Editor’s Note: The AMI Quiet Times from Nov. 30-Dec. 3 are provided by Pastor Ryun Chang.
Devotional Thoughts for Today
Esther 5:10-14
Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home, and he sent and brought his friends and his wife Zeresh. 11 And Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and the servants of the king. 12 Then Haman said, “Even Queen Esther let no one but me come with the king to the feast she prepared. And tomorrow also I am invited by her together with the king. 13 Yet all this is worth nothing to me, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.” 14 Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Let a gallows fifty cubits (75 feet) high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hanged upon it. Then go joyfully with the king to the feast.” This idea pleased Haman, and he had the gallows made.
After the end of a long drive from Philadelphia to Houston to take my youngest child to college, it was nice to sit in a cool auditorium, listening to several speakers in a program called “New Families Orientation.” As was customary, before the speakers approached the podium, the master of the ceremony read off a long of list of their academic pedigrees and accomplishments. Although it wasn’t quite the same sensation as seeing a Harvard Medical School diploma hung on the office of my new doctor, knowing that these speakers weren’t “hacks” put me at ease.
Now, what Haman did here isn’t all that different from what took place in that Houston auditorium—recounting all his accomplishments and pedigrees. He was wealthy, had a large family of many sons, and was sitting on the top of the Persian bureaucratic totem pole. The icing on the cake was Queen Esther’s preferential treatment of him. The difference between the two, of course, is huge: while the praise of the speakers came from another person, Haman was busy praising himself. Solomon quipped, “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips” (Proverbs 27:2).
A practical reason for not praising oneself is to avoid embarrassment; something may happen that would pull the rug from under the very thing you felt proud of. For Haman, whose fortune would soon take a nosedive, this meant leading Mordecai, “on horseback through the city streets, proclaiming . . ., ‘This is what is done for the man the king delights on honor’” (Esther 6:11). Another reason why some people praise themselves is because no one would compliment them for the hard work they have done. Since human nature does need some positive reinforcement, we should heed what Paul said: “They have refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserved recognition” (1 Cor. 16:18). But a spiritual reason for not praising ourselves is because self-praise diminishes God’s glory, as if our ability or spirituality keyed our success.
Do you find yourself praising yourself too much, hoping that people would approve of you then? Maybe you aren’t spending enough time alone with God. Be approved by Him, because Jesus found you worthy enough to die to save you.
Prayer
Lord, I lift Your glorious Name on high for Your kindness. Please open wide my prideful eyes so that I may see what is really going on in my life . Help me to respond quickly in humility and repentance, rather than to wait a long time to make things right with You. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: John 10
Lunch Break Study
In the morning, we examined the vanity of Haman; this afternoon we will deal with his penchant for violence (killing all Jews on account of one Jew, and to kill him on gallows 75 feet tall).
Read Judges 9:47, 48b-54
Abimelech was told that all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem were gathered together. 48 . . . And Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a bundle of brushwood and took it up and laid it on his shoulder. And he said to the men who were with him, “What you have seen me do, hurry and do as I have done.” 49 So every one of the people cut down his bundle and following Abimelech put it against the stronghold, and they set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the people of the Tower of Shechem also died, about 1,000 men and women. 50 Then Abimelech went to Thebez and encamped against Thebez and captured it. 51 But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women and all the leaders of the city fled to it and shut themselves in, and they went up to the roof of the tower. 52 And Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. 53 And a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull. 54 Then he called quickly to the young man his armor-bearer and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’” And his young man thrust him through, and he died.
Question to Consider
- In what ways are Haman and Abimelech similar in how they lived and died?
- What fuels (thoughts, ideas, etc.) such violence?
- While we may not be that violent, what are some ways through which we show contempt for others? Are you having any issue with anyone at the moment? Are you concocting a plan to do something about it? How can you turn that negativity into something positive?
Notes
- Evidently, both men had no regard for human life. To get what they wanted, killing became a necessary and rational means to go after it.
