Today's passage: Esther 9:20-10:3

Helpful thoughts:

• At Mordecai's (And later Esther's) request, the celebration of the events of the book of Esther became the holiday (Or feast) known as Purim.  It is still observed today.
• The name “Purim” comes from 3:7 where Haman was casting Purim (or lots) to determine when to attack the Jews.  This is explained in verse 24.
• At the end of the exile, the Jews not only have been able to return to their land and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and the temple…but their own people were serving as the queen and the second in commands of the empire.

Questions to consider:

1. How would the lives of the Jews changed with this change of leadership in the empire?  For what reasons would they have been thankful?
2. Who deserved the praise and thanksgiving?  What did God accomplish in this book?  Who did He use to do it (Not just Jewish people, but others as well)?
3. What are some big things we can learn about God from this book?  How can we apply this to our lives today?

Today's passage: Esther 9:1-19

Helpful thoughts:

• In the time between the Mordecai's edict and the day of Haman's planned attack, more and more people (Including officials in the empire) rallied around the Jews to protect and fight together with them.
  • At the same time, even after all that had transpired, there were people all over the empire who still wanted to attack the Jews, against all odds!  Haman was not the only man who hated the Jews.
• At the request of Esther, the Jews in Susa had two days to defeat their enemies.  The Jews across the empire fought only on the one day.  75,800 people died.
  • We never read of any Jews who were killed on these two days.  Remember, the edict allowed the Jews to defend themselves against those who would attack them.  Had the Jewish people lost in all of their fighting, the casualties would have gone the other way!
• The Jews had been given permission to take plunder from these victories, yet none of them did (8:11).

Questions to consider:

1. In what way was it apparent that God had given the Jews protection and victory on these days?  Why did all of this resolve the way that it did?
2. How did King Ahasuerus show evidence how he viewed the uniqueness of this event?  What would have been the reasoning behind his second offer to Esther in verse 12?
3. What do you think the Jews' refusal to take any possessions/plunder from those who perished would have communicated to the leaders and people of the empire?

Today's passage: Esther 8

Helpful thoughts:

• Esther risked her life again and went before the king, Haman's terrible law was still in place.  Something would have to be done to save the Jewish people.
  • The acquisition of Haman's house and Mordecai's promotion would have meant nothing if Haman's plan had been fulfilled.
• Mordecai is given the same honor Haman had abused, to right a law in the name of the king.
  • Because Haman's law could not be revoked, Mordecai gave the Jews the right to defend themselves.
  • With this law, the day that Haman called for could have been entirely peaceful as long as no one attacked the Jews.  We will see if that happens in the passage ahead.
• This string of events and the rise of Mordecai in the empire resulted in people either converting to Judaism or just pretending/professing to be Jewish.  Potentially for fear of the Jewish people or simply because they saw how favored and powerful they had become in the empire.

Questions to consider:

1. What has God just done?  What positions are Jewish people now in in the Persian Empire?  What position had they been in not long before?  How would man's perspective throughout this entire narrative have been different than God's?
2. Why would Mordecai have needed to use wisdom and discretion when he wrote this new law?  Had he used it recklessly, how long would he have held his place of authority in the empire?
3. Why might we question the sincerity of all these “conversions” after Esther's and Mordecai's rise?  Can a government coerce people to believe with all sincerity?  What is true of human nature that would have made the label of Judaism more attractive to the people in that day?

Today's passage: Esther 6:14-7:10

Helpful thoughts:

• What a scene…  Read verse 13 before 14.  Just as Haman's loved ones and advisors told him his downfall was coming, he was ushered away.  He had thought these banquets were to his glory, but today would prove much different.
• Half the kingdom was never really on the table for Esther to take.  This phrase was a figure of speech, showing desire to offer generosity.
• All of the poor decisions Haman has made in the blindness of his pride and hunger for self-glory come to the surface in a matter of moments.
  • Esther is not the only one who used tact in helping the king to understand the need for justice (Verse 9).

