Esther.

Esther is my favorite book and Esther is my favorite bible character, and may always be. I have really enjoyed this week learning even more about her and her story. The book of Esther has a lot to tell us. Did you know that God is not mentioned in the book, but yet it is a powerful story of Gods faithfulness and the power the choices we make have.

The story starts with King Xerxes summoning Queen Vashti and Vashti refusing to come. The reason Vashti did not come at the kings summons was because Xerxes was really asking the Queen to shame herself. Back then royalty did not show them self to the public. The King was asking Vashti to do something that was beneath her. The kings request was actually rude and inappropriate. Besides this the king and his guest where all very drunk at this point from all the partying they had been doing. Vashti would have been aware of this fact and like any woman she knew it would not be a wise choice to be the only women present in a room full of drunk men. Vashti's refusal to obey the kings inappropriate request, lead to her losing her place as Queen. Later Xerxes regrets this decision, so his servants advised him to find another to take Vashtis place. All the young virgins of the land were gathered up and brought to the palace, Esther was among those. Esther wins the favor of the king and becomes Queen. Sometime after this Haman the Agagite (Amalekite) was given a lot of power, which made him very self-centered he expected honor from everyone and when Mordecai the Jew did not bow to him, Haman became infuriated and plotted to kill the Jews. Haman requested the king to make an edict that would destroy the Jews. Haman was very sneaky in the way he presented his request before the king, he told the king that there was a people group that did not keep his laws. Haman did not tell the King that this people group was the Jews. The king granted Haman's request and an edict went out to all the provenances in the kingdom, stating that all the Jews were to be destroyed. When the Jews heard this they where greatly distressed and feared for their lives. Mordecai then appealed to Esther to appeal to the king for her people. Esther has the choice of either abandoning her people, in the hopes that someone else will save them while she hides out in the palace, Or at the risk of her life appear before the king and plead for the life of her people. Esther chose the lives of her people over her own, and interceded on behalf of her people. In the end the king helped Esther and her people defeat their enemies. These enemies were the Amalekites, the Amalekites were the first people to attack the Isrealites as they came out of Egypt. The Israelites defeated them, but the Amalekites did not give up easily they continued attack the Israelites making it difficult for them to enter the promise land. So God cursed the Amalekites, commanding His people to destroy them. The Israelites were not faithful in their obedience to this command and let some of them live. Haman is a descendant of one of those Amalekites. He followed right along with the history of his people and attacked the Jews, but when the Jews destroyed Haman and his family, they fulfilled the curse that God had put on the Amalekites. Even through God is not mentioned in this book, it is still a story of God protecting and caring for His people. The story of Esther is also a powerful example of how the choices we make impact those around us, and that we have a purpose. Our purpose it to be God's image bearers. We live in a broken world that is in desperate need of God's love. God's love is already in this world we are just unaware of it, because in someway Satan has blinded us to His love. Maybe you do not know how to receive love, and since your cannot receive love, love does not seem to be there. Or maybe you do not understand how big and powerful God's steadfast love is, and since you do not know what love is you cannot find it in this world. Or maybe you are someone who understand God's love, and you know how to give and receive love. If you are this person you have a choice to make, a choice that has the ability to impact thousands of lives. Your choice is to step into your purpose as God's image bearer and be God's love to this world, help those that are blind to God love find His love. Or you can continue to live as you are enjoying God's love yourself, ignoring the rest of the world. The impact God's love makes on a person and in that persons life is amazing. And if that person shares God's love with another, and that person with another and so on the impact is huge. The point is we have the power to change the world, and make an impact lives, and all we have to do is to live out the Purpose God gave us.