Esther 7

Read Esther 7

The time for the deliverance of the Jews from their enemy, Haman, had come. Every event described so far led to this moment after Esther's second feast, when Esther revealed her identity as a Jew. When Haman made a plot against the Jews, he not only sentenced to death a man whom the king delighted to honor, Mordecai, but also a woman whom the king had chosen as his queen.

Esther asked the king for her life. She would have been silent if she had been sold as a slave, but the enemy of her people had gone too far. He demanded the death of the Jews. Who was this enemy? The man she had fed as her guest over these two days. “This wicked Haman!”

When Ahasuerus left the room in great anger Haman threw himself before the queen to beg for his life. When the king entered the room again it appeared to him that Haman was assaulting Esther right in front of his eyes. What would be done to Haman? One of the king's servants had a suggestion. He knew about Haman's plans for Mordecai. “The gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing at Haman's house, fifty cubits high.” The king's settled determination? “Hang him on that.”

Haman lived or died according to the command of one man. Ahasuerus was the supreme authority among people in the Persian Empire in his day. Now God has appointed another Man who is above all the rulers of the earth—Jesus of Nazareth.

When the Apostle Paul spoke in Athens concerning this Jesus, he spoke about a future day of final judgment. “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31)

We who have fled to Jesus for refuge live under the protection of His blood and righteousness. We will not face eternal death. We have found our life in His resurrection. How will those who hate the message of Christ and who persecute the church, the bride of Christ, stand when He comes again in glory?

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

Lord of Glory, do You listen to our earnest requests even now? Grant us our lives and the lives of our people who are called by Your Name. Wicked men continually seek to bring distress and death upon Your children. You are a very powerful Father. You will not stand by forever when an enemy would seek the destruction of Your elect. You will deliver them at just the right time. The trouble that Your enemies have planned for us will fall on their own heads.