Esther 4:1-7:10, 1 Corinthians 12:1-26, Psalms 36:1-12, Proverbs 21:21-22
Today is the 19th day of August. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s my pleasure, it is a true joy to be here around the global campfire with you as we enter a new workweek. And as we enter this new workweek, we will continue the journey that we began yesterday through the book, known as Esther, which is certainly highly drama…a highly drama filled book with a lot of intrigue and very high stakes. So, let’s pick up where we left off. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Today, Esther chapters 4 through 7.
Commentary:
Okay. So, obviously the book of Esther is a pretty dramatic book, a very dramatic story and a bunch of tension was very, very present in our reading today. Haman devised a plan to destroy the Jewish people throughout the entire Persian kingdom. He got the king to go along with it. Nobody knew that the Queen Esther was a Jewess and then this law is passed instructing the enemies of the Jews to destroy and pillage them, which was to happen on a specific day. And, so, obviously when the news arrived throughout the kingdom the Jews were horrified, and the people were confused. And, so Mordechai put sackcloth and ashes on, he sends word to Esther and he pleads for her to go into the king and plead on behalf of the people and he tells her you may have been made Queen for just such a time as this. Of course, we know that the drama just increases, right? So, Haman’s gonna kill Mordechai on a gallows he has built, but instead the king has an honor Haman and realizes like he’s about to have a downfall and then he goes to this banquet with Queen Esther and boom, that’s the end of Haman. That’s not the end of the story. We’ll get to the end of the story tomorrow.
And in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he’s answering a question about spiritual gifts and he’s basically saying, “look, there are many kinds of spiritual gifts, but there is only one spirit to give these spiritual gifts out and this one Spirit is the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit gives out these gifts as He sees fit”, right? So, he outlines the different gifts like wisdom or special knowledge or great faith or healing or miracles or prophecy or discernment or speaking in unknown languages and also the interpretation of unknown languages. He bestows these gifts and they are given to be used to serve the greater whole, which is the body. And then he describes the body of Christ as we know it in terms of a human body, right? There’s many parts in our bodies and no part can really say to any other part, I don’t need you because that’s not true. Every part is needed. And, so, the eye can’t say to the ear, “I don’t need you” or the head can’t look at the feet and say, “I don’t need you” and like the ear can’t look at the eye and say, “well I guess I’m not a part of the body because I’m not an eye.” Every part makes up a whole. The head is Christ and everything that we can do is given by the Spirit. So, it’s clear enough and it’s certainly famous enough that we should probably have this down pat by now, but we don’t because all we have to do is look around and see that were not living like this is described. Paul’s giving us permission to be exactly who we were created to be. We are already irreplaceable. There is great freedom in this. We don’t have to compare our gifting, we don’t have to look at our status in God’s kingdom as if that could be known. We are who we were created to be. We’re supposed to be who we are, ourselves, rather than wishing that we were living somebody else’s life. And so, as we move into this day and further into this week let’s live into that. Like, just…just try it today, right? Like just try, knowing that you have full permission from God to be yourself and you don’t have to look at anybody else and what they’re doing and what they’re gifting’s are to try to find out how well you are doing. It’s an incorrect comparison. They’re telling a different story than you are. You have your story to tell. You are an irreplaceable part of the body of Christ. So, whenever you feel like envy at somebody’s gifting’s, remember that you…you have a unique gift and you’re needed, and God is the source of all our giftings and all of it matters because it all makes up a whole. We’re all needed.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, we invite You into that because it’s a struggle. We’re constantly looking at someone else with envy, wishing we could have what they have or to be able to do what they do or we’re looking at them and just condemning ourselves for not measuring up and it just leads us into all kinds of dark places for no reason. We are Your child. We are Your son or daughter. That…that’s really all there is to say, because after that it’s all downhill. And, so, we are already at the top here. We are Your child and You have allowed us to live upon this earth and reveal Your kingdom as only we can and yet we’re spending so much time trying to be somebody else or trying so hard to change circumstances. And, yeah, circumstances may need to be changed, we may have dug a pit. But every day that we would be true and every day that we would be ourselves and every day that we would follow Your Spirits guidance would be a step in the right direction. So, help us take that next right step today. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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