This week has been our Joint Camp Iwannabe hosted at Christ UMC’s location. We have been ministering to a bunch of kids from the area inviting them to become effective vessels of compassion. So, if you are normally someone who attends 2nd service, there are two to choose from at Christ: the 9 am or the 10:30 am. Pastor Ric and I will be preaching at both of these services.
Our regular 8:15 am service at Westside will be focusing on chapter 7 of our journey with Esther and Mordecai. Finally the wicked scheme exposed, Haman is judged, for when you are wicked or acting in wickedness often the things you do will come back to haunt you. Haman had built a means to destroy Mordecai, and instead has built his own means of destruction. Haman has been told by his family that since he is dealing with Jews, he is doomed, and their words proved prophetic!
We can see that this turnaround happened at the last possible moment. Sometimes in our lives, we don’t see how hope will arrive into the darkness we are experiencing. We cannot see around the corner or over the hill. All we can see is the present circumstance, the dark, the hopeless feelings. This might have been what Esther was feeling at this second banquet.
Remember Esther did not know that God was on the move. She did not know that the king could not sleep the night before, nor that he had been reminded about the saving deed of Mordecai. She did not know any of this, only that she had invited the king to two banquets and had not yet told him why she had done so. And he would be asking. What would she tell him? How would she tell him? What could she say? This must have been going through her mind.
But Harbona, the servant of the king, knew more than Esther did. He knew about the plan to execute her cousin Mordecai. He knew about the gallows Haman had built. He knew that the king had not slept. He knew and without being asked offers just what the king needed to hear then. It’s a great surprise that he speaks -- a servant with a word of wisdom. He doesn’t make judgment he just provides the information that no one knew but him: more wickedness exposed and Haman is undone.
In our lives, in all these days, we experience all kinds of days and all kinds of feelings. In the middle we might not believe Jesus even knows what is happening. We might believe that we are alone or that our prayers are not heard. We might feel like Esther -- uncertain what we will say. God has the answer, the direction, the hope. And perhaps will bring a word of deliverance through an unlikely source.
This story is continually about a God who is working behind the scenes all the time and loves us immensely. No matter the circumstance we are facing, no matter if it is wickedness, God is at work. We can be caught by this very fact and encouraged to simply do one thing: trust.