Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“They should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same month, year by year, as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, July 5, 2026
by Madison Johnston, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: What makes God’s protection so unique is the radical joy that it can bring out of deep fear and overwhelming sadness.
Where Chapter 4 of Esther shows us the risk that Mordecai and Esther took, Chapter 7 shows us the reward. Where Chapter 4 gives us our set up, Chapter 7 hits us with our punchline.
Through Esther’s clever rhetorical structuring, King Ahasuerus figures out that Naman secured permission and a budget for his genocidal decree in bad faith. By presenting partial truths, Naman was able to put King Ahasuerus’s name on something that King Ahasuerus didn’t actually agree with. Three deeply ironic things happen in succession just after this, all of which point to God as the winner—the ultimate authority figure and protector—in this story:
1) Esther refuses to advocate for Haman.
When Mordecai begged Esther for her time, her strategy and her activism in favor of the Jews, she listened, considered his points and, ultimately, agreed to help him. Now, when Haman is begging Esther for much the same combination of things, Esther doesn’t even have time to dignify his requests with a response before King Ahasuerus makes his decision.
2) Haman is hanged in the gallows that he had prepared especially for Mordecai.
Mordecai is a special target for Haman’s anger. Haman’s vindictiveness drives him to plan a personalized and cruel death for Mordecai—a death by hanging. As it turns out, Haman is the one who suffers the consequences of his own pettiness. Haman ends up dying at his own hand.
3) Esther and Mordecai communicate safety for Jewish communities across Persia by letter.
Haman and his team of officials and servants had initially communicated upcoming violence and extermination to Jews across the kingdom via written notice. Letter. Now, the good news of God’s protection is coming to the Jews in the very same format, spurring gatherings of celebration and gratitude as opposed to gatherings of confusion and desperate planning.
The heavy-handedness of Esther and Mordecai’s successes—really, God’s successes—in our passage today is meant to establish that God’s protection goes beyond the level of pure need (sustenance) and ventures into the level of giving entirely new life (creation). Not only do Mordecai and Esther curry favor with the king, but they also grow very close to one another, expanding their collective leadership and faith-filled influence past Susa for years to come. Not only do God’s people end up safe thanks to Mordecai’s loyalty and Esther’s advocacy—but they also end up thriving; feasting and gifting and renewing their efforts to provide for one another and to flourish into the future.
An anachronistic reading of this text pulls us to Romans 8:31 asking, “If God is for us, who is against us?” While it can be tempting to interpret Chapter 7 of the Book of Esther as a story of cosmic revenge, it’s more accurate to preach it and teach it as a story of our witness of God’s distinctive and enduring protection.
