This week while doing bible study, I had an overwhelming need to read the story about Queen Ester.
I only had an Afrikaans bible at home, as I prefer to read my bible in English. I couldn’t understand some of the very conservative words and the story didn’t read much like a love story.
Who doesn’t love a good love story every now and then to make your heart skip a beat. Even if it is overly dramatic. We all have a need for love.
So, after reading the story, I found the movie, One night with the king on YouTube.
The book was written by Tommy Tenny and published in 2003. It was adapted and the movie screened in 2006. I had read the book and watched the movie when they were released.
So, this week I watched the movie again after many years and while watching, two things stood out:
Firstly, the disobedience of King Saul when God gave him an instruction in 1 Samuel 15 to kill the whole tribe of the Amalekites in Canaan. They were also not allowed to keep any spoils of war. Saul disobeyed God. Not only did they take property from the Amalekites, but they captured the King and did not kill all Amalekites. This one act of Saul almost resulted in the destruction of the nation of Isreal 500 years later.
I realised that even one small act and to be obedient to God is important because it could have an impact on many generations to come, you never know.
Back to Ester and her love story, taking place around 500 years after the disobedience of Saul.
Her story is about a king falling in love with a humble Jewish girl, as well as the love she had for God, and her nation, and how she was willing to sacrific her life for what she loved.
How wonderful it would be to have a love like that, I thought to myself, and gently the Holy Spirit reminded me that this is the love that God has for all of us. It is a love that knows no boundaries, and no conditions, because He had sacrificed His life for us.
If He was willing to die for me – a very expensive price to pay – then He would not want any bad things to happen to me, and only wants the best for His creation.
Bad things happen over which we have no control and people will say that God allowed it to happen. I tend to disagree. Could this bad situation be the result of something we did when we were disobedient? I am sure that He cries with us when we are sad and comforts us.
I love my husband and children more than words, and I am sure many of us feel the same way about our children, partners and family. Now take that feeling you feel for them and just reverse it. This is the way God feels about you, and He loves us even more than this.
1 John 4:16 “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love in God, and God abides in him.”
1 John 3:1 “We love because He loved us first.”
And if He loves us unconditionally, we must show His love to others by loving them and treating them the way that God would love and treat us.
Easier said than done, but if we ask Him to love others through us, and help us, it becomes easier. You can see His love in other’s eyes.
In the end it is all about love. His love for us, our love for Him and love for each other, his children.
Love unconditionally
