Esther 1 - 5 (23rd September) - Vivien

Esther 1
In this chapter, it talks about Queen Vasthi was deposed. As I was reading, I remembered 2 learning points. Why are Queen Vasthi deposed? She refused to obey the command of the king. Yesterday, at Stanley’s and Madeline’s wedding, Pastor Chan gave 2 pieces of advices to the newly wedded, 1) Husband, to be faithful to the wife; 2) Wife, to respect husband.

Pastor Chan, mentioned that as a wife, she need to respect her husband especially when they are seen publicly. Then the husband will have “face” or 面子. From Proverbs 31, a wife of a noble character is someone who the husband can have full confidence in her (v11); who brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life (v12); who adds on to the reason for others to respect him (v23).

So what Queen Vasthi did was deadly to her marriage. She is not just an ordinary woman, but a queen! The king had lost face in front of nobles! Also she could influence the nation’s women. By not obeying the king, it was possible that this value would be passed down to the people. Therefore the wise men advice to depose the queen was the best choice.

The second learning point is our action can influence others. For Queen Vasthi, she was a queen then, so her actions would influence the women of her nation, which is a huge influence! As for us, not matter how much influence we have, we are still capable of influencing others! So we need to always be conscious of our action, so that we don’t stumble others.

Esther 2
In Chapter 2, Esther, who was an orphan, was made queen. The process was tedious. It reminded for those Hong Kong drama series, where girls were put through a long process of training before meeting the king to be appointed as concubines. Esther has found favour with the people that she had contact with, which was one of her secrets to success. Obedience and respect. Of course, God was in control of the whole situation, to save His people.

The second part is about how Mordecai and Esther continued to gain favour from the king, by rescuing him from an assassin. Your authority might not be a Christian, but still assist him/her, unless it is against God’s principles.

Esther 3 – 4
A plot was set up by Haman to destroy all the Jews in the provinces, because of his hatred for Mordecai. That’s how wicked man can be. Doesn’t this seem terrible? An edict was passed out to have a race wiped out. How can such a thing be reversed? Was this the end of the Jews?

How would we react when something terrible in our lives befall, which doesn’t seem reversible?

Esther was the only hope for Mordecai. So he went to her for help. And of course it would be a very stressful moment for Esther, as it concerns her life and conscious. In the end she decided to not go against her conscious and fast and pray to bet on her life. And if she dies, she dies.
Many times, we struggle within ourselves, but usually not life-and-death issue. Should be go against our conscious and just get that temporary benefit? Don’t go against our conscious! If we do, then we will be numb towards things that we used to know that is not right.

Esther 5
In this chapter, Queen Esther went ahead with her plan to rescue her people. She had the favour of the king, and the king was glad to see her, even though he didn’t summon her. And things were going smoothly.

On the hand, Haman was very boastful about his achievements and boasted about the banquet that Queen Esther invited him to. And in his mind, all he wanted was to get rid of Mordecai…