Lord Give Us Strength

 The Lord gives us strength against our enemy.  We begin Esther chapter 7 as Queen Esther reveals her petition at the banquet to the king; not only is king Ahasuerus listening to the Queen's request, but Haman the Prime Minister also. 

In Esther 7:3-4 Esther is pleading for her life and the life of the Jews. Esther knows she must word her petition and request very carefully, she said "For we have been sold" - remember Haman paid the King 10,000 talents of silver to write the Decree. (Esther 3:9) Then notice Esther uses the very words that are used in the Decree "destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated" (Esther 3:13). In hearing these words, the king would have to remember the decree and realize what Esther meant by sparing her life. You could just imagine Haman at this point; His heart is probably racing as the words of his wife and friends come to his mind: (Esther 6:13). Then here he finds out that the Queen is Jewish, you know he was in fear for his life as he sees the King's anger well up. The King stunned and outraged asks the Queen who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?" Esther 7:5 and Esther told him Haman.

Haman hearing his name come out of the queen's mouth as the one to who decreed to kill her was now terrified as we see in verse six. He was utterly helpless and hopeless before the king. So many times we try to hide our sin as if nobody knows. Haman probably never thought his evil revengeful ways would come back to bring he and his family harm. But Rest assure, just as Haman's evil was exposed, so all sin will be exposed by God. My friend, if we face up to our sin and just repent instead of trying to cover it up we will feel the forgiveness of our Lord instead of His wrath. If we just give our enemies to the Lord and allow Him to deal with them rather than taking revenge, we will feel the love of our Lord rather that His wrath. Esther and Mordecai put their enemy, Haman in the hands of the Lord ~ You remember they fasted and prayed asking for the Lord's guidance, protection and strength before going before the king to expose Haman's plan.

The king learned a great lesson here. He realized that he gave way to much authority to Haman - a wicked man. That he should have at least read the decree before putting his seal on it. Now his own wife the queen was at risk. Please join me as we continue to see what happens next.