Recently I was able to be with some fellow soldiers for a tour of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania’s grounds. It is the site of three days of devastating battle from 1-3 July 1863 that still boggles the mind. For the military strategy, the heroism, the carnage, the soul-splitting, nation-sundering impacts, Gettysburg is incomparable.
It is one thing for me to read books about it, but when you walk the grounds, it changes you. Period. My deep gratitude to the soldiers from Ft. Indiantown Gap, PA and our excellent historian and guide, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Shick, for the day.
This view above is from Little Round Top overlooking Devil’s Den.
Looking out over the field of Pickett’s Charge, a battle that altered the trajectory of the war.
The Wheatfield. Over 15,000 soldiers were killed here in one day.
We landed in Atlanta after a 35-minute delay, but I was still going to be able to make my next flight to Pennsylvania. I had time to go by a coffee kiosk for a quick breakfast and get to my concourse and gate. I took the Plane Train to my concourse, patronized my favorite coffee place in that concourse, walked to my gate, found a seat, opened my ruck to retrieve a book, completed a reading of another of the seven short pieces in a book I am thoroughly enjoying, and waited for my steaming coffee to cool.
I finished another of the fictional gems in my book, finished my coffee, discarded my rubbish in the appropriately marked cans nearby, and waited for the announcement coming shortly. Within moments, the lady’s voice came on, though she sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher–“Wah wah . . . Wah wah . . . Wah . . .” She sounded like she was eating the microphone, perhaps digesting it.
Nonetheless we boarded the plane and took our seats in typical fashion. As I boarded, those in wheelchairs and pregnant women, and parents with small children, were of course already on. I don’t know why, but I always gravitate towards those who need extra help. Something in me is determined to help those who may be overlooked or minimized.
As I boarded, there were two older women who were clearly weak and needed patience and perhaps a kind word from someone. They were struggling to get their purses and backpacks in the overhead bins. “Good morning, ma’am. A hand?” I asked. The clear leader of the two ladies turned around and looked at me in uniform. (I’m guessing they were twins, at least sisters. They had the same build, the same haircuts, even the same facial expressions.)
“O, thank you, sir,” she said. “And thank you for your service.”
“I saw you were getting peanut M&M’s out of your backpack; that’s what I’m talking about. Clearly you’re good people,” I said. They both laughed simultaneously and looked at each other and smiled. I liked them both immediately. They just needed a kind word and some patience from folks.
I got their backpacks stowed and took my seat a couple of rows behind them, and the rest of the passengers were all finally boarded. When we were all seated and about to back up from the gate, the leader of the two ladies came walking slowly down the aisle with an unopened yellow bag of peanut M&M’s. “Will you please take some?” she asked me.
“I really shouldn’t,” I said.
“Please,” she said. “It would mean a lot to us.”
She tore off the corner of the yellow bag and poured some candies into my hand. “Thank you for your service, sir.”
And thank you, ma’am, I thought. You and your companion have just made my day. (And the smell of peanut M&M’s after a cup of coffee ain’t too bad, either.) It’s the small things that aren’t, well, small.
I was flying to Pennsylvania. But the journey did not begin so well. When I was at my first airport, after we passengers were seated, and the flight attendants went through their safety and comfort spiel, we were, I thought, headed to our first stop.
The man to my left was a talker. He saw me reading my book but he was undeterred. “What unit are you in?” he asked. (I was in uniform.) I told him. He went on to tell me about himself, what shop he worked in back on post, what unit he was part of, people he knew, etc. He was quite pleased with himself. I listened for him to take a breath. Then, I thought, I would return to my book.
I was literally saved by a bell. It was my personal cell phone. A friend texted me and my old iPhone went “Ping!” I did not hesitate. I reached for my phone to read the text. Though it was nothing terribly interesting either, I thought this could be my escape from Mr. Awesome’s fascination in telling me how fortunate I was to be seated next to him.
Suddenly the pilot’s voice came on the intercom speaker. “Folks, this is your pilot speaking. Unfortunately we are going to be delayed. We have too much weight underneath. We are going to have to move some of the checked items back into the cabin. Thank you for your patience. As soon as we the weight acceptably arranged, we’ll push back on be on our way.”
