Esther 7 Verses 1 to 7 God’s Chosen Queen October 8, 2023

Esther 7 Verses 1 to 7 God’s Chosen Queen October 8, 2023

Class Presentation Notes AAAAA

Background Scripture:

· Proverbs 21:1 (NASB) 1 The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes.

Main Idea: God may put you in a special place for a special time for a special purpose.

Study Aim: To understand that we can trust God even when He Seems to be absent.

The Life Question addressed by this lesson is. How should I respond when God calls me to action?

The Biblical Truth is that God gives His people opportunities to stand for Him that call for decisive action.

The Life Impact is to help you recognize and act upon God-given opportunities to fulfill His will for your life, whatever the cost.[1]

Create Interest:

· A person reaps exactly what he has sown.

o In life in general:

§ If we sow friendshipand love in this life, we will reap friendship and love.

§ If we sow a life of commitment, hard work, and diligence, we will reap some material reward.

§ If we sow laziness and slothfulness, we will reap unemployment and little material provisions.

§ If we sow lawlessness and violence, we will reap due punishment.

§ As a society, if we sow justice and peace, we will reap justice and peace throughout our nation.

o Within a marriage:

§ If we sow true love, care, tenderness, and morality, we will reap faithfulness and a growing love and commitment.

§ If we sow immorality, we will reap hurt, pain and divorce.

· Sowing and reaping is the theme and lesson of this Scripture.

o The king now favored the Jew Mordecai because Mordecai had saved the king’s life.

o In addition, Haman had just been utterly humiliated and publicly shamed by this unexpected honor bestowed upon Mordecai, his avowed enemy.

§ After the unsettling incident, Haman was warned by his wife and friends to turn away from his enmity against the Jews and stop his plot to exterminate them.

§ They warned him that his downfall had already started. In fact, while Haman’s friends were still talking with him, the king’s attendants arrived to rush him to the banquet Queen Esther had prepared for the king and his prime minister.

§ Rushing to the banquet with a heavy heart and broken spirit, Haman had absolutely no idea what was to come.[2]

· Let’s see how Haman’s hate for Mordecai and God’s love for His people…even though God is not mentioned in this book…works out in this timeless story told annually by our Jewish friends.

Lesson in Historical Context:

· Events in this book are set in the era of the Persian Empire, sometime between 483 and 471 b.c. Xerxes the Great ruled (known from other sources as Ahasuerus): the same Xerxes who invaded Greece but was thrown back.

· Chronologically Esther comes between the return of a first group of Jews to Judah from Babylon (538 b.c.) and the return of a second group led back by Ezra (458 b.c.).

· No author is given and the book’s name comes from its main character

· Events are set not in Babylon but at Susa, which lay closer to the Persian Gulf. Archeologists have not recovered documents that mention either Esther or her uncle, Mordecai. But the detailed descriptions of Persian court practices and customs in Esther have been shown to be completely accurate.

· The Book of Esther is unusual in that nowhere is God mentioned.

o Yet again and again the story told there shows our sovereign God working quietly, behind the scenes, shaping events so that His good purpose for His people is achieved.

· Another important contribution of Esther is to document what happened to the Jews who did not return to Judah. Esther 3:8 shows that they had scattered throughout the empire “among the peoples in all the provinces” of the empire, and that there they kept “themselves separate.”

· Prayer is never mentioned in the book, though fasting is. In other postexilic books prayer is important to the main characters (both the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. are good examples), but in the Book of Esther nothing is said about Mordecai or Esther praying. Both Esther and Mordecai seem to have lacked spiritual awareness except in their assurance that God would protect His people.

o Note: No doubt it was composed to encourage Israelites that God was working on their behalf, even though some people who had refused to come back to the land.[3]

The Story

· Xerxes (Zurk-seez) was holding one of the drinking parties for which history tells us he was famous. When his wife ignored a command to visit the party, Xerxes set her aside. There would be no “women’s lib” in Persia!

· Immediately a search was begun for a new queen, while the king gave his attention to the four-year process of gathering an army to invade Greece. It was not until after his defeat in the west that Xerxes finally chose a new queen. When he did, he chose Esther, the adopted Jewish daughter of a minor court official named Mordecai.

· The book then tells of the anger of a high court official named Haman when he thought he had been slighted by Mordecai.

o Haman determined to have his revenge. He would not only have Mordecai executed: he would have his entire race exterminated! When Haman asked Xerxes for permission, it was granted casually!

