Wed.’s Devo - God’s Justice

Read: Esther 8:1-10:3; 1 Corinthians 12:27-13:13; Psalm 37:1-11; Proverbs 21:23-24 When Esther exposed Haman’s plans, everything flipped. The king took his signet ring and the position he had given to Haman and gave it to Mordecai. He also gave Esther the property of Haman who turned it over to Mordecai to manage. Haman had proved that he only wanted to promote himself and Mordecai had proved that he would protect and defend others. *** Now, the problem was what to do about the decree that the king had signed with his ring. Esther went to the king and begged him to do something, but he told her to take his authority and decide what must be done. The only stipulation was that she couldn’t violate any law that was already set up. *** This is exactly how it works in the spiritual. God has his laws that we are to use as boundaries but God wants us to come up with solutions to problems. He will guide us to through them but there are many answers that we could choose and God wants us to make those decisions. We are not robots, but co-workers with heaven. *** It was decided that on the days the Jews were to be annihilated, they would be able to defend themselves and kill their enemies. I’m sure that when Haman’s edict went out, the enemies of the Jews were exposed and they rejoiced. Now the Jews knew who they were. *** It was all to happen on the 13th day of Adar, the 12th month. Instead of the defeat of the Jewish people, it ended up in being their victory. Five hundred enemies were killed in the city of Susa alone. Esther asked the king for an extension of the celebration to the next day in Susa and for the ten sons of Haman to be impaled on poles. The king extended the battle and they killed another 300. *** In the rest of the land 75,000 enemies of the Jews were killed. Throughout the whole thing, the Jews never took the plunder from those they killed although their enemies were after their plunder. God gave his people relief from their tormentors and the event was called Purim and was decreed that they celebrate it every year after that. *** Mordecai was known far and wide for his work for the good of his people and how he stood up for their welfare of their posterity. *** In Corinthians, we learn how to use our spiritual gifts. Jesus is the way the truth and the life. We are given a list of the parts the Church needs to have to function as God wants it to. The “way” to do this is through love. Love is patient, kind, hopeful and endures through every situation. Our gifts will one day become useless, but faith, hope and love will remain forever. *** Lord, may we use the gifts you have given us to to rightly rule our lives. Thank you for your Spirit, your wisdom, your gifts and your angels who help us. May we do all that we do through faith, hope and love.