Scripture: Luke 10:17-20 (NIV)

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Today being Star Wars Day there are plenty of things that will be tied into the fandom. There are sales on merchandise, The Phantom Menace is back in theaters to celebrate its 25th anniversary, and we are in the afterglow of the conclusion of The Bad Batch.

We also get today on Disney+ the second installment of the “Tales of” series. The first one, Tales of the Jedi, focused on the history of Ahsoka Tano and Count Dooku with three shorts each, with Ahsoka’s being points in her life from a baby to after Order 66 and Dooku points that showed his progression from a respected Jedi to a Sith Lord. This time, instead of focusing on the Jedi, we get more origin information on two characters on the other side of the conflict in Tales of the Empire.

The two characters selected are not as deeply known as Ahsoka and Dooku are by most fans. Barriss Offee was a Jedi Padawan turned apprentice that was good friends with Ahsoka. However, as the Clone Wars ranged on she became disillusioned with how the Jedi were conducting themselves. She wound up bombing the Jedi Temple, a crime that Ahsoka was accused of and almost convicted of before Anakin Skywalker found out the truth. In this show, it seems like we will see her be recruited from her jail cell by the newly formed Empire to be part of their Inquisitor program. If so, we will see the beginnings of her time serving the evil Palpatine.

The other person is a character we know little about. Morgan Elsbeth made her Star Wars debut in The Mandalorian, as the overlord of a small village. She also played a large role in the first season of Ahsoka but we don’t know much about her history or why she was aligned so closely with Grand Admiral Thrawn. Her first steps into evil aren’t known but may be shown in these shorts.

Sometimes we think that evil has always been around. That’s almost the case, of course–even in the Garden of Eden, Satan showed up as a snake to tempt Eve into eating the apple. However, unlike our Lord, evil has a starting point. Christ said that He had seen the banishment of Satan from the heavenly realms. That wasn’t the beginning of evil–obviously that happened before he fell like a stone from heaven to hell–but it was pretty close.

We don’t need to know much more about Satan, though. We know he deceives, he lies, he tricks. He tries to separate us from God, though that’s an impossible task. We know he’s the source of evil in this world. We also know something much more important. We know he doesn’t win. We know that God has everything under control and He wins the final victory. God is always with us and we can turn to Him when Satan comes after us. Thanks be to God that He keeps us from evil!