Looking Back; Looking Up

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There is not a single person here, this morning, who cannot relate to the psalmist in 23rd Psalm. Whether it a valley of literal death, or death of relationship with the one you don’t think you can live without, or the death of your reputation … or simply the death of your hopes - despair over a life that isn’t turning out according to plan

… all of us know the experience of the lonely valley, mountains on every side - towering above, blocking out the light of the sunshine of hope and making you feel so, so small … and powerless.

If that’s you, this morning, then you have been able to identify with the people of God, and their experience in the book of Esther.

They have gone through some dark, dark days. they lived under the assurance that they are going to be exterminated. It was made law - sealed with the authority of the king - a ruler seen as a god-man in his domain - - the king of the most powerful empire on the face of the earth … The law, sealed with his own signet ring, declares that every Jew - man, woman and child is to be slaughtered, destroyed and annihilated .... on the 13th day of the 12th month - the month of Adar.

For almost an entire year, ALL of the Jews, throughout the entire empire, have KNOWN the day of their death. Can you imagine living through that experience?!!

And then comes the day you’ve been waiting for in dread. Sure, Mordecai, your countryman, has written another edict and sealed it with the king’s ring: All the Jews are permitted to fight back and destroy everyone who attacks … but you are TINY minority in a country not your own … a massive empire that covers 127 provinces.

Dawn breaks on the fateful day .... and with the break of day comes the first wave of attacks … the fighting begins. Bared fangs of hate come at you, wanting you dead, wanting to wipe your entire race and your name from the face of the earth … and enrich themselves on everything you’ve worked for. By the end of 2 days of fighting … over 75000 predators lie dead on the ground at your feet.

More importantly than that - you and your people are alive … safe and now, SECURE. The threat is over. perfectly sums up the situation: “No in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king’s command and edict were about to be carried out ,on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred: the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them.”

So, what do you do next?

Well, you celebrate, of course! And that’s exactly what the Jews of Persia do.

Time Magazine, January 2018 -

Alan Moskin, an 18 year old who served in the Army with the 66th infantry, 71st Division, recalls that his side of the experience started when a group of U.S. Army combat soldiers stumbled upon a prisoner-of-war camp, holding mostly Royal Air Force members, near Lambach, Austria. The British prisoners told the liberating soldiers that they’d heard rumors of a different kind of camp, a concentration camp for Jews, just a few kilometers away.

“I remember my buddies and I looked at each other,” Moskin tells TIME. “We knew Hitler wasn’t fond of Jews, but we hadn’t heard anything about any concentration camps.”

The day — May 4, 1945 — was overcast as he and his fellow troops marched through a forest, trudging through wet ground, looking for the rumored camp. The first clue that the rumors were true was the smell.

“We tried to cover our mouths and noses with a bandana, but it got worse and worse, and all of a sudden I remember looking through some trees and seeing a big barbed wire sort of [guarding] a compound,” he says. “That turned out to be the Gunskirchen camp.”

“Himmler had just sent a telegram to the commandant ordering the people running the camp to shoot everybody. But because the American soldiers came and surrounded the camp, he wasn’t able to carry out the order. He was afraid. He thought it best to surrender.”

“There were dead bodies on the left, piles of dead bodies on the right — and their arms and legs looked like broomsticks covered with no flesh,” Moskin says. Slowly, the ones who were still alive stumbled toward them like “the living dead, zombies,” in striped pajamas with a sewn-on star of David, calling out in German for food, water and cigarettes.

An Army lieutenant who knew he was Jewish asked Moskin if he spoke any Hebrew or German, so that he could communicate with the prisoners.

“I remember saying the German for ‘I am also a Jew.’ It just came out of me. I don’t know where I heard it,” Moskin says. “An elderly man, very emaciated, started to smile and came towards me and he went down on his hands and knees and started to kiss my boots, which were tainted with blood, vomit, and feces. I knew he was trying to be affectionate toward me, but it made me very uncomfortable to watch him kissing my filthy, bloody boots. So I picked him up under the armpits, and as he came up towards me I could see open, festering sores going up and down his neck, and lice coming out of those sores. You could imagine that I wanted to pull away because he smelled so badly, but I didn’t. He had wrapped his arms around me and he was crying. He kept saying ‘Danke [thank you], danke, Jew.’ That’s when I lost it a little bit and started to cry.”

The celebration in isn’t about victory in battle; it’s not about malicious glee over the slaughter of their enemies … this festival is a celebration that their lives have been transformed from sadness to joy and from mourning to a holiday.

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Put yourself in Mordecai’s place. Haman has been your great enemy. He hated you for no other reason than that you were faithful to the God whose name you bore. He hated you so much, he was willing to wipe out your entire race to satisfy his bitterness. He’s dead.

You have been given his position … you have been given charge of his entire estate … you have more money, power and status than you ever dreamed of. You have just overseen the successful defense of your people - they are safe. Isn’t this a time when you would be tempted to dream of the future? What’s next? Your future is looking oh, so bright. Dream BIG!

