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Context No. 1786 of 4322 · 1 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

1 Maccabees 6:1-7: in context

1King Antiochus was traveling through the upper countries; and he heard that in Elymais in Persia there was a city renowned for riches, for silver and gold, 2and that the temple which was in it was exceedingly rich, and that in it were golden shields, breastplates, and weapons which Alexander, son of Philip, the Macedonian king, who reigned first among the Greeks, left behind there. 3So he came and tried to take the city and to pillage it; and he was not able, because his plan was known to them of the city, 4and they rose up against him in battle. He fled and returned to Babylon with great disappointment. 5Then someone came into Persia bringing him news that the armies which went against the land of Judah had been put to flight, 6and that Lysias went first with a strong army and was put to shame before them, and that they had grown strong because of weapons, power, and a supply of plunder which they took from the armies that they had cut off, 7and that they had pulled down the abomination which he had built upon the altar that was in Jerusalem, and that they had surrounded the sanctuary with high walls, as before, and also Bethsura, his city.

King Antiochus, who had desecrated the temple and persecuted God's people, is traveling through the eastern provinces when he hears of a wealthy temple in Persia and comes to plunder it. But his plan is discovered, the city rises against him, and he flees back to Babylon in bitter disappointment. There, worse news reaches him: the armies he had sent against Judah have been defeated, his commander put to shame, the Maccabees grown strong, the abomination he set on the altar torn down, and the sanctuary refortified as before.

The passage records the collapse of a persecutor's schemes. Antiochus had set himself against God and God's people, desecrating the temple, forbidding the faith, plundering the sacred; and now, one after another, his plans come to nothing. His greedy raid on the Persian temple fails; he flees in disappointment; and then he learns that his whole campaign against Judah has fallen apart, his army defeated, and the very sanctuary he defiled cleansed and restored. The oppressor who seemed unstoppable is thwarted at every turn, and what he desecrated is made new. There is a truth here that steadies those who suffer under the schemes of the arrogant and the opposition of those who set themselves against God. For a time, such people can seem to prosper; the persecutor plunders, the arrogant scheme, the desecrator defiles, and it looks as though nothing can stop them. But their schemes are not beyond God's reach. God brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the crafty; the raid fails, the campaign collapses, and what was torn down is rebuilt. Antiochus set himself against God and against God's people, and his schemes unraveled while the sanctuary he defiled was restored. This is not a promise that opposition will always collapse on our timetable, or that we will see it happen. But it is an assurance that those who set themselves against God do not finally prevail, that their schemes are not beyond his power to thwart, and that what they defile he can restore. The plunderer flees in disappointment; the desecrated altar is cleansed. God overturns the plans of those who oppose him, and rebuilds what they tear down.

When I see those who oppose God and his people seem to prosper in their schemes, plundering and defiling and appearing unstoppable, can I trust, as in the unraveling of Antiochus, that their plans are not beyond God's power to thwart, that those who set themselves against him do not finally prevail, and that what they tear down he can restore?

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