Scripture Daily

Context No. 337 of 4322 · 1 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

1 Maccabees 14:1-15: in context

1In the one hundred seventy-second year, King Demetrius gathered his forces together, and went into Media to get help, that he might fight against Tryphon. 2When Arsaces, the king of Persia and Media, heard that Demetrius had come into his borders, he sent one of his princes to take him alive. 3He went and struck the army of Demetrius, and seized him and brought him to Arsaces, who put him under guard. 4The land had rest all the days of Simon. He sought the good of his nation. His authority and his honor was pleasing to them all his days. 5Amid all his honors, he took Joppa for a harbor, and made it an entrance for the islands of the sea. 6He enlarged the borders of his nation and took possession of the country. 7He gathered together a great number of captives, and took control of Gazara, Bethsura, and the citadel, and he removed its uncleannesses from it. There was no one who resisted him. 8They tilled their land in peace, and the land gave her increase, and the trees of the plains gave their fruit. 9The old men sat in the streets; they all conversed together about good things. The young men put on glorious and warlike apparel. 10He provided food for the cities and furnished them with means of defense, until the glory of his name was known to the end of the earth. 11He made peace in the land, and Israel rejoiced with great joy. 12Each man sat under his vine and his fig tree, and there was no one to make them afraid. 13No one was left in the land who fought against them. The kings were defeated in those days. 14He strengthened all those of his people who were humble. He searched out the law, and every lawless and wicked person he took away. 15He glorified the sanctuary, and added to the vessels of the temple.

After decades of war and persecution, the book of Maccabees pauses to describe a golden age, the peace that came to Israel under the leadership of Simon. The land had rest, the text says, all the days of Simon, and then it paints the rest in warm, concrete detail. People farmed their land without fear, and the ground gave its increase, and the trees bore their fruit. The old men sat out in the streets and talked together about good things. The young men, who for a generation had known only fighting, put on fine clothes instead of armor. And the passage reaches for the oldest biblical picture of peace: each man sat under his own vine and his own fig tree, and there was no one to make them afraid.

Notice what this peace actually consists of, because it is more than the absence of war. It is a whole society at rest. The vulnerable are cared for; the text says Simon strengthened all the lowly of his people. The law is honored again and the lawless removed. The temple is restored and beautified. Peace here is not merely that the fighting stopped; it is flourishing, safety, plenty, worship, and the weak made secure, all at once. This is shalom in its fullness. And it was cherished precisely because it was hard-won, coming only after long struggle, and, as the next chapters would show, it did not last, because Simon would soon be betrayed and killed.

That combination is worth sitting with, a peace that was rich and real and also fragile and temporary. It makes me wonder whether I would even recognize such a season while I was in it. Do I notice and give thanks for the ordinary seasons of rest, sitting under my own vine with no one making me afraid, or do I only feel peace as something whose absence I complain about, and take its presence for granted?

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