Day 134, or May the 14th. Be careful what you hear and say.
Our thoughts today are rooted in Esther chapter 6 verse 6. When Haman entered, the king asked
him, What should be done for the man the king delights to honour? Now Haman thought to himself,
Who is there that the king would rather honour than me?
Now the big picture surrounding this verse. Queen Esther plans two banquets, with her
enemy Haman as the guest of honour. In fact, he was the only guest to dine with the king
and queen. It was such a treat for Haman, and he was sure that there were more honours
to come. He couldn't have been more wrong. Sadly for him, it was all a plan to stop him
fulfilling his plot to wipe out the whole Jewish race, and in the end he dies on the
gallows that he built for the execution of the first Jew, Esther's cousin Mordecai.
And now today's action step. The king in our narrative today knew what he meant when
he spoke to Haman, but it was not clear to Haman, and he totally misunderstood it. On
a humorous level, I remember recounting to a group of folk in the USA an event that happened
to me in one of my early walk through the Bible seminars in the UK. I told them that
I travelled by car and took a suitable change of clothing with me only to find that I had
forgotten to take a pair of shoes. I travelled in an old pair of trainers, so I had to wear
them with my seminar teaching outfit. The Americans thought this was a hoot, but far
funnier than I did. It was only when we talked afterwards that I was told the image of me
wearing trainers was on the border of being unbelievable. Trainers in the UK are tennis
shoes or sneakers in the USA. Trainers in America are rubber pants worn by babies as
part of their potty training. I was very careful when using particular words from that moment.
Be clear when you talk about your faith, because for many that is all they will ever hear about
Christianity. Be careful how you listen to. Listen to what is being said rather than hearing
what you want to hear.