But no. See the very first thing that Mordecai does.

, “And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, (21) obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of teh month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year, (22) as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor.”

Mordecai doesn’t make plans for himself. He makes the spontaneous celebration of rescue into a permanent date on the calendar and tells the people who have been rescued - to mark this date and celebrate it every year from here on out.

The feast of Purim joins the

The people get the letters Mordecai sent out and there is no argument from them. Scattered in city after city throughout the Persian Empire - Jews

And do you know that the feast of Purim has never failed to be observed by the Jews ever since the year Haman, inspired by the devil himself, tried to destroy them.

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So, this is where the feast of Purim gets its name. You’ve heard of Purim and you know it’s a feast, but what exactly is it? Well, it’s the closest thing in the Jewish calendar to Christmas. Notice how the day is described in v. 22, “… they should make them days of feasting” - that sure describes an essential feature of Christmas. “days of feasting and GLADNESS ...” - we usually associate gladness with Christmas (unless you have a cousin Eddy who insists on showing up every year). “… days for snding gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor.” Again - that’s Christmas - a time of giving gifts. There’s singing and dancing ....And it all goes back to Haman’s hand. When Haman came up with his hate-fuelled plan to exterminate the entire race of Jews, because killing Mordecai wasn’t enough for him … Haman comes up with his plan to go to the king, but he needs to have a date on the calendar … so what does he do? He casts the ‘PUR’. Verse 24 tells us about this, “Haman … had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast PUR (that is, cast lots), to crush and to destroy them.”

PUR - that’s not a Hebrew word, it’s a Persian word that the writer of Esther just borrowed - in the same way that we use the word, “Messiah” or “Agape” - they are Hebrew and Greek words, but we’ve just borrowed them into English - and we know what they mean.

“PUR” was a Persian word for the ‘casting of a lot’ - like the throwing of a single die (singular of ‘dice’)

In English, when you want to make a singular into a plural - you usually add an ‘s’ at the end. In Hebrew, when you wand to turn a singular into a plural, you add “im” at the end. So, the Hebrew plural for cherub isn’t ‘cherubs’, it’s ‘cherubim’; the plural for another kind of angel - seraph, isn’t seraphs, but ‘seraphim’. So the plural of ‘Pur’ isn’t ‘purs’, it’s ‘PURIM’.

So Haman casts lots to get the ‘direction of the gods’ and find the very best day to exterminate the Jewish race. In the entire OT, the word ‘Pur’ only shows up here in the book of Esther. But there is a natural Hebrew word for ‘lot’ that shows up throughout the Old Testament. Shows up in places like:

- “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.” Haman was casting lots to determine the will of the ‘gods’. The Israelites used to cast lots too - but when they did it, they were seeking the will of Yahweh - the one, true God. That’s what Joshua did. Remember when the God had led his people through the wilderness and then across the Jordan river into the land He had promised them so long ago. He didn’t just lead them into the land, He also went before them in battle and down came the walls of Jericho and city after city feel before the People of GOd. When it came time to divide the Promised land among the 12 tribes - tells us that Joshua called the people together and said, “… you shall describe the land in seven division and bring the description here to me. And I will cast lots for you here before the LORD our God.” Casting the lots was his way of seeking God’s direction.

So the people of God in the Old Testament knew what it meant to seek God’s direction by casting lots. But they had another meaning for lots - in fact our English term ‘lot’ has a very close range of meaning as the Hebrew word. We use it to point to chance selections - many people - too many people, play the ‘LOTtery’ - where somebody, by chance, wins big money … and the rest of people have just thrown away their hard-earned money for nothing.

But ‘LOT’ has another meaning in both English and Hebrew: We talk about ‘my LOT in life’. What we mean when we say that is that this is where my life has ended up, due to the ‘luck of the draw’ - forces outside of my control have put me right here - and it’s just my lot - to accept.

That’s the way David uses the word in , ‘The LORD is my chosen portion and cup; you hold my lot. (6) The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.”

This is David, the King of Israel, who recognizes that he may be ruler over God’s people, He may be a great warrior - - but the destiny of God’s people doesn’t rest in his successes or failures - the destiny of Israel is secure because and only because GOD is on the throne, holding His people and their future, firmly in His grip.

So the name of the feast, Purim, really is a double-entendre - it has 2 meanings - first, that the destiny of God’s people will not be determined by Haman’s casting lots to get advice from his gods - only the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob determines what number shows up on the lot … and only He determines the circumstances of His people.

Did you know that, to this day, at the Feast of Purim, they read from the scrolls of Esther … (but they fold the scroll up to read like a letter - since there are so many letters going out in this book) and the children come to the celebration, dressed in costumes - to represent the different characters in the story. While the text is being read, the atmosphere is like one of those old-fashioned audience-participation plays. Whenever Mordecai or Esther’s names are read out - everyone cheers. Whenever Haman’s name is mentioned, everyone boos and hisses and stomps their feet and they shake rattles to drown out the very sound of his name. Pastries - ‘Haman’s pockets’

All of these customs are memory triggers to remind all Jews of a time when an upside down world turned around, and to encourage them NEVER to forget that at the very time when injustice seemed to have won the day - - - when the future was sealed - and the future was death … extinction of an entire race … at that very moment - - God stepped in and what SHOULD have been a day that marks tragedy … becomes a celebration of triumph.

