Faith, in a better resurrection!

(a story of 7 heroic brothers + their mom)

...Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. (Hebrews 11:35)

This passage in Hebrews references an event (circa 150 BC) which took place during a time scholars call the intertestamental period.  The writing below which the reference is drawn is from the Book of Maccabees.  This book though not canonized provided a wealth of historical insight and heroic inspiration which would've been very familiar to those receiving the letter we call "Hebrews".

After reading through the below passage, I was moved by the faith of these 7 Jewish men and their mom, in the great God of the Bible and his future promise of resurrection (which we know was ultimately unveiled in Jesus).

The account is graphic and macabre, but their words and testimony are challenging and faith provoking! The whole story is moving but I highlighted some of the statements that inspired me.

- - - - - - -

2 Maccabees 7: [1] It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine's flesh. [2] One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, "What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers." [3]The king fell into a rage, and gave orders that pans and caldrons be heated.

1st BROTHER 
[4] These were heated immediately, and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesman be cut out and that they scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on. [5] When he was utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The smoke from the pan spread widely, but the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying, [6] "The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his song which bore witness against the people to their faces, when he said, `And he will have compassion on his servants.'"

2nd BROTHER
[7]After the first brother had died in this way, they brought forward the second for their sport. They tore off the skin of his head with the hair, and asked him, "Will you eat rather than have your body punished limb by limb?" [8] He replied in the language of his fathers, and said to them, "No." Therefore he in turn underwent tortures as the first brother had done.  [9] And when he was at his last breath, he said, "You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws." 

3rd BROTHER 
[10]After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue and courageously stretched forth his hands, [11] and said nobly, "I got these from Heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again." [12] As a result the king himself and those with him were astonished at the young man's spirit, for he regarded his sufferings as nothing.

4th BROTHER
[13]When he too had died, they maltreated and tortured the fourth in the same way. [14] And when he was near death, he said, "One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life!"

5th BROTHER
[15]Next they brought forward the fifth and maltreated him. [16] But he looked at the king, and said, "Because you have authority among men, mortal though you are, you do what you please. But do not think that God has forsaken our people. [17] Keep on, and see how his mighty power will torture you and your descendants!"

6th BROTHER
[18]After him they brought forward the sixth. And when he was about to die, he said, "Do not deceive yourself in vain. For we are suffering these things on our own account, because of our sins against our own God. Therefore astounding things have happened. [19] But do not think that you will go unpunished for having tried to fight against God!"

The MOTHER
[20]The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honor. Though she saw her seven sons perish within a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord. [21] She encouraged each of them firing forth a woman's reasoning with a man's courage, and said to them,  [22] "I don’t fully understand how you came into being in my womb, It wasn't I who gave you life & breath...[23] but is was the Creator of the world.  It was He who shaped the beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, He in his mercy will give life and breath back to you again, since you now will give yourselves for the sake of his laws."