Day 268: Esther's Cool Story

Revelation 12; Esther 2; Psalm 105:26-45

I love this passage in Revelation: "Our God has shown his saving power, and his kingdom has come! God's own Chosen One has shown his authority. Satan accused our people in the presence of God day and night. Now he has been thrown out! Our people defeated Satan because of the blood of the Lamb and the message of God. They were willing to give up their lives." Any time scripture talks about defeating the devil and overcoming sin, I feel empowered. It is by Jesus' sacrifice and the word of God that the Lord's followers can participate in such a victory. However, if we think that the battle will be easy, we are missing an important part of this passage: "They were willing to give up their lives." Such victory over the darkness of this world takes everything we have and costs much. Christ promises that it is worth it, but it is not cheap. This passage goes on to say that heaven pities the earth because that is where Satan lives. However, his time is short. Again, a reference to the reign of The Lord, because the devil will not rule long. God's anger burns intensely though, and as hard as believers might fight to win souls for The Lord and battle sin, we can be assured that the evil one will be pressing just as fiercely.

There is a lot about Esther's story that is so cool: she was a nobody who became a princess (the first "Disney" princess), she was obedient to her wise uncle, she was a favorite from the beginning. But I also see God's part of this story at work: he wanted a way to save lives and so from the beginning of the story orchestrated events that would allow Esther to be in a position of power. We have free will, but I have no doubt that God can plant desires in our hearts: Vashti's desire to not be treated as a trophy, Xerxes' officials suggestions, Esther's beauty, the guards anger at the king, and Mordecai's knowledge of the murder plot. I also find it interesting that she and Mordecai come from the tribe of Benjamin. If I'm not mistaken, this is the smallest and least significant tribe of the Jews. Of course. God loves to use the least, lowest, weakest, most unsuspecting to do great things.

This psalm ends in this way: "He did this so that his people would obey all of his laws." Ok, so what is the significance of that. The first time I read it, nothing connected, but as I looked at it again, I realized what it means. He crushed and devastated Egypt, lead the people through the desert, provided water from rocks, gave them more food than they could eat, all for what? So that they would obey his laws. And what are the laws and their purpose? To keep them holy and give them life abundantly. All those miracles were meant to bring the people closer to God. It wasn't so that he could show them how awesome he was and they would be afraid, though many were, but it was to provide for them a way of life that would be good and pleasing to the Creator of the universe. That's what God's whole story is about: drawing his people closer to him by rescuing us, providing for us, loving us.