Readings:
Esther 6-8
1 Timothy 2

Esther 6-8

In an ironic twist of events, Haman arrives at the palace to propose having Mordecai impaled on a stake, but the king is looking to have Mordecai honored because he just learned that he wasn’t rewarded at all for exposing the assassination plot that we read about in the first couple of chapters.

So instead of getting the evil he desired, Haman is forced to honor the Jew he seeks to kill. This must’ve been very amusing to Mordecai because he was fully aware of Haman’s plots and animosity towards him and his people.

Haman is whisked off to the banquet that the queen is throwing for just him and the king. This is where Esther lays it all out on the table, she declares that she herself is a Jew and begs for the lives of her people to be spared from this senseless act of violence being planned for them.

Since Haman had so easily convinced the king of the evil and treachery of the Jews, and that he had married one without any idea that she was Jewish, it stands to reason that he may have never knowing had personal interaction with a Jew. This may be why he was so shocked at Esther’s revelation that he had to go for a walk to collect his thoughts. I like to imagine that he was so shocked to think of the image that Haman had painted of these people, and then to think of the service Mordecai had done for him in exposing the plot and the love he had for this beautiful wife of his. Two completely different pictures of the same people were competing in his head.

Another ironic twist in this story is that the stake that Haman had erected for the execution of Mordecai becomes the method and place of his own execution. And to top it all off, Mordecai becomes Haman’s successor after his execution.

The whole plot is turned on it’s head when another decree is issued (because Persian laws had no way of being revoked according to the king and earlier passages from Esther and Daniel) that recommends people not attack the Jews on the day proposed in the original decree, and that Jews who are attacked on that day may use deadly force to defend themselves and they are allowed to seize the property of any attackers.

1 Timothy 2

Paul now instructs Timothy on prayer and how it is to be offered. He is giving Timothy instructions and directions on reordering the liturgical prayer of the church in Ephesus, possibly to be more in line with the rest of the universal church because they may have been going off the reservation so to speak.

Paul instructs us to pray for those in authority, that includes the secular rulers of our nations. The temple on Jerusalem offered sacrifices on behalf of gentile leaders regularly and Paul wants that continued and even expanded because Christ died for all of mankind and wants all to turn to him in repentance. Not that everyone will accept this, but it’s on offer to everyone.

Paul lays down what has today become a controversial teaching, but for centuries was just considered the norm. Paul forbids women from teaching in the assembly during liturgical functions, but not completely banning them from teaching in informal settings. This was maintained by all Christian sects even through the Protestant schism, but in recent decades has been abandoned by many Protestants in favor of “keeping up with the times.”

According to Church teaching, Paul forbids women to exercise the official function of teaching in the Christian assembly.

Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Inter insigniores [1976]

Tomorrow’s Readings:
Esther 9-10
1 Timothy 3