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Context No. 4219 of 4322 · 1 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

1 Maccabees 6:14-27: in context

14Then he called for Philip, one of his friends, and set him over all his kingdom. 15He gave him his crown, his robe, and his signet ring, so that he could guide Antiochus his son, and nourish him up that he might be king. 16Then King Antiochus died there in the one hundred forty-ninth year. 17When Lysias learned that the king was dead, he set up Antiochus his son to reign, whom he had nourished up being young, and he called his name Eupator. 18Those who were in the citadel kept hemming Israel in around the sanctuary, and always sought to harm them and to strengthen the Gentiles. 19Judas planned to destroy them, and called all the people together to besiege them. 20They were gathered together, and besieged them in the one hundred fiftieth year, and he made mounds to shoot from, and engines of war. 21Some of those who were hemmed in came out, and some of the ungodly men of Israel were joined to them. 22They went to the king, and said, “How long will you not execute judgment, and avenge our kindred? 23We were willing to serve your father and to live by his words, and to follow his commandments. 24Because of this, the children of our people besieged the citadel and were alienated from us; but as many of us as they could catch, they killed, and plundered our inheritances. 25Not against us only did they stretch out their hand, but also against all their borders. 26Behold, they are encamped this day against the citadel at Jerusalem to take it. They have fortified the sanctuary and Bethsura. 27If you don’t quickly prevent them, they will do greater things than these, and you won’t be able to control them.

This passage records the death of Antiochus, the king who had savagely persecuted God's people, defiled the temple, and tried to stamp out their faith. In the end, far from his kingdom, he dies and hands his crown, robe, and ring to another. The great persecutor, who had exalted himself and raged against God's people, simply passes from the scene, and the machinery of his kingdom grinds on under new hands.

There is a quiet lesson in the death of this proud oppressor. Antiochus had seemed unstoppable, wielding his force against the faithful with apparent impunity. Yet he died like any man, his rule passing to another, while the people he had tried to destroy endured. Those who exalt themselves against God and his people may loom large for a time, but they do not last; they pass, and God's purposes and God's people go on.

The oppressors who rage against God and his people can appear invincible, but they are mortal, and their day ends. Antiochus, for all his fury, died and was gone. The faithful who endure under such pressure can take heart: the proud oppressor passes, but the God he defied endures forever.

When arrogant force seems to have the upper hand, do I take heart that the proud oppressor passes, as Antiochus for all his fury died and was gone, while the God he defied endures forever along with the people who belong to him?

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