Absolute Last Esther Post

This is it about Esther, my absolute last post…for a while at least. There’s so much to ponder in this short book, so many lessons. Although there aren’t that many people in the book, each adds a little something. Without going into detail, here are a few of the topics I’ve come up with:

Faith and putting faith into action.
Fulfilling one’s destiny.
Dangers of pride (look at what happened to Haman).
Dressing for success. Remember how Esther appeared before the king in her royal robes?
Respect for those in charge.
Fasting and praying…and the strength that can come from others who are united in these actions.
The magnitude of what one brave, committed person can do.
Knowing that things can change overnight. You just never know when you lay your head on the pillow at night what might happen by morning. Maybe the king will have insomnia.
The importance of fighting for your people; this includes your spouse, children, parents, siblings, friends, and everyone else you'd consider "your people."
The necessity of having courage. Can you just picture Esther standing before the king, perhaps shaking in her royal shoes?
The scariness of having “friends” like Haman. Just how loyal were these fair weather friends?
The importance of straight talk and tough love. Remember how Mordecai sent word to Esther reminding her that if she didn’t act, help would come from some other place but that she would not be spared.
The importance of using what you’ve been given, whether it’s looks, leadership skills, cunning, or know-how.
The underlying sense that we are all Esthers in our own spheres and that we have been born for such as time as this.

Can you think of other themes or lessons?

What's Her Name?

What’s her name? You know, the woman who was married to Job? The one who had ten children and lost them all when a wind came out of the wilderness and blew down the house in which they were eating and drinking? The one who lost everything at the same time that her well-known, “perfect and upright” husband did. The one who must’ve hurt deeply to have said, “Curse God, and die.” The one who watched as day after day her husband and his “friends” sat pondering the meaning of it all. Even his friends had names, but not her.

Job’s suffering continues and gets to the point that he says his soul is weary of life. Where is she? Even after being covered with boils and having his friends doubt his goodness, Job vows that, “till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.” Where is she? I know a woman’s place was much different at this time and place, but still this is a woman who has given birth to seven sons and three daughters who are now dead because of a bet (?) between God and Satan. This unnamed woman must have grieved mightily.

As we know, Job’s fortune is restored twofold, and his wife has ten more children. After giving birth to twenty children, she still goes unnamed. I don’t know why this bothers me, but it does. Can anyone in Blogland offer any insight?

Don't Look Back

After reading a friend's blog about perspective today, I've been thinking a lot about the importance of moving on, of not getting stuck in the past. Our pasts can influence us, but they don't have to determine who we are and what we become. We are free to choose our destiny, and sometimes that involves being obedient or disobedient.

These thoughts, prompted by Christie's post, reminded me of something I wrote a few years ago about Lot's wife. Here it is:

Genesis 19:26
“But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”
This story has always seemed crazy to me. Crazy and cruel. Crazy for her to look back after God had clearly told the family not to and cruel for God to actually turn her into a pillar of salt. But then again, Lot’s wife was human, a mere mortal just like the rest of us who don’t always do what God tells us to do. We try, but sometimes we slip and fall just like she did. Still, it seems such a minor infraction. A backwards glance, and forever she’s a chunk of sodium.

There’s got to be an explanation. Some scientists would have us believe that it never happened, and that in fact there are salt formations all over the area near the southern tip of the Red Sea. Others with no plausible explanation might say that it’s a metaphorical story. Perhaps it is, and yet I prefer to believe the actual Biblical account and keep asking myself why God was so emphatic about not looking back and why he meted out such severe punishment. After all, the ramifications of that act affected her entire family. Lot had no wife; his daughters had no mother.

I’m wondering if this story is oft repeated not only as an indication of what God can and will do if we disobey him but also because looking back is unhealthy. How can one move forward if she’s forever looking longingly at yesterday? Some people live so much in the land of Yesterday that they can’t go forward. They become pickled like the pillars of salt somewhere between Sodom and Zoar.