Esther 1-5 - Outline

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

May 31, 2013


 *NOV 11 - ESTHER 1-5 - CRISIS ANTICIPATED*


 *1. 1:12 (1, ESV) VASHTI DEPOSED. “But Queen Vashti refused to come at the
kings’ command delivered by the eunuchs. At this the king became enraged,
and his anger burned within him.” *Headship in the home is in the husband,
not the wife. However the husband is to love his wife as his own flesh, and
be willing to die for her. Husband and wife are joint-heirs of salvation,
and jointly rule the household. There is a Kingdom principle here that can
be violated in two ways. *Hallowed be your :name!*


 *2. 2:9 (2:1-11) MORDECAI PRESENTS ESTHER. “And the young woman pleased
him and won his favor. And he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and
her portion of food, and with seven chosen young women from the king’s
palace, and advanced her and her young women to the best place in the
harem.” *Here we see Your Providence, Father: Esther and Mordecai. No doubt
it was You also Father, Who inclined Hegai’s heart to Esther! May we too be
as Mordecai and Esther, and do Your will on earth as it is in heaven. *Your
:kingdom come.*


 *3. 2:17 (2:12-20) ESTHER CHOSEN. “The king loved Esther more than all the
women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins,
so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of
Vashti.” *What wisdom of Mordecai! Father, behind all our wisdom is Your
river of Life, empowering us to know and do Your purposes. This is
marvelous in our sight. Providentially we acknowledge You! *Your :will be
done, As in heaven, so on earth!*


 *4. 2:22 (2:21-22) MORDECAI SAVES AHASUERUS. “And this came to the
knowledge of Mordecai, and he told it to Queen Esther, and Esther told the
king in the name of Mordecai.” *Mordecai’s discovery of conspiracy against
the king was important for Your future purposes, Father, though certainly
not perceived by Mordecai at the time. O forgive us for not obeying You
from the heart in whatever comes to hand, even though we understand not its
future significance. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.*


 *5. 3:6 (3) HAMAN PLOTS JEWISH DESTRUCTION. “But he disdained to lay hands
on Mordecai alone. So, as they had made known to him the people of
Mordecai, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai,
throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.” *This was a terrible day of
testing and temptation. It was a Holocaust of complete proportions planned
by an enemy of the LORD. You did not spare Your people the Jews from this
trial, but You were with them in temptation’s hour Father, to deliver them.
*And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.*


 *6. 4:13-14 (4) MORDECAI CHALLENGES ESTHER. Then Mordecai told them to
reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you
will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at
this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another
place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether
you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” *Ah, here it is,
and Mordecai dimly perceives it: Your Providential working, Father! Yes,
You planned this to deliver the Jews from this evil one! *And bring us not
into temptation.*


 *7. 5:2 (5) ESTHER PLANS: HAMAN PLOTS. “And when the king saw Queen Esther
standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to
Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and
touched the tip of the scepter.” *In this Providential favor, we see Father
that Yours *is* the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever. *And
deliver us from the evil one!*


 *NOTE**: 4:15-16 (4) **THE BRAVERY OF ESTHER. Then Esther told them to
reply to Mordecai, 16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and
hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or
day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the
king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” *Father, we
bless You for this extraordinary example of Courage and Resignation!


 *Quote from Vance Havner: “We’re suffering from a believism that never has
believed and a receivism that never has received and it leads to deceivism.”
*


 *Our Psalm for the Day: 131:2 (131) I HAVE CALMED AND QUIETED MY SOUL. “But
I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.” *Trust in You Father, requires a
childlike humble spirit, and too few of us have it. But David did; and
Moses did: Paul and Jesus too! O forgive us for our haughtiness, pride and
rebellion. *Then* our lives can *hallow your :name!*


 Title: *“A Song of Degrees of David.” *It is both by David and of David:
he is the author and subject of it, and many incidents of his life may be
employed to illustrate it. Comparing all the Psalms to gems, we should
liken this to a pearl: how beautifully it will adorn the neck of patience!
It is one of the shortest Psalms to be read but one of the longest to
learn. It speaks of a young child, but it contains the experience of a man
in Christ. Lowliness and humility are here seen in connection with a
sanctified heart, a will subdued to the mind of God, and a hope looking to
God alone. Happy is the man who can without falsehood use these words as
his own; for he wears about him the likeness of his Lord, Who said, “I am
meek and lowly in heart.”


 131:1. *Lord, my heart is not haughty. *He begins with his heart, for that
is the center of our nature, and if pride be there, it defiles everything;
just as mire in the spring causes mud in all the streams. It is a grand
thing for a man to know his own heart so as to be able to speak before the
Lord about it. *Neither do I exercise myself in great matters. *As a
private man, he did not usurp the power of the king or devise plots against
him; he minded his own business and left others to mind theirs. As a
thoughtful man, he did not pry into things unrevealed; he was not
speculative, self-conceited, or opinionated. As a secular person, he did
not thrust himself into the priesthood as Saul had done before him and
Uzziah did after him. It is well so to exercise ourselves unto godliness
that we know our true sphere and diligently keep to it.


 131:2. *As a child that is weaned of his mother. * It is not every child
of God who arrives at this weanedness speedily. Some are sucklings when
they ought to be fathers; others are hard to wean, and cry, and fight, and
rage against their Heavenly Parent’s discipline. When we think ourselves
safely through the weaning, we sadly discover that the old appetites are
rather wounded than slain. and we begin crying again for the breasts which
we had given up. It is easy to begin shouting before we are out of the
wood, and no doubt hundreds have sung this Psalm long before they have
understood it. There is such a thing as wearing out the affections. Solomon
appears to have done this at one period of his life. “I have not a wish
left,” said a well-known sensualist of our own country, who had drunk as
deeply as he could drink of the world’s cup. “Were all the earth contains
spread out before me, I do not know a thing I would take the trouble of
putting out my hand to reach.” *(From “The Treasury of David” by C.H.
Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)*



 *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org*


 *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org*


 *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/attachments/20130531/27d16fab/attachment.htm>