Before Haman Was - What to Remember When Problems Seem Big

A Series of Musings on the Book of Esther - Part Four

Tears streamed down his face. Matching the expression that was so wholly marked by sorrow. As he ran into my arms, he choked back another sob and then began to tell of his woe. I had expected to be shown a scraped knee or to hear of some unfair play, but when the little hands opened to reveal the object that was cupped inside them, I couldn’t help but smile. Not at his sadness, not at the problem, but rather that it could be so easily fixed.

 A new toy had broken in two, after just moments of use – delivering disappointment instead of the anticipated fun. But the damage wasn’t as serious as the little mind had feared and the model didn’t remain long in its broken state. For, in less time than it took to dry his tears, the toy was repaired. Then a bright smile replaced the furrowed brow.

Watching as he ran off to play, I recalled how often I had come to my Lord in a similar state.

How often I still come in such a manner - worried, fretful, and afraid; overwhelmed by a problem before I’ve even asked for help. When problems seem big, it is easy to forget that God is bigger; that He has every trial well in hand.

In the book of Esther, we learn that Mordecai and all of the Jews with him faced a problem. A problem that was big; much bigger than a broken toy and bigger even than the problems that most of us are facing. But God was bigger still. He knew Haman’s plot to have the Jews annihilated; He also knew just how to save them.

Before Haman had begun to conspire against the Jews, Esther had been placed in a position of influence, a position where she would be able to intercede. Is this just a coincidence? Perhaps. Or perhaps, as Mordecai said, she had come to the kingdom for just such a time as this - perhaps God had placed her there intentionally.

I think the Lord must smile on occasion knowing how easily my troubles truly are to amend. I think He must long at times to lift my head, dry my tears, and say, “oh child, don’t be one of little faith.”

He tells me to have faith in Him. To keep my eyes on His expression. He is never worried, never fretful, nor surprised.

I call Him ‘Provider’ but in the midst of a problem I often forget what that name really means. It means He makes the rain to fall, the crops to grow, and gives my every breath. But as provider He does much more than this. The word provider is the description of someone who is giving provision. Provision is defined both as ‘the act or process of meeting a need’ and as ‘the fact or state of being prepared beforehand.’ So, when we call our God ‘Provider’, we should remember that He not only meets our needs but does so even before they come.

He is never caught by surprise. Jesus said, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him,” (Matthew vi.8, ESV) and again and again the Father has proven that statement true. Meeting every need with such perfect faithfulness. Preceding trouble with provision.

 Another Example from the Life of Mordecai

We find another illustration of God’s sovereignty in Mordecai’s personal peril.

The approaching annihilation of the Jews wasn’t coming soon enough to satisfy Haman's frustration, so, in order to keep from spoiling his enjoyment of Queen Esther’s second banquet– to which only he and the king had been invited - Haman planned a special execution for Mordecai.

As morning dawned, he had only to get King Ahasuarus to agree to his plot and his satisfaction would be secured, for he had already commissioned a gallows to be constructed in his front yard just for the occasion. Approaching the king’s door, Haman feared little. The king had condemned an entire people to death at his last request, so what could possibly stand in his way now?  

Truly, God alone could. Mordecai and Esther didn’t even know of Haman’s newest scheme but the God of Mordecai and Esther did. He had been at work on it all the night before. King Ahasuarus was robbed of his sleep and, while listening to the chronicles of his life read aloud, he recalled a deed that Mordecai had done. A deed that had saved his life. God had prepared that deed before the rivalry between Haman and Mordecai even commenced; before Haman had even risen to power.

God, in His sovereignty, had prepared the perfect method of Mordecai’s rescue. He did so long before Mordecai was in need of rescue. Thus, when it was needed the provision was ready; made ready by the pre- vision of God.

It is possible that Mordecai believed that deed to have been forgotten, overlooked by the king, and of little use. But the King of all had not forgotten it. Rather He had prepared it for just such a time as this.

Our God is sovereign, and He cares for us with the same all-knowing power that we see demonstrated in the book of Esther.

Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” (John viii.58, ESV)

He said this as a statement of His divinity. As a testimony that He was greater than Abraham onto whom the eyes of the people were turned. We need to hear that statement too. We need to be reminded that He is divine and that He is greater than the things onto which we have turned our eyes.

So, when problems seem big, let us remind ourselves that no need has arisen that He did not know before it came and the trials which threaten to shatter our joy are easily made into something useful in His hands. So, let’s pray to see as David saw. To focus not on the giant of a man who towers above all the congregation of Israel, but on the giant of a God who towers high over him.

Let’s pray to be reminded that before Haman was, He is. That before our troubles were, He is and was and forever more will be.

