In the book of Esther there is no mention of God. Which seems odd, because magical things happened, but God isn’t given credit for any of them. He doesn’t seek any credit either, which is a bit disturbing because Esther was living in a mad, mad world, and yet God didn’t seem to be involved – or want to be seen to be involved – at all. 

So is that the same for us today? Because here we are in a mad, mad world too, and God doesn’t seem to be involved in our world either. At least not visibly or obviously. So why would he do that? Why appear to be absent in a world where evil is rampant, and we need his intervention more than ever?

But look what happened to Esther. She’s a Jewish lass, growing up in a non-Jewish Persian culture, but amazingly ends up becoming its queen. Her Persian king hubby, who knows nothing of her Jewish background, appoints Haman, an anti-Semitic racist, to be his personal political advisor, a position so high and mighty that all must kneel in his presence. But Esther’s uncle Mordecai refuses to kneel, which blows a fuse in Haman’s touchy ego, and since he knew Mordecai was a Jew he manages to persuade the king to issue a death sentence on all Jews.

So where was God in all this? Well, keep reading, because amazing things happen. Mordecai appeals to Esther to go to the king to plead for their people, so she plans a banquet for the king and Haman to make her request. But the night before the banquet the king can’t sleep, so he has the records of his reign brought to him, in which he discovers that Mordecai had saved his life by exposing an assassination plot. 

And who could have guessed what happened next? The king orders Haman to publicly honour Mordecai by personally parading him through the city streets, with Mordecai dressed in the king’s royal robes. 

At the banquet the following day, Esther then makes her request to the king to spare her people because, she says, some awful person had been plotting to annihilate them. The king furiously demands who the blaggard is, and it’s Haman of course, and, again – who could have guessed it – Haman ends up being hanged on the gallows he’d had built for Mordecai. 

Every step of her story is amazing, from becoming a Persian queen as a non-royal Jewess, to revealing to her hubby king that actually she was Jewish, to being allowed by the king to make a plea for her fellow Jews, to Mordecai being honoured because the king couldn’t sleep, to Haman and his evil cunning being exposed, and all the enemies of the Jews being hunted down and killed by the king’s decree. 

Could the same thing happen in our world, therefore, when things are looking desperate for us too, as the lunacy virus takes hold in the minds of those infatuated with power, wealth, and self-advancement? 

Well, how much more obvious could it be that God was present in Esther’s mad, mad world? All those amazing coincidences leading up to a deadly enemy being exposed. It took a while for the evil to be exposed and destroyed, but it happened, so please, God, give me the eyes to see you being just as present in our world, exposing evil and destroying it, and to keep on trusting if at present it doesn’t seem like you’re involved at all.  

That’s a daft question because why does God have Christians preaching good news if he doesn’t want the world to get better? And why have Jesus crying out, “The time has come, the Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news,” Mark 1:15, if the Kingdom of God wasn’t near, and there wasn’t any good news to believe?

So, of course God wants the world to get better. And he demonstrated his wish with convincing clarity in Jesus making people’s lives better when he was here. Jesus healed all those who looked to him for healing, he sent demons packing, and his teaching stunned people into realizing there had to be another world order in operation that was so much better. And crowds followed him wherever he went, because they wanted to hear more.  

The world getting better was predicted in the Old Testament too, and it was written down so people could see it happening when it happened. And what was written was amazing, because it spoke of a great leader setting up a new world order, a grand reset that would guarantee never-ending peace. So when that leader came, get on board, because things were about to get better.

It was a bit of a shock, though, when it turned out that a carpenter’s son of humble origin was that great leader. But it gradually became obvious that he was the one predicted, by how much better people’s lives became wherever he went. And what he said to those who followed him was amazing too, because after a life of doing amazing miracles that changed people’s lives for the better he said, “You can now do what I’ve been doing, and even greater things after I’m gone.” 

Meaning there are people in existence right now who are demonstrating God making this world better. How? By living what Jesus taught and showing what happens to them. Or as Jesus put it in Matthew 5:16, “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” 

So God isn’t hiding what he’s up to, he has people “shining” what he’s doing by the kind of people they are and what they do. They’re not treading water waiting to be whisked up to heaven one day, they’re clued in to Jesus saying God’s kingdom is “near,” that God’s new world order is happening right here and right now. Meaning we can be part of the action now, making this planet home of ours into what God had in mind when he created it, and that he perfectly equipped us for too.  

