Life Coaching: The Real Game of Thrones
/The Jews put all their enemies to the sword, killing and destroying them. They did what they pleased to those who hated them. Esther 9:5
Brutal verse, isn’t it? The Bible is full of such verses. Of course, when you read the backstory on this verse, it’s full of enough trickery and castle intrigue to rival Game of Thrones. The Jewish nation was about to fall victim to a plot—a plot to wipe them from the face of the planet. Only an intervention from the king could save them, and King Ahasuerus did indeed intervene. He commanded for them to take up arms and defend themselves. They did and the rest is history. There is much more to this story, but for brevity’s sake, just go read the book of Esther if you’re curious.
The second part of that verse is what I want to concentrate on today and look at it from a strictly spiritual, modern-day Christianity point of view—“They did what they pleased to those who hated them.” Is this verse advocating violence to those who hate you? Not at all. Rather, it’s letting us know that no matter how you live your life, good or bad, there are always gonna be people who hate you, and the devil is the number one enemy of our souls. But, and here’s the thing, we cannot and will not allow him to win. The ultimate goal of the devil is to take our life. He will kill us if he can, and short of that, he wants to make our lives miserable because that glorifies him and does nothing to glorify God, whom he hates. He plots against us, much like Haman plotted against Queen Esther’s people, the Jews. When you plot to take out an entire race of people, that’s wicked indeed.
Now, let’s fast forward that several thousand years...this type of thinking is still prevalent today. We see one group wanting to annihilate another, often over religion, but the reasons vary. At the heart of it all is our common enemy—Satan. He is a wily rascal, isn’t he? Wile E. Coyote has nothing on him. Satan causes division everywhere he goes, because he is the father of lies, murder and hatred. We need to recognize that and act accordingly. Satan is the common enemy of mankind, and we often do not see it because we become blinded by our own emotions. It’s easy to do.
In this case, the Jewish people acted this way in order to escape annihilation from the hand of wicked Haman. We must be just a ruthless when we are escaping our spiritual enemy—the devil. If we give him free reign in our lives, it leads to nothing good, because you see, he wants to do with us as he pleases because He HATEA US!
Then there’s this verse from the New Testament... “But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen and guard you from the evil one..” 2 Thessalonians 3:3
This verse gives us assurance that God strengthens and guard us from the enemy. No matter how the enemy comes after us, God gives us strength to overcome him and be victorious. Do we always feel victorious? Definitely not. Sometimes we feel defeated and worthless. Bit feelings are not always an indication of TRUTH! If indeed God is faithful, then if He truly loves His children, He will give us His strength and guard us when the enemy tries to steal our joy, peace, comfort, patience, and justiceS
There is an aspect of vindication in the book of Esther, just as the same aspect is in 2 Thessalonians. We read the Bible as One Book—no separation between the Old and the New. It’s a story of passion, deception, redemption, motivation, betrayal, and resurrection. It’s a story of war and peace. It’s a story of love and hate. But love ALWAYS wins. Every.single.time.
