A Beauty, A Beast, and the Right to Bear Arms
Governor Nikki Hayley (SC) recently backed a bill that would allow ‘Constitutional Carry’ of guns… and all God-fearing, Constitution-loving Americans rejoiced!
No doubt about it. We (Americans) certainly do LOVE celebrating our right to bear arms!
Surprisingly, the very first Second Amendment celebration may have actually taken place in the Bible’s Book of Esther.
Many of us are pretty familiar with Queen Esther’s story—Although God’s name is not even mentioned in the book, we can see His influence and character demonstrated throughout the entire tale. Esther, a lovely orphaned Jewish girl rises by divine intervention to become the queen of Persia. In spite of great personal risk, Esther and her cousin Mordecai become God’s agents for saving the Jewish people. “[F]or such a time as this” is the key verse (Esther 4:14) that we all know and love so much. After all, God had a plan for placing this unlikely Jewish girl in her unique royal position… the same way He has a unique plan for each one of us.
Naturally, every good tale has to have an evil villain. In this story, we see that Queen Esther’s wicked villain is actually her husband’s close associate, Haman. Haman hates the Jews (the queen’s own people) and is hell-bent on annihilating every single last one of them. So, he deceives the king into implementing a law (throughout the entire land) that requires every Jewish man, woman, and child to be killed and destroyed. Needless to say, there is nothing the Jewish people can do to stop their own destruction. And, since this law is sealed with the king’s own signet ring, it cannot be altered in any way, not even by the king himself.
Although the royal couple does discover Haman’s evil plot (and has him hanged for his evildoing), they still can’t change his wicked edict. However, the king gives honor and privilege to Esther and her cousin Mordecai – granting them the authority to decree that the Jewish people have the right to defend themselves against their enemies.
As told in Esther 8:11:
“… the king permitted the Jews who were in every city to gather together and protect their lives—to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province that would assault them, both little children and women, and to plunder their possessions.”
In this story, the solution isn’t that they can do anything about Haman’s wicked law– because the law still stands. The solution is that the Jews are granted the right to protect themselves. Of course, I’m sure they didn’t have AR 15’s, AK 47’s or 9mm’s back then. But still, we get the point here.
And, that’s exactly what the Jewish people did—they defended themselves against those who set out to destroy them. They overpowered and defeated all the armies that had come to annihilate them.
Pastor Ron Dozler at Calvary Chapel in Myrtle Beach, SC explains:
“There is a reason God has placed in us this drive to survive. I don’t know where anyone got this idea in the Christian church that we just lie down and let a government overtake us or a people overtake us. They tend to think of that what Jesus said, “If someone strikes you, turn the other cheek.” That’s totally taken out of context. God doesn’t say that you shouldn’t protect yourself. Do you think as a father you should allow someone to break into your home and harm your children? Absolutely not. It’s ‘go time,’ isn’t it as a dad?”
In the story of Esther, God is working behind the scenes. However, He isn’t allowing them to take the ‘easy way out’ by having Haman’s wicked law simply removed or revoked. Instead, with the help of Esther and Mordecai, God is allowing the Jewish people the freedom to stand up and fight for their lives and the lives of their families. He’s also allowing them to also be active participants in this very story.
Pastor Ron Dozler also says, “For a government to tell the Jews that they can pick up a weapon and defend themselves, that had never happened before.”
This may have been the very first time in recorded history that the idea of the Second Amendment was established by a written decree.
From Esther 8:17, “And in every province in city, wherever the king’s command and decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a holiday.” When the Jewish people heard the news, they rejoiced. That’s right–they were celebrating their right to bear arms.
I just think this story is rather cool because, like these Jewish people, we (Americans) also rejoice at our own ability to protect ourselves. Our right to bear arms is one of the reasons why our country is so exceptional. Very few nations have this ability. I don’t ever want to take this freedom for granted.
Pastor Ron Dozler also asks, “What would be the difference today… if in World War II, the Jews had the ability to protect themselves?”
One of the first things Hitler did when he came into power was to seize weapons (especially from the Jews). In fact, one of the first things all well-known tyrannical dictators did when they came into power was to confiscate weapons from their citizens. They did this so that the people could not defend themselves.
In fact, just recently, a World War II survivor, Katie Worthman, told a group of Americans NOT to give up their guns like they did in World War II. She declared, “Keep your guns. Keep your guns and buy MORE guns!”
Worthman encouraged the crowd to keep their weapons so that they would be able to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. She also pointed out that gun confiscation in her home country of Austria actually began with what everyone thought was a little “harmless” gun registry. Then, she explained that once the guns were registered, the government started confiscating them from the people. You can listen to her story here:
So, it’s no wonder all Second Amendment-loving Americans cheered when they recently heard that only a fraction of Connecticut gun owners actually obeyed a state directive to come forward, declare their weapons, and register them with the government. Connecticut gun owners delivered a message to politicians, “No, we won’t!”
George Santayana once stated, “Those who cannot remember the past are destined to repeat it.”
We can certainly learn a little history from Queen Esther AND Katie Worthman. Like Haman and Hitler, government can often be the very beast from which we need protection.
