Providence

Why have there been so many attempts to completely annihilate the Jews? All through-out history deranged men have risen to power only to focus their wrath on the sons and daughters of Jacob. 

Fifteen hundred and twenty-six years before Jesus was born the pharaoh of Egypt decided that the Jews had become too numerous and calls for all male Hebrew babies to be killed. Baby Moses escapes in an ark of reeds that was placed into the Nile River. Later in the early first century King Herod, half mad and ravenous for power orders all male Hebrew children to be killed. Warned in a dream that king Herod was going to kill their new born son, Joseph and Mary run away with baby Jesus escaping safely into Egypt. 

 In the last century, Adolf Hitler single handedly convinced his minions to exterminate the Jews at any cost. Satanically driven, they devised horrific plans to destroy men women and children by gas, firing squad and torture. Morbid as may be the Nazis figured out ways to make a profit from the corpses even to the point of extracting gold from their teeth.

 So of all the nations of the world, why has this one race suffered so much at our hands but still managed to survive and eventually thrive? Even the very ground that was taken away from them was eventually returned. On May 14^th 1948 Israel once again became a nation! This once barren, desolate desert was now being irrigated and beginning to bloom as the fertile land slowly came back to life. 

In the first book of the bible God promised that all nations of the world would be blessed through the Seed of the woman. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall crush your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Genesis 3:15. This is the first mention that God would be sending a Messiah or Savior to redeem the fallen world. It also hints at the virgin birth since the seed is from the man not the woman.

Later, God promises Abraham that he will be a father of many nations, and kings shall come from him and more importantly the Savior of the world “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:3. And again to Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, God promises “the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants…and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 28:14.

The providence of God is built on the rock of our salvation which is Jesus Christ! Here’s the theological definition of providence according to the late J. Vernon McGee “Providence is the means by which God directs all things; both animate and inanimate; seen and unseen; good and evil toward a worthy purpose, which means His will must finally prevail.”

And providence is exactly what we see revealed in the story of Esther. Providentially, Esther is chosen to be queen out of hundreds of beautiful candidates. Now, as an evil plot arises to exterminate all the Jews, Esther has a chance to intercede. Haman, one of the king’s advisors, deceitfully devises a plan to kill Mordecai and all other Jewish families’ through-out the kingdom.

Mordecai catches wind of Haman’s plan and secretly gets the information to the Queen. Esther afraid for life hesitates to go into the king’s court unannounced to divulge Haman’s treachery. Mordecai, aware of Esther’s reluctance, sends one last word of encouragement to his cousin the queen.

 “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this.” Esther 4:13,14.

Our free will and God’s providence, how can these two seemly contradictive concepts work in unison? Well that is exactly what sanctification is all about; the process by which Christians surrender their will over to God allowing Him to be their guiding force. You see there are several things God can’t do and one of those things is that God can’t break a promise.

God had a plan to redeem His creation from sin from before the foundations of the world were wrought. His plan was perfect and so God willingly gave His one and only Son to become payment for our sin. The blood of Christ is the most powerful thing in this universe. And though my sins were like scarlet, He has washed them white as snow. Thank you Jesus!