September 15 - Esther 5:1-10:3

Good morning everyone, 

Today we continue the story of Esther. You will remember Haman, a high ranking advisor to the king, in an effort to “get back” at Mordecai, Esther’s uncle, for not bowing down to him devised a plan to have all of the Jews in the land killed. Mordecai then told Esther she needs to go before King Xerxes and plead for the lives of her people, the Jews. Esther asked him to gather his friends and have them pray and fast for her for three days.

On the third day, and please use your mind’s eye, Esther puts on her finest clothes, and after accessing herself she walks the corridors of the palace to stand at the inner court, where the king has full view of her, awaiting her destiny. He sees her and was pleased. She’s thinking, “Whew, so far so good” and she asks the king to attend a banquet she has prepared and to bring Haman where it is her plan to expose him. However at the banquet she could not muster the courage to go through with it and instead asks the king and Haman to come back to another banquet the following day.

In the meantime the Lord is going to do some maneuvering of his own. The king will have a sleepless night and the king will call for the annals and while reading them discover they did not properly reward Mordecai for saving the king’s life. Then he’ll ask of Haman how he feels they should reward someone who has acted so heroically. While Haman’s chest is getting puffy thinking the king is talking about him, on the other side of the palace he is building a scaffold to have the very same Mordecai impaled.

At the second banquet Queen Esther does find the courage to expose Haman for the anti-semitest he is, which will ultimately see him impaled on the very gallows he had built. She will ask for and receive permission to send out a second order which will save the lives of the Jewish population and eliminate all of Haman’s sons who, no doubt, had that hatred fed into them. 

Racism is so wrong on so many levels and yet we still today see it everywhere we go. Some of it stems from soldiers who have come back from war holding an intense animosity in their heart for the particular ethnic group they were sent to capture or kill in an effort to maintain freedom. For some it is inbred in them from birth, we see a lot of this in the southern states where daddies and mommas teach their children the “colored” are different. While the truth is that the Jews are not a race, anyone in the world of any color, creed or race can become a Jew, fact is no discrimination can quite compare to the prejudice the Jews have faced from the beginning of time. Why? Maybe because satan searches out those who are easily influenced, promising them power if they would but attack and try to eliminate them. Maybe because they are God’s chosen, and a lot of people just plain don’t like God, as a Christian you and I can relate to that.

Jesus tells us though, to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Corrie Ten Boom tells a story of how after a lecture she had given on forgiving those who have wronged you, she came face to face with a former guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp where she and her sister had been sent. He had since the end of the war become a Christian and  knew he was forgiven by God but wanted to hear she had forgiven him. She wrestled with that for a moment, she knew that forgiveness is not an emotion but an act of the will, that we are commanded by God to forgive and yet ….. In Corrie’s words, “And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.“ ‘I forgive you, brother!’ I cried. ‘With all my heart!’ “For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely, as I did then” Was that amazing or what? I get shivers each time I read it.

Friends, we need to put aside any and all animosities we have for people we feel have wronged us. We must pray in ernest for them, forgive them remembering it is an act not an emotion and move forward. Yeah? Why not! In Mark we read, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Amen?

Have a good day and to God be the glory.

God bless you all …..