5 Effects of a Coveting Heart

Covetousness never brings satisfaction
Covetousness is deceptive in that we think it will bring satisfaction. But the satisfaction isn’t lasting. We’ll always want more.

It’s like cotton candy. When you get it at the fair, or at the baseball game, it looks like a huge portion. But as soon as you put it in your mouth, it begins to dissolve. There’s never as much of it as you thought. It tastes good for a moment, but then it’s gone.

Jesus said, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). Gathering more things will not satisfy.

Covetousness chokes off the spiritual life
Coveting is a form of unbelief. When we covet a situation other than the one given to us, then we show a lack of trust in God’s ability to provide the best for us. Worry, insecurity, inflexibility – all these are examples of covetousness. We desire something different than what God has given us.

“O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:30-33)

Covetousness spawns many other sins
I wrote about this yesterday. Violence, murder, theft, lying, adultery – all these things begin in the mind. This is why your thought life is immensely important, and why seemingly “private” sins, like lust and pornography can have disastrous consequences.

Covetousness lets you down when you need help the most
This is certainly true concerning money and material things. “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it” (1 Timothy 6:7).  On your deathbed, money and possessions are not going to be a big asset to you.

But this is also true of circumstances. "If only I wasn’t married to this person, if only I wasn’t single, if only I had a better job…" Changes in circumstances will not bring lasting contentment. They are mirages on the horizon.

Covetousness destroys the soul
Ultimately, coveting, thw desire for more, or for something other than what we have, will destroy us if left to run its course. Envy led Ahab to forcibly take Naboth’s vineyard in 1 Kings 21, leading to his destruction. The coveting of another man’s wife led David into adultery, arranged murder, and eventually led to the death of a child. The coveting of money (or power) led Judas to betray Jesus, and to spiritual ruin.

We'd all do well to heed this warning from the Apostle Paul. Addressing money (but applicable to all kinds of covetousness) he says: “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction” (1 Timothy 6:9).

*The framework for this post is based on John Piper, The Purifying Power of Faith in Future Grace, p. 225-226

Short Review: Unbroken by Laura Hillebrand

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. Laura Hillenbrand (author of Seabiscuit) tells the story of Louie Zamperini. A colorful character in his youth in California, Zamperini becomes a track star, even making it all the way to the Olympics in 1936 in the 5,000 meters. The mile was his specialty, however, and he seemed poised to be the first person to break the 4 minute mile. He was on track in his training to do just that, and then the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Louie entered military service as a bombadier. After flying several missions in the Pacific, he was shot down and lost at sea for 47 days. Eventually he was picked up by the Japanese, and spent the next two and half years experiencing the closest thing to hell on earth - internment at 4 different Japanese prison camps. He was experimented on, savagely beaten, and made the personal "project" of a sadistic guard.

But he survived - "unbroken" as Hillenbrand says. Well, not actually. Like so many who experience war, Zamperini was traumatized. His captors haunted his dreams. He coped by drinking. His behavior became more erratic. His marriage seemed on the verge of ruin. His only hope was revenge - he needed to kill th sadistic guard who tormented him all those months and ruined his life.

I'll stop there, because you'll want to read the last chapters for yourself. Or at least, you can stop reading here. I'll give away the ending in the next paragraph. But before I do that - let me say that Hillenbrand is a great writer. She has tremendious sense of pacing, giving the reader plenty of detail to fill out Zamperini's experiences, while pushing the story forward to its climax. This is a really good book. I'm not sure I've read a more well-written biography - EVER!

Here comes the Spoiler:
Okay, so Zamperini is on the brink of despair. His wife is about to leave him, along with his young daughter. He can't keep it together. No money. No hope. And then he goes to a Billy Graham crusade and hears the gospel. His life is transformed almost immediately. His marriage is repaired. He speaks evangelistically around the country and works for a Presbyterian church in Hollywood. And Zamperini even goes back to Japan to proclaim the gospel, even having the opportunity to share his faith with some of the former guards.

I've been told this is going to be made into a movie in the near future. The only surprise there, is that Zamperini's life hasn't already been portrayed in film. I highly recommend Unbroken. It's one of those rare times when an extraordinary writer gets to write about an extraordinary life.



