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The Secrets of the Heart

Posted: August 23, 2013 in The Secrets of the Heart, The Super in my natural..., The Virginia Real
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August 14, 2013

Shall God not search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.[1]

Keeping a secret can be one of the hardest self disciplines to master when you’re young and beginning to develop real friendships.  Secrets make or break every relationship we undertake.  Understanding the emotions behind the events that generate these surreptitious times will help reveal the power of the bond of secrecy.  Sometimes, though, God steps in and lays bare our most guarded issue.  Our own fear or even pride can keep us prisoner to problems.  Without the help of others, we would not be able to rise above the circumstances to which we are bound.

Years ago I was sitting in an evening choir practice.  I was part of a talented and dedicated group of people involved in the worship ministry at our church.  Every Thursday evening we gathered for practice.  I participated in this weekly gathering for 11 years before we moved out of state to our current home.  I always enjoyed getting away from family chores to be with my musical friends.  Our times together of learning and harmony were passionate, intense and sometimes very funny.  We were a choir family.

The day of this retelling was a cold day in February.  My many responsibilities made me late leaving home for practice.  When I arrived in the choir room I was not able to sit in my usual seat.  It is a common group dynamic when  people tend to be repetitive about such routine things as sitting in the same seat for regular scheduled activities.  In this situation, I was such a creature of habit.  I also dislike being late to any event.  That particular evening my normal peace of mind was slightly disturbed because of my tardiness.

I took a seat on the row behind my usual place, picked up the music and joined in the song.  Several minutes passed before our director stopped the song and began concentrating his attention on the tenor section to go over parts.  One of the foundational choir rules required the rest of us to be respectful and make as little noise as possible during a sectional rehearsal.  I sat there for a few minutes, just gathering my thoughts, and I looked over at my friend sitting on my left.  She seemed deep in thought.  Normally she was very personable and cheerful but this night she seemed lost in her own musings.

The sectional rehearsal dragged on and I began to look around again, just to take notice of all the friends present, when suddenly I had the following thought:  “She has no gas in her car.”

I sat still for a few more minutes, turning this information over and over in my mind.  A sense of urgency accompanied the thought and when the director turned his attention to another section for review, I began to be uneasy.  Feeling insecure about such a message, I finally nudged my friend and  cautiously whispered, “You have no gas in your car, do you?’

For a good 20 or 30 seconds, my friend looked at me like I had slapped her in the face.  I was upset with myself for saying such a crazy thing to her, when her eyes filled with tears, and she shook her head “no”.

My personal finances were not spectacular at that moment either but I knew that I had to get her a tank of gas.  “When we leave practice,” I whispered, “we’ll go straight to a gas station and take care of it.”

My friend hurriedly wiped away a tear and smiled in gratitude.  I knew she was in the middle of a marriage breakdown.  I slid my arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick hug.  When I hugged her, this thought came:  “She has no food at home either.”

Sobered by this daunting notion, I knew I could not whisper such a thing, so I took out a piece of paper and quickly scribbled a note:  “You have no food at home either, do you?’

This time, her expression changed from the timid smile she had just given me to a broken, puzzled look.  Once again tears formed and she shook her head “no”.

My own relationship with my spouse was under great duress.  Our finances were severely challenged.  My husband was working out of town on his new job and our family was still in Jacksonville awaiting the sale of our home so we could move and join him.  He was the official family book keeper.  This night, I knew that I was probably going to get a lecture for my actions but I could not let my friend’s needs go unanswered.

“We’re going to the grocery store after practice,” I scribbled back to her.  Then I dug in my purse and found a tissue.  She wiped her tears and gave me a quick hug back.

As practice wrapped up, I had another revelation:  “She is not going to tell you what she really needs.”  Then, a list of items began to flow through my mind.  I knew she needed pet food and many other personal things.  We walked out of practice and made a plan to meet at the nearest store and gas station.  As I drove the few miles to the shopping center, her list kept getting longer and her needs more detailed and specific.

We  both got shopping carts when we arrived at the grocery store.  I had my own grocery needs too.  As we started down the first aisle, my friend said, “I only need bread, eggs and milk.”

At this moment, the power of the impressions I was receiving was beginning to give me a great sense of awe and wonder.  I knew Holy Spirit was looking at her needs and speaking directly to me about satisfying them.  I chuckled and stopped my friend, taking her hand into mine and getting her full attention:  “You need these things,” I said, as I began to describe all the items that had gone through my mind.  “Are you going to tell me what you really need or are you going to make me do this entirely by the Spirit?” I was joyful by this time and totally in awe of the moment.  My list was so specific she finally blushed and shook her head in amazement too.

