It is very strange that the edict itself that was issued by
Mordecai under the king's authority is omitted from the reading in the lectionary. I have no idea why it would be removed. The edict essentially does what was the
policy of the superpowers during the Cold War years, force an impasse. The Jews were authorized to defend themselves
in the event of attack and to plunder in victory. If your enemy is helpless to defend himself
then you can attack with impunity but if he can defend himself and has also the
right to plunder your goods in victory, you might think long and hard about
whether the risk is worth the while. Why
the king's edict cannot be revoked is interesting, kind of like the pope being
infallible in his ex cathedra pronouncements.
At any rate, all's well that ends well, except for Haman and his
household. The book of Esther was hotly
debated as to whether it belonged in the canon of Scripture as it makes no
mention of God whatever but was finally allowed in because it shows His
sovereignty. The festival of Purim in Judaism is based on the story of Esther.
Authority over the unclean spirit is an important part of
the package. The demon attempts to give
testimony to Jesus, but He needed not the testimony of demons. Speaking the Name, knowing a person, implies
control and yet here the control all belongs to Jesus. He makes no inquiry into the name of the
spirit, simply commands it to be silent and come out of the person. The power of Jesus to deal with unclean
spirits is important but little talked about in the church. There are unclean spirits in our world, even
though most of us will never come into contact with such things, at least not
in this confrontational manner. In these
first two lessons we see authority as important. Does the church walk in authority?
The riot in Ephesus is completely traceable to a loss of
income experienced by those who made their money from supplying idols to the
people of their local goddess Artemis. The
people are quickly persuaded that their goddess is under attack and that cannot
be tolerated. There was a temple to
Artemis here that was a wonder of the ancient world and she was central to the
import of Ephesus. The crowd apparently
has no real idea what is going on and simply proclaim over and again the
greatness of their goddess until finally a town clerk speaks sense to them that
they are at risk of being charged with rioting, violating the pax Romana, by
their actions. The authority of Rome, it
seems, is greater than the authority of Artemis and they quickly disperse.
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