Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it. In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
When Esther’s eunuchs and female attendants came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. Then Esther summoned Hathak, one of the king’s eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why.
So Hathak went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate. Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to instruct her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.
Hathak went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”
When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther’s instructions.

• Esther 4:1-17

On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall, facing the entrance. When he saw Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased with her and held out to her the gold scepter that was in his hand. So Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.
Then the king asked, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given you.”
“If it pleases the king,” replied Esther, “let the king, together with Haman, come today to a banquet I have prepared for him.”
“Bring Haman at once,” the king said, “so that we may do what Esther asks.”
So the king and Haman went to the banquet Esther had prepared. As they were drinking wine, the king again asked Esther, “Now what is your petition? It will be given you. And what is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.”
Esther replied, “My petition and my request is this: If the king regards me with favor and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for them. Then I will answer the king’s question.”
Haman went out that day happy and in high spirits. But when he saw Mordecai at the king’s gate and observed that he neither rose nor showed fear in his presence, he was filled with rage against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home.
Calling together his friends and Zeresh, his wife, Haman boasted to them about his vast wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored him and how he had elevated him above the other nobles and officials. “And that’s not all,” Haman added. “I’m the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And she has invited me along with the king tomorrow. But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.”
His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have a pole set up, reaching to a height of fifty cubits, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai impaled on it. Then go with the king to the banquet and enjoy yourself.” This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the pole set up.

• Esther 5:1-14

That night the king could not sleep; so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him. It was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway, who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.
“What honor and recognition has Mordecai received for this?” the king asked.
“Nothing has been done for him,” his attendants answered.
The king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the palace to speak to the king about impaling Mordecai on the pole he had set up for him.
His attendants answered, “Haman is standing in the court.”
“Bring him in,” the king ordered.
When Haman entered, the king asked him, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?”
Now Haman thought to himself, “Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?” So he answered the king, “For the man the king delights to honor, have them bring a royal robe the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on its head. Then let the robe and horse be entrusted to one of the king’s most noble princes. Let them robe the man the king delights to honor, and lead him on the horse through the city streets, proclaiming before him, ‘This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!’”
“Go at once,” the king commanded Haman. “Get the robe and the horse and do just as you have suggested for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Do not neglect anything you have recommended.”
So Haman got the robe and the horse. He robed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the city streets, proclaiming before him, “This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!”
Afterward Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman rushed home, with his head covered in grief, and told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him.
His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him—you will surely come to ruin!” While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman away to the banquet Esther had prepared.

• Esther 6:1-14

So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther’s banquet, and as they were drinking wine on the second day, the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.”
Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. 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.”
King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he? Where is he—the man who has dared to do such a thing?”
Esther said, “An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!”
Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.
Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining.
The king exclaimed, “Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?”
As soon as the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, “A pole reaching to a height of fifty cubits stands by Haman’s house. He had it set up for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.”
The king said, “Impale him on it!” So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai. Then the king’s fury subsided.

