Zachor: Purim, Women's Day and Remembering

 

Zachor: Shabbat and command

i.                           Introduction

Shabbat shalom to each of you here in Perth and those of you watching and listening to this talk from somewhere else around the globe. 

Today is International Women’s day and that in itself is likely a highlight for half of you. We here at the Perth Messianic Assembly are part of a global Jewish movement and thus the national and dare I say international pandemic of antisemitism is also front and centre in our concerns. Antisemitism is racism. And it’s advancing in Australia and globally in unprecedented and almost unbridled strength since 7 October 2023. 

ii.                       Antisemitism abounds

The news media reports it. The government decries it and dances around avoiding taking a significant stand lest some of their constituents vote them out in the next election which here in WA is happening just now. Universities around the globe advance the notion of free speech and then get caught with tent cities of opposition to the very institution that grants them alleged freedoms. Heads roll as public outcry demands leadership do something or be stood down. Racism is a violent reality with no apparent end in sight.

On 9 October 18 months ago, the organization “Never Again is Now” was launched by my friend, Anglican minister and Jewish believer Mark Leach in Sydney. Some of you might have been involved in his new organization here in Perth rallies even a fortnight ago, as they are seeking to change all that. More associations are also speaking out. An institute in the US is dedicated to stamping out antisemitism. Zachor Legal Institute, is one such agency. It is a legal think tank and advocacy organization, taking the lead in the legal battle against antisemitism and the delegitimization of Israel, including the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS). It is based in Bozeman, Montana in the US. Their main staff are three: Marc Greendorfer, (Yeshiva Law 1996), Ron Machol, the head of all non-legal issues and a high-tech leader, and Vanessa Hites, (School of Law, University of Chile, NYU.) 

iii.                  Zachor now and in the Older Testament

Their organization is named Zachor. The Hebrew word, ‘zachor’ means ‘remember.’ This group caught my eye this week, since today in synagogues worldwide the ordinary readings in Torah are supplemented by an additional reading. This supplementing happens during all 6 weeks before Passover every year. How long is that? Think about this, 6 weeks x 7 days is 42 days, and whether the Jews had this in place, or more likely we borrowed this countdown from the Church in its 40+ days Lenten expression which begins annually with Ash Wednesday (in 2025 a few days ago), it’s unclear. What we have is the first bonus reading today. The parsha is renamed “Zachor” and begins with the citation from Deuteronomy chapter 25. There we read: “Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt” (.17)

זָכ֕וֹר אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂ֥ה לְךָ֖ עֲמָלֵ֑ק

Then the text continues, 

¹⁸ how Amalek met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God. Therefore it shall come about when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.” (Dt. 25:18-19)

The quick story is bracketed with these words, “remember” and “don’t forget.”   

זָכ֕וֹר and לֹ֖א תִּשְׁכָּֽח

That sounds like the same thing, doesn’t it? If I forget I’m not remembering and if I remember, I’m not forgetting. But listen, each of us responds to commands differently. Some of you need to hear “Don’t covet” while others of you need to hear “Be content with what you have.” Some need to hear “Don’t commit adultery” and others require “Love your spouse.” Both are accurate; both teach us. Both are mandates, but depending on your personality, we often either choose to hear, or dare I say, only hear things in the positive or the negative. Either way, the result is the same. Make it happen. Don’t do the wrong. Make it happen.

OK, that sounds situational and a matter of compliance. And today’s command to remember and not forget has to do with this particular enemy of the Jewish people, Amalek. 

iv.          Amalek and Purim

Who was he? The leader of an ancient people who lived in the south of Canaan, in the Negev, a fierce and warlike Bedouin people, who made themselves foes of Israel during the Exodus. Then later they were marauders in Israeli territory who were defeated both by Saul (1 Sam. 15) and by David (1 Chr. 18). The head of the people of course was a grandson of Esau (Gen. 36.12) who apparently was later connected with Ephraim’s territory (Jg. 5.14)

OK, so today we remember Amalek and we don’t forget him. Oh, this coming week we celebrate Purim, the festival of lots, and eat certain foods, as almost always happens on a Jewish holiday. Do you remember that story, too? A quick retelling is warranted today on International Women’s Day.

