(Gospel in the Book of Esther) 5. Mordecai Speaks Peace to All His People — Roy Hession

Esther as a Picture of Redemption

Shall we turn, once again, to the closing chapters of the book of Esther. The more I read this wonderful book, the more sure I am that the Holy Spirit designed it to be a picture of our redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The picture is too accurate, sometimes down to details that we haven't been able to mention. It's too accurate a picture for this to have happened by accident. The Holy Spirit, even before Jesus came, was filled with the thrilling news he knew was coming and he had to give us precious foreshadowings of the Lord Jesus.

Now, we're going to read chapter 9 from verse 20, and that little closing one, chapter 10. And Naudekei wrote these things and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far, to establish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, as the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day, that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.

And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Naudekei had written unto them, because Haman the son of Hamadathah, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast poor, that is to say, lots, to consume them and to destroy them.

But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his son should be hanged on the gallows.

Wherefore they called these days Purim, after the name of Purim. Therefore all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them, the Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year.

And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city. And that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.

Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim. And he sent the letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred, twenty, and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, to confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and their cry.

And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim. It was written in the book. And the king Ahasuerus laid a tribute upon the land and upon the isles of the sea, and all the acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?

For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed. What a lovely, happy ending to this story.

You can't put it down loud, not without affecting the tape recording. I'll stand back a bit. We put on an extra loud speaker because of my terrible habit. You take it off, all right, then you can turn it up, and if I'm lowering my voice, raise a hand over there or there.

Mordecai's Victory and the People's Deliverance

Now, yesterday morning, we, or the last two mornings, we've been seeing two things. First of all, the victory of Mordecai. How his enemy was humbled and hung on the very gallows which he had intended for Mordecai, and how Mordecai was lifted to the supreme place in the realm.

And then yesterday, we saw a second thing. Not only the victory of Mordecai, but how the people scattered throughout the 127 provinces actually entered in to that victory and gained their freedom. It wasn't enough for this great thing to have been done in the palace.

The people had to do something very simple. They couldn't have done it but for those changed conditions there, but they had to do it. As the letters went out, they understood they had a legal right to do two things.

To stand for their lives and even to go on to the attack and put to death all their enemies, all the members of the anti-Jewish, the anti-Semitic party. It's quite clear that if they hadn't put them to death, the anti-Semitic party intended to put them to death.

And the edict gave them the legal right to turn the tables. And the fear of Mordecai was upon the people that none dared to resist. And so there were two things, the victory of Mordecai in the palace and the simple act of standing for their lives and entering into that victory out in the provinces.

Christ's Victory Through the Cross

Now we've seen that they picture two very important things. First of all, the victory of the Lord Jesus on our behalf. And he gained that victory by submitting to the very day that Satan thought was his greatest weapon.

But in dying there, he didn't die for his own sins, for he had none. As he hung there, the Lord laid on him the iniquity of his own. And his blood fully paid the price of the world's dreadful sins. And thereby robbed Satan of the ground of his power over the sons of men.

We've repeated it so often, I'll repeat it again. By death, Jesus has destroyed him that had the authority of death that he might deliver them who through fear of death or fear of anything else were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

One of the great hymns, one of Bonner's hymns, has a lovely line which says great victory or sin and death and woe that needs no second fight and leaves no second foe. I don't think for a moment I've adequately spoken of that victory.

The extent of it, the depth of it, the height to which it brings the sons of men. We can only use fake words, but oh, I believe God wants to give us personal revelations of the wealth of that which the Son of God did for the poor imprisoned sons of men.

Yes, we've seen or tried to see something more of this great thing that Jesus has done for the sons of men. But then we also saw how we enter into that victory. And we saw it was by repentance which is implied in faith.

The emphasis invariably in the New Testament is we get saved by faith or we're justified by faith. And whereas repentance is much talked of, faith is sometimes more spoken of in the New Testament than repentance.

But it is always implied. Repentance is always implied. Take the scripture, for instance, one that has been a blessing to me. To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

That simple faith that God justifies the ungodly is counted for a righteousness which that man doesn't otherwise possess. And he's counted as righteous, the blood of Christ can make him. But he has to believe on him who justifies not the righteous but the ungodly.

