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Nehemiah 10:1-39 All the people ratified the covenant and committed themselves anew to keeping the Law. They also promised not to allow intermarriage with non-Jews and to provide material support for the priests. It is incumbent upon the faithful to provide material support for the ministers of the Church. (CCC 2122)
Esther 15:1-16 [Greek] Esther completed her days of mourning, re-adorned herself as queen, and went to the king. Ahasuerus offered her his golden scepter, which was a sign of the king’s favor. Esther appeared more vulnerable and had fainting spells before the king. Initially in a foul mood, Ahasuerus’s disposition, through divine intervention, quickly changed to one of compassion. In this version as well, it was reported that Ahasuerus offered Esther the scepter. This passage is an expansion of the Hebrew text (5:1-2): On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, opposite the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne inside the palace opposite the entrance to the palace; and when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she found favor in his sight and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the top of the scepter.
Ch 5:3-14 Esther invited the king and Haman to a dinner party, which pleased Haman. Haman and his wife devised a plot to have Mordecai killed.
Ch 6:1-14 Reminded of Mordecai’s exposure of the plot against him, Ahasuerus decided that Mordecai had not been properly honored for his deed. When Haman appeared and suggested that the king honor his most favored member of the court, thinking of himself, he was appalled and humiliated to have to carry out the pop and ceremony in honor of Mordecai. Haman’s own wife and advisors warned him that he would not prevail over Mordecai. This advice implies a tacit recognition of the power of the God of Israel.
Ch 7:1-19 Esther’s dinner party went just as she had planned: She petitioned the king to spare the Jews and exposed the insidious cruelty of Haman. In a bit of irony, Haman was hanged on the very gallows he had built for Mordecai’s execution.
Proverbs 21:13 We see this proverb at play in Christ’s parable of Lazarus, the beggar spurned by the rich man, who was comforted in the afterlife while the wealthy man suffered eternal torment (cf. Lk 16:19-31). (CCC 1021, 2463)
(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)
We are only 4 short days till the end of The Return Era
Then we will go on a little Maccabean Revolt
We are trucking right along in The Book of Nehemiah
Yesterday we had this great prayer in Nehemiah Ch 9 (Yes, Fr. Mike said Ezra Ch 9 but just go with me here 😉)
Ezra prayed recounting the story
“Here is all the goodness you have done, Lord. Here are our sins. But we renew this, our desire to repent and turn back to you.”
And at the end of Nehemiah Ch 9 it says, “Because of all this we make a firm covenant and write it, and our princes, our Levites, and our priests set their seal to it.”
Nehemiah Ch 10 is the names of all the people who signed this (You better memorize them all, there will be an exam at the end 😉)
Something that is really POWERFUL and BEAUTIFUL is here
Remember, in the Divided Kingdom, there was SO MUCH IDOLATRY
There was SO MUCH FALSENESS when it came to how quickly the people of Israel turned their back on God, after they were brought into Covenant with God
They basically said, “We’ve inherited this, but we might as well just turn to the local gods. We might as well just turn to the gods of our neighbors. We might as well just live like everyone else.”
AND YET…
Here in Nehemiah Ch 10 as they are signing this Covenant, there is this COLLECTIVE DECISION
“WE ARE GOING TO BE FAITHFUL TO THIS.”
“WE ARE GOING TO LIVE UP TO THIS.”
“WE ARE CHOOSING NOT IDOLATRY.”
“WE ARE CHOOSING NOT OTHER FOREIGN GODS.”
“WE ARE CHOOSING TO BELONG TO THE LORD, OUR GOD.”
NOT ONLY THAT…
Every real relationship has REAL RIGHTS
Here we are, God’s People
BUT…
ALSO REAL RESPONSIBILITIES
The People of Israel here are taking upon themselves THE REAL RESPONSIBILITIES
“Here is how we are going to have to live.”
“Here is how we are going to bring our sacrifices to the Temple.”
“Here is how we are going to bring the tithes…”
“Here is how we are going to bring our first born…”
“Here is how we are going to bring our first fruits…”
ALL OF THESE PIECES
They are voluntarily taking upon themselves
Maybe if you were raised in the Church and at some point you just walked away
Maybe you just drifted away
Maybe it didn’t mean anything to you
After all, it was your parents’ faith
Or it was your grandparents’ faith
BUT…
Maybe if you were BROUGHT BACK, all of the things that your grandparents told you to do, all the things your parents told you to do, all of a sudden, THAT IS WHAT YOU WANTED TO DO!! (I 100% AGREE WITH THIS!! THIS IS ME!! 🤯🤯🤯)
“Ok, however God is asking me to live, THAT is how I am going to live.” BECAUSE YOU ACTUALLY ENCOUNTERED GOD YOURSELF!! (YES!! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED!! YES!! 🤯🤯🤯)
There is something of a REVIVAL and CONVERSION that is happening here in The Book of Nehemiah
It started back when Ezra the scribe stood up and began to read the books of the Law
People are saying, “Ok, how has God asked us to live? Let us live THAT WAY. Who is God? He is good, He is gracious, He is loving, He is merciful. And we belong to him?! Ok well let’s LIVE like we BELONG TO HIM.”