You see, the Jewish people were in trouble in Shushan and all the 127 provinces of the Persian empire. The king’s prime minister was evil and had made the king to make declarations against the Jewish people. We had to bow to the king and his images or face the consequences. A young Jewish beauty named Hadassah (renamed to be Esther) stood up to the challenge and she helped save our people. That should make the Top Ten on International Women’s Day, don’t you reckon?

The prime minister was named Haman and you know what to do when you hear his name, right? Stomp it out, grogger over it, get his name out of the house. In Scripture he is called an Agagite (Esther 8.3). That’s his people’s identity. Who was Agag? He was once the king of the Amalekites (1 Sam 15). So Haman is from the people whom we are to remember and not forget today. No wonder next week’s story will feature this episode in Israel’s history.

V. Beyond the victim

But here’s a nuance that today I want to highlight, so that when we are long separated from one another, you will benefit greatly from this d’rash even more.

You see, simply remembering the enemies of our Jewish people often makes us ever the victims. Psychologically, a victim who perpetuates the wrongs done to him will remain a victim and live to reference the Star Wars classic ‘on the dark side.’

Now I don’t want to diminish the remembrance of Haman, Agag, Amalek and all the enemies of the Jewish people, lest we forget that we must be ever vigilant in response. Think of Pharaoh or Hitler. We remember Hamas in our day and we must be aware and decry. We must not forget. Don’t get me wrong. But where else is our vigilance?\

vi.          Zachor the Almighty and his deeds

Let me see if I can put this in perspective. 

We as Jews are also mandated to remember who God is, what he did for us in various times of our history. If we forget, we will be punished or go into exile or lose our way. Remembrance is key to any highlight reel of Jewish story.

Think back to Gideon (Judges 8) and let it sink in.

“Then it came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god. Thus the sons of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side; nor did they show kindness to the household of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in accord with all the good that he had done to Israel.” (.33-35)

If we don’t remember, we lose. Captivity happens. Failure attends us. Life leaves us. We lose.

Zachor Haman. Zachor Amalek. AND Zachor GOD. Zachor what God did and Zachor WHO HE IS. Zachor Hashem! Zachor.

Listen to these words in Torah. 

“Take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren” (Dt. 4.9)

פֶּן־תִּשְׁכַּ֨ח

Later in chapter 4, again, “Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you.”(4.23)

And again Moses said, “beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. (6.12)

Get it? Remember, zachor God! One more from Moses, “And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.” (Dt. 8.2)

Isaiah even joins the chorus with “Remember the former things” (Isaiah 46:9)

Asaph, the music director under King David wrote, “I will remember the deeds of the Lord, yes, I will remember your wonders of old.” (Ps. 77.11)

David wrote, “I remember the days of old, I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands.” (Ps. 143.5)

vii.               A counsellor speaks

Sarah Puebla is a biblical counsellor in the USA. She’s part of the Association of Biblical Counsellors (https://biblicalcounseling.com/) I found her article entitled, “The Power of God and The Power of Remembering” extremely helpful. (https://bit.ly/RememberingPuebla)

She cites a couple of biblical texts, especially Psalm 77 where the psalmist is despairing and then says, “When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate my spirit faints. 

You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.” (77.1-4)

That doesn’t sound like she wins, does it? In fact, Puebla says, “These four verses are the perfect description of the body, mind, and spirit of one who is suffering and is spiralling down into hopelessness. We feel no comfort. Sleep leaves us and refuses to ease our eyelids shut. We feel faint, dry-mouthed and lacking in any words. As troubling and difficult these verses may be to read, just seeing them written in God’s Word should bring about a small amount of hope that the Lord recognizes these are real and tangible. But we must not stop there. We must seek and remember.”

