Scripture Daily

Context No. 644 of 4322 · 1 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

1 Maccabees 5:21-27: in context

21Simon went into Galilee and fought many battles with the Gentiles, and the Gentiles were defeated before him. 22He pursued them to the gate of Ptolemais. About three thousand men of the Gentiles fell, and he took their spoils. 23They took to them those who were in Galilee and in Arbatta, with their wives, their children, and all that they had, and brought them into Judea with great gladness. 24Judas Maccabaeus and his brother Jonathan passed over the Jordan, and went three days’ journey in the wilderness. 25They met with the Nabathaeans, and these met them in a peaceful manner and told them all things that had happened to their kindred in the land of Gilead, 26and how many of them were shut up in Bosora, Bosor, Alema, Casphor, Maked, and Carnaim—all these cities are strong and large— 27and how they were shut up in the rest of the cities of the land of Gilead, and that tomorrow they planned to encamp against the strongholds, and to take them, and to destroy all these men in one day.

These verses catch the Maccabee brothers doing something that runs against the instinct of self-preservation. Word has come that scattered communities of their fellow Jews, in Galilee and across the Jordan in Gilead, are surrounded and in danger, shut up in fortified towns by enemies planning to wipe them out in a single day. And the brothers do not stay safe at home and let it happen. Simon goes north into Galilee, fights his way through, and brings the endangered Jews back to safety in Judea with great gladness. Judas and Jonathan take the harder road, crossing the Jordan and marching three days into the wilderness to reach their besieged kindred in Gilead. They put themselves in real danger to rescue people who were not with them, who could easily have been left to their fate.

That is worth noticing, because leaving them would have been the easier and safer choice. The threatened communities were far away, across rivers and wilderness, someone else's problem in a sense, and going to them meant battles, long marches, and genuine risk. The brothers went anyway. They would not enjoy their own safety in Judea while their brothers and sisters were shut up in strongholds waiting to be destroyed. The bond of belonging to the same people laid a claim on them that self-preservation could not override, and they crossed the Jordan to answer it.

That presses a question about my own responses to the endangered. It is easy to keep my head down and enjoy my own safety while others, even others I am connected to, are shut up in real trouble somewhere I would have to go out of my way to reach. The Maccabees crossed rivers and wilderness at their own risk rather than leave their people to their fate. Who is shut up in trouble, endangered and needing rescue, that I know about and could go to the aid of at some cost to my own comfort or safety, and am I staying safely home while they wait?

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