Chapter 20 of The Story February 15, 2015

The Queen of Beauty and Courage

Esther 1-9

God’s sovereign hand puts a Jew on the throne in a foreign land as a means of saving His people from destruction.

Do you believe in coincidence?

You know, that things just sorta happen.

One of the key themes of The Story is God’s ability to do whatever is necessary to accomplish His purposes. We call this the sovereignty of God. That is, the Bible shows us time and time again that God is absolutely, completely and totally in control of everything. This is huge. What would your life look like if you really believed this?

Think about where you are today in your relationships, career, even your neighborhood. Did you just happen into all these situations, or did God have a hand in it? Could God have placed you where you are for a reason?


In the previous chapter of The Story, we learned about the first group of Jews to leave their captivity in Babylon and return to Jerusalem. They had the task of rebuilding the Temple. In the next chapter of The Story, we will learn about the second group to return to Jerusalem. They had the task of rebuilding the walls. But not every Jew returned to their homeland. Some chose to stay in the land where they had once been held captive.

Two of these Jews are the focus of Chapter 20 of The Story. Here we meet Esther and her cousin/guardian Mordecai. We will also hear about Xerxes the king and Haman, his right-hand man. A few other characters are named, but the primary character of this story goes without mention. Through actions that show His sovereignty, it is clearly displayed that God is the central character in the story of Esther, although His name is never spoken.

Chapter 20

Key Question 

What are ways God works invisibly to accomplish His purpose?

A Royal Decree: Pages 275–277

Zerubbabel finished building the second temple in Jerusalem in 516 BC, and the Jews who returned to their home continued building their lives in the Persian province of Judah. Most Jews remained in the places to which they’d been exiled, however, including the family of a man named Mordecai.

About thirty years later in a magnificent palace in Susa, the ruler of the Persian empire, King Xerxes, demonstrated the glory of his possessions and position before his nobles for six months. At the end of the time, he gave a week-long banquet.

1. In what mood was King Xerxes on the final day of the banquet (Esther 1:10)? What did he wish to display to the people (1:11)? How did the king feel about Vashti’s refusal (1:12)?

Enraged, Xerxes asked his highest legal experts how he should punish Vashti.

2. What did the king’s advisor seem most concerned about regarding Vashti’s conduct (Esther 1:16–18)? What did he recommend be done to her (1:19)? What did the advisor say would be the outcome of the royal decree he recommended (1:20)?

3. How did the king’s attendants propose he find a new queen (Esther 2:2–4)? How did the king feel about the proposal (2:4)? Did the king consider the dreams and desires of the girls or their families? Did he consider the feelings of the men who may have been courting the girls? What have you learned about Xerxes so far?

Lives Changed: Pages 277–279
King Xerxes sent commissioners throughout the kingdom to find beautiful girls for his harem so he could pick a new queen from among them. They found Mordecai’s cousin, Hadassah, who also went by a local name, Esther.

4. What happened to change Esther’s life (Esther 2:5–10)? What have you learned about Esther so far? What might have been some reasons Mordecai forbade Esther to reveal she was Jewish (2:10)?

Esther was now in the king’s harem and would soon be one of his many concubines, having a status lower than a wife. Yet she had a chance to be elevated to a queen.

5. How might Esther have felt about this drastic change in life? Have you ever had an unexpected life-changing event? If so, describe your feelings at the time.

6. What happened to Esther (Esther 2:15–17)?

7. Meanwhile, what happened to Mordecai (Esther 2:21–23)? What have you learned about Mordecai’s character so far?

Lives Imperiled: Pages 279–282

Once again the Jews faced enemies.

8. What happened that endangered all the Jews’ lives (Esther 3)?

Mordecai heard about the king’s edict and fasted. When Esther heard that he lay in sackcloth and ashes, she sent attendants to find out why. He explained and instructed Esther to beg the king for mercy for the Jews.

9. Why did Esther initially balk at Mordecai’s instructions (Esther 4:8–14)? What did Mordecai believe would ultimately happen for the Jews (4:14a)? What did Mordecai tell Esther about the possible purpose for her being in her current position (4:14b)? Describe a situation where you eventually discovered God’s purpose for you being there.

10. How did Esther show courage (Esther 4:15–16 and elsewhere)? If possible, briefly describe a time you decided to do what was right despite potential terrible consequences.

