Did you know that the Lord is not mentioned in the book of
Esther? He is evident in the protection
of His people but He doesn't make an appearance by Name or direct
reference. The story begins in the court
of the king of Persia, Ahasuerus or Xerxes, the son of king Darius, who ruled
over a vast empire. He is having a
banquet for all his nobles and the edict for all is freedom of conscience, they
can do as they like with respect to the drinking of alcohol at these
festivities, none are under compunction.
At the same time, queen Vashti is giving a similar banquet for the women
of these men. After seven days of
feasting and drinking the king decides it would be nice to have Vashti appear
before the gathering that all might see her beauty. Jewish interpreters from the earliest dates
have said that the command would have been for her to appear naked before these
men. That certainly explains her refusal
to obey the king who now has been disrespected by the queen. He must come up with some punishment to show
he is king over all. The punishment is
banishment, if she won't appear, I won't let her.
As Jesus admonishes the people to believe in the light that
they might be children of the light, He takes His leave and hides Himself from
them. John's digression here points to
the prophecy given Isaiah that he would make known the truth about God and the
nation and yet no one would listen or perceive that truth because their ears
were stopped and their eyes closed against the truth. The first thing we always need to do when we
share the Gospel is pray the Lord will enable the person to know the truth as
spoken. The other problem we see in this
passage is that some of the leaders believed but they weren't prepared to
follow Him as required, they didn't want to lose what they had in power,
position and propriety. We must be
prepared to lose the glory we receive from men if we are to glorify Him, it
might cost us our reputation and our friends to align with Jesus.
As Paul and Silas continue their journey they come to
Thessalonica, to whom Paul wrote two letters we find in the New Testament. As was his custom, Paul first went to the
synagogue to proclaim Jesus to the Jews in hopes that some would believe in Him
as fulfillment of the promises of God through the prophets. Indeed, some do believe along with some of the
devout Greeks (proselytes who had not taken the final step of
circumcision). This, as always, angers
those who reject the message and they demand that Paul and those who have
accepted the message about Jesus, be arrested.
I wonder if we are moving in a direction in our country where belief in
Jesus will be, if not criminalized, at least marginalized in our
lifetimes. It is already considered
objectionable to stand in favor of traditional marriage and state that
homosexuality is a sin. When the
apostles move to Berea they see a similar result to the preaching, some
believe, but the Thessalonians won't hear of their success, they must be driven
out. We need to get ready for the same
treatment. We must be prepared to move
to the margins.
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