In Christ

quiana

All and Well - The God Given Pattern of Obedience

A Series of Musings on the Book of Esther - Part Three

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” (Ephesians vi.1, nkjv)

Such a small and simple statement. A command that I have read again and again. But do I understand it? Do I believe it to be true?  Do I apply it? These are questions that the Lord has been laying before me repeatedly in the last few weeks.

I live in the midst of a society that widely believes that punishing children is wrong – that correcting them is unkind. I live in the midst of a culture where disobedience and disrespect are commonplace and even expected in the home and I realize that I too have unwittingly accepted something less than that which He has described as ‘right’. I have made excuses and adopted justifications that He never gave.

So how does my, and our, perspective need to change in this area to come into alignment with God’s? Well, the first thing that God placed His finger on in my life was a couple of excuses that I had come up with, or at least adopted, as to why I didn’t need to obey my parents.

Excuse #1 – No Longer a Child

By using the very first word in the verse I was justifying myself in disregarding the rest of the command. For the verse said ‘children’. I agree that kids should obey their parents but I am an adult. Society told me that at eighteen I had become free to make my own decisions. I still listened to the counsel of my parents, of course, but I viewed it more as suggestions than as authority that I was bound to obey. I was an adult and surely God knew that adults have to make certain decisions for themselves.

Well, to my surprise, I found out that the Greek word Teknon that is translated to say children in Ephesians vi.1 and other verses like it, doesn’t specify parameters of age at all. The description of ‘children’ wasn’t those under eighteen, twenty-one, or twenty-five. Rather in the context of this verse the word Teknon simply means offspring, descendants, dependants, or those who have been nurtured and moulded by wisdom. In other words, I wasn’t freed from responsibility to the God given authorities in my life just because I had turned eighteen.

In addition to defining of the word children, I found that God’s word also undermined my excuse through the example of Esther.

“Now Esther had not revealed her family and her people, just as Mordecai had charged her, for Esther obeyed the command of Mordecai as when she was brought up by him.” (Esther ii. 20, nkjv)

Esther was a full-grown woman and, at this point, a married woman and even the Queen. Yet she obeyed Mordecai ‘as when she was brought up by him’ or as when she was a child. Esther obeyed Mordecai willingly - she was no longer under his roof or in his presence; there was no way that Mordecai could make her obey him or punish her if she did not. But still she obeyed. Why?

Because it was right.

Excuse #2 -The Percentage Principal

Now we come to my second excuse - what qualifies as obedience?

I obeyed my parents in most things. In the big things. In the important things. I obeyed ninety-five percent of the time. Surely, that meant that I was obedient. The few times when I felt like I needed to decide something for myself, when I disagreed with what I had been told to do, or when my mom had only ‘suggested’ what I should do didn’t count. Did they? What did God expect of me? What was ‘good enough’ for Him?

 “Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord.” (Colossians iii.20)

I read this verse and two words seemed to be instantly highlighted in my mind. Two, little words that added a whole lot of emphasis and clarity to that command. Two, little words that completely tore away my justification and brought a search light upon my motivation. Those words were ‘all’ and ‘well’. ‘Children, obey your parents in all things.’ All is a very simple and very clear word and in this context it clearly and simply told me that there were no exceptions, no suggestions, and no ‘good enough’- God expected me to obey all the time and in everything.

 Then there was well. “For this is well pleasing to the Lord.” Another small and simple word. That simply told me that when I obey my parents it pleases Him. My reason for obeying needed to change from an attempt to be ‘good enough’ into a desire to please Him. If that was my reason for obeying, no reason to disobey could be greater.

The Consequence for the Disobedient Son

God’s standard for obedience is in all things and this pleases Him. Alternately, when we are disobedient it displeases Him.

In both Romans i.30 and 2 Timothy iii.2 we find disobedience to parents included in lists of sins - sins that Paul says in Romans i.28 are symptoms of a debased mind and are not fitting. In addition to these New Testament references, we find clear commands in the Old Testament of how such behaviour was to be dealt with. For example, we read in Exodus xxi.17 that “he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.”

This is a rather shocking punishment especially when we think of it in the context of our culture as it moves towards outlawing physical discipline of any kind. If we define the word for curse, Qalal in the Hebrew, it only serves to make the matter more difficult. Qalal means to treat with contempt, to dishonour, to slight, to lightly esteem, or to treat as being of little account. Thus, we could say that he who treats his father or his mother with contempt shall surely be put to death which is an even more shocking and convicting statement.

These are behaviours that are commonplace in our society and in many of our lives. However, despite the fact that we have come to deem these attitudes and responses as harmless and normal the God in heaven and Judge of all deems those who are guilty of them to be worthy of death.

