Readings for the day: Esther 1-5
“There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws, so that it is not to the king's profit to tolerate them.” (Esther 3:8)
God’s people have always been at risk. The systematic murder of the Hebrew children in Egypt. The battles they fought on their way to the Promised Land. The invasions of the Assyrians and Babylonians. This genocidal order from Haman the Agagite. The Jews will suffer under the Seleucid empire in the intertestamental period. They will be persecuted by the Romans for their “atheism.” (The Romans couldn’t understand the lack of idols.) There will be pogroms in Europe during the medieval period as anti-Semitism became popular culminating in Hitler’s Final Solution. Even after the modern state of Israel was created, the Arab nations surrounding them promised to annihilate them completely. There is just something about the people of God that sets the pagan world on edge.
The same is true for Christians. In the early days, Christians were understood to be just another Jewish sect. Rising out of the synagogue, they proclaimed to worship a Jewish Messiah. Like their Jewish brothers and sisters, they didn’t worship idols. Refused to bow down to other gods. Willingly went to their deaths in the arena rather than recant their faith. They answered to a higher law than the laws of the kingdoms of this earth and that set the empires of this world on edge. They were killed in Rome. Killed in China. Killed in Japan. Killed in the Amazon. All over the world, Christians have spilt their blood and continue to do so to this day. All for the cause of Christ.
Esther is a heroic story. The story of how one teenage woman was positioned by God in order to deliver His people. Esther is a savior. A messiah in a sense. She was raised up “for such a time as this” and she answered the call. She was courageous. She was brilliant. She was faithful. And even though God isn’t mentioned in this story, He certainly hovers in the background sovereignly orchestrating all things.
Esther is our story. All of us - young and old alike - have been positioned by God in some way to be salt and light in this world. Salt not only brings out flavor but acts as a preservative. Light not only illumines the night but provides safety as it chases away the darkness. The church of Jesus Christ has been sent into the world to help preserve and protect. We heal those who are hurting. We visit the sick and dying. We minister to those in prison. We provide for widows and orphans. We take the side of the downtrodden and oppressed. We fight for those in bondage and slavery. We take up the cause of God’s justice in the world. This works itself out in large scale, globally significant projects and it works itself out in everyday encounters at the office, in the classroom, with our neighbors, friends, and family.
Why do we live the way we do? Why do we keep laws no other nation or kingdom or tribe understands? Why do we embrace our unique identity as God’s chosen people? For the Jew, it is because they remember they were once slaves in Egypt and God delivered them with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. For the Christian, it is because we remember we too were once “separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:12) But now God has delivered us with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. He reached down from heaven and saved us by the blood of His Son. He “who has made us has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14) and become our peace. This is what sustains us through every trial and temptation. Through every persecution and pain. Through all struggle and suffering. I consider all things rubbish for the sake of knowing Christ.