Do you see how the very name of this celebration is a giant ‘in your face’ to Haman! I remember back in youth days, our church youth group was in an inter-church youth and college and career softball league. One game, we were playing a much bigger church out here in the Valley and they had some tremendous players - we had developed quite a rivalry with this particular church - but it was a pretty one-sided rivalry - because they seemed to win all the time.

This one particular game, was close, but we were down, as usual, and it was the last inning - - so it looked like we were going to lose again, as usual. We had runners on base, but 2 out and up to bat for us was one of our older players … didn’t look very athletic at all - a little heavy, couldn’t run very fast - and he had been getting some snide comments - trash talk from some of the players on the other team - - sometimes church leagues in sport look anything BUT Christian. The pitcher on the other team was very good too. Pitch came and he took a strike … more trash talk. Then the next pitch - watched it go by … more trash talk.

One more pitch came - - and he smashed it with his bat - - sent the ball way out into right field, right over the fielder’s head -

… he rounded third base, slowed down his pace, and jogged across home plate - the winning run for our team - then turned to the opposing players who had been calling into question his abilities - and said simply “In your face”. Ohh, it felt so good to be vindicated.

That was a meaningless softball game - - how much more when your very life is at stake - - that’s what the Jews are doing here at the feast of Purim - - “In your face, Haman!”

“You bring your worst at us - you seek your gods to make it as devastating and as final as it can be … but in the end, you are gone in a humiliating end … and OUR GOD HAS MADE OUR PLACE FIRM. There is ONE GOD WHO IS SOVEREIGN - AND WE BELONG TO HIM.

Don’t miss your connection to the Jews of Esther’s day - you are in the hand of your sovereign God - and that changes everything.

He’s given us a promise: “”

Chuck Swindoll tells a story recorded in a book by Vance Havner, the evangelist of the last century. It’s the story of a little town in Alabama where the major livelihood was raising cotton. One year, when it looked like there was going to be a bumper crop .... the boll weevil invaded the area, devastated the crop and destroyed the economy of that little town.

Farmers don’t give up easily though. These particular farmers were determined to not just sit back and move into the poorhouse. One man got the idea of planting peanuts instead of cotton - since Boll weevils don’t like peanuts. Another farmer decided to plant yet another kind of crop and others followed suit with their own ideas. Before long, bumper crops of peanuts and other produce were growing in the place of cotton - and the economy of the town became stronger and stronger.

The town later became known as Enterprise, Alabama. And do you know what the people of that town did? They built a monument to the boll weevil!

This is what Vance Havner said in applying the story:

“All things work together for good” to the Christian - even our boll weevil experiences. Sometimes we settle into a humdrum routine as monotonous as growing cotton year after year. Then God sends the boll weevil; He jolts us out of our groove, and we must find new ways to live. FInancial reverses, great bereavement, physical infirmity, loss of position - how many have been driven by trouble to be better husbandmen and to bring forth far finer fruit from their souls! The best thing that ever happened to some us was the coming of our ‘boll weevil.’ Without that we might still have been a ‘cotton sharecropper’.

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It may seem like these verses about Esther are unnecessary … redundant. I mean, Mordecai has already established the new feast - why do we need Esther’s command now?!

This isn’t redundant at all - this is a wrapping up of the loose ends - Mordecai has authority, but he isn’t royalty. Here comes Esther, the Queen of Persia - the Queen, who started out life as an orphan, foreign Jewish girl in the mighty capital city of the Empire … now the Queen, sitting in the palace … the king is nowhere to be found, but God has put his child Esther, in this place, for such a time as this … she’s a reminder of the silent faithfulness of God.

Do you see why the Jews in the Nazi death camps treasured the book of Esther? It promised that no matter what it looks like right now - no matter Hitler’s attempts to annihilate them - this book promised their survival .... they could have hope looking forward … by looking backward and seeing what God has already done!

The significance of Purim and the message of Esther wasn’t lost on the Nazis - they would kill on the spot any Jew in the prison camps who had a copy of the book. But the captive Jews wrote copies of it from memory. Here is assurance and hope that they and NOT their enemy - - will triumph.

THE CHRISTIAN HOPE:

Be Comforted:

John Flavel: “HE who observes providence will never be long without a providence to observe”. If you thoughtfully trace God’s fingerprints throughout your life .... you will run out of time to take it all in. God’s fingerprints are everywhere over your life, Christian.

Spurgeon: “It seems a very small thing whether we sleep tonight or toss and turn restlessly on our beds. But God will be in our rest, or in our wakefulness. We know not what his purpose may be, but His hand will be in it. Neither does any man sleep or wake, but according to the decree of the Lord.”