Esther 7:7  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. 

    

    Have you ever had a friend or known someone who seemed to only be a friend for what they got from the relationship? As long as they were benefiting from the relationship they were invested? Like a lot of bad behaviors, it’s probably a lot easier to see that in other people than in a mirror!

    Haman was such a person. He had manipulated and connived his way to al-most the very pinnacle of power. He was second to the king. He must have had a lot of personal charisma because if you go back and read the previous chapters of Esther, you don’t really see any example of Haman doing anything for the king. Haman was quite happy with the blessings that came his way because of his rela-tionship with the king. He quite enjoyed the position that the king gave him. He reveled in the wealth that came his way due to his connection to the king. But it was always all about Haman. He knew deep down that his relationship to the king was one-directional. When the crisis came, he had no real standing with the king. The one person that could have fixed things. He was left begging the queen. 

    I wonder if there aren’t a lot of people that sort of treat God the same way. They are very happy with the blessings He gives. They aren’t shy to ask (and ex-pect) financial blessings. They quite like when He provides good health. They real-ly enjoy a measure of peace that He provides. But, if they were honest, they would see that their relationship with God is all one-directional. It’s always, “What can God do for me?” When real crisis hits, what will their relationship with Him be like? It was in crisis that the true nature of Haman’s relationship to the king was revealed. 

    Jesus came to live a sinless life and die on a cross as a payment for our sins. He invites us into relationship with Him. We can read in the Gospels about the relationships He built with His closest followers and we can emulate those. If we do, we will see that Jesus didn’t do what He did so that we might have health, wealth, and happiness. When Jesus invites us into relationship with Him, He is inviting us to take up a cross and serve Him. He is the King. We are not. If our relationship with Him is marked mostly by our regularly telling Him what we want, who is the servant and who the master?

Blessings

Pastor Russ