Esther’s Legacy

As Jews (and Christians) celebrate The Festival of Purim (Jewish holiday) this week, a new friend
Gail and I met and lunched with at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville a month ago, Eric Voogd, has written, with contributions from Tikvah, the following very important essay “Esther’s Legacy” for our times in the USA and worldwide.  While NPI does not agree 100% with all contentions made in the article, we largely concur with its focus, cautions, warnings and exhortations to the Christian community today!  Please read and also see the account of Queen Esther (and Mordecau) toward the end of the essay for a reminder of God’s grace and providence in history.  – publisher)
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Esther’s Legacy
by Eric Voogd and Tikvah

Mordecai sent this reply to Esther. “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” Esther 4:13-14

As dark, ominous clouds gathered, a perfect storm was soon to erupt with a violent and wicked fury over the European continent with an unimaginably cruel price to be exacted upon the innocence of humanity. On 30 January 1933, Adolph Hitler became Chancellor of Germany; subsequently, the spiritual deception among Germany society and throughout Christendom was significant, as the blind euphoria and godless pandemonium surrounding this event fueled the insatiable thirst of this intoxicated crowd while they chanted praises to their soon to be appointed Fuehrer, “Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil.” Two days later on 1 February 1933, a somber and prayerful Dr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer arrived at the German Broadcasting Company to deliver a rehearsed speech addressing the gravity of culminating events; however, as Bonhoeffer learned at the conclusion of his speech during a live radio broadcast, the closing remarks were omitted from the broadcast. Throughout Germany individuals never heard his prophetic warning: “For should the leader allow himself to succumb to the wishes of those he leads, who will always seek to turn him into an idol, then the leader will gradually become the image of the ‘misleader.’ This is the leader who makes an idol of himself and his office, thus mocking God.” The Reichstag parliament building in Berlin was engulfed in flames on the night of 27 February 1933. In the days following, Hitler capitalized on this chaos to obtain his first bare majority in the national election on 5 March 1933. This outcome set in motion an irreversible, historical course of fate with devastating consequences for the Jewish people. Absent from this German society was a hatred of evil and love for good virtues; her legal system had no true halls of justice. The moral ambivalence, apathy and complacent attitudes of individuals in German society combined with the passive spiritual leadership of Christendom who failed to take a definitive stand in defense of the principles of righteousness and moral ethics were met with resistance by only a relatively small number of authentic Christians. These obedient, courageous women and men answered a call from G-d in their lives to boldly declare the Truth regarding the dark reality of the political and religious landscape obscured by spiritual blindness during a crucial window to act in history.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoller were among only a few spiritually discerning, authentic Christians in Germany. They were cognizant of the odious nature of the situation unfolding with this false messiah of the German people and the darkness in his heart toward the Jewish people. While Bonhoeffer and Niemoller fervently sought G-d in prayer regarding this spiritual darkness that claimed ownership over Germany, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain fancied himself on weekend retreats in discourse with Mary Astor and other “Christian” scientists, apostates of Christianity who believed evil was simply an illusion. This dichotomy of authentic Christians versus false believers further illustrated the intensity of the forces of hell that were unleashed during this crucial time in Europe. As Hitler systematically silenced and imprisoned his opposition in the authentic Christian community, Prime Minister Chamberlain and other European leaders were spiritually blind to the forces of hell surrounding Hitler. These government leaders were dangerously naïve and ignorant of Hitler’s sinister modus operandi and the foreboding events to unfold across Europe. As the cries of Jewish women, men and children reached the heavens during Kristallnacht on 9 November 1938, the collective voice of Christendom in Germany, Europe and the United States was virtually silent regarding Hitler’s heinous actions against the Jewish people in Germany.

The poignant warnings of Bonhoeffer, Niemoller and others within their sphere of influence fell upon deaf ears, as Hitler’s invasion of Europe became a reality along with his plans for the Final Solution fostered by the Islamic world for dealing with the Jewish problem. When the cremated ashes of innocent lives of the Jewish people rained down over Europe, the lives of six million Jewish women, men and children brutally murdered in Hitler’s death camps throughout Europe did not evoke a collective outcry from the Christendom in Europe and the United States. The collective body of Christendom around the world miserably failed to grasp the poignancy of the story of Esther in the Tanakh and recognize the Haman-Adolph Hitler-who unleashed a satanic wrath against G-d’s Chosen People. As the gruesome horrors of the Shoah were exposed during the Nuremberg Trials, individuals and historians through time would note the haunting memories of the atrocities against the Jewish people associated with the cry “Never Again!” Tragically, Christendom has learned nothing from history following the Shoah, as the modern day state of Israel is perpetually subjected to unrelenting forces of evil that seek the wanton destruction of Israel and the annihilation of the diaspora throughout the international community. Today, Christendom’s blatant disregard of Biblical consequences and defiant attitude in rejection of eternal Truth is used by Christendom to justify actions for supporting the enemies of the Jewish Homeland.

