Playing Memory With the Lord
And then I thought, Hang on a sec. That message seems really familiar. I glanced back over past blogs, and sure enough, nesting in the center of the study I'd done on Esther, I found the exact same thought:
Remembrance.
So, I'm going to lead in from Hannah's story, and then I'm going to re-share Esther's story, and I hope and pray that both are encouraging to you. I think it's a timely message, particularly when, as things happen around us, we feel a little forgotten, a little alone, and a lot horrified by circumstances beyond our control.
I talked last time about Hannah, the forgotten wife, Hannah, the barren woman, Hannah, the uncontrollably envious of Penninah, Hannah's rival for all intents and purposes, Hannah the despairing weeper at the doorpost of the house of the Lord.
She stumbles from her place at the table to that doorpost, and in 1 Samuel 1:10-11, it says: "Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord. And she made a vow, saying, 'Oh Lord Almighty, if You will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head."
For more information on the Nazirite Vow that Hannah made for her prayed-for son, check out this post: Visible, Obvious, and Counter-Cultural. But look at what Hannah asks of the Lord: "Remember me." To note, she's not checking the memory bank of the Lord. She's not tossing fireworks at the sky, like: "Hey, I'm over here!!" She's not presuming memory loss.
Even though sometimes we feel forgotten, we still know the Lord remembers our existence.
Does she deserve this?
No.
Do any of us deserve to have the Lord remember us?
No.
She is asking for mercy. Unmerited favor.
Casting Crowns produced such a good song along these lines: "Who am I... that the Lord of all the earth would care to know my name, would care to feel my hurt?... Not because of who I am, but because of what You've done; not because of what I've done, but because of Who You are! I am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow, a wave tossed in the ocean, a vapor in the wind. Still You hear me when I'm calling; Lord, You catch me when I'm falling. And You've told me who I am. I am Yours."
So rather than asking the Lord's favor because of who she is, Hannah asks for the Lord's favor because of Who HE is.
And that makes all the difference in the world.
So, my 22nd birthday happened on a Sunday. I remember it was a Sunday because I went to church that morning. Thanksgiving was a week away, and I planned to celebrate with my family when I traveled home in a few days, but meanwhile... it was my 22nd birthday, and I was lonely.
That November, I wasn't very far into my first semester at college. I didn't have many friends yet, and the friends I had made were some church friends, but we were still early in our relationship. Because of this, I didn't feel right asking them to make plans based around me. So after church, I drove back to my dorm and I gathered my laundry into a basket and drove it to a place I had prearranged to use the washing machine and dryer.
The thing about laundry is, you can't just leave it; you have to run a cycle or two, and if you don't want to spend all day with it, you have to run the dryer, as well.
So I spent a couple of hours with a book and my laundry, and when the cycles were finished, I folded clothes, reloaded my basket, and returned to the dorm. I remember thinking: What a birthday celebration. Laundry. And yes, I think I did feel just a teensy-weensy bit sorry for myself.
When I walked into the lobby of the dorm, what to my wondering ears should I hear but: "SURPRISE!!!!" It was so shocking and unexpected, it literally took me four or five seconds to realize that the room was full of people I knew, some of my new-ish friends from church and a few of my new school friends. Someone had found out it was my birthday, and they all gathered for games and snacks. One corner of the room had a whole table of soda and chips, and on another table, board games were piled high.
I had such a great time. Our respective stories came piling out; I admitted to feeling lonely and sad that on my birthday I had to do laundry, and they admitted to being not a little alarmed that after all this surprise planning, they couldn't find me in my dorm room and (because I didn't usually inform people of my plans to do laundry) they didn't know where I was. They'd been on the point of giving up when I'd walked in.
Neither of us knew what the other was doing, but when we connected our stories... the celebration was pretty phenomenal. Somebody had been thinking of me, even when I felt forgotten. I was so blessed.
This morning, the Lord showed me a simple but powerful lesson that I found in Esther 8: I don't have to know every step of every plan that He is busy working out in His time and in His way. In fact, I probably shouldn't know; I'd be sure to stick my clumsy fingers in where they aren't necessarily wanted and mix things around.
Esther 8 records the fallout of Haman's hanging from the most recent chapter. "That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came into the presence of the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her. The king took off his signet ring, which he had reclaimed from Haman, and presented it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed him over Haman's estate" (Esther 8:1-2).
There's so much right about this, isn't there? Every story we ever read, we want the threads to all tie together, the bad guy to get his comeuppance, and the good guys to have justice. And here we are, Haman hanged on the very gallows he'd built for Mordecai, Esther given all Haman's wealth, and Mordecai given the king's signet ring, sitting him squarely in the position of power and influence which Haman as Villain #1 had so recently occupied.
But there's still a problem. While Esther and Mordecai are now safe... and honored... the laws of the Medes and Persians, once given, cannot be changed, and there's the tiny issue of the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, during which day it has been written into law (thanks to Haman) that all the Jews across the entire Persian empire can be "destroyed, killed, and annihilated."
The entire nation of the Jews, shattered and fractured though it is, will still be decimated on that day, even if Esther and Mordecai are safe, and the pressure on Esther's shoulders to be an ambassador, a mediator for her people, is still present.
