As Queen Esther fell to the
floor with tears in her eyes before King Ahasuerus, she plead for her
people the Jews to be spared from the edict given for their
extermination. When the king saw her he raised his golden scepter to
his queen, and she stood before him. In chapter eight and verse five
we see the intercessory words of Esther and notice the wonderful
humility in which she presents them. We read:
And
said, If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight,
and the thing seem right before the king, and I be
pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters
devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to
destroy the Jews which are in all the king's provinces:
The verse begins, “And said, If it please the king, and if I
have found favor in his sight, and the thing seem
right before the king, and I be pleasing in his
eyes,...” If there has ever been an example of entreaty with
humility, Esther demonstrates it for us here. Notice how she uses the
words “if” it please, “if” I have found, and
“the thing seem right” and “I be pleasing”. She
leaves room for a choice to be made by the king. He could say, no,
you do not please the king, or no, you have not found favor, or no,
the thing does not seem right, or even, no, you are not pleasing. She
doesn't approach him presumptively with demands that because of her
position he should do as she says, no, rather, Queen Esther bows her
will to his, and gives him the option of refusing her. Although she
desires to please the king, find favor in his sight, that the thing
seem right before the king, and be pleasing in his eyes, she gives
place for him to not grant her ambition.
The
verse goes on to say, “let it be written to reverse the letters
devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to
destroy the Jews which are in all the king's
provinces:” After her humble approach to the king, Esther gives
him her request. She wants letters of reversal to be written against
the edict devised by Haman. Let us notice that she names his father
“Hammedatha” which means “double” and states that he is “the
Agagite”. (This is significant because if we look into the Jewish
history, we will see that King Saul of Israel preserved King Agag of
Amalek, and even though the prophet Samuel struck King Agag down, the
influence of this evil king continued to Esther's day.) Esther also
reminds the king that the purpose of these letters was to “destroy
the Jews which are in all the king's provinces:” This was the
very essence of Esther's appeal. She desired that her people be
saved, and her humility, reverence and respect for the king only
demonstrated her passion to save her people the Jews.
Once
again we have been reminded by Esther to intercede on the behalf of
those who are condemned. In the gospel of John in chapter three and
verse seventeen we read:
For God sent not his
son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be saved.
Jesus
came into the world to give His life as a substitution for those who
were already condemned for theirs sins to die. Will we intercede for
them? Will we live our lives in humility before our King of Kings
Jesus that He will take notice of our willingness to bow our wills to
His? As we take our inspiration from Queen Esther, may we evermore be
concerned with those among us who are condemned by the enemy's edict
and make our appeal to the Lord that their fate be reversed as well.
Next
time we will see Esther's further appeal to King Ahasuerus for her
people, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until
tomorrow...there is more...
Look
for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From
Generation to Generation” and the new marriage book “So, You Want
to Be Married” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ;
www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at
www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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