Good morning, everyone!
Today I read Esther 6-10.
The king can't sleep, so he wants to read the official records. I'm sure that would make anyone sleepy. As he's reading the records, he finds the name of Mordecai listed as the man who discovered a plot to kill him and saved his life.
He calls for any official who is in the palace to ask what should be done for a man the king wants to honor.
Haman happens to be nearby and gets the summons. Arrogantly, he naturally assumes the king wants to honor him, so he gives a list of what he wants.
The king then orders Haman to do all that he said for Mordecai.
Haman has to dress Mordecai in the king's best robes, and parade him around on a royal horse, proclaiming that he is a man whom the king wishes to honor.
Ouch.
Haman goes home after this, dejected.
Esther 6:13 - Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, "If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish origin, you will not overcome him, but will surely fall before him."
Haman's doom is predicted.
Now, Haman is summoned to the queen's chambers for the second banquet.
As before, the king asks what he can give to Esther. This time, she tells him.
Esther 7:3-4 - Then Queen Esther replied, "If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me as my petition, and my people as my request; for we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed and to be annihilated. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for the trouble would not be commensurate with the annoyance to the king."
The king demands to know who would plot such a thing.
Esther tells him it is Haman.
The king is very angry and goes out into the garden.
When he returns, Haman has thrown himself on Esther's couch to plead with her. And it looks as though he is assaulting the queen with the king there in the room.
So the eunuchs take custody of Haman, and one of them informs the king of the gallows Haman had constructed for Mordecai.
The king orders that Haman be hanged from it.
Then, Mordecai is promoted over the house of Haman, and given Haman's ring.
The king basically puts Mordecai and Esther in charge of their people, and gives the Jews permission to defend themselves, and they defeat a lot of their enemies.
I have always enjoyed the story of Esther. First, she's an ordinary girl who becomes queen, which always appealed to me as a child. Now, however, I can see past that to the moral of the story. Esther's courage is inspiring. She went into the court of the king, knowing what had happened to the last one. She risked her life to tell the king of Haman's plot. She was afraid, and so asked her people to pray for her while fasting for three days. But she still did it. And God gave her favor with the king.
She was not there by accident. God placed her there for a purpose.
Just as God places us for a purpose. Perhaps you're wondering why you are where you are, or perhaps you're waiting to be placed. Either way, know that God knows what is going on, and He does not do anything by accident.
I hope you'll join me tomorrow when I read Job 1-4.
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