The Devil’s Lies and Esther 9

John 8:37 “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.

:38 I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.”

:39 They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.

:40 But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.

:41 You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him,  “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father – God.”

:42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.

:43 Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.

:44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

:45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.

:46 Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?

:47 He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

Satan’s influence over mankind began when he turned the minds of Adam and Eve against God. He had to lie to them to do it. He lied to them about God’s goodness, His word, and His intentions. He is still doing the same thing today.

It’s not surprising when trouble comes around, that he is whispering in our ears and begin questioning God’s goodness.

Our problem is just like Adam and Eve, we believe satan’s lies. That compromises our loyalty to God. Then he slithers away to the next person, leaving us to face our regrets for believing the lies.

Who are you listening to today?

Esther 7:1 So the king and Haman wet to dine with Queen Esther.

:2 And on the second day, at the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be grated you. And what is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!”

:3 Then Queen Esther answered and said, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.

:4 For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king’s loss.”

:5 So King Xerxes answered and said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?”

:6 And Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!” So Haman was terrified before the king and queen.

:7 Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king.

:8 When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house?” As the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

:9 Now Harbonah, one of the eunuch’s said to the king, “Look! The gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good on the king’s behalf is standing at the house of Haman.” Then the king said, “Hang him on it!”

:10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath subsided.

Esther tells the king if the Jews had been sold as slaves at least the king would have gotten money. Apparently the king has a very short memory because he forgot his own orders.

Haman’s day got even worse just as his family said it would. Harbonah must not have liked Haman, as he is quick to tell the king about the gallows.

God is a God of justice. The fact that Haman was hanged on the gallows he prepared for Mordecai shows that.