Scripture Daily

Context No. 1174 of 4322 · 1 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

1 Maccabees 7:33-38: in context

33After these things, Nicanor went up to mount Zion. Some of the priests came out of the sanctuary, with some of the elders of the people, to salute him peaceably, and to show him the whole burned sacrifice that was being offered for the king. 34He mocked them, laughed at them, derided them shamefully, spoke arrogantly, 35and swore in a rage, saying, “Unless Judas and his army are now delivered into my hands, it shall be that, if I return safely, I will burn up this house!” And he went out in a great rage. 36The priests entered in, and stood before the altar and the temple; and they wept, and said, 37“You chose this house to be called by your name, to be a house of prayer and supplication for your people. 38Take vengeance on this man and his army, and let them fall by the sword. Remember their blasphemies, and don’t allow them to live any longer.”

The Seleucid general Nicanor comes up to Mount Zion, where the priests come out peaceably to greet him and show him the sacrifice being offered for the king. He responds with mockery and contempt, and then, in a rage, swears a blasphemous oath: unless Judas and his army are handed over to me, when I return safely I will burn this house to the ground. He storms off. The priests go back inside, stand before the altar weeping, and pray: you chose this house to bear your name, a house of prayer for your people; take vengeance on this man, remember his blasphemies, and do not let them live.

The priests' response to a violent threat is the pattern worth noticing: they take the blasphemy straight to God. Nicanor has mocked their worship and sworn to destroy the temple, and the priests do not organize a defense or answer his contempt with their own; they go inside, stand at the altar, and weep out their case before God. They lay the threat against his house before the God whose house it is, reminding him that Nicanor's rage is finally against him, not merely against them. This is the same instinct Hezekiah showed with the Assyrian letter, bringing the enemy's words into the temple and spreading them before the Lord. When someone threatens or mocks what belongs to God, the faithful response is not to trade insults or to panic, but to carry the blasphemy to God and let him defend his own name. The priests could not stop Nicanor by force; they could bring his oath to the God who had chosen that house, and trust him to act. Their tears and their prayer are their weapon, and God answers it: Nicanor falls in the battle that follows.

When something belonging to God, or God himself, is mocked or threatened, do I trade insults and panic, or carry the blasphemy to God as the priests did, and trust him to defend his own name?

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