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How To Be Saved – The Basics

January 7th, 2010
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If you or anyone you know is wondering how to be saved, here's a great resource that will lay it all out for you.

Jessie sent me an email with this video from Tangle. This is probably the best presentation I've seen. In very simple terms, it tackles the most asked questions, including:

  • Why is there a Hell? Why would a loving God send people there?
  • what is the plan of salvation?
  • What are the "rules" to being saved?
  • Why was Jesus crucified?
  • What is grace?

Take a few minutes and watch this. It's done in a style that will hold your attention and does a great job of clearing up some basic issues about how to be saved and what that really means.

 

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Randy Reed Faith, Salvation , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bible Timeline – History Of The World

November 20th, 2009
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I have added a new page to IntelliBible.com for a great Bible timeline I found. I have seen the history of the Bible charted out in many different ways, but this is one of the best. It's very simple, but plainly shows the relationship of the books of the Bible in relation to the chronology of world events.


You can see it by clicking on the link in the navagation bar at the top of the page, or by clicking HERE.

 

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Randy Reed History Of The Text , , ,

The Book Of Esther – Part 11 – Baiting The Hook

October 1st, 2009
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In the last post, Mordecai had just told Esther that she could ignore the problem if she wanted, but she would die, her family would die (including Mordecai) and God would find deliverance for the Jews from someplace else. That’s an important point, the Jews WOULD be delivered. The promises of God to Abraham could not be fulfilled if they were all exterminated. The question was whether or not Esther would “Queen up” and take a stand, intervening before Xerxes. As Mordecai had put it:

 

Esther 4 (New King James Version)

Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

So Esther gives in and sends a message to Mordecai to get every Jew in the city and begin a three day fast.

 

Esther 4

15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”
17 So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded him.
 
 
I can’t read the end of verse 16 without hearing Esther speaking in her best Jewish mother accent. The Randy Reed very loose translation goes like this:
 
“Okay, okay, I’ll go talk to the king, which, you know, is AGAINST the law. I’ll do it and if I die, I die, OF COURSE, I die. But don’t you worry about that.”
 
Mordecai turns to do what Esther has told him (but not without shaking his head and saying “oy vey!”)
 
After Esther, her staff and all the Jews fasted for three days, she gets ready to see the king. Remember, this is not just any king. This is the guy that, after defeating the 300 Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae, lost 200 ships at Salamís and returned home in disgrace. This is the guy that took a stick and beat the waves of the sea because of his humiliating naval defeat (the Greeks lost only 20 ships). At best, Xerxes had a volatile temper and had to be approached with great care.
 
 
Tiffany Dupont as Esther in "One Night With The King"
Tiffany Dupont as Esther in "One Night With The King"
To approach the king was a capital offense, unless the king extended his scepter towards you, giving you pardon and permission. So Esther gets dressed up and prepares to see the king. Esther 5:1 uses the word “royal” (twklm) three times. Once to describe the clothing that Esther wore and twice in reference to the throne and palace. Probably not a major point, but it illustrates that Esther went dressed in the proper attire for the occasion. She wasn’t trying to make some personal statement, she was just making sure she fit in. This is the second time we see Esther making the smart choice about what she wears before the king. The first time contributed to her being picked for the position of queen.
 

 

Esther 5

2 So it was, when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, that she found favor in his sight, and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther went near and touched the top of the scepter.
3 And the king said to her, “What do you wish, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given to you—up to half the kingdom!”
 

 Bingo! Esther must have had a real hold on Xerxes. He hadn’t seen her in a month and the minute she puts herself at risk to see him, he not only grants her audience, but offers her anything she wants, up to half his kingdom. Now, “half the kingdom” may have been just an idiom and not to be taken literally, but you get the point. Esther had clout with the king.

 But how does she use her clout? She can’t just ask him to reverse the decree to exterminate the Jews. Xerxes couldn’t do that if he wanted. He was bound by his own laws. Xerxes, in this aspect, is a type, or model, of God. Once God has made a promise or covenant He CANNOT break it.
 
Some people would say that God can do anything, but He can’t. Shocked? Good, here are some things He can’t do:
 
  1. He can’t lie.
  2. He can’t learn.
  3. He can’t force you to love Him.
  4. He can’t break a covenant (see #1)
 
This is what separates the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob from allah (small “a” intentional). The Koran teaches that allah is capricious and unknowable. The God of the Bible says what He means and means what He says. If a promise is made, He cannot break it without ceasing to be who He is.
 
So Esther has to come up with a different plan than to just come right out and ask him to change his mind. She requests the king attend a dinner she has prepared and, oh yea, bring Haman. Esther was setting Haman up and doing a good job of it. Feed his ego and invite him to a banquet with the queen. This was not done very often. The Persian women were protected by their husbands and usually dined alone, without even their husband present.
 
For Haman to be invited, by the king, to dine with him AND the queen was a huge honor.
 
At the banquet, Xerxes asks Esther a second time:
  

 

Esther 5

6 At the banquet of wine the king said to Esther, “What is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!”
 

 

But, Esther avoids the main issue and requests a second banquet.
 

 

Esther 5

7 Then Esther answered and said, “My petition and request is this: 8 If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, then let the king and Haman come to the banquet which I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said.”

 

 

This doesn’t seem to make sense. She has the attention of the king. She has Haman there at the dinner. Why doesn’t she just come out and say something, instead of setting up a second banquet?
 
There are many possibilities. Perhaps, Xerxes wasn’t in the right frame of mind. This IS Xerxes, remember. It was a wine banquet and maybe too much wine had been done away with. I tend to think there is another reason.
 
