"On that night the king could not sleep. And he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king."
Esther 6:1
The King couldn’t sleep, so he had the most boring stuff he could find brought to be read to him, hoping it would knock him out. It didn’t work. The reader droned on and on, and the poor King tossed and turned.
I have been impressed many times with the devil‘s timing. He seems to be able to manipulate circumstances to set us up for temptation when we are most vulnerable, timed to achieve maximum damage. I have also learned through the years that God’s timing is so much superior to the devil’s that He essentially plays the devil like a fiddle. If we are listening to the Holy Spirit’s leading, we will not only be delivered but we’ll get in on the joke.
Haman was planning to ask the King’s permission to hang Mordecai the next morning. He had already built the gallows, seventy-five feet high, on which to hang Mordecai. He would go early to the King, before breakfast, with his request.
Somewhere about dawn the bored, insomniac King noticed a story that was being read to him out of those boring chronicles. Mordecai had actually saved the King’s life by discovering a plot by members of the palace guard, and nothing had been done to honor Mordecai for his faithful loyalty to the King. The King was overcome with an urgent desire to honor Mordecai.
“Who’s in the court right now?” the King asked. When he learned that Haman was there, the King ordered him to perform the ceremony honoring Mordecai for his loyalty. After that, Mordecai couldn’t possibly request permission to hang him, and that very evening the Queen, Esther, Mordecai’s daughter, would reveal Haman’s plot to kill all the Jews and ask for the King’s mercy on her people.
The devil’s plan was to take Mordecai out before Esther could make her request. God trumped that plan with a night of sleepless boredom for the King. That was His answer to three days of prayer and fasting by the Jews of the Capitol city.
God has a plan and He will bring it about. He invites you and me to participate with Him in accomplishing His plan, in prayer. If we do pray and seek His leading, we not only will be delivered but we will get to see the whole thing from God’s perspective, and God has quite a sense of humor.
Thank You, Lord, for making me a part of your plan and including me in the joke. Keep me in the loop; remind me when I lose my focus on prayer. Let me see Your powerful, righteous right hand at work in my life and in the world around me. You are the Lord of all; I trust You with all my fears, in Jesus’ name. Amen!
Pastor Dan Giles