The trend today is to be compassionate and tolerant to everyone, no matter how bizarre a person identifies as, or how criminal a person’s behaviour is, or how rude, demanding and violent people become if we don’t accommodate, celebrate, affirm and even applaud their versions of truth, or their sexual fantasies, or their fragile feelings.   

But wasn’t Jesus compassionate? Yes: “When he saw the crowds, he was moved with compassion for them,” Matthew 9:36, “because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep having no shepherd.” The Greek word for compassion here is esplanchnisthē – which, according to Charles Spurgeon was a made up word, because they couldn’t find a word “in the whole Greek language that suited their purpose, and therefore they had to make one.”

Because what they saw in Jesus was extraordinary. To quote Spurgeon again, “those who watched him closely perceived that his internal agitation was very great, his emotions were very deep, and then his face betrayed it, his eyes gushed like founts with tears, and you saw that his big heart was ready to burst with pity for the sorrow upon which his eyes were gazing. He was moved with compassion. His whole nature was agitated with commiseration for the sufferers before him.”

Or as Matthew put it, Jesus saw people as “sheep without a shepherd” – a vivid picture – because domesticated sheep, uncared for, are pathetic creatures. Left alone they die easily from simple things like fright, bloating, being too wet, or even just being upside down. They suffer easily when uncared for as well, because their wool keeps on growing until it becomes heavy, dirty and full of parasites, and their hoofs grow to the point they cannot walk. 

Sheep are stupid too; they get their heads stuck in things (in one case, a kettle), and they’re easily defeated too, like the sheep perched on top of a tree stump with all four feet off the ground, crying in distress rather than trying to find a way off. And why was it on the stump in the first place? I’ve read many stories about sheep, and they all say the same thing, that sheep are not easy to look after. But they stir deep feelings in some people, who are willing to care for them in all weathers, night and day, and it shatters them to lose a lamb to sickness or predators, or a ewe that dies giving birth.

So there’s our picture of how Jesus views us. He loves us, and it really hits him in the gut (the meaning of the root word for compassion in Matthew 9:36) when we’re struggling because of the mess this world has made of us. His heartfelt desire is to patch us up, heal our wounds, and flourish in his care. 

But would he extend that same heartfelt desire to weirdos and degenerates? To say “No, he wouldn’t” would, according to Paul in Romans 2:4, be “showing contempt for the riches of God’s kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that his kindness leads you toward repentance.” 

So, of course Jesus has compassion for them, but notice what the end game of his compassion is. It’s not affirming, accommodating or celebrating their weirdness and stupidity; it’s doing whatever gets them to repent. It’s still compassion, because it hits Jesus in the gut seeing how lost and damaged they are, but it’s compassion that also exposes their nonsense to wake them up and admit how wrong they’ve been, so they stop being weird and stupid. 

It was in a tiny bakery shop that a large red plaque with “Lest We Forget” written on it caught my attention. It brought back memories of the stories my Dad told of being shot down, captured, confined in a prisoner of war camp, escaping, being caught and force marched across Germany as the Allies pressed in, on rations of only one potato a day. 

He retold his stories to his youngest grandson too, so that’s two generations in our family that won’t forget what he went through. But is that what “Lest we forget” is for, to never forget those brave souls who gave up their careers, dreams, families, mental health and even their lives to protect us from tyrants? 

It’s become that way, yes, but that wasn’t what it was for originally. It was first used in a poem by Rudyard Kipling for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, that began with the line, “God of our fathers, known of old,” so it was actually a direct appeal to God – the appeal being, “Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget – lest we forget.”  

But not forget what? Well the rest of the poem makes that clear, that no matter how much power a nation has, or how great its military might, nothing lasts forever. And we seem to forget that, which is why Kipling ends his poem with, “For frantic boast and foolish word – thy mercy on thy people, Lord.”     

