Seize the Moment – Day 1024

HomeDevotionsSeize the Moment – Day 1024
05
Jan '23

Seize the Moment – Day 1024

Posted on Jan 5, 2023 by Jerry Ingalls in Devotions, General |

05
Jan '23

Have a Battle Buddy!

Esther 10

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, January 5.

 

Esther had Mordecai, who do you have? The book of Esther emphasizes that the dynamic duo of Esther-Mordecai was a one-two punch that knocked out Haman and rescued the Jewish people from his evil plot to destroy them. While Esther is not named in either the first or last chapter, Mordecai is the emphasis of this last chapter, as we read in Esther 10:3,
 
“For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and in favor with his many kinsmen, one who sought the good of his people and one who spoke for the welfare of his whole nation.”

 

As we reflect upon the entirety of the book of Esther, we realize that neither character, Esther nor Mordecai, could have accomplished alone what they did together. Each of them was an essential agent of God in this dramatic story of the Great Reversal. God, the unnamed hero of the story, placed Esther onto Vashti’s throne as queen of Persia, transplanted Haman with Mordecai as second only to the king, and rescued the Jews from annihilation within the Persian Empire.

 

Both Esther and Mordecai are commemorated through the holiday of Purim. In fact, in 2 Maccabees 15:36, we see that over three centuries later the first day of Purim, the fourteenth day of Adar, was called, “Mordecai’s day.”[1] Do you think Esther would have been jealous of Mordecai’s elevation, or Mordecai of Esther’s? Absolutely not! They both trusted God’s sovereign grace to work in and through each of their lives to bring about a greater work than they could do alone!

 

Esther had a battle buddy – a person she depended upon to help carry the burdens of God’s purposes for her life. Paul said in Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.”

 

Seize the moment and don’t go through life alone! Who’s your battle buddy?

 

God bless you!

 

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

 

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.

Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.

 

 
 

FOOTNOTE:

 
[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), 2 Maccabees 15:36. While the first and second books of the Maccabees are not considered part of the Protestant canon, they are read as ancient historical records of the Maccabean Revolt, which occurred during the second century BC. From it, we find collaborating evidence that Mordecai was commemorated by the Jewish people.
 

^