Police Devotion 9-8-2016
“…who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).
In the book of Esther, the Persian King, Ahasuerus, held a party, got drunk, and told his lovely wife, Vashti, to come and show her beauty—she refused and he dumped her. Later on, he held a contest to choose his next wife. Esther, a young Jewish lady, won the contest and became the queen of Persia.
Esther’s cousin, Mordecai, took her as his daughter after her parents died. Mordecai was also a servant to Ahasuerus. One day Mordecai discovered a plot to assassinate the king. He told Esther. The plotters were hanged and Mordecai’s deed was written in the king’s chronicles. The king later promoted Haman—a wicked, self-centered man—above the king’s servants. They were to bow and reverence him, but Mordecai—a Jew—refused. Haman not only wanted Mordecai destroyed but all the Jews in the kingdom. He talked the king into signing a decree that on a certain day, all Jews were to be killed.
Mordecai told Esther to plead to the king for her people. She was afraid of being executed if she went in to see him without permission, but he convinced her, saying, “…who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther was scared, but she agreed saying, “…so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.” (Esther 4:16). She went before the king.
He was pleased to see her. She asked that he and Haman come to a banquet she’d prepared. They both came, and at the banquet she asked them to come to another banquet the next day. Haman was excited at this treatment from the king, but told his wife, “Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.” (Esther 5:13). His wife replied, “Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and to-morrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon:” (Esther 5:14).
That night the king couldn’t sleep. He had the chronicles read to him and heard the story of Mordecai exposing the assassination plot. He asked if Mordecai had been rewarded and found out that he hadn’t. Meanwhile, Haman was in the outer court waiting to ask the king to have Mordecai hanged. The king called him in and asked, “What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour?” (Esther 6:6). Haman thinking that the king meant him said that such a man should be paraded through the street on the king’s horse, wearing the king’s apparel and crown, and honored publicly. The king told Haman to do that to Mordecai—the man that Haman wanted hanged! Can you imagine the look on Haman’s face?
At Esther’s second banquet, she pleaded with the king for her life and that of her people because an enemy wanted to destroy them. Ahasuerus angrily demanded to know who this enemy was. Esther pointed out Haman. The king was furious at Haman, and “…in his wrath went into the palace garden:” (Esther 7:7). Haman got up to plead for his life but fell onto the bed where Esther lay. The king walked back in, saw Haman on his wife’s bed, and asked, “Will he force the queen also before me in the house?” (Esther 7:8). The king had Haman hanged on the gallows that Haman prepared for Mordecai.
God is never mentioned in this book, but His hand is obvious throughout. Like Esther, you may find yourself in a difficult position at some point. Maybe God put you there to honor Him and make a difference “for such a time as this.”
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Brian Miller 9/8/2016
Cleveland Baptist Church | 4431 Tiedeman Road Brooklyn, Ohio 44144 | 216.671.2822