SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 9/21/2011 10:29:51 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The
Agreement of the King
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: Ester 2:1-4
Message
of the verses: “1 After these things when the anger of King Ahasuerus had subsided, he
remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her. 2
Then the king’s attendants, who served him, said, "Let beautiful young
virgins be sought for the king. 3 "Let the king appoint overseers in all
the provinces of his kingdom that they may gather every beautiful young virgin
to the citadel of Susa, to the harem, into the custody of Hegai, the king’s
eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let their cosmetics be given them. 4
“Then let the young lady who pleases the king be queen in place of
Vashti." And the matter pleased the king, and he did accordingly.”
` I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that
the author chose not to write about the wars that were going on between Persia
and Greece at the time of this writing of Ester. Dr. Wiersbe points out that after the king
was drunk at the seven day party he went off to war to battle the Greeks and
was soundly defeated by them and so the king came back to Babylon and was now
ready to do something about the situation with the Queen, and that is where we
pick up the story in today’s SD.
Dr. Wiersbe entitles this second
chapter of his commentary on Ester “The New Queen” and writes this at the
beginning of the chapter “(In which Ester becomes the king’s wife, and Mordecai
gets no reward for saving the king’s life).”
He then goes on to write what can be expected in this chapter of Ester
as we study it: As you read this
chapter, you will see at least three evidences of the hand of God at work in
the affairs of the people.” The first
evidence is what is written in the focus portion of this SD.
Before I go into the commentary on
this section I want to bring to this SD a quote from John MacArthur’s Study
Bible that he wrote at the beginning of the book of Ester: “Ester could be compared to a chess
game. God and Satan (as invisible
players) moved real kings, queens, and nobles.
When Satan put Haman into place, it was as if he announced ‘Check.’ God then positioned Ester and Mordecai in
order to put Satan into ‘Checkmate!’”
This is surely an interesting way of summarizing the book of Ester.
You can see the hand of God in what
is happening here and this brings up a point that I have been mulling over in
my mind for a long time and this portion of Scripture gives me the opportunity
to write about what it is that I have been thinking about. I will begin with a quotation from Dr.
Wiersbe that will help explain what I have been wrestling with: “The
king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it
wherever He wishes’ (Prov. 21:1 NKJV).’
This doesn’t mean that God forced Ahasuerus to accept the plan, or that
God approved of the king’s harems or of his sensual abuse of women. It simply means that, without being the
author of their sin, God so directed the people in this situation that
decisions were made that accomplished God’s purposes.” Here we have the heart of what has been going
on in my mind for a very long time and that is that there is a difference
between the will of God and the plans of God.
I believe that there are many examples of this found in the Scriptures,
but understanding this is at best difficult.
As I think about the different attributes that God possesses like, love,
justice, wisdom, all powerful, all knowing, is at all places at all times, and
I am sure that there are others that I have missed. The point is that all of God’s attributes
bring Him glory. John MacArthur has said
that all of the attributes of God were present at the cross, and so the cross
brought glory to the Lord. Did what
happened to Vashti bring glory to God?
In my opinion I do not believe that it did. However I do believe that this was what God
used to bring about his plan, and that plan was to save the Jews from total
destruction, something that would have stopped the Messiah from being
born.
I am not saying that I totally have understanding
of all this and probably never will, but what I do understand about it helps me
to make more sense of the Bible and also of life here on planet earth, and
there is one thing that I do know that God is on His Throne and He rules in the
affairs of men and with that I can be very thankful for, and it also helps me
in my quest of learning contentment. A
good Scripture showing that God is in total control is found in Daniel 4:35, “All the peoples of the earth are regarded
as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of
the earth. No-one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you
done?’”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: As I look
around at this world and see all of the trouble that is out there I can say
that I am thankful beyond belief that I am a child of God, and that God is on
His Throne bringing about His will and His plan for those on planet earth. Knowing this does help me to be content with
who I am and what God has planned for me to accomplish in this life to bring
honor to Him.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Continue to
seek a better prayer life.
2.
Continue to learn contentment.
9/21/2011
11:47:25 AM
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