October 10, 2024: Thursday Old Testament Bible Study - Esther 5:1-14
Dear friends in Christ,
I am so thankful to live in the heat of the Sonoran Desert, even when it has prevented us from enjoying my favorite time of the year, autumn in Tucson. We are free to pray for the needs of others whose homes, businesses, and family are deeply affected by hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and more. Thank you, LORD, for the beauty of the desert, and even more for the stability of its weather. Today please pray for the victims of hurricanes Helene and Milton. The needs will be great. We can help out by going to ELCA.org and giving gifts through the disaster relief fund. This is the place where the largest percentage of your gift will actually get to its intended recipient.
Please keep Nancy in your prayers. She suffered a fall breaking the bone around her eye. Pray for healing and strengthening of her body. Please continue your prayers for Kandice and Lisa in Hawaii, along with Alexis who is working so hard to take the pressure off their family group by working three jobs. Pray for Jeff who is also battling very hard to treat cancer. Give thanks that Robert is beginning to sense that he is recovering from an infection. Continue praying for healing for him too.
Today we finally see Esther wielding the power of a beautiful new queen in the king's court. She may not have much administrative pull, but, as you will see, she knows how to get her way, though not without some danger and risk. This has always been true for those whose lives are an unlucky entrapment because of the power of those people who are around them in their lives. Haman was one of the people who was ready to have all of the Jews destroyed. He even devised a plan to do so. He may have been the first person to lead an attempt to kill God's elect. However, Esther is going to be a real thorn in Haman's side. Esther, though named a queen, is in every respect a slave of the king, the nation, and its lack of morals. But she is shrewd, and willing to use the means with which she has been blessed. Even though in the community Haman thinks that he has every good reason to believe that He will come out of this plan to destroy Mordecai’s and Esther's people, the Judahites. Even when he seems to have a wonderful day that is packed with the possibilities of success and the favor of the king, he can never seem to get past Mordecai's failure to show Haman deference and respect.
In fact, it seems to just really grind at Haman's entire life. It may be the first time of such destructive thinking about the Jews, but as we know from history that there will be a number of attempts to eradicate the Jews from the face of the earth, the one in WWII, and yet another on the part of Iraq, Hamas, and Hezbollah in Lebanon are current events in our lives. As we know, Israel has acted quickly to stomp out any organization that has proposed its destruction, and along with it, tens of thousands of civilian victims, all in the name of self-defense. I would like to suggest that there really is no Esther in our modern warfare in the Middle East. There is a great deal of revenge, hatred, and value loss of human life for those who engage in the current war. No one seems to be innocent of this vendetta God's people carry against one another. It is about the perceived "ownership" of the promised land, and who should be its rightful landowners. It is this very reality with which Esther is faced. With what little power she has, she must now use to manipulate the situation. The players in her plan are Xerxes, Haman, Mordecai, and Esther, and by the blessing of her beauty, Esther will wield the revenge that is on her heart. (Please continue to understand that God is never mentioned in this little O.T. book, but there was never any doubt that He is present, and working through Esther's difficulties, in her cunning, and completion of her plan.) Note that Esther is following the mores and practices of an important invitation to a king to come to her dinner, but she is using it as a premise for introducing her plan in gradual steps. Eat first, ask your request of the king last. And Esther should never use the king's rash promise of half of His kingdom. This statement is a sign that the king is becoming much more pliant. Perhaps it is the intrigue of not knowing what exactly Esther will ask for. And for Esther it is a question of what is too big to ask for, and what is so small and easy for this man king. Esther is appealing to the king's vanity and curiosity with this invitation for just the king and Haman to attend. After repeated month long feasts and drunken orgies in the palace, this is something very new and different for the king, and even more for Haman. On the surface it would seem to be a real compliment and honor for Esther to do this for the king, especially after the earlier queen's refusal to be present at his command for her to do so. Next time, we get to see how this all turns out, will the king punish Esther because her request is too bold, will Haman get what he wants most in his life at this time which is to get even with Mordecai for all of the snubs Haman received at the gate to the palace, or will Esther succeed?
Next Thursday, good people. With the love of Christ, the living Word of God, Pastor Kim
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