May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. [Psalm 19:14]
I’m sharing these daily devotions in the hope they will inspire you to read God’s word. I’m praying that they will help you find your way to a closer relationship with God. [Read More ….]
Sunset tonight begins the 14th day of Adar in the Hebrew year 5783 and the Jewish celebration of Purim (or the Festival of Lots). Lasting until sunset tomorrow night, Purim commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from annihilation in the ancient Persian Empire. Purim means “lots” in Persian and this holy day gets its name from the way the diabolical Haman determined the date to “destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jewish people—young and old, women and children—and plunder their possessions.”
I first learned about this holiday in college when my Jewish roommate received boxes of delicious hamantaschen cookies she graciously shared with me. Hidden inside the sweet flaky triangular-shaped pastries was a sweet filling of either poppy seeds, prunes, or apricots. My roomie said the cookies represented Haman’s three-cornered hat but other sources say they represent his ears or the villain’s pockets filled with money. But, I’m getting ahead of myself without telling you the whole megillah.
“The whole megillah” is an idiom taken from Yiddish that means a long convoluted story, but the Megillah (with a capital M) is a scroll of the book of Esther (which truly is a complicated story filled with plot twists). It will be read during a synagogue service tonight and again tomorrow. The Megillah is read twice to emphasize that everything is orchestrated by God! Rather than the solemnity you’d expect in a place of worship on a holy day, it’s read very dramatically. Each of the 54 times the evil Haman’s name is mentioned, the congregation raucously stomp their feet, boo, hiss, and swing greggers (ratchet noisemakers).
The mitzvoth (religious duties) of Purim are outlined in Esther 9, the first of which is the reading of the Megillah. The second duty is that of feasting and joy. Families and friends feast on hamantaschen and kreplach. Children (and sometimes adults) dress in costume as Esther, Mordecai, or silly characters. Emphasizing the importance of friendship and community, the third mitzvah is to send portions of food to one another (which explains the hamantaschen sent to my roommate). The final mitzvah is that of giving gifts to the poor. To ensure that all Jews can experience the joy of Purim, every Jew is supposed to give money or food to at least two needy people.
Whether or not you’re familiar with the story of Esther, I urge you to read it. Unique about this short book is that God’s name is never mentioned. Nevertheless, His divine attention, direction, and power are evident on every page. His fingerprints are all over every coincidence in the story—from Mordecai overhearing a plot against the king and saving the king’s life to the king’s sleepless night that caused him to learn of Mordecai’s part in his rescue; from Queen Vashti’s banishment to Esther being drafted into the king’s harem; from Esther finding favor with the harem eunuch to being chosen queen; and from the massacre’s date being determined by the throwing of lots to Haman appearing to molest Esther just as Xerxes entered the room.
The miracles in this story were disguised as natural events and, like the sweet filling in the hamantaschen cookies and the savory ground beef or chicken inside the kreplach, God’s intervention was hidden. While God’s name isn’t found in the book of Esther, His activity is! He overruled history, overturned the plans of the wicked, and saved His people. Not every miracle involves something as dramatic as the parting of the sea. Sometimes, God’s miracles can be found in an unlikely friendship, overheard words, a bout of insomnia, the page of a king’s history book, or a roll of the dice!
Although Christians don’t observe Purim, perhaps we should. Let us never forget that Haman’s decree of death to the Jews extended to all Jews in the Persian empire, which would have included those Jews who had begun returning to Judah. Had Haman succeeded in his genocide, the Davidic line would have ended and disrupted God’s plan to send His son to be born a Jew in Bethlehem. The message we find in Esther is a simple one: God’s plans cannot be thwarted.
After Esther fasted and prayed about approaching the king, she had both courage and a strategy. From the way Xerxes was so easily manipulated by his Persian noble friends and Haman, it’s clear that he was a temperamental, weak, and foolish man; Esther used that knowledge to her advantage. When she dressed in her finest robes and approached the king, I imagine she made sure he was in good spirits and that she looked irresistible. Welcoming Esther and offering her half his kingdom, Xerxes invited his queen to ask for anything, but she knew better than to take the royal offer literally. Graciously, she only asked for his and Haman’s presence at a banquet that evening. Esther’s delay didn’t mean she’d lost her courage. Persian etiquette for making a request typically began with a small unrelated favor, which is what Esther did. After a pleasant evening, she beguiled Xerxes simply by inviting him to dinner again. Gaining one small concession at a time, she eventually worked her way up to the real issue at hand. By waiting to make her appeal, Esther aroused the king’s curiosity.
