May 15, 2014 (Thursday)
Xerxes, king of the Persian Empire, promoted Haman to the highest office in the land. Mordecai, a Jew, refused to bow to him. Mordecai had adopted Esther, his cousin, as his daughter. She became Queen because of her beauty. Mordecai overheard a plot to assassinate the king and reported it. Meanwhile, Haman, who hated all the Jews, came up with a plot to destroy all the Jews in the Persian kingdom. He built a gallows 75 feet high to execute Mordecai. Mordecai pleaded with Esther to intercede in behalf of all the Jews. She gave a dinner to which she invited only the king and Haman. The night before, the king was troubled and could not sleep. He read old documents and discovered that Mordecai had saved his life. When he saw Haman the next day, he asked what he should do to honor a great man. Haman assumed the honoree was he himself, and so suggested a visible display of public honor. Then the king told him it was Mordecai to be honored. When Xerxes asked Esther what she desired, she told him of Haman’s plot to kill Mordecai and all the Jews, so Xerxes hanged Haman on the gallows built for Mordecai. Esther had saved the Jews. All this took place as Jerusalem was being repopulated by Jews returning to Israel from captivity in Persia.
Esther – Devotional thought
Mordecai persuaded Esther to help by showing her that she had become Queen to fulfill her destiny. At great risk to her own life, she interceded for the Jews, requesting the king to let them live. The Feast of Purim today memorializes that deed. Each of us should ask himself/herself, “Why was I born? What is my mission? What does God want me to do with my life?” An old song composed by Leila N. Morris in 1900 goes like this: “My stubborn will at last hath yielded; I would be Thine, and Thine alone; And this the prayer my lips are bringing, Lord, let in me Thy will be done. Sweet will of God, still fold me closer, Till I am wholly lost in Thee.”