Questions to consider:

1. When Haman got caught in his sin, what was he most upset about?  Did he beg for forgiveness, or something else?  What does this evidence about his motives and focus?
2. What must we remember about God's sovereignty throughout this narrative?  Did Haman get caught solely because of Esther's way with words?  If Esther had stumbled over her words, would the Jews have been exterminated against all God's promises?  If we read this chapter today and said, “I could never be as eloquent as Esther so I won't speak up in my situation,” why wouldn't that be a right application?
3. What has God accomplished up to this point in the narrative of Esther?  What problem is still  needing to be addressed?  Did God need to be made aware of it, or was He already working and knew its end?  What does God know about you and your situation right now?  How can this encourage you to pray, trust Him, and seek to please Him in and through the situation?

Today's passage: Esther 6:1-13

Helpful thoughts:

• God is not mentioned by name in this book, but He is certainly seen as we read these events.
• Haman's obsession with himself is also put on display in these verses (Verse 6).
• Even Haman's own family and friends can see, this is not going to end well for Haman.

Questions to consider:

1. How many instances of God's providence are displayed in these events?  What would they have looked like in real time, just happy accidents?  How can we be encouraged by these things as we seek to follow God according to His Word?
2. What would be a false application from this passage?  Is everyone and anyone right to assume that God will and must make everything go their way?  Did things go Haman's way?  Why would it be wrong for Haman to be upset with God for what happened?  What had been his goals?
3. How can we know our goals are in line with God's?  What do we know about Him that can remind us that it is never Him that “botches” good plans?  And if our plans get botched, what can we be confident God is doing? (Numbers 23:19, Malachi 3:6, Romans 8:28-30)

Today's passage: Esther 5

Helpful thoughts:

• Verses 1 and 2 move quickly, and it's easy to breeze past them.  But in this moment, as Esther waited to be seen, she didn't know whether she would live or die.
• In preparation for this moment, Esther dressed in her royal attire and had a feast prepared.  In her days of prayer and fasting, a plan has been devised to gain favor with the king and to lift Haman up to his own demise.
• Haman's pride at being honored made Mordecai's treatment all the more unbearable for him.  His number one desire was to be admired and respected, and he was willing to sin in order to get it.

Questions to consider:

1. Because Haman was so infatuated with being honored, what did being invited to these feasts do to him?  Did these invitations satisfy his desires or did they only increase his demand for more?
2. What can we learn from this truth?  When we are ruled by our selfish desires, what will we be willing to do in order to get them?  Or what will we do if we can't get them?
3. How is Esther's patience being contrasted with Haman's impetuousness?  How did Esther seek counsel and wisdom before acting (4:16)?  What counsel did Haman desire?  How can our choice of counsel, guidance and consideration reveal our heart's desire and who we aim to please even before we choose to act?

Today's passage: Esther 4

Helpful thoughts:

• Mordecai would not have been allowed to enter the king's gate in his state of mourning due to the laws of the empire to express joy under the leadership of the kings (See Nehemiah 2:1-2).
• Mordecai might have hoped Esther was seeing King Ahasuerus more often, granting her more favor with the king.  Esther's news that she had not been called into his presence for thirty days makes this task all the more daunting.  If she was going to see the king she would have to initiate the contact, which was not legally her choice to make.
• The book of Esther reveals to us the sovereignty of God working through the perspective of people.
  • Mordecai and Esther did not know whether God had put her there in the palace for this reason, but they hoped He did and were willing to act on it.
    • Signs and wonders were never a normal occurrence throughout history.  Throughout the Bible, People were astonished when they saw miracles and angels or heard God speak to them because it was strange.
    • Mordecai and Esther did not expect or demand miracles or special revelation in their situation.  They knew what God's Word promised and they responded in faith.
  • Mordecai's statement in verse 14 is very similar to what the three young men declared in Daniel 3:16-18.  God would still be good and true to His promises to the Jewish people, whether He preserved them through Esther or not.

