Today’s Scripture Reading (August 27,
2017): Nehemiah 6
In 1651,
Arnold Johan Messenius and his 17-year-old-son were executed together
(beheaded) by Queen Christina of Sweden. Their crime was, officially, that they
were “enfant terrible,” or literally “unruly children.” The senior Messenius
occupied the position of being the national historian for Sweden, but he had
chosen to abuse his post and accuse the Queen of misbehavior, specifically
calling her a “Jezebel.” And for Queen Christina, that was more than enough
cause to justify her demand that the father and son be executed together.
This probably shouldn’t
have been a surprise. The Queen had said “As you know, no one over thirty years of age is
afraid of tittle-tattle. I myself find it
much less difficult to strangle a man than to fear him.” If it was Messenius’s intent
to drive fear into the heart of the queen, that was not going to work.
Christina would fear no-one, and she would kill anyone who made it their
intention to cause her to live in fear.
Of course,
driving fear into the hearts of our opponents seems to be a common way that we
try to bend someone else’s will to ours. And the best way to drive fear is to
tell someone in a position of authority what our opponent is really doing. If a teacher doesn’t do what we
think is appropriate, we run to the principal
– and if a co-worker refuses to behave, then we run to the boss. And if it is
the boss that is not acting appropriately, we either find another higher up to
whom we can tell our story, or we threaten
to go public with what we know. Messanius, in
writing down his accusation, had decided to go public. The act cost
Messanius his life and the Queen the last of the goodwill that she had with the people. As is so often true, it was
not the accusation that cost Queen Christina. It was her reaction to the accusation. Three years later, and for a number of reasons, Christina converted to
Roman Catholicism and abdicated the throne of Sweden. She would live the rest
of her life in exile.
Nehemiah’s
enemies had decided that the only way to stop the rebuilding of Jerusalem was
to end Nehemiah’s life. They sought to get Nehemiah in a vulnerable position
and then get rid of him. But none of their schemes had worked. And so they
decided to try something else. They created a rumor that Judah had
re-established a king on the throne of Judah (we are not told who, but it might
have been Nehemiah himself that was the proposed King) and was planning to revolt against Persia.
Jerusalem was now sending out their prophets to proclaim the news of the King
who now reigned in Judah once again. It didn’t matter that no king existed. The
rumor, correctly told to Nehemiah’s boss,
King Artaxerxes of Persia, would hopefully bring destruction down on Nehemiah
and the city of Jerusalem. They hoped that their “tittle-tattle” would be
enough to drive fear into the heart of Nehemiah and stop the rebuilding of the
city. Or, at least, cause Nehemiah to make a mistake and place himself in a
position where his enemies would be able to kill this leader of the Jews.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Nehemiah
7
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