· But Mordecai had earlier warned the king of a plot on his life, and somehow his reward was overlooked. One night Xerxes could not sleep and had the record of his rule read. Mordecai’s act was reported there, but no reward was mentioned.

· Meanwhile, Mordecai had urged Esther to speak to the king for her race. She was afraid, but risked the anger of Xerxes, who was known for his instability and rages. She asked Xerxes and Haman to her apartments for dinner the next day. At that dinner, she requested the king’s and Haman’s presence at a second dinner the following day.

· The morning of the second dinner, Haman came to the palace and was asked advice on how to honor someone the king wished to reward. Haman, thinking he was the one to be honored, outlined what should be done—and then was commanded by Xerxes to personally lead Mordecai, clad in the king’s own robes and riding a royal horse, through the capital, shouting loudly that this was one the king wished to honor.

· Then at dinner Esther accused Haman of wickedly plotting against her race and revealed that she was a Jew. When one of the king’s servants volunteered that Haman had actually had a gallows erected on which to hang Mordecai, whom the king had ordered him to honor, Xerxes had Haman and his sons hanged there instead.

· According to custom, once a royal decree had been published, it could not be revoked. So, Xerxes gave Mordecai his seal and told him to write any decree in Xerxes’ name that would correct the situation.

o The new decree simply gave the Jews the right to organize, and to protect themselves by killing those who planned to kill them. No victims could be plundered, so the motives of the defenders could not be greed.

· When the appointed day came the Jews did defend themselves and many of their enemies were killed. Mordecai became a powerful figure in the empire and used his position to promote the welfare of his people.

· The great deliverance reported in Esther is celebrated today by the Jewish people on March 13 and 14, and is known as the Feast of Purim.[4]

Bible Study:

Esther 7:1-2 (NASB) 1 Now the king and Haman came to drink wine with Esther the queen. 2 And the king said to Esther on the second day also as they drank their wine at the banquet, "What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to half of the kingdom it shall be done."

· As they were drinking wine: The king reassured the queen that his generous offer (stated here for the third time) was still available.

· The narrator did not give the hour “they were drinking wine.” It may have been in the afternoon since so much still was to happen that same day.

· Haman had no idea of what was coming.

o Destruction and adversity can fall quickly. The banquet was planned following a previous banquet (5:3–8). This banquet would be the place where the conflict with Haman would come to a climax.

o Thus far Esther, Mordecai, and the reader knows that Haman’s plot is going to be reversed. But only Esther has figured out how.

· Esther was then ready to explain her petition and request (v. 2)

· The king addressed Esther as “Queen” and again asked to know her petition. He was still well disposed toward her (offering to her up to half the kingdom in front of a crowd). There was great irony in Xerxes’ request.

o He assumed that she would ask for material possessions when in reality she was interested in what really matters: human lives.

§ Xerxes, of course, did not know this.

o Another ironic element in this event is that Xerxes was sitting with his most trusted official.[5]

Esther 7:3-6 (NASB) 3 Then Queen Esther replied, "If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me as my petition, and my people as my request; 4 for we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed and to be annihilated. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for the trouble would not be commensurate with the annoyance to the king." 5 Then King Ahasuerus asked Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, who would presume to do thus?" 6 Esther said, "A foe and an enemy is this wicked Haman!" Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen.

· “If I have found favor with you, O king, …” (v. 3). This is the “favor” that Esther was said to have “won” earlier in the story. It is now the basis of her supplication (see also Exod. 33:12–13). The use of the second-person personal pronoun (“you”) emphasizes her intimacy with the king.

· Esther had not gone to the king to seek an exception for herself; nor was she only the spokesperson for her people. She merged her identity—and destiny—with theirs. “I and my people have been sold for destruction,” she says, and then continues by using the word “we.” Mordecai’s questions in 4:13–14 appear to have brought about some soul-searching in the young Jewess. Courage and loyalty have replaced timidity and self-protection.

· Before she finished describing the threat, she added another statement of deference to the king: “If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king” (v. 4).

o This disclaimer effectively underscored the gravity of her request. It was also a subtle way of recalling for the king the monetary transaction that took place at their expense.

o The word “sold” is used twice in this verse, referring to the money that Haman offered to the king in 3:8-9. The phrase translated “would [not] justify disturbing” likely means “it would not be worth it” to the king (using a rare word, shoveh, to connote monetary loss). Esther also quotes the terms of the edict, “destruction and slaughter and annihilation.”

§ Esther 3:8-9 (NASB) 8 Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, "There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from thoseof all other people and they do not observe the king's laws, so it is not in the king's interest to let them remain. 9 "If it is pleasing to the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who carry on the king's business, to put into the king's treasuries."