“This is unbelievable,” she declared as we walked up and down the aisles, and I put things in her cart.  We stopped at the pet food aisle and I asked her what kind of food her pets liked.  She started to pick up the cheapest food available.  I knew her cat and dog would not eat her choices.  “They’re not going to like that kind,” I told her.  Finally she started to laugh, catching the joy of the Lord that was being offered to us both.

We turned down the seasonal items aisle and I stopped in front of some boxed valentines for kids.  “Your daughter needs these for school tomorrow doesn’t she?” I asked.

My friend finally looked at me again and shook her head.  “What is your husband going to say?” she asked.  She knew how picky he was over finances.

At that moment, a strange message came out of my mouth; one which has burned in my heart over these past years since we left Jacksonville:  “I’m sowing for my future,” I replied.

We finished our shopping and then we went to the gas station.  My friend hugged me repeatedly.  We both marveled over the gift of supernatural knowledge Holy Spirit released in this moment  – knowledge which deeply impacted both of our lives.

Many people don’t really understand the concept of spiritual gifts, like I operated in the evening I received such a critical message.  First of all, the most important gift God ever gave was Jesus.[2]  Jesus explained, “When the Helper (Holy Spirit) comes, whom I will send to you, from the Father (that is the Spirit of Truth – who proceeds from the Father), He will testify about Me.”[3]

The apostle Paul explained that as we become ‘in Christ’ (part of Christ’s spiritual body, His kingdom of believers) we become partakers of heavenly gifts that reveal the presence and power of Jesus in our everyday life.  Jesus has acquired the right to give these gifts based upon His supernatural conception, His sinless life, His death and His resurrection.

“But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.  Therefore it says, When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and HE gave gifts to men.”[4]

Paul uses the word doma [Strong’s Greek #1390 – gift, present; from the base of 1325; to give, to greatly modify by the connection, adventure, bring forth, grant, have power, etc.][5]  My gift of knowledge certainly did generate quite an adventure that night.

Paul says that these gifts are irrevocably given to us.[6]  Once we are endowed with these gifts, God does not take them back.  If we ignore, neglect or misuse them, we will be accountable.[7]

Talents, in the parables Jesus shared through out His ministry time, always represent elevated abilities or something given which enabled the receivers to invest or accomplish work, with an expected return.  The gospel writer, Matthew, is the only one to use this Greek word talanton and it means a balance of certain weight, or a specific sum of money.[8]

Gifts, on the other hand, represent (but are not limited to) the supernatural abilities that Jesus modeled during His physical time on earth.  He declared that we would do greater works than He preformed.[9]

Paul used the word charisma when describing the irrevocable gifts in the book of Romans.  [Strong’s Greek #5486 charisma (khar-is-mah); means “a divine gratituity, deliverance from danger or harmful passions, spiritual endowment, religious qualification, miraculous faculty – free gift.”][10]  The 12th Chapter of Romans provides the following list:

  • Prophecy (prophetic insight, the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose)[11]
  • Practical service through ministry
  • Teaching
  • Exhortation (encouraging words that build our faith)
  • Contributing to the needs of others, giving generously
  • Leadership for governing diligently
  • Showing mercy cheerfully

Paul starts out with pneumatikos when introducing the gifts in his first letter to the Corinthians.  [Strong’s Greek #4152 pneumatikos (pnyoo-mat-ik-os); means non-carnal (not human), ethereal, (divinely) supernatural…][12]   He goes back to charisma several sentences later as he develops this most interesting topic and he explains, “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”[13]  I believe my friend would agree that our shopping experience that night in February was for common good.

The 12th Chapter of First Corinthians gives this insight: “Now there are varieties of gifts (charisma)…but the same God who works all things in all persons.”  The spiritual gifts listed here include:[14]

  • Word of wisdom
  • Word of knowledge
  • Faith
  • Gifts of healing
  • Workings of miracles
  • Prophecy
  • Discernment or distinguishing of spirits (evil and good)
  • Various kinds of tongues (speaking an unlearned or unknown language)
  • Interpretation of these tongues (languages)
  • The office or role of apostleship
  • The office or role of a prophet
  • The office or role of a teacher
  • Helps (serving the physical needs of people)
  • Administration

It is interesting how Paul then goes on to give the analogy of the human body and how it has many different members but each member really belongs to all of the body and how uniquely the body needs each member.  “If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”[15]

