Fellow Church People

[MartyMuppets]

And I've also read the Book of Esther. This rather short book is set towards the end of the Old Testament history after the Jews had returned to their own land when the exile to Babylon was over and had begun preparations to rebuild their temple and nation.
It tells the account of how a young Jewish woman named Esther became the Queen of Persia, when the King Ahasuaras was looking for a bride to rule by his side. He had many young ladies brought to his palace and finally chose Esther, though he did not know her nationality.
Esther's cousin Mordecai, who had raised her like a daughter, since she was an orphan, worked for the King as gatekeeper.
Ahasaurus appointed a wicked man named Haman as his right hand. Everyone in the Kingdom was to bow down to Haman and honour him. Haman was angry because Mordecai would not bow. Upon hearing that Mordecai was Jewish, he told the King that the Jews were a trouble-making people who ought to be destroyed. So Ahasuaras signed a proclamation that on a certain day all Jews were to be annihilated.

 

[MartyMuppets]

When Mordecai learned of it he told Queen Esther and in the end she was able to reveal to her husband that she was a Jewess and begged him to spare her people. Upon hearing this Ahasuaras had Haman executed and appointed Mordecai in his place. He issued a new proclamation granting the Jews permission to defend themselves on the day they were set for execution and they fought valiantly gaining victory over their enemies.
There are many other details to the story of Esther and I recommend you check it out for yourselves sometime.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Something else I will say is that Esther is a unique Bible Book in that God is never mentioned or addressed throughout the text, and yet He is strongly present in the course of the events.
While Mordecai seems to be asking for trouble the reason that he would not bow to Haman is that in principle as a devout Jew Mordecai would not bow down in adoration to anybody or anything except the God he faithfully served. Haman's vindictive anger led to his plot to wipe out all the Jews but God had His counter-plot all worked out. He had placed Esther in such a position as to prevent Haman's design and bring about his retribution upon his own head. You can never win against God.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Finally while it's easy to focus solely upon God fighting against Haman in one sense Haman was only the pawn.
Although he didn't know it Satan had inspired his scheme to exterminate all the Jewish people. Satan was trying to thwart God's intention to bring forth Jesus Christ into the world through His chosen people. If Haman had succeeded with his evil plan, Jesus could not have been born to be the Saviour of the world on the first Christmas Day. God was overthrowing Satan's master scheme so that His people would stay in existence and Christ was born as a member of their race as God decreed. Satan can never defeat God.

It's Christmas tomorrow so I wish you a Merry Christmas and remember how God saw to it that His Son was born long ago despite the obstacles Satan set up in the days of Queen Esther.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Soon it will be 2008. When I get a chance to post again in earnest I shall talk about Ruth next.
God bless you all in the New Year.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Happy New Year.

The short Book of Ruth takes place historically around the time of the Book of Judges.
It tells how an Israelite man, his wife and two sons were living in Moab and the sons married Moabite women, Ruth being one of them. When the man and both sons died over time, the woman, Naomi by name, decided to return to Israel. Out of her two daughters-in-law, Ruth made up her mind earnestly to go with her mother-in-law declaring that her people shall be considered her people and her God as Ruth's own God. But the other Moabite daughter-in-law did not make the same vow and stayed behind.

When they arrive at Naomi's own country Ruth is not only fully accepted into Israelite society, but ends up finding a new faithful husband named Boaz. While God had expressly forbade His people to intermarry with all the other nations so that in principle they would not be led astray into the worship of their idols, it should be noted that allowance was made for exception, if the foreign marriage partner professed sincere wholehearted conversion to the God of Israel and faithfully served Him alone forsaking the gods of his/her own people.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Incidentally Ruth and Boaz have a son and the book ends with a brief genealogy of their child's descendants revealing that Ruth the Moabite woman is an ancestor of none other than the great King David himself.
This means that she was also an ancestor of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, since the genealogy that opens the Gospel of Matthew tracing the family line leading to Jesus mentions David in the list. In fact it evens mentions specifically that Ruth was the mother of Obed, son of Boaz.

 

[MartyMuppets]

The Book of Dueteronomy is essentially Moses farewell address to the Israelites when they were on the verge of entering in to take possession of the promised land of Canaan after their long sojourn through the Wilderness after God forced the Egyptians to release them from their yoke of slavery by His mighty power.
God had told Moses that he would have to die and so he commissioned his assistant Joshua to take his place as leader of the people when they went in to claim their inheritance from God. Moses reminded Israel of how faithful God had been to them and urged them to remain true to Him wholeheartedly.

 

[MartyMuppets]

The final chapter tells how when Moses said his final good-byes he climbed up to the top of a mountain all by himself and viewed all the promised land from the heights. Then he died there on the mountain. It says he was buried in a valley, but nobody knows where he was laid to rest to this day. It seems to imply strongly that God Himself somehow miraculously buried His own faithful servant by Himself so that no human ever saw the place.
Israel wept and mourned for him 30 days. Moses was a very great prophet. It is said that no other prophet ever had the privilege of having God communicate personally with him face-to-face as Moses did so. And Moses was unequaled for the displays of God's power that God performed through him. Much more so than any prophet after him.

 

[dwayne1115]

Well I see that no one has posted in here for a few days so i thought I would. The Lord has really been showing me things in his word, and I would love to share them. Even if only one other person reads this God will still get the golry!


If you have read in another thread (I Am going to try the Salvation Army) then you will have seen that i have been trying to come back to the Lord. The hardest thing for me to do, was to get into my Bible daily. I would always make some big announcement about how I'm going to get fired up and read read read. Then I might read one day two at the most then something would get my attiion somewhere else. Then about a week ago without telling anyone i just picked up my Bible one morning and started reading. I read about Job and how he had everything and loved God with all his heart. Then God asked Saten if he had considerd God's servent Job. God let Saten have his way in Job's life, takeing all his riches his livestock even his kids. Job still would not cruse the Lord. What I got from that is that Saten has really been on my back lattly. He does not want me to come back to the Lord, but he wants me to go farther away from him. Whenever I have tried to come back Saten has thrown something at me to keep me off corse.
Then thanks to a good friend on here i read the parebal about the lost son. I have always loved this story from Jesus, and even preached a message about it. This time though God showed me somthing so wonderfull, and I never really saw this before. When the son was in his worse condition he realized that when he was with his father he had a good life. He also realized that if he went back even to be just a servent that he would inporve his life.
What i got from that was that when i was living for the Lord it was the best times in my life. I also saw that if i came back that my life will be so much better then it ever has been. So to make this already long post shorter. I am slowly getting closer to the Lord, and I could not be happier.