Jacob and Esau were knit together in the same womb… from the beginning, within the womb of Rivkah, there was a great conflict…
He knit me together in the same womb as He did my brothers, but unlike the aforementioned siblings, at different times. Although born to the same family, share the same family history, and all growing up to wrestle with drug addiction, that is all we have in common.
My brothers favored my father in many respects. Their opinion of women matched that of my father, along with their opinion toward religion and ethnic groups.
I am still in the process of shedding off the “snakeskin” ways I inevitably absorbed by osmosis, being raised in a tumultuously divided home. Although I did not absorb the exact opinions and viewpoints of the patriarch of my childhood home, I did absorb some pretty similar negative opinions of women and identified myself in that shameful gender by internalizing those shaming messages.
After all, I heard over and over from my own father’s lips that “You should be ashamed of yourself”. So, I was.
I favored my mother’s tenacious hold on the God of her understanding and was fortunate to have had some religious instruction at her knees as a young girl. I loved Jesus and His Sabbath.
After coming out of a benumbing lifestyle of active addiction and serial domestic violence, I followed in my mother’s footsteps by tenaciously chasing after my Creator. I answered the call to Shema Israel…and to come out of her My people…I left that denomination I grew up in to embrace The Way of The Rabbi.
Tenacity…what a great word…
According to Merriam Webster, the definition is
COURAGE, METTLE, SPIRIT, RESOLUTION, TENACITY mean mental or moral strength to resist opposition, danger, or hardship. COURAGE implies firmness of mind and will in the face of danger or extreme difficulty. the courage to support unpopular causes METTLE suggests an ingrained capacity for meeting strain or difficulty with fortitude and resilience. a challenge that will test your mettle SPIRIT also suggests a quality of temperament enabling one to hold one’s own or keep up one’s morale when opposed or threatened. her spirit was unbroken by failure RESOLUTION stresses firm determination to achieve one’s ends. the resolution of pioneer women TENACITY adds to RESOLUTION implications of stubborn persist
Wow!
As I read the Torah portion, Vayishlach, I meditated on a few things in my personal life along with the current news reports regarding their impending answer for the “pandemic.” A vaccine filled with a variety of poisonous, questionable ingredients. Ingredients that will change a human forever…
THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION
The key passages in Daniel that mention the term “abomination of desolation” are Daniel 9:27; 11:31 and Daniel 12:11. This is a technical term, which means that it has a precise and consistent meaning in all three passages. The phrase refers to an act of abomination that renders, in this case, the Temple, something unclean. Daniel 11:31 speaks of an act that was fulfilled in history before the first coming of Christ. Dr. John Walvoord explains:
In Daniel 11:31, a prophecy was written by Daniel in the sixth century B. C. about a future Syrian ruler by name of Antiochus Epiphanes who reigned over Syria 175-164 B. C., about 400 years after Daniel. History, of course, has recorded the reign of this man. In verse 31, Daniel prophesied about his activity: “…they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.” This would be very difficult to understand if it were not for the fact that it has already been fulfilled. Anyone can go back to the history of Antiochus Epiphanes and discover what he did as recorded in the apocryphal books of 1 and 2 Maccabees. He was a great persecutor of the children of Israel and did his best to stamp out the Jewish religion and wanted to place in its stead a worship of Greek pagan gods.…
One of the things he did was to stop animal sacrifices in the temple. He offered a sow, an unclean animal, on the altar in a deliberate attempt to desecrate and render it unholy for Jewish worship (cf. 1 Macc. 1:48). First Maccabees 1:54 specifically records that the abomination of desolation was set up, fulfilling Daniel 11:31. In the holy of holies Antiochus set up a statue of a Greek god.…In keeping with the prophecy the daily sacrifices were stopped, the sanctuary was polluted, desolated and made an abomination. 1
Yes, we face a type of situation the caliber of the Maccabees time period in history…stay with me now…please investigate what is in the vaccine before you make a choice whether you are going to placate the “powers that be” or be tenacious for the Kingdom of Righteousness.
I want to touch on the season we are in…Hanukkah…the Maccabee family had tenacity. We can learn much from their story, as did others throughout the years…
Judah Maccabee at West Point
By Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger
The legacy of Chanukah — faith, patriotism, defiance of extreme odds and tenacity in the battle of liberty against tyranny — has underlined the American spirit since the early pilgrims, enhancing the unique foundation of the U.S.-Israel covenant: shared values.