So Esther goes back before the king, once again risking her life, but he, once again, extends his golden scepter and grants her mercy. She falls at his feet, weeping. "Let an order be written overruling the dispatches that Haman, son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, devised and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king's provinces. For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?" (Esther 8:5-6)
Xerxes now has the same problem that King Darius faced in Daniel 6: In his efforts to rule with liberality, to give freedom to his nobles, to perhaps gain popularity, he gives a little too much freedom, a little too much leeway, like a jockey who gives a horse a loose rein. And the nobles in both stories take the bit in the mouth and run with it.
King Xerxes can't change the law that he's let Haman put into place, but he can write a new one that counteracts it. So he tells Queen Esther and Mordecai, who, it seems, is standing nearby, "Because Haman attacked the Jews, I have given his estate to Esther, and they have hanged him on the gallows. Now write another decree in the king's name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king's signet ring -- for no document written in the king's name and sealed with his ring can be revoked." (Esther 8:7-8).
And so Mordecai -- in his new position as King Xerxes' highest noble and as keeper of the king's signet ring -- oversees the issuance of new orders. He summons all the royal secretaries and he dictates a new law according to what King Xerxes has given him permission to do. And all the orders are written in every language of the kingdom, including that of the Jews.
This new law that Mordecai writes gives the Jews everywhere, across the entire kingdom, the ability to assemble and protect themselves on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to -- as the saying goes -- fight fire with fire.
One of my favorite stories from the Little House on the Prairie books is when a flash fire sweeps across the prairie, right where Laura lives with her family in their little homestead. They see the fire coming, and they realize, they're in trouble. There's no way out of it and they don't have time to get to the river, because the fire is coming too quickly.
So Laura's Pa lights a backfire -- that is, he lights a small, easily controlled fire that burns a swath of grass just around the property, and when the larger fire reaches the burned portion... it goes around it, unable to find anything to burn where the fire Pa had lit had already burned.
And this is Mordecai's plan: Don't give the enemy anything to burn. When the fire reaches the assigned date and time, it finds no weakness there.
In Esther 8:15-17, "The city of Susa held a joyous celebration. For the Jews it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honor. In every province and in every city, wherever the edict of the king went, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many people of other nationalities became Jews, because fear of the Jews had seized them."
There are some handy-dandy time markers in this book. The day that Haman issued his original decree that the Jews could all be killed was issued on "the thirteenth day of the first month" (Esther 3:12). The day that Mordecai wrote his backfire edict was "the twenty-third day of the third month, the month of Sivan" (Esther 8:9). Using modern-day terminology, Mordecai's backfire edict was given in the twelfth year of King Xerxes' reign on June 25, 474 B.C. two months and ten days after Haman's original proclamation.
And D-Day (the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar) was set for March 7, 473 B.C.
So, during those two months and ten days, nine and a half looooonnnnnngggggg weeks for the Jews... palace intrigue and the plans of the Lord are moving forward.
But none of the Jews knew it. The only thing the Jews knew was that they were condemned to die, every last one of them, even the children, and that they had around eleven months to get their affairs in order.
Y'all, I've never been on death row, but I wonder if this was the same tense sense of impending doom that the Jews were feeling?
All they knew was that the edict issued by Haman still hung in their city squares, and that they were a despised and cursed people, because of their heritage. Those would have been dark days, a hopeless nine and a half long weeks.
And then, suddenly, one random day the king's couriers ride into town. "By order of the king," they read in every language of the people living everywhere, "the Jews are given the right to defend themselves."
In fact, it's pretty likely, given Esther and Mordecai's positions, that the king's own military will also help to protect and deliver the Jews.
SURPRISE!!! What did the Jews think on that day? Somebody remembered them, even when they felt forgotten and alone. Somebody fought for them, even when they couldn't be seen.
They had a king in their corner!
We are all, lest we forget, on death row. Except for the saving grace of Jesus, we are all condemned to die.
But Somebody is fighting for us. We have a King in our corner!
Hannah directed her petition to a King, specifically, the King of kings. She depended upon His unmerited favor, she asked that He remember her, that He actively work on her behalf, even when she couldn't see what He was doing.
Here's the end of this big/little story in 1 Samuel 1:19-20: "Early the next morning, [Elkanah, Penninah, Hannah, and company] arose and worshiped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah lay with Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. So in the course of time, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel [which means: 'God has heard'], saying, 'Because I asked the Lord for him."
The Lord remembered Hannah, and she didn't see results of that remembrance until the Lord's clock ticked to the exact moment of fulfillment that He had for her.
Oh, y'all, this resonates with me! How often I have thought the Lord has forgotten me, because He did not check my calendar. He didn't check my Honey-do list. He neglected to ask me when I thought things needed to happen.
The Holy Spirit sort of dropped this in my lap this morning, with all the explosive effect of a bomb. Luke 22:19 says: "And [Jesus] took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to [His disciples], saying, 'This is my body, given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
We are to be busy and working, going into action on the Lord's behalf, too!!
When we take this reciprocal busyness into account... it takes care of a whole lot of molehills that we've made into mountains. Not that Hannah didn't feel like she wasn't pushing against a mountain. Not that Esther wasn't also shoving against a mountain in her own circumstances.
But when you're remembering the Lord Almighty, and the Lord Almighty is remembering you... it sort of puts the whole thing into perspective, doesn't it?
We serve an active Lord, who is intensely interested in our circumstances and the condition of our hearts. When you feel forgotten, remember the twenty-one days of Daniel, remember the 9 1/2 loooong weeks of Esther, remember the "in the course of time" of Hannah. Remember the King in your corner. Because He's remembering you.
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