Esther called for all the Jews to fast with her for three days, humbling themselves by denying their bodies’ physical need for food to concentrate on their spiritual need for God through prayer.

Circumstances Reversed: Pages 282–285

The king’s wives and concubines were supposed to wait for the king to call for them. Esther couldn’t do that, though. So she put on her royal robes and stood in the king’s court, even though so doing carried the death penalty. She risked her life, not knowing if he would react angrily, as he had when Vashti disobeyed him, or favorably, not counting her approach as an affront.

She waited. The king held out his gold scepter and spared her life.

Xerxes asked Esther what she wanted, fully aware it must be important. But she didn’t just blurt out her request. They hadn’t been together for some time, so she asked him to come to a banquet with Haman. There they could reconnect and she could ask for her people’s lives without distractions.

11. How was serving a banquet a way to look out for the king’s needs before asking about her own needs? When you want to ask someone for something, what are ways you can address their needs first?

12. What happened at the banquet (Esther 5:6–8)?

Esther apparently sensed the time wasn’t right. She delayed her request a day and invited the king to another banquet.

13. Briefly describe a situation in which you delayed requesting something because you realized the time wasn’t right. What are some things that can alert us that it’s not a good time to ask for something?

Haman left the banquet happy, until he noticed Mordecai showed no fear in his presence. Furious, he erected a pole on which to impale Mordecai the next day.

But that night, everything began to change for God was working behind the scenes.
14. What happened that night (Esther 6:1–2)? What do you think was the cause of the king’s sleeplessness and interest in his chronicles?

15. How were Mordecai’s and Haman’s circumstances reversed (Esther 6–7)?

 
More Reversals: Pages 285–289

Haman was dead, but there was still the problem of the king’s irrevocable edict that the Jews’ enemies kill them.

16. How were the Jews’ and their enemies’ circumstances reversed (Esther 8–9)?

17. List some ways God worked invisibly in the book of Esther. What does this tell us about how God works in our lives?

18. Telling our stories of God’s hand in our lives encourages others to trust God. Describe a situation in which God worked behind the scenes to accomplish something in your life.


 
Timeline: Esther (500–430 BC)

AS YOU READ CHAPTER 20

Journal your answers to these questions as you read through the chapter this week. You may wish to read one day and journal the next, or spread the questions over the whole week.



1. Choose a few of these characters to consider: Queens Vashti and Esther, Mordecai, and Haman. What motivates their behavior? In what power do they trust and root their identities? Consider what motivates your behavior.



2. Mordecai seemed to have God’s Upper Story in view when he sent word to Esther, “And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” When has God most recently placed you in a position to serve a greater purpose than you desired or realized? How did that make you feel?



3. Review the correspondence between Mordecai and Esther concerning an appeal to the king. What is the relationship between God’s providence and our responsibility?



4. The book of Esther has been called the “godless book” because God’s name is never mentioned. Prayer, the law, sacrifices and temple worship are also conspicuously absent. Yet ancient Israel included this book in their scripture because they saw God’s Upper Story at work all over. Where can you find God’s hand and heart at work? Where might God be powerfully at work in your life in a behind the-scenes kind of way?



5. Briefly list all that Haman boasted of to his wife and friends. Why then was he not satisfied? What does this teach you about pride and discontentment?



6. How does the Lower Story of Esther fit into the covenant that God made with Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3)? How does it fit with God’s Upper Story of redemption?




Lesson Today:

The Queen of Beauty and Courage Esther 1-9

The Persian King enjoyed putting on public displays of his wealth and power, which included feasts that sometimes lasted for as much as 180 days. During one feast he requested that his wife, Queen Vashti, come before the entire gathering of important men to show them her great beauty wearing her crown. The speculation is that the King wanted Vashti to appear wearing only the crown. When the Queen refused to put her nude body on public display, the king became enraged, dethroned her as queen, and banished her from the kingdom. He decided to replace his wife with another woman. Josephus, the Jewish historian, records that the King had a total of 400 women selected to fill the harem, from which he would eventually choose his wife and queen. Esther, a Jewish maiden, was taken from her familiar surroundings and the care of her uncle, Mordecai, and placed in the palace to become one of the women who would be used to satisfy the sexual desires of the king. Eventually, Esther would rescue her people from genocide, but she first endured the lust of the king. Despite her difficult situation, she trusted in God and helped others though it came at great personal cost. Did Esther have a choice of whether or not to sleep with the king? Her choice was likely either submit or die. This young woman, left as an orphan, living as a slave, and serving the lust of a king, became the heroine of Israel. Mordecai tells his cousin, “And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”  As Christians, how can we be open and willing to be used by God for His purpose?

