November 29, 2015
Scripture:
I was reminded of a verse at the beginning of Exodus 15:1a. This is the first recorded occasion of singing in the scripture, so it is special. Israel was in bondage for many years, being tormented. Their lot in life was very difficult. Then Moses came and led the deliverance. A lamb was provided to shelter the people and they were then let go. They were delivered in an awesome way through the Red Sea, which is a type of the Lord dying for us and giving us freedom and taking us out of the bondage of sin through the blood provided by the Lamb. “Then they sang.” We sang this morning, too. All the things spoken about them are ours. What a freedom we have been brought into! Now we can lift our voices and sing, “Worthy of homage and of praise.”
Hymn 349 - News for little children
Prayer
We will finish up the story of Esther today. We’ve learned several lessons from this book. Let’s review some of them.
First, God is in control. He worked everything out for their good: how Esther became queen, Mordecai overhearing the two chamberlains, the king having a sleepless night, and protecting Esther before King Ahasuerus. God ordered it all. He controls everything in the present world.
Then, Faith. They fasted three days before Esther went before the king. There is no mention of prayer here, but still it took faith for Esther to do what she did.
Third, Sowing and reaping. We learned this from Haman. He sowed the wrong seed and reaped a horrible crop. What are we sowing? What you sow, you reap.
Last time, Mordecai sent out another letter to all the Jews in the kingdom. They were allowed to defend themselves on the very same day Haman had said they were to be killed. They could stand against their enemies.
Esther 9:1-5, 17-20
So the thirteenth day of the twelfth month had arrived. All the Jews had gathered themselves together in their cities, and everyone else was afraid of them. They feared to touch them. God caused them to be afraid of these Jews.
The leaders of the provinces were now helping the Jews. Mordecai was high in command and they were all afraid of him.
So the original events planned had been turned around. The Jews were not destroyed. They destroyed their enemies. God made a way for them to defend themselves from those who hated them. They had been saved from destruction and rejoiced with feasting and gladness.
Mordecai sent out another letter to tell the Jews that they were to remember this day every year. He was setting up a memorial feast day. It was and still is called Purim, and the Jewish people still observe it. The word purim comes from the word Pur which is used when Haman was casting lots to pick a day to destroy the Jews. On this day, they remembered how they were saved from complete destruction. God had also set up memorials in the past; like the passover. It was so His people would remember His hand in their lives.
For them it was a time of rejoicing. Their sorrow had been changed to joy. Another lesson we can see in this is the joy of salvation.
We can have the joy of knowing our sins are forgiven when we take Christ as our Saviour. Our enemy, Satan, has been defeated. We sang of this in our hymn; the joy and the peace that we receive when we take Christ as our Saviour. The Jews were able to have joy in overcoming their enemies.
We can be thankful for what God had done and still does for us. We can have faith in our Saviour. He is in control. He will guide our hearts and our paths.
Ephesians 6:10-24
It’s amazing how far this epistle has come from where it started. In the first chapters we were in heavenly places; now there’s war afoot. The Bible has a lot to say about love and peace, but it never ignores the conflict that is raging between God and Satan.
In the beginning God created the heavens, earth, and everything in them; yet by chapter 3 of Genesis the Snake is already in the Garden of Eden. Evil had come. It started in heaven with Lucifer, according to Isaiah 14:12-15, and then spread to Earth. Although He could have stopped it, God permitted evil for some reason. Now the spiritual conflict between good and evil is an essential part of our Christian pathway.
When Satan fell, he took some angels with him. They are the principalities, powers, etc, that we need to deal with. Though we do have to deal with our flesh as well, Satan and his army is our main enemy.
Satan helped to get Jesus on the cross; yet, while on the cross, Jesus destroyed him and his power of death. No longer does Satan have that power over us! He still has his wiles, though, and walks about as a roaring lion, seeking people to devour. We must remember that his power will catch us if we don’t deal with it. It can’t kill us, but it can cause us to lose the joy of our salvation and bring much dishonour to God and the faith. None of us escape his temptation efforts! We need to be strong in the Lord to stand against him. This final exhortation speaks to us all. We have seen the heavenly doctrines, but these things are very practical.
We’ve seen God’s power earlier in this epistle. Satan got our Lord in the grave, but his best efforts couldn’t keep Him there. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to you and me. How? Through constant communion with the Lord. We must to keep that channel open, though. Also, we need to realize that we can’t walk this Christian path alone; it’s not a DIY project! The natural man wants to do things in his own strength, but that isn’t possible here. We see in Psalm 16 that even Jesus, as a man, prayed, “Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust.” Before we get into conflict, we need God’s resources.
James says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” The Lord did that, but how do we? We can commune silently with the Lord; but the devil can’t read our thoughts. Therefore, we must resist him out loud. We often feel he is working in situations trying to harass us and wear us down. We need a battle plan for these times, a predetermined course of action: we can pray, or sing a hymn, for example. If we let these temptations go, they will fester into something bigger. And Satan is astute! He knows each of our weaknesses, and how to play into them.
Satan can be like a roaring lion, and we can see the devastation he has wrecked in the world. The Body of Christ is in such disrepair today that it makes you weep. Many suffer violent persecutions, too, and things will only get worse.
It should be normal for us to trust in the Lord. The enemy is stronger than we are, but we can trust One who is stronger than the enemy. We need to keep those communication lines open and rely on His strength! There are so many Old Testament stories to encourage us; people like Jonathan and Gideon who exemplified trusting in the Lord.
We need to put on, or avail ourselves of, the armour of God. Scripture always refers to it as the “whole armour”. Some parts are for inside us, other are for outside; but we need all of it. We use it to stand against the wiles of the Devil—not attack them. Only the sword can be used in combat; the rest of the pieces are protective.
These things are so practical. They are the Lord’s methods of spiritual warfare; may we learn more and more of them.
Hymn 163 — Guide us, Oh Thou gracious Saviour
Prayer