Date: Monday, 15thJanuary, 2024
Text: Esther 4:15-16
Author: Pastor Adedeji Fadehan
Exhortation:
When a mass death sentence was given against the lives of all the Jews in the Citadel of Susa, Esther, the Queen called for a corporate fast, saying, to her uncle Mordecai, “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” Esther 4:15-16
Even though it was against the palace protocol for Esther to see the king without being invited, because fasting and prayer had gone to the Heavens, protocols were by-passed and Esther was favoured in his royal presence. The judgement of genocide against them was reversed. The instigator of the mass destruction, Haman was humiliated and hanged in the very gallows he had built against Mordecai.
Nineveh enjoyed a similar grace. In their own case, God was the One judging them, not man. They humbled themselves and fasted. Their king rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust; he and his nobles decreed a national fast for three days, saying, “Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” Jonah 3:6-9.
God heard their prayer and the pending destruction was cancelled.
When you fast and pray with humility, you will enjoy God’s favour, protocols are bypassed and the irreversible is reversed.
Prayer Nugget: Father, as I fast and pray this season, let judgements be upturned and protocols bypassed in my favour in Jesus name.