2 Meqabyan

2 Meqabyan

This is the account of how Meqabees, a man of Moab from Riemat, came against the children of Israel from the region of Mesopotamia and Syria. The Syrians, Edomites, Amalekites, and Philistines joined themselves to him. They camped from Samaria toward Jerusalem and throughout the land, broke its strongholds, shed blood like water, and spared only a few who escaped.

The children of Israel had acted wickedly before the Lord, and because they had dealt falsely with His word, He raised Meqabees against them. Jerusalem became like a shelter in a vineyard. The land that had been filled with praise was defiled. The dead were left as food for the beasts and birds. Orphans and widows were robbed, and even women with child were treated without mercy. Meqabees and his allies returned to their own lands with plunder, rejoicing, singing, and clapping because they had brought destruction upon the Lord’s people.

Then a prophet named Re’ay spoke to Meqabees: “Rejoice for a little while in your celebration, but the Lord whom Israel glorified will judge what you have done. Do not say that your swift horses will carry you away, for those who pursue at the Lord’s command are swifter than vultures. Do not trust your iron armour, for the Lord does not need spear or bow to strike you. He can bring illness upon your heart and affliction upon your body, and no one will deliver you from His hand.

“You hardened your heart and exalted yourself over His land. Yet before Him you are like grass before fire and dust scattered by the wind. Nevertheless, turn away from your sin. Seek the Lord in mourning, sorrow, and a clean heart. If you truly return, He will forgive the evil you committed before Him.”

Meqabees put away his royal clothing, covered himself with sackcloth, cast dust upon his head, and wept bitterly before the Lord. He dug a pit and stood in it up to his neck, confessing his sin.

The Lord said to the prophet, “Return from Judah to Riemat, to Meqabees the Moabite. Say to him: ‘I, the Lord your Creator, permitted you to strike My land. Do not say, “By my strength and the abundance of my army I surrounded Jerusalem,” for it was not your power that accomplished this. The city grieved Me through greed, treachery, and lust, and I delivered it through your hand.

“‘Now I have seen your fear and repentance. Do not doubt, but return with your whole heart. The one who repents and does not return to former desires is honoured among those who repent. I show mercy for thousands of generations to those who love Me and keep My law. I accept your repentance and establish mercy for the children you have fathered.’”

Meqabees came out of the pit, fell at the prophet’s feet, and said, “I have sinned in hardness of heart and arrogant thought. My fathers taught us to serve idols, and until now I had not heard the words of the Lord’s prophets or learned His law. Teach me, and I will do what the Lord commands.”

The prophet raised him and instructed him. Meqabees returned to his house and removed the idols, sorcery, diviners, magicians, and priests of false worship. He destroyed the shrines and the sacrifices that had been offered morning, noon, and evening to lifeless images. He learned the law from the captives brought from Jerusalem and appointed those who understood it to teach the younger children. Morning and evening he examined them concerning the commandments, the ordinances, and the law of the Lord.

He learned how Israel had repeatedly sinned, suffered under enemies, cried out, and been forgiven. In the days of Joshua, Gideon, Samson, Deborah, Barak, Judith, and others, the Lord had raised deliverers, whether man or woman, because He pitied His people. When they returned with their whole understanding, He did not remember their earlier sins, knowing that they were flesh and blood and were surrounded by the misleading thoughts of this world.

Meqabees therefore straightened his way. Though he was of Moab, he rejected the foods Israel rejected and kept the ordinances Israel kept. He sent tithes and firstborn from his cattle, sheep, and donkeys. Turning toward Jerusalem, he offered sin offerings, peace offerings, vows, and the continual offering according to what he had learned.

He prayed that the Lord would receive his repentance, preserve his children, grant them a place in Zion and a house in Jerusalem, and keep him in his going out and coming in. His people saw his righteous judgments and chose to follow his way. He defended the wronged, judged for the orphan, received widows in their distress, fed the hungry, clothed the naked, gave freely, and brought tithes to the Temple.

From the time he trusted the Lord, his enemies did not overcome him. Those who came against him called upon their idols, but their gods could neither hear nor save. Meqabees prevailed over the Amalekites, Philistines, and Syrians. He died after living in righteousness, leaving young children whom he had instructed in the fear of the Lord.

His children grew and kept the order of their father’s house. They cared for their relatives, comforted orphans and widows, rescued the oppressed, and gave alms to the poor. They lived this way for five years.

