Saturday, October 4, 2008
so right, i was actually debating about whether to post this up or not because:
1) this is actually quite a pretty hard core, wake-up-stand-up! revelation (but oh man, that just makes me love it all the more :D)
2) i got it from God about a month ago now during my quiet time :)
BUT well, the fact that it's been on my mind now for eons and that it's taught me to be such a person of faith, not to hold back and just not let attacks come at you from right, left, front and centre has inspired me to share it with you.
it'd be pretty long though (hehehe) because i'd be taking verses from across the book of Esther and explaining its relevancy etc. etc. so BEAR with me, because believe me, though this is such a fundamental truth that it's repeated over and over again throughout the Bible, it's good to hear it once more no?
Esther 3:v 8 Then Haman said to King Xerxes, "There is a certain ppl dispersed and scattered among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey the king's laws; it is not in the king's best interest to tolerate them.v9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will put ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury for the men who carry out this business."v 10 So the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.v 11 "Keep the money," the king said to Haman, "and do with the people as you please."v 12 Then on the 13th day of the first month, the royal secretaries were summoned. They wrote out in the script of each province and in the language of each people all Haman's orders to the king's satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples. These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealed with his own ring.v 13 Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews - young and old, women and little children - on a single day, the 13th day of the 12th month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.So basically, what's happening here is that Haman hates the Jews so much so that he's pressured the King to send out an edict to totally and completely exterminate all the Jews in the kingdom. What a tall standing order huh?
But you see, the fact is this.
Once upon a time, in the days of Adam and Eve, our Father the King had an edict written out as well. Granted, He would (I am positively sure) have hated writing out the edict but He had to do it because of His own nature.
You see, back in those days, Adam and Eve did something incredibly bad by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge even though God told them EXPLICITLY not to. And because of their disobedience, they were now condemned to become sinners. And as we all know, our God by His nature is a holy God and what holiness means is that He cannot tolerate sin. And so what happened was that, Adam and Eve and all their descendants (which would mean the whole entire human race) had to bear the yoke of sin: being separated from God.
How sad is it? Separated from the one God that made you, breathed life into you, yearns for you each and every day?
But there was so much more to the penance of sin.
The book of Romans tells us that: the wages of sin is death. Death is not the final mortal frontier as most of the world would like you to believe. Death also meant that there was a loss of the promise of eternal life with our beloved Father. Furthermore, it would mean that our lives would be controlled by sin, we would become slaves to sin (check Romans 6). And well, first and foremost, being a slave is certainly not my cup of tea because it means you have to subject yourselves to whatever your master wants of you. What more to sin?
Sin is something that the devil is oh-so-familiar with. After all, he was the one who fell from heaven because of it. Sin robs us of the good life that God has wanted for us and drags us deeper into this icky, mucky swamp that's just... gross! I mean, come on, think of some sins.
Adultery? Doesn't that just ensure that they hop from one bed to another, sleeping with another man/woman who isn't their husband/wife? Doesn't that ensure that they tell lie after lie just so that they're not found out? And as the lies grow ever increasingly more, doesn't it just make them swim in this huge sea of insecurity that they WILL get found out one day? And then their lives become a "just-going-through-the-motions" kind of thing whereby they no longer feel any love for anyone... and life just becomes this flat, dull line...
What about just a little white lie here and there? You lie once to save your skin, then you lie again to save it once again... and then the lies mount as you lie thrice, four times, five times, just to make your previous lie sound convincing. And there'd always be that niggling thought in your mind of: I had BETTER make sure no one finds this out... so I'd just create some more lies for backup, just in case.
I can just so imagine what God must have done and felt like when men fell into the world of sin. He alone understood ALL the disastrous and disgusting consequences of sin. He knew that He had to write an edict regarding men because of their sin. After all, how could holiness and sin ever mix?
When He penned the words, admitting that we were now slaves to sin and subject to what it could do to us, His heart must have been broken with every word. Just like how King Xerxes wrote the edict allowing Haman to do everything he wanted onto the Jews before finally killing them, God was allowing sin to wraught limitless destruction upon our lives. Oh, how He must have cried!! Especially when He knew that this was not what He actively wanted, but because He was holy!
But you see, in the story, Esther was willing to sacrifice herself so that the Jews might be saved from the torture and death the edict had written about. And you know what her sacrifice did? She
reversed the edict ONCE AND FOR ALL.And that, my friends was what God revealed to me ;)
Esther 8:v 7 King Xerxes replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, "Because Haman attacked the Jews, I have given the estate to Esther, and they have hanged him on the gallows.v8 Now write another decree in the king's name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king's signet ring - for no document written in the king's name and sealed with his ring can be revoked."v9 At once the royal secretries were summoned - on the 23rd day of the 3rd month, the month of Sivan. They wrote out all Mordecai's orders to the Jews and to the satraps, governers and nobles of the 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush...You see, Esther's sacrifice ensured that another edict from the King was sent out: this time, it was an edict that ensured that the Jews would no longer suffer at the hands of Haman and his cronies, that they would no longer need to be put to death, no longer NO LONGER!
And guess what?
It's exactly what Jesus did!
He sacrificed Himself on that cross on Calvary to reverse the edict that was initially written upon our lives. Oh man, doesn't that make you feel excited? You see, no longer do we need to lose the promise of eternal life. No longer do we need to be separated from the God who loves us. No longer do we need to be slaves to sin (check Romans 6 again :D)
You see, there's a new edict issued by our King. It's so simple yet wonderful! The edict merely says: Jesus has died for the sins of the world. Therefore, accept Him into your life and voila~ the previous edict is NON EXISTENT.
But wait, there's more!
You see, not only did the new King Xerxes edict prevent the Jews annihilation but it gave them power to stand up against their enemies! Here have a look:
Esther 8v 11 The king's edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy; kill and annihilate any armed force of any nationality or province that might attack them and their women and children; and to plunder the property of their enemies.How cool is that??
THAT"S THE SAME WITH THE NEW EDICT THAT GOD HAS ISSUED!!
You see, not only are we no longer condemned to live with the old edict if we have Christ in our lives but we are now also given the POWER to destroy, kill and exterminate the devil who seeks to attack us!
Come on! Wake up!
You don't need to take any thing that the devil throws at you! Don't just stand there and go: Oh well... I can't do anything BECAUSE YOU CAN!
You can punch him in the face! You can stick a sword into his chest! You can kick him like a football! You can - oh I dunno - do whatever you do when someone is hell-bent on destroying you because your Daddy in heaven has written a new edict and given you the power to do so!
Woahh~~
Don't let anyone ever tell you that you don't have the power to do so, because you do have! After all, once a king's edict has been issued, all his citizens (hello, that's us!) will live it to the letter!
SO COME ON, don't just sit there, FIGHT when you feel like you're being attacked!
She thanks her Jesus at 1:18 PM