Then the psalm reads as follows:

“I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said ‘Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart. Then my spirit made a diligent search. I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds.” (77.5-6, 11-12)

She asks, “how do we do this?” Her dual answer is: “First, we turn to the written Word of God. “

Then, “Secondly, an important discipline in remembering is to think back on our own lives. As I have engaged counselees in this discipline, I have encouraged them to not only start in their trial now but also think back to what God has done in the past and journal about it. It can be a list form or prayer form, or journal form. It can even be a wall set aside in one’s home to display front and centre what God has done in the days, months, and years past. This practice has been invaluable in my own life as I have encountered tremendously difficult trials.”

 

viii.     Zachor in the Newer Testament

I would be remiss if we only looked at the Tenach today. We must hear the words of Messiah himself. He taught so much and lived so much. He accomplished so much. What are we to remember from Yeshua?

For that, we look to the end of this forty-day “Jewish Lenten” expression of time. You see, Yeshua gathered again with his disciples, his apprentices in Jerusalem on Passover. He had likely done so for several years, but on this occasion, we in history title it “The Last Supper.” That seder gave us what many in churches take today as the eucharist, the communion, the bread and wine, and they even use some of the words from that sacred memorial evening. 

What is Passover? It’s a Zikaron. Yes, same root, zachor. A memorial. Exodus 12 says, “Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.” (12.14)

The Passover meal was to be zachored. It was to be a memorial of what God did. He saved us from Pharaoh. He took us out of Egypt. He marched with us through the Red Sea. Eventually he took us into our promised land. Zachor God!

So on this night, in Jerusalem, when Yeshua was celebrating the memorial of that deliverance and the Exodus itself, Yeshua instituted another memorial. Luke records it for us. “And when He had taken bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.” (Luke 22.19-20)

Another memorial within the former memorial. A subroutine of memorials. A wheel within a wheel. Remember. Don’t forget. 

Paul the Apostle told us nearly a generation later, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” (1 Cor. 11.26)

         Zachor Yeshua. His death and resurrection. His soon coming again. Zachor to proclaim him. Get your eyes off yourself, o victim. Get your eyes on the One who is our life. Yeshua our Messiah and ultimate Deliverer. 

ix.                   Conclusion: Remember and proclaim

Sarah Puebla’s entire article is worth a read. 

The entire Book of Psalms is worth a read.

The entire Bible is worth a read. 

God is worthy of our attention today. 

Please don’t only Zachor Amalek.  Please don’t live in a victim state. Please remember and don’t forget all the Lord has done for you. Remember Yeshua and his ultimate love for you and for all yours. 

Yes, there will be tough times and times when we are deep in sorrow. Yes, we will remember 7 October and 1 September 1939. Our people were evicted in1492 from Granada, Spain and in 1290 when we Jews were evicted out of England. We won’t forget Babi Yar. We will remember the evils done to us, even here in Australia in Melbourne and Sydney as we’ve seen on the television news recently. AND we will remember that were the Lord not on our side, we would have fallen again and again; we would be no more. We would have perished along with the Hivites and the Agagites and the Canaanites. 

But now, go beyond that. Remember God and his mercy. Remember his covenants, that he made with our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with David and the ultimate new covenant, not like the covenant he made with Moses when we left Egypt (Jeremiah 31.31), but the new covenant Yeshua instituted that Pesach night in Jerusalem.  Remember the death and resurrection of our Messiah and love him with all your heart and soul. Proclaim the Lord’s death until he returns. 

The days are dark and evil. 

I close with these words from the Brit Hadasha, Jude verses 17 and following:

“But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Messiah Jesus to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.” (Jude 17-23)

Thank you Ross and Mei. Thank you to each of you who keeps making PMA such a light on a hill here in Perth. Thanks for standing with us as we make the name of Yeshua known near and far in these troubled and troubling times. Zachor Messiah. 

Thank you and Shabbat shalom.

