2 Maccabees 11:16-21: a reflection

16The letter written to the Jews from Lysias was to this effect: “Lysias to the people of the Jews, greetings. 17John and Absalom, who were sent from you, having delivered the document written below, made request concerning the things written therein. 18Whatever things therefore needed to be brought before the king I declared to him, and what things were possible he allowed. 19If then you will all preserve your good will toward the government, I will also endeavor in the future to contribute to your good. 20Concerning this, I have given order in detail, both to these men and to those who are sent from me, to confer with you. 21Farewell. Written in the one hundred forty-eighth year, on the twenty-fourth day of the month Dioscorinthius.”

This passage is a plain-sounding thing: a letter from a foreign official, granting concessions to the Jewish people after a season of conflict, promising to work for their good and inviting their cooperation. There is nothing miraculous about it; it is the ordinary stuff of politics and negotiation, letters and officials and terms. Yet through such ordinary means, relief came to God's people, part of the larger deliverance God was working out for them.

Notice that God's care for his people came here through an ordinary channel: a diplomatic letter, a negotiation, the decision of an official. There were no dramatic signs, no visible wonders; just the everyday workings of politics and human affairs. And yet God was at work in it, providing relief for his people through these mundane means, as truly as through any miracle. His providence works not only through the extraordinary but through the ordinary events and decisions of the world.

That is worth remembering as we look for God's hand in our own lives. We may expect God to work only through dramatic, obvious means, and overlook his hand in the ordinary, the everyday decisions, the negotiations, the turns of circumstance through which he provides for us. But God's providence works through the mundane as truly as through the miraculous; the ordinary letter, the routine decision, the everyday event may be the means by which he cares for you. Do not look for God's hand only in the dramatic. Trust that he is at work in the ordinary workings of your life, providing through mundane means, and give him thanks for the everyday provisions that are as much his doing as any wonder.

Lord, in this passage relief came to your people through an ordinary means: a foreign official's letter, a negotiation, a routine decision, with nothing miraculous about it. Yet you were at work in it, providing for your people as truly as through any wonder. Help me remember that as I look for your hand in my own life. I may expect you to work only through dramatic, obvious means, and overlook your hand in the ordinary, the everyday decisions, the turns of circumstance through which you provide for me. But your providence works through the mundane as truly as through the miraculous; the ordinary event may be the means by which you care for me. Keep me from looking for your hand only in the dramatic. Help me trust that you are at work in the ordinary workings of my life, providing through mundane means, and give you thanks for the everyday provisions that are as much your doing as any wonder. I see your hand in the ordinary, Lord.