August 23 – We Have Been Sold

Read Esther 7:1-10 Key verses: 3-4, 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; 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." (NASB)

“If I have found favor in your sight…let me live.” Queen Esther was merely requesting her life and that of the Jews. The conversation at that banquet only got Haman into deeper trouble. His plot against the Jews backfired and now it was his own head that would be in the noose. When he pleaded for his life he just upset the king more. Too bad for Haman. He was willing to sell the Jews, but didn’t want to give up his own life. The king was mad and it wasn’t until after Haman was hanged that his anger subsided.

Anger is a deep emotion. Even Jesus got angry. Anger occurs 274 times in the New American Standard Bible translation. That’s a lot of anger. We are admonished to BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger….in Ephesians 4:26 (NASB). Further instruction in Ephesians tells us to Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Ephesians 4:31 (NASB). Another teaching from Ephesians about another type of anger, exasperation, encourages us as parents. Fathers (and mothers), do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, Ephesians 6:4 (NASB). When we are angry ourselves it is easy to rile others up—so it is a good idea to count to 10 before responding to your anger and not to physically strike out. I have found it helpful to look at what is causing my anger…is it unmet expectations, or just not getting my own way in the relationship or circumstances? Is it small stuff or does it really make a difference?

What is the source of your anger? Jesus experienced righteous indignation in the temple when he discovered that people were using the sacrificial rituals to make money for themselves. It was really deeper than just making a living—it was disrespect for God that was the issue. There are probably few times in our lives that we experience true righteous indignation.

Dear Jesus—we confess that our anger is sometimes out of control. Please help us to see things as you would see them and to be merciful to those we are in relationships with whom we find ourselves angry. Help us to put aside our anger and show compassion instead.

© 2012 by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.