Esther 5:

1. Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, over against the king’s house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house

2. And it was when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, date that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near and touched the top of the sceptre

3. Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? And what is thy request? It shall be given thee to the half of the kingdom

The Throne of Grace

On the third day of the fasting declared in the whole lands, Esther, resplendent in her beauty, enters the inner court of the king’s house. The king approves her coming, without her having booked a prior appointment, by raising his golden sceptre towards her. It means that she’s accepted with delight; the king’s countenance lights up with joy. In the inner court, in the Holy of Holy, God! It’s the final journey of life, of the walk of faith unto salvation. It’s the place where the blood of atonement was poured, the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things: the place man must get to and he knows that he knows and that he knows that God is able to do for him abundantly beyond what he can think or ask (Ephasians 3:20). This is the throne of grace. This is the place of the pleasing savour for and of God. Christ is the pleasing savour; Christ is the sweet odour to the Lord. This has nothing to do with the man’s merit; he has none in the presence of the Holy God. In fact, he stands annihilated and condemned in his naked self, except the sprinkling blood that speaks better things; except the blood of the everlasting covenant – the savour and the sweetener. 

The inner court, the Holy of Holy is not far off. Man lives in this realm and is not a breath away, but he has unwittingly and unconsciously imbibed the strange other teaching that the realm is far away. I think some African nations are vast in this concept. Counterfeit comes from the authentic; the African concept is a poor imitation of the true relationship of God with man in His kingdom

Jesus Christ has cleared the way to the Holy of Holy. He’s the High Priest. The 4th chapter of Hebrews says that”we have not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” When an African speaks of his dead ancestors, he displays the delicate balance between him and the unseen; he speaks and addresses them as if he were seeing them; this is more than personifying; it’s a living reality. God and the Holy presence are not far away. It’s the life, sustaining breath of the believers. It’s not in heaven that needs Astra travel to reach. The inner court of God is nearer to us than our beating heart!

We don’t have to scream in presenting our requests as if we are talking to the hard of hearing; we only need to verbalise the issue. However, no one can come in his own moral merit, but in the merit of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes, those far off individuals have been known to receive vivid interventions from the Holies than most of us that have been taught and reared on this concept. Once upon a time, a little above three decades ago, a Lagos-bound vehicle, full of passengers got “stalled” at what we used to call “toll gate” in Ibadan, just after Challenge. The passengers alighted from the seemingly faulty bus, trying to get another vehicle going to Lagos. It was just in that nick of time that another empty but huge bus swept forward, shouting its destination as Lagos. The passengers rushed forward, stampeding on one another, to board the new bus. Both buses were actually arranged kidnapping vehicles. The passengers who felt relieved that they were able to immediately get another bus were driven to the den of ritualists. According to the only survivor, the passengers were taken each at a time from the bus to be slaughtered. The screams were reaching to the remaining lving until it remained only this man.

The man had no hope. He was the last to be taken out to be slaughtered. When he was led down to the slab, he saw the blood of the victims drained into a huge pot with the sitting priest raising up the decapitated head of the last victim, scrutinising, as it were, his face. The last man to be killed said to his captors; “Get the job done fast. I’m ready to go and meet Christ Jesus.” The last three words were hardly out of his mouth when everything in the enclave started to turn as in a gyrating machine, including the pot of human blood. Everybody was scared. The man who was ready to die, and to whom everything was normal spoke again, urging them to finish off their job: “I say be fast. Why are you holding back? Is it because I mentioned the name Christ Jesus?” Now, and again, at the last words, the world seemed weird. The priest didn’t look less nonplussed!

The irony was that this man wasn’t a believer but he’d been preached to now and then by evangelists and that was how he knew that there was a Christ Jesus that would welcome people from here to heaven. Talk of the inner court, the Holy of Holy where everything is dependent on the merit of Christ. This man didn’t come with his own merit or goodness but by the name of Jesus.Come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). 

Esther enters the inner court of Ahasuerus and tables, in wisdom, the urgent matter of life.

Thank You Lord Jesus Christ

 

 

 

 

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