From: "Phil Rembleski" <PHIl@rescuechurchofchrist.org>
To: "1111RESCUEMEMBERS"
Sent: Mon, Aug 7, 2023 at 5:54 AM
Subject: 8-7-23 THOUGHTS
8-7-23 THOUGHTS
The story of the Jews given in Esther, is powerful reading. The evil Haman plots to destroy the Jews, but God turns his plans against him and saves the Jews. There are always those who would destroy the people of God. Esther finds herself in a pivotal position. Haman has connived an edict out of the king to get all Jews killed on a certain day. It is up to Esther to go to the King and try to intervene. She must risk her life, for law requires death to anyone who approaches the king uninvited! The king’s whim determines life or death. Two powerful statements are found in this reading. Verse 14b “And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?", and verse 16b “and if I perish, I perish.” Our thoughts are simple this morning. 1. Who knows whether you are here in this time and place for some great thing God wants to do? We assume smallness in our part in the scheme of things, but God can use any of us! 2. We all are at risk continually. Given a vital role by God, I would hope we would respond as Esther did! Then maybe, we should just give our lives for the current little place we live in? An old saying says “Between the great things we cannot do, and small things we will not do, the danger is that we do nothing!”
Esther 4:5-16 Then Esther summoned Hathach from the king’s eunuchs, whom the king had appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai [Queen Esther’s uncle] to learn what this was and why it was. 6 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? [ESV has “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom 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."
My Prayer:
O God, may we be useful to You! Help us to be good sheep. Help our lives to reflect our belief in the salvation that comes through Christ Jesus. May we live for You, and not us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.