Esther

So, there is this King Ahasuerus (for the purposes of this blog we'll call him King A).

Basically Queen Vashti refuses to obey King A's command and he's pretty ticked.

"let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she. So when the decree made by the king is proclaimed thorughout all his kingdom, for it is vast, all women will give honor to their husbands, high and low alike" 1:19-21

"let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king" 2:2

geez... picky eh?

So, there was this man named Mordecai who was a Jew. He was raising the daughter of his uncle.. her name: Esther (obviously). "When her father and mother died he took her as his own daughter" 2:7

So, Esther was a beautiful young virgin and so she was taken to see King A (man, i really feel like that A subliminally stands for something else.. hmm). However, Mordecai told her not to tell that she was a Jew. 7 girls made it through what you might call 'round one' and they were beautified for a year with oils and spices.

"Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her...the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti" 2: 15-17

One day Mordecai, Esther's 'father', overheard two man plotting to kill King A. So, he informed Esther. And Esther informed King A.

Because those 2 men were then hanged, Haman was promoted. He was in charge of all the servants. "When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage to him, Haman was filled with fury...Haman sought to destroy all the Jews" 3:5-6

Hamans motto: Why kill one when you can kill many

So Haman went to King A and told him that some people were not bowing down to the king and that they needed to be taken care of. The king trusted Haman to do the right thing.

Welp, Haman sent out letters to each place with "instructions to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day" 3:13

Esther hears of the letters and is confronted with a dilema. See, "if someone were to go inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law-to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me i have not been called in these thirty days." 4:11

Mordecai calls her out and basically says, one way or another deliverance will come, and maybe you are here for this exact reason. To help us.

Esther commands they fast for 3 days and then she will go to the king.

"If I perish, I perish..." 4:16

I love that... if i perish.. i perish

She's like you know what... bring it on. And if I die at least I went down fighting. Atleast I was on the battlefield at the front lines for what I knew was good and right. And if all that comes out of that is that I die.. then so be it. Glory to God.

King A. held out the golden scpetor to Esther. (you were nervous weren't you)

She invited the king to a feast. the king is like what is your wish? and she's like come to dinner tomorrow and i will tell you.

So, Haman went home bragging to his friends and family about how awesome he is because he got invited to dinner today and tomorrow. But he still wasn't happy...he wanted Mordecai hanged.

this is the funniest part: King A is at home in bed getting his bedtime story read to him and all of a sudden he realizes that no honor had been bestowed upon Mordecai for reporting awhile ago how those 2 men were going to kill King A.

so Haman is coming in to tell the King that he should hang Mordecai while the king is thinking of ways to honor Mordecai. The King asks how he should honor 'someone' and Mordecai replies with wealth and grandeur ...all to find out that the king was referring to Mordecai. HAHAH in yo' face! Haman goes home crying

At the feast that night, Esther tells the king of Haman's plan to destroy the Jews, her people.

Haman is hanged

And Esther requests that the order to destroy be revoked.

"the Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor" 8:16

now, on the day that the enemies were supposed to destroy the Jews...the opposite happened and the Jews were victorious.

I love this story
Do you ever feel like you don't know what to do but that you have to do something to help a situation? There is a situation in my friends life right now where i am torn between telling her that all she is doing is great (which would be a lie) or hurting her (because a lot of the time we hate hearing the truth).
...In situations like this i think it's so important that we step back and look at who we are loyal to.
My priority is not to keep my friends. Yes, that would be ideal. But when it domes down to it, my loyalty is to Christ's kingdom. Trusting in His guidance will lead us to a place where Esther was.

...she was the only one who could of done something. By this I mean that she is the only one who wouldn't of gotten killed by going to see the King, and the only one who could of created a situation where the King and Haman ate together. And the only person who had inside information from Mordecai.

Yes, God's plan is so much bigger than we are...and yes, if Esther was like "heck no, I'm not going to say anything...i'm going to act like nothing is happening" then God's plan still would of taken place. He would of found someone else to do what needed to get done.

He's God afterall...haha

But Esther listened and knew that she was the only one who could make it turn out with victory for the Jews.

If I perish ...I perish

Lately, I've been trying to keep that in the forefront of my mind...because what matters is that i'm fighting and on the front lines

Like Brett Cheek always says ...Father, if you're not here, then it's not worth it.

that's the epitome behind a life of Christ. That's it ..right there.