I really feel like Esther Chapter 7 should’ve been the end.
Haman is gone. Esther has told the truth, Mordecai is honored and The king knows what happened. We did it. Roll the credits. Its the perfect ending to a great story.
Except Chapter 8 opens and there’s still a problem. It's like that part in the movies where everyone is celebrating and hugging and the enemy is laying there dead, or so we thought. But the enemy has just enough strength left to raise his arm and take one last shot....
Except in this story The decree still stands.
Haman was the face of the attack. He was the one plotting, manipulating and building the gallows. But getting rid of Haman didn’t automatically get rid of what he had already put into motion.
Because Haman was never the whole battle.
We can get so focused on the person causing the problem that we start believing, If God would just move them, everything would be okay. And boy do i feel that. But we have to remember that our battle isn’t against flesh and blood. People are not the real enemy.
Haman was gone, but the enemy’s plan was still moving forward. That means whether God removes the person or not, He is still in control.
God can remove a Haman or He can move us away from a Haman. And He can leave us right where we are and teach us how to stand while Haman is still there.
Our peace cannot depend on another person leaving. And I needed Esther 8 to remind me of that in my own life. Because I’ve caught myself thinking lately that changing my surroundings would fix my problem. Maybe I just need to move to another office. Maybe getting away from the situation would finally give me some peace. But changing offices won’t fix something God is teaching me to trust Him through.
If God tells me to move, I’ll move.
But I don’t want to move because somebody else made me uncomfortable. I don’t want fear, frustration or another person’s behavior deciding where I stand.
So For right now, I can stay put.
I can do my job. I can guard my heart. I can walk in peace. I can stop giving somebody else so much space in my thoughts and trust God to make a way right where I am.
And that’s exactly what Esther Chapter 8 is showing us. The original decree couldn’t simply be erased, so God made a way forward. Esther and Mordecai were given authority to write another decree giving the Jewish people the right to stand and defend themselves. God didn’t pretend the first decree never happened.
But He gave His people what they needed to stand against it.
And look at Mordecai now. The man who was sitting outside the palace in sackcloth is walking out wearing royal robes. The signet ring that once gave Haman authority is now on Mordecai’s hand. The enemy’s plan is still written on paper, but it no longer gets to decide how the story ends.
That’ll preach.
There are things we can’t erase. Situations we can’t control. People we can’t change. And there are battles where God removes the problem and battles where He strengthens us right in the middle of it.
Either way, He makes a way.
So I’m learning not to make my peace dependent on whether somebody else changes, leaves, apologizes, gets exposed or finally understands. And I’m learning not to run from a place God hasn’t told me to leave. God is still God if they stay and God is still God if they go. And God is still God if He tells me to stay put.
By the end of Chapter 8, mourning has turned into joy and fear into celebration. Not because the first decree never existed, but because it didn’t get the final word. Neither did Haman AND Neither does the enemy in our own lives.
God does.
Hidden, not absent.
His fingerprints are everywhere.
Love Pastor Mandy
Daily reading Esther 8
MandiesDandies / Ark of Hope
#HiddenNotAbsent #Esther8 #GodWillMakeAWay #StayPut #StandFirm #GodHasTheFinalWord #HisFingerprintsAreEverywhere #ArkOfHope
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