On that night the king could not sleep. And he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king.
Esther 6.1 (ESV)
The unfolding of the saga takes an intriguing course as the plans of Haman begin to unravel. He, with the support of his family, is expecting to be rid of Mordecai on the morning of the second banquet that Esther has prepared so that he can ‘go joyfully with the king to the feast’ Esther 5.14b, but palace protocol and bureaucracy intervene.
The opening words of chapter 6 quoted above give way to a gloriously ironic turn of events.
The king suffering from insomnia, and the care taken within the Persian Empire to record events for future generations to consider, turn out to be crucial. If you are not familiar with the account do please read it now in chapter 6. It is a glorious reversal of fortune as Haman, the enemy of the Jews is himself humiliated prior to the full revelation of his evil plan.
I have headed each devotional in this series ‘Where is God in all this … ?’ and have made no direct attempt to answer that question leaving you, the reader, to answer that for yourself. This I will continue to do leaving it until a final roundup devotional to address this directly but for today let us just consider the importance of history and records, for without these, humanly speaking Mordecai would have met his end on Haman’s gallows.
Your history is important. National history is important, especially in our current climate when so many are trying to erase or rewrite certain sections of our past which are deemed to be uncomfortable. We must stand firm against this for while it is nothing new as a theme it is reaching a dangerous level.
Finally let me apply it directly to God’s Word. How highly do you value the Old Testament?
There is an old saying that ‘The New is in the Old concealed and the Old is in the New revealed’ and that is true but there is a danger that because the second part is true we can be at risk of forgetting the Old. However ultimately the New does not make full and glorious sense unless we study the Old.
So let me encourage you this morning, to really get to understand the ‘book of God’s memorable deeds’ in the OT so that you may grasp more fully the wonder, life and freedom that are contained in the NT