Saturday, March 11, 2017

Esther arranged two banquets for the king and saved her people 509 - 8 - 3

“The Lower Story, our story, is actually many stories of men and women interacting with God in the daily course of life. The Upper Story is God's story. The Bible contains an Upper Story and a Lower Story. The Upper Story tells the big picture, the grand narrative of God unfolding throughout history. The Lower Story contains the sometimes delightful, other times appalling particulars of human experience. Without the lens of the Upper Story, the Lower Story seems out of focus and perplexing.”
[ Randy Frazee “The Upper Story and a Lower Story”]
The following paragraph deals with the “lower story” between Esther, her king and the scheming Haman.
“Opinions vary as to why Esther planned these two delays before making her request: (1) She wanted time to ingratiate herself with the king, having apparently been out of favor with him (see notes on Est_4:9-12); (2) her courage failed her both times; (3) she wanted to build up an element of suspense and impress upon the king that her business was vitally important and no mere whim; (4) she wanted to inflate Haman's pride and take him off guard before she exposed him as a vicious murderer. Perhaps elements of all these ideas entered into her strategy.”
[Believer’s Bible Commentary]
While the four main characters in this drama were interacting in the “lower story” God was busy in the “upper story.” It wasn’t in God’s timing for Esther to present her request to the king during the first banquet.
That night God kept King Xerxes from sleeping so the king had the chronicles of his reign read to him. A divine "coincidence" you think? The portion read to the King detailed the attempt on his life and that Mordeca prevented it several years earlier. When the king realized that Mordeca had not been rewarded he arranged to have Haman perform a great tribute for Mordeca, the same Mordeca who Haman sought to destroy.
God was in control of the timing for the tribute to Mordeca. So by the time for the second banquet Haman must have been both enraged against Mordeca and fearful that his plot against Mordeca and the Jews would come out.
Esther presented her request before the king asking for her own life and the lives of her people who were sentenced to death. The king asked who had instigated the plot against Esther’s people.
 Esther 7:6, “And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.” The king stormed out and Haman begged Esther to intercede for him. Perhaps it was God who tripped Haman causing him to fall on top of Esther as the king walked back into the banquet room. Haman was executed on the gallows he had built for Mordeca.
Eventually the king allowed Esther and Mordecai to write and distribute another decree counteracting the first decree created by Haman. The Jewish race was saved!

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