Month: September 2022

When we’re moving in line with God’s will there is abundant Favour. Esther 2

The Book of Esther doesn’t mention the Name of God, but His Hand is continually moving on behalf of His people – reminiscent of what’s going on today!

There were two queens in the Book, Vashti who refused to obey the call of the king and was banished from his side. Will this represent part of the present day Church?

We’re introduced to Esther in the second chapter of the book and told that she was an orphan, who’d been raised by her uncle Mordecai.

This young woman, who was also known as Esther, was lovely in form and features. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died. Esther 2:7

A search was made to find a new wife for the king and Esther was taken to the King’s palace and put in the care of Hegai, who oversaw the harem.

⁹ The girl pleased him and WON HIS FAVOUR. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven female attendants selected from the king’s palace and moved her and her attendants INTO THE BEST PLACE in the harem.

Esther had Favour and received the Best from Hegai, the man in charge. God wants His children to have the Best. Matthew 6:33

Esther was instructed by her uncle not to reveal her ‘nationality and family background’. She was ‘forbidden and hidden’ in the palace of the king. God has many such people today in centres of power and when His time is right they will be revealed to the shock and dismay of our enemies.

The girls who were going to be sent to the king had to undertake a beauty treatment lasting a full twelve months.

¹⁵ When the turn came for Esther … to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested. (She took advice from an expert) And Esther won the FAVOUR OF EVERYONE WHO SAW HER.

No doubt Esther was stunningly beautiful, but maybe something more attracted people to her. God can GIVE US OUTSTANDING FAVOUR when we need it too, just like Esther.

¹⁷ Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and SHE WON HIS FAVOUR AND APPROVAL MORE THAN ANY OF THE OTHER VIRGINS. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. ¹⁸ And the king gave a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality.

Favour followed Esther and the king made her his queen in place of Vashti. Three times in this chapter we read of Favour for Esther, culminating in her rise to the king’s side. The Bride Church (not the harlot Church) will be shown Favour in the coming days, visible to all and there will be great Rejoicing.

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THE LORD IS NO ONE’S DEBTOR, HALLELUJAH.

What’s given to Him will always be multiplied back to us.

God bless and keep you today.

In the final chapter of Nehemiah he asks the Lord four times ‘to Remember’ – it is a valid way to pray.

Chapter 12 ends with the dedication of the newly completed wall, led by Ezra and Nehemiah, with choirs walking on the walls with them. They committed the new defences of their city to the Lord with praise and worship.

13 ON THAT DAY the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God, ² because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.) ³ When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent. Nehemiah 13

Israel SEPARATED THEMSELVES FROM EVERYONE WHO displeased God. They needed the protection and blessing of God on those who had returned to the Land.

¹⁴ REMEMBER me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services. Nehemiah 13

Nehemiah had returned to the king of Babylon after twelve years Nehemiah 13:6 and while he was away the enemy had been busy. The Priest Eliashib had given over a Temple storeroom to Tobiah, an enemy of Israel. On his return Nehemiah threw his belongings out and restored the room. Priests like all of us can be good or wicked. Nehemiah also had to reinstate the tithes to the Temple,

¹¹ So I rebuked the officials and asked them, ‘Why is the house of God neglected?’ Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts.

The next issue that arose was the desecration of the Sabbath, people were working and trading on it. ( Jesus said, ‘the Sabbath was made for man, (a rest day to pause and reflect)’ Mark 2:27 Once again it was Nehemiah who put an end to their disobedience. Nehemiah had to enforce his orders to the Jews and outsiders, just telling people wasn’t enough.

²² Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.

REMEMBER ME FOR THIS ALSO, MY GOD, AND SHOW MERCY TO ME ACCORDING TO YOUR GREAT LOVE.

Nehemiah also had to address the matter of Jews who had intermarried, made Covenant, with those from the pagan nations around them. Solomon’s sin was cited in this regard. Nehemiah 13:26

²⁸ One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest (same family of the defiling Priest) was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. And I DROVE HIM AWAY from me.

²⁹ REMEMBER THEM, my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites. 

The final words of the Book of Nehemiah were a sort of catch-all phrase by Nehemiah, who so craved the Favour of His God in the midst of all the difficulties he faced.

REMEMBER ME WITH FAVOUR, MY GOD.

A beautiful ending to a life of many trials, spanning from Babylon to Jerusalem.

May God Remember us and all the good things we’ve done for Him this day. Amen

 

Three times in three consecutive chapters Nehemiah uses the word Remember.

Firstly, ‘don’t be afraid, Remember the Lord’. A good word for believers in today’s world.

⁶ So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.

