The Day of the Lord, Joel Ch. 2, Pt. 4 "Esther"

In searching for the phrase “these things were written” in the Bible, using biblegateway.com, I found it amazing that only the following three verses came up.

Luke 24:44 [The Scriptures opened] Then He said to them [His disciples], “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” 

John 12:16 His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him.

1 Corinthians 10:11 Now these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

If I could summarize, the verses could read, "I told you once, I told you twice, I told you three times!" in the manner my own dad would have! 

Our generation is certainly not the only generation to ponder these things.  While the early disciples were blessed to have Jesus walk amongst them to explain “these things” and blessed to witness a resurrected Lord to validate them, we, as were they, are blessed to have the Holy Spirit of God himself indwell us as believers, indwell these earthly vessels, common and ordinary as we are.  

These things are identified in the first verse above:  all that is written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Jesus.  No wonder the Jewish people are blessed among men, that God would have chosen them out to depict the extraordinary and uncommon redemptive love of the Father for His Son, and toward us who believe.

I’ve expressed a few thoughts on the law already in previous posts, now I’m going to share over the next several some of what I’ve learned about the feasts, focusing on the seven appointed feasts of Leviticus 23.

The seven appointed feasts outlined in Leviticus 23 (Jewish name in parenthesis) include:  

FOUR SPRING FEASTS 
Passover (Pesach)
Unleavened Bread (Hag HaMatzot)
Firstfruits (Reishit)
Pentecost or Weeks (Shavuot) 

THREE FALL FEASTS
Trumpets (Rosh HaShanah)
Atonement (Yom Kippur)
Tabernacles or Booths (Sukkot)

Only three appointed feasts required all Jewish males to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem: Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Tabernacles.

Two other feasts are celebrated, though not appointed as sacred assemblies in the book of Leviticus.  They are: The Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah) and of Lots (Purim).  

I think it is appropriate to first mention Purim briefly because it is coming up quickly - March 15th and 16th (Jewish day begins at sundown, therefore Purim begins at sundown March 15, ends at sundown March 16). Purim is an annual feast to commemorate the protection of God’s exiled people through the courage of a woman named Esther, who risked her own life to save her people’s.  

The wealthy, prominent Jews of Judah had been taken captive to Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC.  Because Nebuchadnezzar allowed the Jews to settle in one community, keeping their religion and traditions, Judah's Jews kept their identities (converse to Israel's dispersion and disappearance into Assyria around 722 BC).  Babylon was eventually conquered by Persia (538 BC) and King Cyrus gave these Jewish exiles the right to return to Jerusalem.  Some of these exiles remained in Persia however, and thus sets the backdrop for Esther.  

An orphan, Jewish Hadassah (meaning myrtle) known in Persia as Esther (meaning star), was raised in Persia by her Jewish uncle Mordecai.  Through a series of circumstances, this beautiful young girl becomes queen of Persia, makes a life or death decision to share with King Xerxes the news brought to her by her Uncle Mordecai of a secret conspiracy framed by his wicked advisor, Haman, to kill the Jews living in Xerxes’ kingdom. Mordecai’s piercing words declare God’s sovereign choice to his niece and have echoed through the generations:  

'WHO KNOWS WHETHER YOU HAVE COME TO THE KINGDOM FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS?"

I encourage you to read the book of Esther during the next ten days to uncover the story and remind yourself of God’s far-reaching mercy and grace.  

Queen Esther shows that, with God, there are no accidents and, with Purim coming up quickly, I find it no accident that we would begin at a feast that once again shows God’s incredible redemptive plan through the vehicle of a woman.  

As well, when researching the feast of Purim, I found this little obscure tidbit from about.com under "More Facts About Purim”:

“On the feast of Purim, Jews are required to give gifts to the poor.”

I think it’s kind of cool, and really quite forthright, that both Matthew and Luke find Jesus’ very first announcements (after Satan tempts Him in the same manner he tempted Eve) in the public square and in the synagogue directed toward the poor.

Matthew 5:3  Jesus begins His Sermon on the Mount - the Beatitudes - with, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” 

Luke 4:17-19 Jesus proclaims in the synagogue of Nazareth, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; because He hath sent Me….”

Surely this King Jesus, like Queen Esther before Him, was intended for “such a time as this.” 

_______________________________________________________________

Notes:

1  For reference, I highly recommend you obtain the pamphlet “Feasts of the Bible” published by Rose Publishing - it contains a short and beautifully designed summary of the feasts. 
or
2  For in-depth study on the book of Esther, I recommend Beth Moore’s “Esther: It’s Tough Being a Woman”
3  You can also watch the movie "One Night with the King" on YouTube.
  

Day of the Lord, Joel Ch. 2, Pt. 3 "The Seed"

Again, I have to tell you that had I known my little study of Joel would “consume” me, I might not have begun. The delay between posts has been one of intensive searching for me.  But truly, one bit of information led to another until my head is absolutely spinning and my heart is rejoicing.  I hope that you will get excited over what I will be sharing over the next several posts.  Please bear with me and feel free to share your thoughts on mine.  I encourage you most of all to be driven to the Scripture and not be satisfied with what I say or any teacher.  “Study to show yourselves approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15.  

I know there are a whole lot of people out there waiting for the fulfillment of the fall feasts.  I was one.  I say that with caution, as I know that prior to Jesus, (my wonderful pastor/teacher John Higgins years ago stated) you could be dogmatic and prove it scripturally that the Messiah would hail from Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) or be a Nazarene (Judges 13:5) or even from Egypt (Hosea 11:1), but in the end all three were realized in Christ. Now, I stand that all the feasts have been fulfilled, and I pray that I can demonstrate this by Scripture, yet time is not done with me yet and certainly I have a lot to learn.  I know a lot of people will want to lump me in with “replacement” theology, fulfillment theology, or another o-logy, though truth be told, my o-logy began with the book of Joel and an innocent question of why Peter quoted from it with the coming of the Holy Spirit.

To tell my premise, I must start at the beginning where Adam, through a woman, fell.  

I say through a woman, because the reversal of that fall is through a woman, Israel, that the new Adam would redeem us.  Ever since the beginning, we have waited for the promised redemption from the curse of Satan in Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between thee [the serpent] and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”  Thus through the woman’s seed would come the promised redemption;  the implementation of that required a "calling out".  The woman would be Israel and the seed our Lord and Savior.  I always overlooked a fundamentally important aspect: the woman was not there when Adam received the command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  She was in Adam, yet when she was subsequently separated from Adam was herself accountable. 

Genesis 2:7-8 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.  And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed” ….vs. 15 “to dress it and to keep it.  And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: BUT of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die’.”

Genesis 2:21 “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept:  and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib*, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.”
Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.  And he said unto the woman, ‘Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”  

The initial twisting of Scripture which would continue to be Satan’s pattern.  Sin beginning in the mind, to be conceived in the flesh (James 1:15). The destruction of a marriage with a few simple words, “did God say?”  

“Well, no, my husband said…..”

So we have woman not yet fully realized, but in Adam nonetheless - flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone.  The amazing picture of marriage.  

And the new Adam with his bride.  Not yet realized, but there at redemption, from the foundation of the world, yet separated from Adam, herself accountable.

The new Adam would come through the seed of a woman, Israel.

Simeon, Luke tells us, was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.  Of this seed he said, “Behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel…” Luke 2:34

In Genesis 12:2-3 we find Abram set apart with the vague promise that “I will make of thee a great nation….and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

Abram tries to bring about that seed, but guess what?  Wrong woman.  God had a plan and man’s effort to bring it about weren't going to thwart it.  The marriage to Sarai was through whom the promised “seed” would come. Gen. 17:16, “and I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations…and thou shalt call his name (the son) Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.”  

