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Context No. 1355 of 4322 · 1 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

1 Maccabees 5:9-13: in context

9The Gentiles who were in Gilead gathered themselves together against the Israelites who were on their borders, to destroy them. They fled to the stronghold of Dathema, 10and sent letters to Judas and his kindred, saying, “The Gentiles who are around us are gathered together against us to destroy us. 11They are preparing to come and get possession of the stronghold where we fled for refuge, and Timotheus is the leader of their army. 12Now therefore come and deliver us from their hand, for many of us have fallen. 13All our kindred who were in the land of Tubias have been put to death. They have carried their wives, their children, and their stuff into captivity. They destroyed about a thousand men there.”

The Gentiles surrounding the Israelites in Gilead have banded together to destroy them. The Jews there flee to the stronghold of Dathema and send an urgent letter to Judas Maccabeus and his brothers: the nations around us have gathered to wipe us out; they are coming to take the stronghold where we have taken refuge; many of us have already fallen; all our kindred in the land of Tubias have been killed, their wives and children carried off. Come and rescue us. It is a cry from besieged people at the end of their own strength, reaching out to a brother for help.

There are two things worth taking from this desperate letter. The first is the courage it takes to send it, to admit that they are overwhelmed and cannot save themselves, and to ask for help. When we are besieged, whether by literal enemies or by trouble, illness, grief, or need, there is a pride in us that would rather go under in silence than confess we cannot manage and call for rescue. The Jews of Gilead were not too proud to say plainly, we are being destroyed, many of us have fallen, come and deliver us. There is a kind of faith and humility in that honest cry for help. The second is the bond that such a cry appeals to and awakens. They wrote to their kindred, counting on the tie of a shared people and a shared covenant, and Judas, as the story goes on, drops what he is doing and marches to their aid. The distress of one part of the family became the concern of the whole; the cry of the besieged was answered by those with the strength to help. There is a picture here of how the people of God are meant to work, bound together so that one member's trouble is felt by all, so that those who are overwhelmed can cry out without shame and those who can help will come. We are not meant to be destroyed in silence, and we are not meant to be deaf to a brother's cry.

When I am overwhelmed, am I too proud to admit it and call for help, and when a brother cries out in his distress, am I one who answers, feeling his trouble as my own and going to his aid?

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