INTRODUCTION:

The Book of Esther, one of only two Bible books named after women (the other being the Book of Ruth), does not mention the Name of God even once. However, His providential care and control of human history cannot be missed.

Below, I present a few lessons we can take from the book. Be blessed as you read!

Make Your Access to The King Count (1)

Mordecai was deeply concerned for the safety and welfare of his people. He was so distressed that he wailed loudly and put on sackcloth (Esther 4:1-2). He clearly wanted to do something that would reverse the evil edict that had just condemned his people to imminent, senseless destruction (Esther 3:1-14).

The problem was that he had no direct access to the source of power, the king, who alone could change the course of events. ESTHER DID. So Mordecai turned to her. YOU DO TOO! Don’t despise your access to the King of Kings, rather make it count! Speak to Him on behalf of somebody. Unlike Esther, no law debars you from approaching the King. The way to the Holy of holies was torn open when the Holy One said “It is finished”! (John 19:30; Matthew 27:50:51). You have perpetual security clearance to storm Heaven with your request! It’s 24/7 access!

Since, by His Blessed Holy Spirit we have this wonderful access to the Father through Him (Eph 2:18), “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb 4:16).

In 2019, think of the Kingdom! Do something for Jesus! Make your relationship with the King count! Speak to Him on behalf of somebody, a community, a nation, a fellow-Christian, a lost soul, today.

Make Your Knowledge of His Ways Count! (2)

Esther has been granted a reprieve (Esther 5:2). Not only is her life spared, but the king is so pleased with her that he promises to grant her request.
Then a very curious thing happens: instead of just blurting out what is on her heart, she invites him to a banquet! (Esther 5:4), and then another, despite the king repeating his promise to grant her request at the first banquet! (Esther 5:6-8). And she does it all in humility – “If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my wish and fulfill my request…” Esther 5:8 (ESV).

Well, there is method to her apparent madness! Herodotus, described by some as the “Father of History”, records that the Persian kings of Esther’s time had this rather interesting habit of taking important decisions of state at banquets, often in a less-than-sober state (Histories 1.133)! Perhaps Esther remembered that the strange sequence of events that transformed her from orphan girl to Royal Consort started at a banquet at which an irrevocable decision was made to depose Queen Vashti, her predecessor. In other words, Esther knew royal protocol and, perhaps more importantly, the ways of the kings of her kingdom. She knew how to receive a positive answer to her petition. She was not going to take the kindness of King Ahasuerus for granted.

MOSES too had this knowledge of the ways of his King. No wonder he was such a powerful intercessor! Part of his success was down to the fact that he caught a revelation of the WAYS of the Lord (Psalm 103:7, cf Exodus 33:13) unlike his fellow Israelites who only saw God’s WORKS/miracles but didn’t understand His ways. This was “insider knowledge” acquired by Esther from being in the Palace, Moses from being in the Presence (See Exodus 19:3-25; 24:18, etc).

WE have this knowledge too, from the Word. Psalm 100:4: “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!” We know He “inhabits the praise of His people”, and appreciates gratitude and thanksgiving.

The lone leper, returning to express his gratitude, received much more than his nine colleagues who didn’t: wholeness (Luke 17:19).

Paul and Silas, in that damp, dark, cavernous Phillipian jail, their backs lacerated from flogging and feet fastened in the stocks, found out that when we invite Him into our situation with our praises, He comes accompanied by earthquakes (Acts 16:25-26).

The disciples, having been unjustly whipped and threatened, found out that to judge Him, correctly, as all-powerful and in control of history is a divine short-cut to experiencing the power of the Holy Ghost accompanied by that earthquake (Acts 4:1-27).

Elijah knew that to praise His Name and acknowledge that He alone is God is to invite Him to send the fire and force an entire nation onto its face acknowledging that “The Lord, He is God”! (1 Kings 18:36-39).

And what did Jehoshaphat discover? That the easiest way to transfer the burden of our warfare to Him is to storm His Courts with praise as we obey His instructions (2 Chronicles 20:1-22).

