Scripture Daily

Context No. 1453 of 4322 · 1 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

1 Maccabees 1:54-64: in context

54On the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred forty fifth year, they built an abomination of desolation upon the altar, and in the cities of Judah on every side they built idol altars. 55At the doors of the houses and in the streets they burned incense. 56They tore up the books of the law which they found and set them on fire. 57Anyone who was found with any book of the covenant, and if any consented to the law, the king’s sentence delivered him to death. 58Thus did they in their might to Israel, to those who were found month by month in the cities. 59On the twenty-fifth day of the month they sacrificed upon the idol altar that was on top of the altar of burnt offering. 60They put to death women who had circumcised their children, according to the commandment. 61They hung their babies around their necks, and their houses, and those who had circumcised them. 62Many in Israel were fully resolved and confirmed in themselves not to eat unclean things. 63They chose to die, that they might not be defiled with the food, and that they might not profane the holy covenant; and they died. 64Exceedingly great wrath came upon Israel.

This passage records the height of Antiochus's persecution of the Jews. He set up the abomination of desolation on the altar of the temple, built pagan altars throughout Judah, burned the books of the law, and made it a capital crime to possess a copy of the covenant or to keep it. Mothers who circumcised their children were put to death, their babies hung around their necks. And yet, the text says, many in Israel stood firm and resolved not to eat unclean food; they chose to die rather than be defiled and profane the holy covenant, and they died. Great wrath came upon Israel.

In the midst of this horror, the text turns to those who would not yield: many in Israel were fully resolved not to be defiled, and chose to die rather than profane the holy covenant, and they died. Here were people faced with a simple, terrible choice: eat the forbidden food, deny the covenant, and live; or refuse, keep faith, and be killed. And many chose to die rather than betray their God. Their resolve is sobering to contemplate, a faithfulness that held even against death, that counted fidelity to God worth more than life itself. It is right to honor them, these ordinary faithful who would not compromise even to save their own lives, and whose deaths are recorded so that they would not be forgotten. And their example puts a searching question to us, whose compromises are usually so much smaller and safer. We are rarely asked to die for our faith; we are asked to bear inconvenience, mild ridicule, the loss of some advantage, the discomfort of standing out, and we so often yield even to these. The martyrs chose death rather than defile the covenant over something as small as food; and we bend our convictions for far less, for the sake of fitting in or avoiding awkwardness. Their costly faithfulness is both a rebuke to our easy compromises and an encouragement that such fidelity is possible, that people have counted God worth dying for. To hold, in our small trials, even a fraction of the resolve they held in their great one, is to be shaped by their example.

The martyrs chose to die rather than profane the covenant over something as small as food; do I bend my convictions for far less, to fit in or avoid discomfort, and can their costly faithfulness rebuke my easy compromises and stiffen my resolve in the small trials I face?

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