Today, we will dwell one last time in the word
within Esther, but
considering a different question.
Remember:
Get in a quiet place.
Close your eyes.
Still your mind and body by “centering down.”
That is, breathe in for 3 counts, and exhale for 5 counts.
After a moment of silence, read the text.
As you read the text, ask yourself:
How does this text orient us to the coming reign of God?
After you read the text,
close your eyes and meditate on it and the question.
After several moments and you have a clear and
complete view of the text in your mind,
write down your thoughts.
Now that I have changed some settings on the blog
you may, If you wish, post your thoughts underneath today’s
devotional.
Hear the word of God:
When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went through the city, wailing with a loud and bitter cry; he went up to the entrance of the king's gate, for no one might enter the king's gate clothed with sackcloth. In every province, wherever the king's command and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and most of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.
When Esther's maids and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he might take off his sackcloth; but he would not accept them. Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what was happening and why. Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate, and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and charge her to go to the king to make supplication to him and entreat him for her people.
Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mordecai, saying, "All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law — all alike are to be put to death. Only if the king holds out the golden scepter to someone, may that person live. I myself have not been called to come in to the king for thirty days." When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, "Do not think that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father's family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this." Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai, "Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish."
Esther 4:1-16 – NRSV
Grace and peace,
Ron
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1 comment:
I was asked to clarify the question (which is a good idea) so here we go:
The way I’m using the word “orient” here is to “find our bearings,” that is to figure out where we are in relationship with our surroundings, and then figure out where we want to go.
The way that this connects with God’s reign is this: the kingdom of God has begun through the church, but the church does not yet fully embody the kingdom of God as described by the prophets or by Jesus (this agrees with Sunday morning’s sermon, by the way). God is moving in the world to establish his kingdom, his reign. Where are we in relationship to what he is doing, and how do we work alongside what God appears to be doing instead of just doing our own thing, or even worse, working against God?
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