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What You Do Counts Today I'd like to take an incident in the Old Testament and bring out a few points relevant for us today. The main point I hope you'll see is that with Christ anyone can make a difference! The story starts with a Jewish lady marrying a Persian King named Xerxes. Her uncle Mordecai even saves the King from a death plot around about this time. You'd think with that going for them they'd live happily ever after! Unfortunately, NOT!
The
King's chief adviser Haman became angry because the Queen's uncle
Mordecai would not bow down to him when he passed him by.
This was his right by law because of his position in the court.
So the law was passed and the times being what they were, the law was proclaimed throughout the land. Imagine walking through the market in your town and having the Town Crier get up on his platform and announce that on Saturday week every able bodied man can take up a weapon and kill anyone of an ethnic minority in the neighbourhood. Money has even been earmarked to pay all those interested in the job! You can understand that every Jew was rather upset. Well, that may be an understatement! Mordecai was possible the most upset as he realized that the indirect cause of the problem was him. It was wrong of Haman to do what he was doing but that would not have made Mordecai feel any better. When Mordecai's distress was brought to Queen Esther's notice she asked him what she could do. He talked through the whole situation and asked her to see the King about it. The thing was that going to see the King without an invite could itself lead to death! But Mordecai made her realise that it was the only option. So Queen Esther asked that all the Jews in Susa should fast for three days and three nights and she would do the same, and after that she'd beard the lion in his den! So Mordecai organized that all the Jews in the city of Susa would fast for three days and three nights, and Ester and her entourage did the same. So on the third day having completed her fasting Esther goes along to see the King. Fortunately the King was pleased to see her and invited her close. Asking what she wanted Esther invited the King along to a feast she had prepared for the King and Haman. The King agreed and on that third day they went along and enjoyed the feast. The King would have granted Esther any wish but she asked for them to come back the next day to another feast. Everything seemed to be going well for Haman. His plans had worked and the law was in place. He was chuffed about being the only one invited to the feast besides the King. Life was good but it all turned to gall when Mordecai did not bow to him as he passed him on his way home, despite Mordecai being under penalty of death! Not only that, the next day (the fourth) the King remembered that his life had been spared before because a plot to kill him had been exposed and he wondered if the person who saved him had been thanked. Finding out that the man had not been honored, he asked Haman how someone that he, the King, wanted to honor should be honored. When H aman told him, the King command him to carry out everything he'd thought of on Mordecai! Life han gone from honey to gall! Later that fourth day the King and Haman went to a second day of feasting in the Queen's apartments and once more the King asked Esther to name a wish and he would grant it. This time Esther told him that her people had been sold to be slaughtered and she asked for the life of her people. When the King realized what had been done and that Haman had organized this he had Haman hanged; and since he could not recind the 'Haman Law', he passed a law allowing the Jews to kill any one who raised a hand against them in all the land. So the people came to fear the Jews because of what they might do and many even claimed to BE Jews so as to avoid any trouble! But the point is that because people were willing to stand and take their troubles to God they made a difference in the whole nation of Israel. Esther became a heroine. Se called a fast for three days and three nights to ask God for his help in the trial. And on the third day, when the time was over, she broke the fast and acted, and God blessed her actions. Mordecai became a hero. His stand for God and not bowing down in worship to any human had consequences wider than he would have expected. But he relied on God and prevailed. The ordinary Jews of Susa fasted and prayed to God for three days and three nights. When they stopped on the third day they must have been on tenterhooks wondering what would happen when Esther went to see the King. But the faith of these unsung heroes was rewarded by God. Can you make a difference? YES!
On
your own you can be up against overwhelming odds.
For more on
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