⁷ But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. ⁸ They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. Nehemiah 4

The enemy opposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls, they wanted it left defenceless.

¹⁴ After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, ‘Don’t be afraid of them. REMEMBER the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.’ Nehemiah 4

Nehemiah rallied the people to finish the building. Sometimes it just takes one voice to give people hope in the face of discouragement.

The rich Jews were oppressing the poor with unjust financial burdens and enslaving them all over again. In the face of an overwhelming enemy, they took advantage of their own people to enrich themselves. Do believers today take advantage of their brothers and sisters in Christ?

⁹ So I continued, ‘What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? ¹⁰ I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. Nehemiah 5

– twelve years – neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. ¹⁵ But the earlier governors – those preceding me – placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also LORDED IT OVER THE PEOPLE (Beware any leadership that takes from the flock instead of giving to it).

¹⁹ REMEMBER ME WITH FAVOUR, MY GOD, for all I have done for these people. Nehemiah 5

Nehemiah reminded God of his sacrifices for God’s people.

Finally, Nehemiah was under direct personal attack from outside and inside his camp. Specific named people were harassing him to try and stop the work.

² Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: ‘Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.’ Nehemiah 6

They sent him the same message four times and then the assistant of one brought an unsealed letter; could be read by anyone.

They used false prophets to try and get Nehemiah to go into hiding and so suffer disgrace before the people.

Shemaiah, ‘let us meet in the house of God and close the doors because men are coming to kill you’.

¹² I realised that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him (just like Balaam, hired to curse the people of God). Nehemiah 6

¹⁴ REMEMBER Tobiah and Sanballat, my God, because of what they have done; REMEMBER also the prophet Noadiah and how she and the rest of the prophets have been trying to intimidate me. ¹⁵ So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.

Nehemiah named specific enemies, who had troubled him most, to God. God knows the ringleaders who harass His people the most and will no doubt remember them in due course. But Nehemiah and the people built the wall despite all opposition, they prevailed and so must we!

God bless and keep us in these troubled days.

The Sooner we turn back to God, the sooner we can begin to walk in our Destiny again. (The Parable of the Lost Son, Luke 15:11-32)

⁸ ‘REMEMBER the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, “If you are UNFAITHFUL, I WILL SCATTER YOU among the nations, ⁹ but IF YOU RETURN TO ME AND OBEY MY COMMANDS, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I WILL GATHER THEM from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.” Nehemiah 1

The First thing Nehemiah asked God to ‘Remember’ was His own promise to Moses. ‘When and If’ His people repented, then He would bring them back to the place He’d chosen for His Name. He asked God to Remember and he asked for Favour, ‘Give your servant success today by granting him FAVOUR in the presence of this man (A king, but still only a man).’ Nehemiah 1:11

Then Nehemiah went in and stood before the King, as his cupbearer.

I was very much afraid (The Bible reveals the True state of God’s man, he had to face his fear and overcome it), ³ BUT I SAID to the king, ‘May the king live for ever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?’ Nehemiah 2

The king didn’t rebuke him, but asked what he wanted.

Then I prayed (SILENT PRAYER BEFORE HE ANSWERED) to the God of heaven, ⁵ and I answered the king, ‘If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favour in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.’ Nehemiah 2

God moved Nehemiah’s heart, though so far away, to return and help his people in their distress. God was with him and opened the way for him, gave him the desire of his heart.

And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests. ⁹ So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me. 

Nehemiah had Favour from God and the King, Artaxerxes, granted him all he needed to help on the journey and the task of rebuilding when he got back to Jerusalem. It didn’t mean that there wouldn’t be major opposition, Nehemiah 2:10 to what was in his heart, but God was faithful.

Nehemiah prayed and fasted before God, but then he still had to step out and put legs to his prayer. It was at that point that God began to move on his behalf and for the sake of His people.

May God bless and keep you today and give you courage to step into all He has for your life. Hallelujah

The Book of Nehemiah opens in the citadel of Susa, the centre of the Babylonian empire, where many of God’s people were living in exile.

How many of God’s people today  are living our lives far away from the place of our rightful inheritance? He still hears our prayers and wants to bring us back to the place He’s set apart for us.

Nehemiah (derived from nacham, meaning ‘to comfort’) lived far from Jerusalem, but his heart was moved for the city and his own people.

³ They said to me, ‘Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.’

⁴ When I heard these things, I SAT DOWN AND WEPT. FOR SOME DAYS I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Nehemiah 1

Nehemiah was moved to, ‘mourn, fast and pray’ to God for the capital of his people. He was more focused on the plight of his people and their nation than on himself.

