Queen Esther saves a nation

Posted on July 24, 2020 by jwfisch

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At the request of his daughter, who was now Queen Esther of the empire of Media and Persia, Mordecai had gathered all the Jews in the citadel to fast for three days. Esther knew that approaching the king without being summoned, even as the queen, was a dangerous enterprise. It was against the laws and customs of the land and punishable by death. But because of the edict that had gone out to annihilate all Jews, Esther was willing to risk her life for her people. So when she went before the king, it was by the strength of the prayers and fasting of all her people that she went. Never sell short the prayers of the people of God.

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‘If I perish, I perish’

Posted on July 23, 2020 by jwfisch

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In the story of Esther, King Xerxes decides to honor one of his officials, Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, “elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles” (Esther 3:1). So much so that all the other officials and everyone at the king’s gate bowed down and paid honor to Haman because that was what the king had commanded — everyone, that is, except Mordecai the Jew, the adoptive father of Queen Esther. This angered Haman to such a degree that he began to plot to kill Mordecai, and not only him, but all the Jews in the 127 provinces over which Xerxes ruled. To this end, Haman convinced King Xerxes to issue a decree “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—on a single day” (3:13). There was even money designated in the royal treasury to pay those who would carry this out. After the decree was dispatched, Haman and the king sat down to drink while the whole region was thrown into confusion. Neither of them knew at this point that their queen was a Jew.

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Queen Esther

Posted on July 22, 2020 by jwfisch

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Now there was a certain Jew living in exile in the city of Susa in Persia, seat of the king’s now queen-less palace, named Mordecai. And Mordecai had a cousin named Esther whom he had taken in and cared for as his daughter because her parents had both died and she had no other family. Esther was an extraordinarily beautiful young virgin, and when Hegai, the king’s eunuch in charge of the women of the palace, went on a search throughout the city for virgins to present to the king as a possible new queen to replace Queen Vashti, he found out about Esther and brought her to the palace to join the harem of other virgins going through a year-long regimen of beauty treatments, “six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics” (Esther 2:12) to prepare them to eventually be presented to the king. In essence it was a year-long Miss Persia beauty pageant.

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Queen Vashti loses her crown but keeps her dignity

Posted on July 21, 2020 by jwfisch

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The book of Esther opens with King Xerxes of Persia throwing himself a very big party. At that time, Xerxes ruled over an area of 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia. All the princes, nobles and military leaders from all 127 provinces were there and the celebration lasted for 180 days. “For a full 180 days [Xerxes] displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and glory of his majesty” (Esther 1:4). At the end of 6 months of partying, the king threw one more banquet that lasted seven days. On the seventh day, he ordered his servants to go summon the Queen “in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles, for she was lovely to look at” (1:11). But much to the king’s dismay, Queen Vashti refused to come.

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For such a time as this

Posted on July 20, 2020 by jwfisch

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“Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14

The Book of Esther is a remarkable story concerning Jews dispersed throughout Persia. It comes at a time when their period of exile was coming to a close and some Jews had already returned to Jerusalem. Others chose to remain. These were undoubtedly those who had managed to carve out a decent life in a foreign country and were not being persecuted. At least not yet.

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Isaac’s turn to sleep

Posted on July 17, 2020 by jwfisch

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Funny thing happened to me on the way to the Catch. I was reminded of a picture book my wife, Marti, made for our granddaughter, Jocelyn. It’s about a huggable stuffed leopard we gave her named Isaac, and an imaginary story about how he watches over her while she sleeps. It seemed a fitting way to end a lighter week of reflection in these most difficult times. Here is the story.

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Drive-by

Posted on July 16, 2020 by jwfisch

IMG_2306A funny thing happened on the way to the Catch this week. I was involved in a drive-by … birthday party! It was for our daughter-in-law who turned 40 this week. Unable to arrange for the big gathering he wanted because of the virus, our son, Christopher, arranged to have a bunch of their friends gather in their cars in a parking lot a block away from their house, decorate their cars with balloons and streamers, and then drive by in front of their house like a little parade, dropping off cards and gifts for his wife, Elizabeth, as she stood curbside, greeting everyone and watching us pass on down the street honking and screaming, “Happy Birthday!”

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Anna of Arendelle

Posted on July 15, 2020 by jwfisch

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A funny thing happened to me this time on the way to the Catch. I ran into Princess Anna of Arendelle. Not the animated version from the Disney movie, Frozen, but the real princess — the younger sister of Elsa, the Snow Queen with the magic powers. You might know that it was those powers that got Elsa and her kingdom into all kinds of trouble, but it was Anna’s determination and love that broke the spell and finally saved the day. Anna has no special powers except for the power of love, which, as we learn once again, is the greatest power in the world.

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Strike two!

Posted on July 14, 2020 by jwfisch

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The funny thing that happened to me on the way to the Catch today makes me wonder if I want to keep this “lighten up” theme going all week for fear of what might happen the rest of the week, since what is funny seems to always come at my expense. This one my wife relishes because it came as a result of turning the dining room table into my office in the early morning — something she is not at all fond of.

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A funny thing happened on the way to the Catch

Posted on July 13, 2020 by jwfisch

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This was to be the first day of something on the lighter side this week just to try and counteract all the negative news going down. Not that we want to put our heads in the sand and pretend something isn’t there when it obviously is. It’s just that this negative news is going to be around for a while, and if we lighten up for a little bit, plenty of bad news will be still waiting around for our attention when we are ready to give it.

We were playing with the not too creative title: “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Catch.” And you know, something did happen on the way to the Catch today: I overslept.  On the way to the Catch this morning, I kept hitting the snooze button on my phone. They make it too easy; it’s a big orange button in the middle of my screen — easy to find; easy to hit — so that I ended up getting up a full two hours later than the time set. That was due to very late nights all weekend including last night. As you know, the pandemic is impacting many within our community, drastically changing how the Ministry operates. We are adapting as fast as we can to respond to the increasing demand for assistance as our volunteers donate increased hours of needed professional expertise in many areas and necessitating that we work all weekend, into the early morning hours.

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