From This Heart of Mine ...: Ladies Bible Class: Esther ... Introduction

I’ve wanted to do an online ladies Bible class for quite some time and recently things have started to fall into place to make me think the time was right. For the time being we will use this blog as the platform and maybe add in some videos at a later date. We’ll see what kind of response we get.

If you like what you see in this first lesson, please share, share, share it with other ladies you know. My goal is to post a new lesson here on Thursday each week. We’ll call it our Ladies Bible Class.’ Of course, you can pop in at your convenience, follow along and leave a comment as you are able.

Also, please join me in prayer for this class. Please pray that it will be a tool that God can use to further His Kingdom and that He will give me wisdom, guidance and discernment in my efforts to teach and write the lessons each week. Thank you in advance.

We’re going to unpack the book of Esther verse by verse and squeeze as much out of it as we can. We’re not going to rush through it, it will be a time of digging deep and learning as much as we can. I hope you’ll join me.

By way of introduction to the book of Esther, let me ask you this question … did you realize that God is not mentioned anywhere in the book, not once. One has to wonder what can be learned from a book in the Bible where God nor the name of God is ever mentioned? Let’s find out …

The main characters are:

The Jewish people as a whole

A young girl named Esther … approximately 15 years old

A cousin named Mordecai

A queen named Vashti

Haman, a Persian Official

A proud and impulsive king named Ahasuerus … approximately 37-40 years old

God had the book written, but who penned it is unknown. It stands to reason though that it must have been an eyewitness to the events as well as someone who had personal contact with all the characters.

Before we delve into chapter 1, let’s look at what history tells us about King Ahasuerus as it is going to set the stage for understanding several things that happened.

From the book, The Histories by Herodotus we learn the following about King Ahasuerus and his personality:

He was a mighty king in charge of a huge, rich, wealthy empire. He was known to be arrogant, ruthless, and impetuous. One never knew whether their request was going to be met with kindness or with immediate anger and rage.

For example: King Ahasuerus had a huge and mighty navy in addition to his army and had instructed his sailors to build a bridge out over it. A storm came up and destroyed the bridge. It made King Ahasuerus so angry that he ordered the anchors to be thrown over the sides and used as whips to punish the ocean.

Another example: A man named Pythias had 5 sons and they all served in King Ahasuerus’ army. Pythias was a very rich man and had given lots of money to the King. Pythias was getting on up in age and sent a letter to King Ahasuerus asking that his oldest son be allowed to come home and be with him in his last days. When King Ahasuerus read the letter, it made him so angry that he sent for the son, cut him in half and made his army march between both sides of the dead body.

King Ahasuerus was an unpredictable man with a violent temper! We’ll delve more into the kind of man he was next week along with additional information about his wealth and empire as we jump into chapter 1.

In the meantime, let’s think about the kind of man 15 - 18-year-old Esther was going to have to deal with and what was at stake if she failed. This couldn’t have been easy in any way … where was God in all of this?

(I think I'll go ahead and tell you ... He was right there, working behind the scenes. As we study this book, I challenge each of us to look for things that tell us God was working behind the scenes throughout the book. In fact, as part of the study, we're going to make a list adding to it as we go along.)

Have you ever wondered where God was as you went through really hard and sometimes scary things? I think the book of Esther is going to show us exactly where He was then and where He is now when we’re faced with doing hard things.

I hope you’ll join me back here next Thursday for ‘Ladies Bible Class.’ We’re going to be making notes in our Bibles as well so make sure you have your pen ready along with a means of starting that list of ways God was working behind the scenes.

Don't forget to tell other ladies about Thursday's Ladies Bible Class!

Until the next class ...

patsy @ From This Heart Of Mine