August 19

OT -- Esther 4:1-7:10
There are two great lines in the scripture for today.
The first is an injunction that Mordecai gives to Esther: "And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"
And the second is her response: "And if I perish, I perish."
Both of these are such great words of wisdom to each of us. We have no idea why we are put in such places. You just don't know when what you do can save the world. After all, Esther may or may not have wanted to win that beauty contest. She may have already had a boyfriend or picked out a man to marry. And let's face it, Xerxes may have been king, but what a weakling. He also does not appear to be exactly the brightest crayon in the box.
1. He got mad because he was drunk and wanted his queen to come and dance for him in front of all his guests. When she had the same guests in her quarters. And remember what dancing was like in this century and what the goals were. In front of drunk men.
2. Then he listened to all his advisers and threw her out and moped around for a month. To cheer himself up, he has a parade of beauties. These beauties don't go home after they have made their appearance. I will leave it to your imagination why.
3. His butt is saved by someone but he forgets about them, instead elevating a crazy man to the highest position. When that crazy man wants to kill a whole group of people because one person (think how much cheaper it would have been to kill HIM alone), Xerxes not only approves it but he PAYS for it.
I could go on, but you get the drift. And there is more, yes, more to come.

So, here is our beauty, Esther, with this not-so-smart king, putting her life on the line. And how does she do it? By using her God-given talent. Her looks.

Another lesson for us. Just because WE think a gift is not the best one or the right one, does not mean that God cannot use it. After all, who gave Esther that great beauty and kindness anyway? Something to think about when the 3 AMs strike and I start to say, "if only my children were such and so." or "I wish that this situation wasn't happening to me." This may be just the character test (remember, 'if I perish, I perish') that is being called for.

Of course, our heroine triumphs and the evil Haman is not only hanged on the gallows he had created, but disgraced by having to parade his arch-nemesis Mordecai in the streets beforehand.
Lest you think this is some sort of fairy tale where everyone lives happily ever after, it is not.
The royal line does not go through Esther. It goes through Vashti, the original non-dancing queen. There is a brief mention of Esther in the court records of Persia but Vashti is the one who remains royal consort and whose son inherits. Esther is not recorded as having borne any children.
And while the Jews were saved from annihilation, they still had to fight for their lives and this cycle of antisemitism continues to this day. And this is why Purim is such a joyful holiday and another lesson for us. Because we need to celebrate the victories at hand. The sweet times. Next week, we may be fighting for our lives. We will deal with that battle then.



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NT -- 1st Corinthians 12:1-26
This has always been an intriguing scripture for me. Long ago, I took a spiritual gift inventory and mine came up prophesy. Now, prophesy in the Bible is not the same as Gypsy prophesying. I have absolutely no gift for seeing the future. Otherwise, my 401k would not be less than the amount I have actually put in it.
No, Bible prophesy is seeing something that is wrong and calling attention to it to resolve it for justice. A Know-it-all. Yeah, I think that inventory pegged me pretty well.
Are you curious about YOUR spiritual gift?
Take this one for youth. It is shorter than the one for adults and you know, I never grew out of the 14 year old age range.
When I took it a few minutes ago, it said my number one spiritual gift was ----
TEACHING. Are you surprised?
What about yours? Did it surprise you?

spiritual gift inventory

Grace and peace to you all.