There are two passages assigned for today!
SCRIPTURE: Esther 9
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
He told them to celebrate these days with feasting and gladness and by giving gifts of food to each other and presents to the poor. This would commemorate a time when the Jews gained relief from their enemies, when their sorrow was turned into gladness and their mourning into joy. [Esther 9:22]
Sorrow into gladness, mourning into joy.
This day becomes a national holiday, an annual celebration to remember this great day of deliverance.
Many nations have days like this – Bastille Day in France, Cinco de mayo in Mexico, July 4th in the US.
For Jesus followers, we have Good Friday and Easter (also Christmas and Pentecost), but more than that, we have a regular meal by which we commemorate our great deliverance – the Lord’s Supper.
When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table. Jesus said, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.” [Luke 22:14-16]
One big difference is that our celebration is incomplete, it remains to be fulfilled.
The celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection is the first stage of God’s great deliverance, to be completed when Jesus returns and we pass through death to the forever life.
At that time, we will finally move from sorrow to gladness, from mourning to joy!
And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” [Revelation 19:9] I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” [Revelation 21:2-4]
All of the feast days and celebrations described in the bible are anticipations of the ultimate celebration of God’s deliverance in Christ, God’s kingdom restored and God’s family rescued!
Passover, Tabernacles, Firstfruits, Purim, Trumpets, as well as the Lord’s Supper – all of them are times to express joy and to inspire hope.
They are symbols that point beyond themselves to a great day that is coming!
We look back to the victory of Jesus through His death and resurrection; we look forward to our experience of that victory after our death and resurrection.
The question for us is not whether we celebrate these days, but whether we celebrate what these days point to.
Do we really look forward to this great day, when our sorrow will finally be turned to gladness, and we will finally leave all mourning and enter eternal joy!
That will be a party!
PRAYER:
Lord, what a hope! A day when we are fully, finally free from all sorrow and misery. Lord, come quickly and let that party begin!