Live Well, Live Wisely

 

“When Mordecai learned of all that had been done [the edict issued for the Jews annihilation], he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it. In every providence to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great weeping and wiling. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes….

When Esther’s words [of fear of petitioning the king for their lives] were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: ‘Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:1-3,12-14)

An edict had been issued to completely annihilate the Jews. It came about through Haman because Mordecai refused to bow down to him. Mordecai would not follow the customs and laws of the people around him when they honored man rather than the Lord. He refused to bow to Haman as a Jew. It enraged Haman so much that he devised to annihilate all the Jews including him.

He told the king that all the Jews were lawbreakers and needed to be dealt with by exterminating them. He was so angry about it that he was willing to pay the king to destroy them. The king told him to do whatever he wanted with them.

It all started with Haman getting offended and ended with his death. His offense ultimately derailed him out of his position. What offends you? We need to keep close check on our offenses with others. Is it because they are not honoring us, a misunderstanding, or because they are genuinely doing the wrong thing?

Most the time, offense is created when we feel a lack of honor. The enemy gets us to act on our offense and we attack the person who offends us only to create discord and pain. Like Judas with Jesus, when we act on our offense, we betray and hurt others, damaging loyalty at our own expense.

Notice how God moves in this story of Esther. He does not intervene by stopping Mordecai from offending Haman. He also does not stop the king from issuing the edict. He doesn’t take the evil Haman out of the mix. Rather, He intervenes by going ahead and placing Esther in the mix to petition the king for mercy.

Yet, it is not even a definite. She has a choice in the midst of it to step out in faith or to shrink back in silence. Mordecai even points this out to her. He tells her that if she does shrink back rather than standing out that God will find someone else and her and her family will perish.

As God goes before us and intervenes on our behalf, He doesn’t keep us from problems and difficulties. He does not take us out of difficult circumstances and prevent them from occurring overall. Rather He places His hand of protection around us to keep us from harm in the midst of it.

If the situation with Haman did not happen, there would not be such a story of victory. The feast of the 14th day of Adar has such meaning to the Jews because of the story of victory behind it. It was that God intervened and came into their situation and spared their lives. Not only this, but gave them the victory.

God turned the whole situation around. Where Haman was the leader and ruling, him and his 10 children ended up impaled on the very gallows that he had set up to impale Mordecai. Not only this but Mordecai ended up in the position of Haman as the leader under the king. This gave the Jews a special advantage.

For Esther, it also changed her life. She went from a scared young lady living at the mercy of the king to a woman in authority who was partnering with the king in making decisions. She went from fear and shrinking back to knowing her purpose. She was created for such a time as this. As she stepped out in bold faith, it changed her. She became a different woman.

She could have chosen to remain silent and shrink back from conflict or making someone unhappy. If she would have, Mordecai reminded her that it would be her death and the end of the line for her. Don’t you know that every time we shrink back from stepping out in faith, our soul dies a little death? It weakens our convictions and dulls our spirits.

Hebrews 10:39 (NIV) says, “But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.”

A little compromise here, a little compromise there, shrinking back on occasion, and it eats away at the fabric of our faith. Like Balaam who was paid to curse the people of God, step by step, he got further away from following the Lord. We sow to the wind, following along with wherever the wind of the crowd is blowing, and we reap a whirlwind. (Hosea 8:7)

All this is important because it applies to end time tribulation as well. God moves in the same ways as He always has. As God goes before us, it is likely that He will not eliminate the situations that cause difficulty. He does not take out the person who sins or causes evil. Rather, as evil increases, He protects us from harm in the midst of it. He uses the evil and the darkness to further His plans and purposes while advancing us spiritually.

The more we experience tribulation, the more stories of powerful victories we will have. As we grow in faith in the midst of our trials, there will be situation after situation that would be absolutely unexplainable except that the Lord intervenes [such as Mordecai ending up in leadership and Haman ending up hanging on the pole].

Stories like the one where Haman shows up to work only to find that he needs to go around that day, putting the kings robe on Mordecai and giving him honor throughout the kingdom with the very idea he had to honor someone when he despises Mordecai for not honoring him. Even the family and advisors of Haman knew that this meant Haman’s ultimate demise as God was clearly intervening.

We need to see tribulation as an opportunity for growth, transformation and stepping out in faith. It is only through greater trials and tribulations that we grow stronger in our faith. What God is asking from us will most likely be trust, faith and bravery. He is looking that we would not shrink back against circumstances or be silenced in the face of threats, persecution, or accusation. We should not stand back and let it be the responsibility of someone else.

Rather, we need to remember that we were created for such a time as this. We are called to be brave rather than avoid conflict. We were created to speak the truth in love. Like Esther, when things look bleak, to fast, pray, and petition the King of Kings. Most of all, we need to remember who we are to Him. We are loved beyond measure and He is on our side.

