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Weekly Meditation
By Ron White
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10
Now the king and Haman came to drink wine with Esther the queen. And the king said to Esther on the second day also as they drank their wine at the banquet, "What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to half of the kingdom it shall be done."
Then Queen Esther replied, "If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me as my petition, and my people as my request; for we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed and to be annihilated. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for the trouble would not be commensurate with the annoyance to the king."
Then King Ahasuerus asked Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, who would presume to do thus?"
Esther said, "A foe and an enemy is this wicked Haman!" Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen.
Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were before the king said, "Behold indeed, the gallows standing at Haman's house fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai who spoke good on behalf of the king!" And the king said, "Hang him on it."
So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king's anger subsided.
What are we to make of this story which the Bible tells? Believe it or not, the Bible has humor in its pages. Esther and her people were about "to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated." In translation from the Hebrew, that sounds like abundant overkill. In Hebrew culture, perhaps this expression meant to humorously exaggerate her circumstances for our reflection? Consider that Esther's petition was answered and her enemy completely removed...not just removed but hung until dead! Is this a parable for both our prayers and the answers that are possible? If you think you and yours are having your lives threatened, you do want your enemies hung by the neck until dead, don't you? Well, don't you?
Have you ever prayed fervently when things were really bad? I have. The Giver of Salvation can actually be upstaged by the sigh of relief we exhale when we see that the stress has been alleviated. The Giver disappears from view as we celebrate the victory. "Phew," we voice. "That was a close one!" Of course, since God is essentially speaking very quietly, almost imperceptibly, we often fail to listen and resume moving at breakneck speed until we run headlong into the next brick wall that appears. At least, I have resembled that description.
By the way, Esther is clear that she would not have bothered the King with a petition for much of anything less than relief from total disaster. When you read those verses, did you believe this parable meant "don't sweat praying over the small stuff?" That is one obvious possible interpretation. Yes, I too pray more fervently for someone who is in terrible circumstances. But, who is to measure the relative importance of prayers? Me? Is it possible that"insignificant" prayers are like snowflakes which land, some on hillsides, forming snowballs which roll downhill, starting avalanches? If mistakes are like that, can't prayers be? All too often when I was a younger man, I passed right over the admonition to "turn it over" and "did it [to] myself." Ah, the messes I made (and still do, though not quite as often)! By the way, I found it harder to forgive myself for my mistakes in judgment when I never should have tried to carry the ball myself!
Is this passage truly informing us that the only prayer we should pray is amidst life-and-death situations? For too long the church taught (and in some cases still teaches) that prostrate on the floor is the only way we belong in front of our King, God. Heaven help us grasp the humor hidden in the exaggeration of both Esther's prayer and the King's answer! I sing praises that God is merciful and forgiving. If life continues...and if we are listening to the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit throughout the seasons of life, the Spirit will affirm in us the wisdom of this week's passage from Psalm 124:
"The snare is broken and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth."
May God grant us the wisdom to know that, in this life, we are always in the snare and always need to be praying about everything.Praise God our Creator who gives us endless mercy and the peace that surpasses human understanding when we finally surrender our illusion of control, and finally see that God's sweet Spirit endures throughout our lives. Therein lies the victory that God promises us.
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