Saturday, February 1, 2014

Esther





































Here is another Old Testament post I hope you enjoy:
Queen Vashti put her own interests aside to stand up for how women should be treated. In Esther 1: 3 it discusses the feast that King Ahasuerus had for him and all the princes. At these feasts the men were allowed to drink as much as they wanted and whenever they wanted. When King Ahasuerus asked the Queen to come before the King in Esther 1: 11 the men had basically been drinking for seven days straight, so the Queen knowing this refused to come in Esther 1: 12. Not only did she not come before the men because they were very inebriated but also she did not want to parade in front of them like an object for them to look at. I have a lot of respect for Queen Vashti because I feel that she was the first to stand up for women. I feel like she knew her self worth, and wasn’t just something for the king and the princes to look at. It is really sad that Esther replaced her, but I feel that this was all apart of Heavenly Father’s plan.
 The first commandment is that “thou shalt have no other gods before me” as found in Exodus chapter 20. Mordecai was the perfect example of standing up for this commandment. In Esther 3: 1 Haman became was promoted above all the other princes. I feel that this went to his head a bit and in Esther 3: 2 all the servants of the king bowed to him. Mordecai would not bow to Haman in Esther 3: 3, because he was a Jew so he kept the commandment of not having any other god before Heavenly Father. Not only did he stand up for his beliefs, but he also stood up for all of his fellow Jews. He stood up for what he believed even in the face of death. Mordecai knew that he would be protected by Heavenly Father and went to Esther for help.
Esther is one of the most famous women in the Bible. I always kind of knew about her, but after reading about her I have so much more of a love for her and her faith. It all started when the king removes Vashti as queen. Since the king basically has no queen he seeks another, and is pleased with Esther so she becomes queen. Mordecai is Esther’s uncle, and when he gets into trouble with Haman Esther proves her faith and puts her own interests and safety aside to help Mordecai. In Esther 5:1 she puts on her royal apparel and goes o the inner court of the king, which you must be invited to go into the inner courts of the king. Esther goes into the inner courts and find favor with the king in Esther 5: 2. Esther then asks to have a banquet with the king and Haman. This sets the whole process in motion to have a plot reveled about Haman. The king then executes Haman and Mordecai is saved. Esther showed faith in the Lord, and faith the Mordecai was doing the right thing. She risked her own life to save her uncle and the Jews.

The biggest attribute that all of three of these possess is faith. I feel that Vashti knew that she was a daughter of God and she had faith that the Lord would not want her to go parade around a bunch of drunken men. This is one attribute I would like to work on. I feel that all of Heavenly Father’s children don’t know just how important they are, and we should all work on our self worth. Mordecai had faith in the Lord and in his commandments. He proved his faith through his actions. That is one attribute I would like to work on from Mordecai. I would like to have no fear to prove my faith. Finally the attribute I would like to work on from Esther is her strength. I think that it would be so hard to see what happened to Vashti, and know that you were basically doing the same thing but then to do it anyways. Esther had so much faith and courage that she was able to walk into a situation that seemed impossible and still come out perfectly.  

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