- A low view of life certainly is a necessary rationale for a total disregard for human life. This low view stems from denying that each human is created by God in His own image with a special purpose. Haman and Abimelech saw men as being no different from insects or mammals.
- I think a common weapon deployed to show our contempt for people whom we dislike is telling half-truths or lies about them. While we aren’t physically killing anyone, we are destroying their reputation and maligning their character. The best way to turn that negativity into something positive is this: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:44).
Evening Reflection
Jesus says, “Anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. . . . Anyone who say, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell” (Matt. 5:22). Okay, fess up before going sleep: to whom did you get angry? Was it your spouse or child? Ask the Lord to give you the motivation and strength to mend this relationship—then just obey Him!
In 597, Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine of Canterbury (not St. Augustine of Hippo) along with forty monks to Great Britain in hopes of evangelizing the Anglo-Saxons who lived there. But upon arrival, seeing buildings with crosses, they realized that someone had already beaten them to it. No one knows who first evangelized the Anglo-Saxons, but their church was known as the “Celtic Church” (which earlier produced the great missionary St. Patrick in the 5th century). In time, Augustine, after learning about this church, insisted that the Celtic Christians adopt the Catholic way (e.g., celebrating Easter on the Sunday following Passover instead of on the day of Passover). In an important meeting in which the two sides were to talk, it is believed that Augustine—the pope’s deputy no less—greatly offended the Celtic delegation when he refused to get up to greet them. Suffice it to say, they were off to rocky start.
Some might question: “Esther, should you be hosting back-to-back dinner parties when life and death of hundreds and thousands of your people is hanging in the balance?” To fault Esther for her alleged indifference is no different than questioning the sanity of King Solomon for ordering that the baby in dispute, between two women claiming to be his mother, be cut in two so that each could have half (1 Kings 3:24). Rest assured that Esther was not only valiant (“If I perish, I perish”), but she was also wise, much like Solomon who knew that the real mother would rather lose the baby than let him be sawed in two.
As we have been reading the story of Esther, one of the most pivotal characters in the story is Mordecai. He was the one who raised Esther, and he was there for her to give advice in the face of evil. There are many adjectives we can use to describe him, but one characteristic that stands out is—his humility. He was never impressed by the riches of royalty or desired to take any credit for Esther’s plan to expose Haman, but rather, we see a man who sincerely wanted to obey the Lord and to honor God by doing what was right. He completely understood the providence of God and his potential role in it if he remained faithful. Anyone in his position could have taken the glory for his plan to thwart Haman, but rather, he seemed to always respond in humble obedience.
We live in a culture where we do not like to wait. Everything is instant. You no longer have to wait until you get home to know if someone called or wait to find information on a certain subject because of the Internet. You can watch entire episodes of television shows in one sitting. One newspaper said it best:
In one of the darkest hours of World War II, Winston Churchill led Great Britain with great, uncompromising courage. In the midst of battle, he said, “Death and sorrow will be the companions of our journey, hardship our garment; constancy our valor and our only shield. We must be united, we must be undaunted, we must be inflexible.”
Happy Thanksgiving! For our devotional today, we want to focus on the topic of gratitude. I recently was reading a blog by KJ Dell’Antonia called “The Kids are Ungrateful”. In this blog, she writes how ungrateful her kids can get. Here is what she writes:
As we look at the tragedies that are going all around the world, it’s often easy to ask what God’s purpose is in all of it. Innocent lives lost due to terrorist attacks, wars between countries, school shootings and many other evils that we see and hear about can often be disheartening and often leads us to fear and anxiety in our own lives.
One movie series that I could watch over and over again is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. One of the reasons why the movie (and book) is so well made is because of the ability the movie has of depicting different subplots and stories within the bigger story. We know the main character Frodo and his quest for the ring, but within that story, there are smaller subplots: the friendship between Frodo and Sam, and the mysterious Gollum and crowning of Aragorn as the king of Gondor (sorry if you have not seen the movies). All of these subplots seem unimportant at first, but at the end we see how important they were in building the main story.