Tag Archives: Protest

Devotional

God’s People, part 113: Esther

Leave a comment

Read Esther 1-2

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” (Esther‬ ‭4:13-14‬ ‭NLT‬‬)

When we think of God’s people, we tend to think one of two things. We might think of the Israelites who were God’s “chosen people”, or we might think of specific characters in the Bible. Either way, we tend to idealize the people we are thinking about. For instance, we may think that God’s people are super faithful, holy, perform miracles and live wholly devout and righteous lives. Unfortunately, this idealism enables us to distance ourselves from being God’s people, because we feel that we fall short of those ideals. As such, I have decided to write a devotion series on specific characters in the Bible in order to show you how much these Biblical people are truly like us, and how much we are truly called to be God’s people.

  Part 113: Esther. We have, up to this point, spent quite a bit of time looking at the Jewish people, their leadership, their priests and their prophets who returned to Jerusalem following Cyrus’ decree that they were no longer exiled and could return home. While many certainly did return, in waves as has been stated in previous installments of this series, the reality is that many also chose NOT to leave.

Think about this for a minute. How many of you have had to move? Following moving, following settling in and creating a new home for yourselves, did you feel like uprooting once again? What’s more, many of the Jews living at the time of Cyrus had been born in Babylon/Persia and that was the only home they had ever known. Persia WAS their home, why would they wish to return?

This is the reality that we come upon in the Book of Esther, which is a narrative centered on a diaspora Jewish girl who became Queen of Persia. Before we get into the nitty gritty of this story, it is important to note that this is the ONLY book in the entire Bible that does not explicitly mention God. There is, in fact, no mention of God at all, but it can be presumed a belief of God is implicit in the story and the actions of Esther and Mordecai.

Esther was born in Persia as Hadassahm, a Jewish girl in a fairly well-off family. As a young woman, perhaps as young as 14 years old, she was taken from her home and from her cousin Mordecai (who had adopted as his own daughter when her parents died) and brought to King Ahasuerus’ palace to live in his harem as a sex slave with benefits. What were the “benefits”, you might be asking? Simply put, if she was found to be super “pleasing” to the king, she could get picked to be his queen. Yay, right?

Hold your horses, for this is not as “awesome” as it might sound. First off, a Jewish girl losing her virginity pre-marriage would have been shameful to her and her family. That act would have defiled her and forced her to break the covenant between her and God. Secondly, if she were to be picked as queen, she would not rule equally with the king. The queen’s job was to be the king’s plaything and to be an appendage of his at public functions whenever he demanded. That’s about it. Oh, wait, of course there was one other function: to bare the king a male heir.

She would be taken care of and could have whatever the king afforded her; however, it would come a very steep cost, one that Hadassah would have wished she didn’t have to pay. But she wasn’t so lucky and she went to live with the king, taking on the Persian name Esther so that the king would not know she was Jewish. She hoped that would give her a better chance to be married, which would at least give her back some of her honor.

I recently heard podcast hosts criticize Esther saying that she should not be looked up to as a role modely because of her “immoral” character. In fact, they likened her to Stormy Daniels. This, of course, has to do with the fact that she lived in a harem and had premarital sex with another man. Let me just say that this is horrendous theology. She was no more immoral than Daniel was for serving the Babylonian king. Neither of them had a choice. What’s more, implicit to the story is the fact that God (again, not explicitly mentioned in the narrative) gave her the strength and the courage to overcome her terrible circumstance and become the savior of her people.

So, back to the narrative. Esther did find favor with the king and was picked to be his king. Overtime, however, he bored with her and didn’t call her to be in his presence very frequently. During this period of isolation, her uncle contacted her and informed her of a plot by Haman, the King’s advisor, to commit genocide against the Jews. He wanted to kill them all. Though hesitant at first, Mordecai convinced Esther to do the right thing and go before the king unannounced, an act that could have gotten her killed as it was illegal to be in the king’s presence without being invited. Esther did just that and, to sum it up quickly, she was able to inform the king of the plot.

Esther, like the rest of us, was afraid to act and hesitated. Even if it was momentary, it was a moment that showed her humanity and her fear of the unknown. That makes her relateable to us as we fear to do the right thing. How many of us stay silent against wrongdoing, for fear that we might get caught up in a conflict? How many of us fear “stirring the pot” and calling the status quo into question because it could backfire in our faces? Let Esther be a reminder that we can AND SHOULD overcome such fear and trust that God is calling us for such a time as this.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

Remember, “for such a time as this” we are where we are, being asked by God to do what is right.

