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esther

it’s tough being a woman

BETH MOORE

Distribution for sale is strictly prohibited. Address requests for additional permissions in writing to Leadership and Adult Publishing;

One LifeWay Plaza; Nashville, TN 37234-0175.

esther

viewer guide y introduction

The Background of Esther in the Hebrew Bible and Tradition

The Book of Esther is also known as the Megillah .

Historical Background

Like the Book of Daniel, Esther is a Diaspora story.

The Uniqueness of the Book of Esther

1. The total	absence			of any	reference	to God
Why study the Book of Esther?
• It’s part of		God’s		Word .
• Based on Psalm 138:2b God’s name may not be in						it	,
but	it	is	on	it .
• It offers tremendous				hope	.
• It extends a vital perspective on the					providence	of _	God .
Merriam Webster’s deinition of providence: “God conceived as the
power		sustaining		and	guiding	human

destiny .” Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary adds, “In so doing [in His providence] God attends not only to apparently momentous events and people but also to those that seem both

mundane and trivial . … Indeed, so all encompassing is God’s attention to events within creation that nothing …

happens by chance .”

Ephesians 1:11—Even when we’re blind to the evidence, God

“ works	out	everything	in conformity with the
purpose	of His will.”
Philippians 2:13—God “ works__			in	you to will and to act
according to His good _______purpose______.”

2. The title bears a ___ woman’s___ ___ name___.

Throughout the next nine weeks we’ll consider different scenarios to underscore the concept captured in our study’s title.

Scenario #1

It’s tough being a woman in another woman’s shadow .


3. The God-ordained emphasis on __human __		responsibility ____
According to Word Biblical Commentary, the inspired author of Esther
“lays all the stress on the human	contribution to the

divine-human synergism ” [combined or shared energy].

introduction

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esther 2:1-7

viewer guide y session one

Today’s session introduces our protagonist and most vital supporting actor. We will use these important “ﬁrst mentions” to help us draw character sketches of each based on what we know and what we also might imagine.

Part One

A Character Sketch

of Mordecai


• He was a	Jew	(6:10; 8:7; 9:31; 10:3; 5:13).
“Its signiﬁcance is indicated by the fact that this is the				only
time	in the whole Old Testament that a		native	member

of the community of Israel is named and identiﬁed by a gentilic.”1

• He was an	exile	.
Esther 2:6 “employs the root of the word for exile (glh) in four distinct
constructions, lest the full measure of the Jewish plight be overlooked.”2
View the repetition in the King James Version: “Who had been
carried	away	from Jerusalem with the	captivity	which
had been	carried	away with Jeconiah king of Judah whom
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried				away .”

• He was a sudden

parent

to his cousin

Part Two

A Character Sketch of Esther


• She was named		Hadassah		.
This Jewish name comes from the word for “ myrtle					”
and means “		fragrance		.”3
• She was	orphaned		.
• She was	brought			up by her male	cousin	.
• She was	lovely .

Scenario #2


It’s tough being a woman in a					world	where
beauty	is a	treatment			.
• She was also known			as	Esther		.
This Persian name means “ star					.”

Perhaps even more signiﬁcantly, “the name Esther comes from the

verbal root in Hebrew str, meaning ‘to

conceal

.’ ”4

esther 2:1-7 W e e k 1 • A R o y a l M e s s

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esther 3:1-5

viewer guide y session two

Scenario #3

It’s tough being a woman in a mean

world .

Meanness

always has a

history

Consider the history of these two rivals.

Mordecai,

Jew

from the tribe of

Benjamin and a descendant of

King Saul

Haman,

a presumed Amalekite and descendant

Agag

, their king during

Saul’s reign

The disobeyed

instruction:

1 Samuel 15:10-23,30

The revealed

explanation :

Deuteronomy 25:17-19

(Referring to Ex. 17:8-16.)

Exodus 17:16—“ The

LORD

will be at war against the

Amalekites from generation to generation.”

Meanness

perceives a threat (2 Cor. 10:12).

