Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Feb 1961

We have in the book of Esther the importance of writing. In it we have an echo of the divine decree in: " I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven... The Loan hath sworn: the Loan will have war with Amalek from generation to generation" (Exodus 17.14-16). The two outstanding characters of the book of Esther are Mordecai and Haman the Jews' enemy. The former was an Israelite and the latter an Agagite, an Amalekite; no doubt a descendant of the royal house of Amalek, Agag being the title of the kings of Amalek, as Pharaoh was the title of the Egyptian kings. After centuries, the old malicious hatred of the Agagite still was as bitter as ever, to destroy the sons of Israel, and no doubt Haman would have carried out his purpose, in part at least, but for the over-ruling providence of God and the stern faithfulness of Mordecai.

In Esther 6.1, 2 we have the writing above referred to, which to a large extent turned the course of things in favour of the Jews. The last verse of the previous chapter tells how Haman prepared a gallows on which to hang Mordecai.

"Then said Zeresh his (Haman's) wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made" (5.14).

It was a mighty gallows of 70 to 80 feet high to hang a man about 6 feet, more or less. It was not only a means of death, but also an exhibition to all and sundry of how Haman and his friends thought to do with the Jews. But God intervened, for on that night, after the gallows had been completed, the king Ahasuerus could not sleep, for we read "On that night could not the king sleep; and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's chamberlains, of those that kept the door, who had sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus. And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, There is nothing done for him."

Just at that time Haman came into the outer court of the king's house, to speak unto the king to hang Mordecai on the prepared gallows. The king said, "Let him come in." When Haman entered the king asked him, "What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman said in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself?" So he outlined the honour which should be conferred on the man whom the king delighted to honour. Alas for him! it was Mordecai the Jew upon whom the honour was to be conferred. The man whom he hoped to see dangling at the end of the rope of his gallows, is found riding through the street of the city in triumph, and Haman is forced to carry out the king's command. Thoroughly broken, mourning and with his head covered, he returned to his house and related to Zeresh, his wife, and his friends what had befallen him. Then his wise men and Zeresh, his wife, said what is an echo of the words of Exodus 17.14-16, "If Mordecai, before whom thou hast begun to fall, be of the seed of the Jews, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him." Read Esther 6, please.

The end of Haman was that he was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.

We may ask ourselves the solemn question, What will be the records which the day of Christ will reveal concerning ourselves, and who will be those whom the King of kings will delight to honour? Only those will be honoured whose actions have been contrary to the flesh, as typified in the Amalekite, for the flesh ever lusteth against the Spirit, and will destroy those that are, and that which is, of the Spirit. Let us make no mistake about it, the flesh if allowed, will slay those that are spiritual. "But if by the Spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8.13).

We have in a former contribution referred to the fact that the first time we find the word "write," in the Scriptures, is in Exodus i7. 14, in which verse we have the second reference in the Scriptures to the word "book." The writing was a memorial, something to assist the Israel people to remember what Amalek did; it was to assist their memory, for what was written was to be rehearsed by Moses in the ears of Joshua, the leader of Israel in the fight against Amalek, and who continued as leader of Israel after Moses had passed from the scene. We are told that the original Hebrew in the above passage is not write it in "a book," but write it "in the book," as though there was some book in which was kept a detailed account of events.

Then in Exodus 24.4 we are told that "Moses wrote all the words of the Loan." These words were written in what is called "the book of the covenant" (verse 7). This book Moses "read in the audience of the people." Writing implies the ability to read and to understand what is read. The words written by Moses in the book of the covenant were written by God with His Finger (His Spirit) on both sides of the two tables of stone, which were deposited in the Ark of the covenant, and, when the Tabernacle was built, the Ark was placed in the Holy of Holies. The words of the covenant were spoken by God from the top of Sinai, so important did God regard the conditions of His covenant with His people (Exodus 20. 1-22).

Then later we have the engraving of the names of the children of Israel upon the onyx stones upon the shoulder pieces of the ephod of the high priest. This engraving was according to the birth of the sons of Jacob, six names on the one shoulder and six on the other. But the arrangement of the names of the sons of Jacob was different, on the several stones of the breastplate ; there, the names were according to their tribes around the Tabernacle, where we find the tribes in four rows of three. Each tribe had its own preciousness to God as set forth in the preciousness of the stones on the breastplate. The twelve tribes were set in divine arrangement according to the will of God around the Tabernacle. The twelve tribes could have been set in 479,001,600 different positions in relation to each other and to the Tabernacle, but there was only one arrangement that was right. The names of Israel on the shoulder pieces of the ephod and upon the breastplate were for a memorial. Here again the writing was to act upon the memory, and this time it was upon the memory of God. Not that God could ever forget Israel. In the time of Isaiah, the people of Zion were saying,

"Jehovah hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me". But God says "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, these may forget, yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands; thy walls are continually before Me" (Isaiah 49.14-16).

God could not have touched a more tender chord in His love and care for His people than that of mother-love. One has written of the care of a mother for her infant in a sight he saw:

"A woman ... a threadbare shawl fell in scanty folds from her shoulders and covered something held on her left arm. As, struck by her forlorn aspect, I watched her movements, she suddenly stopped and raised the shawl. Then, as when a flood of golden sunlight falling on some field lightens up the scene, such a change came over her face when she turned its earnest gaze on the infant that lay asleep, nestling in her bosom. You never saw a smile of more ineffable delight than this poor creature threw on her helpless charge. It was plain that she would have died for it."

Such was the Lord's love for Israel, though infinitely greater in magnitude, for He died for Israel, and through His abounding grace and mercy Israel will yet be restored to favour with a glory that they never had even in their best days of old. For He has spoken and will implement His word to the fullest extent, beyond what we can imagine. The writing in connexion with Amalek was unto their destruction, but the writing in connexion with Israelis unto their glory.

J. Miller | Feb 1961
Jottings