Esther 5 Commentary
On the third day, Queen Esther takes the dangerous mission of presenting herself before King Xerxes uninvited. The third day happens to be the last day of prayer and fasting, herein simply called fasting. In answer to these prayers, King Xerxes favorably invites Esther into his presence.
Faith may be spelled as ‘RISK’. But after prayer, Risk becomes Safe Risk. You will have left it in the hands of the LORD. The LORD then decides what happens afterward.
We can draw parallels with Nehemiah’s prayer before he approached King Artaxerxes. Nehemiah prayed to the LORD for favor before the king.
It’s not at all stupid for the saint to pray for favor before approaching human authorities.
Suspense is the currency of this book. So Esther keeps the king waiting for her request. Let the king first enjoy a special meal prepared by Queen Esther. The enemy Haman has also been invited. It is a moment of great pride for him. He would go on and boast about it to his wife and friends. But there is a problem: Mordecai, the Jew.
For Haman, pride is in control. When pride shows up, everything becomes insignificant. Greediness is part of the entourage. You can have everything, but because you don’t have Mordecai’s respect, your ‘everything’ becomes nothing. That is greediness at its best. Evil has a way of destroying everything.
Contentment is a gift from the LORD. But greediness is the devil’s weapon. It zeroes everything along its way! It leaves an individual feeling empty and in need, even when they have everything!
Greediness keeps the saint busy with prayer requests at the expense of thanksgiving and praise. But these are often requests for what you already have, or what you really don’t need. Greediness creates virtual needs!
So the saint prays, but with zero significance because of all the distortions created by greediness.
The chapter ends with an introduction to yet another plot. Mordecai must die at the earliest possible time. A pole is set up immediately for Mordecai’s head. Now we are worried. Queen Esther’s time-wasting may be very costly. Haman is moving very fast.
Have you been in a situation like this? There are times when events seem to overtake your prayers. The LORD’s response doesn’t appear to work at the right pace. You pray for healing in the morning, but in the afternoon, a doctor gives you an appointment for amputation. These are moments for total surrender to the LORD, who alone knows all things.
In the meantime, King Xerxes is waiting for Esther’s request as the pole awaits Mordecai’s head. Let’s see what the next chapter gives us, tomorrow, here.
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