That February night, my friend was suffering and she needed more than a congenial pat on the back – she needed real help. “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?  Can such faith save him?  Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  If any one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well, keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead!”[16]

Paul then gives this advice:  “Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire (this) love (make it your aim, your great quest); and earnestly desire and cultivate the spiritual endowments (gifts), especially that you may prophecy (interpret the divine will and purpose in inspired preaching and teaching).[17]

On that cold February night, God used His words of knowledge, enabling me to help my friend.  What I didn’t know, as I handed her the valentines, is that I would walk a very similar path in September of 2012.  My marriage broke down; my husband left to go do his own thing.  Numerous times my children and I experienced these same needs.  I have been out of the job market for 20 years, primarily being a wife, mother, writer and laboring as a volunteer.  Going right back into the work force has been no simple task.  I had to open up and share my secret hurt and needs with others to get through this tough time; and indeed, on that February night, I was “sowing for my future”.

I feel confident that everyone who has comforted me in my brokenness will one day reap the same supernatural favor I’ve experienced.  “For the word of God is living and active; sharper than any double edged sword.  It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit; joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart.  Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.  Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”[18]

Texts and Books I’ve read on this subject:

Growing in the Prophetic, by Mike Bickle

Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, by Jack Deere

The Beginner’s Guide to Spiritual Gifts, by Sam Storms

The Finger of God, by Mark Rutland

When the Spirit Comes with Power, by John White

Your Spiritual Gifts, by C. Peter Wagner

You May All Prophesy, by Steve Thompson

Romans Chapter 12

I Corinthians Chapters 7, 12-14

Ephesians Chapters 3 & 4

I Peter Chapter 4

[1] Psalm 44:21, “The Comparative Study Bible – The New American Standard Version,” copyright 1999; Zondervan Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan; page 1430.

[2] Matthew 7:11, Luke 11:13, John 4;10, Romans 5:15-21, Romans 6:23, Romans 11:29, Ephesians 2:8-22,

[3] John 15:26, Luke 11:11-13; “The Comparative Study Bible – The New American Standard Version,” copyright 1999; Zondervan Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan; pages 2747 and 2633.

[4] Ephesians 4:1-13; ibid, pages 3005-3007.

[5] Doma, Strong’s Greek Number 1390; The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible”;  copyright 1995, 1996, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee; page 24.

[6] Romans 11:29; ibid, page 2893.

[7] I Timothy 4:14, II Timothy 1:6; ibid pages

[8] Talanton; “Strong’s Greek Number 5007; The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible”;  copyright 1995, 1996, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee; page 89.

[9] John 14:11-14; ibid, page 2743.

[10] Charisma; “Strong’s Greek Number 5486; The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible”;  copyright 1995, 1996, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee; page 98.

[11] I Corinthians 12:10; “The Comparative Study Bible – The Amplified Version,” copyright 1999; Zondervan Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan; page 2934.

[12] Pneumatikos; “Strong’s Greek Number 4152; The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible”; ibid; page 72.

[13] I Corinthians 12:4; “The Comparative Study Bible – The New American Standard Version,” copyright 1999; Zondervan Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan; page 2935.

[14] I Corinthians 12:1-31; ibid.

[15] I Corinthians 12:26; ibid.

[16] James 2:14-17; ibid, pages 3123-3125.

[17] I Corinthians 14:1; ibid, page 2939.

[18] Hebrews 4:12-13; ibid, page 3093.

My Wilderness Table

Posted: March 29, 2013 in Going Deeper - Hebrew and Greek Word Study Posts, The Feasts - God's Parties, The Virginia Real
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God’s Parties:  The Feasts of the Lord

By Amy Hartmann

How Passover is a shadow of Easter glory!

I’ve given many parties in the past.  Most were well received by the invited friends and family members I called to my house.  On a couple of occasions, situations prevailed that kept the invited away and all my preparations went unnoticed or appreciated.  Some of the food even had to be thrown away.  What happens when God throws a party and nobody deems it important enough to attend?  Jesus shared such a story in His parable of the marriage feast.  “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.  He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.”[1]

Years ago, during our season of life in Jacksonville, Florida our Pastor, Bishop P.D. Zink began presenting the significance of the Feasts of God outlined in the 23rd chapter of Leviticus.  I experienced some emotional resistance to this concept.  I read the letters the Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman churches and the church at Colossae.  I understood Paul’s position on the legalism which blinded and bound up the Pharisees and Sadducees.  I grasped the significance of religious ritualism not making me right with God.  I comprehended the emptiness of sacrifice without repentance.  I also got the pictures Ezekiel and Malachi painted when they outlined the Aaronic priesthood’s failings to properly respect being allowed to approach God in the first place, all be it under the old covenant rules spelled out so laboriously in the laws of Moses.