While nearly seventy years have passed since Kristallnacht, we are witness to the highest levels of anti-Semitism in Europe from the time of the Shoah. In 2009, an inquisition against the Jewish people in Spain is in the early stages. As the Jewish people live under absolute fear throughout Europe, repeated warnings are issued to make aliyah to Israel. At this time, the Jewish people are experiencing a pogrom in Venezuela. Before the end of 2008, the Jewish people had already suffered the tragedy of terrorism at the Chabad Center in Mumbai, India with the cold blooded murder of Rabbi Gabi, his wife Rivka and their unborn child. Members of Christendom and elected officials of European governments are joining ranks in solidarity with Muslims in violent demonstrations against Israel and the Jewish people, while supporting the terrorist entities of Hizbullah, Hamas and the Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In 2009, as the international community has plunged into economic crises at multiple levels, individuals, governments and Christendom are conspiring against the Jewish people to make them the scapegoat for the worldwide financial turmoil and political instability in the Middle East. This 21st century reality faced by the Jewish people shares parallels with the events leading up to Kristallnacht. Before his murder at the hands of Nazis in 1943, Bonhoeffer wrote the following words: “We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds: we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretense; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open; intolerable conflicts have worn us down and even made us cynical. Are we still of any use?” Today, after 66 years, the words of Bonhoeffer readily apply to individuals and churches throughout Europe and the United States, as Christendom is virtually silent regarding the perilous challenges faced by the Jewish people in the 21st century. If individuals truly believe in the cause, “Never Again!” why then the deafening sea of silence?!?

Less than six weeks before the US presidential election on 25 September 2008, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Mange Bondevik and other leaders from Christendom gathered in New York City at a dinner to honor Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The latest military and intelligence reports indicate that Ahmadinejad now has the capacity to create a nuclear warhead to use against Israel, as he routinely calls for the annihilation of the Jewish people and the destruction of the Jewish Homeland. The presence of Prime Minister Bondevik at this dinner honoring Ahmadinejad reinforces the sentiments of a Norwegian society and government which openly scorns and ridicules the very small authentic Christian community in Norway that stands with the Jewish people and Israel. Not too many decades ago, the Norwegian government had a policy that prohibited Jews from living in Norway. The endemic darkness that permeates the heart of this anti-Semitic society in Scandinavia was duly noted in December 1994, when the murderous PLO leader Yassir Arafat became the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. In September 1993, Norway was the infamous scene of the fatal Oslo Peace Accords. The alignment of current government leaders in Europe and members of the US government including Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama who appease the Islamic world and terrorist entities at the expense of Israel and the Jewish people is an unprecedented wickedness. These actions bear consequences of Biblical proportion from G-d for both individuals and nations that curse Israel. The insidious evil of the violence and anti-Semitism against the Jewish people in a post-Christian era Europe provides a stern warning to the United States, as the false gods of moral relativism and secular humanism reign supreme over a European society that is collapsing at its core under the satanic stranglehold and weight of Islamic dhimmitude.

While Israel has expressed her absolute insistence that the United States not participate in the Durban II Conference in Geneva, Switzerland on 20-24 April 2009, Barack Obama must prohibit the participation of the United States at this anti-Semitic conference of the United Nations. Canada, The Netherlands and Italy stand with Israel in boycotting this anti-Semitic conference while the leadership of the European Union forges an arrogant path mocking G-d. Following Obama’s misguided and historically incorrect speech with the Muslim media during his first formal press interview as President of the United States in January 2009, these gratuitous overtures to the Muslim world signal red flag warnings. Obama’s willful decision to request the participation of Ingrid Matson, President of the Islamic Society of North America, in a prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC is most alarming. The anti-Semitic history of Matson and her attitudes regarding sharia law and silencing individuals who dare to speak the truth regarding Islam are a chilling reminder of the spiritual darkness surrounding Obama. The recent decisions of Obama and his administration with the selection of anti-Semitic advisers to deal with Israel reflect the arrogance of Obama for a coming disaster with consequences for violating the clear words of G-d within the Torah and Tanakh. Duly noted during the course of his presidential campaign, Obama mocked the text of the Torah and Tanakh. Thus, Obama’s decisions and actions only bring judgment from G-d on the United States closer for the dangerous course of present action executed by him and his administration. More inflammatory, Christendom in the United States fully advocates the course of actions of Obama and his administration at a time where anti-Semitism and violence against the Jewish people are gaining momentum in the United States.

The powers of hell have surfaced in vitriolic demonstrations waged by supporters of the Hamas terrorist entity in cities throughout the United States since the commencement of the Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in December 2008. After eight years of attacks and 10,000+ rockets raining down on Israel, the international community and Christendom have condemned Israel’s right to defend her people against the onslaught of terrorism. In the hometown of Barack Obama, the Jewish people have come under fire with attacks on synagogues in both Chicago and the suburbs. On the anniversary of Kristallnacht on 9 November 2008, a suburban synagogue had a pipe bomb incident. The spiritual mentor, family friend and pastor of Obama for several decades lead a lawless church in Chicago with apostate teachings in utter defiance and mockery of G-d. Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his lawless church support anti-Semitism and the ideology of Hamas; however, Christendom in the United States who voted for Obama saw no problem with Wright’s influence on Obama for several decades. On 29 December 2008, a synagogue in Chicago was firebombed with an improvised moltav cocktail. Both of these incidents represent hostile acts of terrorism against the Jewish people in Chicago. A large scale public outcry from the Christian community throughout the Chicago metropolitan area was never issued in the wake of these two most disturbing incidents.

On Friday, 2 January 2009, three thousand pro Hamas supporters gathered outside the Israeli Consulate in downtown Chicago in a most heinous demonstration against the Jewish people and Israel. Slightly more than one hundred of us primarily from the Jewish community gathered to stand with Israel. We were met with anti-Semitic hate speech in both Arabic and English from three thousand pro Hamas supporters, as we quietly stood with Israeli flags, singing in Hebrew for the Jewish Homeland. While an Israeli flag with a swastika symbol was trampled, spit upon and then burned, small stones and coins were thrown at our group by these pro Hamas supporters. The Chicago Police Department was not adequately prepared for this demonstration outside the Israeli Consulate. As I stood yelling, asking members of the Chicago Police Department to address a pro Hamas supporter who broke through a police barricade intent on physically assaulting a member of our group, these members of the Chicago Police Department were slow to respond. I continued yelling for their immediate intervention to no avail. Finally, the decision was made by our group to exit this area under police escort since we were surrounded by this vitriolic mass of anti-Semitic, pro Hamas supporters. A warning issued by the police to remove any items that identified us with Israel was unsettling, since our safety could not be guaranteed upon leaving the protection of the police escort. This scene was the Israeli Consulate at Michigan Avenue and East Wacker Drive on the Gold Coast in downtown Chicago!

The following week on Friday, 9 January 2009, around 1000 members of the Jewish community with some Christians gathered at the Federal Plaza in downtown Chicago to stand in solidarity with the Jewish people and Israel. In stark contrast to the previous week, this occasion was a time of prayer, songs and speeches by members of the Jewish Federation, Illinois elected officials and members of the Israeli government. Within hours of the conclusion of this peaceful event, four thousand pro Hamas supporters staged yet another hideous demonstration where they disrupted traffic in downtown Chicago while marching with grotesque signs denigrating the Jewish people and Israel. On Shabbat the Jewish community witnessed attacks on five more synagogues in the Chicago metropolitan area. While the Muslim Brotherhood is increasing in strength in the Chicago metropolitan area aided by support from the Council on American Islamic Relations, the powers of hell unleashed against the Jewish people in Chicago are characteristic of anti-Semitic attacks against the Jewish people throughout the United States. Before his death, Adolph Hitler made a chilling statement: “What good fortune for governments that the people do not think.” The Muslim Brotherhood increases in influence and strength throughout the United States; however, the majority of citizenry and elected members of state and federal government are unprepared for this imminent crisis of home grown Islamic terror cells that threaten the national security of the United States.

