“And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed,” Esther 9:28.
The true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has, in truth, more reason to remember this day of thanksgiving than does the average Jew today. The events remembered and celebrated took place in the year BC 510, according to the trustworthy calculations of the godly and strongly Protestant Archbishop of Armagh, James Ussher (4 January 1581 – 21 March 1656). This holy man, who aided our persecuted Presbyterian forefathers and favoured Presbyterian church polity, compiled a history of the world, “The Annals of the World”. His learning was widely admired and to this day great store is laid upon his chronology of the events of history since the creation.
Accepting Ussher’s date, the first’ Purim’ took place over two and a half millennia ago! This year ‘Purim’ will be celebrated by the Jewish people on 6th March. The celebration has become, in character, something like the so-called ‘Christmas’ celebrations amongst those who have but a ‘nodding acquaintance’ with the things of God.
Since the Lord Jesus Christ is rejected amongst most Jews, there is no true recognition of the One Who wrought the wonderful deliverance of the Jewish nation all those years ago.
One of the strange features of the Book of Esther is the absence of any mention of ‘God’ in the book, though the hand and providence of God may be most clearly seen in it! I take that absence as a providential foreshadowing of the absence of any mention of the true God in today’s celebrations of Purim.
The Lord Jesus Christ is indeed THE KING OF ISRAEL! It was His Kingly intervention all those years ago that preserved the Jewish people from the attempt by their enemies, led by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite (Esther 9:24). It was He Who had watched over Abraham and all his descendants and is watching still, though now, in this time of retribution for their rejection and crucifixion of the Saviour, He watches to preserve them from utter destruction and will keep them until that day, in the near future, when He will reveal Himself unto them in saving mercy and grace, at His second coming. Zechariah, amongst many prophets, writes of that wonderful event.
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn,” Zechariah 12:9-10.
In truth ‘Purim’ celebrates what was in fact a portent of that glorious day for which every believer awaits with joyful anticipation.
The story of ‘Purim’ is most wonderful and thrilling. As we read it we are surely made to see that within living memory the world has been made to watch the same wicked hatred of the Jewish people and the same ignominious overthrow of their enemies. I refer of course to the evil scheme of Adolf Hitler and his cohorts!
It was back on January 27th this year when the annual ‘Holocaust Remembrance Day’ was marked amongst many nations, recalling the slaughter of six millions Jews, systematically murdered by German Nazis and their allies. The date was decided upon in 1945 when on that date the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp by allied soldiers, where so many perished most horribly, took place.
Please note:
I. A WOMAN CHIEFLY FEATURED IN THE WONDERFUL BOOK OF ESTHER.
She was the means God used to deliver His people. Mordecai said to her when the evil scheme of Haman was known: “Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:13-14. Mordecai very obviously saw the wise providence of the Lord in the way his cousin, Hadassah, or, Esther as we know her. (Esther 2:7), had been chosen and brought before the court of the king of the Medo-Persian empire.
Women have always had a central role in the purpose of God. I recently read again the chapters 1 and 2 of Luke’s gospel where Mary, the mother of the Saviour, is referred to. I was impressed afresh with the very obvious deep spirituality of this young woman.
Note:
1. The angels’ greeting of her. “Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women,” Luke 1:28.
It is said here by the angel that Mary was:
Highly favoured. The term appears in only one other place and that is Ephesians 1:6. There it is translated as “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” To be accepted of the Lord speaks of reconciliation with God and justification from our sins through the blood of Christ. As it was with the Ephesian believers of whom Paul says that they were accepted ‘in the beloved’, that is in Christ, it is only ‘in Christ’ that we are found acceptable to God. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new,” 2 Corinthians 5:17. As Paul goes on to say: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace,” Ephesians 1:7.
Mary was a young woman accepted by God as one justified by faith in, as it was in her case, a coming, promised Messiah.
The Lord was with her. She abode in the company and presence of the Lord. This was an honoured position to be in, but it is the portion of all who have received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. How that truth comforted Paul. “Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city,” Acts 18:9-10. What a strengthening was granted to Paul, facing the frightening prospect of preaching the gospel in a heathen city such as Corinth, such assurance of the Lord’s presence was!
Young people, please take note that Mary was likely in her late teens, but she enjoyed the presence and favour of God!
Blessed art thou among women. The first time this Greek word appears in our New Testament is in Matthew 5:44. “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” It is set over against cursing. To ‘curse’ is to invoke, to wish evil upon a person. We can thus learn that to ‘bless’ is the very opposite. It is to pronounce good upon someone. Mary was one upon whom the Lord had pronounced a blessing. Again, she is illustrative of the converted sinner who by grace has been made a child of God. Two verses explain this. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile,” Psalm 32:1-2. That is what it is to be blessed.