When fishing, you have a much better chance of pulling in the big one if you feed him a little line. By having Haman attend a second banquet, Esther was playing into his vanity and giving him plenty of line to hang himself with (pun intended, if you know what’s coming). There is also the definite possibility that God’s plan for Haman required another 24 hours to complete.
 
Another incident occurs after the first banquet that plays a major part in the events to come. I’ll talk about that next time.
 
Randy

 

 

 

The Book Of Esther – Part 10

  
 

The Book Of Esther – Part 12

 

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Randy Reed Esther , ,

The Book Of Esther – Part 9 – Eunuch Needs A New Pair Of Shoes

September 12th, 2009
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Esther 4 (New King James Version)
1 When Mordecai learned all that had happened, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city. He cried out with a loud and bitter cry. 2 He went as far as the front of the king’s gate, for no one might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. 3 And in every province where the king’s command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
 

Can you imagine what it was like for the people at the time? They weren’t arrested or confined in any way. They just woke up one morning, picked up the morning paper and read an article that said the king had ordered their extermination one year from today.

They had no place to go. The empire was the entire world to them. They couldn’t run and they couldn’t hide. They were to go on with their lives normally until they got a knock on the door and the men in the black suits and sunglasses would say “Excuse us, we’re here to slaughter you and your entire family. Thank you for understanding”.
 
 Mordecai was beside himself. He knew two things for certain.
 
  1. The king, himself had signed the decree to exterminate all the Jews.
  2. By law, a king’s decree could NEVER be reversed, even by the king.
 
Verse 2 gives us another insight into Mordecai’s position.
 

2 He went as far as the front of the king’s gate, for no one might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.

 
 
Mordecai couldn’t enter the king’s gate, not because he was a common person or a Jew, but because he was dressed inappropriately. This backs up my personal feeling that Mordecai was part of the king’s court and not just a beggar at the gate, as he’s sometimes portrayed. See Part 6 of this series for more information on this.
 
Esther 4
4 So Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was deeply distressed. Then she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and take his sackcloth away from him, but he would not accept them. 5 Then Esther called Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and she gave him a command concerning Mordecai, to learn what and why this was. 6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the king’s gate. 7 And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries to destroy the Jews. 8 He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction, which was given at Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and that he might command her to go in to the king to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people. 9 So Hathach returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai.
 

 

It’s clear that Esther had no idea about the decree. I can see her stepping into the Jewish mother role here. She sends new clothes out to Mordecai and tells her servants to make sure he gets out of those awful sackcloth and ashes clothes and clean himself up. Mordecai has no part of it and the servants return to Esther.
 
At this point Esther gets curious and wants to know why Mordecai is acting like this. She calls one of the eunuchs the king has appointed to attend her and tells him to find out what is going on. This eunuch is named here and every time I see a name I have to wonder why go to the trouble of identifying a servant that has no significant role in the story. This particular eunuch’s name is Hathach (jth Hatach in the King James).
 
Translated, his name means:
Gift
One who strikes (or hits)
Why do you strike? (or hit)
 
Nothing earth shattering, but I just find it funny that the guy Esther sends out to Mordecai to learn of his despair is called “Why do you strike?”. He is the one who returns with the message that the king, her husband, has authorized the people to strike out and exterminate the Jews. There is an old saying among the rabbis that “Coincidence is not a kosher word”.
 
Mordecai tells Hathach everything he knows and even gives him a copy of the king’s decree to show Esther. He also points out that Haman is paying a huge sum of money to the king in order to do this. If you look closely, you’ll notice that Mordecai tells Hathach how much Haman is paying before he gives Hathach the decree. I doubt, very much, that the payoff would have been disclosed in a public decree that was sent all over the known world. This is another clue that Mordecai held a position in the court that make him privilege to certain information that was probably not public knowledge.
 
Mordecai tells Hathach to explain all this to Esther and command her to intervene with the king. Mordecai, a court employee, has just told a eunuch, a servant to the queen, to command the queen of the known world to beg the king not to slaughter his people. He is her uncle, but she’s now the queen. He was taking a huge chance here (as was Hathach) to be commanding the queen. Surprisingly, she does not react as expected. She sends Hathach back with a word for Mordecai.
 

10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a command for Mordecai: 11 “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days.” 12 So they told Mordecai Esther’s words. 


She tells Mordecai (with a snippy little reminder that ““All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know…”) to go to the king without being summoned would be certain death. The only way to get away with it is if the king points his fancy yellow walking stick at you. She also points out that she hasn’t been summoned to the king in a month. I doubt this arraignment would go over very well today.
 
Mordecai sends Hathach (who is probably needing new shoes right about now) back with another message.
 

13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. 14 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?”

 

I’m going to stop here and pick this up next time. The reason I’m doing this is because this section is probably one of the most profound statements made in the entire Bible and I want to spend a little more time on it. Go back and read verse 14 again.

 

 

 

The Book Of Esther – Part 8

  
 

The Book Of Esther – Part 10

 

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Randy Reed Books Of The Bible, Esther, General Notes , , ,

Remember The Forum??

May 16th, 2009
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IntelliBible.com has been online for a few weeks now and a lot of people have joined the mailing list. Thank you.

But the forum is getting ignored. The forum was set up so we could all help each other and exchange ideas and discoveries. It’s a great place to ask each other questions and get answers. Right now there aren’t many people registered.

Do yourself, and me, a favor and click on the forum tab at the top of the screen and join up. And most importantly, get involved. We should be able to get some pretty active discussions going, if the Sunday class that some of you are in is any indication.

Thank you for your support,

Randy

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