From: "Phil Rembleski" <PHIl@rescuechurchofchrist.org>
To: "1111RESCUEMEMBERS"
Sent: Mon, Nov 22, 2021 at 5:49 AM
Subject: 11-22-21 THOUGHTS
11-22-21 THOUGHTS
The story given in the book of Esther is fascinating. Set in the mid 400's BC, rules and customs were different then for a despot king had all power. No one came to the king without an invitation. Approaching King Ahasuerus uninvited could bring death. Even the queen lived by that rule. The wicked and powerful Haman had orchestrated the annihilation of the Jews. He got a decree to accomplish this. The prominent Jew Mordeccai appeals to Jewish Queen Esther to intervene. It could mean her death? There are a few powerful lessons embedded below.
Esther 2:7 He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had no father or mother. Now the young lady was beautiful of form and face, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.
Esther 4:6-16 So Hathach went out to Mordecai to the city square in front of the king’s gate. 7 Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. 8 He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict which had been issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show Esther and inform her, and to order her to go in to the king to implore his favor and to plead with him for her people. 9 Hathach came back and related Mordecai’s words to Esther.
10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach and ordered him to reply to Mordecai: 11 "All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that for any man or woman who comes to the king to the inner court who is not summoned, he has but one law, that he be put to death, unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter so that he may live. And I have not been summoned to come to the king for these thirty days." 12 They related Esther’s words to Mordecai. 13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, "Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews. 14 "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?"
15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, 16 "Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish."
2Pet 1:3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
Php 2:13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for [His] good pleasure.
My Prayer:
Father, help us to see our place as you let us live. May we look for places and times to serve. Help us to see possibility in our own lives. Help us to rise to any occasion you may place before us. Work in us and through us O Lord. May we know it is your power and not ours that matters. In the name of Jesus Amen