For instance, the statue of Judah the Maccabee, the hero of the Jewish rebellion against the Syrian-Seleucid Empire, is displayed at the West Point Military Academy, the most prestigious U.S. military academy, founded in 1802. The statue of Judah the Maccabee, known for his principle-driven leadership and daring battle tactics, is displayed along with the statues of Joshua, David, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Hector, King Arthur, Charlemagne and Godfrey of Bouillon — “the Nine Worthies.”
George Washington became acquainted with the spirit of the Maccabees, upon settling, in December (Chanukah) 1777, at his new headquarters at Valley Forge, Penn., with ill-equipped, weary troops. Faced with a superpower, George III of Britain, Washington concluded that only a dramatic change could avoid a defeat. According to the diary entries of Louisa Hart, Washington told the Harts about a Jewish solider at Valley Forge who lit a Chanukah candle and explained its significance. Washington’s reaction was: “Perhaps we are not as lost as our enemies would have us believe. I rejoice in the Maccabees’ success, though it is long past … It pleases me to think that miracles still happen.”
…the Continental Army implemented the battle tactics of Judah the Maccabee…Six months later, on June 19, 1778, the Continental Army implemented the battle tactics of Judah the Maccabee, leaving Valley Forge in pursuit of the British, who were moving toward New York. Although the war would linger for five more years, Washington won a decisive victory.
Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were inspired by the Maccabees, proposing “Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God” as the American official seal. Just like the Founding Fathers, the Maccabees were a tiny minority of “rebels” – condemned by the “loyalist/pragmatist” Jewish establishment – rebelling against an oppressive superpower. They prevailed thanks to their conviction-driven determination. They knew that swimming against the stream gets one closer to the source. The Maccabees were a role model for Paul Revere, who was referred to as “a modern day Maccabee” and the organizers of the Boston Tea Party, who realized that there were no free lunches for freedom-seeking nations.
“In God We Trust” was inspired also by the Maccabees’ battle cry…“In God We Trust” was inspired also by the Maccabees’ battle cry, which adopted Moses‘ battle cry against the builders of the Golden Calf. A literal translation of the battle cry is “Whoever trusts God; join me!” The Maccabees’ sacrifice and lack of political correctness also inspired Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death!”
In 2011, Chanukah is still a living experience in the U.S. For example, the residents of Billings, Mont. celebrate Chanukah in solidarity with the Jewish community of 40 families, and in protest of the 1993 vandals who broke the windows of Jewish homes that displayed Chanukah menorahs. In response, more than 10,000 of the city’s residents put makeshift menorahs in their own windows. They persist, annually, in this ritual.
Chanukah and the Maccabees have become an integral part of the American way of life, culturally and politically. Americans respect the legacy of the Maccabees, who fought the Syrian-Seleucid super-power, mostly, in the mountains of Judea and Samaria, in the Judean Desert and in Jerusalem. Judah the Maccabee’s own Valley Forge was at Beit El; his capital was Jerusalem; he scored dramatic victories in Beit Horon (over Seron), Hadashah (over Nicanor), Beit Zur (over Lysias) and Ma’aleh Levona (over Apolonius); he was defeated at Elazar and killed at Ba’al Hatzor — all are located beyond the “1967 Lines.”
Chanukah is not a holiday of “occupation,” but a holiday of deliverance.The descendants of the Maccabees are not “occupiers” in the cradle of their own history. Chanukah is not a holiday of “occupation,” but a holiday of deliverance. Chanukah is a holiday which highlights the moral high ground of Jews in their ancestral homeland.
Shimon the Maccabee – who succeeded Judah and Yonatan the Maccabees — articulated the Jewish territorial case when responding to an ultimatum by Antiochus, who demanded an end to the Jewish “occupation” of Jerusalem, Jaffa, Gaza, Gezer and Ekron: “We have not occupied a foreign land; we have not ruled a foreign land; we have liberated the land of our forefathers from foreign occupation,” Shimon said.
Pressuring the Jewish state to withdraw from the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria defies the American story. Either you are with George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and other defenders of liberty, or you provide — inadvertently — a tailwind to the forces of tyranny.
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Source: From Israel Hayom and Israpundit, as posted on http://lazerbrody.typepad.com (December 28, 2011). Yoram Etinger was (1989-1992) the Israel’s Minister for Congressional Affairs — with the rank of Ambassador – at the Embassy in Washington, DC.
Tyrants again want to take charge. Brother is fighting against brother. My own brother and I have opposing views. I will not fight nor argue with him. I pray for him and I attempt to be a light shining in the darkness.
Are we not called to shine His light? It is the season for the Feast of Dedication. He, Yeshua, is The Menorah. Let His light shine forth out from you. Let Him defeat the enemies that surround you. Be tenacious, stand firm…live in peace with your brothers and sisters this season, be tenacious in representing The King and His Kingdom.