Take away: God controls the entire universe – every major event, every mundane happening.  As we take notice of God in every detail, we should be open and willing to fulfill His purpose in our lives, knowing He will give us the courage we need. Each of us is an instrument in God’s hands.  

 

In Chapter 20 of The Story, the Jews faced similar circumstances 2,500 years before Hitler. As our story of Esther unfolds today, we see anti-Semitism in its worst form. But we also see, once again, God’s amazing provision for His people.

The Persian King in power, Xerxes, had good reason to party. His vast empire was powerful and prosperous. His queen was lovely. His palace was ideal for a celebration befitting such a monarch. In what probably resembled the toga party in Animal House, for six months he celebrated with his court. Finally the king summoned Queen Vashti, to put her on display for all the drunken guests. It’s safe to say she had been treated like “arm candy” for years—but this time, she refused. Big mistake. Kings do not like to be refused. And so, with his advisors’ support, he stripped Vashti of her crown and banished her from his presence.

Kings don’t like to be embarrassed, but they also do not like to be queenless. So Xerxes commissioned a kingdom-wide beauty pageant and young women from every province were whisked into the king’s harem for a yearlong visit at the royal spa. One such woman was a Jewish girl named Esther who had been raised by her cousin, Mordecai. Esther won everyone’s heart, including the king’s. He eventually made her queen but did not know she was a Jew. Soon after, Mordecai overheard a plot to kill the king. He passed the news to his cousin Esther, and the king was rescued and the conspirators hanged. Fortunately, the royal scribe recorded Mordecai’s service in the annals of the king—God knew this event would be critical later. 

The other central figure in the story is Haman, King Xerxes’ right hand man. Haman’s head swelled in his high standing, and pretty soon he was loving the way all the royal officials knelt at his feet—everyone that is, except Mordecai. Because Mordecai refused to kowtow, Haman was enraged. His pride was so offended, that to exact his revenge, Haman deceived the king into issuing a decree to exterminate Mordecai and all his people, the entire Jewish population of Persia. He cast a lot, or pur, and chose a single day of unfettered violence against the Jews.

Mordecai sent word to Esther asking her to beg the king for mercy. Queen Esther feared for her life because no one could legally go before the king without prior permission. But Mordecai’s immortal words persuaded her: “Who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” Her courageous response was, “If I perish, I perish.”

They prepared themselves for this dangerous mission the way God’s people should: through prayer and fasting. As Esther approached the king, Xerxes welcomed her and offered to grant her heart’s desire. She invited the king and Haman to two private banquets. Haman was elated to be the exclusive royal guest but still enraged over Mordecai’s insolence. With all the satisfaction of a Cheshire cat, he erected a pole on which Mordecai could be impaled.

Kings with full stomachs must not sleep well, so Xerxes spent the midnight hours listening to the royal decrees. He discovered the account of Mordecai’s report that saved his own life and realized this act of loyalty hadn’t been rewarded. How might he honor such a man? He put this question to Haman for advice. Arrogantly assuming that he was the king’s favored, Haman dreamed up an elaborate ceremony. But within moments, through clenched teeth, Haman was giving his nemesis the king’s robes, leading him through the streets and singing the praises of Mordecai. God does indeed have quite a sense of humor.

Haman later enjoyed the queen’s second banquet until Esther exposed his plot to destroy her people. The king left the room in a fury only to return and discover Haman appearing to assault his queen. He ordered that Haman be impaled on the very pole intended for Mordecai.

The king could not repeal his original edict declaring the destruction of the Jews. But he enabled Mordecai to issue a counter-edict providing for the Jews to take up their own defense. The day planned for destruction became a day of deliverance. Though the lot was cast, God remained the Author of the story. Even in exile, He protected His people, and in Esther, we see God’s heart for saving us all.

The story of Esther has three key points. 