Doesn't that imply that you confess yourself to be such? And that you do so in specific matters too? And therefore saving faith can only be really exercised on a man who acknowledges himself to be bankrupt.

And therefore we enter by faith, but we mustn't get that idea as a sort of mental persuading yourself. I must confess, I've sung that hymn, Standing on the Promises. I must stand, I must stand, I must stand.

I haven't repented. I'm cold, or the standing of the world won't help me unless I see the causes of my coldness, my ruin, my fresh bankruptcy. Then in that place faith lays hold, these gracious provisions, standing.

In my helplessness and defilement on the promises, I now conceive perfect present cleansing in the blood for me. And we enter by repentance and the faith that in its helplessness, accepts and stands upon the promises that speak of this great victory, of sin and death and woe, that needs no second fight and leaves no second foe.

Victory as Freedom from Sin's Guilt

Now, I'm not now recapping. We're going on to that from the last, yesterday morning, but I want to cover a little fresh ground, and we didn't have time yesterday. That, as I see it, is victory. There's a great deal of talk and a great deal of right longing for the victorious life.

But I think we've all got muddled, I have in the past, and certain lines of victorious life teaching have nearly been the death of me. Because I couldn't get there, and all I got from that victorious life teaching was a bad conscience.

Well, and so the Lord's had to show us that everything in the Christian life is just so much simpler, and in a sense so much easier, than we've made it for ourselves. To be free from the guilt of sin, and all that goes with it is victory.

I know that the normal idea of victory is to get to a place where you no longer have need to repent, where the wings begin to sprout between your shoulders. Well, my wings have taken a long time coming.

But can we go back to something I think we sought to establish in the earlier mornings, that the power of sin basically consists in its guilt. Much else comes on top of that. Remove that, and we can really sing the song of a soul set free.

Now I know that with the first great day we'll be lost, the guilt of our sins. But Satan knows how to trip us up, and his purpose in tripping us up is, as I've said before, to give us again that sense of cut-offness, of darkness, of lack of peace, and of guilt, of not being good enough, and feeling out of the fellowship of the people, not being able to join with them in their praises.

And if you feel like that, well, why continue? Why not compromise with the world and have some of the things the world gives you? And one thing leads to another. But it's based on the fact of the guilt of sin.

And the fact that my sin, whatever it is, has given Satan his opportunity and legal right to bring much else. Now when that is removed, his superstructure of accusation and misery and fear topples down.

And we are free. And more than that, the consciousness of grace reaching me again and again gives me a motive for holiness that all the standards of a victorious life never will. I'm given the motive of love for the one who will reach me again.

You see, Paul is at pains to contrast faith with words. We're saved by faith, and we get everything else by faith, and not by striving or works. Well, you say, don't you do anything? Oh yes, faith works.

Faith works harder than works does. And there's a little verse in Galatians which says, Faith which worketh by love. Look that up. I haven't got the reference here, but it's about chapter three somewhere.

Faith which worketh by love. I cannot work my soul to save. For that my Lord hath done, but I would work like any slave for love of God's dear Son. And the man who knows this basic victory is a man who loves his emancipator.

And who fears to play with that which wounds him. He may be tripped up, but oh how quickly he repents, because love has got hold of his heart. And how zenous the emancipated soul, emancipated by the grace of God and not by its own efforts, is in the service of his Saviour.

As I say, speaking for myself and I, I think we're always safe to judge other people by ourselves. We're always told not to do it. It's the safest thing in all the world. Because we're all made in the same mould.

Someone has said only some people are mouldier than others. That's alright to say as long as you see that you're the mouldier one. Now I want to have a little digression here to speak of what victory really is a little more in detail.

Christ's Victory Over the Believer

I can only share with you my own thoughts and how it's come to me and maybe it will help you. As I see it, there are three aspects of victory. For instance, first of all, there is Christ's victory over me.

And this is absolutely fundamental. The victorious life is not you conquering sin, but Jesus conquering you. And that continues. Not me overcoming sin, Jesus overcoming me. Not me trying to be better and better, but Jesus doing to me what he did to Jacob.