· We are reminded that in an absolute monarchy, the king is looked upon as a god and can do no wrong. This is why ancient monarchs always had a stable of scapegoats available, people who could take the blame for the ignorance or inefficiency of the throne. (Modern politicians often do the same thing.)

o Therefore, the king’s question in verse 5 implied much more than, “Who is guilty?” The king was also looking for somebody to punish.[6]

· Esther articulated her request with clear resolve. She was asking the king to make a critical choice between his queen and his prime minister. Her request is crisp, and she delivered an accusation without so much as hinting at the king’s complicity.

o Like Nathan with David, she elicited the king’s anger before identifying the culprit (2 Sam. 12:1–6). Once Xerxes heard of this unnamed threat to herself and her people (compare 3:8), he was agitated (indicated by the Hebrew syntax) into demanding details: “Who is he? Where is the man who has dared to do such a thing?” (Vs.5)

o Without hesitation, she answered (with similar staccato in Hebrew), “The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman” (v. 6). Her enemy was now his enemy and thus The Enemy.

· Esther’s extreme deference to the gracious Xerxes was matched by her open spite for the “wicked” Haman.

o The Hebrew adjective is the simple term for evil, the opposite of the Hebrew term for good used of Esther (1:19) and Mordecai (7:9) and the king’s choices (i.e., “if it seems good …” translated “if it pleases the king …” in 3:9, etc.).[7]

Esther 7:7 (NASB) 7 The king arose in his anger from drinking wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm had been determined against him by the king.

· The king retired in anger. He rose from the table in a great passion, and went into the palace garden to cool himself and to consider what was to be done, v. 7.

o He did not send for his seven wise counsellors who knew the times, being ashamed to consult them about the undoing of that which he had rashly done without their knowledge or advice; but he went to walk in the garden awhile, to compare in his thoughts what Esther had now informed him of with what had formerly passed between him and Haman.

o What can we learn from this?

§ We may suppose that the King was annoyed at himself, that he should be such a fool as to doom a guiltless nation to destruction, and his own queen among the rest, upon the base suggestions of a self-seeking man, without examining the truth of his allegations.

📷 Those that do things with self-will reflect upon them afterwards with self-reproach.

§ Annoyed at Haman whom he had considered close to him, that he should be such a villain as to abuse his interest in him to draw him to consent to so wicked a measure. He knew he would not have intentionally signed an edit to kill his wife, and thus assumed he had been duped.

§ When he saw himself betrayed by one he had loved he was full of indignation at him; yet he would say nothing till he had taken time for second thoughts, to see whether they would make the matter better or worse than it first appeared, that he might proceed accordingly.

📷 When we are angry, we should pause awhile before we come to any resolution and be are governed by reason.[8]

· As the king left the house Haman stood up too. He knew the king well and could interpret the sovereign’s moods. He knew that there was royal anger seething now which would rightly be directed at him. As the text said, “he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king”.

o It might have been wiser for him if he had assayed to go with the king to the garden rather than be left alone in the room with the queen in an incriminating position, but his thought seemed to be that perhaps he could plead with Esther for clemency.

o It had been a most humiliating time for Haman, avowed enemy of the Jews. As Whitcomb comments, “Haman had led a Jew in triumphal procession through the streets of the city, and now he was pleading with a Jewess for his very life”. He fell at the queen’s feet.

Esther 7:8-10 (NASB) 8 Now when the king returned from the palace garden into the place where they were drinking wine, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, "Will he even assault the queen with me in the house?" As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. 9 Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were before the king said, "Behold indeed, the gallows standing at Haman's house fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai who spoke good on behalf of the king!" And the king said, "Hang him on it." 10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king's anger subsided.

· Esther reclined on the couch, as was the custom at such banquets and Haman fell down upon the couch to plead with her. It is likely that in his pleading he held the queen by the feet as was the custom with Greeks and Romans, and indeed with Jews also, as they were supplicating (2 Kings 4:27; Mt 28:9) “Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house?”.

· It was an outrage, and Haman’s doom was sealed at that moment. The chamberlains knew it and no sooner had the king exclaimed in his exasperation than they covered Haman’s face.[9]

· Vs. 9-10d: When the king heard about the gallows that Haman had built for Mordecai, he ordered that Haman be hanged on those gallows.

