For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Rev. 15
What does verse 1 tell you about God’s wrath? How is that different from God’s love? Here’s another worship song: what does it say about God? Very interesting that the plagues of God’s wrath came out of the tabernacle of the covenant law. This makes so much sense with what we learn in the rest of the New Testament about the law and its purpose. Paul says that if we live by the law we will be judged by the law. The law reveals our unrighteousness and declares us worthy of God’s wrath. It is only when we die to the law to live in Christ that we can stand before God in His righteousness.
Est. 1-3
What do you observe about the character of Mordecai and Esther? Where do you see the hand of God invisibly at work? The more I read the Bible, the more I see that it repeats certain concepts over and over in various ways. We recently read in Revelation about the Dragon, who could not defeat the Woman and so sought to destroy all her offspring. The Dragon gave power to the two beasts to destroy any who refused to submit to him.
Here in the story of Esther, we see Haman, who became angry with Mordecai for refusing to bow down to him. But Haman was not satisfied with destroying only Mordecai. Instead, he sought to destroy all like Mordecai. Though not called out as such, this meant all of God’s people. He then gave power to all the leaders in the king’s territory to “destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews – young and old, women and children – on a single day” (Est. 3:13a).
The truth here is that Satan always seeks to destroy God’s children. Sometimes he seeks to deceive us into serving him. Other times he tries to outright kill as many of us as he can. And if he can’t do either of those, he works to render us ineffective in our service to God. This message is repeated a lot in the Bible, in many different ways, with many different images. I think we better pay attention. As John said many times, “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep His commands and remain faithful to Jesus.” (Rev. 14:12).