View all my reviews

The disease of covetousness

You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20:17)

This is the tenth commandment. The previous four commandments concerned mainly deeds or actions (murder, adultery, stealing, lying). But this ones goes deeper - to the level of your thought-life, and even to the level of desire. John Calvin said of this commandment, “They were not only to abstain from evil doing, but also, that what he had previously commanded should be performed with the sincere affection of the heart.” In other words, this commandment concerns our attitudes, our desires.

The tenth commandment speaks to an area, namely your thoughts and your heart attitude, that no one can see but God. This makes it especially difficult. No one but God really knows when you’ve broken it, and thus, it makes us more likely for us to tolerate our own disobedience. After all, who would know?

Listen to what Edith Schaeffer says:

Each of us is capable of being two people, doing one thing which people are observing, even saying one thing which people are hearing, and thinking and feeling a totally opposite thing, being schizophrenic with no one but ourselves and God being aware of it. Each of us has a struggle over some form of hypocrisy, and we are troubled in varying degrees about the situation. (Edith Schaeffer, Lifelines: The Ten Commandments for Today, 198)

This is the very thing that Jesus pointed out again and again with the Pharisees. “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:” ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’” (Mark 7:6). It is possible to keep the other commandments outwardly, and still be in sin because of the attitude of our hearts.

But the Scriptures tell us it is even more than that. A covetous heart will lead to the breaking of the other commandments as well. This is one reason why it is a fitting close to the Ten Commandments.

The principle is this: wrong ideas, wrong desires precede wrong actions. Our thought life is the place where all sin begins. Coveting proceeds from the heart (Prov 6:25), brings forth sin, which is finished in the “act” (James 1:14-15).

I don’t think those Enron guys just woke up one morning, and decided it was a good day to steal money from their investors. Rather, years of greed, and ambition, and selfishness culminated in sins of lying and deceit. The same is true with adultery. I don’t think people just wake up one day and decide, “I think I’m going to have an affair, and tear my family apart.” No, it begins with coveting a different life, a different spouse, a more exciting sex life.

Your thought life matters. It is the place of preparation for sin. The principle of reaping and sowing is in play here. You sow a thought, reap and action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.

Don’t let the sin of coveting go unchecked in your mind and in your heart, because you think no one will know. God knows, and others will know soon enough when the disease takes it toll on you.

The Dogma of Increasing Wants

The tenth commandment forbids coveting. The flip side of the command, of course, is to be content. I imagine that being content was challenging in any time and place, but never more so than in our society. For we live in a discontented world. Our advertisers and marketers count on that, and capitalize on it.

A few years ago, a Cincinnati Enquirer editorial spoke to this very phenomenon. The author comments:

American advertising doesn’t want us to become to content with what we have, how we look, what we drive, where we live, or the sex we’re having. “You and your life, are deprived,” marketers imply, “you’ll never reach happiness and contentment unless you have more and look better.” That’s devious! While they promise contentment and happiness, they are really inflicting discontent and dissatisfaction.

“It is the tragedy of our times,” says psychotherapist Robert Johnson,” that no matter what we achieve, how much money we earn, or how many blessings come our way, more is never enough. For every desire you fill, another one always follows on its heels…” (Father Lou Guntzelman, “Contentment: The Experience of Being Satisfied,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 21-22, 2004)

American advertising (along with our own sinful nature, and Satan himself) have taught us that the secret to contentment is in the marketplace. We need bigger things, better things, faster things, more stylish things in order to be happy.

But it’s never enough, is it? We buy what we think we need, and almost before we’re out of the store, we’re told we need something else. A couple of years ago I bought a Macbook. Two days later the Macbook Air came out. Instead of being content with my new (and great) purchase, I could only think, “Darn it! Why couldn’t I have gotten the newest one!”

D. R. Davies, in a provocative book called The Sin of Our Age, wrote: “The good life has become inseparable from the maximum possible consumption of things. . . The dogma of the new religion is the dogma of increasing wants.”

And if it’s not the marketplace and its enticements that keep us from real contentment, then it’s probably circumstances. Many of us have adopted a “just as soon as” mentality about life. Life will be good just as soon as:
• I finish working
• Get married
• Finish school
• Have a child
• Buy a bigger house
• Botox my face
• Or hit the lottery
Just as soon as that happens, then I’ll be happy and content. The grass is always greener somewhere other than my current situation. And so I wait, for that hypothetical time in the future, to really enjoy contentment.

