Brief sermon notes: Jesse James, The Confederate Maccabee

2022 Hanukkah Message
Dec. 19, 2022 (25th day of 9th biblical month)

1 Maccabees 1:1 to 2:44
2:64 to 3:12
4:52-61

Rev. 12:9 declares that the entire world is deceived.
Everything is upside down.
History has been rewritten.
They have made the criminals heroes, and the heroes criminals.

Jesse James read his bible often. He respected people and treated people good. He lived in a time when it was necessary to take things into their own hands, and when every man needed a gun to protect himself, his family and his neighbors.
Armed gangs from the north and from Kansas was murdering and robbing the people in the south and in Missouri where Jesse lived. Those criminals worked in cooperation with the northern and Kansas union soldiers and government, and with the banks and railroad people.
The banksters and railroad people were murdering people, robbing people, stealing their land, their farms, their cattle and their homes. To bring the new railroads into more territory, they would forcefully take the land and give the people only $1 per acre, which was not a fair market value. If they refused to accept the money, many of them were murdered or else forcefully removed from their land.
Jesse James killed criminals, thieves, murderers. He was greatly honored and respected by the citizens.
When he robbed banks and trains, he was only taking back what was already stolen from the people.
He gave much of the money back to the people and helped people in need. He was a good man. He didn't have any evil intent.
He was the Maccabee of his time.

The Maccabee family was in the same situation of fighting guerrilla warfare tactics against evil people who sought to change the way of life of the local citizens. The father of the Maccabee father told his sons to avenge the suffering of the people and to fight back.
Although the bible repeatedly says to not take your own revenge, the reality is that there are exceptions depending upon the context of each event.
When we honor Hanukkah, we are honoring men that took revenge against wickedness and God honors these men also.
These people lived in a different time, a different world than today. They did what they had to do. They weren't evil.

https://isawthelightministries.com/hanukkah.html

Full sermon audio: https://soundcloud.com/isawthelightministries/dec-19-2022-jesse-james-the-maccabee-of-the-confederacy-hanukkah-2022