Tuesday 30 September 2014

Intrigued

The king accepts Esther's invitation and commands Haman to go with him.
Haman must have been so pleased: singled out for attention by the king and queen, as was his due. 
"So the king and Haman joined Esther at the dinner she had arranged. As they were drinking the wine, the king said, “Now, what is it you want? Half of my kingdom isn’t too much to ask! Just ask.”

Esther answered, “Here’s what I want. If the king favors me and is pleased to do what I desire and ask, let the king and Haman come again tomorrow to the dinner... Then I’ll give a straight answer to the king’s question.” "
The king has realised that Esther has something important to ask and is still feeling beneficent towards her. Again, he offers her virtually anything she wants.
Yet she doesn't ask. Does her courage fail her, particularly in front of Haman? Or is she deliberately building up the tension, to make the king even more curious and to show him just how important this question is to her?
Surely the matter is urgent. If she succeeds, messengers must go to all parts of the empire to rescind the order to massacre the Jews. If she delays, it could be too late. Still, the delay of one day - particularly in times when the pace of life was laboriously slow - was less important than complete success.
Proverbs 25:11 reminds that "The right word at the right time is like precious gold  set in silver."
Good words are exquisitely beautiful, full of God's grace and love. Not a gift I naturally have - I am more prone to blurt out the wrong thing. Good words benefit not only the hearer, but they add to inner beauty.
Esther builds up the tension. And Haman, in his vanity, only feels pride. Often, I am more like Haman than Esther, but, with God's grace, I do not have to stay that way...
"But in every part of me I discover something fighting against my mind, and it makes me a prisoner of sin that controls everything I do. What a miserable person I am. Who will rescue me from this body that is doomed to die? 25 Thank God! Jesus Christ will rescue me.

So with my mind I serve the Law of God, although my selfish desires make me serve the law of sin.
" Romans 7:23 - 25



Esther 5:6 - 8

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