We meet Mordecai, a Benjamite who had been brought out of Jerusalem
in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and his niece, Esther. The king has remembered his edict concerning
queen Vashti and now must choose a replacement queen. His advisers suggest bringing together many
young virgins for him to inspect and from whom he will choose this next
queen. Esther, an orphan, was raised by
her uncle and she was taken into the harem as one of the potential wives of the
king. During her preparation period we
see a submissive young woman whose desire is to please those in authority over
her, both her uncle Mordecai and the keeper of the harem. She submits to their authority in not telling
her religion or her Jewish roots and then in doing whatever the keeper
suggests. She seems to have no mind of
her own, but not in a bad way. Ultimately,
she so pleased the king that she became his choice and was feted with a
banquet. In the meantime, Mordecai
overhears a plot against the king and his information leads to subversion of the
plot and this is recorded in the kings annals.
That will come back later.
Jesus doesn't just whisper this truth, He cries out. He makes clear His claim to oneness and
equality with God, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who
sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me." His mission is not judgment but salvation of
the world, just as we read in John 3 in the conversation with Nicodemus, He has
come that through Him the world might be saved.
He has made the Father known and the results of that revelation are
decidedly mixed. Some have believed but
most have not. He has, however, been
faithful to all the Father has told Him to say and do and the results are what
they are. We must be faithful to the
revelation of God to us as well and trust the results to Him. Ezekiel was told the same thing, that if He
spoke truth about sin then he was innocent of judgment but if he failed to make
sin known then he too was responsible for that sin, even if he didn't commit it. We have an obligation to speak truth, no
matter the cost to us and without regard to the results.
In Athens Paul's spirit is provoked by the presence of so
many idols. Athenians were open to
anything it seems and therefore there were many gods worshipped, you never knew
what you might need. They were so open
minded that they were willing to believe that there were likely gods that they
had not yet heard of who were worthy so they had a shrine to the unknown god. This
became Paul's opening gambit, he would tell them of this unknown God who was
sovereign over all things, people, times and places. He appointed times and places for
people. They were here, now, because it
was this God's will. In doing so, he
clearly set God above all their gods. He
quoted their own poets, saying their wisdom was real wisdom but they didn't
find the object of their wisdom in the gods they knew. Ultimately, the problem for the Greeks was
the resurrection from the dead. This was
a bridge they weren't prepared to cross, a dead man who was God. Some believed, some didn't, some wanted to
hear more. Such will it always be. Let us be found faithful, however.
No comments:
Post a Comment