I began to ponder the grafting in of Gentile believers into God’s original Jewish church.  The Apostle Paul called this ‘one new man’ in his letter to the Ephesian believers.  I had read through Romans Chapter 11 many times and not really understood the ‘grafting’ concept until I began researching plant propagation for a book I was working on at that time.  I read Paul’s words telling me that we Gentiles were ‘wild olive shoots’ and that we were being grafted into the main, cultivated olive tree.  I had a lot of questions:  what was the significant difference between a wild olive tree versus a cultivated one?  Was the fruit better?  Did the host tree receive any benefits from the grafted stem?  One thing was clear from Paul’s example:  the root supports the graft.

Perhaps these were just figures of speech written to help us get a visual understanding.  I am a visual learner and such examples and parables open my mind to spiritual concepts.  Yet, a passage in Zachariah Chapter 14 haunted me for such a long time…”…in that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem…the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty AND to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.  If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain.”[2]

Living in North Florida for so many years, I learned a very important lesson:  no rain means no water…no water means great fire!  Fire weather is a fearsome condition to live with on a regular basis.  No rain means drought.  No rain means no crops.  No rain means dead grass and brush everywhere.  No rain means suffocating heat.  No rain means dangerous breathing conditions.  Just the air quality problems are enough to make everyone in the community sit up and take notice.  Enough smoke in the air will make everyone sick.  When the winds begin to carry the fire, nothing can stop it but rain or the complete exhaustion of fuel.

“These are My Feasts,” God said to Moses.  “I just want to be with you!”

Maybe I am over simplifying Leviticus Chapter 23 but these sacred assemblies were set times to celebrate the NOW presence of God drawing near to love on His people.   He wanted to spend face to face time with all of those willing to draw near.  This is an amazing concept to grasp.

The Apostle Paul gives this directive in his writing to the Corinthian church: keep the feasts, not with the old leaven of the law, but with the new understanding that Jesus has fulfilled all of these ‘unfollowable’ commandments.  “For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.  Therefore, let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.”[3]

We don’t have to keep the feasts…we get to!  He lets all of us who were never acceptable because of our birth, our gender or the color of our skin NOW celebrate with Him without fear of censure!  The gospel writer Luke understood this when he recorded the response of Zechariah the priest’s words, “…to enable us to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.”[4]  I think about this concept a lot.

Prior to Jesus’ death on the cross, only the ceremonial clean Jews were allowed to approach God.  All Gentiles – everyone not born a Jew – were NEVER allowed in the Temple in Jerusalem.  Paul faced an angry Jewish mob because they thought he brought Trophimus, a Greek, into the Temple area (Acts 21:29).  The Jews from the province of Asia determined he had desecrated the Temple in this way and a riot broke out (Acts 21:26-32).

In those days, I would not be ‘good enough’ to ever come before God.  In those days, I would have been stopped by the temple police for trying to come into the Temple and approach the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Such an attempt would have brought about my death either from the acceptable worshipers or my own uncleanness in coming before the Holiness of God.

DSCN9056

My family sat down Monday evening, when Passover began at sundown, and we took communion after we read the original Passover passage in Exodus 12.  In Matthew Chapter 26, we see Jesus sitting down with His disciples to celebrate this same feast.  During this most important ‘Last Supper’ celebration, Jesus took some of these same Seder items and began to correlate them to Himself and the work God had given Him to accomplish.  Luke records these words, “Do this in remembrance of Me.”[5]

We began to feast on some roasted lamb and the bitter herbs and other things on the Seder menu.  My meal was by no means kosher but most of those rules are man-made and not in the original passage in Exodus 12.  I didn’t throw out all of my bread, crackers or food items that contained leaven.  Most of the processed foods today, such as pasta, cereal, chips etc. may contain some sort of leavening agent and I would have to be a chemist to understand this all fully.  I would also have to dump a huge portion of our food items.  The sheer financial impact of that act would be impossible for me to shoulder right now.  Taking them out of the house and asking someone to keep them for me till the feast period is over seems to be cheating the original text, in my opinion.