1.       First, it confirms the great Upper Story of God. 

Over and over, we have seen God’s faithfulness. In spite of idolatry, barrenness, sin, and bad choices, God had sovereignly led His people; and now, He illustrates again that nothing will stop His plan of redemption through Israel. 

We’ve seen this truth time and again through the Old Testament: God is still working even when we cannot see His plan. 

·         God was working His plan even while Joseph was in prison

·         God was working His plan even while Moses escaped slaughter as a baby

·         God was working His plan even while calling Gideon in hiding

·         God was working His plan even while Samson was blinded and made into a spectator sport

·         God was working His plan even while Saul was gunning for David

·         God was working His plan even while the kingdom was split in two

·         God was working His plan even during captivity in Babylon

·         God was working His plan as Persia took over and allowed the Jews to return home

If you take away nothing else this morning, put this on your dashboard: God is still working even when we cannot see His plan. 

·         God is working His plan during a time of foreclosure, unemployment and financial meltdown

·         God is working His plan despite the ever-present threat of terrorism

·         God is working His plan even through the frustrations and hardships in your family

Our first takeaway from Esther is that in the darkest hour, on the brink of ethnic cleansing and facing a potential death sentence for approaching the king, God’s plan of redemption continued. And you and I today can have confidence that through divorce, identity theft, and cancer, God is working His glorious Upper Story. That’s what faith is: the substance of things we hope for, the evidence of things we do not yet see.

The second takeaway is related:

2.       God provides another glimpse of the Messiah through Esther.

Once again, a shadow of the Messiah appears, this time through a woman. God’s chosen people experienced a miraculous day of deliverance. Just as Moses led them from Egypt after the death of the firstborn to establish Passover, so Esther’s courage leads to the establishment of the Feast of Purim.   

Freedom from bondage always requires a celebration. People often remember the month and day they received Christ and were saved, or the date of their baptism. Alcoholics often carry a coin with them that marks the date of their sobriety. We celebrate anniversaries of the day we stopped smoking or the day our children came home. And like Passover, the Feast of Purim celebrates delivery.

The Jews even now celebrate the survival of their people with great merriment. Next month, on March 9-10, the Feast of Purim will be held again. The Book of Esther will be read in the synagogue. People will send gifts of food to their neighbors and part of the celebration will be to also provide food for the poor. People will dress in costumes representing Esther, Mordecai, Haman, and Ahasuerus, the king, and hold carnivals. 

Esther’s delivery of her people is another royal precursor to Jesus Himself:

a.   Beauty

I ask only one thing from the Lord. This is what I want: Let me live in the Lord’s house all my life. Let me see the Lord’s beauty and look with my own eyes at his Temple. Psalm 27:4

b.    Both lived in submission to authority. While Esther was subject to King Xerxes and his invitation, Jesus was submitted as well:

Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. John 14:10

c.   For such a time as this/in the fullness of time

“Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14

But when the right time came, God sent his Son who was born of a woman and lived under the law. Galatians 4:4

d.   Both exposed evil and were willing to die should it come to that. 

Gender doesn’t matter—Esther is yet another in a long line of forerunners of Jesus Himself.

And the third takeaway:

3.       Anti-Semitism is an abomination to the LORD. To attack His people is to attack God.

The book of Esther teaches us the dangers of anti-Semitism, the Divine protection of Israel, and the consequences to those who attack the chosen people of God. There is something more profound than “normal racism” against a people group when it comes to the Jews. I submit to you that it is nothing short of Satanic.

Consider Revelations 12: And another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and on his heads were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven, and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. Revelation 12:3-5

A few verses later, the dragon is clearly identified as Satan (Revelation 12:9). The child can be none other than Jesus who was caught up to the throne of God and is the King of Kings who is to rule all nations. This is a battle that has been fought through the ages. Had Pharaoh’s or Herod’s infanticide succeeded, the line of the Messiah would have been cut off completely. Had Haman been successful, the line of the Messiah would have been completely exterminated.

But the plan of God was formed before the foundation of the world, to pursue and rescue humanity from Haman, from Hitler, from Satan himself.  

Jesus said, “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as it loves its own. But I have chosen you out of the world, so you don’t belong to it. That is why the world hates you.” John 15:18-19

Forces of darkness have always been aligned against not just Jesus, but his followers. New Testament believers experienced persecution in nearly every city—the letters to Philippi, Thessalonica, the Hebrews, and from James all spoke of tribulation and sharing Jesus’ sufferings because we are different. 