Mary mentions this mercy in the opening words of her very well known Magmificat. “And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour,” Luke 1:46-47.
I would that all Roman Catholics would carefully note the words of the mother of Christ. She speaks of the Lord as her SAVIOUR. That naturally indicates that Mary considered herself as one requiring salvation, she was a sinner but she had come to faith in the message of God’s mercy found in the testimony of the prophets of the Old Testament, words such as those found in Psalm 40: “Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies,” verse 4. Or those in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 17. “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is,” verse 7.
Mary was a ‘thinker’. It is repeatedly said that she thought deeply upon God’s Word and the events taking place around her. Consider these verses:
“And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be,” Luke 1:28-29.
“And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart,” Luke 2:18-19.
“And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart,” Luke 2:51.
Mary is a lesson for all believers in the matter of meditating on the words and providences of God.
It is very obvious that Mary was very familiar with the Old Testament in the way she readily refers to its history in her ‘Song of praise’. For example, her words in Luke 1:51 indicate an acquaintance with Isaiah 51 and 59.
“He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts,” Luke 1:51.
“The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God,” Isaiah 52:10.
“Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear,” Isaiah 59:1.
She would have been familiar with and believed Isaiah 45:22. “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”
Oh that those who claim to honour her would follow her example and familiarise themselves with and embrace the Word of God!
II. THERE IS A WONDERFUL PICTURE OF GOD’S PURPOSE TO SAVE SINNERS.
Let us note some features of the record given us in the story of God’s deliverance of Israel.
1. Those whom God did save were poor captives, under judgment for their sins. His wonder and merciful intervention was on behalf of a despised and hated people. There was nothing to commend them to God or to men!
They were enduring exile in the furthest reaches of the Medo-Persian empire because of their wicked rejection of God and His Truth. Many prophets had warned them of the consequences of their disobedience. Jeremiah was the last of those to do so before the judgment of God fell upon the nation.
“Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, till he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts against it round about. So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden; (now the Chaldeans were by the city round about:) and they went by the way of the plain. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he gave judgment upon him. And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death,” Jeremiah 52:1-11.
This was the people to whom the Lord extended His mercy and preserved from utter destruction by their enemies, some 75 years after the fall of Jerusalem and the beginning of their captivity, as related in the book of Esther.
So today, the message of God’s deliverance is likewise directed at a people utterly undeserving of His love and mercy. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” Romans 5:8. Surely we can see the parallel!
2. A day was set for their final destruction. Their enemy, Haman the Agagite, had persuaded king Ahasuerus to issue a degree of the utter destruction of the Jews within his empire.“And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. Then were the king’s scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king’s lieutenants, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language; in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with the king’s ring. And the letters were sent by posts into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey,” Esther 3:11-13.
The animosity of the haters of the ancient people of God burns as fiercely still. You have only to consider the declaration of Iran, or Persia as it was once called, the very centre of the empire of king Ahasuerus, which has vowed to annihilate Israel and wipe it from the map. This headline appeared on the website of CNN, back in November 10, 2014: “Iran leader’s call to ‘annihilate’ Israel sparks fury as nuclear deadline looms”. Again, we see the undying hatred of Iran toward the Jews in this headline. ‘Commander Says Iran Will Destroy Israel And Attack The US’, ‘Iran International’ website, 08/06/2022.
This bitterness continues unabated and the modern-day ‘Hamans’ have set the date for the destruction of Israel as this headline from the ‘Independent’ newspaper of 15th December 2016 illustrates. ‘Iran’s Supreme Leader says Israel ‘will not exist in 25 years’.
3. They were in ignorance of their approaching doom. The scheming of Haman was unknown to the Jews and, sadly, it is so still today. Having rejected the Word of God and Jesus Christ as their Messiah, His warning words in Matthew 24 are unread and unheeded!
Were they but to read the chapter they would see clearly what lies ahead of them.
“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. . . . . Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory,” Matthew 24:14-21, 29-30.
Sadly, it is not only the Jewish people who ignore these words but all too many Christians neglect to study and believe what the Saviour plainly teaches His people.
