Study 15: Esther 8:1-10

In 8:6, Esther asks a rhetorical question that sort of stopped me in my tracks. She’s beseeching the Emperor to reverse his edict to destroy the Jews, and she says, “How can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?” It is, like I say, a rhetorical question, and the point is, she can't bear it. So heart-wrenching would that loss be, that she’s willing to risk everything--status and wealth, peace and comfort, life and death itself--in an effort to save them. And I say it stopped me in my tracks, because as I read it, it was sort of like God was asking me, “Do you share Esther’s heart for the harried and threatened People of God? ”

There are some theological dots we need to connect here, before this question comes into focus, but once you do connect them, it should give us all pause, I think. This story is about the attempted annihilation of the Jewish People, of course (and lest we forget, the history books can confirm that this isn't the first or the only time insidious “Hamanesque” powers have attempted to wipe Abraham’s family from the face of the earth); but the Christian Faith is that, through the self-offering of Jesus Christ, a 1st Century Jew from Nazareth, we Gentiles are now grafted into the Jewish story, the Family of Abraham, the People of God (see Romans 11:11-24 for more in this one). Esther’s Story can only become our story through faith in Jesus, who invites us into it; but in Jesus, this story does indeed become ours. It becomes, in fact, the story of the whole “Israel of God” (Gal 6:16), Jew and Gentile, wherever and however they are threatened with annihilation. And here’s where I stopped. Because there are parts of the world today where God’s People are still facing very real—all too real—persecution. Not in comfortable, tolerant Canada, of course, but in those parts of the world where belonging to Abraham's Family (by birth or by faith) invites all sorts of abuse, danger and persecution. And I confess that I don’t take the plight of my brothers and sisters in Christ as seriously as Esther took the plight of her people. Esther asked Ahasuerus, “How can I bear to see my people destroyed?”; today God asked me: “How can you?” 

Discussion Questions 

1. In chapter 8:3-6 Esther makes her petition to the king. What do you find compelling about her request? 

2. The book of Esther a key theme is the hatred and persecution of the Jewish people. What are examples in modern times of this continued theme? 

3. Interesting facts- in 2018 an organization called Open Doors published the latest statistics of Christian persecution. The finding showed that Christians, globally are suffering persecution at an alarmingly increasing rate, with an estimated 215 million Christians in “extreme” persecution. What are your thoughts and feelings about this?

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