From the Crusades to the Holocaust, the persecution of God’s people has always been with us. Why? Because people who hate cannot understand a community built on love. 

In the story of Esther, we see the antidote to hate: the courage of love.

It takes great courage to love selflessly and completely, because unconditional love carries with it great risk: the risk of rejection. Anybody can hate—but only those with real backbone and fortitude have the mettle and courage to love regardless.

18th century British statesman Edmund Burke wrote:

All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.—Edmund Burke

Passivity is NOT an option. To love courageously is the antidote to every kind of hate, racism, and anti-Semitism. But let us ensure we strike accurately. 

Thoreau said: There are a thousand men hacking at the branches of evil for everyone who is striking at its root.

And what is at the root of hatred? Pride

Of Anti-Semitism? Of bigotry? The same thing that was at the root of Haman’s anger: pride. He loved the honor bestowed by the king, and when Mordecai refused to be a yes man—refused to brown-nose the second in command, look what happened: an attempt at mass genocide. 

The damage that pride has done over the ages is staggering. With Eve, it took the form of not believing what God said, but suspecting she hadn’t been told everything. With Haman, it was people don’t treat me the way I think I should be treated. With Hitler and with white supremacists, it was a conviction that others not like them are somehow defective. 

With you and me, what does pride look like?

So this morning, let us stop for a moment before sharpening our machetes and consider the wisdom of Thoreau: before you start chopping at leaves and branches, take one good swing at the root of evil: your pride. 

This is our Equipping Point for today. How do you lead well?

All hatred stops with me.

And that doesn’t just mean racial or ethnic bigotry. Hatred is what Jesus said it is:

You have heard that the law of Moses says, ‘Do not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the high council. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell. Matthew 5:21-22

This is hatred because when we get to the point where our anger will not subside, or we can casually call someone an idiot, or curse someone, our pride has taken over. And here’s why it’s that dangerous—we talked about this when we read through the Gospels a couple of years ago, but it bears repeating. When we adopt this viewpoint toward someone—an ability to discard someone, to denigrate them with names, to deny they too are made in the image of God, we have adopted the enemy’s view of him. We see him as Satan does: worthless and dispensable. 

God sees all of mankind—ALL of mankind—as worthy of Christ’s death. But when our pride takes over, we see them as inconsequential and insignificant. Could there be an emotion further from the heart of God? Jesus warns us about hating, about lasting anger, about retaining bitterness. Be careful, He said; when you disdain, you label as unimportant—and nothing could be further from Jesus’ view of that same person.

And so today, I challenge us—all of us—to stand against hatred of all kinds. In the vernacular of Edmund Burke, “I say thee nay.” We must resolve, here and now, that our view of others: the last and the least; Republicans and Democrats; our view of anyone unlike us can have nothing to do with our prejudices, and everything to do with Jesus’ estimation that all of humanity was worth dying for. May it never be said of the men of the Next Level that we see anyone: an ex-wife, a distracted driver, a wayward child, a victim of AIDS, or any person, male or female, slave or free, Jew or Gentile, as dispensable. For under the cross we are ALL one in Christ Jesus. Amen??

May we love others like Jesus, who prayed for His tormentors. May we have the courage to unswervingly follow a Savior who, just hours before His death, bizarrely said, “Take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

The book of Esther teaches us first that God can be trusted for deliverance even though His ways are unknown to us; but it teaches us further that if we do not wait on Him, if we demand illumination rather than faith, demand our timetable over God’s sovereignty, it’s likely that it is our pride that requires these things.

If it is nothing else, the story of Haman is a testimony to what we are capable of if our pride goes unchecked. May we, in the words of Peter, humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may lift us up in due time. This was the final triumph of both Esther and the Messiah she prefigured: a humility that, in the fullness of time, brought the perfect antidote to hatred and prejudice. This antidote is a love that was willing to die so that redemption could come to the world, even to the likes of you and me.

PRAYER

God, thank You for the ways in which You are always at work in my life, regardless if I recognize it or not. Lord, let Your spirit lead and guide me daily, that I may be open to follow You courageously as Ester did. Jesus, help me lay down my life to follow You always.

See you on Sunday!

In His Love,

David & Susan