IGNORANCE OF THE WORLD
But even more tragic is the terrible ignorance of the day appointed by the Lord to judge sinners for their rebellion against Him that world is in. “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead,” Acts 17:30-31. Of course the day appointed by Haman to destroy the Jews was not warned of by him with an urging of a means of escape but that is NOT the case with the day the Lord has appointed to judge the wicked. The gospel is a most explicit and detailed warning of the approach of judgment. But it is also a clear and plain setting forth of the means of escaping judgment. Sinners are urged to flee from the wrath to come. But they are also instructed as to Whom to flee. It is to Christ we must run for deliverance from the coming judgment. The call of God in the gospel is set forth by Isaiah the prophet. “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else,” Isaiah 45:22. The way that the Lord provided salvation for helpless sinners is set forth in what may be called the best known verse in the Bible. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” John 3:16. What this verse is saying is that “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly,” Romans 5:6. The gospel is an exposition of a message of God’s Son taking the place of the guilty, bearing their guilt and suffering the punishment due to those sins. Paul the apostle put it like this: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,” 2 Corinthians 5:21. As God clothed Adam and Eve after their fall into sin (Genesis 3:21), so it pictures what God has done for the salvation of deliverance of the sinner. In Genesis 3:31, Calvary is vividly portrayed. “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” An animal, surely a lamb, died to provide clothes for our first parents. That is the gospel in a nutshell! “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” John 1:29. The Lord Jesus shed His blood and ransomed us from the guilt of sin and the eternal punishment that would fall upon us as a result of it.
4. The one who was central in their deliverance was highly despised and hated by their enemies. I refer of course to Mordecai. How he was hated and despised by Haman because Mordecai knew the true character of Haman and would not give to him the honour he craved!
Haman planned an ignominious end for Mordecai. He built a gallows and planned to hang him on them. He was exalted up with joy, pride and self-esteem as he planned this evil demise for Mordecai.
“Haman said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and to morrow am I invited unto her also with the king. Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate. Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and to morrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made,” Esther 5:12-14.
It was on the gallows he built for Mordecai that Haman the Jews’ enemy ended his days.
“Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request: for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king’s damage. Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so? And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house? As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified. On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews’ enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was unto her. And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews,” Esther 7:3-8:3.
So will end every evil scheme hatched against the people of God.
III. THERE IS FURTHERMORE, A WONDERFUL PICTURE OF THE GLORIOUS VICTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD AT THE INTERVENTION OF GOD ON CHRIST’S RETURN.
It can never be emphasised enough that from the beginning of the Bible unto the end, the return of Christ in glorious victory over His enemies and His taking up the reins of power and dominion over this world feature clearly.
I read very recently in my Bible reading, that wonderful passage in Job 19. “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me,” verses 25-27.
Job lived, we believe, around the end of Israel’s captivity in Egypt. Yet Job believed in the existence of his Redeemer and that he would return in the latter days to reign upon the earth, visibly and gloriously.
He is but one of the many prophets of God who spoke of the ‘latter days’. Moses, the Psalmist David and others, Isaiah, Jeremiah, indeed I can say all the prophets spoke of that wonderful future time. “Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days,” Acts 3:24.
As has already been noted, the book of Esther does not contain the word ‘God’! That is a little strange and yet I believe that there is a wonderful lesson for us to learn in its absence.
The Lord often speaks by way of the physical world and by events within it. Thus He spoke to Israel and to Egypt by way of the plagues, telling them that He was about to keep His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Few were, I am sure, aware of the full details of the verbal exchanges between Pharaoh and Moses, yet events seen and heard by all conveyed the truth that God was acting against the Egyptians!
In like fashion, there will be such phenomena that will bear testimony to the approaching second advent of Christ. Revelation chapters 7-16 record the supernatural events that will take place upon the earth, chiefly in the territory of the re-established Roman Empire, or the empire of the Antichrist.
Specifically, the Saviour tells us that God will speak to this world by supernatural, physical events just before the Saviour’s return.
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other,” Matthew 24:29-31.
I repeat, that God has often spoken in a silent manner of His existence, His power and His glory. Psalm 19:1-4 makes this plain.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.”
Likewise, in the book of Esther, the Lord declares His wisdom, power, faithfulness and mercy in the wonderful deliverance he wrought for His ancient people.
At the return of Christ, the despised One, the true ‘Mordecai’, will reign over His Father’s dominions and under Him His people will rejoice. This is pictured for us in the closing verses of Esther.
“And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed,” Esther 10:2-3.
Is this not a wonderful foreshadowing of that written for us in the Book of the Revelation.
“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth,” Revelation 11:15-18.
“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years,” Revelation 20:1-6.
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful,” Revelation 21:1-5.
“And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book,” Revelation 22:1-7.
What a blessing indeed is enjoyed by those who study and believe and that “keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.”
Seek that blessing today Christian.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
1st March 2023