He was articulate, to the point, and calm. I liked the way the pilot spoke and dealt with things, and now I had more time with Mr. Awesome. (Just a few more reasons to bring BIG BOOKS when flying. You may experience delays. And you may even have Mr. Awesome seated next to you. And if you do, you will know about it, I promise. He’ll be sure to tell you.)
Principle: Darkness always resists the light; expect resistance, but persevere.
In Esther 5, we see what perhaps all people have encountered–spiritual resistance. Here was the context. Haman, the main antagonist in the book of Esther, has plotted a Jewish holocaust. Mordecai, a faithful believer in the one true God, exiled to Persia, is both courageous and faithful. He resolves to trust the Lord, and he bolsters his cousin Esther’s faith in God, too. She, too, is a Jewish exile under Ahasuerus’s pagan rule. Mordecai’s famous words to Esther are, “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).
When Haman thinks he is to be honored by the king and the queen for being the man of the hour, Haman, a hater of Jews and of God, despises Mordecai. Why? Because Mordecai understands who Haman is, how wicked he is, and Mordecai does not fear Haman. Mordecai trusts the Lord.
If that is not clear enough, here is the way the text reads: “But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, that he [Mordecai] neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai” (Esther 5:9b).
Here’s the principle again: Expect resistance when you’re doing the right thing. Darkness hates the light. But persevere in righteousness and witness God work.
“O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name” (Daniel 9:19, ESV).
We do not deserve mercy, Lord. We do not.
I pray that you spare for your name’s sake, because of your goodness, because of your nature. Not ours. Because ours is rotten to the core.
Give us new hearts, new minds, and transform our affections to those that love what is good, true, and beautiful. For we have rebelled in thought, word, and deed, and you alone are sufficient to redeem us sinners. Have mercy, Lord, for your great name’s sake.
I had just taken off a few minutes earlier from Indianapolis and was headed to Atlanta. I opened my blind on the left side of the plane. Because we were headed south, the sunrise was in full view.
A storm was below us now, in the heavy clouds. The pilot had raised us above that.
And aurora spoke in pictures Psalm 8 and Psalm 19, and I received a sermon via God’s handiwork.
One of the most dramatic passages in the entire 66 books of the Bible, the fourth chapter of Esther, pushes the drama of the book bearing her name to one’s viscera.
The Characters:
Haman (the villain; pagan; a hater of Jewish exiles and of God; he made a vow to launch a Jewish holocaust)
Mordecai (a faithful believer in God; cousin/avuncular authority figure to Esther, his Jewish cousin)
Esther (the new [Jewish] queen to Ahasuerus, a pagan king; Esther and fellow Jews are in exile in Persia [Iran]; she is tasked with the impossible–namely, go to her captor/king Ahasuerus, and tell the truth about wicked Haman’s plan to launch a holocaust of the Jewish people
What Esther Did:
She and her friends fasted (4:16a).
She counted the costs (4:16b).
What Mordecai Did:
Mordecai understood the times; he saw through the facades to how evil things really were, and he resolved to be God’s man (Esther 4:13-14).
Mordecai understood that failure to act was to act; it would be complicity. “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)
Two Profound Theological Verses:
Mordecai’s words to Esther: “And who know whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this? (4:14)
Esther’s words: ” . . . . and if I perish, I perish” (4:16b)
Encouragement: The doctrine of providence hinges upon faithfulness and courage. Mordecai is an example of both. Esther is an example of both. And Christian pilgrims today, too, will do well to think upon these things. Faithfulness and courage. What do they have to do with Christ? Everything. He was/is the only One who is wholly faithful and true. He was the One who was faithful even unto death, the ignominy of the cross. Mocked, stripped, beaten, forsaken–and yet he endured from sinners such shame for the sake of redeeming a people for God. Faithfulness and courage, dear reader, and the providence of God.
One of my favorite and crucial episodes in Esther’s story centers on the faithfulness of Mordecai. Mordecai was the much older cousin to his Jewess cousin, Esther. He functioned more like an avuncular influence upon Esther. We might think of him as an “Uncle Mordecai” to Esther. Anyway, after Vashti refused to parade herself for Ahasuerus’ ogling (Est 1:12), and Memucan had stepped up and proposed ways for the king to put his foot down (Est 1:16), and the king had heeded the aforementioned counsel (Est 1:21), we see Esther chosen to be queen in Vashti’s place. Esther was clearly a physically beautiful woman (Est 2:7, 17). She was markedly stunning. But the episode upon which I want to focus here concerns not Esther’s physical beauty but Mordecai’s and Esther’s faithfulness.
Here’s what is so important to remember: Both Esther and Mordecai were Jewish exiles. They were captives. And the natural reaction most of us would have would not be to try and please our pagan leaders, and certainly not seek their welfare. But that is exactly what you see happen in Esther 2:19-23. Mordecai discovers a plot against Ahasuerus’ life, and Esther (at the request of Mordecai) alerts the king. Think of that–doing good unto those who don’t deserve it.
Connection to the Gospel & the Doctrine of Providence: All of Scripture coheres, dear reader. It is telling one unified story. The faithfulness of Mordecai and Esther is a microcosm of what God has done in Christ. Just as the Jews were in exile from the true King of kings, we sinners are exiles from Eden and God due to our sin. Yet God provided through the faithfulness of One whose work is accepted by the King of kings. Providence, you see. Mordecai and Esther were types and shadows of the Substitute who was to come, whose name is Jesus, the Christ.
When I wrote my dissertation on the biblical anthropology of Cormac McCarthy, I based it upon how McCarthy’s fiction models the paradigm found in the Old Testament book of Esther. Esther remains near tops for me in terms of books I have read, and read, and read, and read again. I love the aphoristic style of Ecclesiastes, but in terms of narrative and just wonderful storytelling, one cannot improve upon the book of Esther.
Esther is a master study in the doctrine of providence. The name of God does not even appear in Esther, but the book is overtly about God’s rule. As one person has written, “The Almighty has no need to write his name in order to let us know that his wisdom and power have been controlling the march of human events. The name of God may be absent, but his power is everywhere visible.” In other words, you cannot see the wind, but you cannot deny its effects. You feel it; you see the boughs bend; you feel the perspiration dry upon your brow; you see the waves, and you see the sail fill due to the forces of the wind. God is a lot like that in the book of Esther; he does not go, “Hey, I am right here.” Rather, he works all things together for good, for those who love him and are the called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
In chapters 1-2 of Esther, we see a couple of main themes: 1) political leadership is dissolute and 2) the emergence of courage amidst cowardice and corruption. When Ahasuerus was “merry with wine” (Esther 1:10) he gave self-serving orders. But there was a refusal of the unwise orders by Queen Vashti (1:12). This sets the stage for the whole book of Esther. Will there be a faithful one (or perhaps several) who will refuse wicked orders? Will there be courage amidst the cowardice and corruption? Who will count the costs and be faithful?
Encouragement: I do not want to rush time in Esther this time either. If I coul just have folks do it, just read the book of Esther. Then read it again. Then read it again. It is marvelous. Over the next few installments, I want to explore this masterful narrative. For now, be encouraged by this: All it takes is for one to be faithful. Others will follow. But being faithful demands courage. To stand. And when having done all, to stand firm (Gal 6:13).
It is not altogether common I read contemporaries. But when it comes to vetted historians, Bob Godfrey is rock-solid. His books consistently, especially about Reformation history, are gems.
Godfrey has a scholar’s mind, no doubt about that, but he has not lost his love for the church. He understands that most Christians will never pick up a book of serious theology or church history (to our shame) but he loves the true church nevertheless, and he writes books that, if folks would only read and heed them, edify the body.
Today after work I read his An Unexpected Journey, about how a Reformed congregation loved him, taught him, was patient with him, and taught him the great biblical doctrines of grace wherein he discovered God had gripped him. That was–now–many, many moons ago.
And now, decades later, Godfrey has become of the last seventy-five years’ best church historians.
Tolle, lege.
It was similar for me. I grew up in the visible church. But I learned the true church only after I met the woman who would become my wife. I knew how to “do church” from an early age. But when I was loved, taught, discipled, and saw genuine commitment to Scripture and to the gathering of the called-out body of believers, church became not a theological concept, but a people of which I became a part. Hence, my affinity for Godfrey’s book.
MIND & MATTERS 