And, gosh, like Simeon above, Abram and Sarai waited a long time for that promise.  Twenty-five years from the promise to fruition (shout out to my husband!  "For twenty-five years...."). Can you imagine how many “did God say?” moments Abram and Sarai had?  God makes a covenant with Abram (Gen. 15)….be patient, the seed will come…. and confirms the covenant with the sign of circumcision.  Moses’ wife would later, in so many words, call it a bloody covenant (Exodus 4:25).  And it was.  Can you imagine?  In this covenant both Abram and Sarai were given new names; added to each, with I believe every bit of meaning it could muster, was the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet ‘hey’.  According to the website Hebrew4Christians,  “In the Talmud (Menachot 29b) it is said that the ‘breath of his mouth’ refers to the letter Hey - the outbreathing of Spirit” and "when added as a suffix, as in Sara[h], allows the noun to be ‘fruitful’ or ‘productive’."  Cool, hey?

Then in all fleshly absurdity, Abraham is commanded to sacrifice Isaac, his son of promise.  His only son.  The son whom he had waited for.  What tremendous faith to believe that God, who had proven faithful to deliver this child, would deliver this child once again - and Genesis 22:13 tells us it was by the provision of a ram, caught by his horns in the binds of the curse itself - the thorns and thickets.  Remember this picture. 

Abraham sends a servant to find a bride for his son Isaac, a bride from his own people through whom the seed would continue.  How is this bride identified?  As one who would draw water from a well.  A bride who, sight unseen, agrees to a marriage in a faraway land. (Genesis 24)

Isaac and Rebekah then bear two sons.  Twins no less (Genesis 25:24).  Which would be the promised seed?  Not the older to whom the rightful inheritance belonged - Esau, who disregarded the commands of his father by both taking a foreign wife (Gen. 26:34-35) and selling his birthright for a bowl of porridge (Gen. 25:33), but the younger, Jacob, who sinfully deceiving, believed still in the God of his father.  Yet Isaac loved Esau, while Rebekah loved Jacob. That is significant. Through Malachi (1:2-3), God says, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” We might consider Rebekah pushy, but perhaps this woman was close to the heart of God, hearing his voice, where Eve had not.  Again, in a sense, the seed to come through the woman.  Isaac blesses Jacob in Gen. 28:3-4 saying, “…God make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; and give thee the blessing of Abraham to thee, and to thy seed with thee…” and God confirms this in 28:13-14 “….and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

Thus we see from Genesis through Malachi, God had purposed the redemption of a people in the new Adam, through the seed of a woman, and that through a select lineage that seed would come and all the families of the earth would be blessed through that seed. That lineage is summarized quite beautifully in the gospels of Luke and Matthew, populated with Jewish and Gentile men and women of good and ill repute whose stories are told throughout the Old Testament.  Moses is not in that fleshly lineage.  Yet through Moses that seed would be identified; man would get a very clear picture that God is absolutely holy, and recognize through the law that man was absolutely not.  Through Moses the picture of the Messiah would be fully formed, fleshed out through the prophetic roles of deliverer and mediator; the seed that would issue through the bloody covenant of an almighty Father.

And this is the covenant of grace.  The Mosaic laws, traditions and rites bind us like the thorns and the thickets and we remain under its condemnation until God breathes life into us as surely as He breathed life into Adam, and new life into Abram (Abraham) through the seed of promise, the seed of faith, and new life through Sarai (Sarah) bringing forth the fruitful blessing to all nations.  “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.  I will bless her and INDEED give you a son by her.  Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” Genesis 17:16.

Next post will continue the identification of that seed through the Mosaic covenant.

*At one point, this may have sounded far fetched, but we know today, that scientifically stem cells can be directed to become every cell and the rib, with the marrow thereof, is rich in stem cells.  Is anything too difficult for our Lord?