THIS IS A REAL TURNING POINT IN THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL!
INCREDIBLE!!
We only have three days left in Nehemiah and Esther then we have The Book of the Prophet Malachi
And then we get to the end of The Return
We begin the Maccabean Revolt with 1 and 2 Maccabees, which many of us have not read
We are also reading The Book of Sirach, which many of us have not read
We also are reading The Book of Wisdom, which many of us have never read
BUT THESE BOOKS ARE…
PHE..
NOM…
EN…
AL!!!!
Onward to Esther
We love the fact that in Esther Ch 15, which is part of the Deuterocanonical passage
It is an expansion of the Hebrew text of Ch 5:1-2
It talks about how Esther was TERRIFIED
It also describes how as Esther comes to the palace of the king, into the presence of the king,
Esther 15:6-7 [Greek], “And he was most terrifying. Lifting his face, flushed with splendor, he looked at her with fierce anger.”
His initial response was not happiness to see his beautiful queen
His initial response was FIERCE ANGER
IN FACT…
It was not even Esther’s elegance, grace, beauty, or strength that changed the king
Yes, her COURAGE and FAITH IN THE LORD brought her to this place
BUT...
Esther 15:7-8 [Greek], “And the queen faltered, and turned pale and faint, and collapsed upon the head of the maid who went before her. Then God changed the spirit of the king to gentleness, and in alarm he sprang from his throne and took her in his arms until she came to herself.”
You’ve seen this before
Maybe you’ve done this before
Where you saw a situation with a person going on and your response was negative, maybe like Ahasuerus, looking at her with fierce anger
And then you saw the WEAKNESS of the person
The weakness does something to your heart that DOUSES THE ANGER and MELTS THE HARDNESS OF YOUR HEART
And then you realize, “Wait a second. I need to help this person.”
It was not Queen Esther’s beauty that god the king’s attention
Although she was filled with beauty
It was not Queen Esther’s grace that got the king’s attention
Although she was filled with grace
IT WAS HER WEAKNESS!!
Yes, she is filled with courage and faith
BUT…
The king saw weakness
And this significantly broken man, Ahasuerus, would not have been moved by grace or beauty
He would not have been moved by how gorgeous Queen Esther was
Because he had a huge harem of women
That’s not something that would pull on his HEART
BUT…
THE LORD KNEW WHAT WOULD PULL ON HIS HEART!!
He allowed Esther to be weak, to falter, and fall in the king’s presence, knowing that would CHANGE KING AHASUERUS’S HEART!!
Isn’t that interesting? 🤔🤓
So often we think, “No, I’ve gotta be the best.”
“I’ve gotta be perfect.”
“I’ve gotta be good.”
“I’ve gotta be holy.”
“I’ve gotta be perfect.”
“I’ve gotta be strong.”
“I’ve gotta have the exact right words.”
“I’ve gotta do the exact right thing.”
And we forget sometimes that God not only WORKS IN OUR WEAKNESS
GOD WANTS TO WORK IN OUR WEAKNESS!!
There is something SO POWERFUL about God WANTING TO WORK WITH OUR WEAKNESS that we need to be reminded of today
It was NOT the strength
It was NOT the grace
It was NOT the beauty
That melted King Ahasuerus’s heart
Keep in mind, Esther was COURAGEOUS
Esther was FULL OF FAITH
Esther was FILLED WITH BEAUTY
Esther was FULL OF GRACE
BUT…
It’s the fact that God WANTS TO WORK WITH OUR WEAKNESS that he was able to work a MIRACLE in this EVIL KING’S HEART
This evil king’s heart was moved by WEAKNESS
IT DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE
BUT…
That is how we are
It gives us solace and encouragement that God WANTS TO WORK WITH OUR WEAKNESS
So in our WEAKNESS we PRAY
In our STRENGTH we PRAY
In our FAITH we PRAY
COURAGEOUSLY WE PRAY TODAY
PRAY FOR FR. MIKE
PRAY FOR EACH OTHER
Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven we give you praise and glory. Thank you so much. Father, just we ask that you please, in the name of your Son Jesus Christ this day, receive our thanks. Receive our praise. Receive the glory and honor that is yours. Thank you for bringing us once again to a new day. And thank you for your Word. Thank you for speaking to us and thank you for calling us to renew our relationship with you, to renew the Covenant that you established in the blood of your Son, Jesus Christ. In His name, we pray. Amen.”
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