The New Beginning of a daily RIOT
The Book of Esther: A story about God still being present even if it seems He’s not.
Chapter 1: 1-22
The story begins with a king named Xerxes, a rich who throws a party for 180 days. Xerxes had so much wealth he showed it off to every one. He was like Ted Turner however Xerxes had more power. He also wanted show his great importance and splendor to everyone in the kingdom. Now after these 180s day he wanted one more party for 7 days.
Now on the 7th day of this party Xerxes got wasted. Like most kings he got whatever he wanted because if it didn’t happen you were going to die. Now Xerxes wanted the world to see his smoking queen. A queen named Vashti. Now Vashti seems to me as a woman of independence. She is the miss independent Kelly Clarkson and Destiny Child was talking about. However she decides not to come. Now there are many speculations on why she is in the story, but no one really knows. However I have nothing but respect her, she was no trophy wife, which is pretty impressive considering she was considered property back then.
Well like any guy with a smoking wife and had everything he ever wanted he had a cow when his queen decided to disobey him. He also began to worry about whatever else was going to think. He was worried about all the women on how they were now are going to disrespect him and how he will have a rebellion on his hand. Let’s be honest when women get upset at you don’t want to be around.
So to solve this problem he decides to make it so she can never be in his presence, which I think personally is a great move. Secondly he also made it so every wife must respect their man no matter what level they were at either rich or poor you have to respect your husband. Xerxes and his crew pretty much excited about that and celebrated and that’s how chapter 1 ends.
First of all that is a way to start out a book, by having a giant party, getting wasted, and making every woman mad, however making it all that they have to respect you. Now to be honest we can cop out and say there is not a lot to be taken from this part of story but I would then tell you being just like the Xerxes and finding and easy way out.
The story is supposed to be about God’s people the Israelites and there not even in the beginning of the story. That’s usually an important part of the story. However I think the writer wants to point out a few things to us. One to gives us some idea what’s going on and giving you back story of how God orchestrates things. Side note if you read the whole book of Esther you will notice God is not mention once. I think when we first read we think this about Xerxes, “Wow, this guy has it all, nothing to worry about, and besides God not being happy most likely he’s living a good life.”
Now first of all we know God is in control, secondly we are going to learn from other characters having other priorities than God’s will hurt us in the end. I know I struggle sometimes of finding my priorities. Now we know the Kings priorities which is to impress people, show them that he’s awesome, and that he is the greatest King ever. I mean when you have 180 day part that means your not working or doing your job for almost half the year.
So I want to first ask you what your priorities are. Who are you trying to impress? It’s easy to say Jesus and Jesus, but really sit with it. Who are you are trying to impress? Is it that girl you work with? Is it that co-worker that thinks you’re an idiot? Maybe your parents because they thought you wouldn’t amount to anything? And are they in the right places. But why do we try impress Christ? Is it so we can be consider higher and look better in front of people. Or are we doing for selfish reason? Do we maybe even forget that God is there watching…just like in this beginning of this book…
Second thing we can learn is that we should not try to force our own way. Xerxes portrays the very essence of humanity. Xerxes shows selfishness, desired to be loved by people for all the reasons, throws temper tantrums when he doesn’t get his way, makes it so he can have his own way. We too live in this environment and we sometimes don’t see God especially when these mega-rich people lead these selfish lives.
What to do? What to do?
Well for me, I need to be aware on what’s going on around me. I need to find ways I can serve people, make it habit of it. I need to be reminded that God is there, I needed to look for ways where I am not selfish. I need not look for opportunies for me to take the lime light and be loved by everyone. I need not to be funny all the time and try to grab attention. What situations do you go in when you want people to look at you or you want to impress them?
For the record there is nothing wrong doing something well…its why you choose to do it well is it because you want God to get glory or do you want the glory because I know love the glory from people… I am just saying…
Secondly we must realize this life is not all about me. As hard as that maybe we must really live this way. It means serving, it means maybe giving up things you would normally get, such as instead of spending $10 on a movie, maybe you go to San Francisco to give food and listen to man story. It could be helping a neighbor out with the lawn. We are given tons of opportunities to help people. I challenge you for one day to count the amount of opportunities you had to help whether you did help or not.
Lastly I must say by doing this, this will not get you saved, its part of our calling like James talks about, we can never do enough to repay Christ. Our salvation is a free gift like Paul talks about in Galatians. This however will help give us insight to what it truly means to be like Christ. By doing this I think we will stop forgetting about God and we will visibly see God on the move like he’s about to do this story.
