Day 277
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Welcome to Day 277 of our Life Journal!
Click here for today’s reading: Esther 1; Esther 2; Psalms 150; Luke 17 (2012 Daily Bible Reading Plan)
Before you comment or read what I have posted, please read the following passages for yourself and complete your own S.O.A.P. exercise… How does this work?
S.O.A.P = Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
S cripture
Interesting fact about the book of Esther… in 167 verses, does not mention the name of God. This causes some to unnecessarily doubt its authenticity.
Simple outline for today’s readings from Esther:
A. [Queen] Vashti’s Insubordination (1:1–22)
B. Esther’s Coronation (2:1–18)
Esther 1:20, “Then when the king’s edict is proclaimed throughout all his vast realm,
all the women will respect their husbands, from the least to the greatest.”
Sidenote: Positional authority never works well… He is reacting to his wife, Queen Vashti’s refusal to come when he summoned her. (Esther 1:10-12.)
So the King is presented with a plan to replace her…
Esther 2:2, “Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. 3 Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful girls into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let beauty treatments be given to them. 4 Then let the girl who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.”
This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it.”
Psalm 150:6, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”
Luke 17:1, “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come… but woe to that person through whom they come.” (I am not going to focus my O or A on this verse, but I love the practicality of this verse.)
O bservation
Are you kidding me? “This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it.” The most beautiful girls from the entire region… to be brought to him… after a year of beauty treatments? Paraded in front of him? Seriously?
Makes me think of the line from the Mel Brooks movie, “History of the World Part 1.” “It’s good to be the king.”
Great “advice” he was following. (Didn’t they have more important matters to attend to?)
This would have made a great reality TV show… Oh, wait, it already has been done. (“The Bachelor.”)
A pplication
Yet, after Esther’s coronation, she saved his life, and, ultimately prevented the extermination of the Jews at the hand of Haman the Agigate…
(SPOILER ALERT: He gets his in the end, as we will soon read… By being hung on the gallows which he had constructed… Also, Esther was not allowed to simply “show up” and have an audience with the King. She was only allowed if she were… you guessed it… “summoned.” In chapter 5, however, the King granted her an unannounced visit… at which time he granted her a request, up to half his kingdom… BEFORE he knew what her request was… Not very wise… but it worked out well for Esther, Mordecai and all the Jews…)
And keep in mind, she is a Jew (which that little fact was kept from the King… So much for six months of pre-marital counseling. He didn’t do a very good job of vetting the next queen. Justsayin’.)
Did Esther deceive the King? By not revealing her heritage… that she was a Jew?
Was that OK?
Just pondering…
Makes me think of “All things work together for good…” Romans 8:28.
It’s amazing to me, this journey through the Bible, what jumps out at me. I think given my commitment to daily blogging my SOAP (in such a public way,) causes me to pay closer attention and to dig deeper than ever before. I am catching nuances about stories and putting pieces of the puzzle together much more… deliberately?
P rayer
Thank you Lord for what you are doing as we read your Word!
Vineyard Life Journal 
Interesting that God isn’t mentioned. After I read that, I had the same phrase “He makes all things work together for my good.” come to mind.
Interesting…
Was she wrong in concealing her heritage? That’s a toughie. It’s like a question in an ethics class. She didn’t say that she was something else or lie when asked as far as what is written. But she didn’t offer it up even though it probably would have made a difference. Should it be relevant? They didn’t seem to include that in the search criteria, so she didn’t lie on her job application. They got exactly what they were searching for since physical appearance was all that mattered…
Seems to me that she sneaks by on a technicality. JMO
Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum.
I like the way The Message presents this line in Ps. 150 (go figure). It reminds me of a picture that someone posted of a drum company that had a 10′ diameter or so bass drum made. THAT is how we should worship God. #worshipdrumming =)
Can I hash tag a blog post comment???
“Does the servant get special thanks for doing what’s expected of him? It’s the same with you. When you’ve done everything expected of you, be matter-of-fact and say, ‘The work is done. What we were told to do, we did.’”
Don’t expect a reward for doing what I am supposed to be doing. …what I am called to do.
Thank you Lord for calling me to serve you. It is a great privilege. It’s often tough to balance family time, but serving you brings me great joy.
Hashtag away my friend! You already did! #hashtags
I love the book of Esther! So many hidden meanings but what really got to me yesterday (sorry a lil late posting) Luke 17:12-15 as he was going to the village ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called in a loud voice, Jesus Master have pity on us. When He saw them he said go show yourselves to the priests and AS THEY WENT they were cleansed. One of them when he saw he was healed came back praising God in a loud voice. 17) were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine.!? They totally walked on their faith that day. Leprosy was a death sentence and only one came back and said thank you. Father forgive me if I ever forgot to thank you. You’ve done so much for me and I’m in awe of your love. “I WILL EXALT YOU!