Esther - The Cause of Liberty

"And the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." [2Co 3:17]

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free ...” Emma Lazarus

Is there anything sweeter than liberty? Does not every soul yearn for freedom?
One lesson of the book of Esther is that liberty exists in exact proportion to the extent to which Father restrains Haman (our Adamic nature, self, the flesh). Freedom is ENTIRELY and ONLY the product of Jesus' Life in the individual.
In Father's absence, Ahasueras chooses Haman. This is ALWAYS the case and it cannot be otherwise. Only as Haman is exposed AND restrained can the king make the right choice. Even though this is true, for now, we still sometimes choose Haman (to our own chagrin [Rom 7:9]). Father will ultimately remedy this for Esther teaches us that all of Haman's sons and all of the enemies of the Jews were completely defeated.
It is only through the agency of the Holy Spirit that self is exposed and restrained. This earnest of our future Hope points to a time when each will be entirely free from his sinful nature. We will one day live in the freedom found only in Christ.
This has profound implications for interpreting history and the world around us. Indeed, it will radically alter how we see even ourselves.
*Edmund Bourke was incorrect in believing that "men of intemperate minds cannot be free ...” He could not see that man is incapable of imposing "moral chains upon his own appetites". Indeed, man's fetters forge his passions. It is, in fact, men who have been made free that are made temperate of mind, whose appetites are chained. Rather than being the result of man's effort, liberty is the fruit of Father's work.
Some might label this manipulation. The truth is that Father is teaching in the only way we can learn without being destroyed. And Haman is certainly opposed to the outcome. There is only One who is capable of restraining evil. Our behavior is dictated by the relative amount of restraint imposed upon the flesh and the degree to which Father has finished His work in us. Father is thus illustrating to each, individually, and to all collectively, the fruit of the tyranny of self and its remedy.
The believer's life in Christ is a demonstration of Father's restraint of the flesh. Though far from complete, it is an earnest of what lies before us. Paul tells us the primary purpose of this demonstration...

"This grace is given to me (who am less than the least of all saints) to preach the gospel of the unsearchable riches of Christ among the nations, and to bring to light what is the fellowship of the mystery which from eternity has been hidden in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ; so that now to the rulers and powers in the heavenlies might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord; ..." [Eph 3:8-11]

In the Ecclesia, Father is providing for Himself a witness, a living testimony, of the purpose that has been hidden for most of mankind's history. Personal demonstrations of the tyranny of self exposed and eradicated. This is Father's great wisdom in providing for each and for all the only Life that is life, which will be received wholeheartedly by all at their appointed time. For we are His workmanship, as clay to the Potter.
One might ask 'does this apply to nations?’ The liberties which have been enjoyed here in the US were unprecedented in history. This nation was once the beacon of freedom to the rest of the world. In this there is the demonstration of what we have been discussing.
Those liberties were the product of the restraint of the flesh on an unprecedented scale. They were a priceless demonstration, a brief glimpse, of what Father has in store for His children. Our Constitution, rather than being the cause of freedom, was the result, the product, of minds that had been set free (to a degree). As we witness the loss of those precious liberties it is evidence that Father has been loosening those restraints. The explosion of regulations and proliferation of laws is a bellwether (addressing attendant behavioral issues) of same. As the individual goes, so goes the nation.
Liberty then is the direct result of Father's presence restraining the flesh. It is the end result of the process of Father gifting an individual with His Spirit which exposes and restrains self (Haman). This is the only true liberty and it is not dependent upon civil, political or physical circumstances. This will also be the heritage of all men - for this is Father's will. Father is the cause of Liberty!

*Edmund Burke (1729-1797) was an Irish Statesman. The above quotes are from a Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791). The section from which they derive is quoted in full below. (In the light of the discussion above, what Mr. Burke saw as cause was actually effect.)

"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites, — in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity, — in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption, — in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters."