SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/10/2011 8:45:21 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“A
Morning of Decision”
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: Ester 6:6-10
Message of the verses: “6 So Haman came in and the king said to
him, "What is to be done for the man whom the king desires to honor?"
And Haman said to himself, "Whom would the king desire to honor more than
me?" 7 Then Haman said to the king, "For the man whom the king
desires to honor, 8 let them bring a royal robe which the king has worn, and
the horse on which the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown has
been placed; 9 and let the robe and the horse be handed over to one of the
king’s most noble princes and let them array the man whom the king desires to
honor and lead him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before
him, ’Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.’"
10 Then the king said to Haman, "Take quickly the robes and the horse as
you have said, and do so for Mordecai the Jew, who is sitting at the king’s
gate; do not fall short in anything of all that you have said.’”
Dr.
Wiersbe calls this second main point “A morning of decision,” and there were
two decisions that were made, one by the king and the other by Haman. The king decided to reward Mordecai, and
Haman, thinking that the reward of the king was coming his way decided what the
reward would be and the king agreed with Haman and then tells him that
Mordecai, the man whose life was to end that day because of Haman’s hatred
towards him, was to be rewarded and that Mordecai was the one who would give
him the reward.
When
I think of Genesis 12:1-3, the covenant that God made with Abraham and in that
covenant God tells Abraham that He would bless those who blessed him and curse
those who tried to curse him. This is
speaking of all the children of Israel saying that if anyone hates them just
because who they are then God would curse them, and this is exactly what is going
on in this story, for Haman hated the Jews because they were Jews and was
trying to destroy all of them for that reason, but God will not allow this to
happen because of His covenant with Abraham, and because of that Abrahamic
covenant Haman would die.
There
are some more Proverbs that Dr. Wiersbe points out in his commentary on this
section and at the end of the list of Proverbs he asks a question that has to
do with how the Proverb is constructed, that is there is a comma in the Proverb
and there is a choice as to what side of the comma that we are to live on. Here is the first Proverb “The righteous is delivered from trouble,
and it comes to the wicked instead.”
(Pr. 11:8) Now this one is
easy if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and have been born again
through His death on the cross which paid for your sins. Here is the next Proverb “Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, and before honor is
humility.” (Pr. 18:12) Now the first half of the verse surely is
seen in Haman and the last part is seen of Mordecai, however believers can get
off track and as Paul writes in Romans 12:3 “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to
think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have
sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” This verse tells believers how they should
be. Next we see Proverbs 29:23, “A man’s pride will bring him low, But a
humble spirit will obtain honor.”
Again we have a choice as believers to choose which side of the comma we
live on.
We
have spoke of the providence of God and how God is in charge of our schedules
so that God’s plan will be completed for He is in control, and now we see that
God’s plan was to have Mordecai honored for something he did five years before
and the irony of it is that the great enemy of the Jews is used to give this
honor to Mordecai.
Yesterday
I listened to a message from John MacArthur that was about prayer, and it may
seem that it was in kind of an odd spot in the book of Mark, but when one
begins to think about it they will realize that it is in a perfect spot. This event happened in the last week of the
Lord Jesus life on planet earth and as He was leaving to go to the temple He
was hungry and looked at a fig tree to give Him something to eat, but there was
no fruit on the fig tree and so He cursed the fig tree and immediately it died
from the roots upward. The fig tree
represents Israel and in this case the temple, for there was no fruit seen in
the temple worship at this time. As
MacArthur develops the message he shows that there are five elements necessary
in prayer of which the first one he entitles “historical” and the key word in
this section is “remember.” The reason
that I bring this up at this time in this SD is because believers can look at
what happened in this section of Scripture and can remember it so that when
believers are praying they will have confidence because the Lord was involved
in Mordecai’s life and the life of all of the Jews that He will also be
involved in their lives too.
There
are four more items that were brought up in this sermon that I will just
mention: “Theological” is the next and
the key words are “Trust God.” Next is “Spiritual”
and the key is “Believe.” “Practical” is
next and that key word is “Asking.” The
last and probably the hardest is entitled “Moral,” and its key word is
“Forgive.” The Scripture used in this
message is from Mark 11:12-25.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Which side of the comma am I living my life
on especially from Proverbs 29:23? Do I
have a problem with pride so that the Lord will have to discipline me or am I
being humble, and that goes along with my life verse from Philippians 4:11b
which speaks of being contentment.
My Steps of Faith
for Today:
1.
Continue to learn contentment.
2.
Remember that pride will cause a great deal of
trouble in my life, but humility will bring blessings.
10/10/2011 10:40:43 AM
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