Oh to be like the Apostle Paul, and learn the secret of being content.

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. (Philippians 4:11-12)

How to love your parents

You can do better than this kid.

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. (Exodus 20:12)

What does it mean to “honor your father and mother”?
The word most English versions translate as ‘honor’ is the Hebrew word kabbed. Kabbed is used in several places in the Old Testament, and these uses give us a sense of what it means for us in the 5th commandment.

Prize highly
Proverbs 4:8 uses the word to speak of the way we should value and treasure wisdom. To honor your parents means to cherish them, guard them, treasure them, prize them.

Care, affection
In Psalm 91:15, kabbed is the word used to describe what the Lord does for His people when cares for them, when He hears their cries, and delivers them from trouble. Duty itself does not fulfill the 5th commandment. Our calling is above and beyond – we are to care for and show affection for our parents.

Respect
Leviticus 19:3 – “Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God.” Contemporary American culture has largely lost a sense of respect for our parents and grandparents. I was in Japan for a summer a few years ago, and I was struck how much that culture continues to honor the aged, while ours pays very little attention. As soon as an older man or woman would get on a train, young people would automatically pop up and offer their seats without even thinking about it. I’ve ridden a lot of trains in New Jersey and New York, and I can’t ever remember that happening.

Obey
Obedience is a large part of honoring our parents. This is the way Paul interprets the command in Ephesians 6 – “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” This probably one of the first verses you’ll want to teach your kids when they’re old enough to memorize Scripture. For children, honoring your parents means first and foremost, obeying them.

Honoring you parents changes a bit when you reach adulthood. For most adults, honoring your parents will be predominantly about affection, time, and respect. For me, this task of honoring my parents often takes the form of listening patiently to the advice my parents love to give me. My parents don’t have the authority or the responsibility to command me, as they used to. But they still have the responsibility and the right to be involved in my life. And I am to honor them by letting them.

Financial and General Care
Lastly, the honoring of your parents has a financial aspect. One of the primary purposes for the 5th commandment was the ensuring that elderly parents would be cared for, after they had gone beyond the age where they could provide for themselves.

This has enormous implications for our situation today. We live in a culture that brainwashes us into thinking we have a right to a convenient, problem-free, inconvenience-free life. This is the ideal in America. And it doesn’t seem that many American Christians think too differently.

So what happens, then, when our parents grow old and begin to have trouble caring for themselves? The culture tells us, “Don’t inconvenience yourself! You have plans, after all.” And so we ship our parents and grandparents off to nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. Sure, we’ll make an occasional visit, but we won’t bother ourselves with real care.

If you are having to make some decisions regarding your parents’ health, let me suggest to you that in response to the 5th commandment, we have the obligation to at least prayerfully consider caring for our parents at home. The world will tell you – do what’s best for you. Do what’s more convenient. Do what’s easier. But the Christian call to honor and serve demands that we think about it differently. What’s best for mom and dad? Where will they be happiest? Where will they be most comfortable?

I want to affirm that there are times that honoring your parents may involve putting them in some assisted-living facility. That might be best for them, given the level of care they need. It might be even what they want. But let’s make sure that we make that decision based on what’s best for them, not on what we think is best or easiest for us.

The largest hidden people group in Cincinnati

Cincinnati is full of old people. You just don't see them much. Because many have been ghettoized into nursing homes, removed from the rest of society.

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. (Exodus 20:12)

Who are we supposed to honor?
The rule of Biblical interpretation is to begin with the most plain and simple reading of the text. At its base, this commandment is about how we treat our parents. We sometimes try to make it about other things, but at the most foundational level, this command is about how you as individuals treat your particular parents. People of my generation especially are tempted to interpret this command in other ways, simply to avoid taking any particular action.

We’re tempted to think the 5th commandment is mostly about an attitude toward old people.
“You like old people?”
“Yeah. Do you like old people?”
“Yeah.”
“Sweet, we kept the 5th commandment.” High five!

