2 Maccabees 15:28-34. After defeating Nicanor and his army in battle, the Jews are returning to Jerusalem with joy when they come upon Nicanor's body, dead from the battle. The "man who was ever in body and soul the defender of his fellow citizens", that is, Judas Maccabeus, orders them to cut off Nicanor's head and arm and bring them back to Jerusalem. There they bring the head and the arm to the priests before the altar, where Judas cuts out Nicanor's profane tongue, and shows the priests the arm "which had been boastfully stretched out against the holy house of the Almighty." All present look to heaven and bless the Lord who "has kept his holy place undefiled."

This is the end of the story I blogged about in The Subversive Power of Faith in which Nicanor goes to the priests to find Judas and instead finds them offering sacrifices for his king. He is angry that he can't punish them because they are doing nothing wrong, and he stretches out his hand against them against the Lord's house saying if Judas is not delivered to him he will come back and destroy this place. So now God has protected his house and his people by allowing Nicanor to be killed in battle. Nicanor dies before he can go back and complete his promised destruction. Judas, then, finds Nicanor rather than Nicanor finding Judas. And Judas takes the head and the arm that so blasphemed God's holy place back to that holy place to show God's justice. This is justice. It is the kind of ending we yearn for (although maybe a bit more gory than some would like).

God shows us through stories like this that he is in charge. He knows what is going on. He knows the threats we face and he has a plan. We just must be patient and faithful (like the priests who continued to offer sacrifice for an evil king) while he carries it out. We might not always stumble over the dead bodies of our enemies, and we probably wouldn't cut off their heads and arms if we did, but that does not mean they aren't being punished. And God knows who needs to be punished, how to punish them, how much to punish them, and if the repent, to stop punishing them. We do not know these things, which is why it is not up to us. We only must follow him and trust him. Stories like this make it easier to do so - he shows us his justice sometimes to give us the strength to keep going.