judah, the Lion of the Maccabees.” It is not surprising that Hanukkah is a major theme in proclamations by Zionist leaders and made its way into Zionist literature, Zionist poetry, and Israeli music.
The modern State of Israel came into being as a modern miracle. With inferior weaponry, little infrastructure, and a much smaller population, the day after declaring independence, the new country was forced to go to war against invading armies from the neighboring Arab states. The miracles that come to mind when one thinks of Israel's history are numerous - the surprising victory of the War of Independence, the stunning victory of the Six Day War, as well as the Yom Kippur war.
The Maccabees faced a powerful enemy - the Syrian Greeks. They protected the traditions of the Jewish people and ensured the continuity of Jewish life in Israel. We must continue to follow this tradition. Israel is also facing powerful enemies, and not just Arab and Muslim countries. The task of liberation of Jewish land from enemy occupation is not completed!”
The Final Abomination of Desolation will be here before Maschiach
One thing is becoming apparent. The G-d of Israel is a “One G-d” who creates the cycles of life, whether in the streams of light photons, the sounds of nature, the cycles of the planting and harvest seasons, the cycles of the planets around the sun, and the cycles of the Zodiac constellations in the heavens. He has also created the great cycles of reclamation, redemption and restoration. Such is the archetype of the Abomination of Desolations that resulted in the desolation of Zerubbabel’s Temple in 167 BCE, the King Herod’s Temple in 70 CE and at the end of day, the final Abomination of Desolation will come before all things are made new in the Messianic Era of the World to Come.
You might want to read:
“The Maccabees and the Abomination of Desolation” – BibleSearchers Reflections
“Does G-d allow Jewish-Anti-Jews, Secularists, and Leftists to govern the Last State of Israel that He intends to Redeem at the Time of the End?” – Destination Yisrael
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If you have wondered how biblical prophecy fits into your life, and how it will affect the Return of the House of Israel, then the G-d of Israel is beginning his “call” to bring you home, too. You might desire to reconnect with the Biblical portrayals on what is and may be happening in your near future. This Biblical portrayal includes Prophecies that the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel are about to return to the Land of their Biblical Inheritance. This is Divine Destiny in living reality as the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel return to their Homelands first in Shomron (Samaria), Israel.
For inquiries about the Kol Ha Tor Vision for the Lost Tribes of Israel,
Visit their Web Site
“Kol Ha Tor”,
They also offer – “a Spiritual Retreat and Guest House in Samaria that hosts Shomron (Samaria) Tours to reacquaint the Returning Lost Tribers of the House of Israel to their chosen destiny. For details refer to Shomron Lives!”,
DISCLAIMER - Kol Ha Tor is an independent commentator and may or may not agree with the contents, the views, interpretations and opinions as expressed by the independent theological and/or political views of Destination Yisrael