Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Fearlessness of Esther

She appeared before the King as she promised to do.

When the King saw Esther, He looked at her with favor and wanted to be generous to her request.

Esther responds with an invitation to a feast she set up for him and Haman.

Both the King and Haman were very pleased with Esther's feast.

The King asks Esther what her request is.

Esther invites the King and Haman to another feast the next day.

Set the Stage

Haman left the feast of Queen Esther happy until he walked by Mordecai, who did not rise or show fear.

Haman went home and was given counsel to have Mordecai killed on the gallows.

Haman likes the idea and has the gallows built.

He is planning on talking to the King about it in the morning to have Mordecai killed before the feast.

Little did he know that God is going to work to honor Mordecai.

The king was reminded of the thwarted assassination attempt by Mordecai and decides to honor him.

Haman ends up being the official of the King to honor Mordecai.

Haman goes home mourning and humiliated.

Haman’s demise

Esther 6:13 (ESV)

13 And Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him.

Then his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him but will surely fall before him.”

Haman’s wife and friends take the event of Mordecai’s honor instead of death as a sign of Haman’s downfall.

Esther 6:14 (ESV)

14 While they were yet talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurried to bring Haman to the feast that Esther had prepared.

Haman is hurried away by the King’s eunuch to the second feast of Queen Esther.

The treachery of Haman revealed.

(7:1–6)

King’s Question (1-2)

Esther 7:1–2 (ESV)

1 So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. 2 And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king again said to Esther, “What is your wish, Queen Esther?

It shall be granted you.

And what is your request?

Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.”

Second day

“the second day A reference to the second banquet, not a day passing.

The first day was the initial feast that Esther prepared for the king and Haman (5:4–5).”

(Barry, John D. et al.

Faithlife Study Bible.

Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016.

Print.)

They enjoyed the meal and are now enjoying drinking wine.

Third time the King asks Esther for her request.

Wish - šĕʾēlâ - “request (object of) n., the object of a person’s request.”

(The Lexham Analytical Lexicon of the Hebrew Bible 2017: n. pag.

Print.)

Request - bǎq·qā·šā(h) - “request (message) n., a formal message submitted to an authority which asks for something.”

(The Lexham Analytical Lexicon of the Hebrew Bible 2017: n. pag.

Print.)

This will be important to notice because of the response of Esther to the question of the King.

King is expressing to Queen Esther that he will give her a favorable response.

Esther’s Request (3-5)

Personal understanding

One of the fearful part of conversations, witnessing, dealing with difficult situations, and difficult confrontation is, “What do I say?”

Biblical examples

Jesus - Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7), Answering questions from religious leaders (Matt 22), before Pilot (Matt 27)

Peter - Pentecost (Acts 2), Before Sanhedrin (Acts 4)

Stephen - Sanhedrin (Acts 7)

Paul - Areopagus (Acts 17), People and Felix (Acts 21-24), Agrippa (Acts 25-26)

Luke 12:11–12 (ESV)

11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

Do we seek the Lord in what to say when we know we need to confront, witness, or communicate truth with unknown outcome?

Esther fasted and prayed before going before the King.

I suspect she was praying the night between the feast for God’s guidance in what to do and say.

Esther’s response

Climax of the Story.

What will be the King’s response to the request of Esther?

What will be the response of Haman?

Will Esther’s message be said rightly and received well?

Esther 7:3–4 (ESV)

3 Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request.

4 For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated.

If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.”

Shows respect to the King - “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king.”

Repeats the Kings question in her response - “let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request.”

šĕʾēlâ - “request (object of) n., the object of a person’s request.”

(The Lexham Analytical Lexicon of the Hebrew Bible 2017: n. pag.

Print.)

bǎq·qā·šā(h) - “request (message) n., a formal message submitted to an authority which asks for something.”

(The Lexham Analytical Lexicon of the Hebrew Bible 2017: n. pag.

Print.)

Esther explains that her “wish…request” is her life and the life of her people.

She quotes from the Edict - “For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated.”

(Esther 3:13 “Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with instruction to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.”)

Humbles herself and the Jews before the King - “If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.”

She understands the standing of herself and the Jews as people in Exile under the King.

If the edict was about enslaving the Jews instead of Execution, she would not say anything.

King’s response (5)

Esther 7:5 (ESV)

5 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has dared to do this?”

The King does not know who is trying to kill her.

He is seeking more information about what she is talking about.

To this point, I do not know if the King is connecting the pieces of the Edict and what Esther is addressing.

Does the King know that the Edict from Haman is targeting the Jews?

(Haman did not mention the Jews in the discussion with the King)

Has the King read the edict that Haman wrote?

(the kind gave Haman the signet ring and Haman called the King’s scribes and sent out the edict)

Does the King know Esther is a Jew? (Esther has been keeping it a secret the whole time.

from the King?)

Haman’s Fear (6)

Esther 7:6 (ESV)

6 And Esther said, “A foe and enemy!