The Bigger Picture

Esther 7:3-5 - Then Queen Esther answered, "If I have found favor with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life--this is my petition. And spare my people--this is my request.  For I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king. "  King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, "Who is he? Where is the man who has dared to do such a thing?"

 

Esther waited for just the right moment and gathered all her courage….to share with the king her serious plea for life.  She wasn’t just pleading for herself…but for her people…the Jews. She exposed the plot of Haman…and used the shock of the king to her favor. The king was so angry he left the room to go think in the garden…before he passed sentence on his high official and friend.

 

Haman was hanged on his own gallows and the people of Israel were saved through the brave request of Esther. God revealed his great plan to save his people …because a young girl did not give up when she became an orphan….or distress when her uncle became her foster parent….or worry when she was given to the king for his harem.

 

We could all look back at our lives this day…and see the many small things that have happened in our life as tragedies….they can be used to weld excuses and pity parties for doing nothing but complaining.  Or we can use the model Esther gave us to wait patiently through the storms God allows in our lives…and realize the purpose some years later.

 

God promised us strength for every situation in Philippians 4:13… “ For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need.”  He pours out his loving grace to all…just like it says in Ephesians 1:6 …. “ So we praise God for the wonderful kindness He has poured out on us because we belong to His dearly loved Son.” He has a plan for our lives that we just don’t see sometimes….but if we pray for his strength and direction…the plan will come together in his time.

 

Father…thank you for the sweet young girl Esther…who found her calling in life and allowed you to use her to save her people.  Help me to be ready and willing to endure the smaller hardships of life…in order for you to weld together a bigger plan for all.  Give me wisdom…and courage…and patience…to wait on you….till you are  ready to reveal your bigger plan. Amen.

Satan's Harm....Turns Into God's Good

Esther 6:1-3 -  That night the king could not sleep; so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him.  It was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's officers who guarded the doorway, who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. "What honor and recognition has Mordecai received for this?" the king asked. "Nothing has been done for him," his attendants answered.

 

One sleepless night…and a history book of everything that had happened in the king’s reign…brought the past good deed of a Jew to the king’s mind.  With an urgency to correct the fact that he had never been rewarded…he searched the heart of the proud Haman….without revealing who he wanted to honor. Next thing you know…Haman is leading around the king’s royal horse with his enemy Mordecai clad in a kings robe.  And if that was not enough ….Haman had to shout everywhere they went….that Mordecai was favored by the king.

 

It was no accident that the king could not sleep…or that the thought to read the historical book that would remind him of Mordecai’s good deed was planted in his brain. It was no accident that Haman’s proud…jealous heart entered the courtroom at just the right time. It was God’s big plan coming together to save his people...it was the creator who knows everything before we do…using what satan meant for harm…to bring about good.

 

God placed Esther in the Palace…let Mordecai be in the right place at the right time….allowed jealously and bitterness to develop in Haman…and twisted it exactly the way he needed to create the perfect example of poetic justice. Haman’s own pride and jealously locking the key to his death...and God showing his people once again that he is in control of the world we live in.

 

Haman’s fall is the perfect example of why pride should be kept in check at all times.  He thought that no one in the palace could have been loved and honored more than him…so he picked exactly what he wanted done to himself…because he thought he was all that.  Isaiah had already warned them in Isaiah 2:12….  “The LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled). Solomon had already written in Proverbs 16:5 … “The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.” But then Haman wasn’t a Jew…so he had never been taught this truth.

 

Many writers of the new testament scriptures give us even more proof of why we should guard our hearts from pride.  1 Corinthians 13:4 says… “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”  And James adds in James 4:13-16 … “ Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money."  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."  As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.” I peeked ahead again….and saw that Haman is going to die on his own gallows…proof that James words are true.

 

Father…thank you for this story that reminds me that you are in complete control of my life. Help me to guard against the evil words of boasting…and keep pride from my heart at all costs. Show me how to wait on your perfect timing…and allow your great plan to materialize and give me hope. Father…help me to use the time you have given me here on Earth to think more about others than I do myself…so I can find the work you have placed me here to do…and help increase the love you can show to others. Amen.

Overcome Bitterness With God's Love

Esther 5: 9 and 13-14 -   Haman went out that day happy and in high spirits. But when he saw Mordecai at the king's gate and observed that he neither rose nor showed fear in his presence, he was filled with rage against Mordecai…..

But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king's gate."  His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, "Have a gallows built, seventy-five feet high, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go with the king to the dinner and be happy." This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the gallows built.

 

Esther had used the courage she had gathered in prayer and fasting to enter the king’ inner court and request his presence at a great banquet in his honor.  She invited Haman as well…counting on his huge ego to guarantee his acceptance at a banquet that included him as the only Honored guest.

 

Esther’s invitation worked just as she had planned….then God threw a wonderful plus in the mix. He allowed Haman’s bitterness and anger toward Mordecai to increase as he passed by him mourning at the city gate on the way home. The resulting … ‘brag session’…and angry … ‘vent session’ to his family that night…multiplied his anger and bitterness toward Mordecai so much that he built a 75 foot gallows…and plotted to have Mordecai killed on it the next day.

