It’s Thanksgiving. Not Easter. Yes, I’m grateful for
over-stuffed turkeys and aromatic pies, time with my family, laughs shared with
friends, and another blessed year. Yes, I’m rejoicing that I live a life of plenty,
that God has blessed us with a bounteous abode, abundant land, and canine
adorers. My stereotypical little life is a thing I have great thanks for. But
that which my heart sings the loudest for, that for which I can find no words
but I must express, is my gratitude for the spiritual blessing that begat all
spiritual blessings. I thank God for Christ.
I praise God for his peace in my confusion, his joy when I’m
discouraged, and his love when I want to be angry; I praise God for his death
for my life.
Lately I have been studying the book of Esther. I’ve read it
before, and it’s a good story. Esther becomes queen in time to save her people
from annihilation. But the question has been hounding me: why is this story in
the Bible? And in the few nights I
prayed for revelation and truly studied, the Holy Spirit whispered. I could
suddenly see the fantastic way this story pictures in a human romance God’s heart
and mind.
Esther was not perfect, as a lamb must be. But she was
submissive to her cousin-turned-father, and showed honor to the husband she was
not allowed to choose. She invited Haman to feast with her, and endured the realness
of evil without Mordecai’s protective presence. Xerxes in turn renounced his
closest counselor and trusted friend for the love of his endangered bride. The Jews
were empowered and overcame their assailants on that fateful day ever after
entitled Purim, a day of salvation.
The parallels astounded me. Each element seemed to point to
Christ’s perfect offering, with a human spin. Esther released her life without
dying. Xerxes granted life to the nation he first sold into destruction, all
with eyes for one woman and ears for whomever spoke.
The record of this small segment in time is a breath-taking
panorama of heavenly design. It emphasized God’s zealous protection of his
chosen in the past. Even Zeresh realized that “’If Mordecai, before whom you have
begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him but will
surely fall before him.’” Medes and Persians understood God’s reputation. Yet
this epic, like a glass of water, also magnified Christ’s coming story. Ever so
clearly, this type of Christ fit together piece by piece and pictured salvation.
Esther was afraid to offer herself, and prayed for three
days. Christ wept and endured agony at the thought of his suffering. Xerxes
killed his advisor rather than lose his wife. God turned away from Christ to
win us.
It is for all this I feel gratitude this Thanksgiving. “Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing…even as he chose us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him…to the praise of
his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” Ephesians
1:3,4 and 6.
Praise God from whom
all blessings flow.
Praise him all
creatures here below.
Praise him above ye
heavenly hosts.
Praise Father, Son and
Holy Ghost.
Amen.
