23 September 2010
Psalm 146, 147; Esther 7:1-10; Acts 19:11-20; Luke 4:14-30

Haman’s bad week got a good bit worse as he was hoisted on his own petard, quite literally. His pride got him in the end. He was insulted by Mordecai’s failure to recognize his greatness and contrived to destroy Mordecai and his people and overreaching ended up being his downfall. He couldn’t be satisfied until everyone bowed down to him and that desire to be important cost him his life. The world hasn’t changed much in all the centuries since Haman, rulers the world over have this same attitude. As Lord Acton observed in the 19th century, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

The day of the Lord has come and the good news is that it is all about us! Jesus declares His purpose is to save and redeem us, to reverse the curse upon us. He is here as God’s agent to fulfill His promises towards us. The people respond well in the short term but then fall back on the question of, wait a minute, we know this guy, we know his family, how can he be the one? Jesus isn’t polite in His response to them, pointing to the faithlessness of God’s people throughout the generations as evidence that it has always been thus. With both examples of Elijah and Elisha, it was Gentiles who received God’s blessing not God’s people who could have come to these men but did not or would not. God’s desire has always been to bless His people but they would not receive His messengers and so it will be with Jesus.

The name of Jesus is not an incantation as the sons of Sceva learn in a painful manner. They had observed the miracles and signs being done through Paul and apparently had come to believe not in Jesus but in the name as the key to the miracle. The demons became, in a sense, agents of God through their attack on these men. What they did bore witness to the power of the demons and the unseen world but at the same time bore witness to the God whom Paul not only named but whom he also served and proclaimed as more powerful than those demonic forces; the result being that people put away the magic that called forth the demons when they saw the true impotence of the demonic in light of the power of God. Belief matters, not taking the name in vanity.

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God all my life long.
Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord will reign for ever.