God cares for His people. He answers their prayers (I John 5:14-15).<\/p>\n
We also learn that God keeps His word, though He may wait for a suitable time to accomplish His promises. God stated that the Amalekites would be destroyed for their attack on Israel\u2019s weak (Exodus 17:14-16; Numbers 24:20; Deuteronomy 25:17-19). Saul was supposed to have wiped them out, but he didn\u2019t do all that God commanded (I Samuel 15:2-3). In Esther we find a survivor of Amalek, a descendent of its kings, attacking the Jews but he and his sons are all killed, along with any who supported him.<\/p>\n
God doesn\u2019t always act in an obvious or miraculous way, yet He still acts. We refer to God\u2019s providence, which is His foresight, His care, and His provisions. God plans out events far in advance (Isaiah 46:9-11). The number of \u201cjust happens\u201d in this story is too great to see any other explanation than that God planned and intervene on behalf of His people. In God\u2019s actions, everything seems \u201cnatural,\u201d but people knew that it was God behind it all. The lack of God being mentioned in a story that so clearly shows God\u2019s involvement emphasizes that works are not always seen by men (Job 26:14; Romans 11:33).<\/p>\nGod doesn\u2019t tell us everything He does (Job 33:13). Those involved in God\u2019s plans are not certain as to exactly how God plans for these events to take place. Mordecai is confident that the Jews would survive because of God\u2019s unfulfilled promises, but he is not certain if Esther is a part of that plan or not (Esther 4:14). Neither Mordecai nor Esther needed to know what God\u2019s plans were. They did the best they knew how and left the rest in God\u2019s hands. God does the same for us (Hebrews 13:5-6).
\nWe also see God\u2019s humor. He has Haman plan and execute the honoring of Mordecai. He hangs Haman on the very gallows he had planned to use against Mordecai. The feast is named after Haman\u2019s superstitious beliefs!\n
God often turns things around, such as with Joseph (Genesis 50:20) or Moab hiring Balaam (Nehemiah 13:2). There is so little we can control in our lives, but Esther reminds us of who is in control and that we can depend on Him to turn things into good (Romans 8:28).<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA Study of Esther\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What We Learn from Esther God cares for His people. He answers their prayers (I John 5:14-15). We also learn that God keeps His word, though He may wait for a suitable time to accomplish His promises. God stated that the Amalekites would be destroyed for their attack on Israel\u2019s weak (Exodus 17:14-16; Numbers 24:20;…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":20799,"menu_order":10,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-22262","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22506,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/survey-of-the-bible\/survey-of-the-bible-esther\/","url_meta":{"origin":22262,"position":0},"title":"Survey of the Bible – Esther","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Survey of the Bible - Esther Text: Esther 4 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Esther\u2019s story takes place between the first return from captivity, led by Zerubbabel, and the second return lead by Ezra. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It would fall between the 6 and 7 chapters of Ezra. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The author is unknown. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Not the same style as\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21561,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/a-study-of-esther\/convincing-esther-to-intervene\/","url_meta":{"origin":22262,"position":1},"title":"Convincing Esther to Intervene","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Convincing Esther to Intervene Text: Esther 4 Understanding What You Read Why didn\u2019t Mordecai go directly to Esther or the king about Haman\u2019s decree? 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