How
strong You have been to carry me so far;
Without
retreat, through raging storms,
Up
mountains and over treacherous seas.
You
did not falter
As
you carried me up Calvary’s hill;
Golgotha
had no claim on Thee.
How
strong Your shoulders must be
To
carry me into eternity!
-
CATHRYNE ALLEN
When God
gave a commandment in the beginning that a man should leave his mother and
father and 'cleave unto his wife' (Genesis 2:24) I believe that somehow this
became a very literal mandate for men, with women being given the advantage and
privilege of influence.....as was proven by Esther who saved her entire nation
from annihilation (Esther 8). What she did and how she did it defines the
nature of this influence.
Esther did
not rely on her beauty and her womanly wiles to convince King Xerxes not to
kill her people. She could have done that. The King was clearly smitten by her
to the point that he would have granted her every wish and given her even half
of his kingdom (Esther 5:3,6; 7:2). Instead of relying on her womanhood, Esther
employed God's assistance in her influence over the king. This is the privilege
of influence that God meant women to have, to influence men using their
spiritual sensitivities and make God the third party in their union.
Esther
designated a three day fast for all the Jews in the kingdom and offered two
banquets to the King and his right hand man Haman who was intent on Jewish
annihilation. The 24 hours in between those two banquets was crucial because
during that time the King had a sudden desire to read the records which threw a
light on the situation at hand. This desire was obviously inspired from above
(Esther 6). The fasting of Esther and her people brought the Lord into the
situation. It's a rather lengthy story but a highly entertaining one. The whole
event is celebrated even today among the Jews through the Feast of Purim all
because of the power of a righteous woman.
We are enjoying freedoms today never before known to women.
With this comes a great responsibility. Our influence knows no
bounds. We can tear down or build up. We can inspire or degrade. We can soften
men's hearts or lead them to destruction. We can lead them away from the truth
or bring them to God. Such is the power of women.
Mordecai, a relative who raised Esther, suggested to her
that she was probably raised up at that time to save her people, that she was
foreordained for such 'a time as this' (Esther 4:14). Esther in Persian tongue
means 'a star'. She honoured her name well for she was no doubt in
the realms of heaven when 'the morning stars sang together and all the sons of
God shouted for joy' (Job 38:7).
We, noble women of the covenant were there too,
foreordained for such a time as this, to lift humanity to higher ground, to
prepare for the great day of the Lord when He shall come in His glory to save
His people Israel. We were the morning stars sent to support, love and
influence our husbands, our sons and our brothers to be the sons of God
now and forever.
May we fulfil our sacred responsibility given us of God at
all cost and have the courage to be such women like Esther who went to the King
endangering her own life for the cause and said the most memorable words ever
spoken by a woman of courage: “If I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16)
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
I marvel that a powerful being
such as You would love
Such a weak being like me.
With
thankfulness, You remember the me
That
once walked the clouds with Thee;
That
You see who I once used to be,
And
value me despite my fragile humanity.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
There is a story in the Old Testament that
would no doubt enrage the feminists of our day. It is the story of Esther and
how she became the Queen of Persia. This story unfolds in Babylon around 478
B.C. under the rule of Persian King Ahasuerus, known in history as Xerxes
(Greek form of his name).
After showing off the wealth of his
kingdom to all the princes and nobles of Persia and Media in the third year of
his reign, King Xerxes made a seven day feast for everyone that was found in
Shushan palace, both great and small (Esther 1:5). After seven days of
limitless drinking (Esther 1:8), the King commanded that Queen Vashti
present herself and show her beauty to all present. The Queen did the
unthinkable, and for some unknown reason, refused. Perhaps she felt it was
beneath her to parade herself in front of a bunch of unruly drunkards or maybe
the feminists among us would suggest she did not support objectification of
women.
There could be a very valid reason,
however, for the King’s request. This King was obscenely rich, so much so that
it took him 180 days to show off the riches of his kingdom (Esther 1:4). It
could very well be that he valued his queen above all that he had and saved the
best for last. In his mind he was probably paying her a compliment by showing
her off and maybe even feeling proud that he could have a wife such as this.
Vashti's stubbornness turned out to be her undoing. What followed
next could by today's standards be deemed as the worst case of suppression of
women. The story goes on to say that seven princes, which sat first in the
kingdom, realised that if the queen refused to obey her husband, that all the
women in the kingdom would follow suit so they decided to make an example of
Vashti and convinced the king to do away with her (Esther 1:15-22). By one act
of assertion, she became a whole new threat to the patriarchal order of life.
Once the Queen was done away with and the King came to his senses
he realised, he no longer had a queen. His servants, however, came up with a
solution. They suggested that all the 'fair young virgins' be paraded before
him to select another queen. Here is another case of objectifying of women,
because they were chosen for their beauty and sexual purity. Could it be,
however, that anciently a man's value increased by being married to a beautiful
and pure woman?
