Coffee & Conversation - Postponed

Hi Ladies,
There are only a couple of you that are able to make it tonight so I am going to postpone Coffee & Conversation until Friday, May 7th if that works for everyone. We will meet at my house at 6:30pm. We'll just do snacks and drinks. If anyone would like to bring anything, please feel free. I will have things available too. Hope you have a great couple weeks off!

Blessings,
Pamela

Chapter 10

Last chapter. Short and sweet. Mordecai, in all his humility, faithfulness, loyalty, respect and trust worthiness is considered great. It is like that scripture... if you want to be great in God's kingdom, learn to be the servant of all. Well Mordecai is not only great in God's kingdom but also was honored on the earth. What an amazing blessing to be trusted to be second in command only under the king and to also be written in history as someone with authority and someone who was relied on by the king. I don't think the king even knew he couldn't trust Haman but I believe he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he could trust Mordecai. "...he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews." What an incredible legacy.

Blessings to each of you! I'll be on vacation next week so we will start up something new in the beginning of May. Let me know if you have suggestions... another book of the Bible or a book.

Coffee and Conversation

Only one very small chapter left. Let me know if it would be possible to get together for conversation on Wednesday or Thursday evening - maybe around 6:30pm. Everyone is welcome to come to my house and we can sit in the backyard and enjoy some snacks and hot beverages. Please let me know which day would work better for you. Have a great Monday!

Esther 9

What an amazing victory again for the Jews! God saw them through every aspect of this trial and took care of them. The Jews took victory over their enemies but did not take the plunder because it was a holy war, a war commanded by the Lord and not for their financial gain. Haman and his sons had been made an example of as a deterrent if anyone would think to attack the Jews again.

Purim became a time of celebration for the Jews instead of a day of destruction for the Jews. This would be a celebration that would never die throughout the ages and would be a reminder for all generations of how the Lord had delivered the Jews. It was made to be a day of generosity and goodwill to all people. What an amazing God we serve!

Esther 8

What a beautiful thing. God's favor poured out once again on the Jews through King Xerxes. Mordecai must have stood back and looked at Esther as proud as any father could be for her courage and willingness to sacrifice all for the good of her people. However, the trouble is not yet over. In those days, what the king said was it. They couldn't just change their minds and say we aren't doing that now. So the Jew were still in danger. Esther, once again, pleads with the king begging him to put an end to Haman's plan. Even though Haman was dead - he plan was still very well in tact. The only way to help the Jews was to allow another decree to be written and sent out in the king's name that could supersede the previous one. This one would allow the Jews to fight back, to protect themselves instead of just be lined up and executed with no chance of survival. I love that this was the king idea to have them write this decree. I don't know if that shows that he really cared but it was a decision that HE made. All throughout the rest of the book, I'm not sure he made any good decisions and the majority of them weren't his ideas. Maybe this shows hope for King Xerxes. The Lord must have looked favorably upon that decision.

This chapter also shows us just how organized and together the king's palace is. The secretaries were there ready to get things in order and did the job of writing a new edict very quickly and getting it out by courier prior to the time it would have been too late for action. I can't even imagine the work that went in to this. It wasn't like they had copy machines and FedEx. This was all done swiftly by hand and by horse. Pretty amazing.

I love how this chapter end with Mordecai wearing royal robes... Haman must have rolled over in his grave or on his stick. There was much celebration and joy and many came to be Jews because of it. What a great encouragement for them.

Hope you all have a very blessed weekend! See you again on Monday!

Esther 7

Half the kingdom - again we see this being said by the king. It isn't a literal meaning of I will actually give you half the kingdom but it was a "stock phrase used by ancient monarchs to express favor." There's that word again... everywhere around Esther is favor. It's a promise to grant anything that is asked. My footnotes say that "Xerxes knew Esther would not dare approach him unless she had a very important reason. Esther had succeeded in arousing both his admiration and curiosity."

Grant me life and that of my people - Esther's requests were already half granted. Xerxes granted Esther her life when she came before him unannounced and he extended to her the scepter. As for her people, he didn't even know who they were. Slavery didn't have the same "negative connotation" as it does today. So for slavery she wouldn't have risked everything.

Haman nails his own coffin - The word says that pride comes before a fall. Not all people's pride leads to hanging but in this case, Haman's did. Not only did he threaten the queen and her people but then he appears to throw himself at her leading to more of the kings wrath. For a king like Xerxes, an explanation just wouldn't do. He had sealed his coffin before he could even begin to explain. To add insult to very serious injury... he was hung on the gallows that he intended to humiliate the very person who received all the honor he expected. Ouch!

Esther 6

I just have a few question for today.... Why do you think that Mordecai was never honored for saving the king? How do you think you would feel if you were Haman thinking the king was going to honor you and then realize he means to honor the very person you were getting ready to kill? Can you image walking through the streets in shame as the man you hate is sitting on the kings horse being honored? What do you think Haman was thinking when he was told he could not stand against Mordecai or his people? Now off to another banquet!

Haven't heard from many of you.... if you are still with us and studying - let us know! Have a blessed week! See you Wednesday!

Esther 5

I would love to hear your thoughts about today's chapter...

Esther going to the king, the king's response, what you think "even up to half my kingdom" means, Esther's request for Haman to attend her banquet with the king, Esther's request for a second banquet, Haman's response to getting to come to the banquet, Haman's rage against Mordecai, the building of the gallows...

I'd love to hear what you thought about all of these things or other insights the Lord gave you. I'm just going to let us all have a "conversation" about it today and not put anything extra here except for my own comments later.

Hope you all have a beautiful weekend and enjoy this nice weather!!! Blessings!!!