Esther and Job

Today, I started reading in Esther 5 and read through Job 15.  Esther is a book about two people:  Esther and Mordecai.  Both were Jews in the Persian empire.  It starts off with the King, Ahasuerus, wanting his queen to come to a party and show off her beauty, but she refused.  Not wanting to set a pattern for women across the empire, the King's counsel said she, Vashti, should be replaced, and so the search was one.  Mordecai raised his niece as his daughter, and she went to the palace with hundreds of others throughout the kingdom, and she was chosen to be the next queen.  Now another character enters the story, Haman.  Haman has been promoted by the King and yet is not please because Modecai will not bow in his presence.  You see, a Jew will only acknowledge one God to bow before, just like a Christian.  Thus the strife begins.  Haman convinces the King to sign a decree to have all of the Jews killed upon a certain day, and now Mordecai must act.  He has Esther go to the king and plead their case, but there is a hitch.  Esther has not been called into the King's presence for many weeks and to go in unannounced means instant death!  She tells Mordecai to tell all of the Jews to fast for three days and then she will go into the presence of the King, and she says "If I perish, I perish".  This book is FULL of wonderful principles to live your Christian Life.  She goes in to the King, the King receives her and say he will answer her request up to a half of his kingdom.  (a man will do very much for a kind and loving woman).  She says to bring Haman and the King to a banquet she has prepared.  In the meantime, Haman has been preparing gallows 75 feet tall to hang Mordecai on.  So much good stuff I have to leave out of this book, but the end results is that the edict is changed, Haman is hung, and the enemies of the Jews are killed, and Mordecai is promoted in the Kingdom!!  A side note is that Esther 8:9 is the longest verse in the Bible. Wow... read it yourself, it is a great book of the Bible!!

 

Job, is a great book as well.  Most know the trials that Job faced, but the scripture that is given in this book is amazing.  Phrases like:  "yet trouble came"; "man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward", etc.  Here is a phrase I just came to understand today:  "Can the rush grow up without mire?"  This is talking about the bullrushes that grow long rivers or ponds.  I never really understood the phrase until reading through chapter 8 today understood it in light of the context of the passage.  What is being said is this:  Can the rush grow up without getting some mud on it?  The passage is talking about man and that Job's friends are saying he is not a perfect man.  There argument is this basically:  Can a man grow up in this world without getting some mud on him?  There are no perfect men growing up in this imperfect world... we all get some mud (sins) on us!!  What a great truth and way to illustrate it.  Well, I'll have more tomorrow.  May God bless you on this Esther Sunday!!

 

Pastor Mike Mutchler

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