9/19/2011 8:19:07 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: His drunkenness
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ester 1:10-12
Message of the verses: “ 10 ¶ On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus, 11 to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown in order to display her beauty to the people and the princes, for she was beautiful. 12 But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command delivered by the eunuchs. Then the king became very angry and his wrath burned within him.”
The second evidence of King Ahasuerus’ pride is seen in today’s SD, and that evidence is drunkenness.
It is good to know what the purpose of the author of the book of Ester is, and that would be to show how Ester became queen and so he does not go into the military reasons for this seven day party. I mentioned in yesterday’s SD that God is not mentioned in the book of Ester, but the moving of God is very apparent.
Looking at verse twelve we find that the king is very drunk and that the queen’s response brought about a triple offense on her part. She was a woman, who was challenging the authority of a man, and she was a wife challenging the authority of her husband, and she was a subject challenging the authority of the king. The result was a very mad, drunk, prideful king not good for the queen.
While going through the book of Ester we will see this king controlling everything but himself, something that the Scriptures address and we will look at soon. But first we must look at some of the flaws in the character of this king. We know that he was prideful, and that he was a drunk, and will later learn of his vindictiveness, and all of these are flaws in his character. We will see that he listens to others without really thinking about what they are saying to him. These people will use flattery when they speak to him in order to get what they want. He became very angry without thinking something that probably happened at this time because of his drunkenness. “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city,” (Proverbs 16:32). “Pr 28:23 He who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor Than he who flatters with the tongue. Pr 29:5 A man who flatters his neighbor Is spreading a net for his steps.”
Dr. Wiersbe takes time while writing on this section to write about the problems of drunkenness and anger and what the Scriptures have to say about these two subjects. I have read what he has to say about these two great problems that surface in our society today and agree with them. He writes that the Bible does command total abstinence, but it does emphasize it. Many people point to Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding and then say that it is okay to drink socially. The wine that was used during that period was a very weak wine and mostly used because the water was not really good. The Bible does command that we are not to be drunk, and it also commands that when we are angry we are to sin not. Many point out that Jesus was angry, yet his anger was justified because it was against sin, and we too are to be angry at sin, yet we cannot take that as a reason to sin, which it can turn into. As we look at these verses for today’s SD we can see that King Ahasuerus acted very foolishly and that the queen certainly did right in her actions. We see here something that was totally wrong being used to bring about something that will be good, and that is the saving of the people of Israel. God has promised to take care of the nation of Israel and He is still doing that even today.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: If I can be totally honest at this point I will say that I have problems with anger from time to time and it is something that I as a believer realize and need to work on and to be in prayer about so that the Lord will begin to work in my life so that I only am angry about sinfulness and then not let the sun to go down on my anger.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Be angry and sin not.
2. Don’t let the sun go down on my anger.
3. Continue to learn contentment.
9/19/2011 9:11:59 AM
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