Learning to Trust God - Part VII: Book of Esther
Learning
to Trust God - Part VII: Book of Esther
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“Our Goal for this bible study is to
learn to trust God with every area and aspect of our life.”
Key Scripture:
Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall
direct thy paths.
Esther Chapter 7
Esther’s Second
Banquet and Life PleaIn chapter seven of the Book of Esther, Queen Esther fulfills her life’s destiny. The purpose of Esther becoming Queen was for such as time as this (4:13-14) to save her people from destruction.
The
king and Haman came to Queen Esther’s banquet of wine, where the king asks
Esther again, What is thy petition, queen Esther? And it shall be granted thee:
and what is thy request? And it shall be performed, even to the half of the
kingdom.” (7:2)
As we learned from the first banquet, Esther was led by God’s guiding hand. God’s providence is evident in Esther’s life, from her becoming and orphan to Mordecai her cousin taking her to become his daughter to him bringing her to the palace, to God giving her favor above all the virgins where king Ahasuerus places the royal crown on her head making her queen instead of Vashti, to Mordecai saving the king’s life, to the deceptive proclamation against the Jews by Haman the prince, to the king’s sleepless night, to the fasting and prayer of Esther and Mordecai, to the death defying courage of Esther, to the king holding out the golden scepter to save her life, to the first banquet of pride for Haman, to the humbling of Haman the Agagite having to honor Mordecai the Jew in public, to the death banquet of wine for Haman: the second banquet.
Now chapter seven unfolds:
Esther the Queen answers the king and said, “If I have found favor in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request: For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been said sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king’s damage.” (7:3-4)
Esther makes her petition for her life and her people, just as Mordecai in 4:12-14 told her. Although Esther is now Queen of Persia, she remains obedient to her cousin Mordecai who became her father after the death of her parents.
Ephesians 6:1-3
King James Version (KJV)
6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
2 Honour thy father
and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
Esther states she would have held her tongue if her people were to be sold as bondmen and bondwomen. So as she make her plea for her life and the life of her people, her husband the king ask her:
Verse 5...“Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?”
A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth
good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil
things.
Matthew 15:18-20
18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
20 These are the things which defile a man:…
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye
know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
We are to have love in our heart, which is called the “Royal Law”: I
Corinthians 13: 1-8, 13.
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Remember
as we continue our study in the Book of Esther, “Our Goal is to learn to trust
God with every area and aspect of our life.”
We can only trust God when we fulfill his first commandment in our
heart. And our key scripture (Proverbs 3:5-6) is our primary focus.
Key Scripture:
Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall
direct thy paths.
Let’s continue with chapter 7 of the Book of Esther:
Queen Esther has made her request know to the king and she answers the king’s question, Verse 5...“Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?”
Verse 6 And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
Esther confronted Haman to his face at the banquet of wine, which was the second banquet. Can you see the wisdom and patience God gave her in the midst of an urgent life threating matter? Esther previously demonstrated trusting God with all of her heart and not leaning unto her own understanding because she acknowledged the Lord with fasting and prayer and the Providence of God (directing her path) is evident.
- Remember the definition for the word providence: foreseeing and providing
for the future. God makes all
events to work out for his purpose, even the threat of genocide of his
people. (Romans
8:28 And we
know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the called
according to his purpose.)
Esther’s response to the king, pointing Haman to be the one who was the culprit to destroy her and her people, to rise up from the banquet of wine prepared by the queen, in his wrath. He went into the palace garden: some time passed and the queen who had total trust in God, retired to her bed. Her purposed has been fulfilled to make a plea for her life and the life of her people. The king promised her up to the half of his kingdom will be done for her. Verse: 2 and 5:3
Haman in a desperate attempt to save his own life, realized the king had determined evil against him, had fallen upon Queen Esther’s bed, to make a request for his life. When the king entered he did not see Haman pleading for his life, he saw a man who was going to force himself upon the queen.
In verse 8 the king returns to from the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was lying down. Then the king saw Haman and said, “Will he force the queen also before me in the house?”
Verse 8 As the king ask this question, as the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, “Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon.
(In ancient times, people who were about to be executed,
their faces were covered.)
Gallows
So they hung Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified. (7:10)
The
wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the
devices that they have imagined.
Discussion Scriptures:
Ø
Psalm 7:16
Ø
Psalm 7:17
Ø
Proverbs 11:5
Ø
Psalm 94:23
Ø
Proverbs 11:6
Ø
Psalm 37:35-36
Ø
Daniel 6:24
Ø
Psalms 9:16
Haman the Agagite an enemy of the Jews craftily devised a plan to destroy God’s people due to his pride and hatred in his heart. His attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish race, gave God another opportunity to show forth his providence, sovereignty, and power against the Jews enemy.
Questions for discussion:
1.
I Corinthians 13:
8 says. “Love never fails”. Did God’s
love for his people fail them or deliver them?
2.
Did you ever think of I Corinthians 13, commonly called
the love chapter, which teaches us how to love one another, as the love that
God demonstrates to us?
3.
Study Psalm 37. In
verse 31* reads: The law of his God is in
his heart: none of his steps shall slide.
How does this scripture pertain to Esther, Mordecai, and the Jew? How does it pertain to you?
Next week we’ll continue our study of Esther Part VIII, Chapter 8 where Mordecai is advanced and honored and Queen Esther’s pleas to reverse Haman’s letters and the king grants the Jews permission to fight for their lives, because the king’s decree cannot be reversed.
For those attending the bible study in person:
·
Read Esther Chapters 8-10
·
Be prepared to answer the above
questions
·
Be prepared to share what you learned in this
chapter
·
Be prepared to answer last week’s questions #3
& #4.
Contact Evangelist Waters:
www.PureGoldEvangelisticMinistries.com
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my Bible Study Blog:
www.PureGoldMinistries.blogspot.comFollow the Weekly Prayer Blog: www.PureGoldEvangelisticMinistriesPrayer.blogspot.com