And don’t forget Esther’s humility, for “God opposes the proud and grants grace to the humble.” (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).

IN 2019 – AND FOR AS LONG AS YOU LIVE – MAKE YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE WAYS OF THE LORD COUNT!

Make Your Blank Cheque Count! (3)

By the time Queen Esther goes to the second banquet with King Ahasuerus and Senior Counsellor Haman, the king has made a twice-repeated vow – to be made one more time at the second banquet – to grant her request, “up to half the kingdom” (Esther 5:3,6).

A great and generous promise, by all standards. But a blank cheque? Well, not exactly – not when it has an upper limit. Look closely and you’ll see the king has already written something in the “Amount” column. The king is saying, if we take him literally, “You can have what you want as long as you don’t ask for anything more than half of the kingdom”. Moreover, should his words be taken literally? These kings seem to have a penchant for royal hyperbole!

There was this other king, in a different era, who made a similar promise following a damsel’s performance. Not a bad reward for what must have been no more than a few hours at most of gyrating in the royal presence. That rash promise ensured that the young lady got what must have been a nightmare-inducing “gift” on a platter – the fiery-faced, possibly long-haired head of the righteous John the Baptist! (Mark 6:21-29). Sometimes I wish God had allowed us to know what she did with her gruesome gift – but of course the Lord only tells us what we need to know.

I think we can agree that the “cheque” his royal highness presented to Queen Esther was not of the blank variety, generous as it was. I do however know of a blank cheque – and it has your name on it if you know Him Whom Scripture declares to be “the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). This King is not given to hyperbole, for with Him, nothing is impossible, nothing can be considered an exaggeration! (See Ephesians 3:20, for example).

There is something about the love and gentleness of Jesus that moves you to tears. One day the He reclined at table with The Twelve. Here’s a Man who has set His face like flint to go to Jerusalem to die a shameful, painful, undeserved death so His “friends” – all of us who have put our trust in Him – may go free. You would think someone in His situation would be pre-occupied with the suffering that lay ahead of Him. But here He is, strengthening the men He’s about to leave behind. They are about to lose everything, but He reminds them that Heaven’s inexhaustible resources are at their disposal, if they would just ask! Hear Him: “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:24). Amazing! Despite what lay ahead of Him, His first concern is the joy of His friends! His promise is even more explicit in the preceding verse: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you”.

That sounds like a blank cheque to me! I like the “whatevers”, “whosoevers” and related words of the Bible! They are inclusive of everything/everybody and exclusive of nothing/nobody. And why will the Father answer requests? “For the Father Himself loves you” (v27). Love. The same love that caused Him to make Himself “of no reputation” (Philippians 2:5-8) and come down to our dreary old earth so that WHOSOEVER (there’s that word) puts his or her trust in Him will be saved (John 3:16). Elsewhere, He gives you another reason why He will, personally, honour your cheque – that the Father may be glorified (John 14:13). Honouring the cheque He has issued brings glory to His beloved Father, and if you consider how He was willing to die that death in order to glorify the Father, you can understand that He will prioritise honouring your cheque!

Two things sometimes prevent men from fulfilling great promises: Willingness and ability. Men fail because sometimes they change their minds for various reasons and lose the willingness to follow through on their promises. Or they suffer a change in their circumstances due to events they cannot control and find that they no longer have the ability to fulfil their promises.

The One of Whom we speak, though, is susceptible to neither, for He cannot change – with Him, there is “no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:17). Nor can He suffer a diminution in His wealth. People walk on gold in His Kingdom. Mix in the love we were talking about and you’ll conclude that He means business with you. That blank cheque is underwritten by all of Heaven’s inexhaustible supply of gold.

With your blank cheque, ask God to do great things!

