{"id":14674,"date":"2013-09-17T01:00:51","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T06:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=14674"},"modified":"2013-09-16T23:39:03","modified_gmt":"2013-09-17T04:39:03","slug":"esther-chapter-36-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/17\/esther-chapter-36-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Esther – Chapter 3:6-7"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\n

But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai. Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>were<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus\u2014the people of Mordecai. \u00a0<\/i>In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>is,<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>the lot), before Haman to determine the day and the month,\u00a0<\/i>until<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/i>it fell on the<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>twelfth<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>month,<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>which<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/i>is<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>the month of Adar.<\/i><\/p>\n

Esther 3:6-7<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I can imagine the scene, Haman and his men, sitting around with their planners open rolling dice to determine when they would carry out their plan to kill the Jews, lives on the line, their fate being sealed by such a simple method, such carelessness. Hamen<\/span> wasn’t pleased with simply plotting against Mordecai, \u201cbut he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i>dis\u00b7dain<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/b> to<\/span>\u00a0look\u00a0upon\u00a0or\u00a0treat\u00a0with\u00a0contempt;\u00a0despise;\u00a0scorn.<\/b><\/p>\n

2.<\/span>to<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/b>think\u00a0unworthy\u00a0of\u00a0notice,\u00a0response,\u00a0etc.;\u00a0consider\u00a0beneath\u00a0oneself:\u00a0todisdain<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/i>replying<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>to<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>an<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>insult.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

3.<\/b>a\u00a0<\/b>feeling<\/span>\u00a0of\u00a0contempt\u00a0for\u00a0anything\u00a0regarded\u00a0as\u00a0unworthy;\u00a0haughty contempt;\u00a0scorn<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>Mordecai alone wasn’t worth his trouble, he was below Haman. \u201cInstead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>were<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus\u201d. <\/i>All of them. That was quite a lot of people. <\/i>There is a sentence in my study bible that caught my attention; \u00a0\u201ca roll of the dice had no power to determine the destiny of God\u2019s people<\/span>\u201d.<\/p>\n

I can imagine the hatred that Haman had for the Jewish people, hatred so strong that he was compelled to try and kill the entire population, a people that had done nothing to him. A seed of hate was planted and that seed grew, it grew until he decided to act, I\u2019m not sure if you have ever acted on a seed like this, but I have and I can tell you from experience that it doesn’t end well.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i>He who is<\/i><\/b>\u00a0slow to anger\u00a0is\u00a0better than the mighty,<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Proverbs 16:32<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

When I think of biblical times I think of a time where people had to defend themselves, men were expected to be physically strong whether they were tasked with farming or tasked with defending a city on battle. Women were expected to display a strength that allowed them to raise children, tend to her husband and run a home. Strength was a needed staple in<\/span> life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Imagine now reading this verse, \u201cHe who is<\/i>\u00a0slow to anger\u00a0is\u00a0better than the mighty\u201d. Slow to anger? <\/i>But they cut me off. But they disrespected me. But they hurt me. \u201cAnd he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city\u201d <\/i>But their words deserve a response. But I need to defend myself against their actions. But I need to prove that they can\u2019t walk all over me. But. But. But.<\/p>\n

But, we need to see where God sees true strength; it is not in the exertion of our power, the release of our anger. He is telling us that there is true strength in our self-control; there is true strength in patience and compassion, and grace.<\/p>\n

Haman\u2019s anger drove him to desire to kill; he allowed the anger, whatever the cause, to rule him. I\u2019m not at all implying that we are going to copy his actions but, has your anger toward a person or a situation influenced what you said or did? We\u2019re not rolling a set of dice to determine the outcome of a population group, but has it caused us to act carelessly? To hurt the heart or mind of another because we were acting on feelings.<\/p>\n

Esther 6 and 7 are great examples of what not to do, what we shouldn’t allow to happen. This is an extreme example, but hatred and anger are extreme emotions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s Pray:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Heavenly Father,<\/p>\n

Anger and hatred are emotions to<\/span> readily accepted in our world today. Lord give<\/span> us the desire to not conform to this norm and to break the cycle of anger in our lives. Please replace these negative emotions with love and grace, with self-control and compassion. Soften our heart to those who may anger us, those who offend us, whether the offence<\/span> is small or large. Let us be an example. Lord.<\/p>\n

We each have a \u201cHaman\u201d in our lives, but we know that You are in control. \u00a0A\u00a0roll of the dice does not determine our future, nor does it determine the future of those around us…You do. Thank You Lord for being the example of self-control. \u00a0Thank You for being the model of how we should live and love.<\/p>\n

In Jesus\u2019 name we pray, Amen.<\/p>\n

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

But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai. Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who\u00a0were\u00a0throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus\u2014the people of Mordecai. \u00a0In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":14679,"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":[3110,3511,1266,3475,3755,3512,3545,425,2269,506,3514,3756,2263,1075,1141],"class_list":["post-14674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens","tag-anger","tag-book-of-esther","tag-christian-womens-fellowship","tag-darlene-schacht","tag-esther-36-7","tag-esther-the-beauty-of-courageous-submission","tag-feast","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-hatred","tag-holy-spirit","tag-introduction-to-esther","tag-proverbs-1632","tag-self-control","tag-tonya-ellison","tag-womens-online-bible-study","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Anger_Wk-3_Ellison.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-3OG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14674","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\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14674"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14684,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14674\/revisions\/14684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}