A banquet was the perfect setting for Esther’s request. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, Persians typically decided important matters when they were drunk; once they’d sobered up, their decisions would be confirmed. That certainly was the case when the drunken Xerxes banished Queen Vashti. On the other hand, any decisions made while sober were suspect and were to be reevaluated when the parties were intoxicated (which may explain why Xerxes and Haman sat down to drink after their apparently sober decision to eliminate the Jews)! Esther understood the importance of alcohol in the king’s decision making and, after two nights of banquets, she finally made her request while they were drinking wine. When Esther asked the king to save her life and the lives of her people, she prudently put the blame for the wicked plot entirely on Haman rather than her easily manipulated husband.
By necessity, Esther made her plea to the king in a calculated and roundabout way. Fortunately, we don’t have to strategize or scheme when we approach our Heavenly King! Because we are His beloved children and know that He loves us, we don’t have to worry that God’s interest in us has waned. There’s no need to dress in our finest attire to entice Him nor must we wait until He extends his golden scepter before approaching His throne. God is far more interested in our hearts than our appearance and our imperfect selves can approach Him any time. We don’t have to pique God’s curiosity or manipulate Him into asking us what we want because God knows what we need even before we do! We don’t have to carefully phrase our words out of fear that He will banish us from His presence if we displease Him. We certainly don’t have to ply God with vintage wine, start with little favors before working up to our big request, or wait until He’s in a good mood before offering our prayers. God is the same today as He was yesterday and will be tomorrow. If we have no words, the Holy Spirit will speak for us.
Let us never approach God with subterfuge and apprehension as Esther did Xerxes. We should come to Him as candidly as did David and the other psalmists. With our Heavenly King, we can honestly sob in sorrow, shout in anger, plead in distress, stammer in confusion, whisper in fear, weep in regret, confess in repentance, shout in praise, sing in thanksgiving, and even dance in joy—all without fear of banishment from His presence!
When writing about Esther last week, I thought how terrified she must have been when Mordecai asked her to step out of her comfort zone to save the Jews. Even though she was queen, her access to Xerxes was severely limited. Living secluded in a private chamber in the women’s quarters, she didn’t regularly dine with the king. Powerless, she was the one to be summoned rather than the one who did the summoning and she hadn’t been summoned by Xerxes for a month. She was just one of many beautiful women in the king’s harem and perhaps someone else had caught his eye. The previous queen was banished when she defied the king; Esther could expect nothing less if her presence wasn’t welcomed. The young queen had a simple choice: comfort or courage. She chose courage and saved a nation!
Where did Esther get the courage to defy the law and approach the king? She got it from God! That may seem a strange answer since God isn’t mentioned anywhere in her story. Nevertheless, after asking Mordecai to gather together all the Jews in Susa and fast for three days, Esther promised that she and her maids would do the same. The beautiful queen wasn’t fasting so that she’d fit into her sexiest gown! She was fasting in prayer.
For a Jew, fasting and prayer went hand in hand and, while prayer is not specifically mentioned, it certainly is implied. Fasting combined with prayer was a customary practice in times of grief, distress, or repentance. It was a way to seek God’s favor and demonstrate the sincerity of one’s prayers. Although fasting was only demanded on the Day of Atonement, Scripture tells us that the Israelites and people like Ezra, David, Nehemiah, Jehoshaphat, and Daniel all combined fasting with prayer. When Esther and the people of Susa fasted, I have no doubt their fast was accompanied by their heartfelt prayers. Only then did Esther have both a plan to save her people and courage enough to step out of her comfort zone to do it.
Unlike Esther, we may not be asked to save a nation. Nevertheless, God has a mission for each of us. Because He is far more interested in our growth and obedience than our comfort, God’s mission for us, like Esther’s, usually begins at the end of our comfort zone. How do we move from comfort to courage and from fear to faith?
Like Esther, we could choose to fast. The purpose of fasting is never to change God; its purpose is to change us. A fast helps us take our eyes off the world and focus them on God. While Esther probably fasted from food, a fast also can be from things like gaming, social media, alcohol, television, or anything else that takes our mind off God.