The Reward for the Obedient Son

The God given consequences for disobeying and disrespecting our parents are pretty hard to swallow. But then, the God given consequences for disobeying in general are hard to swallow. For it is not only because we have shown disrespect to our parents that we are worthy of death, but because of every way that we have disrespected and disobeyed God.

In contrast, however, to the punishment of disobedience we find in Exodus xx.12 that there is a reward for those who are obedient:

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”

A similar promise is repeated in Proverbs iii.1-2,

“My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands;

 for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you.”

There is only one son who has ever kept the law of honouring father and mother. Who has obeyed in all things and proven well pleasing to the Lord. Whose heart has kept his father’s commands - that is Christ Himself.

We have been disobedient and received the consequences and likewise the Son who was obedient has received the reward. His days will be everlasting and He has a peace that transcends all understanding. The good news is, that He has chosen to share both His peace and His length of days with us.

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.”

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?  For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews xii. 5-11, nkjv)

In Christ

quiana

The Two Laws – The Stratagem of Our Salvation

A Series of Musings on the Book of Esther - Part Two

Just after the very beginning of the beginning of time...

In a garden - in the midst of that garden...

Were two trees.

"...The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." (Genesis ii.9, esv)

There were two laws that governed the garden. Two laws that concerned these two trees and the man and woman God had placed in the garden where they grew.

Now, it just so happens that those two trees and those two laws also concern you and I and, in fact, the whole human race. For the very eternity of all mankind rested solely upon those two laws.  

The trees were both fruit-bearing trees and the laws that governed them had to do with the eating of that fruit. The law for the tree of life was eat and live. The law of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was just the opposite - eat and die.

Now before we continue, we should pause to consider how those laws came to be. They were the laws of God - the God who had created the garden and the trees, the man and woman, and you and I. But they weren't just a whim or a fancy of His. But rather a statement of fact. They simply explained how things were - nothing more and nothing less. They explained something about God, something about the trees, and something about the people. They explained the relationship that existed between them all. So, we see that the law wasn't a matter of preference, or a list of rules, so much as a manual. Like that which one has for a car, or for a computer. A manual that tells one how a thing works and why. This is what the two laws were.

The woman, in a story that could be a story all on its own, took of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and ate of it and gave it to her husband who was with her and he ate of it also. Now, you can probably guess what happened. Though you don’t really have to guess at all for the law had stated it quite clearly and the law was a statement of fact.

The man and woman died. But it was not the death we would expect. They didn’t fall down right there and breathe their last. Yet die they surely did. They died in spirit. They died for, like a rose that is cut, they were separated from that which had been their source of life – God Himself. They were bound by a law and that law could not be changed.

Why couldn’t it be changed? Why couldn’t God, in His mercy, make an exception to the law?

To understand that, we must understand God. God was. He is. He always will be. God cannot change. It is simply His nature. It is how He is. He cannot change and He cannot lie and therefore He could not alter the law. Thus, the law was, and is, and always will be. Which was not good news for the man and woman, and is not good news for you and I.

But there was another law - the law of the tree of life.

…

In the days of a king - a king who was very great in his day…

In the land where he ruled, in the palace where he lived…

Was his queen in great distress.

“Then Queen Esther answered and said, “If I have found favour in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated.” (Esther vii. 3-4, nkjv)

There was a law in place in this king’s kingdom, a law that sentenced the queen and her people to death.

It was a law, like the law of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that could not be revoked. For even the king, in all his great power, could not alter or recall the law - the law that had been sent out in his name. Thus, despite the queen’s pleadings, the law was.

And yet, the queen and her people did not die but lived. How?

Because there was another law - another law sent out in the king's name.

This law cancelled out the effects of the first without removing it or changing its nature. It was like the law of aerodynamics which cancels out the effects of the law of gravity while leaving it intact.

 It was this second law saved the people from the death that had come by the first.

…

While a King hung upon a cross - a King who was greater than any king had been since the very beginning of the beginning of time…

In the land where He was ridiculed, on a hill that was very near to a garden…

Was a tree. 

A tree that did not look much like a tree anymore, for it had been hewn and cut into two beams of wood.

That tree was the tree of life. The man upon it was God Himself. He was its fruit and the law that governed it remained the same as it had been long ago in that garden of old. The law was this: eat and live. And the law was.

“If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” (John vi.51, nkjv)

The second law alone could save from the first. The first had condemned mankind for eternity. The second eternally saved them. In this the mercy of God was shown - mercy from the God who could not change, could not lie, and could not alter His law.

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans viii.2, nkjv)

In Christ

quiana