Our difficult circumstances are opportunities. For Judas who acted out of offense and self-interest, it says in Matthew 26:24 that it would have been better for him not to be born. The choices he made led him down a path of not only offense, but sorrow, anguish and suicide. His heart was hard towards Jesus.

Ever think that the choices we are making in life are forming us and forging us for all eternity? Life is not so much about checking the box, succeeding some personal goal, being successful in the worlds eyes, as learning to trust. The commands are summed up in the one that says to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.

This is the question we need to ask ourselves daily. This is the ultimate metric of our lives that we need to measure ourselves against. When we get to the end of our life and face Jesus, even some that have done miracles, He will not receive as He doesn’t know them. They will find that they are wielding a spirit of witchcraft as they didn’t spend the time to know the Lord.

What we contribute or what we accomplish does not matter if it does not come from a heart that extols Christ from a position of love. All that we do is to come from this place of love and gratitude. Ecclesiastes 6:3 says, “If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years…but his soul is not satisfied with goodness…I say that a stillborn child is better than he.”

As we see with the story of the rich man and Lazarus, lying at his doorway, who begged for scraps from his table, what we have in this life does not count for eternity. It can sometimes even hinder us if we use it poorly. Our lives are but a breath. Even the length of time we have does not matter.

An old boss of mine that oversaw our Psychiatry Department helped a great deal of people with his life. He also led many people who were helping others. Yet, when it came to his own relationship with Christ, it was minimal. He made choices that, like King Saul from the Bible, showed he loved God very little. As a result, while he was seen as a heavy weight in this life, when he went on to eternity, he was a lightweight and just barely crossed over.

We are becoming as we make our choices. As we see with kids who call other kids names or pick on them, they become more small. While they wound their victims to make them feel small, so they can feel greater, they wound their own soul greater than the damage they do to others. So in some ways, we are the sum of our choices. Our choices impact who we become.

Yet, when we receive Christ and are born again, it cuts off the old life. We are hewn from the Rock. Rather than receive the consequences of our own sinful choices, we receive the inheritance of His right choices. He cuts off and substitutes and takes our poor choice consequence and gives us His instead. But then as born again Christians, we reap out of our choices from this divine reset forward, with grace and forgiveness for mistakes when we need it. In this way, we go from glory to glory as we receive Him.

All that to say that who we are forged into while we are here is what matters for eternity. The time we spend to love Jesus and love others with His love will matter. And those who care so deeply as to share the gospel with others and help them find Christ, will shine like the brightness of the stars. They will have eternal rewards.

But even in doing good and loving others, our heart matters. If we do it with a desire to get something from it like approval appreciation and wanting to be seen, we will end up with no reward. It is out of a heart of overflow that we give. It is because we have been given so much.

And when we go through trials and tribulations, how we receive it matters as well. When Job lost all that he owned, his production, his servants and even his children, he fell to the ground and still worshipped God. He did not accuse God in his heart of wrongdoing (Job 1:22).

This is an area that I can struggle at times. I can get into difficult situations and feel over my head and have a desire to blame God and escape my circumstances. Rather than praising Him and surrendering in the midst of difficulty for being so good to me, I can become caught up in God not helping me to get it all right and avoid the difficulty. Even when I know He has called me into something, facing enough adversity, I can seriously consider walking away from it.

But escaping is not the answer. This has to do with managing our circumstances and putting this first rather than putting God first. Whenever we put something else first, we lose our reward and worship in it.

There are some that just escape the fire and everything else will be burned up. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:13-15, “It [one’s work] will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.”

The word quality here is the Greek word hopoios, Strongs# 3697 and it means the manner of work. In other words, what was behind the work itself. The manner is the heart intent that God is looking for. He is looking at our heart at every choice point and our intent behind it. Are we loving Him in it? Are we doing it for Him? What manner are our offerings? Is there a desire to glorify Him in it? Are they in name only? Do we give Him our leftovers? All important things to ask ourselves in reflection.

2 Chronicles 16:9 says, “For the eyes of the LORD roam to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him.”

And Romans 8:28 says that we know that God causes everything to work together for good of those who love God and are called according to His purposes. This does not mean that all our circumstances will be good but that as we step out in love for Him, our choices will cause us to further flourish. Our hearts and faith will grow as we make choices is this direction.

Our heart intent is His metric. Do we get this? He is looking for those who will put Him first no matter what goes on in their lives. This is the ultimate measure of life and what we did with it. At the end, everything else is meaningless. It all goes back to dust.

Lord, deep in my heart, I cry out to give you more. We want to make more choices to love you and say something with our lives. Help us to live our lives wisely and well. Help us to finish well and say something with our lives. May they reflect more than that we helped people but most importantly that we loved You much and well.