 

 

Courage in a complicated world: A message on Esther

The Hollywood Director who doesn't show himself

By Bob Mendelsohn

Given at North Beach Baptist Church

8 October 2017

Perth Australia

[The church in Perth’s northern suburbs asked me to give a talk, an overview on the Book of Esther. They also gave the message a title, “Courage in a Complicated World.”]

Good evening. Thank you Brad [pastor of the evening congregation] for the kind invitation.  It's always good to be back in Perth, and here at North Beach, to be with you to share with you from the Older Testament book of Esther.  Hopefully by what we discuss today, you will learn some valuable lessons for your life and your relationship with God, that will last long after the last BOO is shouted at the name of the villain of our story, Haman.

I’ve been given the assignment of Opening Batsman for your next Bible talk series. And I appreciate that opportunity. Some of you will be quite familiar with the story of the biblical book of Esther. For others, this might be first time you will consider the book, which we call a megillah in Hebrew, meaning a 'scroll'.  Or maybe this is even more of an outculture experience, as some of you have never really considered the Bible as relevant for yourself. Let me rehearse therefore a bit of the story, in Shakespeare or Hollywood storyboard style. This then, the story of the Hollywood Director who hides himself.

Act I: All's Quiet

First, the situation, what we might title "All's quiet on the Shushan Front." This is Act I. You might expect the narrator's voice saying, "Once upon a time…"The book introduces the characters one at a time, in classic progression. And I will introduce them to you as well. First, King Xerxes, later named Ahasuerus, rules a vast Persian Empire, which was much larger than modern Iran, the kingdom that now speaks Farsi or Persian. 127 provinces composed Xerxes's realm from India to Ethiopia. And if we wanted we could end right there with "…and they all lived happily ever after… The End."  This is often the fanciful thinking of the non-literate, the dream of the well wishers. No real story starts and ends so quickly. There must of necessity be conflict and resolution or we simply have a dull half hour of a bit of characters intersecting.

Peter Kreeft is one of my favorite authors and apologists. He argues this point well in his 1985 book "Making Sense out of Suffering." He asks us to think about a story which has no conflict, with nice characters and nice people living nicely together compared to a story with troubles and suffering. He says a story needs conflict to keep a child's interest. And I quote:

 "Author: Which fairy tales would you write?

Reader: The second one of course; the one with all the crazy stuff in it.

Author: The suffering , you mean?

Reader: It makes a better story, yes." (page 82)

Act II: Trouble Arises

Sure enough, then, we have Act II. Trouble Arises. As in the old silent movies of Hollywood, the evil Simon Legree appears to collect the unpayable rent. First there is trouble in the king's palace. Seems Ahaseurus' wife named Vashti refuses one of those royal edicts; she won't show her face to the king. Whatever it was, it's not a good idea to go against the boss, in those days for sure. Even if you are the queen, you still will be punished. Vashti gets booted from the palace, and the word gets out that a contest is on to find a replacement. How will they find the replacement? By conducting a beauty contest. Not a bad thing to include in a movie, eh? And maybe Aussie Jennifer Hawkins might have a go.

After some milk baths, our new heroine for whom the book is named, Esther wins, gets the gold medal, and becomes Queen.  Of course some know her by her Hebrew name Hadassah, which means 'myrtle' and the myrtle leaf is the shape of her very beautiful eyes.

We are also introduced to the evil villain, wearing all black, even with a black cape, and his name in this movie is Haman. He is a descendant of the famous movie bad guy Amalek, who starred in the earlier movie by the same Director. That movie featured Moses and the travelling former slaves, the Jewish people in the wilderness. But we digress.

One more crucial character you have to know is named Mordecai. He is a cousin or uncle of Esther, and will play a crucial role several times in the show. He's as central as Puck in Midsummer Night's Dream who always seems to have the right word, sometimes even to fix his own mistakes!