Meanness

catches like a

virus

•The word Agag is believed to be related to an Assyrian term (agagu)

that means “to be

powerful

, vehement,

angry

.”5

•The name “Haman” sounds similar to the Hebrew word for

wrath (Hebrew, heman).6 (Compare Prov. 22:24-25.)

Consider the following quote

“Surely as Christians we must recognize the ‘			spirit
_ of	Haman ’ not only in our world but
within	ourselves	.”7

4. Meanness

curable

(Rom. 12:17-21).

esther 3:1-5 W e e k 2 • A C o n t e s t f o r a Q u e e n

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esther 4:1-14

viewer guide y session three

The Human Dilemma of Destiny

Many of the biblical ﬁgures who fulﬁlled their God-appointed

destinies shared some of Esther’s basic inner conﬂicts.

Consider the dilemma of destiny from a human perspective:

1. The

poor

timing

. Reﬂect on Esther 4:11b.

2. The

unreasonable

expectation

Scenario #4

It’s tough being a woman	thrown	a
giant - size	weight .

3. The	risky	identiﬁcation				.
• Remember, destiny appoints				one	__ but affects __		__.
						many
• The	revelation		of a person’s destiny always demands
a revelation of the		person			. Consider the wording “if you
remain silent at this time.” The Hebrew word translated silent in this
verse can also be translated				conceal		.

4. The	unanswered	question		.
(See verse 14.)
“The sentence contains a igure of speech known as aposiopesis—a
sudden	breaking	off	of what was being said or written
so that the mind is more impressed by what is				left	unsaid ,
it being too wonderful, solemn or awful to verbalize. In English
this igure is sometimes called the ‘sudden				silence	.’ ”8

esther 4:1-14 W e e k 3 • A R a g i n g P a s s i o n f o r H o n o r

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esther 4:11-17

viewer guide y session four

Part One

Our protagonist made three shifts that moved her

from self-preservation to brave determination.


1. Esther had a	choice		.
“She [Esther] had to		overcome		herself	in order to

do what God had created her and positioned her to do.”9

2. Esther faced the fear .

Consider general fears, then our context’s speciﬁc fear:

• Facing any ___fear

And if ____________________________, then ___________.

[your answers here]

104

Scenario #5

It’s tough being a woman in the tight

ﬁst of fear .

• Facing fear of ___death

Hebrews 2:14-15 from The Message: “By embracing death,
taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death
and freed all who		cower	through life,	scared	to
death	of	death	.”

Recall a quote we discussed in week 3 of our homework:

“Living perpetually in the shadow of immanent catastrophe,

the Jew was threatened not only physically but psychologically.


Walking in the		shadow		of	death
was as	perilous		as	dying	.”10

3. Esther

took

the

courage

she was offered.

esther 4:11-17 W e e k 4 • I f Yo u R e m a i n S i l e n t

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esther 5:1-8

viewer guide y session ﬁve


Sometimes God	forces	the issue of	time .
Amazingly, other times He seems to entrust				it.

Reﬂect on the importance of knowing … 1. When it’s time .

See verse 1. Compare Hosea 6:2.

2. When it’s	time	to	wait .
Ecclesiastes 3:1,7 say, “There is a time for everything, and a season for
every activity under heaven … a time to be					silent and a time to
speak	.”
• Sometimes we need to be			silent	even when man invites us to
speak .

Consider the idiom, “Even up to half the kingdom.”

(Compare Mark 6:17-28.)

• Sometimes the		words	sound	right , but they don’t
taste	right	. See Job 34:2-4. (Compare 2 Cor. 6:1-2.)

128

3. When it’s time to

wait

for

someone

else’s time.

• The time wasn’t

right

for

Xerxes

(Recall Mark 6:23.)

• The time wasn’t

right

for

Haman

Commentator Adele Berlin suggests the delay is “a clever move

on Esther’s part to disarm Haman and make him think he was

the center of attention. This plays to Haman’s

personal

weakness .”11 Similarly, J. Gordon McConville

explains that the delay allowed time “for Haman’s misguided

self-conﬁdence to mature .”12

4. When the

meantime

God-time

(See Isa. 40:31, KJV.)

