November 21, 2024: Thursday Old Testament Bible Study – Esther
Good morning. This study should arrive quite early. I am working on it on Wednesday evening at home.
I pray for God's richest blessings to surround you. Pray for Teri who continues to recover following her hip replacement surgery. Pray for my older brother Rick, who has three blocked arteries to his heart. He will have an angioplasty on Friday in Traverse City, MI. Keep Steve and Annette in your prayers for their wedding at American on Sunday, November 24 in the afternoon. May God bless them with abundant love and hearts of peace in their lives. Pray too for Pastor Ron and Becky as they lengthen their stay in the Minneapolis area. There were many changes in their lives in the last year, and they need some extra time to organize and be ready to leave for the new year in Tucson. We are also holding Wisconsinites Mark and Linda Backer in our prayers for their journey to see their children at Christmas in CA. and then to come to Tucson for the rest of their wintertime. Please pray for safe travel for everyone who will be traveling during Thanksgiving and beyond into the Christmas season. Check out the Journeys newsletter for December. It will be out by next week, perhaps sooner if Pastor can get his part of the letter put together. Advent 1, December 1st, is Gospel Music Sunday at 10AM. Afterwards there will be a chili luncheon in the parish hall. We hope that you will join us. We will give you an Advent calendar from ELCA World Hunger to keep you focused in this most busy time on the mission to which all of Christ's Children are called, and we will have an Advent refrigerator magnet for you as well.
Over the years of history, it is important for us to take stock of all the times during which the Jewish community were blamed for all of the problems of a number of nations in history. We can start with Haman and the edict of king Xerxes. The Jews in Persia, in all 125 precincts of the nation had been given permission at the prodding of Haman to destroy the Jews. We know that through Esther and the party she gave to honor and show her respect for Xerxes that he would give another edict to give the Judahites the power and authority to destroy anyone who threatened them. More than 70,000 Persians were killed as this all unfolded. But there have truly been massive numbers of Jews who have lost their lives being blamed for things for which they held no blame. The Russians also set the Jews up for their national issues, and in Ukraine in a period of time from 1919 -1920, more than one hundred thousand Jews were murdered. And of course we will never forget the German obliteration of 6,000,000 Jews, and Christians too, who would not accept Hitler's version of the truth of God, or who could not accept the persecution and murder of their Jewish neighbors and friends in their communities. As we look at the Judahites, we can easily understand how they’re being saved by a letter from Esther and by that overriding edict of Xerxes. The Jewish communities today celebrate a 2-day period because of Purim. (the word pur means lots), all of this so that future generations of Jews would not forget the terror that the first letter from Xerxes carried, yet they also knew joy in the letter from Esther which gave them permission to fight back against the Agagites and others. I hope that you know that the reason that the Judahites were allowed to leave their capture in Persia was because their communities had grown very large, and if one is to fear their numbers of people, and their successes in their exile, we must face the fact of their exile successes. They would never forget this threat as long as they lived, and on into the future as they celebrated the land of God's covenant with them. Also remember that Malachi is now a man of position and wealth, and he too carried his own message deal. With the Judahites in the promised land, Xerxes sent out letters of conscription for all the workers to replace the now free Judahite communities. This was a time of celebration and renewal for the Judahites and remains so today for Jews around the world. In Haman's documents were words that were hoped to bring terror on the exiles. But the letters of Mordecai and Esther were really different. Their document was full of, and encouraged, peaceful living, and more, that indicated the well-being that would be bestowed on them as Xerxes sought to regain control of all of those communities with the elected children. (by God).
Here we end the Book of Esther. It shows us that courage, even in the face of potential danger, is critical in our lives.
Next Thursday is Thanksgiving so there will be no study. I will also be taking next Wednesday off to help prepare food for our families Thanksgiving Day celebration, not because the world is right with God, but because our hearts are filled with joy and the bounty of God's world.
With Love in Jesus Christ, Pastor Kim
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