The old leaven God was bringing into focus to the people of that day was a way to present a visual image of sin – not just the existence of yeast.  My prayer over our meal was for Holy Spirit to rid me of the real leaven…the unforgiveness, the complaints, the slander, the fear, the bitterness and anger that strife and conflict often breeds.  These are the real issues that can separate me from God and from others.  It is so important to remember who Jesus is and where Jesus was born.

Here are my notes and the word studies that helped me:

1.  The first Passover in Exodus 12 is a shadow of what Jesus would do when He died on the cross.  Remember Revelation 13:8…Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world.  Jesus was also loved from the foundation of the world as we see in  John 17:24.  He knew He was going to die before He ever began His public ministry…”The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life – only to take it up again.  NO one takes it from Me, but I lay it down on My own accord.[6]

2.  It was the High Priest’s duty to kill and sacrifice the sin offering – this is very important to understand (Leviticus 9:1-11).

3.  What the first Passover provided:  Psalm 105:37-45

a. Escape from the death angel – Exodus 12:12-30; a call for a lasting ordinance between God and His people

b. Freedom from slavery and bondage – Exodus 12:40-42; Exodus 13:14-16

c. Everyone was strengthened, even the elderly; no one was sick or infirm; Psalm 105:37

d. He was a light and a covering from the weather/heat

e. Their clothes did not wear out

f.  He provided food and water everywhere they went

g. They received a new inheritance…a future and a hope.

h. They spoiled the Egyptians and they came out wealthy…payback for the 430 years of slavery and stolen wages.

4.  In John 2:13, Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Passover and to become the fulfillment of the Passover.  He is mad because He sees the people being cheated; the lambs they bring are acceptable to God.  However, the Temple priests won’t accept the lambs from the people but demand that the people buy ‘approved’ lambs from the Temple flocks.  The money changers and animal sellers make money off the trades/exchanges (John 10:7).

5.  Jesus declares, “I AM the door of the sheep; in Jerusalem, the sheep gate was the entrance in the northeastern corner of Jerusalem’s city wall (see Neh. 3:1, 12).  Apparently, sheep for the Temple sacrifice entered the city through it.  It was close to the Pool of Bethesda.  Read John 5:1-9 to see a picture of what Jesus came to accomplish in us.

6.  Bethlehem means ‘House of Bread’.  The Bread of Life was born in the house of bread.  Bethlehem – Strong’s No. 1035 (Hebrew) from bayith (1004) means ‘house’; and 3899 ‘lechem means ‘bread’.  See (Exodus 25:30).

Bethlehem was also the holding ground for all the sheep being brought into Jerusalem and sold at the Temple for sacrifice during the Feasts of the Lord (Deuteronomy 16:1-17).  Approved and acceptable Temple sacrificial lambs were raised by shepherds on the hills of Bethlehem.

7.  John 1:29 John the Baptist declared Jesus, “the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world.”  He did this since the priesthood had not done so as they should.

8.   God says, “These are MY appointed feasts.” – Leviticus 23:1-44 (note: vs. 14, 21):

a.  The Sabbath – 6 days you may work, but the 7th day is a Sabbath of rest; a day of sacred assembly.  Our Saturday is the Sabbath.  Sunday is the first day of the week.

b.  The Passover – on the 14th day of the first month; it begins at twilight.

c.  The Feast of Unleavened Bread – on the 15th day of the first month – 7 days no bread made with yeast.

d.  First Fruits – bring the first from your harvest to the priests on the day after the Sabbath (our Sunday)- the 3rd day after Passover.

e.  Feast of Weeks – Pentecost – count off 50 days from the 7th Sabbath of the first month (7 full weeks from Passover).  Pente means ‘50’ and it celebrates God giving the Ten Commandments to Moses on the mountain.

f.  The Feast of Trumpets – the first day of the 7th month.

g.  The Day of Atonement – from sundown on the 9th day until sundown on the 10th  day of the 7th month – a solemn time of fasting, personal examination of sin;  it is the most holy day of the year.  It is also a Sabbath rest day.

h.  The Feast of Tabernacles – the 15th day of the 7th month – this feast lasts for 7 days.  No work is to be done during this week; on the 8th present an offering to the Lord at the sacred assembly.  Live in booths (Let’s go camping – oh yeah!).

