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Context No. 1289 of 4322 · 2 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

2 Maccabees 10:1-8: in context

1Then Maccabaeus and those who were with him, the Lord leading them on, recovered the temple and the city. 2They pulled down the altars that had been built in the marketplace by the foreigners, and also the sacred enclosures. 3Having cleansed the sanctuary, they made another altar of sacrifice. Striking flint and starting a fire, they offered sacrifices after they had ceased for two years, burned incense, lit lamps, and set out the show bread. 4When they had done these things, they fell prostrate and implored the Lord that they might fall no more into such evils; but that, if they ever did sin, they might be chastened by him with forbearance, and not be delivered to blaspheming and barbarous heathen. 5Now on the same day that the sanctuary was profaned by foreigners, upon that very day it came to pass that the sanctuary was cleansed, even on the twenty-fifth day of the same month, which is Chislev. 6They observed eight days with gladness in the manner of the feast of tabernacles, remembering how not long before, during the feast of tabernacles, they were wandering in the mountains and in the caves like wild animals. 7Therefore carrying wands wreathed with leaves, and beautiful branches, and palm fronds also, they offered up hymns of thanksgiving to him who had successfully brought to pass the cleansing of his own place. 8They ordained also with a public statute and decree, for all the nation of the Jews, that they should observe these days every year.

Judas Maccabeus and his men, led by the Lord, recover the temple and the city that had been defiled by the foreign occupiers. They tear down the pagan altars the enemy had built, cleanse the sanctuary, and make a new altar. Striking fresh fire from flint, they offer sacrifice for the first time in two years, burn incense, light the lamps, and set out the bread of the Presence. Then they fall on their faces and beg God that they might never fall into such disasters again. And they establish an eight-day festival of joy to be kept every year, remembering this cleansing.

The heart of this passage is the rededication of what had been defiled. The temple, God's own place, had been profaned by the enemy, its worship silenced for two years, pagan altars set up in the holy courts. And Judas's response, once the city was recovered, was not merely to celebrate the military victory but to cleanse and rededicate the sanctuary, to restore the worship that had been stopped, relighting the lamps, renewing the sacrifices, setting out the bread. The restoration of worship mattered more than the restoration of political freedom. This is the festival still kept as Hanukkah, and Jesus himself would walk in the temple during it. There is a picture here of what to do with a life or a place that has been defiled and its worship silenced. The answer is rededication, cleansing what was profaned, relighting the lamp, restoring the worship that had stopped, and marking it as a fresh beginning. And notice the humble prayer that accompanies it: they beg that if they ever sin again, God would discipline them himself rather than hand them over to their enemies. The rededicated people know their own frailty. To cleanse and rededicate what has been defiled, and to do it in humble dependence, is how the worship that was silenced begins again.

Is there something in my life that has been defiled and its worship silenced, and am I willing to do what Judas did, cleanse it, relight the lamp, and rededicate it to God as a fresh beginning?

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