“Regrettable Relapse”

1 Maccabees 1: 11: “In those days lawless men came forth from Israel, and misled many, saying, ‘Let us go and make a covenant with the Gentiles round about us, for since we separated from them many evils have come upon us.’” Less than 250 years after Israel’s re-establishment, they are once again under threat from the Gentiles; this time, the Greeks. But rather than remain faithful to the God Who has delivered them against so many other kingdoms, they blame God, rather than their own faithlessness, for their past problems. The rest of this chapter, and the entire Book of Maccabees, shows us the tragic results of that choice. What can today’s people of God learn from this?