9.  Jesus is The Fulfillment of The Lord’s Feasts:

a.  In death, Jesus rested on the Sabbath.  He was buried before sundown on Good Friday (His crucifixion day).  Jesus arose from the grave on the first day of the week (our Sunday).    Matt. 28:1-10; Mark 16:9-20 (note Acts 28:3-6);  Luke 24:1-8; 44-49; John 20:1.

b.  Jesus celebrates His last Passover, introduces Communion and becomes the Passover Lamb for the sin of the world;  Luke 22:1-13; John 13:1, John 18:28-40; John 19:10-12; John 19:31-37; He is buried before sundown, as the Passover feast begins for the nation of Israel -John 19:42.  See I Corinthians 5:6-8,  Revelation 13:8b

c.  Jesus, the sinless Bread of Heaven introduces His body as the Unleavened Bread sacrifice.  John 6:48-63 and Matthew 26:28.  Leviticus 2:4-11; Mark 8:15, I Cor. 5-7-8; Galatians 5:9.

d.  Jesus, first born among the dead, Romans 8:23, I. Corinthians 15:20-23;I Cor. 15:20-26, James 1:18; Romans 11:11-29.  Key on verse 29!  

e.  Jesus breathes on the 11 remaining disciples and tells them ‘receive the Holy Spirit’. (John 20:19-20; Luke 24:45-49 – “tarry in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high”.  Acts 2:-5; Acts 2:1-4; The Holy Spirit comes with power on the 120 waiting per Jesus’ final instructions in Luke and John.  This event happens on the Feast of Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus was crucified.

f.  The Feast of Trumpets – the blowing of trumpets – all day.  I. Thessalonians 4:14-18 (the rapture of the church –  unfulfilled); Zechariah 9:14; Zechariah 14:1-9; Matthew 24:30-31

g.  Atonement – Rosh Hashanah; Final judgment, the Book of Life opened – unfulfilled (Rev. 20:11-15).

h.  The Feast of Tabernacles – God makes His dwelling with us (Rev 21)– unfulfilled – Jesus kept this feast; He declared Himself to be the Living Waters that would be in us, streams of living water; John 7:1-41;Zechariah 14:16-20.  Parable of the Great Banquet:  Luke 14:15- 23.

i.  Jesus – Strong’s Hebrew 3091[from 3068 Yehovah – the self-Existent or Eternal; Jehovah, Jewish national name of God, Jehovah, the Lord; and 3467 yasha (yaw-shah) to be open – wide or free; to be safe, cause to free or succor; avenging, defend, deliver or deliverer, help, preserve, rescue, be safe, bring salvation, save or savior, get victory.  Jesus – Strong’s Greek 2424.

 

 

 

[1] Matthew 22:1-14.; “The Comparative Study Bible – New International Version ,” copyright 1999; Zondervan; Grand Rapids, Michigan; pages 2491 and 2493.

[2] Zechariah 14:1-21, ibid; pages 2411 and 2413.

[3] I Corinthians 5:7-8; ibid, page 2917.

[4] Luke 1:67-79; ibid, pages 2589 and 2591.

[5] Luke 22:7-20; note verse 19; ibid, pages 2673 and 2675.

[6] John 10:14-18; ibid, page 2727.

The Other Face of Esther

Posted: August 24, 2012 in Going Deeper - Hebrew and Greek Word Study Posts, The Virginia Real
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By Amy Lee Hartmann

August 20, 2012

     Being the heroine in any event is always thrilling.  Being heralded as the leading lady who brought about great victory – or salvation – or deliverance causes many a woman to aspire to achieve great things when under personal, social, moral or political pressure.  Rising to the rank of queen, or brave woman, or leader is cause for great celebration. However, the shoes of the defeated, swept away, rightly disposed individual often hold just as a compelling human being whose failures leave key life lessons too!  Such is the story of the renowned beauty, Queen Vashti, royal hostess and much admired companion of  King Xerxes.

“Xerxes (also known as Ahasuerus) was a Persian king who reigned 486-464 B.C. …He was the son of Darius The Great and grandson of Cyrus the Great.[1]  Persia was a vast collection of states and kingdoms reaching from the shores of Asia Minor in the west to to the Indus River valley in the east.  It reached northward to southern Russia, and in the south included Egypt and the regions bordering the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman”.[2]

This territory encompasses modern day Iran.  The book of Esther describes this kingdom as reaching from India to Ethiopia – over 127 provinces all together.  By today’s reckonings, that would include many well recognized nations.  Vashti had the world and this powerful man at her feet.  All the wealth and resources of one of the largest and most well organized kingdoms in biblical history were at her disposal.  Her very name meant “the once desired, the beloved.”[3]

King Xerxes had been on his throne for three years when he decided to hold a feast for all his princes and servants.  Biblical accounts suggest that these sort of celebrations were not that unusual.  King Solomon and King Hezekiah are leaders who utilized these events to proclaim their status to their world.  The court of King Xerxes feasted for 180 days.  During this time he showed off his “glorious kingdom and the splendor and excellence of his majesty.”[4]  At the end of this elaborate extravaganza, the king then made a feast for all the inhabitants of the royal city, from the least to the greatest alike.  This banquet carried on for seven more days.

