BiblicalInsights.net

     Our congregation just completed Vacation Bible School.  One of the lessons in our five-night VBS focused on the courage of Esther.  In the book of Esther, there are three outstanding examples of courage displayed by Vashti, Mordecai, and Esther. 
     What is courage?  Some believe that courage is the total absence of fear.  This is not correct.  Courage is “mental or moral strenth enabling one to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty firmly and resolutely” (Webster’s Third International Dictionary, 522).  Webster also states that courage is “firmness of spirit that faces danger or extreme difficulty without flinching or retreating” (522). 
     In the book of Esther, Vashti displays moral courage.  When commanded by the king, Ahasuerus, to show her beauty, she refused to appear before a drunken audience of lustful men.  The king was outraged.  Vashti lost her crown, but she retained her moral integrity.  She was not willing to compromise her principles to please the profane.  She risked her life to do the right thing.
     Mordecai displays religious courage.  After Haman was appointed to a high position in the Persian government, the king commanded that all bow before him and reverence him.  Mordecai refused to bow before Haman (Esther 3:2).  Mordecai refused to reverence Haman for religious reasons.  He refused to give a man the honor that belonged only to God.  He was not willing to compromise his principles to satisfy the command of the king!  This is courageous action.  He risked his life to do the right thing.
     Esther displays a devotional courage.  When faced with her own life and death situation, Esther did the right thing.  She and her people were in jeopardy because of the plot of the wicked Haman.  Haman secured an order from the king to destroy all of the Jews in Persia.  When Esther learned of the plot, she was called upon to risk her life to go unto the king.  She said, “If I perish, I perish.”  Her trust in God and love for her people prompted her to act courageously.  She risked her life to do the right thing.
     Haman turns out to be the only coward in the story.  Out of fear and hatred and moved by racial prejudice, he sought to kill not only Mordecai, but all of the Jewish people.  His plot failed and he died on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. 
     Three outstanding people were faced with life and death situations and prevailed through courage.  They acted courageously when they acted upon principle in the face of danger.  One person, Haman, was destroyed because of cowardice.  He acted cowardly based upon prejudice and lost his life. 
     When called upon to live by principle or prejudice, we should choose principle.  Principle, conviction and love will produce the courage necessary to prevail.  When necessary, we must do the right thing no matter what the cost to us personally will be.

     In the last few years, numerous books by atheists have appeared on the market.  Richard Dawkins wrote The God Delusion (2006) openly attacking belief in God.  Dawkins occupies the Charles Simony professorship for public understanding of science at Oxford University.  In November, 2005, Dawkins was voted one of the world’s three leading intellectuals–a survey that took place in Prospect magazine.  What does this leading intellectual say about belief in God?  He refers to those who believe in God as “dyed-in-the-wool faith-heads” and contends that they are immune to argument.  He defines God as “a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomanical, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully” (Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 31).  Come to think of it, I don’t believe in a God defined like that either.  Dawkins defines God by attributing to God the sins of mankind.  This is radically false. 
     Other atheistic books recently published are:  Sam Harris’ work, The End of Faith (2004, over 400,000 copies in print) and  his follow-up work, Letter to a Christian Nation.  Daniel Dennett’s book, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon.  Marc Hauser’s, Moral Minds, explores the non-divine origins of right and wrong.  Lewis Wolpert’s Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast affirms religion as one of those impossible things.  Victor Stenger produced God: The Failed Hypothesis.  Finally, Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan’s widow, wrote, The Varieties of Scientific Experience.
     This surge in atheistic writings seems to be a reaction to the success and progress of the Intelligent Design movement in America.  Atheists have been and will continue to be met with sound arguments for God’s existence.  The battle is not just for a correct understanding of God, but it is also for an accurate understanding of ourselves.  Victor Frankl wrote, “If we present man with a concept of man which is not true, we may well corrupt him.  When we present him as an automation of reflexes, as a mind machine, as a bundle of instincts, as a pawn of drive and reactions, as a mere product of heredity and enviornment, we feed the nihilism to which modern man is, in any case, prone.  I became acquainted with the last stage of corruption in my second concentration camp, Auschwitz.  The gas chambers of Auschwitz were the ultimate consequence of the theory that man is nothing but the product of heredity and environment–or, as the Nazis like to say, “of blood and soil.”  I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other of Berlin, but rather at the desks and in lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers” (quoted in Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God, 25).
     The best atheists have to offer is meaninglessness, lawlessness and hopelessness.  After considering this alternative, I think I will pass.  “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God” (Psa. 14:1).

     The following words of David were spoken to his son, Solomon, prior to David’s death.  “And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever” (I Chronicles 28:9).
     David realized that Solomon would not be successful in his personal life or in his role as king of Israel without God.  David encourages Solomon to know and to serve God.  He instructs him to seek God and never to forsake Him.  The spiritual anchor that God provides to one’s life is the most important element to success.  Without God, we are destined to struggle and fail. 
     This father’s day, there are many fathers who will recieve gifts and be pampered.  However, there is a gift that I want to challenge father’s to give to their children.  It is the gift of encouragement in faith and devotion to God.  David possessed a great faith in God.  In his own wisdom, he knew that his son needed to anchor his life in relationship to God.  Faith is a precious virtue.  Pass it on! 

Josh McDowell has written a book entitled, “The Last Christian Generation.”  McDowell reveals the thinking of many young people in America today on religious issues.  While many (65%) want a close relationship with God, they do not believe the same things about God and Christianity as previous generations.  For instance:
         -63% don’t believe Jesus is the Son of the one true God.
         -58% believe all faiths teach equally valid truths.
         -51% don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead.
         -65% don’t believe Satan is a real entity.
         -68% don’t believe the Holy Spirit is a real entity.  (McDowell, 14,15)
Many young people today do not hold to a Christian worldview that is grounded in Biblical truth.  A change has taken place with regard to the way truth is perceived.  A majority of young people (81%) have adopted a view that “all truth is relative to the individual and his/her circumstances” (McDowell, 45).  70% of our “churched” young people believe there is no absolute moral truth” (McDowell, 45).  Truth is defined as what “feels” right or what “works.” 
The New Testament church must reaffirm the objective truth of God’s Word (John 17:17; 8:32)  Truth is synonymous with God’s Word!  Truth makes us free from the servitude of sin.  Truth is both knowable and credible.  Let us work diligently to impart this truth to the next generation!