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“Women of the Bible: Esther”
Some of my favorite movies have to do with courage. I love watching Braveheart and The Patriot, both starring Mel Gibson. My favorite Disney movie is Moana because we see tremendous courage by the young character.
I love stories about courage. We must understand this reality about courage: courage does not mean that someone is without fear. Courage is when we do what needs to be done in the face of fear.
Today, we’re continuing our series called, “The Women of the Bible.” This week we’re going to learn about a woman of courage: Esther.
Let’s pray together before we go any further. Let’s ask God to speak to us as we learn about Esther.
(prayer)
Ok, as we learn about Esther, let’s learn a little background information first.
Esther was a young Jewish woman. Her people, the Jews had gone through a lot.
God had promised to make the Jewish people into a great nation, and He did. He delivered them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. However, the people of Israel (the Jewish people) were continually judged for their sin against God.
First, we see that the kingdom was divided, as they split into the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom: Israel and Judah.
Then, the northern kingdom (Israel) was conquered by the Assyrian empire.
After that, the southern kingdom (Judah), was conquered by the Babylonians and taken into exile.
Finally, the Persian empire took over and ruled over the remnants of God’s people.
However, God is continually full of grace, so He made it possible for the Jewish people to resettle in their land. During this time, some remained in the land ruled by the Persians, including those who are part of the story in the book of Esther.
That brings us to where we are today in this story.
So, that gives you a background, but let me tell you the story of Esther.
The book of Esther starts off by describing an encounter with the king of Persia, King Ahasuerus (also known as King Xerxes), who makes a demand of his queen, Queen Vashti. Queen Vashti decided that no man was going to tell her what to do, even if he was the king. Well, the king didn’t say “off with her head,” but he did say, “You can no longer be queen.” So, the king looked for a new queen. The way he did this was to bring in all the beautiful young women in the land, including a young Jewish woman named Esther.
Esther had an older cousin named Mordecai who gave her advice and took care of her as his own child.
Esther was wise and listened to the advice of others, and she earned the favor of the king, and she became the new queen of Persia.
Well, there was a bad guy who was part of the story named Haman. Haman was an angry man, and he hated the Jewish people, particularly Mordecai.
Haman was not only an angry man, he was an influential man who even had influence with the king. So, Haman came up with a plan to exterminate all of the Jewish people from Persia, starting with Mordecai.
Mordecai found out about Haman’s plan and warned Esther that not only would Haman kill the Jewish people, Esther herself might be killed if Haman’s plan succeeded.
So, Esther followed Mordecai’s advice, and she was used by God to spare the Jewish people.
There’s so much more to the story, but it’s ten chapters, so I’m not going to share it all this morning. If you haven’t read it in a while, take some time to do so this afternoon or this week.
So, let’s see what we can learn about Esther the person, and how we can be moved by this story from the Word of God.
First, we must realize that . . .
I. Esther did not choose her circumstances.
To begin with, Esther and her people did not choose to be captives under the rule of the Persians. No one chooses to be c
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By First Baptist Church Bartow
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Some of my favorite movies have to do with courage. I love watching Braveheart and The Patriot, both starring Mel Gibson. My favorite Disney movie is Moana because we see tremendous courage by the young character.
I love stories about courage. We must understand this reality about courage: courage does not mean that someone is without fear. Courage is when we do what needs to be done in the face of fear.
Today, we’re continuing our series called, “The Women of the Bible.” This week we’re going to learn about a woman of courage: Esther.
Let’s pray together before we go any further. Let’s ask God to speak to us as we learn about Esther.
(prayer)
Ok, as we learn about Esther, let’s learn a little background information first.
Esther was a young Jewish woman. Her people, the Jews had gone through a lot.
God had promised to make the Jewish people into a great nation, and He did. He delivered them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. However, the people of Israel (the Jewish people) were continually judged for their sin against God.
First, we see that the kingdom was divided, as they split into the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom: Israel and Judah.
Then, the northern kingdom (Israel) was conquered by the Assyrian empire.
After that, the southern kingdom (Judah), was conquered by the Babylonians and taken into exile.
Finally, the Persian empire took over and ruled over the remnants of God’s people.
However, God is continually full of grace, so He made it possible for the Jewish people to resettle in their land. During this time, some remained in the land ruled by the Persians, including those who are part of the story in the book of Esther.
That brings us to where we are today in this story.
So, that gives you a background, but let me tell you the story of Esther.
The book of Esther starts off by describing an encounter with the king of Persia, King Ahasuerus (also known as King Xerxes), who makes a demand of his queen, Queen Vashti. Queen Vashti decided that no man was going to tell her what to do, even if he was the king. Well, the king didn’t say “off with her head,” but he did say, “You can no longer be queen.” So, the king looked for a new queen. The way he did this was to bring in all the beautiful young women in the land, including a young Jewish woman named Esther.
Esther had an older cousin named Mordecai who gave her advice and took care of her as his own child.
Esther was wise and listened to the advice of others, and she earned the favor of the king, and she became the new queen of Persia.
Well, there was a bad guy who was part of the story named Haman. Haman was an angry man, and he hated the Jewish people, particularly Mordecai.
Haman was not only an angry man, he was an influential man who even had influence with the king. So, Haman came up with a plan to exterminate all of the Jewish people from Persia, starting with Mordecai.
Mordecai found out about Haman’s plan and warned Esther that not only would Haman kill the Jewish people, Esther herself might be killed if Haman’s plan succeeded.
So, Esther followed Mordecai’s advice, and she was used by God to spare the Jewish people.
There’s so much more to the story, but it’s ten chapters, so I’m not going to share it all this morning. If you haven’t read it in a while, take some time to do so this afternoon or this week.
So, let’s see what we can learn about Esther the person, and how we can be moved by this story from the Word of God.
First, we must realize that . . .
I. Esther did not choose her circumstances.
To begin with, Esther and her people did not choose to be captives under the rule of the Persians. No one chooses to be c