Esther 8

Esther 8

 ¹ That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came into the presence of the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her.

    ² The king took off his signet ring, which he had reclaimed from Haman, and presented it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed him over Haman's estate.

    ³ Esther again pleaded with the king, falling at his feet and weeping. She begged him to put an end to the evil plan of Haman the Agagite, which he had devised against the Jews.

    ⁴ Then the king extended the gold sceptre to Esther and she arose and stood before him.

    ⁵ If it pleases the king, she said, and if he regards me with favour and thinks it the right thing to do, and if he is pleased with me, let an order be written overruling the dispatches that Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, devised and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king's provinces.

    ⁶ For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?

    ⁷ King Xerxes replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, Because Haman attacked the Jews, I have given his estate to Esther, and they have hanged him on the gallows.

    ⁸ Now write another decree in the king's name on behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king's signet ring— for no document written in the king's name and sealed with his ring can be revoked.

    ⁹ At once the royal secretaries were summoned— on the twenty-third day of the third month, the month of Sivan. They wrote out all Mordecai's orders to the Jews, and to the satraps, governors and nobles of the 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush. These orders were written in the script of each province and the language of each people and also to the Jews in their own script and language.

    ¹⁰ Mordecai wrote in the name of King Xerxes, sealed the dispatches with the king's signet ring, and sent them by mounted couriers, who rode fast horses especially bred for the king.

    ¹¹ The king's edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate any armed force of any nationality or province that might attack them and their women and children; and to plunder the property of their enemies.

    ¹² The day appointed for the Jews to do this in all the provinces of King Xerxes was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar.

    ¹³ A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so that the Jews would be ready on that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.

    ¹⁴ The couriers, riding the royal horses, raced out, spurred on by the king's command. And the edict was also issued in the citadel of Susa.

    ¹⁵ Mordecai left the king's presence wearing royal garments of blue and white, a large crown of gold and a purple robe of fine linen. And the city of Susa held a joyous celebration.

    ¹⁶ For the Jews it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honour.

    ¹⁷ In every province and in every city, wherever the edict of the king went, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them.

Esther 8

So last week we saw the fall of Haman. Esther revealed who she was, Haman was revealed for who he was and everything seems to be working out. However, before they can sit back and relax, there is still the matter of the order to destroy the Jews.

(Read verses 1-6)

So, Haman had been overthrown and Mordecai was honoured in his place. However, we see that even before she is welcomed by the king, Esther starts to plead with him to save her people. She didn’t wait for the king to notice her and went against the normal protocol, weeping at the king’s feet showing just how important her request was. Haman may have been removed by the most important issue still remained: the problem of the order to annihilate the Jews.

(Read verses 7-8)

It seems silly that the first order wasn’t just torn up however to revoke an order would be to admit that the king had been wrong in the first place. Pride meant they didn’t want to be showing weakness and so this rule that no order sealed with the king’s ring could be revoked had been put in place. So now another decree was to be written and king Xerxes gave this job over to Esther and Mordecai. He was washing his hands clean of the matter and didn’t want to admit he was wrong.

We can be like that sometimes, not wanting to admit it when we’re wrong. However, covering things up and denying that we’re wrong can often be worse. It is much better to admit you’ve done wrong and to apologise. It may be hard but it’s a sign of strength and apologising straight away could avoid making the whole situation a lot worse.

(Read verses 9-12)

They couldn’t revoke anything in the first law so how would they sort the problem out? Well, Mordecai, in a wisdom that could have only come from God, wrote an order which stated that on that day the Jews could destroy anyone who attacked them, plunder the property of their enemies and protect and assemble themselves beforehand.

This is clever as, although they couldn’t initiate attack, they could defend themselves and prepare for attack. It would make people think twice before they attacked the Jews and also they would have had God with them every step of the way.

(Read verses 13-17)

The new order was sent throughout the whole land, to every province and in every language in the empire so that every single person would know what the order contained. As we see in verse 16, the order went down very well with the Jews and even non-Jews came to realise that it was not a good idea to go against the God of the Jews.

Just like the Jews, we are all facing certain death with no way we can save ourselves from the situation. There is no way we can save ourselves from the judgement our sin has brought upon us. However, Jesus has provided a way out for us. He died on the cross, taking the punishment we deserve so that we might be rescued and be given the opportunity of an eternal life with him. Our death order can be lifted if we just trust in Jesus.

(DFTBA)

Rights or Responsibilities?

Right - "Your rights are what you are morally or legally entitled to do or to have."

Responsibility - "If you think you have a responsibility to do something, you feel that you ought to do it because it is morally right to do it."      or

                     - "If you think that you have a responsibility to someone, you feel that it is your duty to take action that will protect their interests."