Nehemiah’s Prayer IS A MODEL for those who are interceding to God for themselves and others.

⁵ Then I said:

‘Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God (Respect and Honour), who keeps his covenant of love (Covenant of Love, God loves His people, even when we’re far away in exile) with those who love him and keep his commandments, ⁶ let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night (Sincere Prayer) for your servants, the people of Israel. 

It continues with personal identification with the sins of his people, before any requests are made.

⁸ ‘REMEMBER the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, “If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, ⁹ but IF YOU RETURN TO ME and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I WILL GATHER THEM FROM THERE AND BRING THEM to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.”

Nehemiah uses the REMEMBER a number times in his book and this is the first place he says it. He Reminds God First what He has said previously to Moses.

¹⁰ ‘They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. ¹¹ Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him FAVOUR in the presence of this man.’

It’s one thing to pray and petition God, but for Nehemiah, this was a prelude to standing before the king of Babylon and asking for permission to return to the city of his fathers. Nehemiah also used the word ‘Favour’ four times in this book, but he first asked God for Favour to go back where Israel should always have been. A good prayer for some of us no doubt.

God bless and keep you today.

 

Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year (literally Head of the Year) begins on the evening of Sunday, 25 September and is celebrated until the evening of Tuesday, 27 September.

Rosh Hashanah is also the first of a ten-day period during which God’s people enter into self-examination and repentance, known as the 10 Days of Awe, which conclude on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. (Rob Parsons)

Is the world about to enter into Days of Awe, such as has not been known before? Such a time may be upon us and God may be about to reveal Himself in a powerful way before mankind. The Lord alone knows His timing, but the enemy has sought to overthrow God’s rule on this earth and that challenge has not gone unanswered.

May the Lord bless and keep you in these turbulent days.

 

We should understand that God does not choose people randomly, but with His purposes in mind.

We first meet Ezra in chapter 7 of the book named after him and there’s some interesting statements given to us.

His whole family line back to Aaron, God’s Priest, is given in detail with sixteen generations listed. God is still calling people from ancient family lines who served Him before.

⁶ this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a teacher WELL VERSED in the Law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted him everything he asked, FOR THE HAND OF HIS GOD WAS ON HIM. Ezra 7

He had the authentic lineage of a priest and was a teacher of the law and he was called to guide Judah in their own land. God had a purpose for Ezra, he wasn’t chosen at random. He was handpicked by God and SO ARE WE TODAY!

The phrase, ‘For the hand of His God was on Him’ is repeated three times in the chapter. The first instance records Favour with the King, he was granted EVERYTHING he asked for. Will this be repeated in our day, RESOURCES GIVEN FOR BUILDING GOD’S KINGDOM?

⁷ Some of the Israelites, including priests, Levites, musicians, gatekeepers and temple servants, ALSO CAME UP TO JERUSALEM in the SEVENTH year of King Artaxerxes. Ezra 7 (Seven is the number of Perfection and Completion, ‘Seventh Year’, chapter 7, verse 7).

God’s Word records five offices of God who returned with the Teacher Ezra to Jerusalem. ALL WERE NEEDED in God’s eyes to restore worship in the Temple and each was listed, from the priests to the Temple servants.  God has a place for everyone in His work and worship, ALL ARE STILL NEEDED. He is assembling the RESOURCES AND PEOPLE to build His Church on earth today.

⁹ He had begun his journey from Babylon on the first day of the first month, and he arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, for THE GRACIOUS HAND OF HIS GOD WAS ON HIM. ¹⁰ For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel. Ezra 7

The second mention of God’s Hand was regarding TRANSITION! They had a long journey of four months to get back to their own land and God oversaw that Transition. The Church today is also a long way from where we should be, but God’s Hand will bring us back to our rightful place.

²⁷ Praise be to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, … ²⁸ and who has extended His Good Favour to me before the king and his advisors and all the king’s powerful officials. Because the HAND OF THE LORD hand my God was on me, I took courage and gathered leaders from Israel to go up with me.

The Lord’s Hand was upon Ezra and he took courage and Gathered the leaders of Israel, UNITY AMONG LEADERS, ONLY THROUGH GOD. There is only Spirit and He alone has the perfect plan for the Body.

God’s Hand brings 1. Favour and Resources. 2. Everyone is needed. 3. Unity among leaders.

May the Gracious Hand of Our God be upon all us today. Amen

 

 

We can’t build God’s Kingdom with the wrong people in our lives, they have to go?

In the Book of Ezra we see that the Lord is beginning the restoration of His people to their own land. After seventy years of captivity, God has begun to restore Israel or Judah to their own land bring.

