1 Maccabees 9 – This takes up the story left in Chapter
7. King Demetrius [the Seleucid king], hears of Nicanor’s defeat, he sends
other generals in. It is 160 BC – when Judas’ men see the huge force coming
after them, many flee. They are left with around 800 out of the original 3000.
His men try to
convince him to leave the field in the present state of weakness, but he
convinces them their reputation requires them to stay. Somehow, they manage to
break the strong right wing of the opposing army. The left wing scatters and
Judas is mortally wounded. It is unclear how the battle ends, but from what
comes next, it didn’t go well.
Seeming to
start at a different place, after Judas’ death, unity breaks down among the
Israelites. The “renegades” [anti-Maccabaean] reemerge; famine hits and people
generally side with the Seleucid monarch. “A terrible oppression” (9:27) begins.
The resistance movement turns to Jonathan. He sends one of his brothers, John
on a mission and he is captured and apparently killed.
In revenge,
the Maccabaeans raid a wedding procession of important opponents and turn them
to mourning – God, how like today.
Bacchides, the
Syrian general, working out of Jerusalem, sets up garrisons in many towns. In
153 BC. Alcimus, an Israelite from the House of Aaron, working with the Syrian
occupiers orders demolition of a wall of the sanctuary – the wall dividing the
Gentiles from the Jews in the Temple.
Alcimus dies
of a stroke, and Bacchides withdraws from the area for two years. The
“renegades” eventually ask for him to return. He starts back, but the
Maccabaeans learn of it and have fifty of the renegades arrested and killed.
The force of Bacchides is routed. Bacchides himself becomes angry with those
who encouraged him to re-enter the region and so he takes some of them into
custody and has them killed. Jonathan and Bacchides come to agreement on his
withdrawal and Jonathan sets up a government center at Michmash where he
governs according to the Law.
2 Timothy 3 – Difficult days lie ahead “in
the last days” (3:1). ”People will be selfish, greedy, boastful, and conceited;
they will be insulting, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful and
irreligious” (3:2). People “will hold to
the outward form of our religion, but reject its real power” (3:5). Timothy
should avoid these people. People of real faith will have to endure
persecution. He should be patient in all his trials.
Paul also speaks of the
usefulness of the Holy Scriptures – what we now call the Old Testament. “All Scripture
is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error,
correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, so that the person
who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good
deed” (3:16-17).
