Monday, June 03, 2024

OUR FATHER WHO FAVORS THOSE WHO RESIGN THEMSELVES TO WHATEVER FATE RESULTS FROM SERVING HIS KINGDOM

The book of Esther chapter 4 verses 9 - 11 says this;

Hathak went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”

This passage is preceded by the account of the efforts by a man named Harman  to destroy the people of God.

He had manipulated the legislative machanisms in the kingdom to enact a law that would permit the destruction of the Jewish people.

When the plot came to light, Esther's uncle Mordecai sent a note to her in the palace of the king to urge her to go to the king to plead for the lives of the Jewish people.

In response, she sent a note back informing her uncle that she could not approach the king in his inner court  at any time but had to wait to be summoned. Any person approaching the king without an invitation was likely to be subjected to the death penalty unless the king lifted his gold scepter to spare the intruder.

Mordecai sent a note back to Esther to implore her to take action inspite of the risk because she herself would not be spared the judgement against the Jews and it was likely for the reason of the existential threat against the Jews that that she was placed in the position she was in.

Esther took Mordecai's charge to heart and she called for the Jewish community and her staff to undertake a three day fast alongside her to prepare for her attempt to get an audience with the king.

She braced herself by saying, 'If I perish, I perish' and after the fast,  she went to see the king in the inner court and as she approached, the king lifted his gold scepter to spare her and she was able to plead with the king for the lives of her people.

Amen.

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