Breaking me, overcoming me to confess sin. Now that's the basis of victory. That's a victorious man who lets Jesus overcome and break him. And out he comes with the thing that's gone wrong. It's a wonderful thing.

I can give you only but an illustration. We can give it from our own experience. But one story comes to my mind. William and Negendra and myself were in Brazil once. And there was a dear American missionary who became very close to us who shared our vision very completely.

And we were at a certain conference and perhaps it was true the organizers didn't quite see the vision as to which way the conference should go. And our messages was, so to speak, covered over with a lot of other messages pointing in varying directions.

And it could have been said that perhaps what we had to say was getting lost in all the different emphases that were given by different speakers in that conference. Actually we had to trust the Lord that he wouldn't let it get lost and he didn't.

But our American friend, he really felt strongly about this and we were sitting around the table with some of the leaders of this conference and he was really telling them, very politely of course and not very strong, but really trying to show them that they ought to see to it that the conference had one end and not many.

It was quite gentle but it was critical. You could tell that by the fact that they were defending themselves very nicely, very gently, but you could tell he said this and then they said something else.

And by the way, that's always the effect of being critical it makes the other person defend themselves. And as this conversation went on, one of us whispered to our friend I think you're being critical.

And of course he was being critical on our behalf, but nonetheless it was being critical. So he went silent and the conversation went on. Then suddenly he broke the silence. He said brothers God has shown me.

I'm sorry. I've been criticising you. Will you please forgive me? Oh no, no, you haven't been criticising us. I've been criticising you. And I've been the one that's wrong. Well, the whole fellowship took a different turn and entered onto a new plane.

That was victory. It wasn't my friend Ernie Gilmore overcoming sin, but Jesus Christ overcame Ernie that day. Who likes in the middle of a thing where you thought you were so right and the other person so wrong to have admit that you were wrong?

Now that's ever the basis of victorious life. And you and I aren't anywhere near victory unless we're willing for Jesus to overcome us and conquer us and take us captive on each new point. That's the first aspect.

His victory over me, not my victory over sin. Then there's a second aspect of victory. His victory for me. And this is that aspect that we've been thinking of in the book of Esther. I would call this the sinner's victory because it's only appropriated to the man who confesses himself to be such.

It isn't the saint's victory, it's the sinner's victory. Sounds almost like a contradiction in terms. Let me suppose an instance which could be very easily quoted in actual cases, but just a theoretical instance which is so common.

Here's a brother who loves the Lord. He's been in fellowship with his brethren closely, but God tells him, you haven't been in the light with them as you should. And so Jesus overcomes him. He's going to be truthful to them.

And he tells them of perhaps a shameful failure in the past. Well, there's a sense in which we can praise for that victory. But I can see several of those brethren who have heard that saying to Mother Mother, that brother still needs to get the victory.

Oh God, give him the victory. Now what do they mean? Do they mean, will you bring him to a place where he'll never do that thing again? Well, suppose the sort of thing that he confessed is something he will never do again.

Hardly conceivable because its consequences might be so sad. And so on. Oh no, we aren't praying that he won't do it again. We're praying that he'll get the victory. Why? Well when you had to come out into the light, how do you feel?

Terribly ashamed. Hardly lift up your face. You don't seem to be able to praise. You say, well that's what I really am. How terrible. Victory is when that man praises. And he sees to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that declares him to be right, who admits himself to be wrong.

That man's faith is counted for a righteousness which is as great as that of George Muller or the man who's never failed. That's victory. And to be coming into that victory continually and quickly. For some of us there's an unnecessary time lag, not only over big transgressions, but over some small transgressions.

And we repent of them more, and more than the sand. Oh, what a wonderful thing is if we so saw the blood of Jesus, the finished work, the righteousness which is there for the one who admits himself to be wrong, and we quickly repented and out into freedom.

Now this is the victory which we've been really thinking of. And I would say is, once again, basic. The first is his victory over me, continually, and then his victory for me, which I enter in by repentance and faith.

Do you remember that phrase where God had to reprove Samuel for mourning over the downfall of Saul? God had to remove Saul as a failure from being king. And Samuel prayed to God all night for that king.