 

I peeked ahead…and can tell you that the gallows is not used for Mordecai…but in an ironic twist that God uses to control the situation and save the Jews…Haman ends up hanging himself. Esther is remembered forever as one of the bravest women in the Bible…Mordecai is released from his mourning position…and God proves once again that man has absolutely no control over the world that he created…unless he allows it.

 

Haman’s bitterness and anger prevented him from enjoying the position he had been given by the king.  He had been elevated to a position second only to the king…but he let his hate of one man… steal the joy and blessing that he could have enjoyed. There are many scriptures throughout the Bible that warn of this possibility….like Hebrews 12:14-15 that says…. “ Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.  See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”

 

Bitterness and hate that is left uncontrolled…will only multiply and turn into more hate and bitterness.  Cain let his jealously multiply into a bitterness that killed his brother.  Joseph’s brothers let their anger develop into a plot to sell him into slavery. Moses let his anger get out of control and killed an Egyptian task-master.  Paul was so bitter toward the early Christians that he had many of them killed.  As long as these people allowed bitterness and anger to control their hearts…they were used as instruments of destruction by satan.

 

Jesus gave us the answer…and allowed Matthew to record his words to the leaders gathered around him …who had allowed their bitterness…jealously…and hate of Jesus to begin the plot to kill him as well. He said to them in Matthew 15:18-19 … “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”  God controlled that evil plot too…and used it to save an entire world…and show satan once and for all he had none of the power he thought he had to rule the world. 

 

Thank you father that you alone will have the last word. Thank you for this reminder that bitterness and hate are emotions that I should never harbor in my heart...so that satan can multiply them into something stronger…and evil….and destructive in my life.  Help me to be like Joseph…patient…letting love cover the hate and bitterness…allowing your love to overcome the hate.  Help me to follow the advice of Solomon…that he gave us in Proverbs 10:12…. “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.”  Amen.

You Were Created...For Such A Time As This

Esther 4:14-16 -  For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"  Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai:  "Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish."

 

Esther lived in the sheltered world of the Palace….no clue that a letter had been sent out demanding the destruction of all her relatives.  She got word that Mordecai was distressed….and tried to send him new clothes....to end his mourning…but he refused. He sent her messenger back instead with the grim news that awaited her people….and begged her to intercede to the king for their lives.

 

At first…Esther was as numb as Mordecai.  She was stuck between the rules of the Palace that stated she could be killed for even asking for time to speak with the king….and the sure death that awaited her if the king knew she was a Jew as well.  Memories of what had happened to queen Vashti must have flooded her heart…but as Mordecai reminded her that she was a Jew…and might be found out anyway…she began to summon strength from the believers around her that realized before she did that God had a plan…and had placed her in the Palace for….”such a time as this.”

 

Esther’s fear and worry was replaced with resolve to do what she could to help her people as she realized that life was not just about her. When Esther began to step outside of the …I need to protect me mode….she gathered the courage she needed from God…..in fasting and prayer…to do what had to be done. She resolved in that moment to allow God to control her destiny…instead of the world’s edicts…and faith took over where human reasoning had stopped.

 

Just as it is written in 1 Corinthians 2:5… “So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men (human philosophy), but in the power of God.” ….we must all begin to seek out what time we were born for.  God created all of us …for a specific purpose…and has placed us in just the right spot to do a mighty work for him.  I am not sure my priorities are in the right order to be able to accept my calling…and say with complete confidence….”if I perish…I perish…”

 

Father…thank you for the reminder this morning once again that the world does not revolve around me.  It revolves around your wonderful love…and the huge plan you set in place to save the world through the sacrifice your son made on that cross. Help me Lord to stop being so selfish…and begin to fast and pray for you to reveal my purpose…so I can begin to realize what time you created me for.  Give me the confidence…the courage…the faith….that powered Esther’s choice to allow you to be in complete control of her destiny.  Amen.

Courage To Stand Alone

Esther 3:1-2 -   After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles.  All the royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.

 

Haman was given a position 2^nd only to the king.  His position as Prime Minister of Persia gave him so much respect and honor from everyone…that they were required to bow in his presence. Everyone in Persia who even passed by him…kneeled and gave him honor…just as they would the king. But Mordecai refused to give anyone but Yahweh such a show of respect.

 

Haman was so angry he plotted to kill all the Jews.  His angry speech to the king told him all about the rules the Jews had concerning their God Jehovah….and he convinced the king that he should decree that all who refused to obey the king’s laws only would die. Haman’s letter of intent to kill all of the Jews in just one year if they did not comply with this demand caused widespread panic.

 

Mordecai found strength and courage to take a stand for God alone.  His refusal to bow to the king kept him from breaking the covenant he had made with God. Mordecai knew in his heart…what Matthew and Luke both recorded in Luke 16:13 and Matthew 6:24 ….it says… “No man is able to be a servant to two masters: for he will have hate for the one and love for the other, or he will keep to one and have no respect for the other. You may not be servants of God and of wealth.”