Although Scripture tells us that Jesus and the early church fasted, it does not demand that Christians fast. The spiritual practice of fasting is a personal choice for a Christian; prayer, however, is not. Prayer is an act of obedience to God and the way we demonstrate our faith. When faced with the choice of comfort or courage, whether or not we choose to fast, we must choose to pray. Prayer is what will enable us to step out of our comfort zone and courageously do God’s work.
Courage is faith that has said its prayers. [AA slogan]
In 1986, holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel said, “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” That thought, however, has a longer history. In 1897, in George Bernard Shaw’s The Devil’s Disciple, these words were spoken: “The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.” The evil of indifference can be found as far back as 474 BC (during Judah’s exile) in the story of Esther and as recently as today’s news.
It’s in the Persian capital of Susa that we find King Xerxes’ “prime minister” Haman (a descendant of Agag from the race of Amalekites) facing off with the Jewish Mordecai (a descendant of King Saul’s tribe of Benjamin). The two families had a long history of hatred between them and Mordecai continually refused to bow down to the powerful Haman. Although Jewish law permitted him to bow to someone out of respect, Mordecai did not respect Haman. Moreover, no self-respecting descendant of Saul would ever bow before an ancient enemy like an Amalekite. The incensed Haman took their personal animosity to another level by convincing King Xerxes that a “certain race” in the empire posed a threat and should be killed. The king was so indifferent to these unidentified people that he never even asked who they were. Xerxes gave Haman free rein to do with them and their wealth as he wanted. Written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring, Mordecai sent out an order for the Jews’ extermination to take place eleven months later on March 7.
Although the Jews had their unique dietary laws and customs, they had integrated into the Persian culture. They lived throughout the kingdom and interacted with the Persians daily. Mordecai, for example, was born in Persia, had a Persian name, was a court official himself, and had saved the king’s life. The Jews reacted to their extermination date with mourning, but what of the Persians? Scripture tells us that the city of Susa was perplexed but nothing more. Although there was nearly a year between the edict and its execution date, we never read of people approaching the king on behalf of their Jewish friends and neighbors. The nation appeared indifferent to the slaughter of an entire people! Some Persians even may have looked forward to looting their Jewish neighbors.
Enlisting Queen Esther’s help, Mordecai asked her to beg the king for mercy. While not exactly indifferent to the Jews’ plight, Esther initially was more concerned with her safety than theirs. She balked at his request until Mordecai pointed out that the Jewish queen was not exempt from the king’s edict. To quickly summarize: Esther took action, Haman was executed, Mordecai became prime minister, and the Jews were saved.
Xerxes’ indifference to the fate of an entire race, the Persians’ indifference to the massacre of their neighbors, Esther’s initial indifference to her people’s plight, the indifference of Elie Wiesel’s countrymen as Jews were hauled off to Auschwitz, the world’s indifference as it looked the other way while millions were exterminated by Hitler, and our indifference as we witness injustice, genocide, inequality, human trafficking, discrimination, slave labor, and repression in our world today—indifference to wrongs that don’t personally affect us—is, indeed, “the essence of inhumanity.” Let us remember that, like the beautiful queen Esther, we are not exempt from being touched by the world’s evil. Perhaps, like her, we are here “for just such a time as this!” [Esther 4:14] It’s time to speak up!
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. [Martin Niemöller]
Lent begins on Wednesday. Beginning with the solemn reminder that we are but dust and to dust we shall return and concluding with Christ’s victory over death on Easter Sunday, the season’s forty days represent the time the Lord spent alone in the wilderness, fasting in preparation for his ministry, and undergoing Satan’s temptations. A period of self-discipline and repentance, Lent often is observed by such things as contemplation, confession, prayer, fasting, moderation, service, and giving
Lent is a season of self-denial but not for the sake of self-denial; it’s about emptying ourselves as we take up our crosses to follow Jesus! Sometimes, we’re so full of ourselves, there’s not enough room for God. Lent is about having less of us so there is more of Him! We can choose to fast—which is abstaining from food—or choose to abstain from some pastime or habit that may be impeding our relationship with God. The purpose of fasting or abstaining is to develop a hunger for God that is greater than our craving for the temptations and pleasures of life.