Oh, give him another chance. Oh, what a pity he had such wonderful possibilities, such a fine-looking fellow. And in the morning God had to say, how long will thou mourn for Saul? Seeing I have rejected him, take your horn of oil and anoint his successor, even David.

And sometimes that's a trouble with us. We're not getting into victory because we're mourning for Saul. We're not really mourning for sin. We're not mourning in true repentance as to what our sin has done to him.

We're mourning for ourselves that we haven't improved any more than we have. That after all these years, here's this failure again. And what will people think? We're mourning for Saul. Instead of praising for Jesus and his blood.

I haven't time to give more illustrations of this, but I could give illustrations of two people who had the same failure and came into the light together. One of them, the next day he was out praising and being used of God.

The other was still saying, oh dear, a missionary feeling like this, or a preacher feeling like this. And the reason was one accepted himself to be exactly what God said he was. He was reconciled to his own wickedness.

He accepted that all the Bible said about fallen man was true of him. And he entered straight in to that righteousness which the blood of Jesus proffered him. That rightness with God. Perfect and entire.

The other, as I remember a brother telling me, said I was sort of licking my wounds. I was mourning for Saul. Well, I've been all too slow. But that's the way. And that's victory. Oh, what a great day of victory.

When the sinner rejoices in God his Savior. If God before me the sinner who's repented, who can be against me? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Shall Christ who died for me? He can't because he's died for me.

Shall God who justifies me? He can't do two things at the same time. He can't condemn me and justify me. There's nobody left. You can stand before your brothers, emancipated, forgiven and give a sinner's testimony who's been lifted up and forgiven and set free.

Now that's victory. Then there's a third aspect of victory which we can call his victory in me. Now this certainly is a little nearer the popular conception. But it does not stand by itself. It's based on first of all his victory over me as I break the conviction.

And then my coming in to this victory of the cross. And as I do so I'm made a partaker of the very life and nature and disposition of the Lord Jesus increasingly. The picture of the vine and the branch helps here perhaps.

He's the vine I'm not the vine. I haven't got to produce victory, I can't. All I can produce are the works of the flesh, never the fruit of the spirit. But in that branch there's the life of the vine.

The risen Lord Jesus and the fruits which are produced are never characteristic of me. The works of the flesh are me. Bad temper, irritation, jealousy and impurity. And if I'm trying to improve my life, that's all I get out of it.

And even my righteousness will only minister to my pride. But if I'm learning to walk with Jesus allowing him to have victory over me and come as a sinner into the sinner's victory I find I've got another life, not mine, his.

And I find I've got a peace that isn't mine, a gentleness with others that isn't mine, a love for other people that isn't mine, a zeal that isn't mine, a consecration that isn't mine, it's his. And now he's living in me.

But let's say clearly it's based on those first two. I must confess for years I was working hard on the third and because I didn't know any better God did bless me up to a point. And then there came a time in my Christian life and in my Christian service when everything faded.

When I lost the power of the Holy Spirit even in ministry. So I used to go back and say I am crucified with you, you are living in me. I am the branch, you are the vine. Nothing happened. Because the time when I got to go deeper and come, and I had to forget that for quite a time and learn to let Jesus get victory over me, over many many things in home and with my brothers and he's still having to do it and I sometimes am guilty of resisting him.

There's no victory then. And then I had to learn again having been reduced to the sinner's place that there was the sinner's peace and the sinner's righteousness and the sinner's victory. I had to learn the gospel all over again.

In fact for a time I couldn't even preach the gospel to anybody else. I simply did it. Because it doesn't matter, I'm in no hurry. You haven't got to be a success. Please turn the cassette over now. Do not fast wind it in either direction.

Victory, Grace, and Unconscious Holiness

But it doesn't matter I'm in no hurry. You haven't got to be a success. And I had to learn again to let him get the victory over me and learn again to enter in to that which Calvary provided for Paul.

Then increasingly the mind that was in Christ becomes anew. Let me say another thing about victory. In its nature the case is largely unconscious. You don't know how much victory grace has given you. Because things that once were wild alarms do not now disturb your peace.

