Mordecai's failure to bow and do homage to Haman results in
Haman speaking to the king about the Jews.
His accusation is that they are a nation within a nation and that they
do not recognize the king's authority and his laws. The only solution to the problem is to
exterminate them. The king, without any
further investigation, gives Haman his signet ring on the matter, allowing
Haman to do as he likes in the matter and binding the king to Haman's decisions
and actions. Haman has been given the
king's own power in this matter of the Jews.
Mordecai and all the Jews throughout the kingdom mourn and cry out.
So was it wrong for the Jews to go about in sackcloth and
ashes in our first lesson? Clearly that
wasn't what Jesus was speaking of in these statements. Here, it is a matter of personal piety and
His admonition is to those who would seek credit before men for their religious
acts of devotion. Such matters should be
between us and the Lord, not something the rest of the world needs to
know. In the first lesson, the entire
nation was under attack and there was nothing to do but reveal to the world
that they were pleading with God to save them.
They were not attempting to win public acclaim for their piety, they had
become a despised race among the people and those people didn't accept Yahweh
either. Jesus is not telling us to keep
our religion to ourselves but when we pray and fast we are to do so to the
Lord, not so that our fellow Christians will think more highly of us.
Religion is not simply a matter of the head and heart or
affections. We are to live as
Christians, the Word is meant to change our lives, not simply our minds. It begins with the renewing of the mind but
when I think differently I should also live differently, I should have changed
values, changed ideas about the world.
My life now has a purpose, glorifying God, and that will mean that my
life looks different from the way it did prior to conversion. I should be less concerned about a great many
things. My tongue is the first thing
that needs to be dealt with in that conversion, it reveals the condition of my
heart more readily than anything else.
Fasting and praying are meant to harness that organ to its proper use.
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