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Esther-Lesson Eight - Day 6

Thomas Klock

DAY SIX: Living in Such a Time as This

1.  Our motive for our behavior and actions makes all the difference in God’s eyes.  If we try to manipulate others into doing something we want, or are conniving in how we deal with other people, it may accomplish some results, but they will be tainted results.  Yet if we serve, act, and behave out of a heart of compassion, we will be willing to take risks to see others helped, and see God’s plans accomplished.  Do you see yourself as more of a conniver, or does compassion guide the way you relate to others?  Are you entrusting your interpersonal relationships to God and letting His Spirit guide you in them, or are you relying on human trickery or worldly wiles to get your way done?  How can you better act in the power of God’s Spirit and treat others with compassion and out of self-denial, not manipulation?

 

2.  We often let opportunities to serve God and others slip by rather than by taking specific actions to do so.  Esther had one chance with the king; she and Mordecai also wouldn’t let this one opportunity to save the people slip past them.  We too should seek to do all we can to use the opportunities He gives us.  As Derek Prime well said, “Today is a day never to be repeated. Let us live it for God!”[xiv]  How will you make renewed efforts to do so, starting today?

 

3.  Perhaps you are going through a dark period of your life.  So did the Jewish people.  All that they knew was taken away from them.  They were transported to a land they didn’t know under wicked rulers.  Consider what they said of their captivity in Psalm 137:

 

By the rivers of Babylon,

There we sat down, yea, we wept

When we remembered Zion.

We hung our harps

Upon the willows in the midst of it.

For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song,

And those who plundered us requested mirth,

Saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

 

How shall we sing the LORD's song

In a foreign land?

If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

Let my right hand forget its skill! 

If I do not remember you,

Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth —

If I do not exalt Jerusalem

Above my chief joy.

 

Remember, O LORD, against the sons of Edom

The day of Jerusalem,

Who said, "Raze it, raze it,

To its very foundation!"

 

O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed,

Happy the one who repays you as you have served us!

Happy the one who takes and dashes

Your little ones against the rock! (Psalm 137:1—9, nkjv)

 

Wow, talk about depressing!  Yet they seemed to have held to a little glimmer of hope in remembering what God had done for them in the past.  We saw that in God’s perfect timing, He worked to deliver them, and under Esther and Mordecai they were returned to a place of joy, light, gladness, and feasting once again.

 

We today can have peace and joy in the midst of the darkness of our days.  We don’t have to wait for it; it is ours, a part of the fruit of the Spirit.  As our memory verse states, it is sown into our lives!  How can you find renewed joy in trusting in the Lord and His Word in the midst of your situation?  Are you letting Him reign in you despite the circumstances you may be in?  How can your group support and pray for you to walk in His light in the midst of darkness?

 

Scripture Memory:  Hopefully you now can write out this week’s passage completely by memory.  Do so now, and keep on reviewing it so you will be ready to share it with others in your group time.


Psalm 97:11, 12:



[i] Warren Baker and Eugene Carpenter eds., The Complete Word Study Dictionary Old Testament (Chattanooga:  AMG Publishers, 2003), pp. 970, 971.

[ii] Mervin Breneman, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.  In E. Ray Clendenen ed., The New American Commentary Vol. 10 (Nashville:  Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1993), p. 352.

[iii] Spiros Zodhiates ed., The Complete Word Study Old Testament (Chattanooga:  AMG Publishers, 1999), p. 2316, 2320, 2328.

[iv] Mervin Breneman, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, p. 354.

[v] Jeff Lasseigne, Highway 66:  A Unique Journey through the 66 Books of the Bible (Santa Ana:  Calvary Chapel Publishing, 2004), p. 50.

[vi] Warren W. Wiersbe, With the Word Bible Commentary (Nashville:  Thomas Nelson, Publishers, 1993), p. 632. 

[vii] Joyce G. Baldwin, Esther (Downer’s Grove:  InterVarsity Press, 1984), p. 97, 98.

[viii] John MacArthur ed., The MacArthur Study Bible (Nashville:  Word Bibles, 1997), p. 691.

[ix] Warren Baker and Eugene Carpenter ed., The Complete Word Study Dictionary Old Testament, pp. 940, 1100). 

[x] F. B. Huey Jr., Esther.  In F.E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Vol. 4 (Grand Rapids:  Regency Reference Library, 1988), p. 832. 

[xi] Derek Prime, Unspoken Lessons about the Unseen God (Darlington, England:  Evangelical Press, 2001), p. 119.

[xii] Spiros Zodhiates ed., The Complete Word Study Old Testament, p. 2354.

[xiii] Mervin Breneman, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, p. 356.

[xiv] Derek Prime, Unspoken Lessons about the Unseen God, p. 116.


© 2005 by Harvest Christian Fellowship. All rights reserved. Written by Thomas Klock for Men’s Bible Fellowship, 2004-2005. www.Harvest.org