Be a Caleb, who postponed his pension in order to conquer mountains for God! (Joshua 14:12)

Be a Jabez, and ask for a painless extension of your territory. (1 Chronicles 4:9-10)

Be a Moses, and hold high the Rod of God until Victory comes for your entire nation! (Exodus 17:8-13)

Be a Joshua, and command the sun to stand still until the Lord is avenged of His enemies! (Joshua 10:9-13)

Be an Elijah, and ask Him to send the fire so that an apostate nation may return to their God (1 Kings 18:37) and refuse to give up though the rains seem to delay, knowing that He Who caused you to hear the sound of abundance of rain cannot fail! (1 Kings 18:41-45)

Be an Epaphras in your assembly, praying until a wizened old Prayer Warrior like the great Apostle Paul bears witness to your commitment. (Colossians 4:12-13)

Be a Daniel, whose three-times-a-day prayer routine could not be curtailed even by the threat of a spell in the Lions’ Den (Daniel 6:1-11)

Be a John Knox, who prayed, “Give me Scotland, or I die”.

Be a David Wilkerson who got rid of creature comforts like his TV so he could pray for two hours each night – and God came and used him mightily to reach troubled youths and speak to the nations till the Lord took him home.

The world is waiting for you to cash your cheque. Unlike Mordecai, we don’t stop at the king’s gate (Esther 4:1-2) – we go straight in.

Herodias’ daughter “cashed” a terrible cheque.
You, however must be different! Until Jesus returns for us, seize the moment and make your blank cheque count for time and eternity!

Make Your Royalty Count! (4)

In Esther 4:12-14, we find the queen facing the most perilous situation in her young life. She’s decided to take her life in her hands, as they say (though her life was in God’s hands the whole time), in order to intervene with the king on behalf of her people. She’s going to see the king, uninvited.

The problem is that this brazen act – as it was viewed in those days – carried the death penalty (Esther 4:11), a law designed to protect the king from would-be assassins. She’s fasted, and gotten others to fast too (vv 16-17). The tension seems palpable as she walks into the inner chamber (5:1). To all intents and purposes, she could soon be an ex-human being. And yet, and yet…

We find that she had already prepared a banquet for the king and Counsellor Haman to go to, straight after her meeting with the king! (Esther 5:4). Our Esther was not planning on that walk into that inner chamber being her last after all! She is a woman of faith who expected all that fasting to move the Hand of God who, you will note, is not mentioned even once in this beautiful book (but whose providential care cannot be missed).

And then there’s this little detail regarding her preparations that the Holy Spirit saw fit to include in the narrative for our learning: to undertake what could be her last trip, she “put on her royal robes” (5:1). She wanted to look her most regal. She wanted to convey the message that this was not just Esther, but QUEEN Esther. She was showing that she was royalty! Kings and queens belong together. Are you listening, King Ahasuerus? And so she enters – and waits. The king is smitten, extends the Gold Scepter to spare her life, and stutters the staggering promise that her request, “up to half the kingdom”, will be granted. (5:3).

Well, I have exciting news for you: The King of kings is enthralled by your beauty! “…The king is captivated by your tresses.” (Song of Songs 7:5). You may find it hard to believe but, like Esther, you too are pure royalty! You belong to “A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people…” (1 Peter 2:9). And if that is not enough, the grace of God has “seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). What is more, your outfit is one He designed Himself, for you wear HIS Righteousness (Ephesians 6:14;Romans 4:1-3, 9-22; Galatians 3:6-9).

What then? Have faith, fast and pray like Esther and her colleagues did, as if it all depends on fasting and prayer alone, but also take every step you humanly can, as if it all depends on those preparations alone! Prepare the banquet, and don’t forget to wear your royal robes. Always put your best foot forward. As they say, “Success often comes when preparation meets opportunity”. So, start that course; learn more about witnessing; apply for that job, but also understand that it does you no harm at all to know about interview techniques; start that business, armed with the knowledge you’ve acquired from all the sources you can, about what it takes to succeed in that sector, all the while praying with fasting. Go ahead with fasting and prayer regarding that church plant the Lord has put on your heart, but also understand that it will require hours of hard labour in evangelism, visitation and discipling new Christians to make that vision a reality!

