Esther 2: Uncovering a Conspiracy
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Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18 And the king gave a great banquet, Esther's banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality.
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Ezra and Nehemiah, the books preceding Esther, tell the inspiring story of Jews returning to Jerusalem after years of captivity. Only 50,000 Jews came back tot heir plundered land, however. Many more- among them Mordecai’s family- stayed behind, and some of these prospered quite well. The story of Esther takes place in that foreign setting, ruled by the Persian Empire.

His family had come to Persia as virtual slaves, captives of Jerusalem’s last-stand against the Babylonians. Yet even in enemy territory, Mordecai succeeded in business. His relative, Esther, found more success; she was selected from all the beautiful women in the land as King Zerxes’ queen. With his connections inside the palace, Mordecai probably had high ambitions. He would have to hide his background, though, and he strongly advised Esther to keep her Jewish heritage a secret as well.

Yet when a crisis came, Mordecai stood tall, showing extraordinary courage. The king had named the evil Haman his second-in-command, and everyone bowed before him- everyone except Mordecai, who stayed on his feet. His motive? Perhaps he knew of Haman’s character and of his hatred for Jews.

When Haman set out to annihilate all Jews in the empire, Mordecai urged Esther to “come out” completely, revealing her race even at the risk of her life. Clearly, loyalty to their people came before success or safety. Mordecai’s stand and Esther’s courage led to a dramatic turnaround for the whole community of Jewish exiles. King Xerxes rewarded Mordecai with a high position in his court. More importantly, his own community honored him “because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews” (10:3)

The feast of Purim, still celebrated by Jews today, commemorates these amazing events. Against history’s dark background of anti-Semitism, Mordecai’s triumph shines.

Life Question: Whom do you speak up for?

I’ve always tried to reach out to the group of kids who enter Hoban each year who have never really participated in any kind of organized sport/ co curricular. These are the kids who can flounder through their first year, making very few friends and at times end up leaving the school because they never feel connected to the mainstream of the student body. More often than not, it just takes a friendly invitation to help build a young person’s confidence and self esteem in assimilating themselves to the other 900 kids in the building.

Nehemiah 9: The Power of the Word

They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the LORD their God.

For all the splendor of the temple, it had become a meaningless symbol to most Jews. They had even put idols in it. God had finally allowed the Babylonians to burn the temple down. After the exile the Jews had made rebuilding the temple their first priority. But it was no longer an automatic insurance policy. They could never again see the building as a substitute for real devotion to God.

Their leaders? Not one king, over hundreds of years, had come close to matching God’s ideal. Most kings had been scoundrels- descendants of David in name only. After the exile, Israel had no king of its own. The Israelites were under the thumb of a Persian, who was determined to keep all power himself.

And so, they turned to another source of power: the Word of God. The great gathering of chapter 8 stands in contrast to temples and kings. The splendor of jewels and crowns is replaced by a single man atop a wooden platform, reading from a simple scroll. Yet the words he reads, carefully explained to all, show their power in the way they affect those who hear them. The people are moved to praise God, to weep over their sins, to change their behavior, and to make renewed promises to God.

From this time on, the Jews were known as the people of the Book. They lived under foreign domination, so their political leadership became secondary. Their temple, while important, was never again a guarantee of God’s presence. Increasingly they studied God’s law and tried to obey it. A new kind of leader emerged, following Ezra- the scribe, a student of Scripture. The nation we see at the end of Nehemiah looks very much like the nation we find, after 400 years of Scriptural silence, when Jesus appears. Israelites found their unique strength neither in government nor in worship rituals, but in reverence for God’s written Word.

Life Question: Can you point to ways in which God’s Word has been powerful in your life? How has it changed you?

John 3:16 pretty much summarizes the entire New Testament for me. For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only Son; and whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life. This is such a powerful little sentence, but- as a Dad- I simply can’t fathom what it would be like to hand over one of my own kids knowing that a painful and agonizing death would be a certainty. Amazing love…

Nehemiah 8: No Time for Tears

Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.

