God is working in and through all things 🏗️
A Lesson from the Book of Esther
I have recently been reading from the Book of Esther during my daily Scripture reading. It is a book that is filled with so many powerful lessons for us.
A basic idea of the story is, King Xerxes of the Babylonian Empire, has a party that lasts about 6 months, and then throws another party. His Queen displeases him, and so he replaces her with another Queen. Esther becomes Queen, and she is a Jew but she keeps it a secret. A man named Haman hates the Jews, and one in particular (Mordecai) and convinces the king that they should eliminate all the Jews in the Empire. However, through prayer and fasting, Queen Esther finds favour from the king, and the king gives permission for the Jews to defend themselves, and the entire nation of Jewish people are saved.
There is a particular scene of the story that stood out to me. It was a part when Haman, who hates Mordecai so much that he builds a pole at his house to impale Mordecai on. However, God orchestrates things in the background in such a way that instead of Mordecai being killed by Haman on this pole, instead, Haman publically honours Mordecai against his will because of the kings order, and then he himself is impaled by the king's command on the pole he set up for Mordecai.
What a turn around. Could this be a soap opera story… definitely!
Here are the lessons I learned from this part of the story:
Hate drives people to do crazy, irrational things.
You don’t need to defend yourself to those who hate you, God is able to defend you. Trust in Him.
If you are a trustworthy and faithful person, and do good work, and are unnoticed, don’t worry about that. God is the one who promotes and is able to honour you and lift you up at the right time, keep your heart right and do the right things.
God is always working even when we can’t see it.
Stay courageous.
The Big Lesson that I learned, that I felt like the Lord speak into my heart, and something I am continuing to try learn and understand completely is this:
What the enemy uses or sets up to destroy you, will be the thing that destroys them. What the enemy meant for harm, God turns to good.
It is as if, the very thing that the enemy is attacking you with to bring you down is the very thing that will become an area of your victory, story, and overcoming. I don’t understand it completely, but I do know that this encourages me that God is able to turn things around. Trusting in Him brings victory in life. I remember during Covid thinking, God, will the church survive this? Hearing of casualties in other churches, experiencing some casualties personally, this was on my mind. However, God showed me that His church is far more resilient than I could ever imagine, and would actually create ways for the church to be more effective.
I am still trying to get more of this in me, to help me to trust in God completely when faced with different circumstances. The pole that Haman built to impale Mordecai was the pole he was impaled on himself.
When God is fighting for you, who can defeat you? Let’s keep trusting God, and fight with prayer and surrender to His will.
Regards,
Sven
P.S. If this speaks to you in some way, let me know. I love hearing from you, and learning from you. Finally, give the book of Esther a read, it is profound.
P.P.S. I am giving away some of my books to subscribers soon, and will share details with you how to participate in the giveaway.
A fantastic reminder that despite the outlook God is sovereign in all things. Also trusting God takes faith and faith requires a relationship with Him and seeking Him in His Word