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.

Ezra 10:1 Tossing Away One Last Chance

While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites- men, women and children- gathered around him. They too wept bitterly. Then Shecaniah said to Ezra, "We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel."

Ezra's party got to Jerusalem 80 years after the first exiles had returned. Yet within four months the Jewish leaders were asking this latecomer for advice on the most sensitive matters. They told Ezra that Israelites were marrying their idolatrous neighbors. At the news, Ezra completely lost his composure, tore his clothes and sat down stunned. (9:3) His grief-filled prayer of repentance inspired a large crowd to join him in bitter weeping. Then and there they resolved to break up the marriages. The women and children were to be sent away. Ezra, a practical man even in his emotional condition, put the machinery into operation and saw it done.

Why did Ezra react so negatively to these marriages? How could he allow children to be sent away from their fathers, families splits? Some people see proof that he was racially oriented, bound to exclude non-Jews from Israel. But, racial purity was not Ezra's worry. Non-Jews like Rahab and Ruth, who had converted to Judaism, had long been accepted into Israel. Ezra 6:21 suggests that outsiders who sought the Lord were still welcomed. Ezra's concern was that intermarriage represented a compromised faith that threatened the future existence of Israel.

Marriage in those days was more than a personal matter. It created a political and religious alliance between two families. These mixed marriages were tying Israelites to other faiths- for Israel's neighbors worshiped idols, an act God hated. Ezra knew that his God must hold the only place in his people's hearts. They must be a special people with a sense of their unique destiny. The law told them not to intermarry (Exodus 34:15-16, Deuteronomy 7:3-6). However, Ezra's prayer shows that petty technicalities of the law were far from his mind. His concerns involved the heart. He saw his people falling into the same pattern of compromise that he led God to give them up to the Babylonians years before. Had they learned nothing from their long exile? They were tossing away one last remarkable chance to start over.

Life Question: Ezra saw intermarriage as a compromise in people's faith. Do you think that this is still a relevant fear in today's society?

I've often thought how I would react if one of my kids ended up dating/ marrying someone outside the Christian faith. It certainly wouldn't appear to be very Christ-like to shun a member of your family or their significant other because they may not share the same faith as yours, but at the same time it would be awfully difficult to see someone whom I love get themselves into a situation that might jeopardize their relationship with Christ. I suppose the correct response would simply be a genuine prayer to Christ that my kids will choose the correct paths in life.

Ezra 3: Home at Last

No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise.

1 Chronicles opens with the most complete genealogical record in the Bible, then adds many incidents from the life of David (often the same as those in 2 Samuel). Likewise- and often paralleling the books of Kings, 2 Chronicles records the history of the rulers of Judah, emphasizing the good kings yet ending with the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity.

For more than half a century Jewish exiles, among them the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel, have lived as captives in Babylon. Some Jews, like Daniel, prosper in the foreign land; still, no true Israelite ever feels at total peace there. Always a longing gnaws inside, a longing for home and for the temple of God. Some of the psalms poignantly express this longing: "May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy" (Psalm 137:6).

In keeping with their policy of religious tolerance, the Persian rulers who conquered Babylon granted permission for the first wave of Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem. The Book of Ezra tells their story. The sight that greets the returning exiles in Jerusalem saddens their hearts. City walls have been torn down, few buildings are left intact and the temple of God is a mound of rubble.

As chapter 3 relates, the settlers go to work at once, setting temple reconstruction as their highest priority. They possess both energy and resources, since the Persians have even given back the pilfered silver and gold temple articles. When the Jews lay the foundation, they spontaneously shout in praise and celebration.

Yet the shouts of joy mingle with loud cries of sorrow. The older returnees, those who remember Solomon's temple in all its splendor, weep at the difference between what once was and what now is. After all, they had to obtain permission from a foreign government just to rebuild, and they have regained only a tiny portion of their former territory. They have fallen far from the glory days of David and Solomon.

Life Question: Have you ever lost anything in life, only to regain it at a much later date but realize that it just wasn't the same?

I've tried to rekindle a friendship of mine from years ago. I was the best of friends with a buddy who was my best man in my first marriage, but for a number of reasons, our friendship deteriorated during my divorce. A few years ago, we contacted one another and have met up a few times now. But, at least to date, we're not nearly as close as we were during college. I guess the lesson here is that- unlike a tangible object (like money or some other worldly possession) friendships and relationships should never be taken for granted. I'm guessing the Israelites had a similar feeling when they finally were able to escape the clutches of the Babylonians and return to Jerusalem...their relationship with God probably just didn't feel the same way as it did during the time of David and Solomon's reign.

2 Kings 25: The Bitter End

He set fire to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down. The whole Babylonian army, under the commander of the imperial guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

For a very long time, the kingdom of Judah had been sliding downhill. Good kings like Hezekiah and Josiah managed to stop the decline temporarily, but as soon as they passed from the scene, immorality and idolatry surged back. Prophets warned again and again of God's judgment, but few heeded them.

Fittingly, Judah endured its bitter end under the weak leadership of Zedekiah, a puppet king put on the throne by Judah's captor, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. Zedekiah personified all that was wrong with Judah. He took an oath of loyalty to Babylon, then spent his eleven-year reign cheating on it.

The great prophet Jeremiah lived during this same time, offering a strong counterpoint to Zedekiah's weakness. Zedekiah could never make up his mind whether to treat Jeremiah as a prophet of truth or as a trouble-making traitor. When Jeremiah warned against Zedekiah's policies, the king had him beaten and imprisoned. At the same time, he kept bringing Jeremiah in for secret consultations, usually ignoring his advice.

Judah paid cruelly for Zedekiah's poor leadership (24:18-20). Responding to his rebellion, the Babylonians put Jerusalem under an eighteen-month siege, then utterly wrecked the city. They treated Zedekiah as a traitor, executing his sons while he watched, then putting out his eyes so that their deaths would be his last visual memory. Judah's final king was led off to Babylon, blind and in chains. Survivors too were taken away in what became known as the Babylonian captivity, a tragic moment in Jewish history.

Life Questions: Under pressure, are you confident or indecisive? What do you need to gain confidence?

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I'd like to think that I'm fairly confident when met with adversity/ personal challenges. I know that it is something that you tend to improve upon the older you get. I can remember many instances while in high school and college where inaction drove me towards failure and poor decision making. Teaching my kids to exude confidence in everything that they do is a personal goal of mine. Christ certainly provided us with the finest example of showing confidence and trust in his Father while he was being led away to Calvary.