The things you are conscious of are the remaining things that do disturb your peace. And the Lord wants to help us on the remaining things. A lot of things seem to remain and they will to the end of our days.

Plenty of scope for grace to do ever deeper work in our lives. Oswald Chambers has a lovely phrase somewhere where he talks about conscious repentance leading to unconscious holiness. And the holiness of course is the life of Christ in us.

But you aren't always conscious of that. You're conscious of the things where you've got to get right with the Lord. Others see the beauty of the Lord upon us. I think conscious holiness would be a very obnoxious thing.

People who are consciously holy, do you enjoy their company? But all those are so quick to see themselves at fault and ask your forgiveness while you feel the very love of God pouring out through them.

Remembering Deliverance from Our Enemies

Well now that is a digression. But I must say I think it's important perhaps to get clear on those things. And now just from this last portion of Esther, two things. We've seen these two letters. There was a third.

And that was the letter sent to the emancipated Jews in joining them to keep those two days in the year as a feast, as a memorial of the days wherein they were delivered. And in verse 22 you've got the phrase, you're to keep these days as the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow into joy, from mourning into a good day that they should make them days of feasting and joy and of sending portions to one another and gifts to the poor.

Now just that phrase, as the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies. I was interested to see how the Revised Standard Version puts it, as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies.

Has there been a day in which you've got relief from your enemies? Those enemies that are basic to our misery and bondage. God wants us to have a day in which we get relief from our enemies. And we've seen what his basic tactics is, to get us to sin and that he might tell us we're out of touch with God and wrong everywhere else, and to tell us that the way back's impossible.

I want to give a few illustrations of what this, that we might really ask ourselves, have I got relief from my enemies yet? Have I got a day that I can commemorate? I remember as a young Christian loving the Lord and eager in his service, walking along once, and I saw a man carrying a text.

You know, a big text up here, prepare to meet thy God, free from the wrath to come, and other encouraging texts. Wicked shall be turned into hell. It's God's word, we won't say they're wrong to be carried.

Anyway, as I saw this man, I said to myself, you know, I think those people do more harm than good. And then a little boy said to me, but would you be willing to do the same? Well, I think I would if you really asked me to, Lord.

All right, said this little boy, go and carry a text up and down the street. I couldn't do it. I was a God. Then a little boy said, well, now you've disobeyed me. You can't expect any more blessing until you obey me.

And I was in bondage for two weeks. In misery. What was the use of me praying? What was the use of me doing anything? Here was something which I disobeyed God, and I couldn't and wouldn't do it. I was in the position very largely of the Jews under the edict of amen.

Now, I didn't see it. I thought it was the voice of God. But I praised the Lord for the day when he gave me relief from my enemy in that matter. I don't know how it happened, but somehow it came to me.

I said to myself, what's the net result of all this? I'm absolutely miserable. I said, who makes the children of God miserable? Does God make his children miserable? He knows how feeble they are, but he doesn't make them miserable.

It isn't God who's making them miserable. Then who is it? It came to me. It was the devil. And he'd been simulating the voice of God and giving himself a wonderful time over my misery. And then I understood too from the scripture that the devil who told me these things was a liar.

And I was free. And Jesus brought me out. It was a day when I got relief from my enemy. And you know, I settled it with the Lord that day. I said, Lord, I've learnt something. Whenever I hear that sort of voice accusing and urging me to do one difficult thing after another, and one fanatical thing after another fanatical thing, Lord, I want you to understand, on principle I'm just not going to obey it.

If I should go too far, if I should take this too far, Lord, and make a mistake and disobey you, I know you'll forgive me. But you've taught me something. This is the sort of relief sometimes that some of us need from our enemies.

And some of us can have gone on for years in bondage like this, feeling you ought to have done something, you couldn't get yourself to do it, and now you're finished largely. I once, years ago, wrote an article along this line and a man wrote to me.

He said, if I'd read that article 20 years ago I wouldn't have the state of nerves I have now and the grey hairs in my head. Oh, we didn't know the ways in which Satan can change the children of God when all the time he's a defeated foe and his accusation has been answered in the blood of Jesus.

