Day 280: The People of the Covenant

Esther 9:1-19 On the appointed day, the Jews joined forces and defended themselves against their attackers, killing many. They took no plunder, thus avoiding the sin of Saul in his fight against Agag that cost him his throne (cf. 1 Sm 15). Although killing another person is prohibited by the Fifth Commandment, the legitimate self-defense that may even result in the death of an opponent can be morally justified. (CCC 2263-2265)

Ch 9:20-32 Mordecai and Esther declared that the days of the edict should be commemorated each year as the Feast of Purim, a time for celebration and almsgiving. The name comes from the plural form of the Babylonian term pur, which means “lot,” since Haman had drawn lots to determine the date of the planned slaughter of the Jews. 

Ch 10:1-3 [Hebrew], 4-13 [Greek] An epilogue has Mordecai himself interpreting the dream that opens this book. The tiny spring was Esther, who in the end saved the Jewish people from destruction; the dragons were Haman and Mordecai, whose conflict resulted in much noise and confusion; “every nation” referred to those set on destroying the Jewish race. Israel, the “righteous nation,” experienced the gloom, distress, and tumult at the news of the first edict but had been spared because they turned to God in prayer and fasting. 

Ch 11:1 [Greek] The letter establishing Purim was circulated not only in Persia but also in Jerusalem and among the dispersed Jews still living in Egypt. 

(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)

• We concluded The Book of Esther today, so let’s go in reverse

• The Feast of Purim continues to be celebrated today

• There are a lot of customs associated with Purim

• Here is a weak analogy: It’s like Christmas, or even All Hallow’s Eve

• Christmas is CLEARLY about the Birth of Jesus 

• The reason we give gifts is because of the three magi who brought gifts to Baby Jesus

• Now it is a bit distorted to just being a holiday to give gifts, make snowmen, and drink eggnog, and getting run over by a reindeer walking home from our house on Christmas Eve 😉

• All Hallow’s Eve is the day before All Saints Day

• It’s also known as Halloween

• In our world, in different cultures, it can take on a different form

• So rather than people commemorating the saints, there is this idea that evil spirits roam around the world around that time so we put jack-o-lanterns in front of our houses to ward off the blah blah blah, you know, etc.

• So what starts off as something GOOD kind of gets distorted even though that SEED of goodness is still there

• Purim has not been as distorted as Christmas or Halloween

• But there are a lot of customs associated with

• It is still celebrated by the Jewish people around the world

• Go research all the customs for yourself and get you some knowledge

• It’s really fascinating

• You can imagine the number of Jewish people who looked to the Book of Esther

• Especially over the last 2,000 years

• This is 500 years plus before the time of Jesus

• You imagine that there were many Jews who would look to the number of times when nations of the world, or kingdoms of the world, sought to eliminate Jews from the face of the earth

• It’s not a stretch to point out the Holocaust during WWII

• We should actually call it the SHOAH which means CALAMITY

• Because a HOLOCAUST is a full burnt offering as sacrifice to God

• There are many Jews who do not like the term “holocaust” when describing the calamity of WWII because of the fact that in Scripture, holocaust is a GOOD THING

• Holocaust is a completely burnt offering to the Lord

• So SHOAH is the preferred term in many circles (Not only do we get Scripture lessons here in The Bible in a Year, we also get cultural education!! 😉)

• We can imagine how many Jews would look to the story of Queen Esther

• “Yeah, this is the same story. Here we are, once again back at this place where we are hated because we belong to the Lord God Himself.”

• Of course, at the end of THIS story in Esther Ch 9, the Jews were able to take vengeance over those who sought to kill them

• It’s interesting though, because even in the midst of this…

• GOSH!!

• How many times have we read stories in the Old Testament where there is so much violence, killing, death, and destruction

• It can give us pause in many ways

• In the Book of Esther, even while the Jews took vengeance by defending themselves

• It reveals that they also showed RESTRAINT

• They slew three hundred men in Susa

• They slew five hundred men the day before

• They slew around seventy-five thousand men in the surrounding villages

• BUT THEY TOOK NO PLUNDER!!

• They were willing to kill those who were willing to end their lives

• BUT THEY DID NOT PLUNDER THEM!!

