Originally posted: 7/31/2020
Then Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me as my petition, and my people as my request,” (7:3).
Something in Esther’s request resonated. I hope it did with you as well. As we seek to find Him in the pages of Esther’s story, a story that does not bear His Name, but is definitively marked throughout by His Fingerprints moving history to accomplish His Purpose for His people, we will more than simply see Him. He invites us to encounter Him, again and again; every time we open His Living Word, it is His invitation to partake of what only He can impart and to learn from Him Who Gives Us Life.
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life,” (John 6:63).
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart, (Hebrews 4:12).
And we don’t need to allegorize Esther’s story, as though the king is some type or portrayal of the character of God. For Scripture is clear; every king, every governing authority, every human, ultimately fulfills the will of Him Who Gives Us Life.
The plans of the heart belong to man,
But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord, (Proverbs 16:1).
The mind of man plans his way,
But the Lord directs his steps.
10 A divine decision is in the lips of the king… (Proverbs 16:9-10).
And just because we may not be able to understand how the free will of man works in concert under the Divine Direction of His Sovereignty, does not contradict His Truth.
Man’s steps are ordained by the Lord,
How then can man understand his way? (Proverbs 20:24).
How can we expect to comprehend the breadth of Almighty Creator God? We shouldn’t. But of this we can be sure, in the events of history, it is the will of the Lord that will prevail.
The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord;
He turns it wherever He wishes, (Proverbs 21:1).
And in Esther’s story, as the king’s heart was turned to grant her request, we can also be sure of Who really granted Esther’s petition for life, for herself and her people; for each of their days were preordained by Him Who Gives Us Life.
For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb…
16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them, (Psalm 139:13, 16).
Only One is qualified to determine our number of days and only One is able to Give Us Life.
Consider Him Who Gives Us Life
- By His Power, He breathed Life into man
- Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being, (Genesis 2:7).
- By His Will, He Gives Us Life
- “See now that I, I am He,
And there is no god besides Me;
It is I who put to death and give life.
I have wounded and it is I who heal,
And there is no one who can deliver from My hand,” (Deuteronomy 32:39).
- “See now that I, I am He,
- By His Breath, He Gives Us Life
- The Spirit of God has made me,
And the breath of the Almighty gives me life, (Job 33:4).
- The Spirit of God has made me,
- He Alone Gives Life to All
- You alone are the Lord.
You have made the heavens,
The heaven of heavens with all their host,
The earth and all that is on it,
The seas and all that is in them.
You give life to all of them
And the heavenly host bows down before You, (Nehemiah 9:6).
- You alone are the Lord.
And while He Gives Life to all His Creation, He has so much more to Give… that which is most necessary for all of Life: His Gift of Eternal Life.
- He Gives Us Eternal Life by His Love
- “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life,” (John 3:16).
- He Gives Us Eternal Life through His Son
- And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life, (1 John 5:11-12).
- He Gives Us Eternal Life by His Holy Spirit
- “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life,” (John 6:63).
- He Gives Us Eternal Life through His Word that testifies about Jesus
- You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life, (John 5:39-40).
- He Gives Us Eternal Life through His Free Gift
- For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, (Romans 6:23).
- He Gives Us Eternal Life through the Abundance of His Grace
- For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ, (Romans 5:17).
- He Gives Us Eternal Life that we may know Him
- “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent,” (John 17:3).
How do we respond to Him Who Gives Us Life?
Then Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me as my petition, and my people as my request; 4 for we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed and to be annihilated. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for the trouble would not be commensurate with the annoyance to the king,” (7:3-4).
Esther understood the severity of the situation. Their very lives were at stake. Without Christ, ours are too.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned, (Romans 5:12).
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, (Ephesians 2:1).
Without Christ, our lives are at stake and in eternal danger. For though He Gives Us Life through our physical birth, Jesus told us if we wish to see His Eternal Kingdom, we must be born again.
Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God,” (John 3:3).
We, like Esther, must approach our King in humility to ask for His favor, His Grace, that He would grant our petition for Spiritual Life.
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” (John 3:6).
When we are born again, He saves us, and Gives Us Eternal Life in the Spirit. Are you certain you have you been born again? It is His work that saves, not our own. Asking that He would grant our petition for Spiritual Life is simply agreeing with Him in humility (recognizing Who God is in His holiness and who we are in our sin), acknowledging our need for a Savior, and believing in what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross.
… “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household,” (Acts 16:30-31).
If you have any questions or would like to discuss this further, please email The Planting Place at plantingplace@gmail.com
When we have been born again, He desires that we grow in our knowledge of Him. Remember what Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent,” (John 17:3).
Eternal Life begins the moment we come to know Him through faith in Jesus Christ; and He Gives Us Life through knowing Him. And there is a universal principle about Life: Living things grow. That should definitely be true in our Spiritual Life. And He Who Gives Us Life has provided all we need for our Growth, through His Living Word.
He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God,’” (Matthew 4:4).
Today, let us not take for granted the tremendous privilege we have in His Word, His Holy provision that grows us in our knowledge of Him Who Gives Us Life. Because, He Has Given Us Life, not to merely exist, but to enjoy Him to the utmost.
You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever, (Psalm 16:11).
Paul prayed much for his fellow believers’ growth in the Lord. And really what Paul was asking, was that the believers would not consider His Gift of Life as a mere possession. Paul prayed that His Gift of Life would grow until it blossomed into a full-fledged Love relationship.
Today, let us spend some time praying for our loved ones (and ourselves), that we would come to His Word daily, that we might grow in our knowledge of Him, and that we too might be empowered to be completely consumed by Love for Him Who Gives Us Life.
For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, (Ephesians 1:15-17).
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God, (Ephesians 3:17-19).
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; 11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God, (Philippians 1:9-11).
we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; (Colossians 1:9-10).
and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ’s sake, (Philemon 1:6).