Questions to consider:

1. What is the reasoning for both Mordecai and Esther to proceed with the decisions they are making?  How is their faith in the promises of God guiding their processing of all the facts in their situation?
2. What is absent from this narrative?  How does the fact that God doesn't send an angel or speak audibly to Mordecai and Esther help us to better understand the process of what they are deciding?
3. Mordecai knew the promises of God found in His Word (Verse 14).  How does this teach us in our decision making without signs and visions? (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Today's passage: Esther 3

Helpful thoughts:

• King Saul defeated the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15.  But Samuel was the one who killed their king, Agag.  Evidently, some of the king's family got away because now a descendant of Agag, Haman, will plot to eliminate the Jewish people and be stopped by descendants of Saul's family.
• Mordecai's refusal to bow to Haman only revealed his hatred for all the Jewish people.  His desire was to destroy them all.  Jerusalem was a part of Ahasuerus' kingdom, so this included those who remained in exile, and those who had gone back and had returned.
• Haman's offering of silver to King Ahasuerus was a means of funding this attempted massacre.  Haman donated the silver and then the king gave it back to him to use for his edict.

Questions to consider:

1. What are some reasons Mordecai would have refused to bow down to Haman?  How might their family history have played a part (See also Exodus 17:8-16)?  If Haman was being given some sort of divine status?
2. What had Mordecai told Esther NOT to do (2:10)?  Why do you think he chose to reveal his ancestry?
3. As Haman and Ahasuerus sat down to drink, why was the city of Susa thrown into confusion?  If the people did not respond in celebration, what can we learn about the general feelings of the people toward the Jews?  Did everyone hate them the same way Haman did?

Today's passage: Esther 2

Helpful thoughts:

• Mordecai comes from the same family as King Saul (1 Samuel 9:1-2).
• His instruction to Esther to not disclose her nationality gives a hint of the anti-Semitism already present which will appear more starkly later in the book.
• The narratives of both Mordecai and Esther are moved forward in this chapter.
  • Esther becomes the queen and “grows in favor in the eyes of all who saw her.”
  • Mordecai is recorded as having saved the life of the king.

Questions to consider:

1. In what ways do we see Esther being prepared for her significant role, even before the king knows that she is the one to be Vashti's replacement?  What other people had already started treating Esther with greater significance?
2. What could this show concerning God's work to prepare her for what she would later do to save her people?  What could Esther see happening before she ever met the king?
3. There is obviously wrong being done to a number of women in this account.  How does remembering the sin committed against Christ leading up to and at the cross remind us of God's ability to sovereignly bring about good in a world under the curse of sin?

Today's passage: Esther 1

Helpful thoughts:

• The contents of the book of Esther take place during the reign of Ahasuerus (Or Xerxes I) who was king over the Persian Empire from 486-464 B.C.
• This book will tell the story of how God sovereignly preserved the Jews from extermination at the hands of a man named Haman.
  • It has been criticized over the years for not mentioning the name of God, but He certainly was there.  We also learn more about the history of the Jewish people after the exile and return from exile.
• This first chapter explains the means by which there came to be an opening in the role of queen, as Vashti is removed as a consequence for refusing to obey the command of the king.

Questions to consider:

1. There are no commands and no promises given to the reader in this passage.  This is simply history being recounted.  How does keeping the genre of literature in mind help us to rightly interpret and apply when we read the Bible?  If the contents of this chapter convinced a man that he had a right to divorce his wife because she didn't obey his command to come and appear before his party guests, what interpretative mistakes would he be making?
2. The king's laws were not able to be repealed (Verse 19).  What difficulties could come from this policy?  If you are familiar with the contents of this book of the Bible, how is the author using foreshadowing to teach us the customs of the empire before later events in the narrative?
3. The difficulties in relationships between husbands and wives started at the fall (Genesis 3:16).  Would this attempt by the Persian king and his wise men “fix” the problem across their empire?  When we try to solve the problems of sin our own way (Instead of God's) what will always result?