June 14, 2009
Scritpure:
Ministry:
Earlier our Brother brought before us the fact that as the Lord was on the cross he was shrouded in darkness. That reminded me of the first part of Genesis. Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”. I believe that this creation was perfect and had light; and that what happened in verse two was a work of Satan. In answer to this work of darkness, God speaks in verse three; “Let there be light”. Now, we are told in Hebrews that the Lord was the Creator. He spoke “let there be light”, and there was light. There was power in His word. To create things, all He had to do was speak. When He created man, however; He didn’t speak. He took dust, formed man with His own hands, and breathed into him the Breath of Life. But, alas, we know the history of man, and how he fell and became a sinner. When the Light of the World was shrouded in that darkness, paying for man’s sins, He did not say “Let there be light”, but rather “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” He had always been with the Father; but a Holy God cannot look upon sin, so when the Lord Jesus was bearing our sins, God had to turn His back to Him. He was forsaken, and then died there. A soldier came along and plunged a spear into His side, and out poured blood and water. “The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” He lay in the grave for three days. On the third day He arose in newness of life. He has once again formed a body; of which every believer is part. It can never sin, because it was created in perfection. We have been “brought out of darkness, into His marvelous light”. We can rejoice that the darkness has been dispelled; now we live in light. When we go to be with Him, we will be displayed to the world as His bride. Truly it is more than we imagine. May we put away the darkness of the world to enter more fully into it all.
Hymn 200 – ‘Tis the hope of His coming
Prayer
Esther 2:1 –23
We saw last time how the Jews were taken from their home in Jerusalem to the land of Babylon. In Shushan, there was no temple, no worship of God. That’s the environment for the book of Esther.
In our chapter today, we’re introduced to two new people: The first is Mordecai, which means “taught of God.” He was a very godly man, but we don’t read about God anywhere in this book. We mentioned before that, as it says in Hosea 1:9, God had forsaken the Jews at this time, because they had forsaken Him. However, a few of the Jews still worshipped God, and Mordecai was one of them. At the end of this chapter, we read about how he rescued the king by informing him about the plans of Bigthan and Teresh to kill him. The king looked into the report and discovered that what Mordecai said was true. Bigthan and Teresh were hanged, and the account was recorded in the chronicle-book, but nothing was done for Mordecai.
The other person we meet in this chapter is Esther. She was Mordecai’s cousin, but when her parents died, Mordecai adopted her. She was taken to the palace of the king when he was looking for a new queen, and she ended up being the one he loved the most. However, she didn’t reveal the fact that she was a Jew; in accordance to Mordecai’s instruction, she never said anything about her lineage or ancestry.
We mentioned last time that Vashti was a type of those left on earth after the Christians are raptured. They will be judged throughout the tribulation and then they will not be heard of again. But near the end of the tribulation, there will be a small Jewish remnant that will appear, seemingly out of nowhere. This is what Esther is a picture of: she hid the fact that she was a Jewess until it was appropriate. We’ll also see later on in this book how Haman, a friend and advisor of the king, wanted to kill all the Jews. He is a type of Satan’s workers, trying to get rid of all the Jews during the tribulation.
I think it’s amazing to see how God let people go through these circumstances so many years ago so that we can see what the future will hold!
As we have been noticing, this chapter speaks of the walk of the child of God. We’ve seen that Nehemiah had a concern for the people of God and for the walls of Jerusalem. This chapter has been telling us about the building of the walls. We’ve seen that there are 10 gates, each with a specific meaning to us. It’s so interesting to see the involvement of so many people in the building of one wall. We should each have a concern for the “wall” today, and strive to let nothing come in that would hinder our walk or worship.
We’ve looked at the sheep gate (following our shepherd), the fish gate (being fishers of men), and the old gate (keeping the old truths). We could add to our remarks on the old gate that God has not given us a revised copy of the Bible. What He has put down is final. Read Proverbs 22:28 and Revelation 22:18.
In v. 10, we find that Jedaiah’s house was involved with the wall. What do we let into our homes? It’s a good question for each one to consider. This verse also tells us that they worked side by side, shoulder to shoulder. That’s just how it should be in the Christian walk.
V. 12 : The job of building the wall was not for the men only. The women were expected to help too, and so it is today. Keeping our homes and assemblies free of evil is the responsibility of every Christian.
V. 13 : Now we come to the valley gate; this speaks of humility. The opposite of humility is pride. Read I Peter 5:5, 8, & 9. We are each to be clothed with humility, because God resists the proud. Then we’re told that we have an enemy we need to resist. Will God resist us the same way we should resist Satan if we are not humble? Read Philippians 2:3.
Hymn 201 - When we walk with the Lord
Prayer