During the night, the king becomes sleepless. To get over it, he calls for an aide to read to him from the royal journal. During the reading, the king is reminded of the plot to kill him and how Mordecai saved him. At the very moment he realizes that Mordecai has not yet been honored for his actions...Haman arrives...intending to ask for Mordecai to be hanged on his newly built gallows. (Pretty cool of God to interrupt the king's nap to watch out for his people).
The king asks Haman how a good man should be honored (and Haman--still full of himself, thinking this is about him) offers some over the top ways the king can honor a man. The king orders it done...and for Haman to do it. (YEA GOD!) Now Haman has to honor Mordecai publicly in the name of the king. Pretty tough to hang a man hours after you parade him through the street honoring him on behalf of the king.
When they are done, Mordecai goes back to the king's driveway and Haman goes home to call a staff meeting with his wife and friends again. They do a 180 on him and tell him it is futile to try to get back at Mordecai not...because the Jew, Mordecai, will be his demise. Before Haman can think too deeply, the king's servants come to whisk him away to Esther's banquet.
As I apply this, I am reminded of just how far God will go to work on behalf of His people in ways that we might miss unless we are careful. (Admittedly, I have to work at this if I am to ever get it right.)
- Do we recognize God at work when we run late to an appointment and narrowly miss an accident in the intersection?
- Do we see God's hand when we get passed over for a promotion, right before a corporate realignment and our new position was eliminated?
- Do we grasp it when God allows us to go through "stuff" which prepares us to serve Him with greater intensity later? ONLY if we KNOW that God is absolutely in control, powerful and able...and trust that He is at work.
- Because God saw fit to allow a Jewish girl to make it through the process to become queen.
- Because God woke the king up and when he was being read a bedtime story from the chronicles...it just happened to be about Mordecai.
- Because God sent Haman at just the right moment to be the one who would escort Mordecai.
There is nothing that occurs that did so beyond God's grasp and power...and while it was difficult to see grace at work in Esther's life previously, God is making it clear now (with more to come) that he has not been asleep at the wheel. He is right on time...every time.
Proverbs 3:27-28 are my takeaway today. "Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, 'Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it,' when you have it with you."
This verse sticks out because of the burden of my heart and the message on Sunday. Sometimes we want to play it safe with our resources...because the future is uncertain to us. While it is uncertain to us, it is absolutely certain with God. As such, He tells us to trust Him and be used by Him in the moment and "just know" that He will meet our needs tomorrow.
Now I am certainly not one of those health and wealth preachers on TV, but I have learned through the years what to do in my own life when I struggle in this area. When things have gotten tight with Jodi and I (and there have been many times in 20 years of marriage)...we have learned to respond to the temptation to "hold back" on doing good with our last few dollars. We sow it in the Kingdom. On more than one occasion, we have wiped out our savings and chosen to have no security (by the world's standard) in order to demonstrate our trust of God to Him. He never failed us. He always met the need...restored what was sown...and carried us through. Why? Because we chose Him and to be used by Him rather than to operate according to our cautious nature, worldly wisdom, and fear.
Grace,
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7 comments:
Good word, Lord. This really spoke to me today. Funny how God works His perfect plan around our selfish and foolish thinking. I have made some interesting choices and have spoken some crazy words in the last two years. Some how God allowed this craziness to go on and He just told me about it on Thursday while I was eating lunch with one my spiritual prayer partners. Funny how something I stated two years ago would come back around this week but it did. God is so amazing, in His perfect timing how He is able to show us things that at the time either wouldn't have made since or we wouldn't have listened (that was me I wouldn't have listened... my way is the best way) I feel like that is what He has done to Mordecai, poor guy. Mordecai has done everything he can to help the king and God saves Mordecai from death. Then for you to tie in Proverbs on me. God is really working on me. I am learning this lesson the hard way I must admit. But at least I am learning. Thank you for allowing God to move in you to bring me a message from Him. Maybe one day soon I can give you the details. :)
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
(Romans 8:28)
The more I look at it, the more I see it. I can even go back some in Esther and paraphrase a verse: "...and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
Brother Chris made what I considered a bad decision a while back, but here I sit a year later, refined in some ways, an error or three corrected and stronger than I was. He might not recognize the most serious error since he only touched on it in an off hand comment. I even had others ask me why I was staying and when I pointed out how if Brother Chris had chosen the other way, the stress from the other things going on in my life would have probably swamped me, they agreed that staying was not a problem and instead a good thing.