In the wake of these anti-Semitic attacks against the Jewish people and synagogues throughout the United States, every authentic Christian pastor of every authentic Christian church in the United States has a Biblical mandate to publicly condemn these acts of terrorism against the Jewish people and storm heaven with prayers for the safety and protection of the Jewish people in the US, Israel, Europe and throughout the world. Every member of the authentic Christian community in the United States and throughout the world has a Biblical mandate to stand in support of the Jewish people and Israel, defending her right to exist and to confront the terrorist entities that seek her wanton destruction and the annihilation of the Jewish people. Individuals in the United States are ignorant of the European governments that are collapsing under the satanic stranglehold and weight of Islamic dhimmitude. Individuals in the United States are ignorant of the violent history of Islam and the role that Muslim leaders played with Adolph Hitler for developing the Final Solution. Barack Obama’s apologies to the Muslim world and his support of sharia law in Pakistan during a recent negotiation by him and his administration paint a sinister portrait of Obama’s true character. Today, the grim reality in the international community facing Israel and the Jewish people presents a challenge for individuals willing to act with self-sacrifice and take a courageous stand to answer the call from G-d in their lives to be a modern example of Esther or Mordecai.

Throughout the course of history the Jewish people have encountered the scourge of evil men seeking the wanton destruction of Jews in Israel and those in the diaspora. As we prepare for the celebration of the Festival of Purim in March 2009, we remember the story of Esther known by her Hebrew name Hadassah. Esther, a young Jewish woman, became Queen of Persia in 479 B.C. during a time where the Jewish people were in exile living under King Ahasuerus. As instructed by Mordecai, Esther did not reveal the identity of her family’s history and Jewish nationality. The significance in this story is both Esther and her cousin Mordecai chose to obediently act in a kairos moment that required their absolute faith and trust in G-d. The Greek term kairos is defined as “a time when conditions are right for the accomplishment of a crucial action: the opportune and decisive moment.” The preparation in the lives of Esther and Mordecai for this moment was directed by G-d as they submitted their wills unconditionally to Him. Esther found favor in the eyes of Ahasuerus, as would Mordecai when he uncovered a plot by two eunuchs to assassinate Ahasuerus. Soon Mordecai found himself in a situation where his obedience to G-d was directly challenged by Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite, who received an appointment from King Ahasuerus to rule over all the nobles of Persia. Haman was livid with Mordecai, who refused to bow down and show respect to Haman in accordance with the king’s command. In this moment, Mordecai chose to place his full faith in G-d, unwilling to compromise, which subjected him to the wrath of Haman. As the story progresses in Esther, Haman uncovered Mordecai’s Jewish identity and formulated an odious plot to not only destroy Mordecai, but the entire Jewish population under the reign of the Persian Empire. After consultation with Ahasuerus and a promise of 375 tons of silver to the king, Haman’s plan to annihilate the Jewish people was affirmed with the issue of a decree in Susa by Ahasuerus and the king’s signet ring given to Haman. The racial hatred of Jews by Haman had an extensive history fueled by deep hatred existing between Jews and Haman’s ancestors, the Amalekites.

Upon discovery of this decree, Mordecai wept bitterly, tearing his clothes while wearing burlap and ashes. As the Jewish people throughout Persia’s 127 provinces learned of this decree, the mourning of the Jewish women, men and children reached the heavens. They fasted, wept and wailed with many joining Mordecai wearing burlap and ashes. Mordecai pleaded with Esther to intercede on behalf of the Jewish people and go before Ahasuerus without being invited to his inner court. In Esther 4:13-14 we read Mordecai’s words to Esther to act immediately despite imminent death to appear before the king without permission:  Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”  Esther went into a period of prayer and fasting, requesting the same from the Jewish people. On the third day of fasting, Esther bravely entered the inner court of Ahasuerus to intercede upon behalf of the Jewish people where she requested Ahasuerus and Haman to attend a banquet she planned for the next day. Haman, second in command to Ahasuerus in the Persian Empire, sealed his own fate as the G-d of Israel was at work in ways that both Esther and Mordecai could not fully see at the time. Importantly, they acted in complete obedience by placing their full faith in G-d for His divine deliverance of the Jewish people. Ahasuerus, who was troubled in sleep the night prior to Esther’s banquet, read the account of Mordecai uncovering the plot of two eunuchs to assassinate the king. When Haman approached Ahasuerus, he was unaware the king planned to honor Mordecai. As Ahasuerus listened to Esther’s request during the banquet and learned of the sheer wickedness of Haman, Ahasuerus ordered the immediate execution of Haman, who was impaled on the sharpened pole intended for Mordecai.

