Just one missionary invests his full life in a remote area, and a whole clan is at last evangelized. Just one legislator stands for right, and a country is saved. Only 1 strong-willed and determined voter announces, “I stand against this evil,” and a community ramps up morally and changes its direction. And only 1 girl decided it was worth the chance to smash with custom and talk her mind, and a country was saved.

The Jews have been threatened with extermination. Evil Haman has influenced King Ahasuerus with his guarantees : “Because of this plan I have set up, it is possible for me to pour cash into your treasuries and for us to rid the land of these folks who won’t bow down and worship you as the king.” Though it pandered to the king’s pride, that plan had the makings of the worst sort of holocaust. In case you wonder what impact it had on the community, return to the last phrase in chapter three : “the town of Susa was in confusion.” That needed to be a major understatement.

While Haman and Ahasuerus sat over their drinks in the palace, the public rambled in confusion and puzzlement, particularly the Jews, not unlike those in the ghetto at Warsaw and other Western european scenes of horror in the latter ’30s and early ’40s. “What’s going on here?” “Why have those in authority ordered this?” “How much worse can things get?”.

What apprehension this struck in their hearts, what fear in their minds. “How are we able to continue?” “How are we able to fight this?” This was the law of the Medes and the Persians. When an edict was issued in that time, it was final.

No-one could change this plan, even the king, but definitely no Jew. Yet, in the middle of all this, God wasn’t sleeping.

In His sovereign plan, He determined that one individual would make the difference.

So deep, so extreme must be this respect for God’s holy presence that nobody was even to touch the mountain. The people were to attend on God to chat to Moses and hear the Lord’s words thru the Lord’s servant.

This story makes it clear that we reside in a day of pitifully shallow concepts of the Lord God. Some of today’s recent Christian music leaves the idea that God is our buddy—a great pal to have in a pinch. A movie star once announced of the Lord God, “He’s my enormous Father upstairs.” One pop song asks, “What if God were simply a slob like us?” That isn’t the biblical view of the Lord God. The Puritans, that thorough folk of old, possessed a solidly biblical idea of God.

Did you know why it’s so critical for us to recover such a deferential understanding? Because a shallow view of God leads to a shallow life. But hold God in profoundest respect, and it is remarkable how deep the roots of your non secular life grow. He’s the sole smart God, the Creator, the Maker, the sovereign Lord. He informs me what to do, and I haven’t any safe option but to do it.

We have but one directive, and that’s to do His will. We confirm that truth in our times with Him. He doesn’t bow to our hurried pace, but silently He waits for us to meet His demands. And after we slow down enough to meet Him, He is happy to add amazing non secular depth to our otherwise shallow lives. What’s been your idea of the Lord? Who is your God? Be truthful, now. Does He look anything like the God of Mount Sinai?

He did not see himself killing a wicked slave driver as much as courageously striking a blow for God’s folk. His problem? He dedicated himself to the will of Almighty God, but not to the God whose will it was. You and I will become so devoted to the will of Our Lord God, we will be able to be so driven by a blind sense of purpose, that we would coincidentally take matters into our own hands and leave God totally out of the loop. Was it not right to beat that Hebrew as he did? Actually .

But when Moses stepped in and started his very own Operation Deliverance, he was energised by the flesh, not the Spirit. How simply this will occur to good folk, to males and females with the highest motives and the best intentions. In your heart, you ache to be in front of a lecture room again. With all of your soul, you need to feel that lectern underneath your hands and the minds of those keen scholars soaking up your understanding.

And all of a sudden, allegedly out of the blue, a chance presents itself. But all of the while, God waits for you to find His counsel. If you act without discerning His timing, you’ll lose the grin of divine favor. You’ll actually sense that God has something for you to do in a certain area. But if you are not vigilant, if you are not daily humbling yourself before Him, looking for His face, discerning His timing, operating under the Spirit’s control, you will push and force your way prematurely into that place where God wanted you, but you won’t have arrived in his very own time.

God led the writer of Genesis to bare the truth about every area of Joseph’s colorful life. He permits us to see what the person was actually like within, even what he was thinking. We will sum it up in one sentence : his heart was humble before God. Why does the writer add these details? First, I believe he would like us to know that Joseph was monogamous. He did not fall into the mistake of polygamy, like so many surrounding him—even his very own family. He had one wife, and she bore him 2 boys.

2nd , and more important, the writer would like us to realize the importance found in the names of Joseph’s boys. In naming his boys as he did, Joseph announced brazenly that God had made him forget all his difficulties, even those in his pa’s household. Above and beyond that, God had made him successful in a place and in circumstances that had brought him nothing apart from difficulty.

It is really tantalizing to try and get vengeance on the Reubens and the Judahs and the Dans and the Mrs Potiphars from our past. To get back at people who have stung us and stripped us and hurt us with noxious deeds and foul words. Instead, we must give birth to a Manasseh.

Could it be that it is time to ask the Lord God to erase the stings in your memory? Only he will be able to do that. Then it’ll be time to go on to give birth to an Ephraim. To recollect how God has extravagantly sanctified us. Talk about a positive, attesting name : “God has made me fruitful.” But it does not stop there. With the plural ending, this word conveys the idea of double benefit—multiple blessings. It’s what we might call “superabundance.” And it was God who did it all.

