The Woman and the Dragon

Revelation 12 Something important appeared in the sky. It was a woman whose clothes were the sun. The moon was under her feet, and a crown made of twelve stars was on her head. ²She was about to give birth, and she was crying because of the great pain.
³Something else appeared in the sky. It was a huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and a crown on each of its seven heads. ⁴With its tail, it dragged a third of the stars from the sky and threw them down to the earth. Then the dragon turned toward the woman, because it wanted to eat her child as soon as it was born.
⁵The woman gave birth to a son, who would rule all nations with an iron rod. The boy was snatched away. He was taken to God and placed on his throne. ⁶The woman ran into the desert to a place that God had prepared for her. There she would be taken care of for one thousand two hundred sixty days.

Michael Fights the Dragon

⁷A war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels were fighting against the dragon and its angels. ⁸But the dragon lost the battle. It and its angels were forced out of their places in heaven ⁹and were thrown down to the earth. Yes, that old snake and his angels were thrown out of heaven! That snake, who fools everyone on earth, is known as the devil and Satan. ¹⁰Then I heard a voice from heaven shout,
"Our God has shown his saving power,
and his kingdom has come!
God's own Chosen One has shown his authority.
Satan accused our people in the presence of God day and night.
Now he has been thrown out!

¹¹Our people defeated Satan because of the blood of the Lamb
and the message of God.
They were willing to give up their lives.

¹²The heavens should rejoice,
together with everyone who lives there.
But pity the earth and the sea,
because the devil was thrown down to the earth.
He knows his time is short, and he is very angry."
¹³When the dragon realized that it had been thrown down to the earth, it tried to make trouble for the woman who had given birth to a son. ¹⁴But the woman was given two wings like those of a huge eagle, so that she could fly into the desert. There she would escape from the snake and be taken care of for a time, two times, and half a time.
¹⁵The snake then spewed out water like a river to sweep the woman away. ¹⁶But the earth helped her and swallowed the water that had come from the dragon's mouth. ¹⁷This made the dragon terribly angry with the woman. So it started a war against the rest of her children. They are the people who obey God and are faithful to what Jesus did and taught. ¹⁸The dragon stood on the beach beside the sea.

Esther Becomes Queen

Esther 2 After a while, King Xerxes got over being angry. But he kept thinking about what Vashti had done and the law that he had written because of her. ²Then the king's personal servants said:

Your Majesty, a search must be made to find you some beautiful young women. ³You can select officers in every province to bring them to the place where you keep your wives in the capital city of Susa. Put your servant Hegai in charge of them since that is his job. He can see to it that they are given the proper beauty treatments. ⁴Then let the young woman who pleases you most take Vashti's place as queen.

King Xerxes liked these suggestions, and he followed them.
⁵At this time a Jew named Mordecai was living in Susa. His father was Jair, and his grandfather Shimei was the son of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin. ⁶Kish was one of the people that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem, when he took King Jeconiah of Judah to Babylonia.
⁷Mordecai had a very beautiful cousin named Esther, whose Hebrew name was Hadassah. He had raised her as his own daughter, after her father and mother died. ⁸When the king ordered the search for beautiful women, many were taken to the king's palace in Susa, and Esther was one of them.
Hegai was put in charge of all the women, ⁹and from the first day, Esther was his favorite. He began her beauty treatments at once. He also gave her plenty of food and seven special maids from the king's palace, and they had the best rooms.
¹⁰Mordecai had warned Esther not to tell anyone that she was a Jew, and she obeyed him. ¹¹He was anxious to see how Esther was getting along and to learn what had happened to her. So each day he would walk back and forth in front of the court where the women lived.
¹²The young women were given beauty treatments for one whole year. The first six months their skin was rubbed with olive oil and myrrh, and the last six months it was treated with perfumes and cosmetics. Then each of them spent the night alone with King Xerxes. ¹³When a young woman went to the king, she could wear whatever clothes or jewelry she chose from the women's living quarters. ¹⁴In the evening she would go to the king, and the following morning she would go to the place where his wives stayed after being with him. There a man named Shaashgaz was in charge of the king's wives. Only the ones the king wanted and asked for by name could go back to the king.
^15-16 Xerxes had been king for seven years when Esther's turn came to go to him during Tebeth, the tenth month of the year. Everyone liked Esther. The king's personal servant Hegai was in charge of the women, and Esther trusted Hegai and asked him what she ought to take with her.
¹⁷Xerxes liked Esther more than he did any of the other young women. None of them pleased him as much as she did, and right away he fell in love with her and crowned her queen in place of Vashti. ¹⁸In honor of Esther he gave a big dinner for his leaders and officials. Then he declared a holiday everywhere in his kingdom and gave expensive gifts.

Mordecai Saves the King's Life

¹⁹When the young women were brought together again, Esther's cousin Mordecai had become a palace official. ²⁰He had told Esther never to tell anyone that she was a Jew, and she obeyed him, just as she had always done.
²¹Bigthana and Teresh were the two men who guarded King Xerxes' rooms, but they got angry with the king and decided to kill him. ²²Mordecai found out about their plans and asked Queen Esther to tell the king what he had found out. ²³King Xerxes learned that Mordecai's report was true, and he had the two men hanged. Then the king had all of this written down in his record book as he watched.

Psalm 105

²⁶God sent his servant Moses.
He also chose and sent Aaron ²⁷to his people in Egypt,
and they worked miracles and wonders there.
²⁸Moses and Aaron obeyed God,
and he sent darkness to cover Egypt.
²⁹God turned their rivers into streams of blood,
and the fish all died.
³⁰Frogs were everywhere, even in the royal palace.
³¹When God gave the command,
flies and gnats swarmed all around.

³²In place of rain, God sent hailstones
and flashes of lightning.
³³He destroyed their grapevines and their fig trees,
and he made splinters of all the other trees.
³⁴God gave the command, and more grasshoppers came
than could be counted.
³⁵They ate every green plant
and all the crops that grew in the land of Egypt.
³⁶Then God took the life of every first-born son.

³⁷When God led Israel from Egypt,
they took silver and gold, and no one was left behind.
³⁸The Egyptians were afraid and gladly let them go.
³⁹God hid them under a cloud
and guided them by fire during the night.

⁴⁰When they asked for food,
he sent more birds than they could eat.
⁴¹God even split open a rock,
and streams of water gushed into the desert.
⁴²God never forgot his sacred promise
to his servant Abraham.

⁴³When the Lord rescued his chosen people from Egypt,
they celebrated with songs.
⁴⁴The Lord gave them the land
and everything else the nations had worked for.
⁴⁵He did this so that his people
would obey all of his laws.
Shout praises to the LORD!