Your righteousness before God does not consist in being able to do this hard thing or that. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness is for those who can't do nothing, anything. It's a wonderful thing when grace comes to our rescue and shows us it's a man trying to get a hold on us again.

I remember another occasion when I was asked to do the first piece of service for God I'd ever been asked. I was in the crusader class and there were a lot of crusader classes in northwest London and we had a lovely crusader fellowship for the senior boys once a month.

Wonderful time we used to have. And one day they asked me, would I be the secretary of this crusader fellowship? Oh, I said, how wonderful. I would certainly love to. And I snapped up the offer and said, yes, I'll be the secretary.

And then later, I think there was a mixture of conviction and accusation. I think the Holy Spirit did show me that there'd been pride in my ready acceptance of that position. I could see myself standing out in front and doing things with power and little position.

And then I thought, well, I have to give it up. That was the reason why I said yes. I can't possibly. So I wrote to the one who asked me, a dear, sacred man. I said, I'm so sorry, for reasons that I cannot go into now, I cannot be secretary of the fellowship.

He didn't know why. And he had a time with me and I'm so grateful for the loving counsel of a father in God. And I told him what it was. I said, it was only pride. And therefore I can't do it. If I can't do a thing without pride, I won't do it at all.

But he said, the blood of Jesus cleanses from pride. The devil, it's the devil who says, now, don't do it. You can't do it without pride, therefore don't do it. If that were the case, none of us would do anything for God.

The whole army of God would be paralyzed. And that's what the devil wants. And he wanted me to be paralyzed. And I found there was a way of liberty. I found, yes, it was pride. But God's way was not to do it, not to stop doing it because of pride, but to do it without pride.

And here was his way. If Satan brought pride, there was a fountain filled with blood. I could have tentatively cleansed and go on with doing the thing that God was calling me to do. And that was another day when I got relief from my enemies.

And came into the good, the victory of the cross. And I could, we could go on. I wonder if I may be permitted to tell something that we listened to yesterday in the team meeting. I won't give it in detail.

It's not my place to give another brother's testimony. But as it illustrates this point, I know he won't mind me just mentioning. One of our dear brothers with a shining face told us he'd got relief from his enemies.

For something that had been an accusation on his heart for 12 or 13 years. Something which he wasn't willing, as he told us, to call sin and put right. And as he told us what it was, one can understand his reluctance.

It wasn't easy, it was a very costly thing to commit himself to be wrong there and put it right in the way it needed to be put right. It wasn't difficult, the actual thing, it was only difficult on pride.

But you know, he told us with glowing face how Jesus won the victory over him. He didn't win a victory over sin. But Jesus won the victory over him. And the thing, the letter was, got ready to be posted today.

And he got relief from his enemies. He could see the blood availing for a man like that in a new way. It's a great word. In the day when they got relief from their enemy. Now Jesus wants us to get relief from our enemies.

And to go home relieved. And I feel the effect of a true preaching of the gospel among the people should be relief. How burdened and accused and struggling we've been. Pity as we know so feebly how to proclaim this wonderful good news for bad people.

Relief from their enemies. And that day was to be had in perpetual remembrance. The days of Purim in the Jewish calendar to this day are as important as the days of the Passover. For they celebrate the two great deliverances that Israel had from Pharaoh out of Egypt and from Haman in the kingdom of the Medes and Persians.

And these letters went out and they had to keep it in remembrance. Had a feast day. They were not only to remember their own deliverance but to show compassion one to another. To send portions to one another and gifts to the poor.

Remembering Salvation Through Christ

A great day. And you know you and I are called to remember. The days when we got relief from our enemies. Remember is one of the great gospel words. You've got it in Ephesians 2. Look at verse 11. Ephesians 2 verse 11.

Wherefore remember chapter 2 verse 11. Wherefore remember that ye being in time past gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh made by hands.

That at that time ye were without Christ. Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. Strangers from the covenants of promise. Having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus. You who were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

Israel at a later date was told to remember the whole of the pit from which they were hewed. Yes we're to remember that happy day. On those happy subsequent days. When Jesus washed our sins away. And you know we can turn those hours of failure into glorious assets if grace reaches them.