So we had Trouble in the Palace, and as Act II ends, we have Trouble also in the Land. Why? Seems that Haman has figured out how to be a villain of major consideration. He was a Fifth Century BCE Hitler, who thought the Jewish people were a marked people, worthy of extermination and ruin. He proposed his final solution and King Ahasuerus accepted it. Oy. The Director of our movie zooms in on the sneer, on the snidely confident laughter of Haman, and we are left with a cold chill up our spine.

Act III: Plan B

Even though Esther is the queen, something that should guarantee her personal safety, as Act 3 begins, we find her cousin Mordecai coming by for a visit. Not a friendly chat, but a powerful soliloquy of possibility and confidence. He tells her in no uncertain terms that the Jews need a Plan B. So Esther and Mordecai strategize; they work it out. You see, both Mordecai and Esther would be killed if the plot unfolded as Haman desired. We get the feeling that the Director wants both characters to survive at least for a while.

So, their plan is to call a fast. Ta'anit Esther, it's called in modern Judaism, the Fast of Esther. They invite all the Jews of Shushan to fast. After those 3 days, Esther was going to go to the king and ask for this last edict to be overturned. Not too hard, but obviously one plan that takes a lot of chutzpah to carry out.

Mordecai instructs his young ward. He tells her, "Who knows? Perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" This was a new thought to Esther, and after due consideration, she replied with that famous line shown often in the trailer of this movie. The Queen replies, "If I perish, I perish" This trailer has been shown for generations now, and will continue long after this comes out on Blue Ray 3D DVD. This moment gives us the title to tonight’s talk: Courage in a Complicated World.

Esther knows the best way to a man's signet ring is through his stomach, so she has a pair of banquets. Plan B is executed to perfection. The Banquet takes place exposing the Axis of Haman's evil.  Jewish survival is assured, and the madman is hanged on a gallows, standing on a platform higher than one built for any Grand Final medal ceremony.

Act IV: They lived happily ever after

It all comes out in the end, just like things always do in Hollywood, right? The good guys win and the bad guys get theirs as Haman dies on the gallows built for others and all 10 of Haman's sons die, and we leave the theater singing the theme song and eating ice cream bars. But is that what this movie is all about?

Problems at hand

Let's talk about some of the problems of the script, that is, the book of Esther in the Bible. First problem: there is no actual mention of God by name. That's right, it is a Jewish book written about a Jewish problem and an answer given apparently from heaven, God Himself, though, is not mentioned even once. Shocking, no?

Problem two, here is a whole community of Jews living a long way from Israel, when the way was opened up decades earlier in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah for all Jews to return from captivity in Babylon.  And according to Jewish tradition, they should have moved back. So we have this problem of renegade disobedient Jews living among Gentiles, and dealing with the commensurate sociological problems of interrelationships.

Other problems…the Law, the Torah is not mentioned, nor is animal sacrifice. Also, the Newer Testament does not quote even once from the book of Esther. Although fasting is spoken of and done, there is no mention of prayers. Finally, they did not find any fragments of this book in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which is no big megillah. 

Or is it? I think it is fascinating that the name of God is not mentioned. But perhaps I need to remember our movie image. The Director stamps the whole project with scene changes and zooms. He makes actors move close or directs their movements across the stage of our view. But during the movie, we never see the Director. After the movie is over, and Hollywood rewards its own in the Academy Awards, then we meet him personally. And perhaps that's the way to think of the Almighty in this case.

Who else but God could have organized the beauty contest? And that the Jewish girl would be so well placed at just the right time? And that Mordecai, whose good deed done to the king in the prequel, before our movie began, is rewarded for it while we watch this movie? Esther is God's story marked by God's deliverance in God's timing with God's signature… all without His name visibly made manifest. Can you imagine?

Some Messianic Jews might have some trouble with the lack of mention of the Law or Shabbat in the text. Some Israeli Jewish believers in Jesus might remove this book from their canon if they really could. Why?  Jews who have a chance to live in the Land are living outside it. "What a shanda! And no wonder there is trouble," they would say.