• Esther 7:1-10

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Esther 4:1 ‘sackcloth and ashes’: “An outward sign of inward distress and humiliation (cf. Jer. 6:26; Dan. 9:3; Matt. 11:21). Mordecai realized that he had prompted this genocidal retaliation by Haman.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Esther 4:4 ‘she sent garments’: “Mordecai could then enter the king’s gate (cf. 4:2) and talk with Esther directly (cf. Neh. 2:2).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Esther 4:5 ‘Hathach’: “A trusted eunuch who knew of Esther’s Jewish background.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Esther 4:13-14 ‘Mordecai explains the problem.’: ”In Esther 4, we see God’s invisible hand setting events in motion. Mordecai is grieved over the king’s proclamation of a coming holocaust. His grief parallels the grieving of the Holy Spirit—God’s anguish over sin that disquiets our own human spirit. We may not be able to put a finger on it, but when sin is present, we know that something is not right between ourselves and God.
“Esther finds Mordecai in a state of grief and distress, wearing sackcloth and ashes. Not knowing why he is grieved, Esther sends him a change of clothes, hoping he will put off the sackcloth and put on some decent clothes. Often, when we see someone in distress, we try to correct the problem with a superficial change when a more radical treatment is needed.
“So Esther summons one of the royal eunuchs assigned to serve her, and sends him to Mordecai to find out why he is in such distress. The eunuch’s name is Hathach, which means ‘verily’ or ‘in truth.’ So Esther sends ‘In Truth’ out to find out the truth. Mordecai explains Haman’s plot to Hathach and gives him a copy of the proclamation calling for the extermination of the Jews. His message to Esther: Go to the king and plead for mercy for the Jews.
“When Esther receives this word, she sends back this message: The law states that any man or woman who approaches the king without being summoned will be put to death. The only exception is if the king extends the gold scepter and spares that person’s life. This law applies to everyone—including the queen. Mordecai sends back this reply …”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Esther 4:13-14 ‘The Esther fight is our fight today’: “It would be a painful thing that her countrymen should be destroyed, but still the stroke might not touch her in the seclusion of the palace. She would still remain the favored wife of the great king, and she might, therefore, selfishly look to herself and leave those who were in peril to look to themselves or to their God while she coldly hoped that the Lord would somehow or other give them deliverance. Does that temptation come across the path of any one of us? It may. Is it so, that because we are ourselves members of a flourishing church and because we enjoy all sorts of Christian privileges, we therefore harden our hearts concerning dying churches and desponding saints? Do we imagine that the body can be sick, and yet we as members of it will not suffer? If the church of God departs from the way, it will be to our injury; if the truth of God is not preached, we will be the losers; if Christian life is not vigorous, we will be weakened. Yes, God can do without us. Enlargement and deliverance will arise to his people from another place if it comes not by us. If the Lord were tied up to any one person, or any one church, or any one nation, it would be treasonable for that person, church, or nation to be negligent. But as the Lord waits for no one, it becomes them to mind what they are doing. He can do without us. But how will we bear the disgrace, it ever it comes on us, of having allowed our golden opportunities to be wasted? What if Israel had been destroyed for lack of Esther’s intercession? Her name would have been a byword among other nations as a base and traitorous woman. If the people had been spared by some other means, and she had refused her mission, as long as there lived a Jew, they would have kept no feast of Purim but would have cursed her memory. We should consider why the Lord has brought us where we are.  Do we think he has done it for our own sakes? Does he intend all this merely that we may practice self-indulgence? Can this be the design of God? Do not think so. Has he done all this merely to give us pleasure? God’s work is like a net of many meshes, and these are all connected. We are links of the same chain and cannot move without moving others. We are members of one body, and God acts toward us with that fact in view. He does not bless the hand for the hand’s sake but for the sake of the whole body.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Esther 4:16 ‘If I perish, I perish.’: ”God has an infinite number of ways to accomplish His will. If we refuse His call, that is our choice. But our failure cannot thwart His plan. If we fail Him, He will raise up someone else. But when we fail Him, we miss out on the beauty of His perfect will for our lives. We ‘suffer loss,’ as Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 3:15. Esther answered the call of God, sending this reply to Mordecai: … (4:16).
“As we have previously seen, the story of Esther becoming the queen of Persia is a symbolic picture of Christian conversion. What is the purpose of conversion? What did God have in mind for you when He saved you? Was it only that He might take you to heaven some day? No! He saved you so that you could know Him and join Him in His great plan for human history. He saved you so that you might manifest the fullness of the character of God. He brought you into His kingdom for such a time as this.”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Esther 5:2 ‘she found favor’: “This actually means that Esther first found favor with the God of Israel (cf. Prov. 21:1).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Esther 5:3 ‘Let’s have a banquet’: ”On the third day, Esther puts on her royal robes and stands in the inner courts of the king’s palace, opposite the king’s hall, anticipating with dread what will happen when she steps into the presence of the king. Here we see the true courage of the queen. Courage is not the lack of fear but the willingness to obey even when we are afraid. As Esther steps into the throne room on this third day, beautifully symbolic of the resurrected life, her radiance captivates the king’s heart.
“Amazingly, Esther doesn’t ask him for anything. Instead, she invites him to a banquet and says he should bring Haman, too. She didn’t ask for Haman’s head on a platter. She is operating on God’s logic, not human logic. In obedience to Mordecai’s orders, she bides her time. In doing so, she is able to do more than simply destroy Haman. She gives Haman the opportunity to trap himself, so that he will be exposed as the evil conniver he is.”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Esther 5:9-13 ‘Mordecai refuses to bow’: ”Then, full of pride and arrogance, he goes out to his enemy, Mordecai, at the king’s gate. When Mordecai, as usual, refuses to bow and scrape before Haman, this self-important little man is ‘filled with rage against Mordecai’ (5:9). Haman cannot stand it that Mordecai is unimpressed with his power. Here again, Mordecai symbolizes the Holy Spirit, who is not impressed by the arrogance of human flesh. Haman tells his wife and friends that he cannot be happy ‘as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate” (5:13).”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Esther 6:1 ‘a midnight reading’: ”During that night, King Xerxes is unable to sleep. So he does what many people do when they have insomnia: He decides to read to take his mind off his troubles. He orders the annals of the kingdom—the book of memorable deeds—to be brought and read to him (6:1).”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Esther 6:6-9 ‘Haman thinks he is being honored’:  ”The king learns that Haman has arrived (but he has no idea what Haman has in mind). So the king summons the man into his presence and asks him, ‘What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?’ (6:6).
“Ironically, Haman leaps to the wrong conclusion. He says to himself, ‘Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?’ So Haman replies …”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Esther 6:8 ‘royal robe … royal crest’: “An honor which involved being treated as though the recipient were the king himself (cf. 8:15). This is reminiscent of Ioseph in Egypt (Gen. 41:39-45). History affirms that horses were adorned with the royal crown.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Esther 6:10 ‘Mordecai the Jew’: “Cf. 8:7; 9:29, 31; 10:3. Why the king did not remember Haman’s edict against the Jews remains unknown.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Esther 6:10 ‘Haman unwittingly honors Mordecai’: ”Still more irony! The king thinks Haman’s suggestion is the perfect way to honor Mordecai. …”
“You can imagine Haman’s shocked expression. The king has just told him to bestow kingly honors on his hated enemy-the man he wants to kill! But what can Haman do? How can he call for Mordecai’s hanging now?”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Esther 6:12 ‘mourning’: “Deservedly, Haman has inherited Mordecai’s distress (cf. 4:1, 2). What a difference a day makes! His imagined honors had quickly turned to unimaginable humiliation. his head covered. This is an extreme sign of shame (cf. 2 Sam. 15:30; Jer. 14:3, 4).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Esther 6 ‘Reflections’: “The victorious Christian neither exalts nor downgrades himself. His interests have shifted from self to Christ. What he is or is not no longer concerns him. He believes that he has been crucified with Christ and he is not willing either to praise or deprecate such a man.
“Yet the knowledge that he has been crucified is only half the victory. ‘Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me’ (Galatians 2:20). Christ is now where the man’s ego was formerly. The man is now Christ-centered instead of self-centered, and he forgets himself in his delighted preoccupation with Christ.
“Candor compels me to acknowledge that it is a lot easier to write about this than it is to live it. Self is one of the toughest plants that grows in the garden of life. It is, in fact, indestructible by any human means. Just when we are sure it is dead it turns up somewhere as robust as ever to trouble our peace and poison the fruit of our lives.
“Yet there is deliverance. When our judicial crucifixion becomes actual, the victory is near; and when our faith rises to claim the risen life of Christ as our own, the triumph is complete. The trouble is that we do not receive the benefits of all this until something radical has happened in our own experience, something which in its psychological effects approaches actual crucifixion. What Christ went through we also must go through. Rejection, surrender, loss, a violent detachment from the world, the pain of social ostracism—all must be felt in our actual experience.”

