10/10/2011 8:45:21 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: A morning of decision
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ester 6:6-10
Message of the verses: “6 So Haman came in and the king said to him, "What is to be done for the man whom the king desires to honor?" And Haman said to himself, "Whom would the king desire to honor more than me?" 7 Then Haman said to the king, "For the man whom the king desires to honor, 8 let them bring a royal robe which the king has worn, and the horse on which the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown has been placed; 9 and let the robe and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble princes and let them array the man whom the king desires to honor and lead him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, ’Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.’" 10 Then the king said to Haman, "Take quickly the robes and the horse as you have said, and do so for Mordecai the Jew, who is sitting at the king’s gate; do not fall short in anything of all that you have said.’”
Dr. Wiersbe calls this second main point “A morning of decision,” and there were two decisions that were made, one by the king and the other by Haman. The king decided to reward Mordecai, and Haman, thinking that the reward of the king was coming his way decided what the reward would be and the king agreed with Haman and then tells him that Mordecai, the man whose life was to end that day because of Haman’s hatred towards him, was to be rewarded and that Mordecai was the one who would give him the reward.
When I think of Genesis 12:1-3, the covenant that God made with Abraham and in that covenant God tells Abraham that He would bless those who blessed him and curse those who tried to curse him. This is speaking of all the children of Israel saying that if anyone hates them just because who they are then God would curse them, and this is exactly what is going on in this story, for Haman hated the Jews because they were Jews and was trying to destroy all of them for that reason, but God will not allow this to happen because of His covenant with Abraham, and because of that Abrahamic covenant Haman would die.
There are some more Proverbs that Dr. Wiersbe points out in his commentary on this section and at the end of the list of Proverbs he asks a question that has to do with how the Proverb is constructed, that is there is a comma in the Proverb and there is a choice as to what side of the comma that we are to live on. Here is the first Proverb “The righteous is delivered from trouble, and it comes to the wicked instead.” (Pr. 11:8) Now this one is easy if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and have been born again through His death on the cross which paid for your sins. Here is the next Proverb “Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, and before honor is humility.” (Pr. 18:12) Now the first half of the verse surely is seen in Haman and the last part is seen of Mordecai, however believers can get off track and as Paul writes in Romans 12:3 “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” This verse tells believers how they should be. Next we see Proverbs 29:23, “A man’s pride will bring him low, But a humble spirit will obtain honor.” Again we have a choice as believers to chose which side of the comma we live on.
We have spoke of the providence of God and how God is in charge or our schedules so that God’s plan will be completed for He is in control, and now we see that God’s plan was to have Mordecai honored for something he did five years ago and the irony of it is that the great enemy of the Jews is used to give this honor to Mordecai.
Yesterday I listened to a message from John MacArthur that was about prayer, and it may seem that it was in kind of an odd spot in the book of Mark, but when one begins to think about it they will realize that it is in a perfect spot. This event happened in the last week of the Lord Jesus life on planet earth and as He was leaving to go to the temple He was hungry and looked at a fig tree to give Him something to eat, but there was no fruit on the fig tree and so He cursed the fig tree and immediately it died from the roots upward. The fig tree represents Israel and in this case the temple, for there was no fruit seen in the temple worship at this time. As MacArthur develops the message he shows that there are five elements necessary in prayer of which the first one he entitles “historical” and the key word in this section is “remember.” The reason that I bring this up at this time in this SD is because believers can look at what happened in this section of Scripture and can remember it so that when believers are praying they will have confidence because the Lord was involved in Mordecai’s life and the life of all of the Jews that He will also be involved in their lives too.
There are four more items that were brought up in this sermon that I will just mention: “Theological” is the next and the key words are “Trust God.” Next is Spiritual and the key is “Believe.” “Practical” is next and that key word is “Asking.” The last and probably the hardest are entitled “Moral,” and its key word is “Forgive.” The Scripture used in this message is from Mark 11:12-25.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Which side of the comma am I living my life on especially from Proverbs 29:23? Do I have a problem with pride so that the Lord will have to discipline me or am I being humble, and that goes along with my life verse from Philippians 4:11b which speaks of being contentment.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Continue to learn contentment.
2. Remember that pride will cause a great deal of trouble in my life, but humility will bring blessings.
10/10/2011 10:40:43 AM
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