Because the “frantic boasting” and “foolish words” never end, do they? Presidents and Prime Ministers bang lecterns, shout with blazing eyes what they will do to anyone who dares threaten them – including their own people. They love boasting of their power, and become so infatuated with it they feel they can say anything, no matter how mad, callous, hypocritical or brazen lying it is. They utter words so dumb and foolish that they lose all respect, but don’t even notice it. And nor do many of their people, who just soak up their nonsense and vote for them anyway. No wonder Kipling begged God for mercy. 

But not in a negative sense, because despite the endless frantic boasting and stupid nonsense spouted by our leaders that pit nation against nation, and even family members against each other, Kipling remembers that God’s mercy is forever too. 

And without God’s mercy where would we be? He lets us primp and posture with our inflated egos, allows us to strut and threaten and head for yet another cliff, charging at its edge at full speed without even blinking – but for some incredible reason we’re still here, aren’t we? The planet is still intact. Madmen (and mad women) still rule us, but in every one of their lives their balloon of pride finally bursts, and their reign of nuttiness ends. Again and again, God only lets us go so far. 

Which is what the “Lest we forget” plaque in that little bakery shop reminded me of, that “The Lord God of hosts is with us yet.” Despite every madness we’ve done to the planet and to each other, he hasn’t given up on us, has he?  

We’re sort of stuck because the Father, whose children we are, “causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous,” Matthew 5:45. And Jesus then says in verse 48: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 

Which means, as Jesus points out in verse 44, that we are to “love our enemies” just as the Father loves them. And Jesus lived that way too, when asking the Father to forgive the evil, mad, and dangerous people who were instrumental in his death, “for they do not know what they are doing,” Luke 23:34. 

But does that mean we treat everyone with love, compassion and forgiveness, no matter how monstrous or hideous they are? 

Well, God set the boundaries on how we deal with people in John 3:17. Simply put, he’s not into condemning, he’s into saving. Which gives us a clue on how we love our enemies: our focus is not on wishing eternal death on them, it’s hoping that in some way they will wake up to their awfulness and want to put it behind them forever. 

For example: some of the most evil, mad, and dangerous people on the planet right now are those who want to sexually mutilate young children and teenagers through surgery to supposedly change their gender. Does God still cause the sun to rise on them and send rain on them? Yes. So he doesn’t condemn them, does he? BUT, he also sent Jesus to save them. 

Our hope, therefore, is “that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will,” 2 Timothy 2:25-26. 

This was Peter’s hope too, when he told Simon the sorcerer to “pray that the treachery of your heart may be forgiven you” in Acts 8:22. That’s because, Simon, “God is not mocked,” Galatians 6:7. He makes sure that “we reap what we sow.” We get what we deserve. We are held accountable for what we do. Paul put it bluntly in Romans 2:9, that “There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil.” And Jesus said of such people, “How will you escape being condemned to hell?” Matthew 23:33. So whatever one thinks hell is, it’s guaranteed for people with “stubborn and unrepentant hearts,” Romans 2:5.

But what if these stubborn, unrepentant, evil, mad, and dangerous people realize what they’ve done is “evil in God’s sight,” Psalm 51:4, like King David did? And again, like David, they beg God for the chance to “teach transgressors your ways, (so that) sinners will turn back to you,” verse 13? It happened to Saul the psychopath, who “was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief,” 1 Timothy 1:13, who then became Paul the apostle as evidence of “God’s unlimited patience,” verse 16. And how many sinners did Paul then turn back to God? 

So amazing things can happen to evil, mad, and dangerous people, because God is God and he can get through to the worst of them – and maybe through how we deal with them too. We love ‘em – BUT – we also wish upon them whatever it takes to wake them up.    

“Let us pray,” the minister mumbled into the microphone. Here we go, I thought, another tired old prayer on Remembrance Day. 

But this prayer was different.

“Great Father of us all,” the minister began, his voice rising, “We, your suffering children, come to you in our embarrassment and shame to say how sorry we are for all the death and misery you’ve had to witness for yet another horribly violent year. And here we are on Remembrance Day, sorry yet again that we have to put you through the same old routine: we march, we cry and we pray, and we get terribly serious about the horrors of war and we seek your comfort for the bereaved – but nothing changes. Year after year it’s the same; we never bring you good news, only bad.”

