Context No. 2489 of 4322 · 2 Maccabees

2 Maccabees 5:21-27: in context

21As for Antiochus, when he had carried away out of the temple one thousand eight hundred talents, he hurried away to Antioch, thinking in his arrogance that he could sail on land and walk on the sea, because his heart was lifted up. 22Moreover he left governors to afflict the race: at Jerusalem, Philip, by race a Phrygian, and in character more barbarous than him who set him there; 23and at Gerizim, Andronicus; and besides these, Menelaus, who worse than all the rest, exalted himself against his fellow citizens. Having a malicious mind toward the Jews whom he had made his citizens, 24he sent that lord of pollutions Apollonius with an army of twenty-two thousand, commanding him to kill all those who were of full age, and to sell the women and the boys as slaves. 25He came to Jerusalem, and pretending to be a man of peace, waited till the holy day of the Sabbath, and finding the Jews at rest from work, he commanded his men to parade fully armed. 26He put to the sword all those who came out to the spectacle. Running into the city with the armed men, he killed great multitudes. 27But Judas, who is also called Maccabaeus, with about nine others, withdrew himself, and with his company kept himself alive in the mountains like wild animals do. They continued feeding on what grew wild, that they might not be partakers of the defilement.

The chapter is full of arrogance and treachery. Antiochus, having looted the temple, is so lifted up he imagines he could sail on land and walk on the sea. His officer Apollonius comes to Jerusalem pretending peace, waits for the Sabbath, and then turns his armed men loose on the unsuspecting crowd. In the middle of the slaughter, Judas Maccabeus and about nine others slip away into the mountains and live there like wild animals, feeding on whatever grows, so as not to share in the defilement.

Set the tyrant's arrogance beside Judas's retreat. One man swaggers, sure he is beyond all limits; the other withdraws into the hills and eats wild plants to keep his conscience clean. Judas chooses hardship and obscurity over comfortable compromise. He does not storm the city or make a deal; he disappears into the wilderness to stay undefiled and wait. There are seasons when faithfulness looks less like a brave stand in public and more like a costly withdrawal, accepting hardship and hiddenness rather than buying safety at the price of your integrity.

Would I accept real hardship and obscurity to keep my faith undefiled, or do I quietly take the comfortable compromise?

Sources

2 Maccabees 5:27: Judas... withdrew himself, and kept himself alive in the mountains like wild animals do. They continued feeding on what grew wild, that they might not be partakers of the defilement.
2 Maccabees 5:21: thinking in his arrogance that he could sail on land and walk on the sea, because his heart was lifted up.
Hebrews 11:38: They wandered in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth.