2 Maccabees 11:1-5: a reflection

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.

The commander Lysias gathers a vast army, tens of thousands of infantry and cavalry and even war elephants, and marches against the Jewish people, confident of crushing them. His plans are ambitious and arrogant: to overrun the city, tax the temple, and sell off the high priesthood. The passage names the root of his folly directly: he took no account of the power of God, but was puffed up with his ten thousands of infantry and his thousands of cavalry. He counted his forces and forgot the God he was setting himself against.

This is the classic error of the proud and strong: to reckon carefully with visible resources while leaving God entirely out of the calculation. Lysias had impressive numbers, and by every human measure his victory looked assured. But he had made a fatal miscalculation, ignoring the one factor that would decide the outcome, the power of God on the side of his people. His confidence rested on what he could count, and he never reckoned with the God he could not see.

There is a warning here for anyone tempted to face life by counting only visible resources. Whether in confidence or in fear, it is easy to tally up the forces we can see, our own strengths or the strength of what opposes us, and to leave God out of the reckoning entirely. But God is the factor that changes every calculation. Do not be like Lysias, puffed up with what you can count and blind to the God you cannot see. Reckon with God in every situation, for his power outweighs every army you could number.

Lord, Lysias counted his vast forces and never reckoned with your power, and his confidence was folly. Guard me from the same error, of tallying only what I can see, my own strengths or the strength of what opposes me, and leaving you out of the reckoning. You are the factor that changes every calculation. Teach me to reckon with you in every situation, for your power outweighs every force I could number. Amen.