Scripture Daily

Context No. 4217 of 4322 · 2 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

2 Maccabees 11:1-5: in context

1Now after a very little time, Lysias, the king’s guardian, kinsman, and chancellor, being very displeased about the things that had happened, 2collected about eighty thousand infantry and all his cavalry and came against the Jews, planning to make the city a home for Greeks, 3and to levy tribute on the temple, as on the other sacred places of the nations, and to put up the high priesthood for sale every year. 4He took no account of God’s power, but was puffed up with his ten thousands of infantry, his thousands of cavalry, and his eighty elephants. 5Coming into Judea and approaching Bethsuron, which was a strong place and about five stadia away from Jerusalem, he pressed it hard.

Lysias, guardian of the young king, comes against the Jews with an overwhelming force: eighty thousand foot soldiers, thousands of cavalry, and eighty war elephants. His confidence rests entirely on these numbers. But the account makes a pointed observation about him: he took no account of God's power, but was puffed up with his infantry, his cavalry, and his elephants. He reckoned only with what he could count, and left God out of his calculations entirely.

This is the folly the passage exposes. Lysias measured the coming conflict purely in terms of numbers and strength, and in his pride he never factored in the God of the people he attacked. He was puffed up with his forces, confident in what he could see and count, blind to the reality that the outcome did not rest on numbers alone. To leave God out of the reckoning, however impressive one's visible resources, is folly.

Like Lysias, we can be tempted to reckon only with what we can see and count, our resources, our advantages, our numbers, and to leave God out of the calculation, growing puffed up with what we possess. But the God who is not counted is still real, and outcomes do not finally rest on visible strength. Wisdom takes God into account; pride reckons only with the elephants.

Do I reckon only with what I can see and count, my resources and advantages, growing confident in them while leaving God out of the calculation as Lysias did, or do I take the living God into account, knowing that outcomes do not finally rest on visible strength?

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