Business Not as Usual: Courageous Esther Text: Esther 4:9–5:2

Care and Bridging Pastor Dan Slagle

1. What’s a particularly difficult decision you have had to make? Perhaps a time when you felt stuck between a rock and a hard place? Or a time when you had to choose what was right over what was easy? Describe that experience with your group.

2. Esther found herself in a palace, placed there according to the sovereign will of God. Where has God placed you? Consider the roles and relationships you have in your life. Who has the Lord given you influence with or over? (This is probably a much larger list than you immediately think.)

3. Read Esther 4:14. Consider the first claim that Mordecai makes: “For if you remain silent at

this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place” (Esther 4:14)

a. How could Mordecai make such a claim? (For example, see 2 Samuel 7:12-16 and see study deeper.)

b. Do you have any favorite promises of God? Please share those with the group the verse(s) and why it is meaningful to you.

4. Consider Mordecai’s second assertion: “And who knows but that you have come to your

royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)

a. How do you see God’s sovereignty and human responsibility working together in this passage?

b. Why do you think that God gives us a choice? Why doesn't he just make decisions simple and straight forward?

c. Do you see participating in God’s activities as more of an opportunity or an obligation? Why?

5. Esther arrives at a posture of dying to herself and makes a bold statement of surrender in

Esther 4:16, “And if I perish, I perish.”

a. What does it mean to “die to self”? Where else in Scripture do we see “dying to self” embodied by people or lifted as an example?

b. What is it that empowered Esther to make the hard choice? c. How can we find the courage to make the right (rather than easy) choice?

Challenge: In this week’s study we’ve explored Esther’s courageous example of making the hard and right decision. While we all desire to be like Esther, we’ve all found ourselves on the other side of making the easy and wrong decision. What do you do when your last choice was the wrong choice? To what degree are you allowing these decisions to have the final word in your life? If your group is comfortable with it, break into gender specific groups and have a time of confession with one another. As you do, gracefully receive one another’s confession, extend God's forgiveness to one another and exhorting each other to walk in holiness and obedience.

STUDY DEEPER Many people see life as a series of relationships and events randomly strung together by circumstances. But God’s Word clearly shows that our lives have a purpose and we are part of HIS greater plan. Have you ever considered that God’s plan and purposes are made know through the progression of the Bible? In the book, According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible, Graeme Goldsworthy charts the path we see God take through redemptive history. Here’s the breakdown that Goldsworthy provides his readers: Creation by Word Genesis 1 and 2 The Fall Genesis 3 First Revelation of Redemption Genesis 4–11 Abraham Our Father Genesis 12–50 Exodus: Our Pattern of Redemption Exodus 1–15 New Life: Gift and Task Exodus 16–40; Leviticus The Temptation in the Wilderness Numbers; Deuteronomy Into the Good Land Joshua; Judges; Ruth God’s Rule in God’s Land 1 and 2 Samuel; 1 Kings 1–10; 1

Chronicles; 2 Chronicles 1–9 The Fading Shadow 1 Kings 11–22; 2 Kings There Is a New Creation Jeremiah; Ezekiel; Daniel; Esther The Second Exodus Ezra; Nehemiah; Haggai The New Creation for Us Matthew; Mark; Luke; John The New Creation in Us Initiated Acts The New Creation in Us Now New Testament Epistles The New Creation Consummated The New Testament Interested in learning more? Read the book According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible or check out Justin Taylor’s summary at https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/justintaylor/2009/12/31/goldsworthy-chapters/.