Vashti’s story unfolds in this majestic setting of the citadel of Susa, the winter capital of the ancient Persian Empire.  The palace gardens were decked with elaborate, sumptuously colored linen hangings fastened with white linen cords laced through silver grommets.  These draperies were supported by marble columns seated on a mosaic pavement of mother-of pearl, marble, costly stones and porphyry (red marble stones composed of feldspar crystals embedded in a dark red or purple ground mass)[5].  Couches of gold and silver provided the perfect seating for this imperial garden party.

Royal wine was abundant and liberally served by the wine stewards.  The people were encouraged to drink according to their own desire.  Queen Vashti made a feast for all the women of the palace household at this same time.  Susa was rocking!

On the seventh day of the final feast, the heart of the king was gladdened by much revelry and wine, so he decided to show his subjects one of his greatest treasures, his beautiful Queen Vashti.  The texts say that she was very fair and lovely to look upon.  It was at this very moment that divine destiny crept in and raised one of those unique portals that caused time and chance to shift.  Maybe Queen Vashti was tired; after all she had played hostess to a large banquet of high maintenance women from the palace.  Maybe she just didn’t feel good and hadn’t been wise about all of her banquet choices.  Regardless of her reasons, at this critical juncture of her life, she chose to disregard the royal eunuchs sent to prepare her to appear before the king.  She refused to wear her crown.

Her husband was enraged.  The princes and royal advisers trembled with anger and fear.  The wise-men were called, “those who understood the times, the law and judgment.”[6] Memucan, one of the king’s closest advisers gave this reply:

“Vashti the queen has not only done wrong to the king but also to all the princes and to all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus.  For this deed of the queen will become known to all women, making their husbands contemptible in their eyes, since they will say ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him but she did not come’.  This very day the ladies of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s behavior will be telling it to all the king’s princes.  So contempt and wrath in plenty will arise.”[7]

Another translation says, “This very day the Persian and Median women of the nobility who have heard about the queen’s conduct will respond to all the king’s nobles in the same way.  There will be no end of disrespect and discord.”[8]

Contempt, wrath-in-plenty, unending disrespect and discord….such are the fruits of dishonor.  How many of us have stood in similar shoes…maybe not as politically heeled as Vashti’s…but still shoes that carry the same weight in our world and our circumstances?  Another renowned wise king named Solomon gives us this perspective, “The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish woman tears hers down”.[9]

The Apostle Paul, gives this insight into the topic of honor and respect in marriage when he writes to the Ephesian church:

“Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church; He himself being the Savior of the body…Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself up for her…nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”[10]

Paul repeats this same directive to the church at Colossae:

“Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.  Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.

These admonitions aren’t popular and politically correct attitudes now days, but that does not mean that they aren’t the foundational answer to many relationship problems between a husband and wife.  Why would God repeatedly command a husband ‘to love his wife as he loves himself ’unless there was going to be this disconnect in the attitudes of a husband.  God was warning  that this is a key issue in keeping the heart of a wife free from hurt and bitterness.

Why would God reiterate again and again ‘that the woman must respect her husband’ unless this was going to be a key issue in keeping the husband’s heart free from hurt, anger and bitterness?

Being subject does not mean being abused.  The Greek word is hupotasso and it really means to obey, to respect and to come up under and look up to.

At this solemn moment in Vashti’s life, her fate is sealed.  There is no second chance.  “Therefore, if it pleases the king, let him issue a royal decree and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media, which cannot be repealed, that Vashti is never again to enter the presence of King Xerxes.  Also let the king give her royal position to someone else who is better than she.  Then, when the king’s edict is proclaimed throughout all his vast realm, the women will respect their husbands, from the least to the greatest.”[11]

The rest of the story goes like this:  “After these things, when the wrath of King Xerxes had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her.”[12]  The King’s personal servants suggest the king issue a call for all the fair young virgins of the provinces to be brought into the palace of Shushan.  This royal search will find a suitable new queen.  A multi-year long beauty pageant brings a host of young women and an orphaned Jewish girl named Hadassah into the palace for purification and beauty treatments.

