1 Maccabees 7:21-25. The evil Alcimus is striving for power in the form of the high priesthood, "and all who were troubling their people joined him. They gained control of the land of Judah and did great damage in Israel." ( Sound familiar? ) When Judas Maccabeus saw the damage that these men were doing, more than the gentiles had done, he went out to the men who had deserted and took vengeance on them and prevented anyone from leaving the city to join the deserters. His followers grew strong, so Alcimus went to the king and "brought wicked charges against them."

History repeats itself, and salvation history seems to repeat itself more than regular history! While reading the Bible, we come to realize that it is the same cycle of God leading us through our sin to punishment, to repentance, to holiness, and then we fall back into sin and start all over. This story about Alcimus can be superimposed over the story of Donald Trump almost perfectly (hear me out, I'm not saying that Trump is the modern Judas Maccabeus!) - Trump was far from a perfect man (I find him quite distasteful in many ways), and he was unsuccessful. But Trump saw, at least partially (he was not allowed to see it fully), the evil and damage that those who are striving for power above all else were doing to this country and how it was hurting the people.

Like Judas, Trump "brought vengeance" on many of those who had been formally loyal to this country by calling them out unabashedly; he and his followers grew stronger; and therefore his enemies brought false, wicked charges against him (we had one impeachment trial based on false stories paid for by his political enemies,  then we had a second impeachment hearing at which the elected members of Congress who were the impeachment managers submitted falsified evidence! These people are enemies of the state!). It really is the exact same story. Now, Donald Trump was not ultimately successful, the "bad guys," the enemies of the state, have taken control of our land and are doing great damage to it, while Judas was ultimately successful. But Judas Maccabeus was fighting not just for his country, but also for his faith, and that made all the difference in his eventual success.

The Maccabees eventually will defeat all these wicked people, but there is a lot of wickedness and suffering that will happen first. The wicked Alcimus and Nicanore will rise before they fall, just as we all do when we are relying on the temptations of this world. Worldly things that we make idols of raise us up while at the same time corrupting us until eventually the corruption becomes so great that our foundations give way and we fall back to earth. That is happening now, slowly (too slowly from my liking) to all of the people whose lust for power made them do such wicked things to our country. Their foundations are crumbling, they are seeing the evil they have wrought, and they will fall, it is just a matter of time.