PRAYER

Holy Lord, while you don’t put bad circumstances upon us, you do ask us and strengthen us to do what is right when those circumstances arise. Give me the strength to rise up to righteousness. Amen.

Devotional

God’s People, part 84: Hosea

Leave a comment

Read Hosea 1

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, ‘Those who were not my people, I will now call my people. And I will love those whom I did not love before.’” (Romans‬ ‭9:25‬ ‭NLT‬‬)

When we think of God’s people, we tend to think one of two things. We might think of the Israelites who were God’s “chosen people”, or we might think of specific characters in the Bible. Either way, we tend to idealize the people we are thinking about. For instance, we may think that God’s people are super faithful, holy, perform miracles and live wholly devout and righteous lives. Unfortunately, this idealism enables us to distance ourselves from being God’s people, because we feel that we fall short of those ideals. As such, I have decided to write a devotion series on specific characters in the Bible in order to show you how much these Biblical people are truly like us, and how much we are truly called to be God’s people.

  Part 84: Hosea. You know that your message was stark when you get nicknamed, “The Prophet of Doom”. Hosea was, indeed, seen to be a prophet of doom because he had the duty of proclaiming God’s judgment against a wicked, and wayward northern kingdom of Israel. Someone had to do it and, as you can imagine, the messages were not well-received or well-heeded.

Hosea was a prophet in the Kingdom of Israel at the same time that Isaiah was a prophet in the Kingdom of Judah. His prophecy, similar to Isaiah’s, spanned 60 years, through the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (Kingdom of Judah) and Jeroboam II (Kingdom of Israel). His ministry, being located in the northern Kingdom of Israel, was centered on Israel’s lack of faithfulness to Yahweh, the one, true God.

Thus, in order to speak out against the Israelite leaders in ways that would get their attention, Hosea took up some extreme measures. At the outset of his epynonymous book, Hosea marries a prostitute named Gomer so that some of the children born to him were actually children conceived during her prostitution. And to think that people say the Bible is “boring.” Clearly they are not reading it.

All the same, this sort of action would have been seen as despicable in the eyes of the Jewish culture and religous leaders. Such a woman was seen to be unclean and under God’s curse. Why would a holy man marry such a woman of low character. The message, given to Hosea by God, was clear, “This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods” (Hosea‬ ‭1:2‬b ‭NLT‬‬).‬‬

What’s more, Hosea named his children to be walking prophecies. His first son he named Jezreel to prophecy that God would bring destruction upon a former king of Israel, Jehu, and his dynasty for the murders he had committed at Jezreel. This punishment would bring an end to the independence of Israel.

His second child, a daughter, he named Lo-ruhamah, which means “unloved”. God did this to state, according to Hosea, that he would no longer show love or favor to Israel or give them anymore passes. Then Gomer gave birth to a third child, a second son, and Hosea named him Lo-ammi, meaning “not my people”. This was to declare that the Kingdom of Israel were no longer the people of God.

This may seem to be a punishment, but the context of Hosea shows it to be more of a proclamation of fact. They had strayed too far away from God to be called God’s people. The reality is that Israel no longer looked to the LORD, but to other Gods. This separation was self-inflicted; yet, in the same breath as that pronouncement, God declares that God will still be their LORD in time.

Hosea reveals to us some things about ourselves. First, sometimes God calls us to do things that just go against everything we seem to hold to be true. With that said, just because we hold it to be untrue, or unworthy, or beneath us, or sinful, does not mean that God deems it to be that way. If it is in line with God, if it is in line with grace, love, compassion, accountability, and humility, then chances are God is calling you to do it no matter what your “sensibilities are”.

Second, Hosea reminds us that just because a prophet’s words and actions seem so out there, does not mean that God is not on his/her side. The people of Israel chose not to listen to Hosea or see him as a prophet; however, that did not mean that the prophet’s word did not come true. They did come true and during Hosea’s lifetime, the Assyrians came in, conquered, and exiled them.

Today’s challenge is to be prayerful toward the messages God is giving us. Just because someone is doing something seemingly outlandish, does not automatically make it wrong. A good example are the protests currently taking place. People kneeling during the national anthem, people marching in the streets, people protesting for justice. Before you condemn and turn your back, ask yourselves the following question, does God stand for justice or injustice? Outlandish deeds catch the attention or many, and sometimes the prophet uses the tactic of being outlandish tactics to bring God’s word to the attention to many. Listen, pray, discern, and change yourself in accordance to God’s will.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

““O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.” —Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew‬ ‭23:37‬ ‭NLT‬‬)

PRAYER

Lord, help me to humble myself to hear your message, no matter how outlandish or out there it may seem. You are Lord, and my desire is to submit to you. Amen.