{"id":14340,"date":"2013-09-05T01:00:58","date_gmt":"2013-09-05T06:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=14340"},"modified":"2013-09-04T21:47:16","modified_gmt":"2013-09-05T02:47:16","slug":"esther-chapter-116-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/05\/esther-chapter-116-19\/","title":{"rendered":"“Esther” – Chapter 1:16-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Week1_IfWeDontSubmit_ClellaFox\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The party is over! The king is angry, the court officials are appalled, and the queen is realizing that she made a big mistake!<\/p>\n

King Xerxes in his anger and frustration turned to his court advisors to figure out what to do considering Queen Vashti\u2019s disobedience. Memucan<\/span>, one of the advisors, might have stood up and said, \u201cGood king, \u2018no man\/woman is an island!\u2019 What the queen did affected not just you but your whole kingdom!\u201d<\/p>\n

It is true for us as well. What we do or don\u2019t do has an effect on others around us. The Word exhorts us in Romans 13:5, that \u201ceveryone must submit himself to the governing authorities\u2026.\u201d And in Hebrews 13:17 it says, \u201cObey your leaders and submit to their authority.\u201d We are also told in I Timothy 4:12 to \u201cset an example for the believers\u2026\u201d and in I Thessalonians 1:7-8 [to be] \u201da model to all the believers\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

If we don\u2019t submit to our authorities, why should we expect others to submit? A simple example would be obeying the speed limits. To obey them is to submit to the Transportation Authority that has set those limits for our safety. If we don\u2019t submit to that authority\u00a0and don\u2019t obey the limits, why should we expect our youth when they start driving to submit to and obey the limits? Others are watching our example and are likely to follow us–even possibly to a greater extent.<\/p>\n

Remember the saying, \u201cActions speak louder than words?\u201d Well, these are the things that Memucan was so concerned about when he said,<\/p>\n

For this deed of the queen shall become known to all women, and so shall they despise their husbands\u2026<\/span>There will be no end of disrespect and discord. (verse 17)<\/p>\n

He was greatly concerned that others would follow Vashti\u2019s example to even greater extremes. Therefore, to stop that potential fallout there had to be consequences for her actions. She lost favor with the king, she lost her position of respect, and she lost those precious possessions that go along with the position. The punishment corresponded to the crime: she wouldn\u2019t go before the king–so she was denied access to the king from that point on.<\/p>\n

Now remembering that King Xerxes was a foreshadow<\/em> of a greater King, Jesus, we need to recognize Vashti as a foreshadow<\/em> of the Jewish people. Time and again the Jews refused to submit to God\u2019s commandments. They chose to \u201cdo their own thing.\u201d And thus they lost favor with God and were even separated from Him by exile to foreign lands. As with Vashti, the punishment corresponded to the crime.<\/p>\n

When Jesus came, he came to be the Jews\u2019 King. Through His example, His teachings, and His miracles, He tried to draw the Jews to Himself. Matthew 23:37\u00a0 says, \u201cI longed to gather your children together\u2026<\/span>and you were not willing\u201d\u2014you would not submit.<\/p>\n

Our author, Darlene, writes, \u201crighteousness is conformity to God\u2019s laws,\u201d\u00a0—submitting<\/span> to God\u2019s Will and God\u2019s Way. I think of righteousness as \u201cbeing in right standing with God.\u201d But most of us, like the Jews, like to do things our own way. Surely we are good enough. We do good deeds! Vashti thought her beauty and position were<\/span> enough to sustain her! We, as Vashti did, try to define our own righteousness by our own rules. \u201cBeauty is only skin deep,\u201d and so is our \u201cgoodness\u201d unless we come before God in submission and in faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:22, 4:3-5).<\/p>\n

If Vashti had come in submission before the King it would have shown everyone that she trusted him. It would have put her in \u201cright standing\u201d with the king. Perhaps he would have presented her with some lovely gift or a new royal robe! In Matthew 22:1-14 (the parable of the wedding banquet) many were invited to come but most refused to attend. They were doing their \u201cown thing\u201d and didn\u2019t have time for the king\u2019s banquet. Others came and accepted the wedding garment and enjoyed the party. The man in verses 11 and 12 refused to submit to the king and his offer of security and right standing (righteousness) and, like Vashti, he was forever separated from the one who wanted to save him (verse<\/span> 13).<\/p>\n

ALL of us are invited to Christ\u2019s banquet, but only those prepared can come and stay. For us, the garment represents our covering of righteousness provided through our faith in Jesus Christ to make us acceptable in God\u2019s presence. God wants to clothe us with His robe of righteousness. He wants us to sit with Him in His heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6). \u00a0Have you accepted God\u2019s invitation?\u00a0 Have you submitted to Him and allowed Him to clothe you with His robe of righteousness? \u00a0If not, do it today, and join the greatest banquet ever!<\/p>\n

*****<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let’s Pray<\/span>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Lord,<\/p>\n

Today we are reminded that our submission to You, our King, makes the difference between separation from you or being welcomed into Your presence. Help us, Lord, to also remember that what we do or don\u2019t do does affect others. Thank You, Jesus, for offering through Your shed blood Your robe of righteousness. We cannot earn it and certainly don\u2019t deserve it, but You are offering it to us freely as we have faith in You. We submit our lives to You, and ask You to clothe us with Your robe of righteousness.\u00a0 Thank You. \u00a0In Jesus\u2019 Name.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The party is over! The king is angry, the court officials are appalled, and the queen is realizing that she made a big mistake! King Xerxes in his anger and frustration turned to his court advisors to figure out what to do considering Queen Vashti\u2019s disobedience. Memucan, one of the advisors, might have stood up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":14341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[2574,3495,52,3556,3491,3475,3555,3500,2052,3554,425,3494,554,3492,3501,3498,2206,3496,1529,3499,1022,3497,3502,3493,1140],"class_list":["post-14340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens","tag-1-peter-29","tag-1-thessalonians-17-8","tag-1-timothy-412","tag-authorities","tag-clella-fox","tag-darlene-schacht","tag-disobedience","tag-ephesians-26","tag-esther","tag-esther-bible-study","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-hebrews-1318","tag-jesus","tag-king-xerxes","tag-matthew-221-14","tag-matthew-2337","tag-righteousness","tag-romans-135","tag-romans-322","tag-romans-4-305","tag-submission","tag-submitting-to-authorities","tag-submitting-to-god","tag-vashti","tag-womens-online-bible-studies","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Week1_IfWeDontSubmit_ClellaFox.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-3Ji","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14340"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14478,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14340\/revisions\/14478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}