Esther 3:8
"There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws, so that it is not to the king's profit to tolerate them."
Don't be surprised when the church of Jesus Christ becomes the "whipping boy."
It has always been so.
A man named Bradley Fowler filed a $70 million lawsuit against Bible publishers Zondervan and Thomas Nelson, alleging their printed Bibles which refer to homosexuality as a sin violate his constitutional rights and has caused him emotional distress.
This particular suit won't earn him a penny, but it gained him publicity while adding another smear against the Word of God. The publishers of these Bibles needed to divert attention and resources to answer the lawsuit which wasn't just frivolous. It is abusive and insulting—the very things Mr. Fowler claims have wounded him.
He is simply in the mold of Haman, the whining, hateful, prejudiced bureaucrat in the Persian court of King Ahasuerus who wanted government to eradicate God's people, who dreamed of a day when God could be expunged altogether and we could live lives without those intolerable believers who mourn their sins and bow in gratitude to their Savior.
Haman was right insofar as he knew the laws of the Jews were "different" from those of every other people. That's because they were God's laws. Haman was right that the church is insufferable as far as the sinful world goes. Who wants a Christian standing up and calling for repentance or a prayer being said if it’s going to offend someone!
The belittling of Christian faith and values today which is grist for every sort of comic club gag comes right out of the fact that ungodly people know very well their choices and standards challenge what Scripture upholds as righteous. Just go to the TV these days and notice how "s___" and "f___" and "d___" are edited by some audio technician to conform to ever-thinning FCC rules, but the use of "Jesus Christ" as an expletive sails right on.
Give even a hint of criticism of Muslim theology and the universities and cultural extremists become aghast. Say one word against the activist gay agenda and Christians are denounced not only as unloving and small-minded but as downright dangerous.
"It is not to the king's profit to tolerate them."
We don't have to document the outrageous imbalance against the Christian faith. What good does it do to want to be treated fairly? Our victories do not lie in the law but in the Gospel. Our survival won't come by out-dueling the godless or praying for an even playing field. Our endurance even into eternity is because of Jesus Christ and what He has done.
History has terrible examples of times when some in the church thought they could force the faith on people the way the world tries to push its indecency on us. The Crusades, the Inquisition, the lawsuits to force hanging the Ten Commandments, all get away from the real power of God.
The power of God is in the affliction of the cross. It is the Suffering Servant of whom Isaiah writes who entered this fallen world, bore its slings and arrows, felt the cruelty and insults of spiteful laughter, had His name dragged through the mud, and was crucified because it was thought inconvenient and contrary to the king's—and everyone else's—profit to tolerate him.
Did Jesus counter-sue? Did he call for arms? Did he holler for his rights?
The Bible says, "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed."
The wounds Christians receive today through the mockery of our culture, the contempt from progressives, and the wholesale annulment of virtue is nothing new. Today the shacking up, the greedy, the foul-mouthed, the sexual exhibitions, and the institutional log jamming against Christ will continue.
But it won't prevail.
Why?
Because the Lord Jesus Christ, God's atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world, chose to do what was not to His profit. He chose not to tolerate the slurs and contempt heaped upon Him.
Instead, He chose to own them!
He chose to take responsibility for Haman's sin, Judas' betrayal, David's murder of Uriah, Peter's denial, Sarah's laughter, Elijah's complaining, Noah's drunkenness, Herod's immorality, Jonah's refusal, Pilate's flimsiness, Abraham's dishonesty, along with all your sinful follies and mine.
He became more than just "a whipping boy." He was declared to be the Sin of the world. He paid for it with his faultless life crucified on a cross.
So, next time you smart because you hear another slur against your Savior or feel maltreated because someone takes a shot at you … next time you think yourself "put upon" because living like a Christian isn't really the fun so many churches try to sell it as these days, and our church is a pain to keep supporting and a bother to keep motivating, remember (as Haman observed) that there is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed whose laws and ways are different.
There sure is. And you are among them. You are different. You are not profitable or tolerable.
But you are a Christian, aren't you?
Thank God.