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:3-6)
As long as you read the Word and pray, He will continue to refine and perfect you. Some days it means you go under the "hammer" as He beats the impurities out of you on the anvil, but the prize is so good. It can come out of the blue, I got put under it simply posting a comment here a while back.
Kamatu,
I published this response a bit hesitantly. I want this to be an open forum and hope you will feel free to comment...and even to disagree. Interestingly, it seems that your comment is difficult for me to connect to the text. Perhaps I am missing a vital "bridge." Just as an observation...if you have concerns over a decision... the best place to voice those is probably one-to-one, rather than on a blog. Blogging in this instance might seem more like gossip. Maybe scope out Matthew 18...and then let me know if there is something we need to discuss.
Grace,
No. Call it more of a praise report, which is how I consider it. Sorry, I see where I left it hanging that I might still think you had made a bad decision then.
Bridge: How this chapter showed how God moves things according to His will and your commentary on how many times "bad" things are for our good, like being late and missing being in a wreck.
Which leads me directly to the verse in Romans.
This was definitely not intended as a hit on you, but showing a current example of how a "bad" or perhaps "stupid" thing occurred and God didn't just "made it good", He had it as a necessary thing at least for me. It doesn't just happen in the Bible, it doesn't just vaguely happen, it happens right here in our church, right now.
In any case, if you had chosen differently, no matter how much approval you may have gotten from people in the church, none of the growth I've had since then would have happened. It also made me available to take care of some other situations that I could not have been able to and in the few months immediately after, I probably would have gone down with far too much on my plate to deal with.
So, what I considered "bad" at that time, was firstly shown to me to be rather good and secondly spurred me onwards to get new things.
As a side note: Can you guess that I always got in trouble with my math teachers for "skipping steps" when solving equations?
Pastor Chris, I just want to say Thank you for being a strong leader to our church and my family. I know that you are a Child of God because of the messages He gives you and because of the chastisment that you have to undergo. We want to Thank you for your surrender to the ministry. It is an encouragement to us. I have been in many churches in my life and I feel like Calvary is a wonderful church filled with the holy spirit and that would not be true if the Pastor was not walking with God. Thank you for your walk! I know that these blogs encourage lots of people, we discuss them all of the time! God's word is alive!!
Kamatu,
I think I hear your heart. Thanks for clarifying. Remember to keep your theology in line with your thinking. If...it was a mistake, God did not plan it for you...even for your growth. God's plan is always perfect. God can use (and often does use) mistakes as growing points...but if He planned it, it was perfect, not a mistake.
Perhaps I would have heard your comments differently if you had said that you thought I made a mistake but later realized you were wrong. (Unless you think you were still right...Don't answer that. It might shatter my falsely high view of myself! :) )
I can see the connection now of Rom 8:28 as you presented it. Thanks for clarifying.
Amanda: You are too kind. I will come by with my weekly payment for your kind posts! You rock! I vote you for president! Seriously...thank you for the post. This forum is a growing experience for all of us. I learn daily and you guys help me stay accountable (which I always need).
Grace and Peace,
At the time, I knew it was a mistake, but since I have accepted you as my spiritual authority in your office of pastor, I had to go with it.
God has shown me differently since then. I was not ready then (even though I thought I was). So, you are correct, in God's view, it was not a "mistake", but part of what needed to happen. To my view at that time it was one, but not to His. It wasn't "all about me" either, but that I will save for when we sit down together.
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