LWW chapter 13

1. Jadis and the dwarf discuss what to do with Ed. I don’t know what to make of wanting to kill him on the Stone Table, since “that’s where it’s always been done.” Maybe a perversion of the righteous Old Covenant law. Sin, taking advantage of its curses, kills those who break it (2 Corinthians 3:3-6, where the letter is represented by tablets of stone, which kills; but the Spirit gives life. Galatians 3:10-25 also relates.)

2. The witch calls out all her allies when she hears her wolf-captain was slain. Revelation 19:19 should be self-explanatory.

3. Ed is almost killed by the witch, with her stone knife. Not Biblical, but I thought of Edwards’ sermon, where he describes the sinner as being dangled over the fire, with nothing sparing him but God’s fingers holding on. Edmund was almost lost, but Aslan rescues him just in time.

4. Edmund is brought to Aslan, they talk, no one knows what is said, but all is set right between Ed and Aslan, Ed and siblings. Here’s that theme of privacy again. When you’ve been sinned against like the siblings have, modern man wants public vindication, restitution – groveling, basically. But a simple, sincere apology should suffice.

5. Aslan and witch meet. All are uncomfy, except those two. Their superior spiritual strength causes this. And the witch not looking Aslan in the eyes reveals another hierarchy.

6. And now we come to that part of the story retelling the core of the Gospel. As with Job, when Aslan and the witch meet, Satan goes into condemnation mode. Ed is a traitor. Aslan’s first rejoinder is that Ed didn’t betray HER. Implied: he betrayed Me; it’s not your place, witch, to charge him. Edmund doesn’t seem to hear her accusations anyway; all he can see is Him – the beauty and grace of our Lord Jesus overwhelm any sin we’ve done. Romans 8:33-34.

7. In an unusual scene, the witch holds Aslan to His own standard of justice. That standard is engraved on the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea’s own scepter. “Every traitor belongs to me as my lawful prey, and that for every treachery I have a right to a kill…. His blood is my property…. Unless I have blood, as the Law says, all Narnia will be overturned and perish in fire and water.” This Law is the “magic which the Emperor put into Narnia at the beginning.” Reading between her lines, she wants to see death on the Table, for death’s own sake. She is hardly interested in high views of justice at this point. She’s playing “gotcha.” She’s trying to claim as many souls as she can for her own kingdom of darkness. But it is true, the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23).

8. Susan suggests working something against this to save Ed, Aslan growls quietly – this would be unheard of to work against justice.

9. Edmund wonders if he should say something, but realizes he can only wait. It’s out of his hands. The impasse has come about because of him, but it’s beyond his power and only in Aslan’s hands (Rev 7:10).

10. Great last scene, after their solitary deliberations; Aslan sends the witch running “for her life,” with a great roar, after she questions his sincerity. Jesus sends demons scattering all over the place when He is on this earth, too.