Placing Esther in the BC timeline:
605 Prisoners taken captive to Babylon
586 Jerusalem destroyed.
538 1st exiles return to Jerusalem.
515 Temple completed.
486 Ahasuerus becomes king of Persia.
479 Esther becomes queen.
465 Artaxerxes I King of Persia.
458 Ezra comes to Jerusalem.
445 Nehemiah comes to Jerusalem.
ESTHER 1
Ahasuerus (Xerxes), 5th king of Persia.
Not like Cyrus [leaders come and go, all kinds].
He was less predictable.
1:4 Proud of his riches.
1:5 Gives a banquet.
1:9 Queen Vashti also gives a banquet.
1:10-12 King wants to parade the queen at his banquet, but Vashti says “I don’t think so”.
1:13-22 The all male gathering decides that this will set a bad precedent, leading all women to disrespect their husbands.
1:22 They make a decree that “...every man should be the master in his own house...” [Gloria wasn’t around, Vashti is out].
Esther 2
They start looking for a replacement for Vashti
2:7 Mordecai is raising his uncle’s daughter Hadassah, who fits the bill “...beautiful of form and face...”
2:8-16 Esther finds favor with the keeper of the Harem, and goes through the 12 month beauty school.
Esther becomes Queen [no background check had been performed, and per Mordecai’s instructions, she kept her Jewish heritage a secret].
2:21-23 Mordecai overhears a plot against the king, essentially saving the king, and the event is recorded [good deed to have in the books].
Esther 3
3:1,2 The rise of Haman, to whom Mordecai wouldn’t bow.
3:5 Haman is filled with rage.
3:6 He plots against all Jews. Why does this happen throughout history? Is there a spiritual component?
3:8-9 He proposes annihilating them because “their laws are different” and “...it is not in the king’s interest to let them remain...”
What did he recognize? [They were a set apart people]
3:10-15 The king agrees and the wheels start turning. A day is set when this will happen - 13th day of the twelve month [Do you think it was a Friday the 13th].
Esther 4
Mordecai’s response to the news? [Humility].
Same response throughout the land [fasting weeping, wailing, sackcloth, and ashes]
4:7,8 Mordecai sends word to Esther to bring the matter before the king.
4:11 Esther says, hold on, I haven’t been summoned into his presence for a month. I can’t just waltz in or I’ll be put to death.
4:14 Mordecai’s famous words “... who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?..."
4:16 Esther asks for everyone to be praying, but resigns herself to “...if I perish, I perish...”
Will we do what needs doing regardless of consequences? [Calculating, or outcome independent]
Esther 5
Esther is received by the king
5:1-8 Invites Haman to a banquet, then scedules another.
5:9-14 Haman gloats, but is furious with Mordecai. Wife and friends talk him into building a gallows on which to hang Mordecai.
Esther 6
The king is restless that night. Why? God’s intervention?
Since he can’t sleep, he has the Chronicles brought and read to him.
He finds out that nothing had been done to honor Mordecai.
6:6-9 He consults with Haman about how to honor someone. Haman is so conceited he recommends what he thinks will be his.
6:10-12 Mordecai is honored and Haman is mortified.
6:13 “... Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, "If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish origin, you will not overcome him, but will surely fall before him..."
What did they know?
Esther 7
7:1-6 Esther exposes her identity and Haman stands accused.
7:7-10 He’s hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. [reaping what he had been sowing].
Esther 8
Esther again risks coming into the kings’ presence to ask him to rescind the decree that would destroy the Jews.
8:8-17 Mordecai, himself, dictates the new terms to the scribes. The Jews are saved.
Esther 9
Mordecai becomes great in the king’s house/
The tables are turned against the Jew enemies.
A whole bunch of people are killed.
9:20-32 The feast of Purim is instituted. 14th and 15th of 12th month. To celebrate deliverance from their enemies.
Feast of Purim became more of a national holiday than a religious feast like the feasts initiated by God at Sinai.
The four main mitzvot (obligations) of the day are:
Listening to the public reading, usually in synagogue, of the Book of Esther in the evening and again in the following morning (k'riat megillah)
Sending food gifts to friends (mishloach manot)
Giving charity to the poor (matanot la'evyonim)
Eating a festive meal (se`udah)
Esther 10
10:3 “...For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and in favor with his many kinsmen, one who sought the good of his people and one who spoke for the welfare of his whole nation...”
What was the difference between Mordecai and Haman? Serving others vs serving self.
Is this as much the story of Mordecai as it is the story of Esther? [no need to approach if it wasn’t for Mordecai’s standing against conformity]
JOB:
2000-1800 BC?
First of the poetic books.
Some think it was the first book of the Bible to be written.
Job 1
What type of man was Job?
1:1 “...There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil...”
1:2-3 10 kids, lots of stuff, “...greatest of all the men of the east...”
1:4-5 Prayed for his kids.
1:6 God has a meeting with the Sons of God, and Satan joins them.
NOTE: “Sons of God” shows up only five times in the Old Testament (Gen.6:2 and Gen.6:4 in reference to the Nephalim corruption, Job 1:6,2:1,38:7).
1:7 God asks Satan where he’s been (roaming the earth).
So Satan has the freedom to roam the earth?
Some real questions to be answered about his being cast out and his being defeated.
He was roaming the earth when Christ was incarnate.
1:8 God brags on Job.
1:9 Satan says he’s only good because he’s blessed.
1:12 God turns him loose on Job, with restrictions.
Does this mess with your preferred characterization of God?
1:13-19 Four tragedies in immediate succession.