These days, everyone is on about rights. Whether it's animal rights or women's rights, gay rights or immigration rights, everyone seems to be claiming their rights to anything and everything. Demanding more money, more freedom, more say. Claiming rights always seems, I think, so selfish, as most of what anyone gets out of it is for themselves. (I think animal rights would be the main exception although some of my points will still apply.)

Demanding rights is so much "I want this" and "give so and so that". It's a very "take take take" outlook. I'm certainly not saying that people don't deserve a lot of these rights but I think demanding rights isn't always the best  way to go about it. What we need is for people to embrace RESPONSIBILITY.

If people recognised their responsibilities, responsibilities to treat everyone as equal, to look after animals, to care for children, to provide food, water and sanitation to those who need it, giving and not just taking.

Some people would say that there's no difference between responsibility and rights and, in the sense of outcome, that is true to an extent. However, I think the attitude to how we get to that outcome is important. Are we only thinking about what WE want and what WE deserve or are we thinking of others too?

*Thought worm implanted*

DFTBA - Decrease world suck yourself rather than expecting others to do it for you because if everyone had the same lazy attitude, not much would get done.

 

Almost half the Who

Hello!

The Whovians of Highworth unite (well, not quite...) to form an alliance of blogspheric abundance. This blog is clearly a conglomerate of awesome. Contrary to popular opinion, the 'WHO' is not completely insane. Nor is it an alliance of sheep. We are happily entitled to stroke sheep (but not kidnap them) and then we could take over the world!! The plan is simply to find a flux capacitor and then travel to the Medusa Cascade to meet Schrodinger's Walrus. Easy. However, we would also have to overcome the problem of the Raxacoricofallaptorians without crashing on Klom. If that were to happen, we would initiate Plan 42 (classified information that we cannot release on internet blogs...). If we were to tell you, we would have to send a radioactive pigeon to you in the post. After finding your address by asking Connor Temple to hack into the world database of addresses. Yes, it exists. Do not question this.

While we are not all here, Sam smells. It needed to be said... Also, to make it even: Terrie doesn't really like Doctor Who. And to top it all off, Taryn would rather talk to K9 than meet the Doctor. And Jennie (who is definitely Jackie) .... could have thought of something wittier to say about Taryn..... BUT of all things, Jennie is a totally incompetent Death Eater and Eco Schools prefect. Sorry, it had to be said. And so did that sentence - twice.

Moving on from all this,
WE ARE COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY AWESOME
now we need to eat.

TTYL...

Almost half of the WHO....
 Rosanna, Hannah, and Maryam

Smellilicious

When you're driving about, the car tends to pick up any strong smells that you drive past. Whether it's the strong smell of rape seed in the summer, the smell of the local fish and chips or Indian restaurant, the smell of muck spreading in the nearby field, the salty smell of the sea as you drive down the sea front or a strong smell of smoke as you drive past someone having a bonfire. However, the smell of tea tree oil is certainly not a smell you expect to be sniffing.

As I was driving to school, there was a point where I suddenly realised that there was a strong smell of tea tree oil. I sort of dismissed it, thinking I was just doing the nasal equivalent of "seeing things", what with there being a field on one side, trees and a couple of houses on the other side, and the perfume factory a good five miles or so away, even as the crow flies. I thought nothing of it for the rest of the day as that is hardly the most pressing of matters in life. That was until I drove home at least.

On my way home, at exactly the same point along the road, I smelt it again. That strong, refreshing, unmistakable and rather nice smell of tea tree oil. Surely I can't just be "smelling things" if I've smelt it in the same place twice. However, I still don't get how on earth it smelt like tea tree oil. I'm not complaining as I love the smell of tea tree oil but smelling it there just doesn't make any sense. A muddy field on one side is hardly going to produce tea tree smells and I don't get why the farmer would substitute fertiliser for tea tree oil. The same with anything put on the road. As for the hedges and trees, unless they are a special variety that release the smell of tea tree (rather fittingly) every fifteen years, I don't think it was them either. (Also, Wikipedia tells me that tea tree oil "is taken from the leaves of the Melaleuca alternifolia, which is native to the northeast coast of New South Wales, Australia." So I don't think that covers the trees in Kent.) Furthermore, I don't think any house holds enough tea tree oil to cause a road to smell of it for a whole day, however strong it is.

So maybe I'm mad, maybe someone planted a Melaleuca alternifolia in the back of the car without me knowing, I don't know. Ideas?

DFTBA

Esther 7

Due to my interview, we missed a week of Esther however, we're back to looking at how God works unseen and now we see all those loose ends start to tie together.

Esther 7

 ¹ So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther’s banquet, ² and as they were drinking wine on the second day, the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.”

 ³ Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favour with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. ⁴ For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.”

 ⁵ King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he? Where is he—the man who has dared to do such a thing?”

 ⁶ Esther said, “An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!”

   Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. ⁷ The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.

 ⁸ Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining.

   The king exclaimed, “Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?”

Esther 7

Haman, Esther and King Xerxes are about to sit down to the second banquet however they would each have different hopes and fears for how the banquet would go. How do you think each of them would feel and from what’s happened so far, why would they feel like that?

Esther: Anxious – Her people’s lives were at stake and she was going to ask a very powerful and terrifying king an important request.

Haman: A mixture of nerves and dread and possibly hoping that nothing would go wrong – What had happened with the honouring of Mordecai was most likely still in the forefront of his mind and his wife’s words of warning about the Jews would have still been fresh in mind.

King Xerxes: Tired and curious – The previous night he had been unable to sleep which we saw led to the honouring of Mordecai. He would have also been very curious about what Esther’s petition was. Any longer, he may have become angry so we can see how God’s timing is perfect.

(Read verses 1 – 4)

Again, King Xerxes asks Esther what she wanted, again offering up to half his kingdom. This must have been reassuring to Esther as her request was not that extreme.

So, if we look at how Esther phrased her request, we can see how God guided her.

-          She starts by being humble and polite, asking for her request to be granted only if it pleases the king.

-          She reminds the king of their close relationship saying “If I have found favour with you” or, in others words ‘if she has been a good and loyal queen’.

-          She asks for her life before the life of her people which, rather than being selfish, is actually clever as she wants Xerxes to know that this order will affect his queen and put her life in danger, not just some people he has no contact with. This order will have a direct, personal effect on the king himself.

-          She uses pretty much the same words as the orcder itself – “destruction and slaghter and annihilation” – so there is no misunderstanding and so she cannot be accused of exaggeration.

-          She keeps her request humble. She states she would never bother the king if her people were simply being sold as slaves. Obviously this order of death is much worse.

-          She doesn’t mention Haman or blame anyone else for the writing of this order. She waits for the king to ask which of course doesn’t take him long.

God was guiding her speech and God guides us in what to say as well so long as we ask.

(Read verses 5 – 6)

As soon as Haman heard the specific words of his order, he would have been filled with dread. He must have been shocked that the queen was a Jew and he also must have known that his time was up. He would have realised that he had picked the wrong race and the wrong God to go against.

Esther was not shy in her description of Haman and her description of “adversary and enemy” and “vile” was not only true but would also have brought home to the king just how completely evil and untrustworthy Haman really was.

Remember, it would not have just been Haman who was shocked by this speech but also Xerxes. Up until that moment, he was clueless about Haman and had thought him completely trustworthy and noble. It must have come as a terrible shock.

(Read verses 7 – 8)

The king was obviously furious for two reasons:

-          His own queen’s life had been threatened without his knowledge

-          His most trusted attendant had not been honest with him at all.

The king most likely also felt a bit stupid and realised that he was partly to blame for not knowing which race his own wife belonged to or which race Haman wished to annihilate before he agreed. This is most probably why he wanted some air and a chance to gather his thoughts.

Haman used this time to beg for his life. He already realised that the king had decided his fate and thought the only way was to beg to the queen. However, in his distress, he invaded the queen’s personal space and got much closer than was appropriate. Of course that was the time at which the king returned. Not the cleverest of ideas.

(Read verses 8 – 10)

In those days, when a person did something wrong, if their face was covered it meant that the person had to die. It was the end for Haman.

Esther had clearly made an impression on a lot of people including the eunuch, Harbona. He was a man who knew a lot about the goings on in the palace and he knew about Haman’s gallows. He also specifically mentioned that Mordecai was the one Haman had planned to hang on them but also the one who had saved the king from the assassination plot.

As we can see from Haman’s day, a lot can change in a short amount of time. It may seem extreme but what if you die today? Are you ready to face God, your creator? Have you put your trust in him or are you living as if you have all the time in the world. Live as if Christ died for you today and will come for you tomorrow.

So, the king had listened to Esther and believed her, the Jews’ enemy Haman was hanged so he could cause no more problems but do you think that was the end?

No, there was still the problem of the order to annihilate the Jews. The order still stood and, as the order had been sealed by the king’s ring, no one could revoke it, not even the king. Does this mean Haman was still to have his way, even after death? Of course not, God’s in control, however we’ll see how he changes this next time.

-----DFTBA-----