Monday in Easter

1Verse 1. So the king and Haman went to dine with Esther the queen, 2Verse 2. and as they drank their wine on that second day, the king asked once more, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.” 3Verse 3. Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, grant me my life as my petition, and the lives of my people as my request. 4Verse 4. For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as menservants and maidservants, I would have remained silent, because no such distress would justify burdening the king.” 5Verse 5. Then King Xerxes spoke up and asked Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is the one who would devise such a scheme?” 6Verse 6. Esther replied, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked man — Haman!” And Haman stood in terror before the king and queen. 7Verse 7. In his fury, the king arose from drinking his wine and went to the palace garden, while Haman stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life, for he realized that the king was planning a terrible fate for him. 8Verse 8. Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, “Would he actually assault the queen while I am in the palace?” As soon as the words had left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. 9Verse 9. Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said: “There is a gallows fifty cubits high at Haman’s house. He had it built for Mordecai, who gave the report that saved the king.” “Hang him on it!” declared the king. 10Verse 10. So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the fury of the king subsided.

9Verse 9. I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance that are in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and my testimony about Jesus. 10Verse 10. On the Lord’s day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11Verse 11. saying, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.” 12Verse 12. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, 13Verse 13. and among the lampstands was One like the Son of Man, dressed in a long robe, with a golden sash around His chest. 14Verse 14. The hair of His head was white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a blazing fire. 15Verse 15. His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the roar of many waters. 16Verse 16. He held in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest. 17Verse 17. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. But He placed His right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last, 18Verse 18. the Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades. 19Verse 19. Therefore write down the things you have seen, the things that are, and the things that will happen after this. 20Verse 20. This is the mystery of the seven stars you saw in My right hand and of the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.[’’]