Breakfast With Esther
WEEK 5: The Grand Finale

(download PDF half page or full page format)

©2005 Sandra Glahn

Week 4

Shuffle the Deck - get your creative juices flowing
Deal the Cards - get to know Esther
- Group Option - discussion questions for groups
Play Your Hand - express yourself

"How to do SoulPerSuit"

"How to Lead a Group SoulPerSuit"

"Shuffle the Deck for Groups"

ESTHER
WEEK 1 - ½ or full page
WEEK 2 - ½ or full page
WEEK 3 - ½ or full page
WEEK 4 - ½ or full page
WEEK 5 - ½ or full page

WEEK 5 (top)

Shuffle the Deck

1. My Anthology
Imagine you are standing in your velvet smoking jacket and slippers, pipe in hand, in your Victorian library. A chilly rain drizzles down the cut glass windows as a crackling fire beckons you to sit and while away the evening. The scent of your mug of cocoa, the polished leather of the overstuffed armchair and the mustiness of books and bindings attracts your fingers to your old favorite.

“On a night like this, there’s nothing better than a mug of cocoa and a copy of _______.”

Use the book spines below to list several of your favorite movies, CDs and books. What represents you and your interests? What can you not live without?

2. If you were free to establish a new national holiday when would it be, what would it celebrate or memorialize, and why?

3. Follow the following link to hear a half hour dramatic presentation of the story of Esther.

Operation Purim
An Audio Drama for the Feast of Esther
A Story of International Intrigue

Copyright 2004 by Schpiel Studio. All rights reserved.

Deal the Cards (top)

Sunday - Delayed Glad-ification
Scripture: The king asked, “What great honor was bestowed on Mordecai because of this?” The king’s attendants who served him responded, “Not a thing was done for him” (Esther 6:3)

On Christmas Day nine relatives gathered around my great-grandmother’s sterling and the china place settings to enjoy ham and sweet potatoes. We were just about to be seated for the big meal when we saw a pick-up pull up in front of our house. In the back of the truck were two dogs.

Suddenly out of the truck door a stranger emerged. He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place him. He walked to the door and knocked.

When I answered, I found the man standing there holding an envelope with my daughter’s name on it. “About six months ago, Alexandra found my lost dog and called me to tell me where he was,” he said. “I never thanked her, but I never forgot what she did. This is to say ‘thank you.’ Merry Christmas!”

Suddenly I remembered him. He had wanted to give my daughter money at the time, but he had been unemployed. In fact he had told us then that the reason his dog jumped the fence was probably because he had landed a job and it was his first day gone. He figured the dog was distraught, having had the master as a constant companion and suddenly finding him gone. Fortunately, his home phone number had been on the dog’s tag.

Once I had taken the envelope, he turned and walked back to his truck. My daughter tore it opened and found inside a $25 gift certificate to Blockbuster—enough for her to buy the movie, Dreamer. She ran to the door and threw it open. “Thank you!” she yelled as the man got in his truck. He smiled, waved, and drove off.

Alexandra had done what she thought was the right thing to do when she saw a lost dog wearing tags. She did it without expecting anything in return. Now she had been both rewarded and honored publicly. Everyone there expressed how proud they were of her.

In that brief moment, I got a glimpse of how Mordecai must have felt when Haman paraded him through the city honoring him for saving the king’s life.

Sometimes God seems to delay. We have to wait for our reward. Nevertheless, the Book of Esther teaches us some things about the sovereignty of God: He has perfect timing.

Though the king appears to fail to honor someone who has saved his life, actually he comes through, thanks to God’s prompting, at the precise moment necessary for the most impact. What’s at stake? Preventing His chosen people from being annihilated! I love the irony in the fact that such a story of God’s sovereignty unfolds without the mere mention of God’s name. Ever. Though He is invisible, He is not by any means absent.

Monday - While You Weren't Sleeping
1. Ask God to give you insight through His Spirit. Then read Esther chapters six through ten.

2. List the happenings that seem coincidental to you:

3. List the events in your life where you are tempted to question God’s timing. Express to Him your trust in His sovereignty.

Tuesday - Pride and Prejudice
1. What does Haman’s response to the king’s question tell us about Haman (6:7–9)?

2. Imagine how Haman felt when he discovered whom it was that the king sought to honor. Write what you imagine he was thinking (no expletives, please!).

3. What do those who know Haman think about what has happened (6:12–14)? Why do you think they saw it that way?

4. How has Haman’s pride led to his fall?

Wednesday - Sleepless in Susa
1. Who would have thought that one sleepless night could be the key to such major events. Can you think of a time when God used something that seemed insignificant in your life for His greater purposes?

2. List some of the details of your life that God controls:

Thursday - Irony
1. Reread the ten verses of Esther 7. What circumstances change dramatically as recorded in this chapter?

2. Esther starts out begging for her people to be spared. Who ends up begging (v. 7)? What does this tell you about God?

3. How do you see justice carried out … In Esther’s life? In Mordecai’s? In Haman’s?

4. Thank God for his sovereign care for you. Plan to share with another person at least one way in which the sovereignty of God has been evident in your life.

Friday - Sweet Justice
1. When wronged, we want vindication and we want it now. But God is very patient when it comes to doling out justice. The events in Esther’s story take place over a relatively long time:

A. How long has King Ahasuerus’ been reigning when the banquet takes place (1:3)?

B. In what month and year does he choose Esther (2:16)?

C. In what month and year is Haman’s plot approved (3:7)?

D. How many months go by from the time the plot is okayed until the Jews are scheduled for slaughter (9:1)?

E. About how many years pass from the beginning of the book until the end of the story?

2. Read 8:17 carefully. Becoming Jewish cannot mean changing one’s lineage. It means converting to Judaism. Note how Yahweh has drawn people to himself without even using anyone who has been uncompromisingly walking in His ways. What does that tell us about Him?

3. Three times the author emphasizes that the Jews did not touch their enemies’ possessions (9:10, 15, 16). Why do you think they refrained, even when they had the king’s permission (8:11)?

Earlier we witnessed Saul’s descent from a position of God’s favor because he plundered the Amalekites rather than destroying their goods, as he was supposed to do (1 Samuel 15). Abraham’s descendants remembered that incident and refused to take any spoil when participating in God’s ultimate judgment on the Amalekites hundreds of years later. They restrained themselves, even when they had King Xerxes’ permission to take what they wanted.
–From Espresso with Esther, Sandra Glahn

4. Mordecai and Esther establish Purim as a holiday celebration. What is its purpose (9:20–27)? How is it to be celebrated (9:22)?

5. Describe what happens to Esther and Mordecai at the end (9:29–10:3).

6. Through spending time studying The Book of Esther, we have seen God’s sovereignty, providence, and faithfulness, despite disobedience on the part of His people. Thanking Him for being faithful and in control, and ask Him to enable you to stand faithfully.

Purim is March 13–15 in 2006.

Group Option: As a group, agree on a common lament and write it out using these elements as a guide.

1. Have you ever encountered someone with a personality like Haman’s? Recount it to the group.

2. Discuss Esther’s two banquets and her plea for mercy. Why two banquets? Why invite Haman?

3. Discuss a time when God’s justice or reward seemed a long time in coming.

Play Your Hand (top)
Decorate a playing card or a playing-card-sized piece of paper or cardboard with something associated with the following:

- An experience where you had to wait on God’s timing.

- God’s poetic justice as displayed in your life.

- A summary of the Book of Esther

(top)

Week 4

©2005 Sandra Glahn

We want your cards in our Esther Gallery! Take a digital picture or scan them in and e-mail the image to us. And please tell us about your card so I can include that also.