{"id":2187,"date":"2012-10-03T13:43:22","date_gmt":"2012-10-03T17:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=2187"},"modified":"2013-06-11T15:43:37","modified_gmt":"2013-06-11T19:43:37","slug":"the-message-of-esther-a-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=2187","title":{"rendered":"The Message of Esther, a Poem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A week ago Tom Fox preached a <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/RAUEHr\">wonderful message on the book of Esther as whole<\/a>. In discussing God&#8217;s providential work in preventing the king from sleeping and how that lead to Mordecai&#8217;s exaltation and eventually the thwarting of Haman, Tom used the phrase, &#8220;Death to life, a sleepless night.&#8221;\u009d That wording struck me and along with the thoughts stirring in my mind from the sermon I hurriedly jotted down the following poem.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Death to life, a sleepless night<br \/>\nThe serpent and seed of woman fight.<br \/>\nHaman rises to destroy<br \/>\nLest there be born a little boy.<br \/>\nThe plan is hatched, deed almost done,<br \/>\nYet intervenes the Sovereign One.<br \/>\nA questionable queen at appointed time<br \/>\nRaised up by God to preserve the line.<br \/>\nWicked plan comes in clandestine<br \/>\nBut God deliverance did predestine<br \/>\nHaman anticipates his own exaltation,<br \/>\nBut serves Mordecai with the praise of the nation.<br \/>\nYet Haman will be lifted high,<br \/>\nOn gallows planned for another he&#8217;ll swing and die.<br \/>\nGod was working in the royal split<br \/>\nSo a Jewess on the throne might sit,<br \/>\nRisk her life in illegal suit<br \/>\nThe king&#8217;s help to recruit.<br \/>\nSo the day appointed for destruction<br \/>\nInstead brings in a resurrection<br \/>\nPurim, a feast of God&#8217;s sovereign care,<br \/>\nGuarding and keeping His people everywhere.<br \/>\nKeeping his word, advancing His plan<br \/>\nTo send forth a savior, God become man.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A week ago Tom Fox preached a wonderful message on the book of Esther as whole. In discussing God&#8217;s providential work in preventing the king from sleeping and how that lead to Mordecai&#8217;s exaltation and eventually the thwarting of Haman, Tom used the phrase, &#8220;Death to life, a sleepless night.&#8221;\u009d That wording struck me and &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=2187\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;The Message of Esther, a Poem&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[291,261],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2187"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2189,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187\/revisions\/2189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}