Cornerstone Class Outline for 4/14/19
·
Announcements,
praises and prayer requests—Dawn Eden
·
Introduction:
o
Good morning!
o
Is there anybody
here that lives in a flooded area? Did your home get damaged?
o
No Cornerstone
class next week, Easter Sunday
 |
| Purchase Mornings with Larry at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HNQKB1L |
o
[Hand out Esther
overview sheets to those who didn’t get one last week.]
·
Quick review.
Last week we covered:
o
How King Xerxes
decreed that Queen Vashti would be permanently banished from the king’s
presence
o
And that “her
royal position” would be given to another young woman.
§ This set the stage for Esther to become queen
o
Xerxes also
decreed that all women in the empire must respect their husbands and submit to their
rule.
·
Let’s read Esther
2:1-4 NIV:
1 Later when King Xerxes’ fury had subsided, he
remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her. 2
Then the king’s personal attendants proposed, “Let a search be made for
beautiful young virgins for the king. 3 Let the king appoint commissioners in
every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful young women into the
harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the
king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let beauty treatments be
given to them. 4 Then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead
of Vashti.” This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it.
o
A little
historical context:
§ About 4 years had passed between Vashti’s banishment
and the search for a new queen. (v. 16)
§ In this in-between time, the Persian empire had suffered
a significant defeat in its war with Greece (Herodotus, from Karen Jobes)
§ Xerxes had lost credit in the eyes of his subjects
§ So he may have been depressed when the search for a
new queen began
·
QUESTIONS verses
1-4:
o
If you haven’t
noticed, the author/narrator avoids giving his opinion and avoids making moral
judgments. He just gives us the story objectively. The narration and even
character quotes are a bit ambiguous. For
example, what do you think is meant in verse 4 when the attendant says, “Then
let the young woman who pleases the
king be queen instead of Vashti.”?
§ “…pleases the king” may have meant passing the bedroom test
§ Could have simply been a beauty contest,
where the king chooses the best looking woman, without testing her in the
bedroom.
§ However, the author chooses not to spell it out. We
can only speculate.
·
Let’s read Esther
2:5-11 NIV:
5 Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the
tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of
Kish, 6 who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jehoiachin king of Judah. 7 Mordecai
had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither
father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely
figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her
father and mother died.
8 When the king’s order and edict had been proclaimed,
many young women were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of
Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who
had charge of the harem. 9 She pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he
provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her
seven female attendants selected from the king’s palace and moved her and her
attendants into the best place in the harem.
10 Esther had not revealed her nationality and family
background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. 11 Every day he walked
back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and
what was happening to her.
·
QUESTIONS on
verses 5-11
o
Do you think Mordecai compromised his faith by
allowing Esther to become a member of the king’s harem, making her a play toy
of the king?
§ Mordecai likely had no choice. Esther was likely
“taken to the king’s palace” by threat of force. (v. 8)
o
Why do you think Mordecai forbade Esther to reveal
“her nationality and family background”?
§ Anti-Semitism was prevalent throughout the empire.
(Esther 9:1, 2, 5). To be open about their nationality would open themselves to
persecution.
§ It is likely that both Mordecai and Esther had
assimilated the Persian culture, making it easier to hide their Jewish
identity.
§ Mordecai knew that if Xerxes discovered that Esther
was a Jew, he probably wouldn’t make her queen.
· A downside to
that is that Xerxes would likely have kept her in his harem because of her
beauty. Esther would have been his toy to use as he wished, without the
privileges of royalty.
o
In the United
States, Christians generally don’t suffer from life-threatening persecution.
However, we experience other forms of discrimination and persecution. Have you ever felt that you needed to hide your Christian identity to avoid
discrimination or persecution?
·
Application/Conclusion
·
Closing prayer
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