Shut the Door!
In Malachi 1:10, God laments the half-hearted service of the priests. He says, “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain!” (ESV). We normally think of shutting the doors or gates as a way to protect a house or city from an outside threat. The angels who visited Lot pulled him inside and “shut the door” to keep out the inhabitants of Sodom (Gen 19:10). In the eerily similar case where the Levite found refuge with an......
“What Honor or Dignity?”
When Xerxes (Ahasuerus) heard again of how Mordecai the Jew had saved his life, he asked, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” (Est 6:3). The answer, of course, was that nothing had been done, an embarrassing situation for the king. From the tablets preserved in the Persepolis Fortification Archive, we know that daily events were initially recorded on small tablets that could easily be held in one hand. The tablets of this kind are shaped something like a capital D, with one end rounded and the other......