Like the beginning of a new year, Lent affords us an opportunity to do some serious soul searching. Have we cooled in our devotion to the Lord and our enthusiasm for His work? Are we using our time, talents, and spiritual gifts as God wants them used? Is there anything hindering our relationship with the Lord? Do we need to realign our hearts and have a spiritual reset? If so, Lent is an opportune time to prayerfully turn away from the small pleasures, indulgences, and bad habits or influences that have distracted or derailed us spiritually. The self-denial of Lent is abstaining from anything (other than God) that ordinarily fills a need we have—whether food, drink, shopping, or some other indulgence or guilty pleasure. Giving us gratification and comfort, it is taking up space in our hearts that rightfully belongs to God!
Andrew Murray describes fasting this way: “Fasting helps express, deepens, confirms the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves, to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God.” Simply put, fasting and abstinence are ways to show God that He is more important to us than any pleasures of this world. Whether we give up certain foods or meals, computer games, Net Flix, social media, or our free time to work in the homeless shelter, Lent is a time to reorganize our priorities and put God where He rightfully belongs—in the center of our lives!
Nothing in Scripture demands Lent’s observance; if and how we observe Lent is a personal choice. Nevertheless, my prayer for you is that these next six weeks will be ones of spiritual renewal and growth.
The whole matter of Pharaoh’s hardened heart and how it got so stubborn is confusing and an issue that has been debated at length by Biblical scholars. Based on the verses in Exodus where God says He will make Pharaoh’s heart hard (as He did in 7:3), some say that God deliberately hardened Pharaoh’s heart to demonstrate His power and glory. But, wouldn’t that mean Pharaoh had no free will? If Pharaoh couldn’t submit to Moses’ demands, the plagues hardly seem justified. How could a just God inflict such cruel punishment on all of Egypt when He was the one who made Pharaoh so inflexible?
On the opposite end of the spectrum, citing the verses saying that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (as does 8:15), other commentaries say that Pharaoh freely chose to stubbornly deny Moses and watch his people suffer. Saying that the hard heart was all Pharaoh’s doing, however, seems to contradict other verses and Scripture doesn’t contradict Scripture! The middle of the road explanation admits that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart but adds that Pharaoh already was so arrogant and headstrong that God didn’t change the outcome by further hardening it. The Oxford Jewish Study Bible notes that God “does not stiffen Pharaoh’s heart initially, but only after Pharaoh has done so himself many times.”
After reading several commentaries on Hebrew grammar, I found yet another explanation. Although God-breathed, Scripture was penned by men who used the words, idioms, and metaphors of the day. In ancient Hebrew, verbs could be both causative and permissive. Along with expressing direct action, active verbs also could express permission. This means that God saying He would harden Pharaoh’s heart could mean (1) that He caused the ruler’s heart to harden or (2) He permitted Pharaoh’s heart to harden. Another example of this verb use would be when Jeremiah tells God, “You have utterly deceived this people.” [Jeremiah 4:10] Jeremiah isn’t accusing God of being a liar; he’s saying that God allowed the people to be deceived (two very different things).
Instead of looking to commentaries, I finally looked to Scripture for my answer about Pharaoh’s hardened heart. In James, we find that, while God may test people, He does not tempt them. Temptation comes from Satan and we give into temptation when we’re seduced by our own desires. Pharaoh’s heart was hard because he was an evil, stubborn, and arrogant man—and that wasn’t God’s doing!
In a way, whether causative or permissive, both interpretations of the verb’s use are correct. We could say that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart because He provided the circumstances that backed Pharaoh into a corner. By sending Moses and Aaron to make their demands and providing the miracles confirming their divine origin, God set the stage for Pharaoh to reveal his hard heart. That God brought about the situation and events that caused Pharaoh to show his true colors, however, does not mean that God was the source of Pharaoh’s hardened heart—that was Pharaoh’s (and Satan’s) doing. Although God allowed it, He did not make Pharaoh that way and the responsibility for those plagues falls squarely on the arrogant man’s shoulders. Let us remember, the responsibility for our sins falls squarely on ours, as well.
It is not God that blinds the eyes of men or hardens their hearts. He sends them light to correct their errors, and to lead them in safe paths; it is by the rejection of this light that the eyes are blinded and the heart hardened. … Every rejection of light hardens the heart and darkens the understanding; and thus men find it more and more difficult to distinguish between right and wrong, and they become bolder in resisting the will of God. [Ellen G. White]
Devotions of the Heart 