Then Tseerutsaydan, a king of the Chaldeans, came against their land. He destroyed their villages, plundered their wealth, and carried away the children of Meqabees. His people lived in adultery, robbery, greed, and every uncleanness. They ate blood, carcasses, and animals torn by beasts. They married those forbidden by the law and knew no righteous order.

They served Baal-Peor and other images made by smiths from silver and gold. Such an image has no breath or understanding. It cannot see or hear, eat or drink, kill or save, plant or uproot, harm an enemy or help a friend, impoverish or honour, discipline or forgive. It is only a stumbling block through which Satan deceives the careless.

Tseerutsaydan appointed priests for his false gods. He poured wine before them, sacrificed cattle, donkeys, heifers, goats, and sheep, and ate from the defiled offerings. He compelled others to sacrifice also.

When the priests saw the children of Meqabees, handsome and steadfast in the worship of their Creator, they tried to force them to offer sacrifice and eat the polluted food. The children refused. Because they kept their father’s command and had disciplined their minds in faith, threats could not overcome them.

The king said, “Offer sacrifice to my gods.”

They answered, “We will not offer sacrifice to your defiled images.”

He bound and insulted them, robbed them, and lit a fire. They surrendered their bodies to death rather than abandon the Lord.

After they had died, they appeared to the king at night, standing with drawn swords while he sat upon his throne. Terror seized him.

He said, “My lords, what shall I do? Do not take my life, and I will obey what you command.”

They answered, “Remember the Lord your Creator. He will remove you from the kingdom in which you boast and cast you with your father, the Devil, into the fire of Gehenna. We did you no wrong, but worshipped the One who made heaven, earth, sea, sun, moon, stars, and every creature. He kills and gives life, strikes and heals, judges and forgives. No one escapes His authority.

“You burned us because we would not worship idols; therefore fire will complete your punishment. Your priests, your idols, and all who follow their falsehood will descend with you. You made yourself like the Creator, though you did not know the One who formed you. The Lord will expose every sin you committed in this world.”

They departed from his sight. Tseerutsaydan remained trembling until morning, but he did not repent. He hardened himself like iron and continued in arrogance, violence, robbery, bloodshed, and oppression. He made the orphan weep and had no mercy on the poor. He subdued kingdoms, laid taxes upon lands, and extended his pride from Macedonia toward Sidon, Achaia, and the distant sea. He sent messengers even toward the Indian Sea and imagined that his age was like the age of the sun.

O weak man who is not God, why are you proud? Today you appear in strength; tomorrow you are dust, and worms possess your grave. Your teacher is the Devil, who misled Adam and refused to bow before what God had made. As he exalted himself, so you exalt yourself. As he fell, so will all who follow his way.

The work of sinners is robbery, adultery, treachery, greed, drunkenness, false oaths, bloodshed, useless destruction, oppression of the orphan, theft of another’s property, eating blood and what has died of itself, and approaching what the law has forbidden. This is the broad road prepared by Satan, leading toward Sheol and the fire of Gehenna.

The path of the righteous is narrow. It leads through peace, innocence, humility, unity, love, prayer, fasting, purity, and obedience. The righteous keep away from what is defiled and from all works the Lord hates. He guards them as a precious deposit, but Satan rules those who surrender themselves to sin.

Fear the Lord who made you. Kings and nobles, do not walk in the path of Satan. Do not sell judgment for silver or accept gifts to oppress the weak. Remember Balaam, who came seeking the reward of divination. Balak desired him to curse Israel, but the curse became blessing because the Lord had blessed His people. Balaam said, “I cannot speak beyond what the Lord places in my mouth. I will not love silver more than my soul.”

Let those who bless the people blessed by the Lord be blessed, and let the unjust curse return upon the one who speaks it. Do not follow those who grieved the Lord and were destroyed by flood, sword, captivity, or the hands of their enemies.

The Lord gave Moses the law and commanded the service of the Tent. He appointed sacrifices of peace, sin, vows, and the morning and evening offerings. He established worship through Aaron, guided Israel toward the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and later caused the Temple in Jerusalem to become a place of supplication, atonement, sacrifice, incense, and revelation.

The Lord spoke from the mercy seat and revealed His light to those who remained firm in His command. But those who despise His law are like Korah and his company, whom the earth swallowed. Sinners who refuse correction go toward a place from which there is no escape.

Woe to rulers and nobles who follow their own desire rather than the Lord’s law—who delight in pride, greed, adultery, drinking, drunkenness, and lies. The Lord’s anger consumes like fire on a mountain and scatters the wicked like chaff before a whirlwind. Yet He loves those who love Him and forgives those who return. He remembers that human beings are flesh and blood and often restrains His anger.

