Just a girl. A reversal of Fortune.

A Reversal of Fortune. 

Question of the Day: How do you handle being super nervous?  When was the last time or a time when you were super nervous about something?

Today we will be studying chapter 7.  This is the second banquet that Esther prepared and gave for the King and Haman. For Esther this was the big day.  Today she would state her reason for inviting the King and ask for her life. 

I can only imagine what she must have been going through.  Remember she didn't realize all that was going on behind the scenes.  She didn't see how God was working.  She was just a girl, who had just days earlier finally decided to acknowledge who she was.  Who her people were.  She had finally quit hiding and was getting ready to declare to her king who she was.  She must have been terrified!

Let's read together chapter 7.

Haman Impaled

7 So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther’s banquet, 2 and as they were drinking wine on the second day, the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.”

3 Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. 4 For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.[a]”

5 King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he? Where is he—the man who has dared to do such a thing?”

6 Esther said, “An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!”

Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. 7 The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.

8 Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining.

The king exclaimed, “Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?”

As soon as the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.9 Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, “A pole reaching to a height of fifty cubits[b] stands by Haman’s house. He had it set up for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.”

The king said, “Impale him on it!” 10 So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai. Then the king’s fury subsided.

There is a saying "Karma is a b.."

Or biblically, "The first shall be last..."

"A reversal of fortune."

Let's take a moment and look at poor Haman.

What are some of his traits, both good and bad?

How quickly did this all happen for him?

One day he is bragging about how important he is to ALL his friends and family and the next...

When Chris and I were first time young parents, we were perfect and our child was perfect! I mean it was undeniable. Another young mother and I spent an afternoon with our little babies outside enjoying a beautiful day.  I went home and told Chris how terrible that baby would spit up.  It was gross.  The mother smelled like spit up and everything they owned was covered in stains etc.  I went on and on about how they obviously didn't know how to properly burp a baby.  We held our perfect, beautiful sweet smelling baby and relished in our parenting abilities and the glorious child we had been blessed with.  

Then Sarah was born.  We spent months being covered in projectile spit up. We smelled like spit up and every Sabbath we could plan on several outfits being necessary for her to just make it through church.  (Lesson Learned... nope)

Though Sarah spit up always, she was still a gorgeous baby.  One of the families in church had a baby who was so homely.  That baby had no chin, and baby acne and it's hair was falling out in clumps.  I remember saying something to Chris about the beauty of our girls, and wondering if we were just blind parents who really had two ugly girls but we didn't know it.  We laughed and of course KNEW that wasn't right.  Our kids were gorgeous!  Then Andrew was born! With a little almost non existent chin and baby acne.  The same things that I had mocked in the other child. (privately of course, as if that makes it any better....) 

So is the lesson simply pride goes before a fall?

I'm not sure why I wrote "simply".  There is nothing simple about it. 

I KNOW personally, what happened with my children has been a life lesson I have hung onto.  The life lesson for me has been to NEVER take credit for the blessings that God gives us.  I didn't do anything to have a beautiful baby who never spit up.  That wasn't my doing, but simply a beautiful gift! Having two babies who looked like china dolls was fun, but nothing I did to get and frankly no more special than my precious chinless, acne faced son.  They are all three amazing human beings whom I have had the privilege to raise and call my kids. All gifts, all not because of me, but three beautiful gifts.  These stories humbled me.  Put me in my place, a steward of the gifts that have been entrusted with me. 

Let's take a moment and look at Esther.

What must she have been going through. 

Esther, Queen, was getting ready to declare herself to be condemned to death.  She was willing to ask for the lives of her people to be spared and in doing so risked her own.  

What do we learn about Esther in this chapter?

Think about that in relation to the fact that Esther was just a girl.  

Remember she knew very well what had happened to the other queen.  

Perhaps the most important theme in this chapter is what?

Where do we see God?

What parallels do we see in this story and the story of redemption? 

One interesting note is that here in this chapter Esther still doesn't know her fate!  The king signed an edict that is irreversible. Many commentators think, the reason he left the room when Esther told him what she did was because he didn't know what to do and he was also facing the fact that he unknowingly signed his queens death warrant.  It was also something that he couldn't reverse.

An interesting note, it was Haman pleading for his life, on the same couch as Esther, that gave the king what he needed to put him to death.  The very act of pleading for his life is what condemned him. 

Do you think Esther should have shown Haman mercy?

There are many who think it is unbecoming of her to be so hard hearted.  Shouldn't she have shown mercy and grace to Haman? 

Here we see Esther doing something that even King Saul didn't do.  Haman the Agagite only existed  because Saul had not killed everyone the way he had been told by God to do.  Because Saul wanted to keep some for himself, because of his weakness now the "cancer" was back and Esther, just a girl, was strong enough to do what Saul had not been willing to do. 

Life application questions.

1. Pride?

2. Do you have the willingness to do the hard painful work, letting go of all God is asking you to let go of.  Not hanging on to even a little bit or taking the easy way out, but letting IT go?  What "little bits" do we hang onto?  What are we unwilling to let go?  

3. Which side are you on?  Are you His? Are you a christian? A Christ follower?  

Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth and the life."  If we are willing to be a child of God, to be adopted by him, one of his kids, then we are redeemed.  Then though we are condemned to death by our sinfulness, we will be redeemed!  Of course we don't see Esther redeemed yet.... So maybe for today it is that if we will align ourselves with Christ and accept Him as our Savior then our accuser will be the one condemned!  He will surly die!