But it’s not quite that easy.
Listen to what Joy Davidman says:

Nowadays we sometimes like to get rid of the Commandments by broadening them into lofty moral sentiments too vague to apply in daily life. Thus “Honor your Father and mother” is often broadened into something like, “We have a collected responsibility for the aged,” which though perfectly true, can in practice be used to evade our individual responsibility for our own old folks – to justify treating our parents with the same cold benevolence we feel toward indigent strangers in a home for the aged. We plume ourselves on having eliminated selfishness and narrowness from the Decalogue by lifting it above the sphere of personal human contacts; but we have only eliminated reality, for all principles of conduct must come down in the end to the actual relations of flesh-and-blood people. And we have forgotten that the Commandments are not a set of divine ethical abstractions, but a set of quite practical rules for getting along in a very rough world. (Smoke on the Mountain, p. 61)

Your Own Parents
The simplest and most plain reading of the text is that you have an obligation to your parents. You have a divine mandate for honoring them. Part of the way you love and serve God, is by loving and serving your parents. “If you love me,” Jesus says, “then you’ll obey my commands” (John 14:21).

This is something I always tried to drive home with the teenagers when I was a youth pastor. You can have all the warm fuzzies in the world when the worship music is going, but that’s not the ultimate measure of your love for Jesus. Claiming to be on fire for God and having disrespect for your parents are mutually exclusive things. They don’t go together. They can’t go together. If you love God, you'll obey his commands.

The Elderly in our Society
But at the risk of getting too far a field from this primary meaning, I do think the 5th commandment has implications for our treatment of the elderly in general. We live in a culture that prizes youth and productivity to the point that the aged among us have been devalued and seen as burden, rather than as a treasure to society. We no longer revere our elderly and seek out their wisdom. The growth of nursing homes and assisted-living communities, while providing an important (and even necessary) health care service, has had a negative effect on our attitudes toward the aged by the very fact of drawing the elderly out of everyday society. It is now entirely possible as a young person to go months at a time without really encountering an elderly person. We are the first society in the history of the world where that is true. We go to jobs with people our age, hang out in our age-specific coffee-bars, and then on Sundays go to our increasingly more common age-specific worship services. It is myopic to think that this is not affecting the way we see and deal with the needs of elderly people.

This a great analysis of the situation from a friend of mine.

[Assisted-living communities] have the effect of drawing the elderly out of public life and into a separate world of their own, one which is often literally or figuratively at the periphery of society. Geographically and symbolically, many of the oldest citizens of this country live in isolation, left behind by a society that moves ever too fast for them to play any part in it. It is little wonder, then, that the elderly are often forgotten and lonely, as there is such a dearth of their presence in many communities. Especially in suburban communities where walking and public transportation are not common ways of getting around, seniors who lose the ability to drive are effectively barred from lifestyles that would allow them to mix with the general public. In some cases it would not be too extreme to say that the elderly are ghettoized in nursing facilities that are poorly run or where family members never visit. (Jessica Bratt, in a paper presented at Princeton Theological Seminary)

The aged have been moved to the edges of contemporary society. So much so, that I wonder how many of us are aware of the issues facing the elderly in our own midwestern cities. In a ten year period in the '90s, the number of officially reported domestic elder abuse cases rose by 150 percent, from 117,000 to 293,000 cases. Senator Christopher Bond estimates that (b/c many of these cases are unreported), there may be anywhere from 500,000 to 5 million victims of elder abuse (violence and mistreatment of elderly persons) annually. One man in Hamilton, OH was recently sentenced to life in prison for an attack on an elderly woman.

My point is that most of us are simply unaware of the loneliness and hardship and even danger that many aged people deal with daily in America. These people often cannot speak up for themselves. As you know, part of our role as the church is to serve and advocate for marginalized peoples . To borrow a term from missions, the elderly may be the largest “hidden people group” in greater Cincinnati.

Short Review: Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas

Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010), 542 pages plus end notes

Summary
A splendid and thorough biography of German theologian and pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Metaxas might be best known for his biography of William Wilberforce (which spawned the movie, Amazing Grace). But many Christians will have come across his work without knowing it - as he wrote for a number of years for Veggie Tales.

