Peripety and Chiastic Structure

Esther 2:7 ----------->Esther 2:9

I've been doing Beth Moore's Bible study of Esther looking into two literary devices used in this short book of the Bible. It is the only book in the Bible that doesn't use the name of God at all. it is an intriguing story of a Jewish orphan who later becomes the Queen of Persia and ends up rescuing the Jewish people living in the Empire from a holocaust. Though the hand of God is weaved intricately throughout the background of the book, it is subtle, yet powerful. 

The first literary device is: chiastic structure- inverted parallelism. it is a reversal of structures to make a powerful point. John F Kennedy's quote is a good example: "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." It is so powerful to see how God reverses the destiny of a young orphaned Jewish girl and she becomes the Queen of the Persian Empire. The book also shows inverted parallelism clearly in the story of a people group being sentenced to a mass execution by order of the king and to see the reversal of their destiny as the Queen steps up and out in boldness at the prompting of a family member. She uses her influence, at the risk of her own life, to save an entire nation of people by giving them the power and opportunity to fight for themselves.

The lesson I have embraced from the study is that Jesus Christ seeks us out so that He can reverse our destiny. I think of my childhood and the many Saturdays I spent at the community soccer and baseball fields with my mom. This is what happens when you have three older brothers in sports. I sat in the bleachers with my face (thick coke-bottled glasses and all) buried deep in a book. One day mom gently took me by the arm and firmly led me over to another little girl my age. I hid behind her as she attempted to introduce me... This was my story throughout Elementary school. Talk about a reversal of destiny! Later in high school I was voted Junior Class President and Senior Class President and couldn't walk from class to class without saying hello to every other student I passed. Still to this day my career is based on networking and relationships and after college I moved to New York City to start a new life and later lived in Italy and traveled to the Middle East to teach English. My friends watch me at a social gathering and are baffled, when I tell them I am naturally an introvert. A destiny reversed. My love for others and for people in general comes from Jesus. I can't help, but love and desire to get to know others, because each one of us has such a unique story. An epic story that is being written and we, like Esther, are the protagonist. 

The second literary device is called Peripety and by definition is a sudden turn of events that reverses the expected or intended outcome. What is it for you? What transformation and reversal of destiny have you seen or do you long to see in your life? Please know that it is possible. Maybe you grew up a very selfish child who had more than you could ever need or ask for and now you are involved in the community and sharing your excess blessing with those in need. Reversal of destiny. Or maybe, you were shy as a child like me, or even abused, and now you have a message that you need to share with others. You have had an encounter with the God working behind the scenes in your life and you can't and won't shut up about freedom! If you are still waiting for the turn of events to reverse the outcome others might "expect" from your life, than pray to the Living God for him to come and intervene. He will. The Lord longs to show you gracious compassion.

Voices

Last night I was walking past some housing projects downtown on my way to a church event. I was behind a woman and her daughter who were headed back to their apartment with some Chinese Take-Out. I’m not sure what the daughter had done, if anything at all, to make the mother so angry, but the closer I got to them (I walk New York kind of fast…) I heard the mother spitting out the most bitter angry words I have heard in a long time. “You are SO stupid!” “Why are you walking behind me?” “Stop walking so slow or I will punch you in your face!” The woman’s words dripped with pain, bitterness and hate. My heart broke for the daughter who looked to be no more than 9 years old. I wanted desperately to pull the young girl aside, look her straight in the face and tell her those were lies! A loving God who had great plans in store for her future made her. He made her with a plan and purpose in mind. To be free and lead others to freedom. That is His plan for every woman.

As I prayed this morning for that woman and her daughter to find freedom I thought of the voices I have heard in my life from those dream takers around me. Thankfully, not from my own mother, but I’m sure all of us can remember words of failure and defeat that were spoken to us or over us at one point in our past. I bet we can remember these memories with clear distinction. I go back to the day when I sat in 8th grade Science and took out my Cover Girl compact of pressed powder to apply lip gloss. All of the sudden I heard my science teacher yell at me in front of the whole class. “Put away your make-up! That sure isn’t going to help you in life so stop wasting your time!” The room got quiet and I said defiantly “ YES it is! I am going to be a model!” She laughed at me and her voice dripped with sarcasm as she rolled her eyes.“ Yea right Trinity. Sure.” A friend brought up the incident recently. She reminded me that I was doing now exactly what I told that teacher I dreamed of doing. Yes, I’m grateful I didn’t listen to that teacher. I’m also glad that I didn’t give up when all those agents I met with when I was younger said I wasn’t “model material” and I wasn’t in a place to succeed in the industry. I’m glad I didn’t listen. I’m so glad. It's not that God has plans for each of us to be a fashion model, but we all have dreams placed in us. God given desires that sometimes won't go away if there is a calling on our life. We all model something. Let us model courage. Let us model humility and unconditional love. Don't ever try to take someone else's dream or allow them to take yours...

Are there any words that you have played over in your mind and have allowed to influence any decisions or thought process? Please know and be reminded that WE choose who we listen to in our life. There is always going to be someone giving us his or her opinion until the day we breathe our last. It is up to us to choose whom to listen to and choose wisely.

Here are some truths from my maker (and yours) that I cling to daily:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD” –Jeremiah 29:11-14

“For nothing is impossible with God." -Luke 1:37

“The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." –Deuteronomy 31:8

“For you created my inmost being; 
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, 
I know that full well. 
My frame was not hidden from you 
when I was made in the secret place, 
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; 
all the days ordained for me were written in your book 
before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! 
 How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, 
they would outnumber the grains of sand— 
when I awake, I am still with you. “–Psalm 139:13-18

If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. -Romans 8:31b-34