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Context No. 2578 of 4322 · 2 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

2 Maccabees 11:34-38: in context

34The Romans also sent to them a letter in these words: “Quintus Memmius and Titus Manius, ambassadors of the Romans, to the people of the Jews, greetings. 35In regard to the things which Lysias the king’s kinsman granted you, we also give consent. 36But as for the things which he judged should be referred to the king, send someone promptly, after you have considered them, that we may publish such decrees as are appropriate for your case; for we are on our way to Antioch. 37Therefore send someone with speed, that we also may learn what is your mind. 38Farewell. Written in the one hundred forty-eighth year, on the fifteenth day of Xanthicus.

Tucked into the second book of Maccabees is a diplomatic letter from Roman envoys to the Jews, consenting to certain terms and asking them to send a representative to make their wishes known. It is the ordinary business of empire, the great powers of the age, Rome and the Seleucids, exchanging letters over the affairs of a small nation caught between them, arranging its future in the language of treaties and decrees.

It is easy to feel small reading it, a whole people's fate handled in the correspondence of distant powers. But the wider story of Maccabees insists on something the letters do not mention: that above Rome and above the king, God governs the rise and fall of nations. The empires drafting these decrees imagined they were the ones deciding, and in a sense they were, but not finally. For a people whose circumstances seem to be decided by forces far larger than themselves, the comfort is that no letter between the powers of this world is the last word. The Most High rules the kingdom of men.

When my circumstances seem to be decided by powers far larger than me, do I trust that above them all, God governs the rise and fall of everything?

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