Don’t neglect the human side. After all, while Moses’ hand lifted up (a symbol of supplication) ensured victory for Israel, Joshua and co still had to enforce that victory down in the valley via good old-fashioned fighting (Exodus 17:8-13). Nehemiah and his builders married a firm belief that “our God will fight for us” with a willingness to bear arms while still labouring on the building project (Nehemiah 4:15-23)

Prayer and hard work have never been mutually exclusive, or a substitute for each other – rather they’ve always complemented each other! Work in partnership with Him! Until He returns, make your royalty and the ideas He has given you count!

Make Your Status as the Apple of His Eyes Count! (5)

In Esther 5:9-14, Haman has stuffed his face and filled his belly at Queen Esther’s first banquet. The wine seems to have loosened his tongue a bit as he brags about his supposed achievements wealth and exaltation by the king to his wife and friends.

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall”, warns the Bible (Proverbs 16:18), but nobody seems to have told the poor man.

Or perhaps he was too busy indulging his new pastime – devising plans to destroy Mordecai and his people (Esther 3:6-9, 5:14) to care about Biblical warnings.

Either way, his blind hatred is about to rebound spectacularly on his own wicked head.

He arrives expecting a good time. Instead Esther, having softened King Ahasuerus by wining and dining him at two banquets, finally reveals her request, and the reason for that request. More pertinently, she reveals “the adversary and enemy” who had plotted the annihilation of the queen and her people as no other than “this wicked Haman” (Esther 7:6). Imagine the shock of the king! Imagine the terror that must have filled Haman’s heart! May the same terror visit every demon that rises against you!

Remember that Esther, guided by the godly Mordecai, had not yet revealed her roots (Esther 2:20). Oh, for godly mentors!

In his blind fury and determination to destroy Mordecai’s people, Counsellor Haman had unwittingly touched the Apple of Ahasuerus’ eye and was about to pay a heavy price. Even his desperate act of begging the queen to speak on his behalf plays into the narrative of a wicked, disloyal subject trying to destroy both Mordecai, the man whose act of loyalty and bravery had saved the king’s life (Esther 2:21-23) and, more importantly, the king’s beloved wife (See Esther 2:17)! Here’s a man, in the king’s eyes at least, who will even molest the queen when she’s with the king! Haman’s fate was sealed.

I have exciting news for you: YOU are the apple of His eye (Deut 32:10; Zechariah 2:8), and anyone who touches you only invites serious trouble!

That was what Prophet-Soothsayer Balaam (2 Peter 2:16; Joshua 13:22) discovered – that people like you, the apple of His eye, are so blessed you are “uncursable” (Numbers 24).

Wicked King Herod, persecuting the Church in Acts 12, found out too late that Jehovah was in charge the whole time and, though He may allow His saints to go through “tribulation for 10 days” (Rev 2:10), He will sooner rather than later intervene on behalf of His people (Romans 16:20; 1 Peter 5:10). Just one slap from an angel and the proud king “was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost” (v23)

When Saul of Tarsus, a bigoted Pharisee and murderous opponent of Christianity, met the Lord of the Church in that dramatic encounter on Old Damascus Road, the simple, unforgettable takeaway from the experience was this: The Lord takes any attack on His people personally (“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute ME?” (Acts 9:4, emphasis mine), and to set yourself against the Lord is an exercise in futility, like kicking against the goads – there can only ever be one winner! Saul was wise to that fact, and out of that encounter was born the great Apostle Paul.

The super-arrogant Rabshakeh – Chief Butler/Cup-bearer – and his Master, King  Sennacherib of Assyria, in 2 Kings 19, discovered to their cost that it is never a smart war move to touch the apple of His eye, as Jehovah takes those taunts and insults very personally and doesn’t overlook them (vv 22, 27-28).

Child of God, in 2019, and all the years of your beautiful life, He will defend you (2 Kings 19:34), and give you the victory.

“The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them.” (Deuteronomy 33:27).

Walk in confidence, walk in victory.

Make your exalted status as the apple of His eyes count!