![]() When the Jews were threatened by a decree that they all be killed and so Mordecai came to Esther to ask her to intervene on behalf of the Jews and speak to the king about this. Esther “had no father or mother” (Esther 2:7) so she certainly must have had a humble life but when King Ahasuerus deposed Queen Vashti (Esther 2:7), Esther found favor in the king’s eyes (Esther 2:9). ![]() For Gideon and for Israel, it was a new day and a new beginning.Įsther is all about God’s divine timing and intervention. Gideon went from a zero to a hero but by God’s hand alone. I love Gideon’s humility because he said that the Lord shall rule over them and like George Washington who, after the war, was asked to be their king declined. God answered Gideon that He would be with Him and if God is with you, who can be against you (Rom 8:31)? Gideon went from the least of his family and the least of the tribe Manasseh to them saying to him “Rule over us, both you and your son, also your son’s son, for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.” But Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you the Lord shall rule over you (Judges 8:22-23). Gideon must have looked over his shoulder and said, “who me?” because he answered the angel of the Lord by saying “how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house” (Judge 6:15). Imagine the angel of the Lord calling Gideon a “valiant warrior.” This was the same description given to Jonah about the mighty city-state of Nineveh that they had mighty warriors. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior” (Judge 6:11-12). Gideon was “was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. What a new beginning…from a fleeing fugitive from murdering an Egyptian official to a shepherd in the desert and finally, seeing God and bringing out the entire nation of Israel and later, to have the law (the Mosaic Law) named after him for all later generations of the children of Israel, even up to Jesus’ day. ![]() ![]() Moses found favor in the Lord God and God told Moses “I have known you by name” (Ex 33:17) and then Moses actually saw a glimpse of the glory of God ( Ex 33:21-23). Now that Moses was a simple shepherd, he must have resigned himself to a life in the desert tending sheep but later he would be a shepherd, not of sheep, but in bringing out the nation of Israel. The Egyptians despised and looked down on shepherds and Moses must have known this for Stephen said to the council after he was arrested for His belief in Christ, “Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds” (Acts 7:22). From a powerful prince in Egypt and the likely heir to the Pharaoh, he was reduced to a fugitive and now a shepherd. Moses: From Prince to Fugitive to Shepherd to LeaderĪfter Moses’ fled Egypt for his life after killing an Egyptian who was beating a fellow Israelite, Moses must have felt that his life was basically over.
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