• A.W. Tozer, Man, the Dwelling Place of God

Esther 7:2 ‘second day’: “The first day reference point included the first banquet. This refers to the second banquet on the second day (cf. 5:8). what is your request? This was the third time that the king had inquired (cf. 5:3, 6).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Esther 7:3 ‘my people’: “This plea paralleled God’s message through Moses to Pharaoh, ‘Let my people go,’ almost 1,000 years earlier (Ex. 7:16).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Esther 7:6 ‘this wicked Haman’: “Similar to Nathan’s famous accusation against King David, ‘You are the man’ (2 Sam. 12:7). Haman’s honor had quickly turned to humiliation, and then to horror.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Esther 7:8 ‘assault the queen’: “Blinded by anger, Ahasuerus interpreted Haman’s plea to be an act of violence against Esther, rather than a plea for mercy.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Esther 7:9 ‘Harbonah’: “Cf. 1:10. Look! Because the place prepared by Haman for Mordecai’s execution towered above the city, it became the obvious spot for Haman’s death. Mordecai, who spoke good. Haman heard the third capital offense charged against him. One, he manipulated the king in planning to kill the queen’s people. Two, he was perceived to accost the queen. Three, he planned to execute a man whom the king had just honored for loyalty to the kingdom.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Esther 7:10 ‘they hanged Haman’: “This was the ultimate expression of justice (cf. Ps. 9:15, 16).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

My Thoughts

When Mordecai realized what had happened, how Haman had gotten a decree to exterminate the Jews, Mordecai put on sackcloth and ashes.  All the Jews were fasting, weeping, and wailing.  In such attire, Mordecai was not allowed past the king’s gate.  Esther’s eunuch’s and attendants told Esther.  Esther sent clothing, but Mordecai refused.

