Wake Up!

Lately I've been studying Esther. Easy to do with a guided study, that's for sure. But I have really been challenged to think more tonight about what I've read. It has been eye-opening for me. I'm not far into the book and yet I want to just devour the words. I feel like I can't get enough of it and I am anxious to keep reading but just like a yummy meal, I don't want it to end, I want to savor every bite.

God appointed Esther as queen for an exact reason, one she readily did not understand. She didn't know why favor had been granted to her by King Xerxes, but as a reader and an outsider, it is easier to see it just wasn't the king's favor, it was the Lord's.

Haman, who was given a "seat of honor higher than all the other nobles," took a disliking to Mordecai, a Jew, who refused to bow to Haman, and scripture doesn't say why Mordecai refused to bow to Haman. But for whatever reason, Mordecai chose to disobey even the king's command. Mordecai sat at the king's gate, a position that signified a governmental employee or better said a person who was the king's eyes and ears. Each time Haman thought of Mordecai's refusal to pay him honor, his anger grew. It consumed him so much that he decided that not only did Mordecai need to pay for his "disobedience" but so did Mordecai's people, the Jews.

Haman cleverly approached the king and in his cunning way asked the king's permission to destroy this people. "There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey the king's laws; it is not in the king's best interest to tolerate them. If is pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them..." (Esther 3:8-9a) Were they a threat? Probably not. They were "dispersed and scattered" throughout the king's provinces. Haman was crafting lies to fulfill his own agenda.

So the king handed his signet ring to Haman to create a decree that would become law and could not be revoked. Haman's decree was to kill, destroy and annihilate all Jews.

When the edict went out, the King and Haman toasted themselves with a drink. Did the King understand what Haman had done? Did he know the implications of the decree that was just given?

The Jews were in turmoil. They mourned, wailed, fasted and lay in sackcloth and ashes as a symbol to others that they were as good as dead. Sackcloth and ashes resembled the dead. The Jews had assimilated so much into this Persian culture that they were unrecognizable as God's people. Although they'd been given the choice to return home after their exile, many Jews chose to stay in the land they'd been exiled to. They'd so taken on the culture of their day that many didn't even look Jewish. I'm sure to their neighbor they didn't even seem Jewish, except when they celebrated Passover. That's what they were doing when they received the decree from the King. Celebrating God's deliverance on this day must have seemed like a slap in the face.

Maybe that's what the decree would do for them.

That slap woke them up. They began to see how they'd sinned against the Lord. They didn't look any different than the Gentiles they lived among. They'd forgotten who they were. They'd forgotten Whose they were. Even as the decree threw a death sentence at them, it also was a call to life from the Lord. He loved His people but He wanted them to wake up, to repent and return to them.

They would have been reminded of Joel's words in Joel 2:12-17

"Even now," declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning." Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing-grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, "Spare your people, O Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, "Where is their God?"

They were completely broken before the Lord. They knew they'd sinned and maybe many repented that day. God's wake up call couldn't have come at a more perfect time. As the Jews celebrated what God had done for them in the past-He was getting their attention so that He could show them what He would do for them in their future. It was more important for them to individually repent and return to Him than to allow them to continue to assimilate more into their "pagan culture."

This has significant implications for us. How have we assimilated into our American culture? Don't we represent God's people in our own communities and neighborhoods? What do we look like to our neighbors? Do we look the same as them? What about us should draw them to the Lord? Do our actions, our words, our love make us different? If not, shouldn't they?

Take to heart Joel's words. Take them seriously. God is about to shake our nation. He is stirring His people. Don't let a slap in the face wake you up. Make changes now.

"Even now," declares the Lord, "Return to me, with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning."