10/9/2011 8:18:49 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: A night of discovery
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ester 6:1-5
Message of the verses: “1 ¶ During that night the king could not sleep so he gave an order to bring the book of records, the chronicles, and they were read before the king. 2 It was found written what Mordecai had reported concerning Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who were doorkeepers, that they had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. 3 The king said, "What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?" Then the king’s servants who attended him said, "Nothing has been done for him.’
“4 ¶ So the king said, "Who is in the court?" Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace in order to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows which he had prepared for him. 5 The king’s servants said to him, "Behold, Haman is standing in the court." And the king said, "Let him come in.’”
This section will show at least five evidences of God’s providence in the life of King Ahasuerus.
The king’s insomnia (Ester 6:1a). The Scriptures speak of how difficult it is for rich people to sleep at night on occasions because of worry over their riches. This may have been the reason that the king could not sleep, yet the real reason that he could not sleep was because God had something to tell him and needed him awake to tell it to him. The king surely did not see the hand of God in all of these activities, but we can see it as we look at the text in this section.
As we contrast the fact that man needs sleep while our heavenly Father does not need to sleep we will look at Psalm 121:3-4, “3 He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep.” This verse is true of believers, for while we are sleeping God is always awake making sure that our new day will be what He wants it to be.
The king’s choice of entertainment: (Ester 6:1b). I would suppose that the king had a great many choices of entertainment that he could have asked for to keep him occupied while he could not sleep, yet in the providence of God he choose to have the chronicles or records of the kingdom read to him. This may have been a great sleeping aid, but in his case he stayed awake long enough to hear what the Lord wanted to tell him.
The servant’s choice of books (Ester 6:1c). In his commentary on this section Dr. Wiersbe sites two people who are quite famous who came to know the Lord through the “accidently” finding and reading of a book. C. S. Lewis in 1916 and many years before that Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, and author of numerous Christian classics.
In my case it was not a book that actually led me to faith in the Lord, but it was a series of tapes on the end times that the Lord used to bring me to faith in Jesus Christ. This happened in January of 1974 when out of the blue I decided to take a trip to my high school friend’s house in Florida and that is where I listened to those tapes. It was surely the best day of my life.
It was the sovereign choice of God that the servant picked up the exact book that told the story of Mordecai saving the king life.
The king’s delay in rewarding Mordecai (Ester 6:2-3). I have read over the book of Ester many times and have studied it in Sunday School class before, but as I go over it in this study I find that what happens in these two verses are key to what happens in the entire book, and as written before it was all in the sovereign hand of the Lord to have Ester delay her message to the king so that God’s hand would be on the king’s sleeplessness and the servants choice of books to read. If Mordecai had been rewarded five years before then the events that were about to unfold would not have happened.
Dr. Wiersbe points out that this was highly unusual for this kind of thing to happen in the Persian society for when something was done like this, saving the king’s life, then it should have been rewarded at that time, but in this case there was reasons why it did not happen.
We spoke of this in an earlier SD as to how Mordecai must have felt when after saving the king’s life was not rewarded at that time. It is unclear as to how this happened that Mordecai was not rewarded for this act, for the Bible does not tell us why this happened, for it could have been someone who did not like Mordecai and therefore did not report this to the proper people so he would be rewarded.
In the book of Genesis we see in the story of Joseph that the butler of Pharaoh who was in prison forgot to tell Pharaoh about Joseph until Pharaoh had a dream that needed to be interpreted, yes God is even in control of schedules. In both the case of Joseph and Mordecai we see that “God’s delays were not God’s denials.”
The timely arrival of Haman (Ester 6:4). It is probably true that Haman was either up early to speak to the king or that he was up all night supervising the building of the gallows on which he wanted to impale Mordecai on. Haman wanted to ask the king for permission to execute Mordecai, but God had other plans. Proverbs 6:18 reads as follows, “A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil,” and this was surely true of Haman.
The timing of Haman’s arrival was surely the providence of God for if he had arrived a couple of hours later none of what was about to happen would have happened. It was in the plan of God that Haman would be honoring Mordecai, and not gloating over his body hanging on the gallows for all to see, but now all could see Mordecai being honored by Haman as he lead him around the city.
Dr. Wiersbe closes this sections by quoting several verses that I will share at this time: “10 The LORD nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples. 11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation. (Psalm 33:10-11). “There is no wisdom and no understanding And no counsel against the LORD.” (Proverbs 21:30) “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31)
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I look over the things that transpired in the life of Mordecai and compare them to some of the troubles that have happened in my life I find that I need to have the same kind of attitude that I find in this story by Mordecai, and also by Joseph. In order to learn contentment I must trust the Lord that all of the difficulties that I have or am facing are to be used to help me to learn contentment.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Continue to learn contentment.
10/9/2011 9:18:57 AM
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