Not only did Ahasuerus issue a new decree nullifying the original decree to destroy the Jewish people throughout the Persian Empire, he gave Mordecai his signet ring which made Mordecai, Prime Minister, second in command of the Persian Empire. Mordecai established the Festival of Purim, as the casting of lots known as Purim by Haman the adversary of the Jews was foiled by the G-d of Israel. The obedience in the lives of Mordecai and Esther, who unconditionally submitted their wills to G-d to act in a crucial moment of time, was blessed by G-d. During Purim the Jewish people mark this annual festival of feasting and gladness by helping the poor and giving presents to one another, for sorrow became gladness and mourning became joy when the G-d of Israel delivered the Jewish people from the hands of their enemy Haman. The story of Esther and Mordecai and the Festival of Purim is not minor, as this story serves as a representation of a proxy for both our present and future. Hence, authentic Christian believers must advocate on behalf of the Jewish people and Israel in order to expose the satanic forces of hell in this world that seek the annihilation of G-d’s Chosen People in the 21st century.

While individuals examine current events in the media pertaining to Israel, authentic Christian believers face a crucial decision where they must make a deliberate choice to either obey a Biblical mandate to courageously support and stand with the Jewish people and Israel, or take sides with present day Hamans by remaining silent and failing to expose evil. Time is of the essence as the clock is ticking with events accelerating in the Middle East. As Mordecai’s words to Esther “For just such a time as this?” were a call to bold action nearly 2488 years ago, these same words resonate with meaning today for an immediate call to action since we are living in a kairos moment. During the Second World War two relatives in my family in The Netherlands placed their full faith in G-d to confront Haman, Adolph Hitler, as they refused to stand in silence regarding his plans to exterminate the Jewish people. This husband and wife risked their lives to save members of the Jewish community, for they knew their G-d given responsibility to act in that crucial moment. My relatives, Corrie ten Boom and other brave and courageous women and men saw Haman and recognized the warning in the words of Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” As a fourteen year old boy staying in Israel for part of a summer during the first intifada, I had a firsthand experience with terrorism in Hezekiah’s Water Tunnel in Jerusalem. I encountered a modern Haman, the murderous Yassir Arafat and the evil forces of his PLO, who directed some terrorist operatives to place a bomb in this antiquity. Praise G-d for the intervention of the IDF soldiers in this situation before the loss of innocent lives. My faith is fully in the G-d of Israel, as I stand with my Jewish brothers and sisters. In 2009, individuals have a conscious choice to make as they stand accountable to the G-d of Israel for all their actions.

For decades now, we have educated our children with a mandate for classes in history that they may be provided with the tools to prevent the repetition of the heinous acts of those such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Yasser Arafat. I pray that in this day and age we have succeeded, though I fear we have not.  As we watch the disintegration of the Constitution our grand nation used to uphold, we descend down the slippery slope of bondage into the same murky abyss from which Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany. We look to our government to make all life decisions for us: what to eat, when and how to medicate, who can own a vehicle, land, firearms. How long will it be before our government decides for us which god to serve, which people are acceptable, which people are unfit for life? How long is it until simple disagreement with our leader lands us in prison, as it has in so many other countries before the dissolution of their great empires? Our days are numbered. We must stand against the tactics of the adversary. We must join with the people of Israel and say, “Never again!” We must be Esthers and Mordecais in this day of Hamans. The existence of G-d’s Chosen People depends upon it. The prevalence of all that is just and right and true depends upon it. The blessing of G-d to continue as a great nation depends upon it. NOW is the hour to devote yourself in fervent prayer to G-d for His direction of your steps He wants you to courageously take in His mighty power while standing with the Jewish people and Eretz Yisrael.

By Eric Voogd and Tikvah with gratitude for her prayers, encouragement and discerning contributions

Festival of Purim/Monday, 14 Adar 5769/Monday, 9 March 2009

Eric Voogd is Director of Broadcast Media Relations for the US Bureau of Israel Independent News. For questions regarding Israel Independent News and free access to confidential intelligence reports, please contact Eric by e-mail at [email protected]. 

Distribution of this article is authorized only for publication in its entirety with attribution to its authors as indicated in Esther’s Legacy. ©2009