Christian Devotional – November 11, 2020

Pageant Queen with a Purpose, #24

The right to fight back. Esther knew that they could not change the decree that had already gone out giving people the right to try and kill the Jews. However, she and mordecai came up with another solution. Read Esther 8:4-14.

The king extended the golden scepter to Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king. Then she said, “If it pleases the king and if I have found favor before him and the matter seems proper to the king and I am pleasing in his sight, let it be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. For how can I endure to see the calamity which will befall my people, and how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?” So King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, I have given the house of Haman to Esther, and him they have hanged on the gallows because he had stretched out his hands against the Jews. Now you write to the Jews as you see fit, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for a decree which is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s signet ring may not be revoked.” So the king’s scribes were called at that time in the third month (that is, the month Sivan), on the twenty-third day; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, the satraps, the governors and the princes of the provinces which extended from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces, to every province according to its script, and to every people according to their language as well as to the Jews according to their script and their language. He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the king’s signet ring, and sent letters by couriers on horses, riding on steeds sired by the royal stud. In them the king granted the Jews who were in each and every city the right to assemble and to defend their lives, to destroy, to kill and to annihilate the entire army of any people or province which might attack them, including children and women, and to plunder their spoil, on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (that is, the month Adar). A copy of the edict to be issued as law in each and every province was published to all the peoples, so that the Jews would be ready for this day to avenge themselves on their enemies. The couriers, hastened and impelled by the king’s command, went out, riding on the royal steeds; and the decree was given out at the citadel in Susa.
Esther 8:4‭-‬14 NASB1995
https://bible.com/bible/100/est.8.4-14.NASB1995

Since they couldn’t change the previous decree, they made a new decree that allowed the Jews to fight back. It gave them the authority to defend themselves and to protect what God had given them. As we celebrate Veterans Day here in the United States, we honor those who have defended the country and have fought for the truths and ideals that our country stands for. This was the opportunity that was being given to the Jews. They were being given the right to defend themselves in their country.

There are some countries today were Christians do not have that right and we are responsible for praying for those countries and for lifting up our brothers and sisters in Christ who live in those countries and under those circumstances. We know that God desires his name to be glorified above all else in every country of the world and our desire is to see those nations stand up and glorify Christ.

How are we defending Christ in the world that we live in? How are we defending Christ by helping others in other countries who want to stand up for the name of Christ?