TGP: If It Pleases the King

Introduction:

Q. Do you enjoy taking risks or do you avoid them as much as possible?

Q. Why are some people drawn to risky situations?

Q. Do you think life is meaningful without taking risks? Explain.

Some in both camps

Living for God is risky

Today: Esther (risking everything for God’s people)

Main Point:

Though we can’t always see Him moving, we can trust God is with us and working for us.

Context:

Author unknown (often credited to Mordecai).

Celebrated during Purim

God’s providence and nature (without mentioning His name)

Written to Jews who stayed in Persia after the exile

Esther and Mordecai: Persia’s capital city of Susa

Gaining King Ahasuerus’s (Xerxes) favor

Haman:

Hated Jews

Mordecai refused to bow

Plan to annihilate the Jews

A descendant of King Agag (An Amalekite that Saul spared)

The effects of Saul’s disobedience 500 years later

God wasn’t absent

“For such a time as this.” (Esth. 4:14)

Main Point:

Though we can’t always see Him moving, we can trust God is with us and working for us.

God is with us

Read Esther 3:7-10, 12-13.

3:7

“The Persian diviners, magi, and astrologers cast lots at the beginning of each new year to determine which days of the year would bring good fortune.”

3:13

“It should jar us how easily a plan to eliminate an entire ethnicity of people was proposed and proclaimed. Lest we think this was just a problem for the ancients, remember the genocides in Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Cambodia, and Syria. And we dare not leave out the Holocaust! At the heart of each of these tragedies is one ethnic group seeking to exercise its self-perceived and self-proclaimed superiority over another. Satan is at work in all such instances, but in Haman’s case there was probably a particular hellish influence seeking to annihilate the line from which the Messiah would come.”

Q. Have you ever been in the right place at the right time? What about the wrong place at the wrong time? Explain.

Right place = a blessing

Right time = help someone

Wrong place… God’s guidance can be trusted

Q. Why is this conflict bigger than just Haman versus the Jews? Who did the conflict affect?

Haman’s lineage

God’s promise to send a Savior

Satan’s attempt at interfering with God’s plan

Forgetting the Spiritual realm exists

The battle is already won

Q. The king announced the Jews’ destruction on the evening before Passover. Why was this significant? How do you think the Jews felt?

Passover’s origin (Exodus 12)

The undoing of the Passover

Where is God?

God uses human evil

Main Idea:

Though we can’t always see Him moving, we can trust God is with us and working for us.

God is with us

God is working for us

Read Esther 8:5-8, 11-12, 17.

8:5-8:

“Although God’s name is never mentioned int he book, the plot of the story demonstrates to Jewish believer that the unusual coincidences that allowed for Mordecai to report a plot against the king (2:19-23), for Esther to be chosen as queen (2:1-8), for Esther to enter the king’s presence without being invited (5:1-8), for the vicious plot of Haman to be revealed (6:1-7:10), and for Mordecai to rise to power (8:1-10:3), all point to God’s sovereign control over the details of history. … In most of the Old Testament, God boldly speaks, acts, and directs the course of history, but in a time of foreign domination by pagan nations, he works behind the scenes through the lives of both believers and unbelievers. In many eras of history, God’s face is not seen, his hand is not performing great miracles, and his voice is not heard audibly; yet, he is present.”

8:11:

“Apart from believing that God actively and sovereignly rules over our world, the book of Esther becomes a mere celebration of Mordecai’s wisdom, Esther’s courage, and, most of all, simple chance and luck… This book was written to show that God himself acts to achieve the total defeat of his foes and the safety of his people.”

Q. As a Jew, Esther was in the minority in Persia. When have you felt this way as a believer in our culture?

A pagan world

But God was working

Your life (a bigger purpose)

Different than the world (His kingdom)

Q. Do you think God uses all the parts of our story? How can this help you to honor Him in all seasons?’

Believing God has a purpose = living more intentionally

Trusting God with the details

His purpose is good

Ask Him to show you how to make the most of where you are for His kingdom.

Q. The new edict gave the Jews a chance of victory. How do we have more than a chance of victory in Jesus?

Already won

Certain victory against death

Don’t live defeated

Victory over sin NOW if we walk with Him!

Christ Connection:

While the situation seemed hopeless for Esther’s people, the Jews, God was totally in control and had a plan to save them. Humanity’s situation may have appeared hopeless because of the depth of our sin, but God always had a plan for our salvation: the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.

Wrap-Up:

What would change if you trusted God was working in the good and bad situations of your life?

Crediting God for good, Satan for bad

Not biblical

Trials allowed by God to strengthen faith

Both good and bad are opportunities

With us in the past = present & future