2 Maccabees 15:1-5: a reflection

1But Nicanor, hearing that Judas and his company were in the region of Samaria, resolved to attack them with complete safety on the day of rest. 2When the Jews who were compelled to follow him said, “Don’t destroy so savagely and barbarously, but give due glory to the day which he who sees all things has honored and hallowed above other days.” 3Then the thrice-accursed wretch asked if there were a Sovereign in heaven who had commanded to keep the Sabbath day. 4When they declared, “There is the Lord, living himself as Sovereign in heaven, who told us observe the seventh day.” 5He replied, “I also am a sovereign on the earth, who commands you to take up weapons and execute the king’s business.” Nevertheless he didn’t prevail to execute his cruel plan.

Nicanor, planning to attack the Jews, decides to do it on the Sabbath, thinking to catch them defenseless. When some warn him to honor the day that the God who sees all has hallowed, Nicanor sneers: Is there a Sovereign in heaven who commanded to keep the Sabbath? And when they answer that there is, the living Lord, Sovereign in heaven, Nicanor replies with staggering arrogance: And I am a sovereign on earth, who commands you to take up arms. He sets his own authority defiantly against God's. And the text notes, quietly: nevertheless he did not prevail.

Notice the arrogant contrast Nicanor draws, and its outcome. He pits his own sovereignty, I am a sovereign on earth, against the Sovereign in heaven, as though his earthly authority could simply override God's. It is the ancient arrogance of human authority imagining itself supreme, answerable to no higher authority, free to defy God himself. And the narrator's brief comment punctures it: nevertheless he did not prevail. The self-styled sovereign who defied the true Sovereign failed.

That is a recurring truth worth holding. Human authority, when it grows arrogant, imagines itself sovereign, supreme, free to override God and defy his ways. Nicanor's I am a sovereign on earth is the boast of every authority that sets itself against heaven. But there is a Sovereign in heaven, and the earthly sovereign who defies him does not, in the end, prevail. When human authority arrogantly defies God, do not be intimidated. There is a Sovereign in heaven above every sovereign on earth, and those who set themselves against him do not prevail.

Lord, Nicanor arrogantly set his own authority against yours, I am a sovereign on earth, but he did not prevail. When human authority grows arrogant and defies you, imagining itself supreme and answerable to no one, keep me from being intimidated. Remind me that there is a Sovereign in heaven above every sovereign on earth, and that those who set themselves against you do not, in the end, prevail. You are the true Sovereign; I trust your rule over every proud authority.