Here are four short study/meditations on the 1. love of money, 2. patience, 3. eschatology, and 4. the Septuagint’s version of Esther 4.
Love of money – Philarguria:
Certainly, most believers are not in bondage to this “love.” However, we need to be aware of these exhortations to more thoroughly resist this temptation. All Scripture is edifying, and for those of us who boast in our freedom we should take heed lest we mess up (2 Timothy 3:16; Galatians 6:1; 1 Corinthians 10:12).
Let’s take a look.
For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil (1 Timothy 6:10a)
Here’s an example of a type of evil connected with the love of money: people go to war over this “love.”
You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. (James 4:2)
Next exhortation:
Make sure that your character is free from the love of money (Hebrews 13:5a)
This is a character issue.
Character can be worked on, developed and determined.
Our characters are not merely the result of our environment or genes. Character is determined by what we value. What do we love, or fear, or hate? How strong is the emotion? We make decisions based upon the varying degrees of these emotions. The decisions we make form our character.
Here is why we have every good reason to reject the temptation to love money:
for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,” 6 so that we confidently say, “THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?” (Hebrews 13:5b-6)
In the next verse it is inferred that our leaders should exemplify this freedom.
Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. (Hebrews 13:7)
Spiritual maturity includes liberty from materialism and greed.
An overseer, then, must be … free from the love of money. (1 Timothy 3:2a-3c)
If a spiritual leader is influenced by philarguria they will use people. If you love money for the sake of security, prestige, or getting things, you also will devalue others.
Here is a cure for philarguria caused by insecurity:
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6)
God Incarnate commanded unregenerate disciples along these lines. Certainly, by the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit, we can come into this liberty.
Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing? For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:31-33)
Let’s follow the Messiah in this.
Slow to Anger
God is celebrated as “slow to anger” nine times.
(Exod 34:6; Num 14:18; Neh 9:17; Ps 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; Nah 1:3)
Exodus 34:6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;
Numbers 14:18 ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.
‘Nehemiah 9:17 “They refused to listen, And did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You had performed among them; So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But You are a God of forgiveness, Gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness; And You did not forsake them.
Psalm 86:15 But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.
Psalm 103:8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
Psalm 145:8 The LORD is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.
Joel 2:13 And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.
Jonah 4:2 He prayed to the LORD and said, “Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.
Nahum 1:3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, And the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, And clouds are the dust beneath His feet.
We are exhorted to be slow to anger.
James 1:19 This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger;
Proverbs 14:29 He who is slow to anger has great understanding, But he who is quick-tempered exalts folly.
Proverbs 15:18 A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, But the slow to anger calms a dispute.
Proverbs 16:32 He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.
Proverbs 19:11 A man’s discretion makes him slow to anger, And it is his glory to overlook a transgression.
God loves humanity, therefore He is slow to anger.
To the degree we love others, to that degree we will be patient with them. Love fulfills this law.
The Same Song
And they sang the song of Moses, God’s slave, and the song of the Lamb, saying:
Great and marvelous are Your works,
O Lord God of Hosts!
Righteous and true are Your ways,
King of the ages!
Who will not fear, O Lord,
and glorify Your name?
For You alone are righteous
All the nations
will come and worship before You
For Your righteous acts have been revealed
(Revelation 15:3-4)
They’re singing the same song.
I would have thought they would be singing different songs. If Moses and the Messiah were having a concert maybe Moses would open for Jesus. I would not expect a duet.
What is going on here?
Is Moses catching up to Jesus? Is Jesus backsliding and reverting to an Old Testament understanding of God?
No.
It has always been the same God, with the same purpose, the same promise, the same prophetic expectation, Who is pursuing the same goals and is worthy of the same praise.
“Esther and Mordechai’s Prayer” in the Septuagint
For the Purim service the synagogue reads the book of Esther. The entire book. In the light of this week’s events in Washington, DC, it wouldn’t be inappropriate for us to read the version of Esther that was read throughout the Greek speaking Jewish populations of the ancient Roman empire.
The following is the Septuagint’s version of Esther 4.
It is not a faithful translation of the Hebrew. Rather, it is the sanctified imagination of whoever translated the “book of Esther.”
