***Esther 8***
King Xerxes is once again persuaded to change his mind... he decides the Jews will not be killed but instead be honored because Mordecai and Esther are Jews. Instead, the Jews now are encouraged to band together and destroy their enemies.
This decision comes not long after he made the decision to have the Jews erased from the earth. I get the feeling that Xerxes could be a real jerk, depending on what day you went to see him.
He decides the fate of people's lives like it's not really a big deal to him..."yeah, that sounds good, kill them... oh my wife is one of those, ok kill the other ones then."
His decisions, which he didn't really think through have effect so many.
Our government makes decisions every day without knowing or often caring what is best for the people... some only care about what is best for them. (That may have been cynical, but I'm a little cranky this morning... too many dogs barking too early)
We can do it too. We say or do things without thinking through the consequences of our actions. My preaching professor in seminary told us that we will hurt someone's feelings from the pulpit at some point during our career... and they will leave the church because of something we said and we'll never see them again.
It's part of being a preacher, it's part of being human.
I'm just glad it's not life or death...
Or is it?
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