Esther 7 - Careful Which Way You Lean

“Impale him on it!” (7:10 NIV)  Haman is to be executed on the pole he had set up for Mordecai.  For all his scheming, it all backfired on him.  Mordecai will not die.  Haman, who sought Mordecai's life, will.  The saying "what goes around, comes around" is surely true for Haman.

Let us seek good for our neighbor and pray for our enemy.  In the end, not devising harm against those whom we are jealous of or angry with, may be most beneficial to us.  "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." (Matt 7:12)
When my children were young, I would often remind them that a good reason for following this golden rule is that so often what we do to others, will be done to us.  In most cases, we will be treated as we treat others.  If we are ugly to others, they will be ugly back.  If we are generous and kind, we will receive like treatment.  And... if we plot to build ourselves up, by destroying them, we will probably fall. 

Which reminds me, I watched the movie, the "Lorax" with the grandkids the other day.  The Lorax asks (hopefully I remember it correctly):  "Which way does a tree fall?” And... the answer:  "A tree falls the way it leans.  Be careful which way you lean." 

May God help us to not lean too far to either the right or left.  But, help us to stand upright, withstanding many winds of temptation.

God's Peace - Pr. J

P.S.  Looks like I have figured out how to post blogs in advance of them actually posting for you to read.  This is going to work! Yeah! I can take a few days off from the internet to go kayaking, without regret!

 

Esther 6 - More Ego!

Haman's ego really busted him, now!  That gallows he put up for Mordecai doesn't look like it's going to be used.   Instead, Haman is going to make sure that Mordecai is honored.  This Jew is certainly going to be Haman's undoing.  All does not go well for thoe man who would persecute the people of God.  Playing games with God's people, I'm think is probably something we should all try to avoid.

I am going to try to do some manipulating of my own.  My granddaughter, Cassie, and I are leaving tomorrow to spend a few days kayaking and camping before school starts.  Here's the problem:  I've committed to reading one or two chapters and writing a blog daily so that those who are reading the Bible from cover to cover will not have any interruptions and there is no internet on Lake Superior!  So I will write them in advance and try to schedule them so they don't show up 'till the day...

God's Peace - Pr. J



 

Esther 4 - Nothing New Under the Sun - Money Buys Just About Anything?

Has anything changed under the sun?  "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago." Eccl 1:9-10

Mordecai's life is in danger.  Esther's life is in danger.  The death of all Jews is imminent.  Their deaths have been secured with payment to the king's treasury by Haman. Esther, although the wife of King Xerxes, finds it out, not from her husband, but from Mordecai. And... yet, she is reluctant to go to the king to intercede for her people.  The king is not aware, yet, that she is a Jew and what is more anyone who enters (including the queen) the presence of the king without being called is in danger of being put to death.  I think maybe she thinks that somehow she will be immune from the destruction that has been decreed upon all Jews.  She's got a pretty good chance of dying either way.  When she finally agrees, she asks that all her people, all of the Jews, spend the next three day fasting.

The payment is my concern this morning.  Has anything changed under the sun? Money has been known for changing the way we live for the good or bad.  How much money is spent in manipulating (lobbying) for specific interests that in the end changes our lifestyles and sometimes to the degree that it has killed a lifestyle?  Since, we just finished with a week of confirmation classes, the commandments "thou shall not kill" and "thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor" come to mind.  How much money is spent on false advertising to undermine opponents.  And in the end, how much of this bearing false witness actually affects the lives of both the candidates and constituates?  How many spirits are weakened by this lack of integrity?  According the Luther's Small Catechism what is the meaning of the 5th commandment about murdering mean? 
     "We should fear and love God that we may not hurt nor harm our neighbor in his body, but help    and befriend him in every bodily need [in every need and danger of life and body]." 

So does what goes on in politicing prior to elections actually help or harm our neighbor?  Will we do what we need to do to help all people or will we first think, as Queen Esther did, about what the best thing to protect our own lives is?

Just wondering....

God's Peace - Pr. J

 

Esther 3 - You Shall Not Bow Down

"And God spoke all these words:  “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.""  (Ex 20:1-6 NIV)

Mordecai, Queen Esther's mentor of sorts, would bow down to no one but God.  He would not bow down to Haman, so "Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews." (vs 6 NIV)  And.. he found it.  He convinced the King Xerxes to allow him to have the Jews destroyed. 

We just completed a week of confirmation, at which we spent much of our time on the ten commandments, so these verses from Exodus are still at the top of my mind.  What does this mean?  Simply this:  You shall have no other gods.  You shall not bow down to other gods.  No one, nothing, should come before the LORD your God.  Mordecai held fast to this, even to the point that he could be killed. 

How about us?  How fast will we hold to keeping God first in our lives?  How many other things in our lives do we allow to replace the worship of the one true God - the one who has freed you from bondage? 

God's Peace - Pr. J