By Michael E. Brooks

"And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last" (Luke 13:30).

The reversal of fortunes through Divine intervention is a frequent theme of the teachings of Jesus and of the writers of the New Testament. "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 16:25). "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up" (James 4:10). Yet perhaps no text in Scripture teaches this doctrine more emphatically than the Old Testament book of Esther. One might say it is the plot of the entire book.

In the story of Esther, Haman, the second most powerful man in the kingdom of Persia, becomes very angry with Mordecai, a Jew and minor official in the King's court. He determines to kill Mordecai and all his kinsmen, that is, all the Jews. Through various twists in the succeeding events, their roles are exchanged and their fates reversed. Haman is hanged on a gallows he had built for Mordecai's execution. The Jews defeat their enemies, and Mordecai receives Haman's wealth and his position of power in the kingdom.

An interesting feature of the book of Esther is that it is made apparent throughout the book that these outcomes are the result of Divine intervention and that providence is supervising the events, without ever once mentioning God or the subjects of faith or religion. One can only speculate as to why the author avoids explicit mention of these things, but the omission is glaring.

We often seem to feel that only direct, even offensive, displays of our faith are adequate to make us "worthy" of the name Christian. Certainly I would want to say nothing to discourage boldness in preaching and living the Gospel. Courageous, public proclamation is often demanded by circumstance. But is there not also a place for quiet, confident reliance upon the power of righteous living? The existence, power, and love of God for his people is, it seems to me, quite evident in Esther. The fact that his name doesn't appear in the book in no way disqualifies it as a story of faith. So it is that sometimes our lives may proclaim the gospel without spoken words, and especially without ostentatious display. I am reminded of Peter's advice to Christian wives of unbelieving husbands:

"Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear (1 Peter 3:1,2).

Christians today are threatened with loss of freedoms to express their religion publicly, even in democracies. They lack those freedoms altogether in many other places. We certainly champion the exercise and retention of religious freedom, but where it is lacking, or if it is lost, there is still ample opportunity to profess our faith by the lives we live. Our message is powerful. Means of sharing it are many. Let us be always open to different and effective ways to bring glory to God and to lead others to faith in Jesus.

by Kevin Cauley

If you grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons in the 1970's, then you are familiar with the above title. Schoolhouse Rock was a popular Saturday morning "filler" between cartoon times that educated children on various school subjects: history, law, mathematics, grammar, and other subjects. One of my favorites was "Conjunction Junction." This particular educational experience discussed the ins and outs of the English conjunctions: "and," "or," and "but." These three conjunctions play a critical role in our language and they are all important, but many do not understand the importance of the word "and."

In the Greek language, the two most common words that may be translated "and" are "KAI" and "DE." Of the two words, "KAI" is the stronger conjunction. It signifies a strong logical connection, whereas "DE" is a weaker conjunction signifying more or less association and being adversative in nature. For example, in that long run of genealogy in Matthew 1:1-16 most of the "ands" in that passage are from the Greek word "DE." In that same passage, "KAI" is used, but only when speaking of additional siblings begotten to the same father. For an example, look at Matthew 1:2. "And (DE) Abraham begat Isaac; and (DE) Isaac begat Jacob; and (DE) Jacob begat Judah and (KAI) his brethren." The weak conjunction that is more or less grammatical association is represented by "DE," but the strong logical conjunction is represented by "KAI."

The logical force of the word "KAI" is to be understood as addition or supplement. A.T. Robertson says regarding the meaning of "KAI," "The idea would then be 'together with,' 'in addition to.'" (Grammar, p.1180). Thus one understands when seeing the word "KAI" that the two things conjoined are grammatically copulated. Grammatically, if they are joined together by "KAI," they are an inseparable pair. "KAI" is only listed in Robertson's grammar as a "copulative" conjunction, whereas "DE" is listed as both "copulative" and "adversative." (Grammar, p.lxi) "KAI's" business is to conjoin.

Now, the conjunction "KAI" may join nouns, verbs, phrases, clauses and sentences and when it does, we must pay attention to all parts of the conjunction. One such example may be found in Mark 16:16a. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." In English we have a simple sentence with a relative clause that describes who is saved, namely, those who believe and are baptized. In Greek however, the situation is different. The subject of the sentence is the conjunction of two aorist participles, PISTEUSAS and BAPTISQEIS. Translated into English we have: "the-one-who-believes-and-is-baptized." To this subject is amended the predicate, "shall be saved." Because these two participles are joined together with the Greek conjunction "KAI" we know that the action of the verb applies equally to the one subject, namely, "the-believing-and-baptized-one." What is that action? Such a subject "shall be saved." The subject is not just the one who believes but is not baptized. The subject is not just the one who is baptized without believing. The subject is the one who has both believed and been baptized. That subject is the only subject to which the predicate "shall be saved" applies. This must be true because of the strong connection in the Greek conjunction "KAI."

What's the function of the Greek conjunction "KAI"? It is to join strongly together different grammatical elements. When "KAI" is used, we understand those elements to be grammatically conjoined to one another in the sentence.