There come those moments in our lives when we take stock of what we have accomplished that will have any lasting significance and often times it can become a rather depressing exercise. Usually everything we have striven for has been with ourselves in mind and often times that is the crux of our problem. God can use those who are willing to work out His plan for mankind. Often times the person He uses is simply a sinner with a repentant heart.
Moses had slain one of Pharaoh’s men who had been abusing the Hebrews and he buried him in the desert sand, but knowing it was wrong he ran away and hid for a time, sorrowful for what he had done. God called out to him knowing that he had a heart for the Hebrews and gave him powers to do mighty signs and wonders whereupon he led the Hebrew nation to freedom.
Paul formerly known as Saul of Tarsus was a Pharisee and a temple priest. He became incensed over how his fellow Jews were suddenly following this new Christian sect and sought to put an end to what he considered apostasy pulling new Christian believers out of their homes and murdering them in the streets. But God knowing that Paul had a heart for God and was doing what he thought was the righteous thing to do to protect the Jews, struck him blind one day on the road to Damascus and Paul later became one of the greatest Christian preachers of all time. So we see here that God was able to use two people who had essentially become murderers, turning their lives around and using them for His glory.
The authors of the four gospels were just every day people. Matthew was a tax collector and Mark is believed to be a young man who later traveled with Paul. Luke was a physician and a man of letters, and John a Greek speaking Christian who may have lived in a mostly Gnostic community during the second century.
This is a story of magnificent courage and of how Esther saved the Jewish people from certain annihilation.
Esther was a beautiful young Jewish woman, an orphan who had been adopted by Mordecai and his wife, as their own daughter. She had become a member of the Persian King’s harem during the Babylonian captivity of the Hebrew nation. Queen Vashti had insulted the King in front of many dignitaries, satraps and nobles, so she fell into disfavor and he sought a new queen from a number of his concubines.
When it was Esther’s turn to go before the king, she asked for nothing except what the king’s eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Esther found favor in the eyes of all who saw her. And when Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal palace the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she found grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.”
Meanwhile while sitting at the gate, Mordecai had overheard two men conspiring to harm the king and he reported it to Queen Esther who in turn imparted it to the King who had both men hanged. Now there was a man named Haman who was a rather despicable character that the King had elevated to high office and he hated Mordecai who continually refused to bow down to him so he conspired to have Mordecai hanged and the Jews who he also hated killed. Mordecai, who was Esther’s adoptive father apprised Esther of what was about to happen and along with the other Jews requested that she speak to the king on their behalf. She was fearful as the king was unapproachable without being officially summoned to see him. She said, “all the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman went to the king inside the inner court without being called, there was but one law; all alike would be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter that he may live. And I have not been called to come in to the king these last thirty days.” Then Esther asked Mordecai to gather all the Jews in Susa, and hold a fast and pray on her behalf. Afterward Esther approached the King and mercifully he held out the golden scepter to her as she found favor with him. She then proceeded to request that he and Haman come to a dinner she would prepare in a few nights. Later while unable to sleep the king was thinking of Mordecai and how he had exposed the plot against him, he decided that this man should be rewarded. Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him. So the king’s servants told him Haman was standing in the court and the king said, “Let him come in.” So Haman came in, and the king said to him, “What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?” And Haman said to himself, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?” And Haman suggested some great honors to be bestowed, then to Haman’s dismay the king said to Haman, “Make haste, take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Modecai leaving out nothing that you have mentioned.” So Haman took the robes and the horse, and he arrayed Mordecai and made him ride through the open square of the city, proclaiming, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.”
Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate while Haman hurried to his house, humiliated and mourning with his head covered.
So the following day the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther, and as they were drinking wine the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even if it’s half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.” Then King Ahasuerue said to Queen Esther, “Who is he and where is he who would presume to do this?” And Esther said, “A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!” So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai. And the King put Mordecai over all of Haman’s house and fortunes and authorized the Jews to slay all of their enemies in his kingdom and all who had sought to destroy them.
Thus God elevated a young orphan woman of no particular means, a concubine and Hebrew captive of the Babylonian Empire to do His will and save Israel from certain destruction.
The church grew rapidly as the disciples scattered to the four corners of the Roman Empire which comprised the known world while spreading the Gospel (good news) of Christ. It was met with diametric opposition from Caesar who had declared himself to be god and had demanded the worship of his subjects. Those Jews who hadn’t been privy to and had rejected Jesus as the Messiah were equally contentious and a great persecution arose and the new Christians were hunted down and killed by the hundreds. During this time there were four different sects within the Jewish system. There were the Pharisees who believed in life after death and loved to be seen by others as religious and righteous. There were the Sadducees who were non-religious and did not believe in life after death. Then came the Essenes, a cloistered sect of Jewish scholarly types who remained separated from the normal affairs of daily life in Israel and finally there were the Zealots, they were the anarchists of their time who’s desire it was to rid Israel of Roman domination. Judas Iscariot one of the early twelve disciples and the one who betrayed Christ may have been a Zealot. These four factions are still represented today by differing designations in most societies. There was a man named Saul of Tarsus, a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the Jews, he was a Pharisee and a temple priest who was so incensed by this new Jewish sect of Christ believers that he became the zealous chief overseer of the persecution of Christians in Israel, pulling them from their houses and slaying them in the streets. On the road to Damascus he was struck down and blinded suddenly hearing a voice, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” For the account read: Acts 9: 1-22.
Following that he became known as the Apostle Paul and was by far the greatest evangelist ever, instrumental in leading untold numbers to a redemptive relationship with Christ.
Having been a scholar of scripture and former temple priest Paul wrote the following letter to the Hebrews, his fellow Jews as a means of an explanation about all that has passed and to encourage them to receive their Messiah.
(Hebrews 9: 1- 28) Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary. For a tent was prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence; it is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain stood a tent called the Holy of Holies, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, which contained a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.
These preparations having thus been made, the priests go continually into the outer tent, performing their ritual duties; but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the errors of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the sanctuary is not yet opened as long as the outer tent is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various ablutions, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Hence even the first covenant was not ratified without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.” And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own; for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
