May the mumbling commence!
God brings down the proud and lifts up the humble. That is the truth. Do you want to see this reversal of fortunes
played out? You need only read Esther
chapter seven. Read it below:
So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther's
banquet. And while they were drinking
wine that day, the king again asked her, "Tell me what you want, Queen
Esther. What is your request? I will give it to you, even if it is half the
kingdom!"
And so Queen Esther replied, "If Your Majesty is pleased with me and wants to grant my
request, my petition is that my life and
the lives of my people will be spared.
For my people and I have been
sold to those who would kill, slaughter, and annihilate us. If we had only
been sold as slaves, I could remain quiet, for that would have been a matter
too trivial to warrant disturbing the king."
"Who would do
such a thing?"
King Xerxes demanded. "Who would dare touch you?"
Esther replied, "This wicked Haman is our enemy."
Haman grew pale with fright before the king and queen. Then the king jumped to his feet in a rage
and went out into the palace garden.
But Haman stayed behind to plead for his life with Queen
Esther, for he knew that he was doomed.
In despair he fell on the couch where Queen Esther was reclining, just
as the king returned from the palace garden. "Will he even assault the
queen right here in the palace, before my very eyes?" the king roared. And
as soon as the king spoke, his attendants covered Haman's face, signaling his
doom.
Then Harbona, one
of the king's eunuchs, said, "Haman has set up a gallows that stands
seventy-five feet tall in his own courtyard. He intended to use it to hang
Mordecai, the man who saved the king from assassination."
"Then hang Haman on it!" the king ordered. So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had
set up for Mordecai,
and the king's anger was pacified.
Haman, the second in command of the king, is brought to
his knees. He is begging for his
life.
Not so long ago (see Esther chapter six), Haman had
built a gallows for the execution of Mordecai.
Not so long ago, Haman went to the king to ask permission to execute
Mordecai on the gallows. Not so long
ago, Haman learned that the king wanted to honor someone who greatly pleased
him… and Haman assumed that man was him.
And Mordecai was lifted up by Haman… but not on a
gallows. Haman was forced to give
Mordecai the honor and respect that Haman thought he deserved. Haman’s conniving was catching up with him, it
seems
And the gallows that were set up for Mordecai were used
instead for Haman. The transition would
be complete when Mordecai took Haman’s place of honor before the king.
God brings down the proud and lifts up the humble. There you see it in black and white. Let us humble ourselves. Let’s not seek our comforts in this life but
in the next. Read from Second
Corinthians chapter five:
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is
taken down – when
we die and leave these bodies – we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made
for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in
our present bodies, and we long for the day when we will put on our heavenly
bodies like new clothing. For we will not
be spirits without bodies, but we will put on new heavenly bodies. Our dying bodies make
us groan and sigh, but it's not
that we want to die and have no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be
swallowed up by everlasting life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a
guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. (Verses 1-5)
If we seek our own comfort, we will
perish. True comfort cannot be found in
this old world. It can only make us
groan and sigh… and do horrible things to “get ahead”, a terribly perishable
prize.
Let us be famished for our new
bodies and new lives that the Lord God promises us. Weariness will leave us. We will feel no need to groan and sigh.
The Holy Spirit that God has given us through
Jesus is our first taste of this. Let’s
savor that taste and hanker for more!
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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