The Book of Esther

Esther 

Week 3- Poles and Pride

Quick review: 

Week 1- Chapters 1-2 Old Queen out and women oppressed. Esther made Queen and Finds Favor

Week 2- Chapters 3-4 Haman hates Mordecai and the Jews. The king lets Haman set a date to destroy Mordecai and the Jews. Esther is asked by Mordecai to help and Esther agrees to try and help. 

Esther 5:1-4 (NLT)

1On the third day of the fast, Esther put on her royal robes and entered the inner court of the palace, just across from the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne, facing the entrance. 2 When he saw Queen Esther standing there in the inner court, he welcomed her and held out the gold scepter to her. So Esther approached and touched the end of the scepter. 3 Then the king asked her, “What do you want, Queen Esther? What is your request? I will give it to you, even if it is half the kingdom! 4 And Esther replied, “If it please the king, let the king and Haman come today to a banquet I have prepared for the king.”

Esther 5:7-10

7 Esther replied, “This is my request and deepest wish. 8 If I have found favor with the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my request and do what I ask, please come with Haman tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for you. Then I will explain what this is all about.”9 Haman was a happy man as he left the banquet! But when he saw Mordecai sitting at the palace gate, not standing up or trembling nervously before him, Haman became furious. 10 However, he restrained himself and went on home.

Esther 5:12-14

12 Then Haman added, “And that’s not all! Queen Esther invited only me and the king himself to the banquet she prepared for us. And she has invited me to dine with her and the king again tomorrow!” 13 Then he added, “But this is all worth nothing as long as I see Mordecai the Jew just sitting there at the palace gate.”14 So Haman’s wife, Zeresh, and all his friends suggested, “Set up a sharpened pole that stands seventy-five feet tall, and in the morning ask the king to impale Mordecai on it. When this is done, you can go on your merry way to the banquet with the king.” This pleased Haman, and he ordered the pole set up.

Esther 6-7 

Mordecai VS Haman

Esther 6:10

10 “Excellent!” the king said to Haman. “Quick! Take the robes and my horse, and do just as you have said for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the gate of the palace. Leave out nothing you have suggested!”

Esther 7:10

10 So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai, and the king’s anger subsided.

The pitfall of Pride

Proverbs 16:18

Pride goes before destruction,

    and haughtiness before a fall.

Proverbs 26:27

If you set a trap for others,

    you will get caught in it yourself.

If you roll a boulder down on others,

    it will crush you instead.

Psalms 7:14-16

14 The wicked conceive evil;

    they are pregnant with trouble

    and give birth to lies.

15 They dig a deep pit to trap others,

    then fall into it themselves.

16 The trouble they make for others backfires on them.

    The violence they plan falls on their own heads.

The difference between pride and faith

Pride places faith in the wrong place

Faith places God in His proper place

A few ways to help remove pride:

• Celebrate other success 
• Forgive before Justice
• Pray for someone you don’t like 

A few ways to increase faith 

• Believe in God’s plans more than my own 
• Read God’s Word Everyday (5 mins a day) 
• Pray intentional words of growth and faith

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen

Peace Prayer 

by 

Saint Francis