Sunday, 29 April 2007
Sunday School Class Proverbs 23:4-5 Riches...be amused, don't be intrigued.
Majesty; Into Thy Presence; Something Beautiful; To be like Jesus
Scripture reading: #666
Sunday evening Vesper's 5-6 p.m. Matthew 9:1-8 Which is neater - ability to forgive sins or make a paralyzed man walk?
Wednesday Study Class 7-8 p.m. “Teaching our children how to live effectively as Christians in society: Someone is watching!”
'For such a time as this' means bad times
She was a Jewish orphan living in Sushan, Persia (now known as Susa, Iran). Her actual name was Hadassah. The Bible indicates that she was evidently raised by her cousin Mordechai, who was some sort of lower level court official. At some point she took the name Esther. The Bible says the king was Ahasuerus and that he had a wife, Vashti. It is commonly assumed that ‘Ahasuerus’ was the king who was known in our Greek inspired history as ‘Xerxes I,’ which would place the story about 480 years before Christ.
Haman, the #2 man in the empire decides to kill Mordechai for his insolence in refusing to bow down whenever Haman was approaching. Haman decides to include all of Mordechai’s ‘people’ (Jews) in the death plot. Haman gets Ahasuerus to agree to kill all Jews in the empire by inciting prejudice and discrimination and distrust.
Haman’s henchmen ‘cast lots’ to decide when to kill the Jews. Casting lots was called ‘pur.’ Royal orders were sent across the empire to kill all Jews on the thirteenth day of the Hebrew month of Adar. Mordechai asks Esther to intervene with the king. Esther risks her life by going to the king. The days when the Jews were supposed to be killed became, instead, a time of the Jews killing their own enemies. This is celebrated with the Feast of Purim each year ever since.
Esther 4.1. When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. 2. But he went only as far as the king's gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it.
3. In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes. 4. When Esther's maids and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.
5. Then Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why. 6. So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate.
7. Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews.
8. He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to urge her to go into the king's presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people. 9. Hathach went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said.
10. Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, 11. "All the king's officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that he be put to death. The only exception to this is for the king to extend the gold scepter to him and spare his life. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king."
12. When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, 13. he sent back this answer: "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 14. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"
15. Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16. "Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish." 17. So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther's instructions.
How many people have been at the nexus of a crisis and could have responded as Esther, but failed to rise to the occasion? How many people in countless holocausts could have responded as Schindler?
(13) Mordecai sent back this answer: "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. (14) For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"
"...for such a time as this?" is posed as a question.
That sentence begins, "And who knows..." That, my friend, is the question for any given situation.
I don't know why you are where you are. You might not know why you are where you are - but God knows.
You might wish for anonymity, or, at the least, that the problem or controversy or difficulty would just go away. Perhaps it will, and maybe you won't be its victim. Perhaps some hapless other will fall prey to the designs of whatever corporate or political evil is nesting or resting in your job situation. Maybe you won't be the target.
Are we called to immunity? Is it our role to be the survivor? Is it to always be someone else sacrificed to the gods of culture, corporate expediency, political correctness, efficiency or political necessity?
"And who knows..." perhaps you are called to your situation "...for such a time as this?"