I grin as I read this, because if anyone ought to had a miserable face, it should have been Joseph. They were there on an impulse of the Pharaoh and certainly wouldn’t be there forever. But Joseph had been charged by the chief executioner’s other half and did not know if he’d ever see the light of the day. But despite his very own circumstance, he spotted the predicament of these two men. When your heart is right, although the bottom could have dropped out of your life, it is extraordinary how delicate you may be to someone else in need.

Instead of asserting, “You think you have got a lot to gripe about, hear my story of woe. “Joseph expounded, “How come you are so sorrowful today, guys? What’s wrong?” I admit it could be saying the plain to ask this in a dungeon, but it shows Joseph’s capability to think beyond his very own immediate cares and wants to minister mercy to others.One of the beautiful things about the right perspective is that, with it, each day has sun. You do not have to have cloudless days for there to be sunlight days. Basically, it’s rather fantastic that Joseph would need to have anything to do with dreams.

The last time he did that, remember what happened? He told his siblings about his dreams and it was “Operation Pit City.” He wound up in an Egyptian slave market. It’ll show you an opportunity for ministry you never would have touched with a ten-foot pole.

When money is our objective for contentment, we must live in fear of losing it, which makes us paranoid and suspicious. When becoming a celebrity is our target, we become competitive lest others upstage us, which makes us envious. When power and influence drive us, we become self-serving and strong-willed, which makes us conceited. And when possessions become our god, we become materialistic, thinking enough is rarely enough, which makes us greedy.

All of these pursuits fly in the face of happiness and joy. Only Christ can satisfy, whether we have or don’t have, whether we are known or unknown, whether we live or die. And the excellent news is this : Death only sweetens the pie.

That alone will make you giggle again. The New Testament in Modem English, reads : “For living to me means simply ‘Christ,’ and if I die I should only gain more of him.”.

The fear of the Lord does not need to do with fear or trepidation, but rather refers to suitable amazement and reverence for who God is. It’s a quality that we as Christians should seek and nurture. Though we do not hear the expression frequently enough today, it may still be a great compliment to be known as a God-fearing woman or man. To fear God produces all demeanors of fruit in the Christian’s life. It leads to our hating evil as God does, and the Bible also tells us the fear of the Lord is the start of knowledge (Psalm 111:10 ).

The more we obtain divine understanding, the larger will be our love for the Bible and God’s commandments. As well as all these assets, we find that the person that learns to fear God will have a powerful family (v. 2), with children who grow to be bold for the truth. God-fearing folks also find that “light arises in the darkness for the upright” (v. 4).

This doesn’t suggest that we won’t ever have dark times or times of trouble in the valley – we’ll have trials, headaches, and tears like the remainder of humankind. But in our problems, we are guaranteed the light that comes from God’s angels of deliverance. These protecting messengers encamp around those who fear the Lord. They surround followers above and underneath so that nothing can get at you without divine authorization. Ask God to help have a correct, reverential fear of Him. It’s a request He’s going to be thrilled to receive.

Folk are often puzzled by talk which has to do with fearing God. On the one hand, Scripture scolds us to be afraid of the Lord, but at the same time, we are told that God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear. So how are we to appreciate this phrase? Fearing God does not mean always looking over your shoulder in stress to see what he’s going to do next. The fear of God is something positive and healthy and is obviously outlined in several different scriptures.

A particularly useful one is Proverbs 8:13, where we are told that “the fear of the Lord is to detest evil.” many folks are worried by the idea of hating anything. Yet God announces we are to hate evil as he Himself hates it in all of its forms.

He detests it as he obviously sees its corrupting and destructive influence. We frequently can’t see any corruption at all. In fact, we occasionally look at what is malicious and think that it is not actually too bad. The Devil’s job is to camouflage wickedness till it seems quite trusting or perhaps enticing. The enemy is such a success in his deception that we frequently fall into his snares with out any compunction.

That is why we must learn how to view things as God sees them. We want to develop such a holy loathing for iniquity that we shun and refuse it at each turn. When we get the Lord’s view of misdemeanor, the Devil will be stymied in his attempts to seduce us. Though it might not be a popular position, we will decide to love God and hate evil.

There are a great many times in life when we are overpowered by feelings of hopelessness and despair. We find ourselves beset by uncontrollable circumstances that are fully beyond our control. In our weakness and dismay, we become so fretful and fearful that we even lose sight of the guarantees of God.

We cry to Him for help and adhere to the hope that he’ll change our outward circumstances. Even in our moaning and supplications, we barely know what to ask because our vision is so limited. In times like these, it’s a great comfort to recollect that we’ve got a Guide, a Governor, a Caretaker who sees what we actually need. His timely interventions are typically inward rather than outward.

That is, while we would like to see things change, He wants us to modify. In our weakness, we cry out for relief while the sanctified Holy Spirit is sieving our moaning thru the will of God. As our advocate, He has a commitment to interceding with the Father on our behalf. And His petitions are always heard because they perfectly fit God’s great purposes for our lives.

That is why the apostle Paul was so certain about all things collaborating for good to people who love God. He revealed, “we know,” not “we hope.” He talked with guarantee, not in terms like “maybe,” “if,” or “but.” Likewise, this certainty takes in “all things,” not just some things. What confidence we should all have! Our heavenly Father, the sovereign God of this universe, is exercising supervisory control of each single affair in our life.