Hathak, her trusted eunuch, became a messenger.  He asked Mordecai why he was mourning.  Mordecai said what the king had decreed.  Hathak relayed the message, and Esther’s reply was that she could not go before the king unless summoned.  If you approach the king without the king extending his gold scepter, you will die.  Again, the message sent through Hathak.  Mordecai then said to Hathak that Esther should not think she could escape this purge of the Jews, but some of the Jews would be saved by other means (not mentioning God’s providence, but a sign that Mordecai believed that God would intervene).  Again, the message was carried by Hathak.  Esther then sent the message back to Mordecai that Mordecai should have the Jews pray and fast for her personally for the next three days.  She would go to the king.  If she perishes, she perishes.  Esther would also be fasting and praying.

I find this fascinating.  Scholars point out that God is never mentioned in Esther, but faith, fasting, prayer, and resolute trust are seen throughout.  The concept of three days is significant.  The offer to give up one’s life to save one’s people.  There is great symbolism, not just a story about a brave young woman.  And while great courage was needed, I am reminded of the Medal of Honor recipient who said that a hero was just as scared as everyone else.  He was so scared, he ran in the wrong direction.  In this case, Esther went to the king.

Esther went as far as she dared and stood, in view of the king but not approaching him.  He was pleased with her (probably again by the work of the Holy Spirit).  He extended his gold scepter and Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.  He said he would give her half his kingdom, but all she wanted was for him to come to a banquet that she had prepared for Haman.

Haman in hearing this was in fine spirits.  He walked out to his house, but there was Mordecai, refusing to bow before him.

In much prayer regarding this refusal to bow, I was thinking that if it was a feud, Mordecai was being foolish, and in being foolish he had brought great calamity upon all the Jews.  Then, a morsel of a memory came to me.  I cannot remember who, what, or where, but I can remember someone who had ruined my life, or so it seemed at that moment.  Sadly, this type of thing happened more than once, although I was asked to do the majority of the work, so it could be a number of people. As one of my military bosses once said, if you work hard and accomplish a lot, you will make enemies. Afterward, we met in the hallway or along the sidewalk, as I said, I cannot remember the who, what, or where.  He mockingly greeted me, even laughing as he said his greeting.  I stood, stone-faced, and never returned his greeting.  He laughed all the more and walked past.  I guess when you have forgiven and forgotten, which takes a lot of time, the who, when, and where are forgotten also, but my anger and resentment and humiliation were brought to my mind so that I could understand and sympathize with what was going through Mordecai’s mind.

Haman went home, filled with rage.  Haman was an important man, rich, many sons.  Mordecai was nothing.  Haman had been given a banquet with the queen, and then all Esther asked was that she wanted another banquet the next day, but a private banquet: the king, Esther, and Haman.  Haman was important.  Zeresh, his wife, and his gathered friends, suggested that Haman build a pole and have Mordecai empaled upon it the next day.

That night, the king could not sleep.  So, he had the book of Chronicles read to him, chronicles of his reign, not the books in the Bible.  What king would not want someone to read to him about how wonderful he was, but they read the story about how Mordecai had saved his life.  Those with the king admitted that Mordecai had not been honored.  Again, we see God at work.  Esther could have asked for Haman’s head on a platter when she first touched the scepter.  She could have said what was on her mind at the first banquet, but God guided her to wait for the second banquet, after God had set other things in motion.

The next morning, before the banquet with Esther, the king summoned Haman.  The king wanted to honor someone who had pleased him greatly.  He asked Haman what that honor should be.  While Haman was his top official, again God’s hand is in this story, there would be far too many coincidences for the story to be believable without God being involved.  Haman thought he would be the honoree.  He said that royal robes should be put on the man, something that the king had worn.  The man should be placed on a horse that wore the royal crest and paraded through the city.  The king told Haman to do this for Mordecai, the Jew, who often stood outside the king’s gate.

