Running down the hill to the bluebird house, LeAnne found the snake still curled around the box. You may know that snakes are stupefied after gorging and sit still to digest. So much the better for LeAnne's fury. She shot him, then hacked him into pieces. Later that day, she had another enmity surge as she saw another black snake (albeit an innocent one) and killed him for good measure.
The snake in the garden of Eden was a troublemaker, too. When he tempted Eve and she and Adam tasted the knowledge of evil...innocence went wanting. So began enmity between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. Because the deceiver is a murderer, he killed our first parents' relationship with God. But our omnipotent and loving Father had a plan to get us back. The promise is in Genesis 3.15.
"And I will put enmity between you (Satan) and the woman, and between your seed (Satan's children) and her seed (Jesus);
He (Jesus) shall bruise you (Satan) on the head (@resurrection) and you (Satan) shall bruise him (Jesus) on the heel(@cross)."
Matthew Henry describes the battle: "the fruit of enmity is a continual conflict between grace and the corruption in the hearts of God's people. Satan corrupts, assaults, buffets, sifts, and seeks to devour them. They (by the exercise of their graces) resist him, wrestle with him, quench his fiery darts, and force him to flee. Heaven and hell can never be reconciled, nor light and darkness. Neither can Satan and a sanctified soul be reconciled, for these are contrary the one to the other."
The Genesis verse shows that from the beginning, the fight has been settled. A child (Jesus) is promised and that Rescuer will win the battle. Still, Satan doesn't seem to have gotten the memo. He persists in his fight to be Numero Uno - against the One who IS the First and the Last. Their fight requires that the rest of us pick sides, and we have since 4000BC.
There were times when Satan thought he had gotten rid of the coming Messiah. The devil figured if he got rid of the Jews, he could destroy the Messianic line. Satan knows that at the end of time, Jesus consigns him to the Lake of Fire. No WONDER Satan has repeatedly tried to knock off Israel.
The Jews know that putrid smell of Satan's sulphur breath. Pharaoh and Herod both killed innocent baby boys and quenched generations. But Satan's two largest murderous lunges came in 473BC (@ Esther's story) and in our lifetime (@the Holocaust). Here are some interesting similarities between these two events:
ESTHER
Did you happen to see the movie "One Night with the King"? That is Esther's story, and it's on Hulu @ http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi729745177/
The guy in Esther's story who wears the black hat was her enemy Haman. He was an Amalekite (Agagite), a people who plagued Israel for years during the time of Joshua and Gideon and even David. They were a people in Ishmael's line, born to a concubine of one of Essau's sons. They were known for not fighting a frontal assault, but for conducting raids from behind. They were particularly cruel and killed the young, the sick, and the helpless. Their king was King Agag and God had commanded King Saul to take out Agag and all the Amalekites. God has good reason to order the death sentence, but Saul didn't obey. That disobedience was costly. 1Chronicles 4.43 speaks of a time 300 years forward when 500 leftover Amalekites were finally put to death. Those Amalekites were Haman's family tree.
When Esther's story is told, Haman finds out she is a Jew and hatches a plot to destroy her race. Esther trusts that the Lord is with her for a time such as was before her. She prayed and fasted and then proceeded into the king's presence to plead for her people.
How could Haman's plan have affected Jews around the world? The Persian empire WAS most of the known world in that time. So when the edict gave permission to kill the Jews, that meant the Jews worldwide. Esther's courage was the difference in life and death. Since that day, Jews celebrate Purim (meaning casting lots or fate); Haman cast lots to decide which day to attack the Jews. Purim celebrates the woman who saved her people from extinction.
THE HOLOCAUST
Everyone knows about the genocide that removed 6 million Jews from the face of the earth. That number represented 75% of the 9 million Jews who lived in Europe at that time. Satan must have smiled to think how close he was to destroying God's chosen.
Here are some similarities between Esther's story and the Holocaust:
A. Haman and Hitler both led an effort to eradicate Jews and both came to a just end.
B. Haman had ten sons who all were hanged on the gallows.
During the Nuremberg trials, there were twelve associates of Hitler who received a death sentence. Martin Bormann was already dead and was being tried in absentia. Hermann Goring committed suicide the night before his execution. That left ten men to die by hanging.
C. Haman died, then ten men were hanged. The Jews survived. Hitler died, then ten men were hanged. The Jews survived.
D. One of the condemned Nazis (Julius Streicher) screamed "Purim Fest 1946!" before the noose was put around his neck.
E. The Talmud describes Haman's daughter as also having committed suicide. She would be the eleventh death in Haman's plot. Hermann Goring was said to be a transvestite. His suicide was the eleventh Nazi officer's death.
The Bible says that 75,000 Persians perished as a result of Haman's treachery. We know that perhaps as many as 17 million died at Hitler's hand (without even counting the Allied deaths). What sickening numbers. Satan does come to kill and destroy.
Esther was an orphan born into a conquered people who lived in a foreign land. Who could have guessed she would have ANY influence, let alone become the queen of the known world? Would she be flabbergasted to find that after 3,000 years, a movie was made of her life? There is no telling how many people have been emboldened over the years after reading of Esther's courage.
Satan has a history of interference, but the God we serve is a big God with a plan that will be accomplished. And at the end of the story, Satan goes to a fiery pit and all the world will celebrate the lack of enmity in the world.
Meanwhile, we remain alert for the hissing.
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