“We think of you shaking your head at our blindness, because you told us in your word how wars happen, but do we see it? You’ve given us warning and wisdom like a good Father should, but do we heed it? You told us what to do when evil threatens, but have we listened? You told us of powers much greater than ours we can trust in, but have we believed you? You told us you sent your Son to bring us peace, but are we interested? So now you have to watch us shuffle off home for another year, and we’re none the wiser, as usual. And we’ll be back at this time next year too, with more sad stories to tell you of those who died in wars, and our helplessness in protecting the innocent – as if you haven’t heard enough of such stories already.”

“What must it be like to be a Father to children like us? Could we ask you, therefore, to do something for us, that would bring some joy to this day instead? Could you give us the sense this year to go home and read what you wrote about peace and for you, then, to help us understand and believe it, so that next year we can come to you with different stories, of the courage you gave us to try your way, and how surprised we were by its success.”

“And could you really bless those who are seeking peace your way? Those  who, this coming year, take up your offer and your challenge to be living proof now of your promise that peace will reign on this amazing planet you created.”

“In conclusion, we humbly seek your forgiveness and boldly seek your power, dear Father, because we, your struggling children, are in desperate need of help.”

How tragic that we humans see each other as the enemy. Think how many wars have been fought between people who, in peace-time, could well have been the best of friends. And think how many people live and work happily together all their lives who then ferociously turn on each other in a time of war.

How do we get so twisted up that we view each other as enemies? How can millions of people through the centuries be hoodwinked over and over again into picking up arms and killing their fellow humans, when they have nothing personally against them? How can we fall so easily for charismatic leaders justifying the invasion of other countries and killing innocent children? And how come bullying is such a problem in schools and the workplace, as though we actually hate each other and love hurting people? Something is tragically wrong.

Yes there is, but Jesus came to change it. How? 1 John 3:8 – “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work,” because our real enemy is the devil. It’s not each other. And that really struck me while following a slow driver. For mile after mile a whole trail of us were stuck behind him travelling well below the speed limit, and when, at last, the opportunity came to overtake him he immediately swerved out in front of me without signalling, forcing me to take evasive action. Whether he did it on purpose or not, I do not know, but I realized at that point he wasn’t my enemy. The fact that we’re all driving cars on packed roads with few opportunities to overtake isn’t his fault. The reason we’re all stuck in these ridiculous circumstances is because the devil got to us from the very start.

He’s the enemy, because he got us all thinking we could do without God, and look what we’ve got as a result. We’re into endless situations cropping up where we think of and treat each other as the enemy. I watch siblings, for instance, who stir and poke each other to get a reaction and make the other cry, but when faced by a common enemy they join hands in mutual support. It’s insane. They’d die for each other when others oppose them, but when there’s no opposition they fight each other.

But, as Peter writes in 1 Peter 5:8, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” It helps explain the utter insanity and cruelty we inflict on each other. Somehow the devil has made us into enemies, when, in fact, our only enemy is him.

Yes, some Christians say, it’s our civic duty and right to defend family and nation against evil, and what greater sacrifice can one make than giving one’s life for one’s friends? If someone broke into your home with murderous intent, would you not have the right and the responsibility to protect yourself and your family, using whatever means it took to subdue the villain, which might include killing him?

Other Christians, however, challenge that view, quoting several obvious scriptures in reply like, “Do not kill, love your enemies, don’t repay evil with evil, overcome evil with good, and ‘vengeance is mine’ says the Lord.’” And what about Jesus’ statement in John 14:27? “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” It’s the world that uses war to create peace, not Jesus.

But doesn’t Jesus use war to create peace, too? In Revelation 19:11 he “makes war,” and “out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations,” verse 15. Ah but, other Christians reply, Jesus can kill because he’s God and God can resurrect people back to life again, whereas we can’t. And besides, haven’t these verses been used to justify the Crusades and other monstrous cruelties by Christians?

And on and on the debate goes, scripture versus scripture – but what an awful irony it creates, of Christians fighting each other over whether we should fight, or not. But what’s the answer, when scriptures can be found that support both views?

I don’t know because I have no idea what I might do if someone attacks my home or country. It depends very much on my understanding of Scripture and my relationship with God at the time, I imagine, so how I react now may be very different to how I react in five years time, when my understanding of God has grown. Peter, the disciple of Jesus, for instance, sliced off a man’s ear with his sword in John 18:10, but later in his life, in 1 Peter 1:5, he talks of being shielded by God’s power through faith. He was now totally trusting in God, not his sword anymore. As our understanding of God grows, so will our actions.