 

I am sure that Mordecai also had hidden the command of God from the laws of Moses in his heart.  They were used by Jesus to send satan packing during his temptation in the wilderness.  Luke 4:8 records the words spoken to satan… “ Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.' "

 

Those same words should be hidden in our hearts today…stored for such a time that we might need to take a stand for God.  Many of Jesus’ disciples…Stephen…Andrew…Simon the zealot…died horrific deaths taking bold stands for Christ. …just like the young girl who boldly declared her love for God just before she was gunned down in Columbine High School’s cafeteria.

 

Father…give me the courage to stand alone if need be to proclaim that I love you alone. Let my love for you surpass the human weakness to give in to the world’s ways…and give me courage and strength instead to do your work….and speak your truths…even if it means death.  Help me to remember in my heart the words of Paul he wrote in Phillipians 1:20-21 - …” I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Amen.

Orphan To Queen

Esther 2:7-8 -  Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This girl, who was also known as Esther, was lovely in form and features, and Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.  When the king's order and edict had been proclaimed, many girls were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king's palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem.

 

An orphan girl…taken in by a cousin…favored by God to be lovely in form and features…so much that she captures the king’s heart when it is her turn to be taken to the king’s bedroom. He is so taken with Esther that she is made queen…elevated above the common concubines in the harem. The king loved her more than any other in his harem.

 

Esther’s beauty began deep down in her heart…that must have ached from all she had been through. Losing both her parents…raised by an uncle….shipped off to be part of a huge harem… somehow Esther managed to stay positive and drew favor from everyone she met….her uncle Mordecai…the eunuch Hegai…and the king.  Perhaps it was Esther Paul was inspired by …when he wrote Galatians 6:9… “ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

 

I am reminded often that God uses small events...linked together in a chain that seems to have no commonalities….to weld together a perfect end result.  Like a huge food web...the chain begins to overlap the lives of others till God has put together the perfect plan for our life…in a most unpredictable way.  We simply will never see the end of this perfect plan for our lives if we give up after the first event doesn’t come down the way our human brain thought it should.  We will never move forward into the next overlapping event…if we get stuck in the pain of the first.

 

I can’t help but think of my favorite verse…Jeremiah 29:11….and how it asks us to keep faith in the big picture that only God sees to the very end.  Only God knows the plans he has for us…and he promises only that the end result is to prosper us.  Esther held on to that promise …and knew in her heart that her  future was controlled by a loving God…who had a bigger plan than what her broken heart could conceive at the time. The knowledge that God would never harm her….gave her strength to endure all that life threw her way.

 

Father…give me the mind-set of Esther.  Make me strong….with a knowledge of you so firmly planted in my heart that I know ...that I know…that I know…somewhere in my future you have plans to prosper me. Show me how to be positive and withstand the hurts that come as the bigger picture of my life unfolds.  Help me to be used…like Esther…to help others.  Help me to be positive…ever moving forward to the next part of your plan.   Amen.

Love Leads To Mutual Respect

Esther 1:10-12 -  On the seventh day, when King Xerxes was in high spirits from wine, he commanded the seven eunuchs who served him--Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar and Carcas--  to bring before him Queen Vashti, wearing her royal crown, in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles, for she was lovely to look at.  But when the attendants delivered the king's command, Queen Vashti refused to come. Then the king became furious and burned with anger.

 

The king had been celebrating…for days.  All of his high officials….army officers….aides had come to help him show off to the world how wealthy and important he was….for an entire month. The last few days of the party… the king opened his celebration to the servants in his own palace…becoming so drunk he sent for the queen…to show off her beauty.

 

The queen refused to come…and the king burning with anger sought the wisdom of his circle of advisors. He took their advice… to put away this woman …who dared disobey the king…so the entire kingdom of women would not start acting like her. Queen Vashti banned forever from the kingdom…accompanied by a letter of decree…that she was never to be in his presence again.

 

It’s a sad story…of what happens in a relationship when there is no mutual respect.  The king thought he could control the queen.  Maybe the excessive wine he had partaken of gave him a false sense of control…but he went just a little too far in the queen’s eyes…and she refused to be a spectacle of beauty for his drunken pleasure. Her disobedience cost her a home in the palace….banned forever….because she stood up for herself.

 

It reminds me that a marriage blessed by God will have so much love that this scenario would never happen.  Titus 2:11-12 says… “ For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.  It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,” It teaches us to always allow God to control our actions….so that we never compromise the character of the one he has helped us choose as a helpmeet.

 

Perhaps if Paul had already written chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians….king Xerxes would have understood that a marriage should be based on love…not how many beautiful women he could collect in his harem. Verses 4-7 sum up the wishes of God for all marriages… be kind…be patient….do not boast or be proud…seek the other first…and keep no record of wrongs…or let anger overcome your demeanor. Rejoice with all things good and true….believe in each other…trust…hope and never give up on the promise you made to each other. And Paul did not limit these directions to our marriage relationships. We should have mutual respect for everyone we know.

 

Father…thank you for this reminder that love is not a possession…but a gift that helps us release the selfishness in our hearts.  Help me to cling to the wise words of Paul…and love in its true sense…the way you loved me so much that you sent your son to die for my sins. Show me how to love all the people you place in my path…so they can know your unconditional love.  Amen.