04/21/2025 – “The Maccabean Blueprint” / FYI: Day 345 of 365 in the book
“The teacher let me through the darkness to the golden menorah, which stood in the center of its chamber. He lit the first of the seven lights.
‘We’ve spoken of Chanukah,’ said the teacher, ‘the Festival of Lights, how it commemorates the victory of God’s people over evil… But there’s more to it. Chanukah contains a mystery. It’s not only a commemoration but a prophetic shadow. It begins when an evil king sets up an idol in the holy place, the desecration of the Temple, the ‘Abomination Desolation.’ And yet Messiah speaks of an Abomination Desolation yet to come in the last days. So Chanukah contains a template, a prophetic blueprint of that which will take place at the end of the age.’
‘Beyond the abomination, what else does it foretell?’
‘The account begins with the apostasy of God’s people. The people who know God and who were to keep His ways, even His ministers, apostatized, turned away from God, and embraced the ways of the godless and the current spirit of the age. And so it will be in the last days … There will be a great falling away, a great apostasy. The account goes on to document the rise of a world culture that seeks to merge all the cultures into one and to compel everyone to abandon their faith. Any culture, faith, people, or person that stand in its way, it seeks to stamp out. So it will be at the end of the age… a global culture … and the persecution of God’s people… a civilization that criminalizes the ways of God, abolishes the Word of God, overturns the order of God, blaspheme the Name of God, desecrates the sacred things of God, and wars against the people of God. So it will be at the end.’
‘Is there any hope in the blueprint?’ I asked,
‘Always,’ he said. ‘Though most went along with the apostasy and the darkness, there was a remnant who would not go along, who held strong, and became the resistance … the Macabees. And God anointed them and empowered them to overcome the darkness and to usher in the light, thus, the Festival of Lights. Learn of the Maccabean Blueprint and follow its keys.’ Then he handed me the lamp. ‘Go ahead,’ he said, motioning for me to light the remainder of the lights of the menorah. So I did. ‘And this is how you overcome,’ he said. ‘You fight the darkness by shining into it the light of God.’
The Mission: Live today by the Maccabean Blueprint. Stand with God and don’t be moved. God against the odds. Fight the fight. Light up the darkness.
Daniel 11:32; Zechariah 9: 13-14; Ephesians 6: 10-20; Revelation 12:11
The Maccabee Blueprint I – IV
Soli Deo Gloria!
“God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent (He wills our greatest joy); therefore, God loves us more than we love ourselves. God’s deepest desire is for our peace and joy. We can’t lose, because God can’t lose! Insofar as we believe that identity, we will love His will as we love our own. We will then fully embrace it and become holy.” / “How to be Holy” by Peter Kreeft
I encourage y’all to read and pray over our four verses in this devotional! “They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not love their lives in the face of death.” Revelation 12:11