The Fear of the Lord

S: Acts 4:32-5:11

All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need. For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus. He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles.

But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest. Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!”

As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him.

About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, “Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?” “Yes,” she replied, “that was the price.” And Peter said, “How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.” Instantly, she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened.

O: Dishonesty and desire for praise turned a commendable thing into something that strikes the fear of the Lord in the hearts of everyone in the church.

Jim Bakker was a televangelist who led the PTL (Praise The Lord) ministries but he was brought down by a sex scandal and then later put in jail for financial fraud. Later, a Christian leader, John Bevere, visited him in jail and asked him when he lost his love for Jesus, to have committed such sins. Jim said he didn’t ever lose his love for Jesus – he lost the fear of the Lord.

A: We tend to talk about the Love of God these days much more than the Fear of the Lord. Both are true. Fear of the Lord is not just awe, though that’s true as well. But Yahweh is a just God, though He is also merciful. I find it relatively easy to trust God’s love, but I must also remind myself of the Fear of the Lord.

As C. S. Lewis puts it through Mr Beaver's description of Aslan, “He’s not safe. But he’s good.” God is good, but He is not tame. His love does not make Him less holy or less worthy of reverence. I need to remind myself of the fear of the Lord—not as a rejection of His love, but as a recognition of His holiness and authority—so that I will turn away from sin rather than take His grace for granted.

P: Father, thank You that You love us. Help me to remember also to fear You, recognise Your holiness, take Your commands seriously, and stay away from sin. Remind me of this whenever temptation beckons. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Is Esther Historical?

A big objection some people have against the historicity of Esther is that secular history doesn’t seem to mention this, though there may be some allusions to it. 

Also, the idea of Haman’s proposal goes against how Persians usually treated minorities in their empire. They generally had a policy of tolerance unless you rebel. If you are willing to submit to their rule, they generally let you keep your culture, religion etc. because this makes people less likely to rebel. However, this does not mean that persecution of a particular ethnic group by an individual official would have been impossible.

So the allegation is that there was by the time of the Maccabees this festival of Purim, and Esther was a fairy tale made up to explain it.

But the lack of clear secular corroboration is not proof against Esther’s historicity. Ancient records are fragmentary, and Persian royal inscriptions were normally propaganda, celebrating kings, building works, victories, and divine favour—not palace scandal, an attempted empire-wide massacre, or a king’s humiliating reversal of policy. Herodotus is the major surviving Greek narrative source for Xerxes’ reign, but his interest was chiefly in the Persian Wars and Greek interaction with Persia; he had no reason to record every internal matter of the royal court. He mentions Amestris, a prominent queen associated with Xerxes, and some have speculated that she could be Esther. However, that identification is far from clear and is generally considered unlikely.

However, the book of Esther, both in the Hebrew version and in the extra parts found only in the Greek version, have intimate details of Achaemenid Persian courtly life and practices that the average Jews of the Maccabean period would not know. These include features such as the king’s seven senior advisers, royal banquets, the organisation of the royal women’s quarters and eunuchs, restrictions on access to the king, the golden sceptre, royal seals, written decrees sent throughout the empire, scribal practices, and other aspects of court protocol. Several of these features have parallels in what is independently known about Achaemenid Persia from Greek sources, Persian evidence, and archaeology. 

Someone familiar with the Achaemenid Persian court would have found it much easier to get such details right, whereas an ordinary Jewish writer in the Maccabean period, centuries after the fall of the Persian Empire, would have needed access to old documents or well-preserved traditions that were difficult to obtain. There was no public database, no mass printing, and no convenient library where one could simply look up Achaemenid court protocol—and, of course, no Google or AI like we have today to search for this information 😅. Records were handwritten on scrolls or tablets, scattered among official archives and elite collections, often far away and in foreign languages. Access would have required unusual connections, resources, travel, and literacy.

So while the form of Esther we have today in the Hebrew and Greek are probably from the Maccabean or Hellenistic period, the core story probably came from the Persian period. The text that Lysimachus son of Ptolemy translated into Greek probably had those details because it’s unlikely for Lysimachus to have known those details centuries after the fall of the Persian empire. In fact, Lysimachus shows his unfamiliarity with that period because he got the name of the king wrong—he wrote Artaxerxes instead of Xerxes, perhaps because of the similarity of the names in Hebrew—and yet got the Persian courtly details right. This strongly supports the idea that his source text for translating Esther had those details.

So, while from the historical evidence alone, one cannot conclusively prove Esther to be historical, I think that, given the balance of probabilities, the evidence suggests that Esther is more likely to be historical than to be a myth made up by a Maccabean-era Jew to explain the festival of Purim. Its Persian setting, courtly knowledge, administrative details, and coherent historical context are better explained by authentic tradition rooted in the Persian period.

