05/29/2023 -“Level IX – King of the Jews” – Chapter Eight // Group Fellowship and Discussion
Timon Myrmex has a front row seat to Herod’s murderous tyranny for most all of the forty-five years that he had served him, including his wife Marianne and his sons. But he has an epiphany the day before he and his beloved wife are to be executed themselves. Let’s look at Timon as narrator describe it starting on the bottom of pg. #447:
“I looked at the Jews, whom I had never understood, for they were always a withdrawn race who showed neither love nor toleration for the Romans, and I realized that it was not through the friends of Herod but through these bearded, intransigent men that Judea and perhaps the whole empire would find its moral stability. Between the Jews and the Romans there would be war — of that I was increasingly convinced — and doubtless the temple as a symbol of Judaism would have to vanish; but the principles these men stood for, the rectitude I saw in their faces , must ultimately triumph. For the first time I was sorry to be dying, for I wanted to witness the great confrontation.
For me, Herod had terminated any belief in Rome as a permanent master. There would have to be something else, some force that could control insane men. Why, he had even intimated that if the rumors were true, if any honest king of the Jews had been born in Bethlehem, all Jewish babies in that district must be slaughtered, but from this hideous act he had drawn back. It was essential that some superior power be called into existence to force such men to draw back from their other insanities, and I wished that I could be on hand to greet the messengers of that power when they arrived.”
Yes, as only Jesus Christ could, God in man incarnate, to draw men back from their earthly insanities. But not until after his crucifixion and resurrection, so that we could be saved.
But he adds: “I have been a good Roman, and I leave this part of the world — not only Makor but all of Judaea and Syria as well — more beautiful than when I found it, and having offered this as my benediction, I am ready to die.”
Suddenly , they are reprieved at the last minute my news of Herod’s death. Timon proclaims his first thought is to seek out the new king to see if he plans the building of edifices. How sad! Shelomith prays as the Jewish martyrs did: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” But her beloved temple will not last another century, let alone forever as she had proclaimed to Timon, her husband.
Soli Deo Gloria!