· Harbonah informed the king of the fifty cubit (75 feet) gallows that Haman built for Mordecai. The king ordered Haman to be hung on it and the king was pacified.

o God’s people had been delivered from one enemy and these events were the stepping stones for future deliverance.

o It is interesting to note that the number fifty is the number of deliverance in the Bible.

§ It is the number of Jubilee. Every fifty years was a Jubilee year, and all the slaves were freed in Israel. All debts were canceled.[10]

· Note: When the King gave his ring to Haman, and the order for the slaughter of the Jews was made and sealed with the king’s ring, it could not, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, be changed.

o Thus, it was that the king proposed another message, and signed it with his own signet according to the law.

o By this the effect of the letters which Haman had sent out were practically reversed, and the Jews throughout the kingdom, and by order of the king, were given the privilege to be fully armed against any who might seek to do them harm.

· So it happened that the people fought with the Jews against their enemies in as much as the king had favored the Jews. The result was that, instead of the Jews being slain, their enemies fell on every hand.[11]

Thoughts to Soak on as we close our study

· One of the emphases in the Book of Esther is the need to take advantage of opportunities when they come.

o This is implied in Mordecai’s question when he referred to “such a time as this” (4:14).

§ Esther 4:10-16 (NASB) 10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach and ordered him to reply to Mordecai: 11 "All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that for any man or woman who comes to the king to the inner court who is not summoned, he has but one law, that he be put to death, unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter so that he may live. And I have not been summoned to come to the king for these thirty days." 12 They related Esther's words to Mordecai. 13 Then Mordecai told themto reply to Esther, "Do not imagine that you in the king's palace can escape any more than all the Jews. 14 "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?" 15 Then Esther told themto reply to Mordecai, 16 "Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. And thus, I will go in to see the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish."

o Esther had to act without letting the opportunity slip by. If she stalled, time would run out for the Jews.

o In her case, as in many, timing is everything. Many proverbial sayings testify to this truth:

§ “Strike while the iron in hot”:

§ “Opportunity knocks only once”:

§ “Time and tide wait for no man.”

· Shakespeare wrote:

o There is a tide in the affairs of men.

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune:

Omitted, all the voyage of their life,

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

o Paul wrote that believers should be “redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:16).

§ The Greeks had two words for time.

📷 Chronos refers to ongoing time, clock and calendar time.

📷 Kairosrefers to opportunities or special moments or seasons—as in Esther’s situation. Paul used this latter word in Ephesians 5:16.

What are some lasting lessons we can glean from our study?

§ Timing is important.

§ Confront evil and expose evil people.

§ Seize the moment for acting for the Lord.

§ God is working in our lives at all times for our good…even when we are unaware if what and why.

§ Commitments must lead to decisive actions.[12]

Where do we find Jesus in this lesson?

· It has been taught to me that we can find Jesus in every book of the Bible. Let’s think about that relating to this Book of Esther, in which the name of God is not mentioned but He is seen working through the lives of people.

o John 1:1-5 (NASB) 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

o Romans 8:33-39 (NASB) 33 Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

· Based on these two Scriptures and alas, we could list countless more, could you rationalize and believe that this story of Esther was given to God’s people to remind them long before Jesus came that God was committed not only to their continued existence but to their quality of life…even when they thought He was not there?

Discuss and pray.

Grace and peace to all who read, or listen to, discuss, or share this lesson

[1]Robert J. Dean, Family Bible Study, Spring 2004, Herschel Hobbs Commentary (LifeWay Christian Resources, 2004), 36. [2]Leadership Ministries Worldwide, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible (Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 2004), 288. [3]John A. Martin, “Esther,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 698–699. [4]Lawrence O. Richards, The Teacher’s Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1987), 312–313. [5]Mervin Breneman, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, electronic ed., vol. 10, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 347–348. [6]Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Committed, “Be” Commentary Series (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993), 139. [7]Timothy S. Laniak, “Esther,” in Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, ed. W. Ward Gasque, Robert L. Hubbard, and Robert K. Johnston, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 243–244. [8]Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume(Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 650. [9]J. M. Flanigan, “Esther,” in Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther, What the Bible Teaches (J. Ritchie, 2009), 427. [10]Rod Mattoon, Treasures from Esther, Treasures from Scripture Series (Springfield, IL: Rod Mattoon, 2012), 94–95. [11]R. E. Neighbour, Wells of Living Water: Old Testament, vol. 4, Wells of Living Water (Union Gospel Press, 1939–1940), 209. [12]Robert J. Dean, Family Bible Study, Spring 2004, Herschel Hobbs Commentary (LifeWay Christian Resources, 2004), 43.