Certainly, purity in women, once highly valued, is something greatly missing from our liberated society. Anciently, a man’s worth was calculated by how many children he had, sons in particular who could carry on the paternal lineage. Would it not make sense that mothers of those children were highly valued as were the wives of those sons who could not continue the family line without them?
As we know a Jewish girl by the name of
Esther was chosen for her outstanding beauty to marry King Xerxes. I doubt very
much that she had any say in whether she wanted to marry this man but I dare
say this opportunity would have been considered a stroke of fortune in the
ancient world. Which would have been better? Being a Jewish captive in a
foreign land or the queen of that land?
Now here's the interesting thing....Esther
was marrying outside the covenant which was a big no no for Jews. You will
remember the heart wrenching story in Ezra 10 about the exiles who returned to
Jerusalem from Babylon and who inter-married with the heathen women of the land. When Ezra
got there with the second party of returning exiles and discovered this he was
so horrified he pulled the hair out of his head and wept and cast himself
before the temple Ezra 9:3, 10:1).
Why was he so distraught? Because men that married outside of their faith followed the religious convictions of their wives and Ezra knew this would lead his people back to idolatry and consequently back to bondage. So strongly did Ezra fear this that he convinced these men to give up their heathen wives and even the children they had by them (Ezra 10). Even King Solomon was not exempt from this weakness and succumbed to his wives' idol worship in his old age (1 Kings 11:1-10).
But in Esther's case, the roles were reversed. She was a God-fearing woman and the man in her situation was the heathen. Esther did not seem to be at risk of abandoning her faith. She kept her religion and continued to worship the God of heaven. She did not adopt her husband's religious practices and because of it she saved her people in captivity. This is what makes Esther unique as a woman of the ancient world who was born for ‘such a time as this’ (Esther 4:14).
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
I know You have seen my tears,
I know You have heard my silent thoughts,
I know You have felt my hidden pain,
I know You have understood my soul.
You have spread Your healing balm
With Your Master’s brush
On my sorrowing fragile heart:
I am Your priceless work of art.
-
CATHRYNE
ALLEN
In years past I have routinely skipped the four chapters of highly detailed instructions given to Moses regarding the building of the tabernacle and priestly robes during Israel’s journeying. Quite simply, I found it difficult to relate to either the materials or methods used for such an undertaking. I was, however, always amazed at the workmanship required of ancient Israel and wondered how they would know how to accomplish it without highly skilled labour. After all, they were just slaves.
This is what happens when you skim the scriptures…..you miss something important. One year I decided to look at these four chapters of explicit instructions more closely. What I discovered was Jehovah telling Moses the names of the men and what tribe they are in Israel’s congregation that can do the work needed. He then tells him that HE has ‘filled’ them with wisdom and knowledge and understanding ‘in all manner of workmanship……that they may make all that I have commanded thee’ (Exodus 31:2-6). I don’t know how or when, but somehow these men were inspired some time, somewhere, to have an interest in specific skills that were needed for an important work they would one day do.
In one of my previous blogs I wrote about individual plans God had for each of us that was best suited to who we are and what we can accomplish. I shared a quote that best explains this and I share it here again for those who missed it: “When we say God has a plan, he truly has a plan – not simply a grand scale, but for each of us as individuals, allocating some special talent to this dispensation and some to another. I regard God as the perfect personnel manager, even though He must work with and through all of us who are so imperfect. I assume, gladly, that in the allocation to America of remarkable leaders like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln, the Lord was just as careful. After all, if you’ve got only one Abraham Lincoln, you’d better put him in that part of history when he’s most needed….” (Neal A. Maxwell, “Deposition of a Disciple”, p 46)
We are about to study the book of Esther this week in our Church “Come Follow Me” programme. Esther is an amazing example of being in the right place at the right time on this earth. A Jewish girl who became the queen of Persia at the time that her people needed saving shows us what power we as individuals have and how we are to use it for God’s purposes and for humanity.
When Esther’s adopted father, Mordecai, discovered the plot to kill the Jews at the same time that the King of Persia was looking for a new queen, he told Esther she could save her people from extinction because “who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).
Like the ancient men of Israel’s camp, we have been imbued with wisdom, understanding and knowledge to achieve what is expected of us and like Esther, He has placed us here at the right time to do so. In God’s great wisdom He has reserved the most valiant, the strongest, the most dependable servants for ‘such a time as this’ when evil abounds upon the earth in unequalled measure. We are the ones who can withstand the onslaught and who have covenanted long before this earth began that we would uphold the ensign of truth and proclaim to the earth that the God of our fathers is with us still.
I
would have never been a good fit for Babylon or any other time and place of this
earth but here and now where technology has given me a voice and God knew this……it’s
my saving grace.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Queen Esther by Unknown Artist)
I bent my knee today to Thee,
And You listened very carefully.
My heart split open,
And You could see
One still worthy of her destiny.
I marvelled how quick
You wiped my slate so clean
And so gently said to me:
I understand your mortal suffering,
I met you in Gethsemane.
- Cathryne Allen