By the way, the word “Megillah” is a name for the scroll containing the book of Esther. When someone says, “the whole megillah” it is making an analogy to the custom of reading the entire scroll.
Esther 4:14-17
For if thou shalt refuse to hearken on this occasion, help and protection will be to the Jews from another quarter; but thou and thy father’s house will perish: and who knows, if thou hast been made queen for this very occasion?
15 And Esther sent the man that came to her to Mardochaeus, saying, 16 Go and assemble the Jews that are in Susa, and fast ye for me, and eat not and drink not for three days, night and day: and I also and my maidens will fast; and then I will go in to the king contrary to the law, even if I must die.
17 So Mardochaeus went and did all that Esther commanded him. And he besought the Lord, making mention of all the works of the Lord; and he said,
Lord God, king ruling over all, for all things are in thy power, and there is no one that shall oppose thee in thy purpose to save Israel.– For thou hast made the heaven and the earth, and every wonderful thing in the world under heaven. And thou art Lord of all, and there is no one who shall resist thee the Lord.
Thou knowest all things: thou knowest, Lord, that it is not in the insolence, nor haughtiness, nor love of glory, that I have done this, to refuse obeisance to the haughty Aman. For I would gladly have kissed the soles of his feet for the safety of Israel. But I have done this, that I might not set the glory of man above the glory of God: and I will not worship any one except thee, my Lord, and I will not do these things in haughtiness.
And now, O Lord God, the King, the God of Abraam, spare thy people, for our enemies are looking upon us to our destruction, and they have desired to destroy thine ancient inheritance. Do not overlook thy peculiar people, whom thou hast redeemed for thyself out of the land of Egypt.
Hearken to my prayer, and be propitious to thine in gladness, that we may live and sing praise to thy name, O Lord; and do not utterly destroy the mount of them that praise thee, O Lord.
And all Israel cried with all their might for their death was before their eyes.
And queen Esther betook herself for refuge to the Lord, being taken as it were in the agony of death. And having taken off her glorious apparel, she put on garments of distress and morning; and instead of grand perfumes she filled her head and ashes and dung, and she greatly brought down her body, and she filled every place of her glad adorning with the torn curls of her hair. And she besought the Lord God of Israel, and said,
O my Lord, thou alone art our king: help me who am destitute, and have no helper but thee, for my danger is near at hand. I have heard from my birth, in the tribe of my kindred, that thou, Lord, tookest Israel out of all the nations, and our fathers out of all their kindred for a perpetual inheritance, and hast wrought for them all that thou hast said.
And now we have sinned before thee, and thou hast delivered us into the hands of our enemies, because we honoured their gods: thou art righteous, O Lord.
But now they have not been contented with the bitterness of our slavery, but have laid their hands on the hands of their idols, in order to abolish the decree of thy mouth, and utterly to destroy thine inheritance, and to stop the mouth of them that praise thee, and to extinguish the glory of thine house and thine altar, and to open the mouth of the Gentiles to speak the praises of vanities, and in order that a mortal king should be admired for every.
O Lord, do not resign thy sceptre to them that are not, and let them not laugh at our fall, but turn their counsel against themselves, and make an example of him who has begun to injure us.
Remember us, O Lord, manifest thyself in the time. of our affliction, and encourage me, O king of gods, and ruler of all dominion. Put harmonious speech into my mouth before the lion, and turn his heart to hate him that fights against us, to the utter destruction of him and of them that consent with him. But deliver us by thine hand, and help me who am destitute, and have none but thee, O Lord.
Thou knowest all things, and knowest that I hate the glory of transgressors, and that I abhor the couth of the uncircumcised, and of every stranger. Thou knowest my necessity, for I abhor the symbol of my proud station, which is upon my head in the days of my splendour: I abhor it as a menstruous cloth, and I wear it not in the days of my tranquillity. And thy handmaid has not eaten at the table of Aman, and I have not honoured the banquet of the king, neither have I drunk wine of libations. Neither has thy handmaid rejoiced since the day of my promotion until now, except in thee, O Lord God of Abraam.
O God, who hast power over all, hearken to the voice of the desperate, and deliver us from the hand of them that devise mischief; and deliver me from my fear.