But I allege that God pervades, he is all through the book and all through the Jewish holiday of Purim. That holiday is mentioned 5 times in Esther chapter 9. Purim is known as a festive time, sort of a Jewish Halloween, where people dress up in costumes and give away candy and food baskets to others. Shalach manot is a substantial part of the holiday for adults. Of course, so is getting drunk. But that's another story that I'll let others address.

What about this 'name made manifest' idea? I remember an incident some years ago.  I was over visiting two ladies who were confessed atheists. They invited me to lunch and before the meal, there was great discussion about prayer. They didn't want to pray and they didn't want me to pray. Then they changed their minds and offered me to pray if I felt it necessary for my enjoyment of their meal they provided. All the while, I remained fairly quiet, eavesdropping as if I were removed from the situation, although we were all at the same table. After about 5 minutes of this, they said, 'ok, go ahead and pray if you must.' I answered, "We've already prayed. Prayer is to acknowledge God over you and with you, and with all this lively discussion, I believe God is well acknowledged." You can bet these ladies were quite frustrated.

Applications

Let me draw some conclusions from our Esther story today for me personally and hopefully for you as well and answer some of those problems as well.

1)        The people of God, even in Israel, can get excited about God being everywhere doing His thing. He does save His people, even those who are rebellious or reluctant, living outside the Land. In other words, His grace is not conditional on my previous compliance, but on His mercy and love.

2)        God is not always showing His name, though He is always working. Remember Yeshua healed people and would tell them, "Go and tell no one." There is timing to revelation and God does it perfectly here. And God does it perfectly with you and me. How surprising it was for me to meet Messiah in the person and the surprising name of Yeshua. I'd been raised an Orthodox Jew in Kansas City, and all of a sudden, I was seeing the name of Jesus as fulfillment of the Bible prophecies, Jesus: the one whom I'd never respected even from afar.

3)        There is a time to risk. Or as the title of tonight’s message says, “Courage in a Complicated World.” Esther went to the king without an appointment or an invitation and that was risky. Mordecai went to the king turning in some treasonous men, and this was risky not knowing whether the king would understand and if the Persian Mafia might not take Mordecai down for dobbing in two of their own. I love the Hallmark greeting card which said, "Let us love, let us risk, let us lay down our lives for one another…. You go first." Risk is never convenient; it is immeasurably difficult, but if you go through with it, you will be the better. "Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." Where is God calling you? Will you risk relationships to go there?

4)        Were it not for God, all the Hamans and the Hitlers and the Herods of the world would have won long ago and destroyed the Jewish people. But God will save His chosen people and defend Israel. What encouragement we can take from that in these troubled times as well. The story is told of Adolph Hitler in a speech he gave in January 1944, he is quoted, "If the Nazis go down to defeat, the Jews will celebrate a "second Purim." Then two years later in 1946 during the Nuremberg Trials, 11 Nazis were quickly found guilty and sentenced to death. Goering committed suicide before he could be hanged. As the 10 Nazis- like Haman's 10 sons- went to their deaths, one of them Julius Streicher, shouted, "Purimfest!" Even they knew God had delivered the Jews. Yes there are many issues related to the Holocaust: guilt, shame, anger, sadness. But atheism is a lousy response to the Holocaust. God has saved us. The Lord is the Mighty Deliverer.

5)                 The prophecies of the coming Messiah from Moses to Daniel would have been known in part by the people of Esther’s day. I'm not sure how the story perpetuated, but it makes sense to me that Esther as queen affected the Persian folks so well and for so long that just a few centuries later, the stories were still being told. Esther the queen probably told them about the Future King, the Messiah, to come. And it was a group of magi from the East, like from Persia they say, who followed a star to Jerusalem and finally to Bethlehem to meet the "Star that arose out of Jacob and the scepter that would not depart from Israel." (Numbers 24) This once and future king, Yeshua, Jesus of Nazareth is the Great Hope of the Jewish people today. We who know Him discover that He is the Director to the movie. He is the secret hidden from the ages past. And His death and resurrection, which is marked by Christians all over the globe each Sunday, was Plan A for God for the redemption of Israel and the nations.