¹² ‘But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,’ declares the Lord, ‘and will make it desolate for ever.’ (God’s lasting judgement on Babylon) Jeremiah 25

¹⁰ When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel. ¹¹ With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:

And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. Ezra 3

We need to understand that there’s always a spiritual element in any work for the Lord and that can never be mixed with the things of this world.

When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were rebuilding A TEMPLE FOR THE LORD they offered to help.

³ But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, ‘YOU HAVE NO PART WITH US in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.’ Ezra 4

The Holy and the Profane should never be mixed and we deceive ourselves if we think they can be. Leviticus 10:10

²¹ So the Israelites who had returned from the exile ate it, (Passover) together WITH ALL WHO HAD ‘SEPARATED THEMSELVES’ from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbours in order to seek the Lord, the God of Israel. Ezra 6

Only those who had SEPARATED THEMSELVES ate the Lord’s Passover. They had returned from exile back to their own land, but they also had to come apart from the practices of those nations who worshipped idols.

Repentance is a complete change of direction, we can no longer associate with people and things which are repugnant to God. The root meaning of the word Holiness is ‘set apart, for God’.

Elevation demands Separation. Jennifer LeClaire

May God HELP US TO SEPARATE from all that is displeasing to Him.

God bless and keep you today.

⁴ THEN Jehoahaz sought the Lord’s FAVOUR, and the Lord listened to him, for he saw how severely the king of Aram was oppressing Israel. 2 Kings 13

We don’t know when the ‘Then’ was, (he ruled for seventeen years) the point when Jehoahaz sought the Lord’s Favour, but that was a Change Point for Israel.

⁵ THE LORD PROVIDED A DELIVERER FOR ISRAEL, and they escaped from the power of Aram. So the Israelites lived in their own homes as they had before.

When I read this scripture this morning I sensed that we are at a Turning Point, that God is about to intervene and the power of Aram (the enemy) is soon to be broken. It wasn’t that Everything in Israel was suddenly perfect, far from it, but God saw the heart of a leader and delivered His people. We serve a Good and Merciful God who is coming once again to help His people.

God bless and keep us today.

Even Kings can’t live wrong and expect the Favour of God.

We saw last week that Rehoboam met with the people just before his coronation, when they asked him to reduce the burden his father Solomon had put on them. The elders advised him to listen to the people,

⁷ They replied, ‘If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favourable answer, they will always be your servants.’ 1 Kings 12

Rehoboam, however, rejected their advice and the ten northern tribes left and came under the rule of Jeroboam. They also turned away from the Lord at this time and began to worship idols.

Ahab, King of Israel (with his infamous wife, Jezebel) asked Jehoshaphat, King of Judah to join him in battle against Aram and recover Ramoth Gilead. Ahab consulted all his prophets, about 400 men and they prophesied victory to him. Jehoshaphat must have been unhappy, because he asked for a prophet of the Lord to be consulted.

⁷ But Jehoshaphat asked, ‘Is there no longer a prophet of the Lord here whom we can enquire of?’

⁸ The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, ‘There is still ONE PROPHET (Only one prophet of the Lord left!) through whom we can enquire of the Lord, but I HATE HIM because HE NEVER PROPHESIES ANYTHING GOOD ABOUT ME, BUT ALWAYS BAD. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.’ 1 Kings 22

Jezebel had murdered many true prophets of the Lord during the reign of Ahab, but Micaiah had apparently escaped. Ahab sent for him and the messenger told Micaiah what the false prophets were saying.

¹³ The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, ‘Look, the other prophets without exception are predicting success for the king. LET YOUR WORD AGREE WITH THEIRS AND SPEAK FAVOURABLY.’ 1 Kings 22

Micaiah tried to appease Ahab, but eventually he told the two kings what he’d been shown in the Lord’s Throne Room.

²¹ Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord and said, “I will entice him.”

²² ‘“By what means?” the Lord asked.

‘“I will go out and be a Lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,” he said.

ONE Spirit, MANY Mouths (False prophetic mouths)

Four hundred, all prophesying the same lie and one man standing saying the opposite. One of the four hundred then slapped the true prophet, for daring to expose how false they all were. They couldn’t stand the truth being revealed.

Today we have news media that all repeats the same story, over and over ad nauseum. But, no matter how often they repeat their stories, the truth will eventually come out. On this occasion the King died in battle and soon after his despotic wife died too, just as Elijah had prophesied.

Two kings who tried to have their own way, but God didn’t permit it. The rulers of this day are just as surely under His Hand and would be best to humble themselves. We and they can’t turn our backs on God and expect His Favour.

God bless and keep you today.