Esther 1-3: The Power of Bad Advice

I have learned something interesting in the past year of starting a business: whenever you ask for advice, you will get some. Rarely, if ever, will I ask for some advice for someone and not receive any. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone has their view of the world and most people are more than willing to share it with you.

Here is something else I have learned: giving advice is easy. There is no weight of consequence when you advise someone else. A choice that might bind you in knots if you had to make it for yourself, seems simple and easy when viewed as a third party. Having trouble at your job? Just quit. Kids not treating you right? They just need more discipline. These things are easy to say. It is easy to look at someone else's life and see everything they could do to fix it. And, isn't that what we all want sometimes? Someone to look at our lives and just make all our choices for us?

This seems to be the way King Ahasuerus lived his life, drifting from one bad set of advice to the next. There is no decision that he makes on his own in these first three chapters. His wife doesn't come when he asks. He isn't sure how to respond. His advisors tell him to banish her for the sake of every husband in the land. He does exactly what they suggest. Later, he is sad about banishing his wife. His servants suggest that he gather all the most beautiful young women in the land together to try them all out before choosing his next wife. This, of course, sounds good to the king, so he does exactly what they suggest. What's that? Wipe out an entire people group? Sure Haman, here is my signet ring. Do whatever you wish. I will even pay for it.

King Ahasuerus suffers from what I suffer. I do not want to choose. I do not want to make a mistake, so I don't choose or I go along with what others advise me to do. The problem is that even when I am acting on someone else's advice, the choice is still mine. I will still be held accountable for it. This is why it was so easy for the king's advisors to tell him to banish his queen. They would not be the ones losing a wife. It was easy for his servants to suggest gathering up all the most beautiful women in the land. They would not have to pay for it. They would not have to organize it or deal with the rage and grief of families losing their daughters. Ultimately, King Ahasuerus commanded genocide because it was easier to allow someone else to make a choice. It was easier to give his power to someone else than to wield it himself. But the choice was still his. It was still his seal on the decree to murder an entire people. And he would still be held accountable for it.

Whatever choice you are making, it is yours to make. God has given you the role you are in. To abdicate from that role, is to tell God that He made a mistake in putting you there. It is good to get advice, but know how easy it is to give. And don't blame someone else because you decided to follow their advice. God has equipped you. The decision is yours and yours alone.