TWO DECREES

My beautiful wife conscripted me to write a devotional for a children's camp that she's leading at Park Springs this weekend. I figure that since it's written I may as well share it on the blog. The theme of the week of camp comes from the book of Esther. Most disciples of Jesus are familiar with the very famous line from chapter 4 and verse 14 as delivered from Esther's cousin Mordecai to Esther herself: "And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" It's pretty difficult to stray from this theme, but I have bucked tradition. There's another important theme in this beautiful story.

This is the problem in the story: Haman convinced the king to give permission to the nations of the whole world to attack and kill the Jewish people. A decree (that means a written command of the king that could not be undone) was written and sent to all the nations under the king’s rule. Here’s what the decree said:

Letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with instruction to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods (Esther 3:13 ESV).

This first decree encouraged all the people of the king’s empire to kill all the Jews and to steal their houses and other belongings. The decree was sent to all the nations from Ethiopia to India. That’s a huge area with 127 countries where many Jews lived. Look at the arrows on this map to see how far this decrees was sent:

The other important thing to know is that God said that the Jews deserved this decree because they turned away from Him and did many things to hurt Him. Long before it happened, God warned the Jews about this through Ezekiel, a Jewish prophet of God. This is what God told Ezekiel to tell the Jews:

Say this to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: As I live, surely those who are in the waste places shall fall by the sword, and whoever is in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in strongholds and in caves shall die by pestilence (Ezekiel 33:27 ESV).

You know that through Esther’s obedience and courage the Jew’s were saved from the this first decree. However, the decree was correct. The decree was sent. God said the decree was deserved and would happen. The decree was fixed and authoritative. So how were they saved? This is how they were saved: a second decree. The second decree gave permission to the Jewish people to defend themselves. And that is exactly what happened. Esther asked the king to write a second decree that was just as authoritative as the first which saved them. Here’s what it said:

. . . saying that the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to gather and defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, children and women included, and to plunder their goods . . . (Esther 8:11-12 ESV).

God also told the Jews through Ezekiel long before it happened that this second decree would come. Here’s what God told Ezekiel to say:

They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid (Ezekiel 34:28 ESV).

This is beautiful! The Jews were so deserving of punishment that a decree had to be made, but God loved the Jews so much that a more important decree was made to save them!

Do you know that our story with God is the same? We have done so many things that hurt God that a first decree had to be written. Here is what the first decree says:

. . . all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God . . . (Romans 3:23 ESV).

&

. . . the wages of sin is death . . . (Romans 6:23a ESV).

We don’t deserve a second decree, but God loved us s much that he wrote a more important decree:

. . . but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23b ESV).

Thank you God for your second decree, written in the blood of Christ and sealed by your Spirit to save me.

Measuring by Mercy

Have you ever looked at a homeless person, a drunkard, an addict, or two adults of the same gender holding hands, and thought something like, “their circumstances and their eternal situation are a result of their own choices?” Or, “if they would just make different choices, they would be able to escape that lifestyle?” It’s hard not to think what very well may be true. However, Jesus calls us to a different course of action than pursuing these kinds of thoughts.

“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:36).

Mature disciples grow into thinking on these situations thus, “but for the mercy of God, there goes me. Ergo, I shall pour out mercy.” Even if God’s mercy did not go so far as to deliver me out of drunkenness or the like, it did deliver me out of something. Apart from this mercy I would be condemned. Those people need the same thing that I have.

The negative counterpart to this mercy is judgement.

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you  . . . (Luke 6:37, 38a).

As I indicated, our initial thoughts may very well be true, but there’s likely a whole lot more truth that we do not see: truth about sexual abuses during childhood, truth about lost jobs in a harsh economy, truth about mental illness, or truth about demonic influences. Judgments limited to what is seen inherently lack much.

This is the kind of mercy I received and the kind of mercy I strive to give:

“. . . good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:37b, 38 ESV).

In the Jewish society during Jesus’ ministry people commonly went to the open market to buy a short supply of grain to get the family by for a few days. Sometimes they pulled up the front of their clothing (the lap portion) into a fold to carry the grain back to the house. The best way to get a full measure was to put some grain in there, jump up and down a few times, shake side to side a few times, and fill it again until it began to spill out. This was the Good measure.

Lord, teach me to measure it out aright that I may know how to experience what you freely measure back. 

Moved by Compassion

Think of a time in your life when you have been most moved looking upon some dire situation. Maybe looking upon victims of war, poverty, natural disaster, disease, or famine. Or maybe it’s something a little closer to home. As a volunteer police chaplain, I often ride with officers. Every time I ride with an officer for the first time, I ask my first-time questions. One of those happens to be, “what’s the toughest thing you’ve ever had to deal with as an officer?” There’s a reoccurring theme amongst the officers. The theme that comes up most often is kids. Kids that get caught in the middle of their parents’ bad choices and are helpless to do anything about it. Maybe a child lives in unspeakable conditions because parents are controlled by drug addiction and everything that goes along with that. These kinds of situations move the officers, not just emotionally, but to thorough follow-up.

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:35-36 ESV).

Matthew uses these versus to summarize the content of Jesus’ ministry. As creator, he works hard toward righting things that are wrong. Preaching to bring people to the living God and healing disease and infirmity. He seems to be standing in a place where he has a bird’s-eye view of a crowd of people. He looks upon them and sees the harassed and helpless, sheep without a shepherd. 

These words are strong. The words here translated to harassed and helpless could be literally translated to flayed (i.e., to strip off the skin) and thrown down. This is what he sees. This is not the way he created things to be. There’s another strong word here: εσπλαγχνισθη. This word means to have a feeling evoked deep down within you...in the gut. This word is a passive verb, meaning that it’s the feeling that moved Jesus. In a sense, he was not the active one, the compassion was active, moving him along.


Throughout the first three Gospels, we find Jesus and Jesus-type parable characters moved by this compassion:

• Moved by compassion, when the crowds were hungry, he multiplied food and fed them.
• Moved by compassion, Jesus healed two blind men near Jericho.
• Moved by compassion, Jesus touched a leper to heal him.
• Moved by compassion, Jesus cast a demon out of a boy.
• Moved by compassion, Jesus raised the son of a widow at Nain.
• Moved by compassion, a Samaritan helped a wounded Jew along side the road.

After looking upon these sheep without a shepherd, sheep that he was ready to take into his own fold, he was moved by compassion. What does it move him to do? I suppose that it moved him to proclaim the good news some more and heal some more, but more immediately, it moved him to look at his disciples and say, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest (Matt 9:37,38). Another strong word here, εκβαλη, is translated “send”. This is the word used when speaking of casting out demons. Important enough to him, that he’s saying that he will send out forcefully, thrust them out. He asks us to pray, pray that he will thrust out many more good Samaritan’s into the harvest.