Lesson number two came to me as I read Ester Chapter 3. It is nothing fancy and again seems so simple to me, yet cut to my heart which the word of God is good at doing (Hebrews 4:12). A gentle reminder to be ever so careful with my words.
Chapter 3 opens up with the promotion of Haman by the King. All the people were expected to pay homage to Haman and to bow down to him. However, Mordecai refused to do either simply because his allegiance belonged only to God. This infuriated Haman and it did not take long before he wanted to annihilate all of the Jews because of Mordecai's actions. Then we come to verse 8, this is where I felt the Word of God speak to my heart:
"Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of all other people, and they do not observe the king's laws, so it is not in the king's interest to let them remain."
While this statement about the Jews is somewhat true; they were a certain people, they did serve the law of God and not necessarily man's law, and they did not observe the kings laws, he left out a few important details. While they served they law of God and not necessarily man's law, that did not mean they disrespected the King or his mandates. It simply meant God's law was first in their lives and if a man made law contradicted it, they would follow the law of God instead of the law of man. Secondly, it was not ALL the laws nor was it ALL the people not observing the king's laws. It was one law and one man. However, because of the way Haman portrayed the people of Israel, King Ahasuerus agreed with him, this subservient group of people needed to go.
Ok, so you may be asking, what is the lesson in this, what is the big deal? The thing I felt God speak to my heart was this: Haman committed character assassination. He was angry and out of his anger he told a bit of a lie, hidden in a truth, in order to get his own way, to satisfy his own selfish desires, and to get revenge. And the question I felt laid in my heart was this: how often do I do the very same thing? How often do I feel hurt, wounded, or angry about something or someone? Maybe they didn't do something I wanted them to do or maybe they said something that hurt my feelings. Either way, I am left feeling angry at them and their actions and the easiest thing to do is to begin to assassinate their character. Sometimes, I just do it in the quietness of my mind where it festers. Other times, I let it spill out like sewage onto others, just like Haman did. The consequences of which do not only affect me or the person I am angry at; but it often can affect a larger group of people: all of those who hear my words, which can begin to lay like a bitter poison in their own hearts, and can bring death to them. Just like with Haman, his anger affected him and Mordecai, but it didn't stop there. It was going to affect and destroy a whole nation.
Wow. As I sit here typing this, the gravity of it is really hitting me, (please be patient with me as I think out loud) especially when I think about the church. It is bad enough in a public setting to speak down on someone, but in a church setting, it can bring death to the church body.
Galatians 5:15 speaks to this:
"If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other."
I am not going to write it all down here, because it is a little long, but I am thankful for the encouragement in the rest of that chapter especially the admonition in verse 25 and 26 to keep in step with Spirit and to not continue in envying and provoking one another.
Again, wow. Like Pastor Don Smith would say, "This is a heavy." It is a lot for me to think about. Letting my words only bring encouragement and life to others is something I desire to continue to grow in.
My word of encouragement today:
"Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another." John 13:34 The Message
(The following link will take you to a song by Hawk Nelson called Words. I felt it layed on my heart as I typed this blog. If you have the other music playing already from my blog, you will have to shut that off first so that you can hear this.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf_H7Lwl0FI
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