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“If I die, I die.” Do you hear the steely resolve between these words? “If I perish, I perish.” This is not some fatalistic resignation. This is faith facing fear head on.

When we encounter Esther speaking these words, she has just learned from her cousin Mordecai that evil Haman has talked the king into a holocaust-like edict to annihilate all of the Jews in one day. Esther remembers Vashti, another headstrong queen, and knows she risks her own death and destruction when she tries to prevent this genocide.

Did Esther possess this steely resolve, because she was a superhero of the faith, blessed with the courage of her convictions? The book of Esther makes it abundantly clear that Esther was actually a lot like us. She wavered and worried. Her resolve came from faith in the promise of God.

Her faith told her that her life was in God’s hands. By faith, Esther knew that she was not her own person. By faith, she knew that she belonged not to herself, not to the king, and not even to the Jewish people. She belongs to God, and so she risks death to be faithful to His calling for her life.

In so doing, Esther points us to Christ. Jesus not only risked death. He died. Through our baptism, we too have died, and this liberates us to risk it all for God. Through Christ, we can see past our own need for security and serve others sacrificially. Like Esther, our own sacrificial service may bring life to others.

Lord Jesus, you died on that cross to give me life. You bring me life so I no longer need to fear death. Work in my heart to take self-sacrificial risks for the sake of others, to imitate your perfect example. Amen.

“If I die, I die.” Do you hear the steely resolve between these words? “If I perish, I perish.” This is not some fatalistic resignation. This is faith facing fear head on.

When we encounter Esther speaking these words, she has just learned from her cousin Mordecai that evil Haman has talked the king into a holocaust-like edict to annihilate all of the Jews in one day. Esther remembers Vashti, another headstrong queen, and knows she risks her own death and destruction when she tries to prevent this genocide.

Did Esther possess this steely resolve, because she was a superhero of the faith, blessed with the courage of her convictions? The book of Esther makes it abundantly clear that Esther was actually a lot like us. She wavered and worried. Her resolve came from faith in the promise of God.

Her faith told her that her life was in God’s hands. By faith, Esther knew that she was not her own person. By faith, she knew that she belonged not to herself, not to the king, and not even to the Jewish people. She belongs to God, and so she risks death to be faithful to His calling for her life.

In so doing, Esther points us to Christ. Jesus not only risked death. He died. Through our baptism, we too have died, and this liberates us to risk it all for God. Through Christ, we can see past our own need for security and serve others sacrificially. Like Esther, our own sacrificial service may bring life to others.

Lord Jesus, you died on that cross to give me life. You bring me life so I no longer need to fear death. Work in my heart to take self-sacrificial risks for the sake of others, to imitate your perfect example. Amen.

In 1 Kings 18, there are two men of God. They have radically different personalities and backgrounds. Yet they both served the Lord faithfully at great personal expense during a very difficult time in Israel’s history.

Obadiah was like the Chief of Staff to evil King Ahab. He must’ve been urbane, cultured, and ready to serve. He had standing and clout. He used his resources to secretly hide and provide for one hundred of God’s prophets. He protected them from the wrath of evil Queen Jezebel.  

One day while he was on duty surveying the land, Obadiah met Elijah. Elijah couldn’t have been more different from Obadiah. Elijah was like a nomadic hermit, part wild man and part wise man. 

Both Obadiah and Elijah used their own gifts, skills, and experience to serve God. They each played important roles in God’s redemption plan. Elijah’s role led to a direct confrontation with Ahab about the power of God.

We don’t usually see such showdowns today between the living God and false gods. These contests for power over human hearts most often occur in the background of our life. The god of success works his magic on social media for the world to see while the god of wealth mostly works hers behind closed doors.

It can be hard to see God at work in our culture today. Is He still even relevant let alone powerful? Can faithfulness bring me more joy than success? Can I really hope for a bright future without a giant retirement account? In my own life can God really make a difference?

The answer my friends is absolutely yes! The Jehovah we worship today is the same God who rained fire onto Elijah’s watery alter. Let’s pray for the faith to be faithful to the one true God.

Almighty Lord, my head knows that you are the only true God, but my heart always seems to wander away after false gods. Forgive me for giving them my trust. Grow my faith in you alone. Amen.

In 1 Kings 18, there are two men of God. They have radically different personalities and backgrounds. Yet they both served the Lord faithfully at great personal expense during a very difficult time in Israel’s history.

Obadiah was like the Chief of Staff to evil King Ahab. He must’ve been urbane, cultured, and ready to serve. He had standing and clout. He used his resources to secretly hide and provide for one hundred of God’s prophets. He protected them from the wrath of evil Queen Jezebel.  

