“Then Queen Esther answered, ‘If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life — this is my petition. And spare my people — this is my request.’” Esther 7:3 (NIV)  

 

Today we see how a woman’s intuition and her proper preparation to meet the king is always a winning combo, especially against something as simple and blind as a man with revenge on his heart and mind.

 

We’ve come to the homestretch in the book of Esther, the Bible’s only book that never mentions God. That hardly means God is not represented. This book illustrates how God is orchestrating things for the greater good, running the universe without ever resorting to a Plan B, no matter what His children choose to do.

 

Queen Esther, the gorgeous Jewish arm candy that King Xerxes chose out of all the women in the land, prepared herself before God, asking friends for prayers and also praying and fasting herself, so she could, at the risk of her life, hopefully have an audience with the king and reveal to him a plot by the king’s evil prime minister, Haman, “An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!” (see Esther 7:6), to have the Jews exterminated. 

 

Esther’s plan, successful because of perfect timing and divine awareness, was successful. Haman ended up on the carnival midway as Haman-on-a-stick. Esther and the Jews survived and, years later, the Savior was born to a Jewish virgin.

 

Esther, by the way, was coy and brilliant. A cool customer. But when it was time to unload, she did. Adversary! Enemy! Vile! Three strikes. No wasted punches. Haman never knew what hit him. On several levels, there is a cautionary warning here for males, no matter if they are the prime minister of Persia or the street sweeper in Swartz. If your aim is to thwart a godly woman, you might as well jump into your grave and save someone the trouble of having to haul you; your chances of winning are zero. Egg. Empty set.

 

Game over.

 

One of my favorite Seinfeld bits is about the poll taken asking Americans to rank their biggest fears.

 

The fear of public speaking was No. 1. Dying was No. 2.

 

Consider that for a second: Americans fear public speaking more than they fear dying!

 

That means at a funeral, the guy giving the eulogy is in worse shape than the guy in the casket.

 

Since human nature is unchanging, if Gallup had polled the Persian population back in Esther’s day, the results would likely have been the same. Yet when it was time to speak up, Queen Esther did, both for her people and for a God who cannot fail.

 

Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu