An Enemy on Earth for Friends in Heaven
As a final wrap up in Old Testament class this semester, we were prompted to reflect on Esther 4:1-17, and relate it to our personal faith today.
Reflecting upon Esther 4:1-17, and particularly Esther’s remarks in Verse 16, I’m reminded of the popularized phrase from the American Civil War attributed to David Farragut, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.” When courage is really called upon, action may not be rational, but faith may surely be implicit. A personal calculus cannot be what friends will I be left with after venturing out in faith… because we are subject here on earth to an enemy that prowls like a lion (1 Peter 5:8). The enemy had captured the hearth of Haman in the experience of Esther, Mordecai, and the Jews of their day.
Much is made as to the Book of Esther being a part of the Biblical canon and having the distinction of lacking any mention of God as well as lacking any theistic language.[1] While Esther herself couches her plan of beseeching Ahasuerus with accompanying calls to fast (v. 16), it isn’t ascribed as to God’s deliberate hand in the action. However, the against-all-odds circumstance does relate to what the Israelites faced against Goliath and the Philistines (1 Sam. 17). Perhaps this was on her heart in defense of her people? David’s emergence into the narrative of decisive action and fearlessness of Goliath draws parallel with Esther acting under the impending national doom that Haman plans to enact (Esther 3:13). Perhaps for Esther Psalm 46 was at the ready on her tongue, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Ps. 46:1) Perhaps due to its closeness in time and demonstrable faith respective to those two accounts, Esther thought of Daniel in the lion’s den during the exile in Babylon? (Dan. 6) [Hat tip Professor H. for the Daniel note]
Ironically, I draw a parallel to the intent of Esther, and her words “if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16) respective to my decision to seek Liberty University and enroll in this program. Three months ago, I was an applicant to seminary for a bi-vocational program that would engage me to serve at the small Lutheran congregation where I served as Church President. Amid an unexpected pastoral vacancy, this application last fall was a unanimous act by the congregation’s membership to promote church work from within… until it wasn’t. Enmity ensued around Christmas with several established, if misguided, elements vying for influence and control of the overall ministry.
The enemy had inserted a wedge of discord and slander into our community that I believe, in one way, was intended to discourage discipleship in His church, and specifically my pursuit of the Lord through education. The enemy wants to counteract the church wherever he can, and the church at large, in fullness, is a gathering of disciples growing in the Spirit.
Suffice to say, come the new year, it was time to dust off our sandals from a situation where my wife and I, servants in this church for years (and involved in its broader ministries for over a decade), had been defamed with reckless abandon. It was hard to consider leaving, but I relate to Esther’s sentiment that “if I perish [in name through slander], I perish.”
I’m not a victim, to be clear, but we experienced how preaching Christ crucified was creating enemies. We did not face the physical annihilation of the Jews as in Esther, but our reputations were given like treatment, trampled by the kind of hearts described in Titus 1:15. The counter parties in this season were captive to a view that was inverted to our own — preferring selfish ambition and vain conceit to the Lordship of Jesus.
In hindsight, that was a deliverance moment in my own small way, akin to how Esther and Mordecai vindicated the Jews by their actions against Haman. These few months later, it is clear the altogether different seminary institution was a blessing in its right and a necessary pivot. Our family prospers in spiritual health, and we are in a new healthy church that is focused on the real us meeting the real Jesus. In fact, parallel to Esther, David, the Psalmist, or Daniel… this new church is growing because of palpable fear of the Lord, not unlike Esther 8:17 in specific.
God was deliberate with the challenging season so that faithful action, even if implicit for Him, may reflect as faithfulness in Him.
A few months later, as my wife and I still reflect on the enmity in the old congregational locale, and in its ministries. It is frankly sad, lamentable even. We reflect on how here on Earth, for the cause of Christ, He told us we will endure the accrual of enemies as much, if not more, than the collection of disciples in fellowship (Matt. 10:25).
My wife recalled a quote by Margaret Thatcher, that she referenced to the Queen of England, attributed to the poet Charles Mackay in his poem “No Enemy”:
You have no enemies, you say?
Alas! my friend, the boast is poor;
He who has mingled in the fray
Of duty, that the brave endure,
Must have made foes!
If you have none,
Small is the work that you have done.
You've hit no traitor on the hip,
You've dashed no cup from perjured lip,
You've never turned the wrong to right,
You've been a coward in the fight.
[1] Victor P. Hamilton. Handbook on the Historical Books (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2001) 539.