{"id":15173,"date":"2013-10-11T00:01:10","date_gmt":"2013-10-11T05:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=15173"},"modified":"2013-10-11T00:40:36","modified_gmt":"2013-10-11T05:40:36","slug":"esther-chapter-6-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/10\/11\/esther-chapter-6-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"Esther – Chapter 6: Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hos149\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I think this story should be titled, \u201cThe Sleepless King and The Providence of God.\u201d \u00a0We saw in the last part of this study that Haman strongly<\/strong> <\/em>dislikes Mordecai and Mordecai despises Haman. \u00a0Mordecai wants Haman removed from the king\u2019s advisory counsel and Haman wants Mordecai removed from life.\u00a0 As I\u00a0have mentioned before, Esther is one of the only\u00a0books of the Bible that does not mention God…yet He\u2019s not far from each scene, is He?<\/p>\n

Esther 6:1-3<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

As we know, all is set to come to a head tomorrow so it\u2019s no wonder that the king had a hard time sleeping. He had his servants read to him the story of how Mordecai saved the king from two assailants who had wanted to kill him (Esther 2:21-23). \u00a0It was also said that Mordecai had not been rewarded yet for his courage in this situation.\u00a0 Can you see the fingerprints of God all over this? \u00a0He is the One that has the king awake!\u00a0 He is the One that has him read the book of records and He is the One who directed the king\u2019s eunuchs to choose the story about Mordecai\u2019s saving the king\u2019s life. Have you seen the invisible hand of God working in your life?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Esther 6:4-9<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The self-consumed one enters the picture.\u00a0 Haman has this plan to hang Mordecai.\u00a0 He wakes early and rushes to the king to tell him his plan before anyone else and,because he actually thought the king loved him, he had no doubt he would honor his request.\u00a0 What he didn\u2019t take into account was that God never sleeps and He had been working on Mordecai\u2019s behalf throughout the night and speaking to the king\u2019s heart (praise the Lord!). \u00a0So Haman comes in and the king wants to know what Haman thinks should be done to the man that the king himself wants to honor. He\u2019s thinking the king MUST want to honor him, so he says this: the one you honor should be displayed wearing a royal kingly robe and crown, and paraded on a horse and should be admired by all the people.<\/p>\n

Esther 6:10-14<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

What does pride come before? In Proverbs 18:2, it says, “Before his downfall a mans heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.” \u00a0Proverbs 25:27 says, “It is not good to eat too much honey, nor is it honorable to seek one\u2019s own honor.” \u00a0Can you imagine what Haman was feeling when the king told him to do for Mordecai what he expected to be done for himself? \u00a0I feel sure his heart dropped and after the words sank in, he probably becomes extremely angry.\u00a0 His worst fears have come true as he has to robe Mordecai and crown him and parade him through the streets in which Haman himself hoped to be paraded.\u00a0 So what does he do? \u00a0He seeks counsel from his wife who confirms his own thinking, he is ruined.<\/p>\n

\u00a0_______________<\/p>\n

Let me just say to each of you who follow our Lord faithfully with your whole life, the day will come when you are publicly praised and honored and displayed by our great God Himself.\u00a0 But do not set your heart on it in this life!\u00a0 As\u00a0I have said before in previous blogs, there is a little Haman in all of us, right?\u00a0 We don’t want our good deeds to go unnoticed.\u00a0 We may want a little recognition from others for the sacrifices we make on others behalf.\u00a0 But now is not the time, unless God chooses to. \u00a0Otherwise, honor is reserved for Jesus Himself!\u00a0 Jesus says if we love Him then we must love each other and we must put others before ourselves. \u00a0And we should seek only those things that hold eternal value.\u00a0 All things will pass away,\u00a0except Jesus Himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.\u201d~ Jim Elliot<\/p>\n

Who is wise? Let them realize these things. Who is discerning? Let them understand. The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.<\/p>\n

Hosea 14:9<\/strong><\/p>\n

—————-<\/p>\n

Riches I heed not, nor man\u2019s empty praise,
\nThou my inheritance, now and always Thou and Thou only, the first in my heart,
\nSovereign of Heaven, my treasure Thou art.
\nHigh King of Heaven, Thou Heaven\u2019s bright sun
\nGrant be its joy after victory is won
\nGreat Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
\nBe Thou my vision, O Ruler of all.”
\n(from Be Thou My Vision<\/em><\/b><\/em>)<\/p>\n

Let’s Pray<\/span>: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Daddy, we thank You for the clear, bright glow of the light of Your truth that shines in the darkness of our own hearts so that we can see ourselves exactly as we are. \u00a0Frightening as it is, we thank You that we don\u2019t need to continue to look at that but to look to the One who has come into this world for this very purpose, that\u2019s Jesus.\u00a0 He alone destroys the work of the enemy in our lives. \u00a0Forgive us when pride gets in the way and we seek glory that belongs to You, oh Lord. Gently put us in our place.\u00a0 For all we do on this earth, all words that come out of our mouths, may they only point to You and give You the honor and glory You so deserve.\u00a0 Help us to love each other the way You have commanded and rid us of any anger or bitterness.\u00a0 We love You and we praise You and we can\u2019t wait to meet You face to face one day but until then may we continue to walk in Your path and light.\u00a0 For it\u2019s in Jesus\u2019 name we pray.<\/p>\n

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

I think this story should be titled, \u201cThe Sleepless King and The Providence of God.\u201d \u00a0We saw in the last part of this study that Haman strongly dislikes Mordecai and Mordecai despises Haman. \u00a0Mordecai wants Haman removed from the king\u2019s advisory counsel and Haman wants Mordecai removed from life.\u00a0 As I\u00a0have mentioned before, Esther is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":15191,"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":[3475,4091,3512,425,3793,4059,4058,589,724,1510,3939,4092,938,4060],"class_list":["post-15173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens","tag-darlene-schacht","tag-esther-6-recap","tag-esther-the-beauty-of-courageous-submission","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-haman-and-mordecai","tag-hosea-149","tag-jim-elliot","tag-kim-spring","tag-online-bible-study","tag-pride","tag-proverbs-1812","tag-proverbs-2527","tag-scripture","tag-the-study-of-esther","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Hos149.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-3WJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15173","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\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15173"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15199,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15173\/revisions\/15199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}