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the  Preachers  blog

Blogs are posted every Wednesday, except in July and August

Mediator (By Chris Barnes)

7/26/2021

 
Text: Esther Chapters 1-5  
OBSERVE: Through the first five chapters of the book of Esther, we read about the rise of a Jewish woman named Esther. She becomes the Queen through a series of events which clearly display the incompetence of the Persian king. An advisor named Haman takes advantage of the king’s incompetence and convinces the king to sign an edict to annihilate all the Jews in the Persian kingdom. However, the king is unaware through all of this that Queen Esther herself is a Jew.

Esther had kept her family background a secret as Mordecai, her relative, had told her to. But now, after the signing of the edict, Mordecai was urging her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him to save the lives of her people. We read this in these verses:

“If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this? “Esther replied, “I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die (Esther 4: 14-16).

INTERPRET: God’s covenant people needed a mediator – someone willing and able to go and plead their case where they could not go – into the presence of the king. Esther knew what this bold approach would likely cost her. If this uninvited visit did not go well, Esther would most certainly lose her comfortable life in the palace and she could possibly lose her life as well. But Esther took her life in her hands, risking everything for her people. She asked for her life and the lives of her people to be spared, and the king did as she requested.

APPLICATION: We too need a mediator willing to go before God, the great King, to intercede for our very lives. We need a deliverer who identifies with us and stands in for us as our representative. God’s edict to punish sin has gone out throughout the world “This is my rule: The person who sins is the one who will die” (Ezekiel 18: 4) – and it cannot be reversed.

But our mediator has gone to the throne asking that the sentence of death be passed down, not on us, but on him. Jesus stepped forward, not to plead for his life but to offer his life. He stepped forward not at the risk of his life but at the certain cost of his life. To stand before the throne to intercede for us not only risked his death, it required his death.

REFLECTION: Does your life clearly display thankfulness for what our Amazing God has done for us?

PRAYER: Jesus, you left your palace with no desire to protect yourself, but with every intention of offering yourself so that my life might be spared. Now as you stand before the throne interceding on my behalf, help me to live a life that clearly displays my thankfulness for what you have done. AMEN.

SONG: At the Cross by Chris Tomlin

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St Aidan’s Anglican Church
274 Campbell Street | Winnipeg, MB R3N 1B5
Phone: 204.489.3390 Email: [email protected]
  • Home
  • Worship Online
  • The Preachers Blog
  • Bible in a Year
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Prayer Requests
  • Request Pastoral Care
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  • Video Archive
    • 2025 Videos
    • 2024 Videos
    • Real Lives
    • 2023 Videos
    • 2022 Videos
    • 2021 Videos
    • 2020 Videos
  • Sermon Audio Archive
    • 2020 Sermons
    • 2019 Sermons
    • 2019 Sermon Series >
      • Gospel Centered Eternities November 2019
      • The Real Joy of Easter - Holy Week 2019
    • 2018 Sermons
    • 2018 Sermon Series >
      • Gospel Centred Church Spring 2018
      • A Gospel Shaped Church Fall 2018
    • 2017 Sermon Series >
      • The Servant King Christmas 2016
      • The Saviour King Lent 2017
      • The Victorious King Holy Week 2017
      • The Living King Easter 2017
      • The Brother King Fall 2017
      • Worship the King Advent 2017
    • 2016 Sermon Series >
      • Real Obedience Lent 2016
      • Unity of the Church
      • The Servant King Christmas 2016
    • 2015 Sermon Series >
      • Real Gifts 2015
      • Real Mission 2015
      • Mission Discerned
    • 2014 Sermon Series >
      • Real Church 2014
      • Real Lives 2014
    • 2013 Sermon Series >
      • Real God 2013
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  • Christianity 101