1 Maccabees 15:37. "Now Trypho embarked on a ship and escaped to Orthosia." I have been doing these Bible readings for four years now, and I still, like today, get a name sometimes when I'm like "Who the heck is Trypho?" So I looked him up, and essentially, he was a very bad guy. Trypho "used the death of his friend and ally, Alexander Balas, to seize royal power for himself. He set Balas' son on the throne as Antiochus VI, though he was just a young child, and acted as his regent." He eventually trapped and killed Jonathan Maccabee, attempted to annex Judea to the Syrian kingdom, murdered Antiochus VI, and proclaimed himself king. (virtualreligion.net/iho/trypho.html). (More than any other book in the Bible, Maccabees reminds me so much of the Game of Thrones series, there's even a red wedding! (See 1 Maccabees 9:37-42).) This verse, though, finds Trypho being driven into exile by another rival, Antiochus VII. While in exile, Trypho will commit suicide.

Even though Trypho was never recognized as king, he certainly caused a lot of instability, death, and great trouble for Judea and the surrounding areas during his brief time in seized power. Then, when he was threatened by a greater power, he fled, but that didn't really help Judea much, the new king sent troops against the Jews as well.

Reading things like this remind us that history is full of instability and corrupt leaders, but reading them in the Bible brings another layer of meaning. God wants us to know about these things. He wants us to see ourselves in these historical figures and situations and gain lessons from them. For me, the lesson today, is that when people play political games for power, they may realize their ambitions for a while, but eventually the power they crave so much will drive them to worse and worse crimes, causing immense suffering for the countries they are supposed to be leading, and the countries surrounding them, and eventually leading to their downfall. 

Bad behavior eventually catches up to all of us, but when it is being done by leaders, it also affects all of us. We are currently living through a period in America when the same kind of high stakes political games are being played by many, and in which hatred has blinded many to their own misdeeds. For example, I personally do not believe our current president was legitimately elected. There were so many suspicious things going on leading up to (the laptop which was Russian disinformation until it wasn't); during (the inexplicable vote anomalies; the sworn affidavits and testimony of poll workers); and after the election (the apparent January 6th set up, as borne out by the recently released full videos; the treatment of those prisoners; the falsification of evidence during the second impeachment trial), I think major election misdeeds were done, and I think the behavior of the "winners" afterwards can only be explained as them knowing what they did and trying to not let the truth come out. They do not want to allow anyone who might investigate any of these questions to come to power. Victor David Hanson explains it well in a recent video (although I think hatred plays a much bigger role in their behavior than he admits).

But the Bible is a story of hope and God's plan. So even if we see our own situation in times of suffering in the Bible, we always have hope. We know that God wants to save everyone, even people who have gone astray (even very far astray!). So right now we just have to suffer through the corruption in our political class, and pray for our leaders constantly. They will eventually have to face their own wrongdoings and repent or face God's consequences. If they are driven out of power, they may be replaced by someone even more corrupt, and we will suffer more. But we know who our true King is - it is none of them - and we know He will rule, in the end.