Tues.’s Devo - Refuse to Bow

Read: Esther 1:1-3:15; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34; Psalm 35:17-28; Proverbs 21:19-20 Esther means “I will be hidden”. She was hidden until it was time for her to come out. The book of Esther happened between the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. Ahasuerus which means “I will be silent and poor” was believed to have been King Xerxes 1 who ruled after Darius 1 in 485 B.C. He ruled for 20 years over 127 provinces . He lived in the Persian capital of Shushan. In spite of his name, Ahasurus was anything but poor in material things. He did seem to be poor in leadership. In one of his drunken feasts where he supplied his guests with as much wine as they wanted, he decided to bring his wife, Vashti out to parade in front of him and his drunken friends. She was across the hall hosting a party for the women and refused to come. This made Xerxes so mad that he impulsively wanted to act. His advisors advised that she be banished from his presence to teach all the wives to have respect for their husbands. Xerxes fell for it and had Vashti banished. When he was sober, he regretted his decision and the advisors could tell he was not happy. So to save their skins they devised a plan to have a beauty contest and bring the most beautiful women from his kingdom to spend a night with him and he could choose who pleased him the most. Meanwhile, Mordecai, a Jewish man who had been exiled there had an orphaned niece that he had adopted and raised. Her name was Esther and she was beautiful. She was taken into the harem of the king to be a candidate. Esther won the contest and was made queen. King Xerxes elevated Haman to be his most powerful official in the empire and ordered that everyone bow before Haman. Mordecai refused to bow which made Haman so mad that he had Mordecai investigated and learned that he was Jewish. Haman sought to bring him and his people down. One day Mordecai learned of a plot to assassinate King Xerxes and let Esther know. Esther told the king and it was found to be true so the men were killed. Haman was determined to wage war on the Jews so he convinced the king to agree with him. Lots were casts as to when this would occur and it fell on the 12th month of the year…almost a year later. This would be right before the month of Passover. On that day, the Jews all over the provinces were ordered to be killed, slaughtered and annihilated on a single day. The day the decree went out, the king and Haman sat down to drink and the city went into confusion. So, without reason or warning, the Jews were given their death sentence. In Corinthians, we have a huge key to what is going on in our nation. Paul says that there must be divisions among us in the church so that you who have God’s approval will be recognized. Wow! Then he explains in detail about the Lord’s Supper. He calls the imposters out showing that they are not really interested in honoring the Lord. They are interested in their own interests. So if we treat what is holy like it is not important we will reap weakness, sickness and some of us may die. The blood of Christ is very serious business with God. There is a huge division in the church today and it is over which kingdom are we a part of. There is the kingdom of this world which is full of fear and hatred or the kingdom which is above which is full of faith, righteousness and love. Lord, help us to call holy what you call holy and to value the Blood of the Lamb as the power of God to save. May we refuse to bow before laws that violate our freedom in you and cause us to bow to lies and deception. May we stand for righteousness unafraid.