Holier than thou?

S: Hosea 11:12 Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit; and Judah is still wandering with God and is faithful to the Holy One.

2 verses later, Hosea 12:2 Yahweh has a quarrel with Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds.

O: At the end of Chapter 11, Judah was looking good compared to Ephraim (Israel). But was Judah really good? 2 verses later, the situation is revealed when Yahweh declares that He has a quarrel with Judah and will punish Jacob (all of Israel – both north and south). Judah may not have reached Ephraim’s depth of rebellion, but Judah too stands accountable before God.

A: Sometimes we look good when we compare ourselves with people who have done things that are more visibly evil than us. But as Jesus said, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18). We cannot think we are good because we’re better than someone else, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  He “does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9) so we instead of trying to condemn evil people, we need to follow God in seeking their repentance.

This is not to say that there should not be laws and government action to punish crimes, but I’m speaking at an interpersonal level. We should be seeking to draw all to repentance and to follow God, rather than revenge.

P: Father, when people upset me, it’s hard to keep in mind Your desire for their repentance rather than their death. Remind me to see other people through Your compassionate eyes that do not tolerate injustice yet extends grace. In Jesus’ name, amen.

The Lord Hears the Cry of the Poor

 S: Hosea 4:14“I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, because the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes—a people without understanding will come to ruin!”

O: Along with the incident with Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38:26 God condemns the hypocrisy of going after prostitutes instead of the pimps and johns. Most of the time, prostitutes are victims of human trafficking and/or difficult circumstances, while the pimps and johns chose to victimise them.

A: We should support ministries that rescue girls from prostitution and call men to repentance. The laws of the land should prosecute the pimps and johns rather than going after the girls. Instead, the girls should be rescued and educated. From a web search, I found various ministries that minister to the urban poor, including prostitutes: Global Shepherds, KLUrban Fellowship (KLUF), Malaysian CARE, DUMC IMPACT Beyond, Grace CommunityServices, Holy Trinity Bukit Bintang — Social Action, and many others. Secular NGOs alike Tenaganita also minister to prostitutes.

P: Father, I pray for the girls trafficked into prostitution. May we have compassion on them and rescue them. In Jesus’ name, amen.

What’s your purpose in life?

Ecclesiastes (Vanity of vanities and all kinds of vanity) by Isaak Asknaziy, 1900.

S: Ecclesiastes 1

The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

“Vanity of vanities!” says the Teacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!”

What does a person gain in all his toil with which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth stands forever. The sun rises, and the sun goes down; to its place it hurries, and there it rises again. The wind goes to the south and goes around to the north; around and around it goes, and on its circuit the wind returns. All the streams flow to the sea, but the sea is never full; to the place where the streams flow, there they continue to flow.

All things toil continuously; no one can ever finish describing this. The eye is never satisfied with seeing, and the ear is never filled with hearing. What has been—it is what will be; what has been done—it is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun. There is a thing of which it is said, “Look at this! This is new!” But it already existed in ages past before us. There is neither remembrance of former generations, nor will there be remembrance of future generations.

I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I applied my mind to seek and to search by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. It is a grievous task God has given to humans. I saw all the works that are done under the sun. Look! Everything is vanity and chasing wind. What is twisted cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

I said to myself, “Look! I have become great and have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has preceded me over Jerusalem. I have acquired a great deal of wisdom and knowledge.” So I dedicated myself to learn about wisdom and to learn about delusion and folly. However, I discovered that this also is chasing wind. For in much wisdom is much frustration, and whoever increases knowledge increases sorrow.

O: Ecclesiastes chronicles the struggles Qoheleth (the Teacher in the above translation, from the Hebrew קֹהֶלֶת) as he seeks to understand the world that God had made.

If Qoheleth was Solomon, as many people have traditionally assumed, then what a tragic story it would be. Solomon started out well, asking God for wisdom, but later drifted away from Yahweh and worshipped other gods. Ecclesiastes could then be understood as the reflections of an old man looking back on a life in which he had pursued wisdom, wealth, pleasure and achievement, only to discover that none of them could provide ultimate meaning. But even if he wasn’t Solomon, the observations remain valid.

Ecclesiastes shows how meaningless life is if you don’t have God’s purpose in your life. Here in Chapter 1, like the ending lyrics of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, Qoheleth bemoans how “nothing ever matters,” because no matter how much you toil, “there is nothing new under the sun.” Like Percey Shelly points out in his classic poem Ozymandias, you can be great in your time, build great monuments to yourself, but time will erase them.

He talks about how “in wisdom there’s much frustration and whoever increases knowledge increases sorrow.” Indeed, if Qoheleth is Solomon, what a great example of that he was! God gave him great wisdom, and he squandered it as he drifted away from Yahweh.