Nehemiah alone is impressive, but when paired with Ezra, he is downright indomitable. The two make a perfect combination. Nehemiah, emboldened by good political connections, inspires others with his hands-on management style and his fearless optimism. Ezra leads more by moral force than by personality. He can trace his priestly lineage all the way back to Moses’ brother Aaron, and he seems singularly determined to restore integrity to that office.

The action in chapter 8 takes place after Nehemiah has completed the arduous task of repairing the wall. Safe at last from their enemies, the Jews gather together in hopes of regaining some sense of national identify. As their spiritual leader, Ezra addresses the huge crowd. He stands on a platform and begins to read from a document nearly 1000 years old, the scroll that contains the Israelites’ original covenant with God.

As Ezra reads the ancient words, weeping spreads through the multitude. The Bible does not explain the reason for their tears. Are the people feeling guilt over their long history of breaking the covenant? Or are they feeling nostalgia over the favored days when Israel had full independence? Whatever the reason, this is no time for tears.

People sometimes think of the Old Testament as gloomy. In verses 9-12, however, Israel’s leaders urge the people to stop weeping. Nehemiah and Ezra send out orders to prepare for a huge feast and celebration. Sadness, they say, does not suit a sacred day. Indeed, God wants joy, not mourning. The reading of the law leads to an eight-day celebration and camp out. God’s chosen people are being rebuilt, just as surely as the stone walls of Jerusalem have been.

Life Question: How important is the Bible in your life? Does it ever produce a powerful emotional effect (like the one seen in Nehemiah 8) in you?

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I can honestly say that for too many years, I never saw the relevance or value of reading parts of the Bible, especially the Old Testament. I had always assumed that these books were an outdated message for folks living in the modern day. But, having taken the time this past year to really study God’s chosen people, it’s pretty evident that they endured similar turmoil’s and mistakes that we do today. The names and locations are different, but in reality…the lessons are the same: God loves us unconditionally, and we need to live our lives in such a way to show honor to Him who has granted us His grace and given us His Son.

Nehemiah 2: Building up the Wall

The king said to me, "What is it you want?" Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5 and I answered the king, "If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it."

Decades after returning from exile, the Jews have a temple in Jerusaelm but very little else. The Holy City remains sparsely occupied, mainly because most people prefer to live in outlying villages. Indeed, with all the intermarriage and mixing with foreigners, the Jews' cultural and religious heritage is on the verge of slipping away.

What can stop the downhill slide? One man, a Jewish exile who until this point has stayed behind in Babylon, has an idea. Like Daniel before him, Nehemiah has risen in the ranks of a foreign government (Persia) and is prospering even as a foreigner. When he hears the dismaying reports from Jerusalem, however, he feels compeeled to act. He obtains the king's permission to lead an expedition there with the goal of rebuilding the city's walls.

Now strictly speaking, Nehemiah is not a prophet, though he is certainly a man of prayer. In an appearance before the king, he shoots an "arrow prayer" to God, silently asking for help in the middle of a crucial conversation (2:4). Improvising as he goes, Nehemiah meets each new challenge with a combination of business savvy, courage and dependence on God. He mobilizes work crews, fights off opposition, reforms the court system, purifies religious practices and, when necessary, rallies the troops with stirring speeches. And he does all this while on leave from his responsibilities as statesman in the Persian court.

Life Question: For the Israelites, a wall was imperative to keep the faith in tact. Should more churches today use "a wall" to assure that its members are not tempted to stray?

I think that "a wall" carries so many negative conotatations- primarily ones of exclusiveness and arrogance. Holy Communion was a big stumbling block for me when I first left the Catholic Church. For years, I had been taught that it was a sacred sacrament reserved only for Catholics who had made their First Communion as a child. It was not an arbitrary ritural that was to be shared with other Protestant Christians. Obviously, our church (the Chapel) has a whole different outlook on this topic, and it took me quite a while- along with a number of conversations with some of our pastors- to knock down this wall and embrace the idea that communion was intended for the entire community of Christ believers.