• That reveals something at the CORE

• Here is the SELF-DEFENSE of the Jews on what is now the Feast of Purim

• BUT…

• They did not go beyond merely defending themselves

• They did not go beyond merely fighting back, taking justice, or taking vengeance

• They didn’t also plunder those that they killed

• In a broken story, in a broken world, that shows a RAY OF HOPE

• It shows a RAY OF JUSTICE

• It even shows a RAY OF MERCY

• They were given PERMISSION TO PLUNDER

• BUT THEY DID NOT PLUNDER!!

• THAT IS SIGNIFICANT!!

• Let’s go back to Nehemiah which we will finish tomorrow

• We will also read Malachi

• Where are we in the story?

• First, we have to remember where we have come from

• We started with Adam and Eve and then moved through the Patriarchs with Abraham

• God promised Abram/Abraham that he would have a kingdom, that he would be the father of so many children as numerous as the stars in the sky and as numerous as the sand in the seashore

• He would have land

• As the generations grew we have Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

• Then we have Joseph who goes to Egypt 

• They all go to Egypt and get enslaved

• They get freed by God through Moses and Aaron

• The covenant then gets established in the Tabernacle in the wilderness

• They finally cross the Promised Land

• Then we have the conquest of Joshua

• Then we have the Book of Judges (You know, I’m listening to this at 0.5 x and Fr. Mike is speaking incredibly fast...I can’t even imagine what he sounds like at this point at 1.0x 🤣🤣 My fingers are cramping up trying to keep up with him)

• Ok back to the lecture at hand....where were we 🤔🤔🤔

• Because they don't have a king and they were doing what was right in their own eyes

• Then we have Samuel who anoints King Saul

• After King Saul is King David and then King Solomon

• THIS WHOLE STORY

• Then we have the Divided Kingdom 

• And then the Assyrians come in

• And then the Babylonians come in

• And then the Persians come in

• AND NOW HERE THEY ARE AND THEY ARE BACK IN THE HOLY LAND (WHEW!!! I’m out of breath keeping up now 🤪)

• Here are Nehemiah, Ezra, and Zerubbabel 

• The day after tomorrow, we will have Greeks coming in during the Maccabean Revolt

• We realize that God has STILL MADE A PROMISE

• He promised that he would make the descendants of Abraham a GREAT NATION

• BUT…

• You can imagine now that for HUNDREDS OF YEARS, the kingdom has been DIVIDED

• The kingdom has been ANNIHILATED

• For seventy years, the people of God have been exiled

• They were under the rule of other nations like the Babylonians and the Medo-Persian Empire

• And starting day after tomorrow, the Greeks

• And then the Romans

• So we think, “God, how are you going to set them free? How are you going to fulfill these promises that you made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?”

• You can imagine how the waiting would be SO DIFFICULT

• “Because how in the world are you going to do this, God? How are you going to make things right? How in the world are you going to bring the Kingdom to this earth?”

• Of course, we know the answer (Hint: He walked on water, turned water into wine, healed the sick, you know….😉)

• BUT…

• It is so good for us in this moment to PAUSE

• And to realize HERE IS HOW FAR WE HAVE COME FOR THE LAST 280 DAYS

• BUT…

• Here is how far the Jewish people have come for almost 2000 years!!

• WAITING

• TRUSTING

• WALKING

• WORKING

• WORSHIPING

• DOING THIS ALL IN FAITH

• NOT KNOWING HOW GOD IS GOING TO DO IT

• BUT KNOWING THAT GOD IS GOING TO DO IT

• THAT IS SO IMPORTANT FOR US!!

• Because in our lives, we don’t know HOW God is going to be with us

• We don’t know HOW God is going to redeem us

• We don’t know HOW God is going to save us

• BUT…

• We do know that God IS going to save us

• We do know that God IS going to redeem us

• We do know that God IS going to fight for us

• WE HAVE FAITH BECAUSE OF OUR ANCESTORS

• As Christians, we are grafted onto the tree of the People of the Covenant, the Jewish people

• We know that God has been faithful to them and He is faithful still

• And we know that God will be faithful to US AS WELL and HE IS FAITHFUL TO US STILL

• IN THE MEANTIME…

• PRAY FOR FR. MIKE

• PRAY FOR EACH OTHER

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven we give you praise. We thank you so much for your Word. Thank you so much for the history, the stories of your Presence, and your action among the people that you have chosen, the people that you love, the people that you have covenanted yourself with. We ask you to please send your Holy Spirit upon us in our lives so that we can know that you have chosen us, that you fight for us, and that you have covenanted yourself to us and us to you. Help us to always live as your children, because you always will be our Father in time and in Eternity. We thank you and we praise you in Jesus’ name. Amen.”