Knee Deep in the Hooah!

I have been in a fun and pretty enlightening Bible study this summer. It is written by Beth Moore and the study is on the book of Esther. Now, if you have never watched Moore give a lecture, then you are missing out. First and foremost, it’s very evident that the woman really loves God and really has a God given love for women. Second of all, she is absolutely hilarious. Her sense of humor is something I admire greatly. She has no problem poking a little fun at herself, not in a way that is self-deprecating, but in a way that shows you she is real.

One of the themes through the book of Esther is the reversal of destiny. Moore does a great lecture about the reversal of destiny and how it is written out in the form of a chiastic structure (a.k.a. inverted parallelism).

One very common example of the use of a chiastic structure that Moore points out is “Ask not what your Country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your Country!”

As depicted in the graph below taken (and I modified it) from Wikipedia, please note the color codes.

Now this is a gross oversimplification of a pretty complex structure and literary device. It still has me deeply intrigued though. I have studied inverted parallelism before. I have seen it used, but never had I connected it with the reversal of destiny in the way that Moore has so brilliantly captured in this Bible study.

One of my favorite stories in the book of Esther is when King Xerxes calls Haman in to his chambers to ask him how the king should bless the Jew named Mordecai. Now, if you are unfamiliar with this story, you need to read the book, but in order to hold your interest… unbeknown  to the King, Haman has spent all evening having gallows made where he plans to hang Mordacia the Jew (you know the man the king wants to honor now for saving his life a few years back?)

OK, one other juicy tidbit here — the king signed a edict claiming that all Jews were to be terminated. Oopsies, he forgot to check the nationality of the Queen. It just so happens she is Jewish too.

The book is chock full of ironies, delicious twists, and awesome reversals of destiny. As Moore pointed out in her lecture “Not all ironies are a reversal of destiny, but all reversals of destiny are ironic.”

One other literary tool she mentioned last week is the peripety. The definition of a peripety is a sudden change of events. However, even though the events may be “sudden” that does not mean they are always pronounced. One commentator on the book of Esther that Moore cited stated that he believed the peripety of the story happened when King Xerxes could not sleep the night before the banquet with his Queen. It is in that sleepless night that his Chronicles are read to him and the name of Mordecai the Jew was brought to the forefront of his memory.

So why am I writing about this here and now? I saw a headline tonight at Fox that reminded me of the peripety and the reversal of destiny. The headline screamed “1969: The Year That Changed America!”

The article goes on to site the race to the moon, the sexual revolution (more like devolution, but let’s not be picky here), the drug culture, the hippy movement, etc.

It made me reflect on how many Americans today are in deep grief and mourning over the current status of this Country. We mourn because we see our freedoms eroded away by (sometimes) people more immoral than ourselves setting rules that they themselves do not have to follow. We see the breakdown of the family, skyrocketing divorce rates, the public school system graduating millions of illiterate people, and the list goes on and on and on.

Has our own destiny been reversed? Has the once great Country known as the United States of America been set on a path that will permanently alter her destiny?

• We have gone from being the lender to being the beggar.
• We went from valuing the protection of innocent human life to celebrating and paying for the murder of the unborn.
• We once threw parades to welcome home our soldiers, and now they are mistreated and abused.
• We once believed in accountability, and now we love excuses.
• We once had borders that were actually considered a safeguard, and now we have borders that are a joke.
• We once had a legal system that put hardened criminals behind thick iron bars, and now they are pushed through a justice system with a revolving door.
• We once cared about raising our children to love this Country and show their allegiance, and today many children have never said the pledge.
• We used to send missionaries to places all over the world, and now we are the fastest growing mission field out there.
• We used to be grateful, and now we all feel entitled.
• We once was a beacon of democracy and freedom, and now we are having to fight tooth and nail against the slavery that is found in socialism.
• We once believed that sexual morality was essential for a healthy culture, and now we ridicule and mock sexual purity.
• We once believed in the freedom of religion, but now we openly mock and publicly humiliate people of faith when they will not embrace homosexuality, abortion, or other behaviors they consider immoral.

You get the idea.

So, is there hope? Of course there is hope. There is always hope. My hope is not in the USA though. I am very patriotic, but I assure you my faith has never been in this Country. It is in the one true God of scripture. He will certainly protect His children as a good Father does.

One final thought for the Christians reading this today. Moore pointed out a while back in the Esther study that Mordecai warned Esther to not fool herself into thinking that veiling her identity would protect her from the coming slaughter of the Jews. When Esther and Mordecai communicate about the edict put forth to kill all the Jews in Susa, Esther’s fatherly uncle tells her

”Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

For such a time as this! It’s a good reminder that even when the tempest of the storm raises over us, we need not hide our Christianity, our faith, our beliefs, our values, our morals or our patriotism. We need to be transparent and trust in the sovereign providence of God.

Isaiah 40:26-31
26 Lift up your eyes on high,
And see who has created these things,
Who brings out their host by number;
He calls them all by name,
By the greatness of His might
And the strength of His power;
Not one is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
And speak, O Israel:

“ My way is hidden from the LORD,
And my just claim is passed over by my God”?
28 Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the LORD,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
31 But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.