1 Maccabees 10:26-33: a reflection

26Since as you have kept your covenants with us, and continued in our friendship, and have not joined yourselves to our enemies, we have heard of this, and are glad. 27Now continue still to keep faith with us, and we will repay you with good in return for your dealings with us. 28We will grant you many immunities and give you gifts. 29“Now I free you and release all the Jews from the tributes, from the salt tax, and from the crown levies. 30Instead of the third part of the seed, and instead of half of the fruit of the trees, which falls to me to receive, I release it from this day and henceforth, so that I will not take it from the land of Judah, and from the three districts which are added to it from the country of Samaria and Galilee, from this day forth and for all time. 31Let Jerusalem be holy and free, with her borders, tithes, and taxes. 32I yield up also my authority over the citadel which is at Jerusalem, and give it to the high priest, that he may appoint in it men whom he chooses to keep it. 33Every soul of the Jews who has been carried captive from the land of Judah into any part of my kingdom, I set at liberty without payment. Let all officials also cancel the taxes on their livestock.

In this passage a king grants the Jews a sweeping decree of freedom and release. He frees them from tributes and taxes, cancels debts, and sets at liberty, without payment, every one of their people who had been carried off as a captive into his kingdom. It is a decree of liberty and release: burdens lifted, debts cancelled, captives freed. Those who had been in bondage and debt are set free, released from what had bound them.

Notice the sweep of the release: freedom from taxes and debts, and captives set at liberty without payment. Those who had been burdened and bound are freed, their debts cancelled, their captivity ended, and all without payment on their part. It is a picture of release, of liberty granted to the burdened and the captive, a lifting of what had bound and burdened them. And it points, faintly, to a deeper release that God grants.

For there is a deeper bondage and debt from which God sets us free: the bondage of sin and the debt we owe before God, which we could never pay. And in Christ, God grants a release far greater than any earthly decree: he cancels the debt of our sin, and sets us free from the bondage that held us, without payment on our part, for Christ has paid it. If an earthly king's decree of release, freeing captives and cancelling debts, is good news, how much greater is the release God grants in Christ, from the debt and bondage of sin. Rejoice in the release God has granted you: your debt of sin cancelled, your bondage ended, set free without payment on your part, for Christ has paid it. The earthly decree freed captives and cancelled debts; God's decree in Christ frees you from a deeper bondage and cancels a greater debt. Live as one released, free from the debt and bondage of sin, by the far greater liberty God has granted you in Christ.

Lord, in this passage a king granted the Jews a sweeping decree of freedom, freeing them from taxes and debts and setting their captives at liberty without payment; a picture of release, of liberty granted to the burdened and captive. Let it point me to the deeper release you grant. There is a deeper bondage and debt from which you set me free: the bondage of sin and the debt I owe before you, which I could never pay. And in Christ, you grant a release far greater than any earthly decree: you cancel the debt of my sin, and set me free from the bondage that held me, without payment on my part, for Christ has paid it. If an earthly king's decree of release is good news, how much greater is the release you grant in Christ, from the debt and bondage of sin. Help me rejoice in the release you have granted me: my debt of sin cancelled, my bondage ended, set free without payment on my part, for Christ has paid it. The earthly decree freed captives and cancelled debts; your decree in Christ frees me from a deeper bondage and cancels a greater debt. Help me live as one released, free from the debt and bondage of sin, by the far greater liberty you have granted me in Christ, Lord. Thank you for setting me free.