Judas Prays for Fallen Soldiers

On the following day, Judas and his company came to gather the bodies of the soldiers who had fallen. They planned to bring them back with their kinsmen and lay them in their ancestors’ burial places.

But under the garments of each dead man they found tokens dedicated to the idols of Jamnia. God’s law forbade the Jews to have anything to do with such things. Then it became clear to everyone why these men had fallen.

So they blessed the ways of the Lord, the righteous Judge, who brings hidden things to light. Then they turned to earnest prayer, asking that the sin which had been committed might be completely blotted out.

Judas urged the others to keep themselves from sin. They had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had died. Then he took up a collection from the men, and it came to two thousand drachmas of silver.

Judas sent the money to Jerusalem so that a sacrifice for sin could be offered. The passage says this was a good and honourable act because he was thinking about the resurrection. If the dead were not going to rise, praying for them would be pointless.

But he looked toward the hope held out for those who die in godliness, so he arranged an atoning sacrifice for the dead, that they might be released from their sin. What does this story show about taking sin seriously and still praying with hope?