Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival

Hope you had a great week. I am making my way through the story of the Maccabees--told twice, in two adjoining books. Candidly, it has not been my favorite section of the Old Testament. A lot of history and politics and intrigue. But a little light on the spiritual side. I've tried to provide some thoughts and comments that I hope you'll find interesting. Cameos by Tony Soprano, Alexander the Great, and Cleopatra, among others.

Here you go...

1 Maccabees 1-5

1 Maccabees 6-9:22

1 Maccabees 9:23-12

1 Maccabees 13-16

Do You Know Where You're Headed?

2 Maccabees 1-7

And here is the link to the Sunday Snippets page:

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival

Enjoy!

Have a great week.

1 Maccabees 9:23-12

Confession time: I am not really enjoying 1 Maccabees. At all. There's not much of my favorite "character"--God. Where did He go? Lots of political intrigue, geopolitical trategy and maneuvering, alliances made and broken, and war. Cleopatra even makes an appearance. It's an HBO miniseries, perhaps. But inspiring? Well, no. Not for me.

This section revolves around Jonathan, the brother of the great warrior, Judas. Jonathan succeeds to leadership after Judas' death. He leads well. The Israelites fortunes wax and wane--but mostly wax. Ptolemy, Alexander, Cleopatra, Rome, Sparta, Persia all cross the  stage. In the end, Jonathan is apparently undone--his men killed and Jonathan captured--by   the cunning of Trypho, who aspires to be king of Asia. The Israelites are thrown into deep mourning, realizing that once again they are alone, fearful, and surrounded by enemies bent on their destruction.