WHEN LIFE FU UpsIDE DOWN > Background Passage: Esther 1:1—2:23 ‘ 5s Lesson Passages: Esther 2:5-10,16-17,21-23 a, BIBLICAL TRUTH God will help believers cope with unexpected changes in circumstane KEY BIBLE VERSE Esther 2:8 PRONUNCIATION AID Ahasuerus [uh haz yoo EHR uhs] Bigthan [BIG than] Esther [ESS tuhr] Hadassah [huh DASS uh] Hegai [HEE gigh] Jair [JAY uhr] Jeconiah [Jek oh NIGH uh] Mordecai [MAWR duh kigh] Nebuchadnezzar [Nes yoo kad NEZ uhr] Shimei [SHEM ih igh (eye)] Susa [SOO suh] Tebeth [TEE beth] Teresh [TEE resh] Vashti [VASH tigh] Hew years ago one of my friends was diagnosed with cancer. He had to retire early, and I was asked to assume some of his duties for a while. One day I said to my students, “I embrace change.” Some laughed aloud because they knew I typically resisted change. I was grieving about my friend’s imminent death, and I was not sure I wanted to do everything that was expected of me. Life is full of radical, unexpected changes. Sometimes we question God’s providence when bad things happen to us. Although we welcome some changes in our lives, such as a marriage or the birth of a child, the unexpect- ed changes that bring sorrow, pain, or loneliness are hard for many of us. This lesson focuses on how believers should respond to radical, unexpect- ed life changes. We can trust God even in the midst of unexpected changes. Week of February 41. What was Mordecai’s relationship to Esther? (2:7) 2. Why didn’t Esther reveal that she was a Jew? (2:10) 3. How did Mordecai save the king's life? (2:22) BACKGROUND PASSAGE OVERVIEW King Ahasuerus, wanting to display his enormous wealth, hosted a banquet in which the drinking of wine was unre- strained. He ordered his eunuchs to bring Queen Vashti in order to display her beauty before his male guests. Vashti re- fused to come to the king’s banquet, and he was furious. The king consulted with his advisors about how to respond to the disobedient queen. They recommended that she be re- moved from her position because if she were not punished, all the women in the land might disobey their husbands. The king decided to send a royal decree throughout his country, notifying the people that Vashti was no longer the queen. After the king cooled down, he began the search for a new queen. Young virgins were brought to the king’s harem and given beauty treatments. Mordecai had adopted his cousin, Esther, a beautiful young Jewish woman. Esther came to live at the palace to take part in the selection of the new queen. She impressed Hegai, who was in charge of the “contestants,” but she did not reveal that she was a Jew. When the king met Esther, he loved her and selected her as the new queen. ACCEPT UNAVOIDABLE CHANGES (ESTH. 2:5-7) | ameukesi} 3 KuV 5 A Jewish man was in the for- tress of Susa named Mordecai son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjaminite. 6 He had been taken into exile from Jerusalem with the other cap- tives when King Nebuchadnez- zar of Babylon took King Jecon- iah of Judah into exile. 5 Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; 6 Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivi- ty which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. When Life Turns Upside Down7 Mordecai was the legal guard- ian of his cousin Hadassah (that is, Esther), because she didn’t have a father or mother. The young woman had a beautiful 7 And he brought up Hadas- sah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. figure and was extremely good- looking. When her father and mother died, Mordecai had adopted her as his own daugh- ter. Verse 5. The story of Esther took place during the reign of the Persian King Ahasuerus, also known as Xerxes, who ruled 486-465 B.C. His reign falls in the period between the com- pletion of the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem (516 B.C.) and the return of Ezra to Judah, about 458 B.C. After Vashti’s disobe- dience, the king began the search for a new queen. He or- dered that young, beautiful virgins be brought to his palace and placed under the care of his eunuch, Hegai. The woman who pleased the king would be the new queen. Mordecai was a Jew living in the fortress of Susa. Susa was the king’s winter home. Mordecai’s name may be related to the name for a Babylonian god, Marduk. Some of the Jews had been given other names while living in captivity (Dan. 1:6-7). Mordecai was a descendant of Kish, a Benjaminite. Verse 6. Mordecai (or his ancestor, Kish) had been taken captive during one of the Babylonians’ early invasions of Ju- dah. King Nebuchadnezzar took the Hebrew king, Jeconiah, or Jehoiachin, captive in 597 B.C. Mordecai would have been very old in Ahasuerus’s reign if he were the one taken captive. Mordecai must have had a strong faith in God to persevere during the exile. Although the name of God does not appear f in the Book of Esther, God was working behind the scenes PIN 10. ais eS i ~. _ foreign nation? throughout the story. Mordecai’s faith in God motivated his (2:6) actions, which underscored his loyalty to the one true God. Verse 7. Mordecai had a special relationship with Esther, whose name means “star.” Her Hebrew name was Hadassah, “myrtle.” Esther was Mordecai’s cousin, but he became her legal guardian when her parents died. He officially adopted her as his own daughter (2:15). (See Study Question 1.) ow would you react to being taken Week of February 4