Then in Chapter 2, he gives himself over to hedonism, the wealth acquisition (again, if Qoheleth is Solomon, this fits with the historical record of Solomon’s reign being extremely prosperous) yet even that’s no ultimate fulfilment and he ends Chapter 2 by saying it’s “chasing after the wind.”

The despair and meaninglessness go on like that in chapters 3-11, until he finally realises in chapter 12, after “all has been heard” that the conclusion is “Fear God and obey his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.  For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”

A: We don’t have to live Solomon’s wayward wasted life to figure out the conclusion. Let us fear God and obey His commandments now. Then only we will live the purpose-driven life (as Rick Warren puts it.)

Where Qoheleth asks, “What is the point of life if everything ends in death?” Warren answers, “Life makes sense when you understand that it is ultimately about God, not yourself.”

It’s not about you (or me.) The way to have a meaningful life is to live for God:

• Worship: we were planned for God’s pleasure.
• Fellowship: we were formed for God’s family.
• Discipleship: we were created to become like Christ.
• Ministry: we were shaped for serving God.
• Evangelism: we were made for a mission.

So our purpose isn’t primarily to achieve, accumulate, experience pleasure, or leave a legacy, as Qoheleth struggled with. It is to God, love God, become like Christ, serve others and participate in God's mission.

And because Christ has conquered death, our labour for Him is not ultimately futile:

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.

— 1 Corinthians 15:58

P: Father, thank You that Qoheleth is wrong when he said life is vanity. Life is not vanity if we live for You. Help me to live for You. Help me encourage my family and friends to live for You. And thank You that, because of Christ, our labour in You is not in vain. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Note: I wrote this and then showed it to various AIs, both Christian and secular and made a few changes where I agreed with the Ais’ suggestions. So the ideas and most of the text is my own writing.)

Nehemiah the Imperfect

S: Nehemiah 13

O: Everyone is imperfect, but the book of Nehemiah points out Nehemiah’s imperfections a bit more starkly than most autobiographical books. It shows his insecurity, his intemperance, and his exclusionary attitude toward foreigners, 4 times he kept asking God to “remember me” (Nehemiah 5:19; 13:14, 22, 31) and various intemperate actions like beating people up and pulling out their hair (Nehemiah 13:25).

(Regarding his attitude toward foreigners: Nehemiah 13 uses sweeping reform language because Nehemiah was enforcing covenant separation from hostile and corrupting foreign influence. However, the wider witness of Scripture shows that this cannot mean the absolute exclusion of every Ammonite or Moabite who genuinely turned to Yahweh. Ruth had already demonstrated that covenant faith, not ethnic origin, determines membership among God's people. And his forcing the Jews who have married foreign wives, even those having children, to divorce them was later shown in 1 Corinthians 7:12-13 to be not the way Christ would want it.)

And yet, God remembered him and used him to further the kingdom of God.

A: Sometimes we become discouraged when we realise how imperfect we are. Yes, we should repent and get closer to the image of Christ. But we should not despair. Instead, let us continue to serve Him faithfully, trusting that He can use us despite our imperfections.

P: Father, thank You for Your grace. Help us to become more and more conformed to the image of Christ. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Reminders

S: Nehemiah 9

The Levites recapped what Yahweh had done for Israel up to that point, how God rescued them from Egypt, but then they went and made the golden calf, yet God took the next generation to the Promised Land. But even after entering the Promised Land, they repeatedly turned away from Yahweh. Though He sent prophets to warn them and call them back, they remained stubborn, so God judged them and allowed them to be taken into exile. Yet God did not abandon them. In His mercy He brought them back to their land.

O: This reminds me of Acts 7, where Stephen also recapped the history of God saving them, culminating in the very same Jesus that they had rejected.

I am also reminded of how in Deuteronomy, Moses recapped what God had done for them up to that point. (In fact, the Malay name for Deuteronomy in the Alkitab is Ulangan, which is the same word we use for reviewing what we have learned before an exam.) And many other places in the Old Testament, they build memorials here and there to remember what God had done, e.g. 1 Samuel 7 the story of Ebenezer.

A: We need to keep reminding ourselves of what God has done, because it is so easy for us to drift away and forget how He saved us. That’s why it’s so important to study the Bible regularly, to meet with other believers among whom the Word of God is taught. As Deuteronomy 6:7 says, “And you shall recite them to your children, and you shall talk about them at the time of your living in your house and at the time of your going on the road and at the time of your lying down and at the time of your rising up” and the same instructions are repeated in Deuteronomy 11:19.

P: Father, thank You for Your salvation that You have provided us through Jesus. Help me to keep reminding myself, my family, and my community of believers of Your truths and never forget Your blessings. In Jesus’ name, amen.