Job’s response?
1:20 “...Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped...”
1:21 “... He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord...”
1:22 “... through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God...”
How would you have responded?
Issues like this have led many philosophers to claim that either God isn’t Great, or God isn’t Good.
Does God use the wiles of Satan to perform good.
Job 2
Another meeting in heaven.
Again God gives permission to abuse Job.
2:7 “...Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head...”
How helpful is Job’s helpmeet?
2:9 “...Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!...”
2:10 Job “...But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips...”
NOTE: Position yourself wisely when faced with something you don’t understand. Honor God!
2:11-13 His three friends come and sit with him for 7 days without saying a word.
Were they good friends? [Yes]
Job 3
Job starts lamenting, wishing he had died at birth.
3:25 "...For what I fear comes upon me, And what I dread befalls me...”
It’s pretty hard to remember all the good when the bad is crushing you.
Job 4
Eliphaz finally speaks, and starts out pretty well.
4:6 “... Is not your fear of God your confidence, And the integrity of your ways your hope?...”
But like most of us, he’s trying to understand something that is way beyond him.
4:17 “...Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?...”
How would you answer this question?
What is Satan trying to accomplish? [separation from God]
In Christ, we are pure.
Does Satan want to rob us of that?
Job 5
5:7 “...For man is born for trouble, As sparks fly upward...”
5:8 “... But as for me, I would seek God, And I would place my cause before God;...”
What do you think? Is man born for trouble?
5:17 “...Behold, how happy is the man whom God reproves, So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty...”
What do you think? True in many cases. Not true here. God isn’t disciplining.
Job 6
6:9 Job wishes God would just crush him.
He knows that God controls all.
He just doesn’t know what’s going on.
Then he compares his friends to dried up river beds - unable to quench the need.
Job 7
7:7 “...Remember that my life is but breath; My eye will not again see good...”
7:11 “... Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul...”
7:21 "...Why then do You not pardon my transgression And take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust; And You will seek me, but I will not be..."
Does Job sound discouraged?
What do people need when they’re discouraged?
Job 8
Bildad’s turn.
8:3 "...Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert what is right?...”
Sounds correct! But then he implies there is sin involved.
8:4 “...If your sons sinned against Him, Then He delivered them into the power of their transgression...”
8:6 “... If you are pure and upright, Surely now He would rouse Himself for you And restore your righteous estate...”
8:13 “... So are the paths of all who forget God; And the hope of the godless will perish,...”
8:20 “... Lo, God will not reject a man of integrity, Nor will He support the evildoers...”
Good, religious words can miss the reality of a situation.
Job 9
9:2 “... In truth I know that this is so; But how can a man be in the right before God?...”
Job understands the jargon, then goes on to declare the power and authority of God.
9:12 “... Were He to snatch away, who could restrain Him? Who could say to Him, 'What are You doing?'...”
9:32 “...For He is not a man as I am that I may answer Him, That we may go to court together...”
Job 10
10:2 Wonders about his situation “... I will say to God, 'Do not condemn me; Let me know why You contend with me...”
10:7 Claims he is not guilty before God “... According to Your knowledge I am indeed not guilty, Yet there is no deliverance from Your hand...”
10:15 Confesses that even the righteous must bow before God “... If I am wicked, woe to me! And if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head. I am sated with disgrace and conscious of my misery...”
10:18 Again laments that he was even born. “... Why then have You brought me out of the womb? Would that I had died and no eye had seen me!...”
Job 11
Zophar gets verbal.
11:7-12 Starts with a description of the limitless dimensions of God
Then gives the religious, if/then answer to life.
11:13,14 “... If you would direct your heart right And spread out your hand to Him, If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, And do not let wickedness dwell in your tents;...”
11:17,18 “... Your life would be brighter than noonday; Darkness would be like the morning. "Then you would trust, because there is hope; And you would look around and rest securely....”
Have we replaced a real relationship with religious jargon. And by relationship I mean God of Creation with created man.
Job 12
Job recognizes that the current situation has moved him to “joke” status.
His friends see him completely different than prior to the calamity, yet he knows nothing has changed within him.
12:9,10 “...Who among all these does not know That the hand of the Lord has done this, In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind?...”
Do you believe that the life of every living thing is in God’s hand? Every bird or deer that gets hit by an automobile? Every person killed by a tornado?
Can you live with not having words to explain everything to people who ask?
12:13-25 Great list of God’s power and authority. READ
Job 13
Job’s getting weary of the advice from “...worthless physicians...”
13:15 “... Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him...”
First part good advice. Second part?
He starts into a plea for God to reply to him.
Why doesn’t God answer the way we want Him to answer?
Job 14
Job speaks pretty pessimistically about death.
But does reveal some hope.
14:13,14 Talks about being in Sheol ...until my change comes.
Job 15
Eliphaz accuses Job of “windy knowledge” and “useless talk”.
Goes on to tell how “the wicked man writhes in pain all his days”.
We just can’t get past the conclusions we’ve drawn from what little we know.
Dangerous!
Job 16
Job comes right back at his “sorry comforters”, accusing them of “windy words”.
He blames God:
16:7 “... But now He has exhausted me; You have laid waste all my company...”
16:9 “... His anger has torn me and hunted me down, He has gnashed at me with His teeth; My adversary glares at me...”
Is this an accurate conclusion?
16:11 “... God hands me over to ruffians And tosses me into the hands of the wicked...”
Is this true?
The chapter ends with Job wishing he could plead his case before God.
No comments:
Post a Comment