What’s helped me in this dilemma is Romans 14, because Christians can have different views, based on their beliefs at the time (verses 3-8), but still be at peace. And isn’t that what this world needs to see? It’s not Christians fighting over whether they should fight, or not, it’s Christians who are living the way of peace with each other (verse 19).

Christians on both sides of World War 2 did what their governments told them to do and they went to war – the result being that millions of Christians killed and maimed each other. But what were those Christians supposed to do instead when Romans 13:1 says, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities (because) the authorities that exist have been established by God,” and in verse 2, that  rebelling against one’s government is “rebelling against God,” and in verse 8, that “it is necessary (therefore) to submit to the authorities”?

But what is the context of Romans 13? Is it about international warfare and giving a government leader the divine right to declare war against another nation, and his people must support him? Is it giving a national leader the authority to decide who is right and who is wrong on the world stage, and to use whatever means he deems necessary to stop what he believes to be evil? But doesn’t Romans 13 also give the leader of the other nation those rights as well, since he too has been “established by God”? So, which of the two leaders should people now obey?

If that is the context of Romans 13 it’s very confusing. But what if the context of Romans 13 is simply about Christians being responsible citizens in their own home countries? If so, then Romans 13 is very comforting, that so long as one’s government is not pushing anything against God, Christians have nothing to fear, “For rulers hold no terror for those who do right,” verse 3. And God has rulers in place who really do try to make their countries a good place to live in, and where that is the case a Christian can happily obey his or her government and live in peace.

“That’s also why you pay taxes,” as The Message continues in verses 6-7 – “so that an orderly way of life can be maintained. Fulfill your obligation as a citizen. Pay your taxes, pay your bills, respect your leaders.” The context of these first few verses in Romans 13 are clear, then, that God works through government to keep order in a country for the benefit of its citizens, and where such a country exists a Christian should definitely and absolutely do what his government tells him to do.

The only exception to that is when a government (or religious leader) is pushing something that God would clearly not approve of, in which case a Christian could not go along with it, because obedience to God has priority over obedience to man (Acts 4:19). Perhaps if more Christians had believed that, they would have resisted killing their fellow Christians in World War 2 as well.

Remembrance Day brings into sharp focus a conundrum, that humans are willing to sacrifice their lives. It doesn’t matter whether you’re Christian or non-Christian, or which side you’re on in a war; the instinct to give up our lives for a cause we believe to be right is shared by all.

We acknowledge that instinct on Remembrance Day as we remember the men and women who gave up their lives to free the world of a brutal evil. But where did such an instinct come from? It flies in the face of Evolution for a start, which talks of creatures and plants doing whatever they must to survive. But all through our history humans have put aside their instinct to survive, and in the prime of their lives they do what Evolution would never support a species doing. Where in Evolution, for instance, does a species give up its life when it’s at the top of its game?

So where did this conundrum of self-sacrifice come from? Well, from God, of course, because it helps us to understand him. We see God best “in the face of Christ,” 2 Corinthians 4:6, and what we see in Christ is God willing to give up his life in his prime too, and for the same reason we are willing to give up our lives – to rid the world of evil.

What Christ did rings a familiar and honourable bell in a human heart, because the most honourable thing a human being can do is give up his life for others, especially in his prime. But it’s in us to do that. It’s instinctive in us to give up our lives to crush evil. And we recognize that instinct every year on Remembrance Day.

Remembrance Day, therefore, shines a light on the amazing phenomenon of a species being willing to give up its life, and it also shines a bright light on God – because we’re not so different, we humans and God, are we? He was willing to rid the world of evil by self-sacrifice, and so are we. It makes it very easy for us to understand God, then, because tucked away inside us is the same heart he has.

No wonder the Christian message “commends” itself, or rings true, “to every man’s conscience,” verse 2, because the sacrificing of a life to rid the world of evil is what we already believe as good and true as well. Remembrance Day isn’t really such a conundrum, then, because self-sacrifice is a desire God has given us to help us understand him.