Readings:
2 Maccabees 3-4
Revelation 8

2 Maccabees 3-4

The narrative begins with a spat between a leading citizen of Jerusalem named Simon and the holy high priest Onias. They had a disagreement about a market, but that’s all the detail we’re given. Perhaps this Simon wanted to open a market in the courtyard of the temple, like the one Jesus disrupted when he overturned the tables of the money changers. This disagreement leads to Simon spreading a false rumor to the governor of a neighboring province and it gets back to the king,

This rumor was that the temple treasury was overflowing with money, and that they were withholding this money and any tax revenue owed in it from the kings treasury. So the king sends an advisor to find the truth of the matter and possibly bring back some money for the royal treasury. If there’s one universal constant, it’s that royal treasuries are always low on cash.

But despite the pleadings of Onias and his assurances that any money in the temple treasury was there for safe keeping for several widows and a rich citizen, the advisory insists on inspecting and confiscating anything he finds. But due to the prayers of the priests and the people, God miraculously intervenes and prevents this from happening.

The same angelic beings that beat the advisor and struck him with “darkness”, which I’m guessing means a temporary blindness, approach him and say it’s due to the prayer and sacrifices of the high priest that he’s regained his life. He converts and offers sacrifices to God on the spot.

It seems like this story and the conversion of Saint Paul has many parallels and that fact ws probably not lost on early Christians that would be familiar with both stories.

The writer recounts some insider politicking by the people who wanted to make themselves high priest. What’s important to note is that Onias went and tried to clear the air with the king, but not for his own benefit and refused to throw fellow Jews under the bus. It seems like he failed and wasn’t cutthroat enough for the job as it was in those days.

Jason takes over as high priest and it was through him that the Hellenization of Israel kicked into high gear, and set the stage for Antiochus Epiphanes to really run roughshod over Israel’s laws and customs.

Revelation 8

Jesus opens the seventh seal and all of heaven falls silent, while the seven archangels prepare to blow trumpets, another angel mixes the prayers of the saints with copious amounts of incense and offers them as a sacrifice to God. This silence mirrors the silence in the Jerusalem temple while the high priest offers incense. The angel takes coals from the altar and fills the censor, then dashes it to the earth. This mirrors the angel scattering coals over Jerusalem in Ezekiel 10 and is a sign of divine judgment.

Now we move into the seven trumpet judgements. These are more severe than the first group, but not as bad as the final group of judgements which are bowls being poured out. The first four trumpets are modeled after the plagues of Egypt that devastated that country during the exodus. Hail of fire, water to blood, darkness, and locusts. These will be replayed but even worse than before.

Some people see these as literal events in the future, for example they think that 1/3 of all trees will burn, along with all the grass. I think it’s more likely to be symbolic, but also have elements that will, or have, come to pass. Just imagine the ecological devastation and the disruption of our food chain if that many plants were destroyed. I believe this is meant to show that the famine and pestilence unleashed in the four horsemen will now exponentially increase. But also, many trees were destroyed by the Romans to build their siege works in 70AD.

The falling star that turns the drinkable water into bitter and deadly water is a reversal of God’s provision of water in the desert during the exodus. In that situation he turned bitter water sweet, but now that is being turned around.

Tomorrow’s Readings:
2 Maccabees 5-6
Revelation 9