It boggles my mind that the king never questioned why Mordecai stood there.  He obviously had no clue that his queen was a Jew, at least at this point.  Rev. MacArthur was baffled at why the king had forgotten the edict to exterminate the Jews, but I wonder if the king felt little ownership in the edict, in that it was Haman’s idea and Haman had the ring to seal the decree.  That may be the way the king backed away from a decree that his seal was applied to.  Remember from the start of this book that the king could not rescind one of his own decrees, or Vashti would have been reinstated.

Haman did as he was told and then Zeresh told her husband that he could not kill Mordecai now that Haman himself had led Mordecai through the city.  Haman was mourning that thought, but there was still the banquet with the queen.

At the banquet, the king reminded Esther that she would finally reveal what she really wanted.  Rather than seeing the providence of God in all this, Xerxes saw the queen being inscrutable.  It seems he was entertained by it.  He promises her half his kingdom again.

Esther asks that she be granted her life.  She asks that she and her people be set free from this demand that they all be killed.

The king was infuriated.  “Who did this?”

Esther replied, “This vile man, Haman.”

Now, the king put two and two together.  He erupted in rage.  But while he paced around, Haman went to Esther and fell upon her couch where she was reclining to beg for mercy.  The king sees him there and thinks Haman was molesting her.  This causes even more rage, and those with the king told him that Haman had a pole outside his house, 75 ft in the air, to empale Mordecai.

Haman was not molesting the queen, but there were probably rules of propriety, just as they had the rule of not approaching the king unless he extends the scepter.  Laying on or near the queen was probably the same thing as molesting, so the king’s next decision was justified.

The king ordered that Haman should be empaled on his own pole.

Again, the advisors of the king that were present, Hathak, the eunuch, and so many more knew Esther was a Jew and what Haman’s master plan was all along.  But, you could not approach the king unless he extended the gold scepter.  Thus, in this type of government, the one in charge might be the least informed.

But God’s hand was in each step of this story.

I like Spurgeon’s application of this story.  Spurgeon’s church was like the megachurches of today, and Spurgeon reminds the members of his church that other churches are failing, but they sit in their pews, content.  The churches today are failing, many of them, especially in the established denominations.  Some that are not failing are barely hanging on.  Is money needed?  Is attendance the problem?  No, the problem is that in many cases, God has left the building, to borrow the phrase about Elvis.

Even when God is preached from the pulpit, are there people in the congregation that listen?  If they listen do they apply the sermon to their lives?  And how many take what they have placed in their heart and spread the Gospel to those around them?

As I have written before, and borrowed from Pogo, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

Some Serendipitous Reflections

Esther 4: 1. ‘If you‘re not part of the problem or its solution, let’s not waste time talking’—How does this quote apply here? How do you feel when you are the innocent or helpless third party?
“2. Do you think Esther was either ‘innocent’ or ‘helpless’? What did Mordecai think?
“3. Can you imagine a crisis in which you would go ‘against the law,’ as Esther does, to find a solution?
“4. Have you ever fasted? How long? What for? What was the result? How do you show your readiness to do God’s will?
Esther 5:1-8 Esther’s Request to the King 1. If any request could be granted, as was done for Esther, for what would you ask? Why that?
“2. What assurances do you have that when you ask God for something, it will be granted?
Esther 5:9-14 Haman’s Rage Against Mordecai 1. Comparing yourself to Haman, how do you react when someone touches your ‘hot button’? Are you like a firecracker with a short fuse or a long fuse? Or are you a ‘dud’—lots of smoke, but no fire?
Esther 6: 1. What do Haman‘s pride and racial hatred bring him? What is the object lesson here for church leaders? For yourself?
“2. What do Mordecai’s meekness and loyalty bring him? What spiritual law do you see at work here? When not recognized for a ‘good deed,’ how do you feel? What recognition or rewards matter most to you?
“3. In your life, where do you see the ‘fickle finger of fate’ or the ‘holy hand of God’? How do you know the difference?
Esther 7: 1. If you were Esther, would you have handled the situation any differently? How so?
“2. When have you ‘stepped out in faith’ as she did? What was at stake?
“3. What ‘enemy’ threatens you and your goals or your church and its goals: Prejudice? Apathy? Politics? People like Harbona?
“4. What lesson does Haman teach you?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

There is one set of questions each for Esther 4, 6 and 7.  Esther 5 is divided into two sets of questions.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.