Esther Answers your objections
A lesson from the Bible
Book of Esther
Purim 2023
By Bob Mendelsohn
Introduction
Shabbat shalom to my friends here at Yeshua Tsidkenu. I am grateful for the opportunity to spend time with you and to enjoy Jewish holidays and singing and prayers. For some of you, however, there are many reasons not to believe in God. I wonder if we could take a few minutes to consider those. Maybe on this Shabbat, as we finished with the story of Purim this week and begin to prepare our homes and our lives to think about Passover, the topic of God and faith in him is a bit too much for some of us. After all, there is a war going on in Ukraine and a war happening in many other hot spots in the world. Mexico and Brazil, Ethiopia and Myanmar… no country is entirely safe from harm or from wars. Even here in Sydney we have our own troubles, and the news each day shows us how so many people are angry and protesting, people are shooting and hurting each other with knives, while most of us are simply trying to live our lives the best way we know. Is it ok for us to spend a few minutes thinking about God and answering the questions some have… why should we believe in God anyway?
If we are honest, each of us, both believers and sceptics, have had doubts, and many of them are with good reason. For instance, how can there be just one true religion, or how could a good God allow suffering? And some people find hypocrites in the religious world to be a mockery of a loving God while others think science has disproved religion completely.
May I say that I believe there are good answers to these objections, if we will open our ears and open our hearts to each other. And for some of you, that’s a big request. Will you listen? Will you consider alternate thinking?
As we studied the story of Purim, the tale of the brave Queen Esther and her uncle Mordecai, the righteous leader of the Jewish community in Shushan Persia over 2,000 years ago, we actually heard some answers to those sceptics’ questions.
For instance, according to the megillah, that is, the scroll on which the story of Esther is written, the great turnaround happened when the evil Haman plotted to kill all the Jews and convinced the King Ahashuerus of Persia to allow this to happen. Horrible! But God intervened, Esther begged, the king was convinced, and all the Jews were spared. The Bible says, “For the Jews there was light and gladness and joy and honour. In every province and city, wherever the king’s decree arrived, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many among the peoples of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews had fallen on them.” (8.16-17)
You see, people changed their religion, right there in Persia, and all the provinces from Egypt and Ethiopia over to modern Iran, because they saw the hand of God saving the Jewish people. No one was forced to convert; the people chose because God is alive. And he works for his people.
That same event occurred when the Jewish people were leaving Egypt 1,000 years before the Purim story. God performed miracles for us and as a result the fear of us was spread by rumours in neighbouring countries.
As Moses died, Joshua became the leader of the Jewish people. We read this in Jericho.
“Rahab came up to them on the roof, and said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings who were beyond the Jordan, whom you utterly destroyed. When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.” (Joshua 2.8-11)
There is one true religion and it’s not any modern one. The true religion, the one that works, is a relationship with the Almighty. He alone is God; and being with Him, being forgiven, finding peace with him, that’s the key to a joyous freedom we could otherwise never know.
Some ask about suffering and how a good God could allow such. We title things ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and we often miss the point. For that, let me tell you a story. It’s about a farmer and his neighbours. Once upon a time there was a farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbours came around to comfort him. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.”
The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.”
The following day his son tried to tame one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown off and broke his leg. The neighbours then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.”
The next day the army officers came around to take young men into the army, and they rejected the farmer’s son because he had a broken leg. Again all the neighbours came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “Maybe.”
Listen, the whole process of nature is an integrated process of great complexity, and it’s almost impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad — because you never know what will be the consequence of the misfortune; or, you never know what will be the consequences of good fortune.
We are quick to label certain situations as “bad” if we dislike it. And “good” if we like it. But this kind of thinking doesn’t always serve us well.
In the story of Esther, Haman’s plot to kill all the Jews looked hopeless especially when the edict came from the king to make that happen. Oh, no how terrible, you would think. Suffering in the people will end the Jewish nation. But after fasting and prayer by his people, God changed the situation and what looked like evil, God turned to good. We simply don’t know how everything works.
Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch Christian who was held in a Nazi camp in World War 2. Her stories are legend about God’s plans overriding the plans of evil people.
“That’s the whole point,” she exclaimed. She said it was because of our limited vision, our limited perspective of what God is doing in our lives, that we question Him.
At that point Tante (aunt) Corrie slowly turned the purple tangled mess around to reveal a beautiful tapestry: a crown of gold with multi-coloured jewels.
“This” she said, “is what God sees….from His perspective….a masterpiece!”
In the book of Esther we see the whole story, while the people IN the story did not know the ending when it was happening. We title things ‘suffering’ and ‘troubles’ and ‘unfair’ and ‘wrong’ and God has things under control in very different ways. A wise man, like the farmer, says ‘maybe.’
Science is hostile to the Bible
Like I said at the beginning, there are answers to our objections, if we are open-minded and will open our hearts. There are answers to the objection about science. I myself graduated from university in the USA and taught high school mathematics; and I love science. Everything I’ve ever read about facts and biology, about physics and quantum mechanics reminds me that there is a single Designer of the universe who not only began a good work in Creation, but also wants to help us if we will let him.
Everything the archaeologists find substantiates the words of the Bible. They never knock them back. The Bible is not a science book, but what it does teach is that we can have confidence in the God of knowledge, the God of hope, the God who answers all our deepest questions about himself.
Invitation
I tell you these words today, especially for sceptics, that you might know that the Bible is true; the word of God, Yeshua our Messiah spoke the Truth and embodies the Truth; He said of himself, “I am the Truth” (John 14.6) Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as some of our ancestors did in the wilderness.
The story of Mordecai and Esther gives me hope. Hope that the God who is behind-the-scenes, and whose name is never mentioned in the Bible book named Esther, is nonetheless front and centre, available to any and all of us who call upon him, who call upon him in Truth.
Purim is the time of year when we again remember that the enemies of the Jewish people want to kill us, and yet, God preserved us.
If Haman had his way; if Pharaoh had his way; if Hitler had his way, if any anti-Semite has their way, we would not exist. And yet WE DO EXIST. And there are 7 million Jews in Israel today; 6 million in the US today and over 100,000 in Australia. Even so; He wants to preserve you. Receive Yeshua as your Messiah and be saved. Today. Just now. Let God preserve you into eternity. Do you want to do that just now? Send me a note. Please.
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