The resources God has given us to live a thriving life are His Word, Spirit, and People.
Read God’s Word:
Esther 6-10
Act 2: God’s Covenant People
Scene 9: Return: God Delivers His People Again
Background Information: Esther 6-10
Strange coincidences collide in this amazing story. The King can’t sleep and decides to read the royal records; perhaps he knew they were tedious enough to put him to sleep. He happens to read of the heroism of Mordecai just as Haman happens to come to ask for permission to kill Mordecai. Haman ironically is killed on the gallows he himself erected. The enemies of the Jewish people had hoped to overpower them, but Scripture says just the opposite occurred. All these circumstances fall into place in a series of remarkable luck for the Jewish people. But of course, it is not mere luck or coincidence, but God’s providence. God’s providence is his active governance and direction of the universe and all events within it, ensuring they align with his divine plan and purposes. God’s sovereignty refers to His inherent right and power to do all that He pleases, and his providence is the practical outworking of that sovereignty. If Esther and the Jewish people seem vengeful and bloodthirsty, we have to understand that they had been at risk of extermination. The threat to their existence had been thwarted by the work of God through a forgotten act of bravery, a king with insomnia, and a woman’s physical beauty and courage. All these apparent fortuitous circumstances were actually God’s providential actions to accomplish his sovereign will. We should marvel at God’s ability to orchestrate all this. We should take comfort in the fact that his will cannot be stopped. We should worship a God with this kind of wisdom and power. Yet, it is confusing, isn’t it? Since God is sovereign and He works out everything according to his will, why do we often ask why this is happening to me and to the ones I love? His providence is comforting, except when it is not. We must turn to Job and to Jesus to find perspective here. Job suffered much but received no answer as to why. He concluded correctly, “you can do anything; no plan of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2). He also determined that he would trust God’s providence though he could not fully understand it. This can sound like cold comfort until we then go to Jesus. There we find God’s final and best answer to all questions regarding how we are to trust God in his sometimes-severe providence. In Jesus, we see that God loves us deeply and has provided for our greatest need in the death of his Son. The best answer to “why” is a “who.” All that happened during the time of Esther was part of God’s long plan to protect a people, from whom would come a person, the Lord Jesus.
Pray:
Praise God for…
Thank God for…
Confess your sins to God
Pray for Dalton and Hannah as they live in Southeast Asia. Pray for the weekly Bible study time that they host.
Ask God for… (what else concerns you?)
Reflect:
Write down one passage of scripture that stood out to you today.
Write down why this passage stood out to you.
Engage Community:
Text or call someone now and tell them…
– What you are praying for.
– What stood out from God’s word today.