Scripture Daily

Context No. 1539 of 4322 · 1 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

1 Maccabees 11:13-19: in context

13Ptolemy entered into Antioch, and put on himself the crown of Asia. He put two crowns upon his head, the crown of Egypt and that of Asia. 14But King Alexander was in Cilicia at that time, because the people of that region were in revolt. 15When Alexander heard of it, he came against him in war. Ptolemy marched out and met him with a strong force, and put him to flight. 16Alexander fled into Arabia, that he might be sheltered there; but King Ptolemy was triumphant. 17Zabdiel the Arabian took off Alexander’s head, and sent it to Ptolemy. 18King Ptolemy died the third day after, and those who were in his strongholds were slain by the inhabitants of the strongholds. 19Demetrius became king in the one hundred sixty-seventh year.

Ptolemy, king of Egypt, having entered Antioch, crowns himself, putting two crowns on his head, the crown of Egypt and the crown of Asia, master now of two kingdoms. He has schemed and fought his way to this double crown, betraying his own son-in-law Alexander to get it. Alexander, defeated, flees and is beheaded. Ptolemy is triumphant, at the height of his power, wearing two crowns. And three days later, he is dead, and those in his strongholds are slaughtered, and another king takes the throne.

The story is a stark picture of the vanity of grasping ambition. Ptolemy poured his life into the pursuit of power, scheming, betraying, fighting, until he reached the summit, two crowns on his head, two kingdoms in his hand, the height of everything he had grasped for. And three days later he was dead, the two crowns worthless, another man on the throne. All the grasping came to nothing in a moment; the power he had killed and betrayed to seize did not last him a week. There is a lesson here as old as Ecclesiastes about the emptiness of an ambition that grasps for power and status as though they were the point of life. Ptolemy got everything he wanted, and it was ashes within days; death emptied his hands of the crowns he had schemed a lifetime to hold. The passage is a mirror held up to every heart tempted to pour its life into grasping for position, wealth, or power, as though these could be secured and enjoyed forever. They cannot; death empties every grasping hand, and often far sooner than we think. The two crowns Ptolemy wore for three days are a parable of all worldly grasping: intense, ruthless, triumphant, and, in the end, empty, taken by death in a moment. To spend a life grasping for what death will empty in a day is the folly this passage exposes. Better to hold lightly the things that death will take, and to lay up what death cannot touch.

Am I pouring my life into grasping for power, position, or wealth, as Ptolemy did for his two crowns, when death empties every such hand often far sooner than we think, and could I instead hold lightly what death will take and lay up what it cannot touch?

Sources