ESTHER: God Fulfills a Promise

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1 Fellowship Bible Church ~~Women in the Word~~ ESTHER: God Fulfills a Promise March 18, 2014 Blowing the Trumpet in Zion Esther 4:1-5:8 INTRO 2 Chron 22:10-11 (NLT) 10 When Athaliah, the mother of King Ahaziah of Judah, learned that her son was dead, she began to destroy the rest of Judah s royal family. 11 But Ahaziah s sister Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram, took Ahaziah s infant son, Joash, and stole him away from among the rest of the king s children, who were about to be killed. She put Joash and his nurse in a bedroom. In this way, Jehosheba, wife of Jehoiada the priest and sister of Ahaziah, hid the child so that Athaliah could not murder him. Gal 4:4-5 (NLT) 4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. MORDECAI'S REACTION to the DECREE 1 When Mordecai learned all that had happened, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city. He cried out with a loud and bitter cry. 2 He went as far as the front of the king's gate, for no one might enter the king's gate clothed with sackcloth...."for no one might enter the king's gate clothed with sackcloth." Neh 2:1-2 (NLT) Early the following spring, in the month of Nisan, during the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes reign, I was serving the king his wine. I had never before appeared sad in his presence. 2 So the king asked me, Why are you looking so sad? You don t look sick to me. You must be deeply troubled. Then I was terrified, 3 And in every province where the king's command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. "...with fasting, weeping and wailing" 1

2 Joel 2:12-15 (NKJV) 12 "Now, therefore," says the Lord, "Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning." 13 So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm. 14 Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him--...? 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; 4 So Esther's maids and eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was deeply distressed. Then she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and take his sackcloth away from him, but he would not accept them. (Rom 12:15) 5 Then Esther called Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and she gave him a command concerning Mordecai, to learn what and why this was. 6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the king's gate. Hathach-(hay-thack)- 7 And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries to destroy the Jews. 8 He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction, which was given at Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and that he might command her to go in to the king to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people. 9 So Hathach returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai. 10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a command for Mordecai: 11 "All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days." "Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days" 2 Cor 1:8-9 (NLT) We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. 9 In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. 12 So they told Mordecai Esther's words. 13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: "Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"..."do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish." Was Mordecai threatening Esther or was he warning her? 2

3 "...relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place"......who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Application: Can you think of a negative, seeming unavoidable "happening" in your life that positioned you for a greater good, like Esther? OUT of the FRYING PAN and into the FIRE 15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: 16 "Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!" 17 So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded him. Esth 4:1-17 (NKJV) "...fast for me"... "My maids and I will fast likewise" Heb 10:24-25 (NLT) Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near...."if I perish, I perish!" Dying to self - what does it look like in day to day life? 3

4 Esther 5 1 Now it happened on the third day that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace, across from the king's house, while the king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, facing the entrance of the house. 2 So it was, when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court that she found favor in his sight, and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther went near and touched the top of the scepter. 3 And the king said to her, "What do you wish, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given to you--up to half the kingdom!" 4 So Esther answered, "If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him." 5 Then the king said, "Bring Haman quickly, that he may do as Esther has said." So the king and Haman went to the banquet that Esther had prepared. 6 At the banquet of wine the king said to Esther, "What is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!" 7 Then Esther answered and said, "My petition and request is this: 8 If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, then let the king and Haman come to the banquet which I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said." Esth 5:1-8 (NKJV) Prov 16:9 (NLT) We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps. Jer 10:23 (NLT)I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course. James 1:5-6 (NLT) 5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Psalms 66:10-12 (NLT) 10 You have tested us, O God; you have purified us like silver. 11 You captured us in your net and laid the burden of slavery on our backs. 12 Then you put a leader over us. We went through fire and flood, but you brought us to a place of great abundance. 4

5 DYING to SELF When you are forgotten, neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you don t sting or hurt with the oversight, but your heart is happy being counted worthy to suffer for Christ; When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinion ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient, loving silence; When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any annoyance; when you can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility, and endure it as Jesus did; When you are content with any food, any offering, any raiment, any climate, any society, any solitude, any interruption by the will of God; When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation or record your own good works or itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown; When you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met, and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy, nor question God, while your own needs are far greater and you are in desperate circumstances; When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit, inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart; ~Anonymous NEXT WEEK: Session 5 The Tables Turn 5