Scripture Daily

Context No. 3090 of 4322 · 1 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

1 Maccabees 6:8-13: in context

8It came to pass, when the king heard these words, he was astonished and moved exceedingly. He laid himself down on his bed, and fell sick for grief, because it had not turned out for him as he had planned. 9He was there many days, because great grief continually gripped him, and he realized that he would die. 10He called for all his friends, and said to them, “Sleep departs from my eyes, and my heart fails because of worry. 11I said in my heart, ‘To what suffering I have come! How great a flood it is that I’m in, now! For I was gracious and loved in my power.’ 12But now I remember the evils which I did at Jerusalem, and that I took all the vessels of silver and gold that were in it, and sent out to destroy the inhabitants of Judah without a cause. 13I perceive that it is because of this that these evils have come upon me. Behold, I am perishing through great grief in a strange land.”

The persecutor Antiochus, thwarted in his plans, falls sick with grief and comes to realize he is dying. He calls his friends and confesses: sleep has left my eyes, and my heart fails with worry. And then he names the reason: I remember the evils I did at Jerusalem, taking its holy vessels of silver and gold, and destroying the inhabitants of Judah without cause. It is because of this, he says, that these evils have come upon me, and I am perishing in a foreign land.

On his deathbed, the persecutor at last sees the connection between his cruelty and his ruin. He confesses that the disasters overtaking him are the harvest of the wrongs he did to God's people and God's temple. It is a remorse that comes too late, born of loss and despair rather than of true repentance toward God, but it stands as a stark testimony that wrong done to God's people is not forgotten. Even a proud king, dying far from home, is forced to link his suffering to his sin. The tragedy is that his recognition comes only at the end, when it can no longer change his course.

Do I recognize the connection between my wrongs and their consequences now, while there is still time to turn, rather than only in the bitterness of the end?

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