Victory in Despair

Esther 9:1 – Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king’s command and edict were about to be carried out, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred:  the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them.”

We can all surely remember the numerous cartoons we used to watch every Saturday morning.  In many of these cartoons, there was a hero that usually encountered some sort of problem where all hope seemed to be lost.  Right when the dire situation gets worse though, the show then cuts to a commercial break.   But suddenly right after the commercial break, we find that everything has suddenly changed.  What seemed to be a hopeless situation is now an opportunity for the hero to shine and save the day.  For me, this scene repeated over and over again as I watched the Power Rangers every day.  They always seemed to be losing as the bad guy got stronger, then all of a sudden the tides changed, and they came out victorious.

This scene can also be found in the Bible in the book of Esther.  This whole book tells the story of the deliverance of the Jewish people from destruction due to the God’s working through the life of Esther, a woman who became the Queen of Persia.  Although the word God is not mentioned even once in the whole book, His hand can be seen throughout the whole story.  To summarize the book, what happened was an evil and narcissistic man named Haman sought the destruction of the Jewish people because one Jewish man, Mordecai, refused to bow to him, for he was Jewish.  (He probably refused to bow down because he saw bowing down to Haman as a form of worship, and the Jews were to worship only the Lord their God, just as we Christians should only serve one Master, Jesus Christ.)  Since Haman was a man of high position in the court of the king, he sought the king’s support to destroy these people, to which he was given the king’s approval.  When the word went out that on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, all the enemies to the Jews were to annihilate the Jewish people throughout all 127 provinces of the Persian empire, the Jews began to weep for all they could see was despair – their destruction was imminent, for the law of the king could not be overturned.  Fortunately, for the Jews, they had an inside “man” or should I say woman, Esther, Mordecai’s cousin and the current Queen of Persia.  Esther then went to plead for the life of her people, to which, she was granted her request by the king.  When the king found out what Haman had done, though unintentionally, for Haman did not know Queen Esther was also a Jew, Haman was hanged and killed.  Unfortunately, law was still law, and the thirteenth day of Adar was still assigned as a day for the enemies of the Jews to kill the Jewish people; therefore, a new law was instated which allowed the Jewish people to fight back against their enemies.  Due to this new law, that thirteenth day of Adar was no longer a day of despair for the Jewish people, but a day of victory, for all who opposed the Jews were smitten and killed to the point where 75,000 enemies were killed in one day.  A day of despair became a day of victory.  A day that was supposed to be rejoicing for the enemies became a day of rejoicing for God’s people.  God had worked all things out for good for His people.  The people then used the next days to celebrate what the Lord had done for them, establishing the holiday of Purim for future generations to observe, reminding them of this deliverance.

This story is actually a wonderful reminder for us as Christians of what happened on that Good Friday, where Christ died for our sins.  On that day, when Christ was beaten to near death, nailed to the cross, and crucified, left to encounter shame, pain, and ridicule, all hope seemed lost.  It was at that moment that evil appeared to have won.  The Devil and his minions were clearly rejoicing thinking that they had gotten the last word.   They had finally beaten God.  They had finally shut Him down.  Yet in the midst of all this pain, suffering, and evil, we find that it was not a moment of despair but of victory for the Lord, for although He was suffering, He opened the door of salvation for all those who would believe on His name.  It was at that moment that we were all given new life through His shed blood.  It was at that moment we were given forgiveness and justification for our sins.  It was at that moment we were given victory over death.  Just like the Jewish people, we as Christians and disciples of Jesus Christ should take the time to reflect and remember what Christ had done for us.  Instead of just remembering this just once a year like the annual Purim, let us take the time every day to reflect on the sacrifice of Christ and the victory He brought on that day.  No longer need we be in despair, for Christ has gotten us the victory.