Yes, just as in our movie today, everything seemed quiet at the beginning of human history back at the Beginning of the Bible record. The Garden of Eden was a beautiful and ongoing pleasure village. Then sin entered and God had to work out the buy-back procedures, making treaties along the way until He made a final covenant with all who will trust in Him in the Passion of Messiah. How far were we separate from God? Try to get back to the Garden. It's like sand dunes, and you are in the hole of one. Try to dig out of the dusty sand. Or try to get yourself out of a Joondalup golf course bunker. You will only make the hole larger and your plight deeper. No one else could fix it, not even Bob the Builder. In the same way, although personally, you might have thought everything was fine with you, quiet if you will, trouble started brewing. Perhaps there was trouble at work or with your family or neighbors, troubles in dealing with close friends, or even internal struggles about your own person. Where is Plan B? Where is the way of escape from this trouble? I believe the best way to your answer, to the King of Kings’ signet ring, is through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. You get to trust Him. You get to look to Him to find eternal life and to find answers to your often-unsettled situations.

If you don't yet know this one about whom we speak here, this Jesus, and would like to, then today, right where you are, won't you receive His lordship over you? He is the unnoticed director of all things and wants to help you survive the pains of this life, no matter the cost. He wants to forgive your sins and make you born again to a living hope. If you've never received Jesus as Messiah and Savior, and would like to do so, please pray this prayer in quiet whispers along with me from the honest depths of your heart.

Pray like this, "Lord I'm a sinner and have messed up my life pretty dramatically. You alone can fix it. I cannot. My sins are great and your character is to have mercy. Even on me. Thanks for that. Please forgive my sins and make me born again. I receive Jesus as my Savior and Lord, and ask you to make this real to me. Give me strength to trust you each day. In Jesus's name. Amen."

If you prayed that prayer for the first time today, please see the folks up front here after the service who will advise you about what's next and can assist you in your new journey of faith. How exciting!

Those of you who are believers, I challenge you to continue living a life of risk. Proclaim the name of the One who is ever present. Yeshua our Messiah who is ever working even on behalf of those who don't deserve it. Amen? You may not have to move 16,000 kilometres and 2 hemispheres like I did to preach to the people of Australia. You only have to survive the struggles of traversing the CBD and the GST, but you get to share the Good News message with folks in your offices and in your neighborhoods. You get to make known the Director who is for so many unseen. Maybe this year during the season of Purim which will be as usual a month before Passover, along with sending gift baskets of food to others, you could begin or continue sending gift baskets of the Word of God to those in your sphere of influence? They will thank you one day. It's worth the risk, don't you think?

And that’s the ministry of Jews for Jesus, risk takers who are working in 13 countries and 25 cities worldwide with full time staff even here in Australia. I moved here 19 years ago to found the ministry and it’s been a good innings. And a big thank you to those of you who have been generous in donation to Jews for Jesus. To all of you, would you please fill out that Jews for Jesus involvement card in your bulletin and give it to me at the resource table during supper? I’d appreciate the opportunity to speak to you again and again through our newsletter.

Our teams worldwide are evangelizing as you saw in the opening video in winter in Russia and New York and London. You can pray and I hope you will pray for us. We are out on the streets in Sydney and Bondi, where our book shop is open all week. And where Jewish people drop in every week. Pray for open hearts in the Jewish community. Pray for strength of our bodies to keep on keeping on, no matter the response. Pray for a few more Jewish believers to join us in our work, and we will keep you updated via the newsletter. Thanks again Brad for letting me come.

May God bless us all today, in the name of the Messiah Yeshua, amen.

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Sources for Nazi stories:

http://jewishsf.com/bk960308/iapurim.htm