Tseerutsaydan said, “My age is like heaven. I make the sun rise, and I shall never die.” Before he finished speaking, the angel of death, called Thilimyakos, struck his heart, and he died in that hour. The army of another Chaldean king found him dead, destroyed his country, plundered his livestock and wealth, burned his land, and returned home. Thus his pride did not preserve him.

The children of Meqabees had known that uprightness before God is greater than favour with rulers, and that the anger of God is more fearful than the anger of a king. They understood that the pleasures of this world pass away. One day of righteousness in the Garden is better than many ages in a corrupt world, and one hour of the Lord’s pardon is better than long years of earthly honour. Therefore they gave their bodies to fire, believing that they would rise with the dead and stand in judgment.

O people who do not believe that the dead rise, understand that the life to come surpasses this passing life. The body and soul that suffer for righteousness are not forgotten. The Lord who brought human beings from non-existence into life is able to raise what has died.

Some say, “The flesh is eaten by beasts, dissolved in the earth, scattered in water, or burned in fire. How can it rise?” Others say that a different heavenly flesh will be joined to the soul. Still others deny any resurrection of body or soul. These all err concerning the power of the Creator.

Will the One who formed you from nothing be unable to gather what He formed? Whether you desire it or not, you will rise. The same flesh and the same soul will be joined, and each person will receive according to the works done in this life.

Consider your fingernails, toenails, and hair. They are cut away and grow again. Consider seed placed in the ground. Wheat does not rise as barley, nor a grapevine as a fig tree. Each seed comes forth according to its kind. The grave likewise yields what was entrusted to it. The good do not rise as the wicked, nor the wicked as the good.

A grain of wheat must first be broken down in the earth. Then it receives water, warmth, wind, and dew; it puts forth roots, leaves, ears, and many grains from the one that was sown. So the body of Adam’s children is sown in weakness and will rise by the Lord’s mercy.

The vine drinks water through its roots, spreads leaves, produces fragrant fruit, and gives wine that gladdens the heart. Yet wine can also deprive a man of understanding, making pits appear as level ground and thorns go unnoticed. Therefore receive the gifts of creation with discipline and praise the One who made them.

On the day appointed, the trumpet will sound and the dead will rise through the dew of mercy. Those who did good will rise to life and enter the Garden of joy, where there is no sickness, tribulation, or second death. Those who did evil will rise to judgment with the Devil and the spirits who misled them. They will be carried toward darkness, fire, sulphur, frost, hail, sleepless worms, and grief without comfort.

The righteous knew that they would rise, and therefore they did not leave the law of their Creator. Their joy will have no end. They receive blessing in this world and the kingdom prepared beyond it. But those who taught that the dead do not rise will see the resurrection they denied. Their regret will not profit them.

All are children of Adam, and death entered because Adam transgressed the command. The body returns to dust, beauty disappears in the grave, the eyes decay, and strength vanishes. Where are the handsome young men, the mighty warriors, the kings, the wealthy, and those praised for their speech? The grave equalises them all. Yet the Lord who first formed Adam will call him and his children again.

Soul and flesh will stand united. The judgment is not against another body but against the one that worked righteousness or evil. The same hands that stole, gave alms, shed blood, or rescued the oppressed will be raised. The same tongue that lied, blessed, cursed, or confessed will answer. The same heart that loved or hated will be revealed.

The angels of light are sent to receive the souls of the righteous and lead them toward the place of light and the Garden of peace. Angels of darkness and demons receive the souls of sinners and take them toward the place prepared according to their deeds. Woe to the soul that has no rest, no deliverance, and no exit from its distress.

Woe to those who gather another person’s wealth through theft, robbery, interest, false judgment, or oppression. They imagine that their possessions will prevent death, but death comes suddenly. The wealth passes to strangers, and their children find no lasting joy in what was gathered through injustice.

Unrighteous riches are like smoke scattered by wind, grass that withers, mist that vanishes, or wax melting before fire. The sinner may appear flourishing like a strong tree, but when one passes again, his place is not found.

Do not trust in silver, gold, power, armies, idols, or a long life. Trust the Lord, who created what is visible and invisible, who raises the dead, judges every work, forgives the repentant, and gives enduring joy to those who do His will.

Those who performed His will shall rejoice with Him in His kingdom forever. Those who came before and those who come afterward shall offer praise to Him from this day and through all ages.