The Woman and the Dragon

Revelation 12 Then a great and mysterious sight appeared in the sky. There was a woman, whose dress was the sun and who had the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. ²She was soon to give birth, and the pains and suffering of childbirth made her cry out.
³Another mysterious sight appeared in the sky. There was a huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and a crown on each of his heads. ⁴With his tail he dragged a third of the stars out of the sky and threw them down to the earth. He stood in front of the woman, in order to eat her child as soon as it was born. ⁵Then she gave birth to a son, who will rule over all nations with an iron rod. But the child was snatched away and taken to God and his throne. ⁶The woman fled to the desert, to a place God had prepared for her, where she will be taken care of for 1, 260 days.
⁷Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, who fought back with his angels; ⁸but the dragon was defeated, and he and his angels were not allowed to stay in heaven any longer. ⁹The huge dragon was thrown out--that ancient serpent, named the Devil, or Satan, that deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, and all his angels with him.
¹⁰Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, "Now God's salvation has come! Now God has shown his power as King! Now his Messiah has shown his authority! For the one who stood before our God and accused believers day and night has been thrown out of heaven. ¹¹They won the victory over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the truth which they proclaimed; and they were willing to give up their lives and die. ¹²And so be glad, you heavens, and all you that live there! But how terrible for the earth and the sea! For the Devil has come down to you, and he is filled with rage, because he knows that he has only a little time left."
¹³When the dragon realized that he had been thrown down to the earth, he began to pursue the woman who had given birth to the boy. ¹⁴She was given the two wings of a large eagle in order to fly to her place in the desert, where she will be taken care of for three and a half years, safe from the dragon's attack. ¹⁵And then from his mouth the dragon poured out a flood of water after the woman, so that it would carry her away. ¹⁶But the earth helped the woman; it opened its mouth and swallowed the water that had come from the dragon's mouth. ¹⁷The dragon was furious with the woman and went off to fight against the rest of her descendants, all those who obey God's commandments and are faithful to the truth revealed by Jesus. ¹⁸And the dragon stood on the seashore.

Esther Becomes Queen

Esther 2 Later, even after the king's anger had cooled down, he kept thinking about what Vashti had done and about his proclamation against her. ²So some of the king's advisers who were close to him suggested, "Why don't you make a search to find some beautiful young virgins? ³You can appoint officials in every province of the empire and have them bring all these beautiful young women to your harem here in Susa, the capital city. Put them in the care of Hegai, the eunuch who is in charge of your women, and let them be given a beauty treatment. ⁴Then take the young woman you like best and make her queen in Vashti's place."
The king thought this was good advice, so he followed it.
⁵There in Susa lived a Jew named Mordecai son of Jair; he was from the tribe of Benjamin and was a descendant of Kish and Shimei. ⁶When King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took King Jehoiachin of Judah into exile from Jerusalem, along with a group of captives, Mordecai was among them. ⁷He had a cousin, Esther, whose Hebrew name was Hadassah; she was a beautiful young woman, and had a good figure. At the death of her parents, Mordecai had adopted her and brought her up as his own daughter.
⁸When the king had issued his new proclamation and many young women were being brought to Susa, Esther was among them. She too was put in the royal palace in the care of Hegai, who had charge of the harem. ⁹Hegai liked Esther, and she won his favor. He lost no time in beginning her beauty treatment of massage and special diet. He gave her the best place in the harem and assigned seven young women specially chosen from the royal palace to serve her.
¹⁰Now, on the advice of Mordecai, Esther had kept it secret that she was Jewish. ¹¹Every day Mordecai would walk back and forth in front of the courtyard of the harem, in order to find out how she was getting along and what was going to happen to her.
¹²The regular beauty treatment for the women lasted a year--massages with oil of myrrh for six months and with oil of balsam for six more. After that, each woman would be taken in turn to King Xerxes. ¹³When she went from the harem to the palace, she could wear whatever she wanted. ¹⁴She would go there in the evening, and the next morning she would be taken to another harem and put in the care of Shaashgaz, the eunuch in charge of the king's concubines. She would not go to the king again unless he liked her enough to ask for her by name.
¹⁵The time came for Esther to go to the king. Esther--the daughter of Abihail and the cousin of Mordecai, who had adopted her as his daughter; Esther--admired by everyone who saw her. When her turn came, she wore just what Hegai, the eunuch in charge of the harem, advised her to wear. ¹⁶So in Xerxes' seventh year as king, in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, Esther was brought to King Xerxes in the royal palace. ¹⁷The king liked her more than any of the other women, and more than any of the others she won his favor and affection. He placed the royal crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti. ¹⁸Then the king gave a great banquet in Esther's honor and invited all his officials and administrators. He proclaimed a holiday for the whole empire and distributed gifts worthy of a king.

Mordecai Saves the King's Life

¹⁹Meanwhile Mordecai had been appointed by the king to an administrative position. ²⁰As for Esther, she had still not let it be known that she was Jewish. Mordecai had told her not to tell anyone, and she obeyed him in this, just as she had obeyed him when she was a little girl under his care.
²¹During the time that Mordecai held office in the palace, Bigthana and Teresh, two of the palace eunuchs who guarded the entrance to the king's rooms, became hostile to King Xerxes and plotted to assassinate him. ²²Mordecai learned about it and told Queen Esther, who then told the king what Mordecai had found out. ²³There was an investigation, and it was discovered that the report was true, so both men were hanged on the gallows. The king ordered an account of this to be written down in the official records of the empire.

Psalm 105²⁶Then he sent his servant Moses,
and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
²⁷They did God's mighty acts
and performed miracles in Egypt.
²⁸God sent darkness on the country,
but the Egyptians did not obey his command.
²⁹He turned their rivers into blood
and killed all their fish.
³⁰Their country was overrun with frogs;
even the palace was filled with them.
³¹God commanded, and flies and gnats
swarmed throughout the whole country.
³²He sent hail and lightning on their land
instead of rain;
³³he destroyed their grapevines and fig trees
and broke down all the trees.
³⁴He commanded, and the locusts came,
countless millions of them;
³⁵they ate all the plants in the land;
they ate all the crops.
³⁶He killed the first-born sons
of all the families of Egypt.

³⁷Then he led the Israelites out;
they carried silver and gold,
and all of them were healthy and strong.
³⁸The Egyptians were afraid of them
and were glad when they left.
³⁹God put a cloud over his people
and a fire at night to give them light.
⁴⁰They asked, and he sent quails;
he gave them food from heaven to satisfy them.
⁴¹He opened a rock, and water gushed out,
flowing through the desert like a river.
⁴²He remembered his sacred promise
to Abraham his servant.

⁴³So he led his chosen people out,
and they sang and shouted for joy.
⁴⁴He gave them the lands of other peoples
and let them take over their fields,
⁴⁵so that his people would obey his laws
and keep all his commands.

Praise the LORD!