Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.
Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart.
Blessed is the heart with strength to stop beating for honor's sake.
Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.
~ Hannah Senesh
The author of this poem was 22-year-old Hannah Senesh. Born an upper-class Hungarian Jew in the 1920's, she had grown up in a life of comfort. However, by the age of 17, she abruptly informed her mother of her plan to move to Palestine to join the Zionist movement growing there. She was so dedicated and determined to the cause of her people when she finally achieved passage to Palestine, she attended an agricultural school for girls, seeing agricultural labor as the area of greatest need, despite her own advanced education and intellectual tendencies. Meanwhile, the holocaust had begun in Europe and its waves were rolling towards Hungary, where her mother still lived. Hannah became worried, not only for her own mother, but for the other Jews trapped in Europe, and began contemplating a penetration into Europe and Hungary to defend her mother and her people. She then heard of a band of Jews in Palestine who were forming a resistance of their own to go back into Europe and fight the Nazis and support the Allies. Hannah immediately joined and after much training, parachuted into Greece and made her way into Hungary with 4 men under her command. She arrived in Budapest at the same time as Hitler's forces did, an unfortunate coincidence that led to her capture. She was interrogated and beaten severely in an effort to extract codes and other information out of her, but she would not surrender anything. Her mother was brought in and ordered to persuade Hannah to talk, but her mother said that she knew that if her daughter was keeping something from them, it was for good reason, and she would not persuade her. Hannah was kept imprisoned for months, before being tried and convicted of treason against Hungary, and executed, days before Russia took Budapest for the Allies. When the war ended, her body was reclaimed by the Palestinian Jews, who had claimed her as their heroine, a symbol of perseverance and hope for the Zionist movement, and a monument was made in her honor.
This was all in a documentary that I watched last night, and as I watched, I was stunned, not only by her, but by her cause. Here was a young woman, with a cause, a good one, but only a temporary one, and who accomplished incredible things without even the Holy Spirit to work through her. Indeed, she was not even sure there was a God. How can a young woman have such an impact at such a young age for a cause infinitesimally smaller than the cause of our Lord Jesus, and we, with, not a match to kindle a flame, but an atomic bomb (by comparison) to kindle our flame, have no such stories to tell of our own lives? Then I reasoned, "Anne Marie, that was a time of war. War molds incredible people who do incredible things. There were many more tales of heroism written during that time." Oh really? Are we not in a greater war than World War II? Ephesians 6:12 came to mind: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." Our cause is greater than anything in this world. Our resources to fight for our cause are greater than anything in this world! If a young woman without such a cause or such a means as we have can accomplish such amazing things, we can certainly accomplish far more through Christ.
