Faithful and Fearless: Lesson 4/Days 9 and 10 Esther 3:7-15

Faithful & Fearless: Lesson 4/Days 9 and 10 Esther 3:7-15

While Haman and Ahasuerus are drinking it up, God’s people – actually all of Susa – are in confusion. Terror and fear are spreading across all of Persia. This evil edict schedules the genocide of the Jews and is being carried from province to province. Haman isn’t the first to make plans against God’s people.

The situation may look terribly hopeless, but God is making a way.

All through history men have plotted to kill the Jews. What’s interesting, is that while racism exists between all ethnicities and that racism may well show up in evil and destructive ways, annihilation is the repeated plot of evil people through time against the Jews – not just enslaving, or persecuting, or killing off – but total annihilation. Haman is just one tool in a long line that Satan has used since the beginning to cut off God’s people. Hitler didn’t just want to kill Jews, he set out to exterminate them. The situation may look terribly hopeless, but God is making a way  

The former and current presidents of Iran (modern Persia) have literally called for its people to curse Israel and have vowed to exterminate all Jews and “wipe Israel off the map” (Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, 2005.) Isn’t this exactly how evil men behave? And yet, God’s unchanging word is clear: “The wicked plot against the righteous...but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.”

We may not feel the panic of persecution today, but we need to.

As throughout time, “Cast your burden on the Lord,” David wrote in Psalm 55, “and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.” We may not feel the panic of persecution today, but we need to. We need to feel the burden, the fear, the desperation because God’s people – Jew and Christian alike –  are being persecuted* this very day around the world. We must not brush off the reality with apathy like King Ahasuerus did any more than we would personally plot do destroy God’s people.

This is not to say that we live with that burden on us, not at all! We have to feel it, be aware of it, and faithfully give it to God who is ready to take our burdens.

There is only one remedy, one relief, one redeemer for all of this, and that tale is even older than the Garden. It’s our Savior and God – Jesus the Messiah.

The week I wrote this study over 100 Christians were slaughtered in their homes and churches in Nigeria. The week before that, hundreds more believers in China were killed, jailed, or punished for meeting as Christians. By the time you read this, thousands more will have been tortured, jailed, or killed. God’s people are targets for destruction. Persecution and plotting against God’s people is a tale as old as time. It’s as old as the Garden and Satan’s plot to overthrow Heaven itself. There is only one remedy, one relief, one redeemer for all of this and that tale is even older than the Garden. It’s our Savior and God – Jesus the Messiah. Although God’s name is never mentioned in Esther, he is present.

Although God is not heard, he is speaking as He commands His angels to move on our behalf. God was moving and active – like his own Word – revealing the truth and preparing the way for salvation. In the midst of the confusion in Susa God was orchestrating all people and events so that His people would be saved. God is doing that today. He’s active in the world on behalf of the persecuted believers in Nigeria, China, and Syria. Our part is to be active as well not apathetic. Helen Keller said, “Science may have found a cure for most evils, but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all – the apathy of human beings.” (My Religion, p162) We cannot condemn Haman or any evil if we are not willing to confess the apathy in our own hearts. Confess that today. Repent and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for the hearts of all who love God and claim to follow Jesus Christ to truly love and follow Him faithfully and fearlessly.
~ Jennifer Richmond

*https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/