From frightened to favored and fearing to feasting, a Sovereign Savlation

Read Esther 1-2

1. What is happening in the opening scene of the story? What is going on and what is the setting?

a. The opening scene is of a worldly king showing off his riches, feasting and enjoying his wealth.

2. Given the books of the Bibles leading up to the story of Esther like Ezra and Nehemiah, how do you think the exiled and foreign Jews were viewed and treated?

a. Given that the Jews faced enemies at every turn, they were probably looked down upon and mistreated during the rule of Persia.

3. Why was King Ahasuerus displeased with Queen Vashti? Whose idea was it to choose a new Queen?

a. The king was displeased because he was he felt disrespected by his wife. It was the king’s young men ‘s idea to find a new queen.

Read Esther 3-8

In chapter 3, Mordecai, Esther’s uncle and caretaker refused to bow down in homage to king Ahasuerus. Speculate in your groups what was motivating him to refuse to bow down?

Earlier in this section, a man named Haman grew to despise Mordecai and his people. What did Haman convince the king to do as a result?

a. He asked the king to make a decree to kill a group of people who pay no homage to the king, the Jews.

Are there any other places in the Scriptures where the Jewish people face a similar threat of death? If so, where?

a. Exodus 1:8-2:10, Matthew 1

4. What happens that gives Mordecai favor in the eyes of the king? Do you think Mordecai would have ever been promoted had it not been for this incident?

a. The king has a dream that leads him to go back to the book of the Chronicles of the king

5. What ends up happening to Haman?

a. He ends up being impaled on the very pole that he was going to impale Mordecai on.

Read Esther 9-10

How do the Jews end up being saved from their enemies?

a. The king issues an edict that the Jews may defend themselves and fight back from their enemies. So the Jews do and they are victorious.

Given the setting and the description at the beginning of this story, what does the setting of the ending scene look like?

a. Instead of the royal crown and the people and visitors of Persia celebrating and feasting, the Jews are the ones who are held in esteem and honor.

Final group questions

*Meet back together as one big group and go over questions and answers and explain how we can see the sovereignty of God in it all

Concluding thoughts and application

So at the beginning of the story, the Jews are despised rejected, and they become the target of premeditated suicide by their own foreign oppressors, who are feasting and being merry, but by the end of the story the Jews are being held in esteem and honor, delivered from their fate, and celebrating by feasting!

God does a complete reversal of what was expected. Why? It is because of what I talked about in that devotional a few weeks ago at practice...

God is Good

In the beginning of mankind with Adam and eve, God made a promise to Eve that through her descendants would come the serpent crusher, the one who would take care of the sin problem and all evil. Genesis 3:15

Genesis 3:15 ESV

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Later in the story of the Bible, God extends that promise to Abraham and he says that through his line the whole world would be blessed. Genesis 12:2-3

Genesis 12:2–3 ESV

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God chose the Jews to be the people through whom the sin problem would be dealt with, and through whom the whole world would be blessed

So while the problem seemed big enough in itself, what we need to understand is that if Haman would have been successful, and if the Jews would have been annihilated, then God would have proved to be unfaithful in keeping his promise to mankind. But he did save them. Why?

Because God is good

So we see that..

God is also sovereign in this story because we see him providing the solution to the problem before the problem even arises.

In God’s perfect wisdom and timing, he ordained that Esther and Mordecai would be born by a certain person, at a specific place, in a perfect time, in order that they may serve his purposes to save his people, the Jews.

The book of Esther is about God’s sovereignty, that reigns over all no matter how bleak our circumstances may look.

So how can we apply this to our lives

Celebrate and rejoice for what God has done for you (Like the Jews in Esther)

Has he saved you through his son? rejoice in that! Thank him and follow after him!

“Why would I trifle with the sin that killed my best friend?”

2. Seek the Lord in the midst of trials and calamity (Like Esther and her people)

Pray in the midst of trials, and seek him for help. He answers.

3. Demonstrate your trust in God (Like Mordecai when he refused to bow down)

Romans 12:2 ESV

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Don’t think like the world, don’t speak like the world, don’t act like the world. But conform to the Lord and his ways and his thoughts

The Lord may not bow down to kings and idols, but that’s cause their idols are money, self, power, and sex. Serve God.