This idea pleased Haman and he had the gallows made.
– Esther 5:14
So I don’t have time to explain all of Esther 5 and all that’s going on here. But essentially, Haman just made a decision to construct gallows, to hang Mordecai on.
Esther 5:14 teaches us to expect hardship as we strive for obedience.
As I read that, I think about how we’ve prayed according to Esther 3 and 4, how we’ve prayed according to Esther 3 and what Mordecai did there to take a counter-cultural stand and not bow down in homage to Haman. Now, Haman is constructing gallows to kill Mordecai. I think about Esther 4 when we prayed about our meaning and purpose and stepping into our meaning and purpose in life. In Esther 5, we see that that’s not easy and that there is an adversary who is always at work to hurt us and to keep us from being a part of the accomplishment of God’s purposes and to keep God’s purposes from being accomplished.
Do not be surprised when you take counter-cultural costly stands or when you step into obedience to God and the time and place in which He has put you, don’t be surprised when life gets harder not easier. Don’t be surprised when you face attacks or accusations or attempts from all kinds of sides to distract you or discourage you, or ultimately what the adversary wants is to destroy you and to keep you from God and His purposes in your life and what He’s calling you to, so hold fast in the middle of whatever the adversary throws your way. Hold fast, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, and trust in Him, trust in Him.
Esther 5:14 reminds us to trust God with our struggles.
Part of me wants to go into the rest of the story of the book of Esther and what’s going to happen with those gallows, but I’ll just say for the time being, you can trust in God. Even when you are experiencing challenges and opposition from this world, from all kinds of different sides, trust in God. He is your defender, He’s your shield, He is your refuge in the middle of the storm, and ultimately He is your reward.
Oh God, we pray that you would help us to be aware today in each of our lives of spiritual warfare around us, that there are spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms that are working to destroy us, to destroy our faith, and to distract us from the calling and mission that you’ve given to us, your purpose in our lives, oh God.
This verse reminds us God is our defender, our shield, and our refuge.
So help us to hold fast to you just as Paul prayed in Ephesians 6 to stand firm, with faith in you, with trust in you as our defender and our shield and our refuge and our reward. We praise you for what you did in Esther to provide for Mordecai, and we trust in you to provide for us as we look to you. Help us just to keep on in following you, in obeying you, in doing whatever you call us to do according to your Word and your Spirit.
God, help us to be bold in sharing the gospel, knowing that it will get harder for us when we do. Help us to be bold in our obedience to you, knowing that it will be costly in this world. God, help us to make disciples of the nations starting right around us and wherever you lead us, knowing that this will lead to greater challenge in our lives, but trusting that you are better than anything in this world and you are sufficient for every challenge we face.
Prayer for the Tsudakar People
Oh God, we pray for the Tsudakar people of Russia, 20,000 of them, the small Dargwa-speaking people group in Dagestan, in Russia. We know this is a really hard people group to reach. God, we pray that you would raise up some among your people to go to the Tsudakar of Russia, no matter what it costs them, for the spread of the gospel to them.
Oh God, help us all to stand strong in spiritual warfare today here, and we pray this for our brothers and sisters around the world, trusting that you are our shield, our refuge, and our reward. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