Most know the basics on Bonhoeffer. German theologian-pastor who taught briefly at Union Theological Seminary in New York, and pastored churches in Germany, London, and Spain. Bonhoeffer is best known for his involvement in the Confessing Church movement, opposing the Nazi-controlled Reich church. Bonhoeffer directed an underground Seminary, which led him to write Life Together, a great little book about the community and Finkenwalde. His most famous book, The Cost of Discipleship, had a huge impact on me in college when I first began to consider what the Christian life ought to look like. It also was prophetic, as Bonhoeffer was soon called on to live what he preached. He stood with the Jews in Germany, counted the cost, and involved himself in the conspiracy to kill Adolf Hitler. Bonhoeffer was found out, imprisoned, and executed just weeks before the end of World War II.

What Worked
I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I came to this book. I've read most of Bonhoeffer's books, took a class on his theology while at Seminary, and read a biography written by his friend, Eberhard Bethge. Despite an extensive background in Bonhoeffer, I learned a lot from Metaxas' treatment of his life. In particular I was struck by Bonhoeffer's commitment to piety, Bible reading, and prayer. I was challenged by the excerpts from Bonhoeffer's journal detailing his rich devotional life.

I was surprised Bonhoeffer's pastoral side, and his commitment to people. To read his books (often very heady), you'd expect him to be a cool academic. But far from it. Bonhoeffer was brilliant. But he was thoroughly committed to his work as a pastor and, like the apostle Paul, was deeply involved in the lives of a wide range of people. I especially enjoyed reading about Bonhoeffer's tenure as a Sunday school teacher, working with teens in a working class neighborhood.

Historians and scholars are often not very good writers. Sometimes bad writing even seems to be a badge of honor - as if boring prose somehow proves the biographer's diligence in research. But Metaxas writes beautifully. And because of it, the book is an easy read, and sometimes feels more like a novel than history.

What Didn't
Cries of hagiography are nothing new to religious biographers. And Metaxas has been getting his fair share of those criticisms. In particular, critics have claimed that Metaxas seems to re-shape Bonhoeffer into an American evangelical. While it is obvious that Metaxas greatly admires Bonhoeffer, I didn't get the sense that he massaged Bonhoeffer's theology to make it more palatable to theological conservatives. Rather, I think this book is a helpful corrective.

In Letters and Papers from Prison, Bonhoeffer speculates about "religionless Christianity." Liberals have attached to this and a few other spurious statements and have claimed Bonhoeffer is one of their own. But Metaxas rightly points out that you cannot interpret the whole of Bonhoeffer's theology through the lens of these statements made in personal letters at the end of his life. For one thing, he didn't mean most of these for publication. Rather than mature statements, they were musings made to close friends and family. Second, some of the letters were written in code, intentionally innocuous because Bonhoeffer knew that his correspondence was being reviewed by the Gestapo. And third, he was under intense duress in those last days. Martin Luther says some curious things in his Table Talk, especially during those years where he suffered chronic pain. His legacy shouldn't be determined by those statements and neither should our view of Bonhoeffer be shaped by these statements in his letters. Taken as a whole, Bonhoeffer's work suggests that while Bonhoeffer probably shouldn't be classified as an evangelical, he certainly is orthodox.

Grade
Four out of five stars ****

Read it if
...you are interested in Bonhoeffer, World War II, or historical theology.

The Cross and Success

In a world where success is the measure and justification of all things the fugure of him who was sentenced and crucified remains a stranger and is at best the object of pity. The world will allow itself to be subdued only by success. It is not ideas or opinions which decide, but deeds. Success alone justifies wrongs done... With a frankness and off-handedness which no other earthly power could permit itself, history appeals in its own cause to the dictum that the end justifies the means... The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics; quoted in Mextaxas, Bonhoeffer, 363)

Coincidence and the Anonymity of God

Key Lessons from the Book of Esther
(See yesterday's summary of the story)

Providence
Some have described the book of Esther as having the "miraculous quality of the ordinary." Miraculous and ordinary are not words we usually put together, but that's just what we have in this book. The name of God is not mentioned. No miracle is described. And yet the people are delivered from persecution, and then commanded to celebrate it with a religious festival.

This ought to encourage us to celebrate the providence of God in the "ordinary" things. We'd do well to call our attention regularly to three elements of God's providence. 1.) Preservation - God preserves the universe and all life within it (Heb 1:3). 2.) Concurrence - God works through every human action (Gen 50:20; Esther 4:12). 3.) Purposeful - God's involvement always moves history toward a planned end (Jer. 29:11).

Purim
Esther 9:20-23 tells of the institution of the religious festival of Purim, where the book of Esther is read (it happens in March). It comes from the Syrian word "pur," which means lot. The lot of God's people is only determined by Yahweh. Purim exists to remind people of God's protection.

Peripety
A fancy word for reversal. Esther 9:1 - "...on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred: the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them." This is not just a theme in Esther, but a God-thing in general. Jesus is in the business of building an upside-down kingdom (Mark 10:31).

Real Life

• God is always working in the world. Even in the times when God seems incognito (as in Esther), he is at work. 
• God works through normal events and circumstances. Don't associate God's work too narrowly with miraculous events. There's not one single miracle in Esther. Not one mention of God's name. And yet, the events of the book cause the people to worship God, because they believed his hand was in all of it.
• Purim is described as a "day of celebration...days of feating and joy." Eating, drinking, and celebrating are good and right ways to enjoy God, and praise him for his work in your life.
• The kingdom of God is an upside-down one. Be wary of evaluating things based on the world's value system. Describing Jesus, Mary sings, "He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty" (Luke 1:52-53).
• Esther has a key moment where she decides to go public and identify herself as a Jew. In doing so, she casts her lot with them and their destiny. So it is with us. Where is your identity? Here on earth with something passing (power, money, sex, success)? Or with the King of the Universe who promises eternal life?

Orphaned Immigrant Savior

Key Text: The Book of Esther (but especially chapters 7-9)

Summary: Esther, a Jew, becomes the new queen after her predecessor Vashti is deposed. This in itself would have been a nice little success story – “Orphaned immigrant girl rises to the top of society.” But something much bigger was going on.

One of King Xerxes’ agents, Haman, had a longstanding beef against the Jews. In fact he wanted them all killed. He convinced Xerxes that the Jews would be a tremendous source of money for the royal treasury. All they would need to do would be to find a way to seize their assets. And so Haman proposes a decree that on a particular day, it would be lawful for Persians to attack and kill their Jewish neighbors and plunder all of their money and possessions. Convinced it would be great for the empire, Xerxes agrees.

Queen Esther hears about this (via her cousin and guardian Mordecai). Esther is a Jew, but she’s concealed this from everyone in the palace up until this point. And so Mordecai calls Esther to act on behalf of her people, and she responds.

But Esther has a delicate task. She must find a way to accuse Haman without incriminating the King who had sealed Haman’s decree with his knowledge and approval. And so Esther goes in to the see the king, which is a very dangerous thing to do because it was unlawful to go and see the king without being summoned. But Xerxes is pleased to see her. He holds out his royal scepter, signaling that she has his favor and will receive whatever she asks for.

She asks for the King to bring Haman and come to a banquet she would prepare. Now you might think, that’s a weird thing to do. Why not just tell him what’s going on? Why fool around with a dinner party when people’s lives were at stake? But this was very strategic on her part. Inviting someone to eat had enormous cultural influence in the ancient world.  She hadn’t been summoned by the King in 30 days. By inviting him to dinner she was saying “I want a relationship with you.” And not only does she do this once, but after the first banquet, she asks them back the next night for a second banquet. In doing this, she was re-establishing her relationship with the King.

This is where chapter 7 picks up. Xerxes says “Queen Esther, what is your wish?” She doesn’t tell him right away. Again, she’s strategic with her approach. She doesn’t go after Haman right away, knowing the King would likely defend his protégé. Instead, she starts with a premise – “If I have your favor…” She’s reminding him, I’m your queen. You chose me. You gave me your heart.

Then she moves to her petition. “Save my life.” This would have been a shocker to the King. Someone’s threatening the queen? An assault on the Queen is an assault on the King. She’s circumvented whatever defense mechanisms the King might have had by arousing his sense of indignation and resolve for justice before revealing the culprit.

Then Esther elaborates on the bigger picture. “My people are going to be annihilated.” Xerxes is worked up by now. “Who has done this?” And she answers, “The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman.”

Xerxes leaves the room, which was probably a smart thing to do. He needed to cool off and clear his head. He was in a bit of a bind here. On the one hand, this decree to allow for the plundering of the Jews came from his crown and could not be easily revoked. How could he convict Haman for a plan he assented to? On the other hand, what an embarrassment it would be if the Queen was killed because of an order he handed down.