Hadassah’s uncle Mordecai insists she use the Persian name of Esther to mask her nationality and family background.  The text says she continued to obey and follow her uncle’s directions the entire time she was in the palace, just as she had done when he was bringing her up.  One interesting aspect of Esther’s story is found tucked away in the technical details of this book:  Queen Vashti disobeyed the king’s command at the end of the banquet in the third year of Xerxes’ reign.  Esther’s turn to be with King Xerxes took place in the tenth month of the seventh year of his reign.  Four long years of complete obedience to the eunuchs in charge had to pass before Esther’s divine portal opened and her destiny came forth.

Esther’s time as Queen ultimately provides the opportunity for her to stand up for her people.  Hatred for the Jewish people rises up in Haman, one of the king’s closest advisers, and he plots ethnic cleansing of the entire kingdom of Persia. When Mordecai learns of this edict, he tears his clothes, dons sackcloth and ashes, and then goes out into the city, lamenting loudly for his people.  Esther’s maids and royal servants carry this distressing information to the young queen and she sends one of the king’s eunuchs to investigate.  Through the eunuch, Mordecai urges Esther to go before the king and plead for mercy.

Esther fearfully reminds her uncle that the laws of the royal province state that anyone who approaches the king in his inner court without being summoned directly by the king, receives an immediate death sentence, unless the king extends his royal scepter to that person.  She nervously confides that it has been thirty days since she was last called into the king’s chambers.

Uncle Mordecai gives this compelling direction to Esther, when the royal edict is released to all the other provinces of the kingdom:

“Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape.  For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish.  And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”[13]

“Go, gather together all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days – night or day – and I and my maidens also will fast in the same way.  And thus I will go into the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish,” Esther replies.

On the third day, Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace in view of the king.  When King Xerxes saw her he was pleased and he held out to her his golden scepter.  Over the next few days, Esther humbly serves the king and the enemy adviser through a series of banquets.  The king is captivated and demands she make her petition before him, even up to half of his kingdom!

Finally, in a moment of high drama, she pleads for her life, and that of her people.  Haman’s evil plot of ethnic cleansing is exposed!  The King’s rage at the intrigue of this plot boils up and he races out of the banqueting hall to call for his advisers.  In a panic, Haman falls upon the young queen, begging for his life.  The king returns just as Haman grabs for Esther and that triggers the portal for Haman’s demise.

“Will Haman even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?” Xerxes angrily exclaims, as the guards cover Haman’s head and drag him away.  The very instrument of death Haman has erected for the killing of his Jewish enemies becomes his own execution site; and sadly, the same for his ten sons.  The king grants Mordecai the task of issuing a new edict that grants the Jews in every province the right to defend themselves from the previous order calling for their death.  Thus the Jewish holiday of Purim is created as a remembrance of the deliverance of Queen Esther and her people.

Regrettably, “…no (other) records yet have been recovered which name Vashti as the queen of any king of the Medo-Persian Empire…”[14]  Vashti was swept away without further mention. Vashti’s parting epitath might well be, “The test of honor came when least expected but its consequences endured for a lifetime.”

[1] Xerxes, “The Holman Bible Dictionary;” Trent C. Butler, PH.D., General Editor; copyright 1991; Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, TN; page 1428[2] Persia, ibid, page 1097.

[3] Vashti, ibid, page 1388.

[4] Esther 1:4, “The Comparative Study Bible,” copyright 1999; Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI; page 1260.

[5] Porphyry, “The Holman Bible Dictionary;” Trent C. Butler, PH.D., General Editor; copyright 1991; Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, TN; page 1125.

[6] Esther 1:13, “The Comparative Study Bible,” ibid, page 1260.

[7] Esther 1:16-18, “The Comparative Study Bible – The Amplified Version,” ibid, page 1260 and 1262.

[8] Esther 1:18, “The Comparative Study Bible – New International Version,” ibid, page 1263.

[9] Proverbs 14:1; ibid, page 1621.

[10] Ephesians 6:22, 23, 25,33; Colossians 3:18,19;ibid, pages 3011 and 3035 .

[11] Esther 1:19-20; ibid, page 1263.

[12] Esther 2:1-4; ibid, page 1263.

[13] Esther 4:12-14; ibid, page 1269.

[14] Vashti, The Holman Bible Dictionary;” Trent C. Butler, PH.D., General Editor; copyright 1991; Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, TN; page 1389.