One day while he was on duty surveying the land, Obadiah met Elijah. Elijah couldn’t have been more different from Obadiah. Elijah was like a nomadic hermit, part wild man and part wise man. 

Both Obadiah and Elijah used their own gifts, skills, and experience to serve God. They each played important roles in God’s redemption plan. Elijah’s role led to a direct confrontation with Ahab about the power of God.

We don’t usually see such showdowns today between the living God and false gods. These contests for power over human hearts most often occur in the background of our life. The god of success works his magic on social media for the world to see while the god of wealth mostly works hers behind closed doors.

It can be hard to see God at work in our culture today. Is He still even relevant let alone powerful? Can faithfulness bring me more joy than success? Can I really hope for a bright future without a giant retirement account? In my own life can God really make a difference?

The answer my friends is absolutely yes! The Jehovah we worship today is the same God who rained fire onto Elijah’s watery alter. Let’s pray for the faith to be faithful to the one true God.

Almighty Lord, my head knows that you are the only true God, but my heart always seems to wander away after false gods. Forgive me for giving them my trust. Grow my faith in you alone. Amen.

King David may be the most well-known member of Jesus’ genealogy. Without a doubt, David is the most heroic character in that family tree. He was a warrior-king, a true conquering hero. He was also a poet and a lively dancer.

When we first meet David, however, he is a lowly figure. He’s the youngest son of a poor shepherding family. Yet, this is the David who was anointed by Samuel as king. Samuel anoints David before he’d ever met Goliath and long before he battled enemy armies. David was a nobody farm boy from the back of beyond.  

So often we see the Lord work this way. Not only is David the least expected choice among all those who paraded before Samuel in the small town of Bethlehem, but Israel itself subverts our expectations. Why would God choose this tiny often conquered nation of wandering shepherds to bless the whole world? What about ancient Greece or mystical Egypt? We still look back on them today and marvel at their culture, sophistication, and military might.

Then again, if you were going to come and redeem the world, why would you arrive as a vulnerable and unknown baby? Why would you work as a tradesman within a common family? Why would you endure humiliation and persecution? Why would you submit yourself to death at the hands of an evil empire?

We can see God’s transformative love at work in his choosing of David. We can also see it in the life and death of the One anointed as King of all creation. Throughout God’s story of redemption, we see highlighted the path of humility and self-sacrifice. The sheer beauty of this story makes me want to rejoice all the more in the victory over sin and death that came through Jesus’ resurrection! We await the return of the King!

Thank you, Jesus, for working in ways that subvert my expectations. Thank you for showing me, through your birth and your death, the way of life, humility, and self-sacrifice. Up from the grave you arose and now reign in glory! Come Lord Jesus! Come! Amen.   

Yesterday we read about Rahab, and today we’ll read about her son Boaz and his wife Ruth. The tales of these three characters reveal a lot about faith, faithfulness, and God’s family. We often want to put those people with prominent positions in the Bible up on pedestals. We want to turn them into faith heroes that we can strive to imitate. I want to caution us against doing that, not only because we should seek to imitate Christ who is the real hero of the biblical narrative, but also because when we focus so much of our attention on the characters, we miss the setting.

The story of Ruth and Boaz takes place in little Bethlehem. The latter chapters of the book of Judges also feature Bethlehem as a point of contrast. The book of Judges ends by saying that everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Israel was an absolute mess. Seemingly nobody followed God’s law, except, as we see in the book of Ruth, the people in Bethlehem.

The law is full of references to the people of God’s joint responsibilities to widows, orphans, and immigrants. One of those laws created what is known as a kinsman redeemer. The kinsman redeemer would, if his married brother died without any sons, marry his brother’s widow. Doing so, the kinsman redeemer would redeem his brother’s land and provide a son to carry on his brother’s name and inheritance. Without a kinsman redeemer, the widow would be left with nothing, and her family would cease to exist.

In the book of Ruth, Boaz, relative of Naomi’s husband, becomes the kinsman redeemer. He redeems the land, marries Ruth, and enables the family to continue. Boaz does this by following God’s holy law. This redemption story stands in stark contrast to the violence and anarchy we find in the last chapters of Judges.  

For us, Jesus is our kinsman redeemer. He is our brother by virtue of his full humanity. He took it upon himself to redeem us from death to life. As a result, we in the church, are the bride of Christ, and he is our bridegroom. Jesus fulfilled the law and redeemed us. He joined himself to us, while we impoverished, destitute, and frankly dead in sin. Thanks be to God!