Next, Haman does something that ultimately proves his undoing. Something so culturally outrageous and dangerous, he only would have attempted it if he was desperate. Desperate people do risky things, and this was Haman’s case here. He lunges at Esther in an attempt to get her to intercede for him with the King. He figures the King is going to have him killed and his last hope is Esther.

But no man was ever allowed to be in the same room with a member of the King’s harem, let alone on the same couch. By law, as soon as Xerxes left, Haman should excused himself as well. In fact, even in a crowded room, men were to remain 7 paces away from the King’s wife. Haman’s in meltdown mode here, to do what he does. It’s so preposterous that one later Aramaic translation of this text has the angel Gabriel giving Haman a shove onto the couch.

The King returns and, sure enough, there’s Haman lunging at Esther. Xerxes is probably relieved at this point, because part of the problem is solved. Haman’s life is now forfeit. He’d be happy to interpret this as a case of molestation or assault.

Haman is so hated, that when the King’s servants arrive, they suggest right away, “You know, King, Haman already had a gallows built just recently.” Sounds fitting, and so the King sends him to his execution.

In chapter 8 Esther gets the King to issue a counter-decree. They couldn’t simply repeal the first one, as the King’s decrees were thought to be irrevocable. So they made a second decree – if anyone were to attack the Jews. The Jews could organize and arm themselves and fight back. And then they too could plunder the people they battled against.

Most likely Esther’s hope was that this would prevent any fighting from occurring. It didn’t turn out that way. In fact, there was a quite a lot of bloodshed. But the Jews more than held their own, and even triumphed over their attackers. But they chose not take any plunder for the Syrians, to show that their fighting was motivated, not by the hope of gain, but by self-defense.

Tomorrow: some lessons from this great story.

Inflated ideas, like new cloth, will shrink in the wash

Once again, therefore, I beg all Christians, especially the pastors and preachers, not to try too soon to be doctors of theology and to imagine that they know it all. Inflated ideas, like new cloth, will shrink in the wash. Rather, let all Christians exercise themselves daily in the [basics] and put it into practice constantly. Let them guard themselves with greatest care and diligence against the poisonous infection of false security or self-delusions. Let them continue steadily reading, teaching, learning, thinking, and reflecting...

If they show such diligence, I can promise them - and they themselves will experience - that they will reap a harvest and that God will make fine persons of them, persons who in time will make the excellent confession that the longer they use the Catechism, the less they know of it and the more they have to learn. Then, because they are hungry and thirsty for the Word...[that which now] they do not even care to smell, will first begin to taste really good to them. (Martin Luther, The Preface to the Larger Catechism)

A Profound Pericope of Prodigious Precedence

A few years ago I did some teaching on Esther. I was thinking about Purim (the Jewish festival where the story of Esther is read to the community) and Providence and for some reason I decided to try and write an alliterative poem telling the story of Esther, mainly using words that begin with P. (Incidentally, I now crush the "P Words" category whenever it appears on Jeopardy).

Esther: a profound pericope of prodigious precedence.

The Palestinian people were placed in a precariously prickly position in Persia under a promiscuous Patriarch. After the protestation of the primary paramour, a new partner was picked from a prenuptial pageant of pretties.

And thus, our pitiable protagonist was placed in a position of prominence. From poorhouse to penthouse, Esther was the Patriarch’s prize, neither plain nor pretentious.

Prior to provocation, her protective parental prescribed her to partake of the patronage of the palace and to pretend to be Persian.

But then Mordecai prevailed upon a perverse plot of perdition against the plebians. Haman, that putrid perpetrator of pestilence postured himself for position and power by poisoning the Patriarch against the People of the Provider, promoting plunder and persecution.

But just as the plan was in place – peripety. To the pleasure of the patriarch, Esther prepared a potluck. She made a plea for protection, and sure enough pandemonium prevailed in the province. The preposterous petition of the pariah was postponed, and the predestined people prospered, receiving peace and protection from their pesterers.

As for the pugnacious profligate – poetic punishment.

To be pithy – Esther procured protection for the populace and Mordecai became a Prince of Persia, proclaiming Purim – a party for the praise of the proper Potentate, proving perpetual protection of the Provider for His people.