Esther - Lesson Four - Day 1
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Lesson Four-For Such a Time as This
Last Week in Review
Esther 3 brought us to the central crisis of this book. We saw that Haman, the second in command of the
So we come to Esther 4, in which the crisis begins to reach its peak. Being Jewish, Esther was in just as much danger as her people, although she was now the queen. She and Mordecai will discover in this chapter the hand of God’s sovereignty at work in arranging all of these things, and they would have vital decisions to make that would effect the survival of Judaism and the people of
DAY ONE: Mourning and Sackcloth
Please carefully read Esther 4:1-4 and answer the following questions.
1. Jews throughout the
2. This was no light mourning or sadness. When Mordecai “cried out with a loud and bitter cry,” literally he shrieked out in a bitter, sad, wild display of heart-crushing grief; it was like a distress signal, a cry for help.[i] The Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, which needlessly attempted to bring God more directly into Esther, adds to verse 1 that Mordecai wailed, “An innocent people is being condemned to death.”[ii]
No doubt Mordecai’s next thought was about his beloved cousin Esther. What prevented him from having access to her (v. 2)?
4. Probably one of Esther’s servants saw Mordecai in such a state, and reported it to her. What was Esther’s reaction to this (v. 4)?
Our Western culture has wrongly minimized and squelched the display of emotions. Even in times of grief we feel pressured to just “pull ourselves together,” and “get over it.” This was not so in the Jewish culture, nor elsewhere in the Eastern world, as we have seen in video of peoples’ graphic mourning of the tragic disasters in
Matthew 11:28-30
1 Peter 5:6, 7
Scripture Memory: This week we will be memorizing Esther 4:14. Review the passage several times throughout the day each day this week, and by the end of the week, you should have it memorized completely
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? Esther 4:14, nkjv
Click here for Day 2
© 2005 by Harvest Christian Fellowship. All rights reserved. Written by Thomas Klock for Men’s Bible Fellowship, 2004-2005. www.Harvest.org