Lenten Devotions - Day 26
“When Mordecai was told what Esther had said, he sent back this reply, ‘Don’t think that you will escape being killed with the rest of the Jews, just because you live in the king’s palace. If you don’t speak up now, we will somehow get help, but you and your family will be killed. It could be that you were made queen for a time like this!’” Esther 3:12-14
Esther's began as the classic rags to riches story—from an orphaned foreigner to queen of the world's greatest superpower! Her people had been despised, conquered, and deported, yet she had risen to the position of queen of the foreign power. Now here people were in great peril.
In the midst of their exile, an enemy had risen in power as a friend to the king. He had laid plans to eradicate her people. Esther was in a position to do something to aid her people. To do so, however, was to place her life in jeopardy. Being queen did not giver her open access to the throne, heart, and mind of the king. No one had that kind of access. One did not dare enter the throne room unless the king had summoned them. To enter otherwise, was to risk death.
When Esther's uncle suggested she save her people, she was petrified. She was more than nervous about the challenge. She was little more than a teenager, anyhow, and to risk her life to protect her people seemed like a task for someone much better prepared, equipped, and experienced than she. After all, the very reason she was queen was due to the fact that the king had killed the previous queen for refusing a drunken request to disrobe publicly at a royal banquet.
Gaining an audience with the king was no simple matter. It would place her life in jeopardy. She was too young. She was insecure. The king did not invite her to see him, and she was fearful of risking her position and security when it should be someone else's job. After all, she would be pitting her life against the life of the king's closest friend and adviser. It was just too much to ask.
Mordecai gave her a little more to think about. Inaction was also a risk. Besides, God had a purpose for her life, and she had an opportunity to serve her people from a vantage point of a position she could not claim to deserve. She was still the orphaned foreigner, belonging to that people who were under threat from a common enemy within the walls of the palace. She might try to hide, but hiding was a risk and would not be forgotten if someone else stepped in to plead for her people. She might act selfishly to save her own skin, but in so doing she would lose her standing in the eyes of her people.
She was tempted as we to believe that her position, power, and resources were for her own use, her own good. Mordecai's message said otherwise. She should rather look at her resources from the standpoint of how she might benefit her people as a whole. Lifting her eyes to the plight of her people, she gained the courage and strength to live for them, instead of for her own benefit.
It is only natural to live for our own interests. We are born with the drive to survive and meet our needs. Maturity, however, requires that we look not to our interests alone, but to the benefit of others. Ask God to show you where your life may need to shift from selfish pursuits to meet the needs and purposes God has for your life.
“Lord, grant me the perspective and faith to act for others, and not just my own benefit. Help me to see your journey to the cross as an example for my own living.”
—©Copyright 2009 Christopher B. Harbin http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/
Esther's began as the classic rags to riches story—from an orphaned foreigner to queen of the world's greatest superpower! Her people had been despised, conquered, and deported, yet she had risen to the position of queen of the foreign power. Now here people were in great peril.
In the midst of their exile, an enemy had risen in power as a friend to the king. He had laid plans to eradicate her people. Esther was in a position to do something to aid her people. To do so, however, was to place her life in jeopardy. Being queen did not giver her open access to the throne, heart, and mind of the king. No one had that kind of access. One did not dare enter the throne room unless the king had summoned them. To enter otherwise, was to risk death.
When Esther's uncle suggested she save her people, she was petrified. She was more than nervous about the challenge. She was little more than a teenager, anyhow, and to risk her life to protect her people seemed like a task for someone much better prepared, equipped, and experienced than she. After all, the very reason she was queen was due to the fact that the king had killed the previous queen for refusing a drunken request to disrobe publicly at a royal banquet.
Gaining an audience with the king was no simple matter. It would place her life in jeopardy. She was too young. She was insecure. The king did not invite her to see him, and she was fearful of risking her position and security when it should be someone else's job. After all, she would be pitting her life against the life of the king's closest friend and adviser. It was just too much to ask.
Mordecai gave her a little more to think about. Inaction was also a risk. Besides, God had a purpose for her life, and she had an opportunity to serve her people from a vantage point of a position she could not claim to deserve. She was still the orphaned foreigner, belonging to that people who were under threat from a common enemy within the walls of the palace. She might try to hide, but hiding was a risk and would not be forgotten if someone else stepped in to plead for her people. She might act selfishly to save her own skin, but in so doing she would lose her standing in the eyes of her people.
She was tempted as we to believe that her position, power, and resources were for her own use, her own good. Mordecai's message said otherwise. She should rather look at her resources from the standpoint of how she might benefit her people as a whole. Lifting her eyes to the plight of her people, she gained the courage and strength to live for them, instead of for her own benefit.
It is only natural to live for our own interests. We are born with the drive to survive and meet our needs. Maturity, however, requires that we look not to our interests alone, but to the benefit of others. Ask God to show you where your life may need to shift from selfish pursuits to meet the needs and purposes God has for your life.
“Lord, grant me the perspective and faith to act for others, and not just my own benefit. Help me to see your journey to the cross as an example for my own living.”
—©Copyright 2009 Christopher B. Harbin http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/
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