Choose Wisely your Measure of Judgment!
Esther 7
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, January 2.
Are you quick to judge other people’s actions as deserving justice? Be warned of your hasty cry for justice; so often we are guilty too though we justify our own actions and cry out for mercy for ourselves. Jesus teaches us to choose our response wisely in Matthew 7:2,
“For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.”
At the second banquet with King Ahasuerus and Haman, Queen Esther finally requested for the king to preserve her life and the life of the Jewish people from the wicked Haman (Esther 7:1-6). With a Great Reversal, Esther 7:10 ends the climatic confrontation with the king’s judgment,
“So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king’s anger subsided.”
It is ironic, don’t you think, that Haman was hung on the very gallows he had built for Mordecai, whose only crime against Haman had been a breach of royal etiquette – he wouldn’t bow down to Haman when he rode by him at the king’s gate (Esther 3:2-3; 5:9). In response, Haman built an eighty-foot gallows for Mordecai and wrote a decree to murder every single Jew in the Persian Empire (Esther 3:4-6; 5:10-14). Quite the overstep of judgment on Haman’s part, but people are still making rash judgments to this day. Examples of this are happening in road rage incidents and school shootings across our nation.
While you may feel justified, in your own mind, to bring a judgment upon another person. STOP! Choose wisely and remember the grace God gave you when you deserved wrath –
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Seize the moment and give grace to those who don’t deserve it! In doing so, you are partaking in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:2-11). This is the way of the gospel of Jesus Christ!
God bless you!
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YOUTUBE:
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