Sunday, September 29, 2024

Rick Sthumer

“Uncommon Wisdom: For Such a Time”

1–2 7 So the king and Haman went to dinner with Queen Esther. At this second

dinner, while they were drinking wine the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what

would you like? Half of my kingdom! Just ask and it’s yours.”

3 Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your eyes, O King, and if it

please the king, give me my life, and give my people their lives.

4 “We’ve been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed—sold to be massacred,

eliminated. If we had just been sold off into slavery, I wouldn’t even have

brought it up; our troubles wouldn’t have been worth bothering the king over.”

5 King Xerxes exploded, “Who? Where is he? This is monstrous!”

6 “An enemy. An adversary. This evil Haman,” said Esther.

Haman was terror-stricken before the king and queen.

9 Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, spoke up: “Look over there!

There’s the gallows that Haman had built for Mordecai, who saved the king’s life.

It’s right next to Haman’s house—seventy-five feet high!”

The king said, “Hang him on it!”

10 So Haman was hanged on the very gallows that he had built for Mordecai. And

the king’s hot anger cooled.

20–22 Mordecai wrote all this down and sent copies to all the Jews in all King Xerxes’

provinces, regardless of distance, calling for an annual celebration on the

fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar as the occasion when Jews got relief from

their enemies, the month in which their sorrow turned to joy, mourning

somersaulted into a holiday for parties and fun and laughter, the sending and

receiving of presents and of giving gifts to the poor.