October 31, 2024: Thursday Old Testament Bible Study - Esther 6:12-8:2
May the blessings of the Saints in Light brighten your day, and light your life's pathway of faith.
In our daily life we are not very different from the Book of Esther. We go through our lives often not thinking of the myriads of blessings and gifts that those who believe in Jesus Christ receive every day, and the power of the Spirit's inbreaking guidance and care which also comes to us every day. Though we may not always think about God, He is not far away from us but is constantly hoping that we will reach out to Him in prayer, thanksgiving, and love.
In our prayers let us remember Annette who had knee replacement last week. Pray for good progress in her healing. Pray for me too please. I have had a health issue come up this week, and I’m waiting for the doctor's action which should come sometime today. It should be in the form of a prescription. Keep Kandice and Jeff in your prayers too, as they both suffer from cancer which cannot be cured with today's advances in cancer care. Pray for peace in our world too. Pray for the war in the Middle East, which seems to be growing in size, and especially for the people of the nations involved who all become the victims of this war, and especially for the people trying to survive in the Gaza strip, now with greatly diminished supplies of aid being allowed to reach them, and for the people of the Ukraine and Russia as the Ukrainian people fight for their democracy and land to survive. And, closer to home, let us pray for this election time in our nation, that we all might have a greater sense of Christ's Peace in our lives, as we seek to be the democracy light for the world, and to have the result of this election be that our government will be sensitive to the needs of all of the people in our nation.
On to our study today which covers a large section of the book of Esther 6:12 - 8:2. In our passage for today we see the culmination of Esther's work to undue the murderous hatred that Haman has for the Jews, and others who live in Xerxes' kingdom. Haman has become so infuriated with Mordecai, that he has devoted his wealth, and even his devotion to the king as a means to destroy Mordecai and his people, the Judahites. In this passage we have come to know that Esther has a great deal of "pull" with Xerxes. It is interesting that her wishes get granted by the king on the day of the wine banquet, which is the second day of this grand party which Esther is throwing. We might just as well say it plainly, the king is probably not all that completely together on this day of heavy drinking. Remember, Xerxes likes a good 6-month long party. Haman plotted to kill Mordecai, and instead, he becomes the victim of his own anger and hatred. In the Gospel, in the garden on that last night before His crucifixion, Jesus tells Peter that the person who lives by violence, in all likely hood will die by it themselves. One of the important things that we know is happening, but we have yet to hear this important thing take shape in the narrative of this Scripture, is any mention of God. But even Haman's advisors and counselors, as well as his family, tell Haman that he should have known better than to take on the Judahites, because they always seem to come out on top, no matter how difficult the current crises are in the lives of their people. Is it any wonder that in the intervening centuries that many hateful and scapegoating violent leaders have tried to destroy the Judahites without success? Even in Rome, the Judahites were blamed for the Caesar's financial issues, or the one most familiar to us is the German leader Hitler who attempted to obliterate the Jews from the face of the earth, hoping to blame them for the financial crisis that the whole world was facing after the Great Depression of the 1930's. Of course there is also the story of Moses, and the release of the Hebrews by the 7 plagues which God sends down, and which is commemorated in the Passover. Time and again, when the crises had become unbearable, God steps in to bring His Salvation to that situation. The very same truth is here in Esther, but with no mention of the benefactor of this victory for His children. There is irony here too. Now Mordecai will become the master of Haman's home, property, and family, and that huge hanging scaffold that Haman planned to hang Mordecai from, now is the means for Haman's own death. I hope that in your everyday lives, that you are able to see the hand of God all around you too, because His Hand is always, in with, and around you!
Next Thursday we will move on to the next reading from Esther that speaks to the issues which surround using self-defense to protect the ones we love and ourselves too.
With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim
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