Scenario #6

It’s tough being a woman who can balance

passion with patience .

esther 5:1-8 W e e k 5 • A Ta b l e S e t f o r P r o v i d e n c e

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esther 6:6-11

viewer guide y session six

The sixth chapter is “the hinge of the story of Esther.”13 God appoints or allows circumstances (often crises) in our lives to redirect our paths. Today we explore the unexpected pivot

point of Esther by giving a name to an important concept in

the book:	The	Reversal	of	Destiny	also
called The	Reversal	of Fortunes		. Review Esther 6:6-11.

These reversals are part of a literary tapestry that will open our eyes to see …

1. The beauty of the book’s		construction		.
Am I willing to do the		work	to see the		wonder	?
Two literary devices are employed magniﬁcently in the Book of
Esther. The ﬁrst is called “			chiastic		structure	.”
What in the world is it? In its tightest form, chiastic structure is
inverted	parallelism		. In other words, it is a
reversal	of structures to emphasize an				overarching
point	.

What’s the best way to picture it?

• The “ chi	” that begins the word chiastic is the 22nd
letter of the	Greek	alphabet	.

152

It is written like this: X . The letter itself represents the

crisscross literary structure of a chiasm (literally in Greek, a crossing).

What’s the best example of it in the Book of Esther? Chiastic structure is deliciously illustrated in the repeated occurrences of

feasts or banquets .

2. The beauty of the book’s			instruction	.
Esther’s best theology is in its			subtlety	. To offer a
perfect example, we’ll consider a second literary device called
“	peripety	.”

What in the world is it?

• “Peripety: a		sudden	turn	of events
that	reverses	the expected or intended outcome”
particularly in a literary work.14

Scenario #7

It’s tough being a woman		who	feels
responsible for	the	“ how	.”
“A peripeteia swiftly turns a routine sequence of events into a story
worth	telling	.”15

esther 6:6-11 W e e k 6 • W h a t G o e s A r o u n d

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esther 7–8:2

viewer guide y session seven

Esther 7–8:2 shows the impact of the climactic

events on all four major players.

Every turn	-	around		starts with	a	step	.
1. Esther	stepped			through .
(See Esther 7:3 and 8:1.)
“Literally, ‘		what	he	was	to	her .’ The author
probably intended to convey more than is being suggested
by the translation ‘that he was related						to her.’ ”16
2. Haman	stepped			off .
(See Esth. 7:10. Compare Ps. 7:15-16.)
3. Xerxes	stepped			in .
(See Esth. 8:1. Compare 2 Cor. 8:9.)
4. Mordecai		stepped		up .
(See Esth. 8:1-2.)

Now see the “Turn It Around!” page and ﬁll in the appropriate blanks.*

*Editor’s Note: This form is available in the leader guide and online at www.lifeway.com/bethmoore.

174

Turn Around Scenario #7

It’s tough being a woman who feels responsible for the “how.”

“The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to

keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.” (2 Pet. 2:9, HCSB)

“For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we

are dust.” (Ps. 103:14)

Turn Around Scenario #6

It’s tough being a woman who can balance passion

with patience.

“Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show

you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all

who	wait	for him.” (Isa. 30:18)
“The Lord		waits	… blessed are all those who wait
for Him.” (ESV)

“That same day,” Esther 8:1

“Rather than love, than money, than

fame

give me truth

— Henry David Thoreau (Walden, 1854)

esther 7–8:2 W e e k 7 • W h e r e i s t h e M a n ?

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esther 9:1-4

viewer guide y session eight

Today’s chapter explicitly states the Book of Esther’s most pronounced theme—the reversal of destiny. We will glance ahead to Esther 9:19-22 and then focus on verses 1-4. Esther 9:1 says, “but now the tables were turned.” The Hebrew transliteration for “the tables were turned” is hapak which means “to overturn, to overthrow, to tumble.”

Premise for Today’s Session

God can’t	turn	a	table	that was	never
set	against		you .

Seeing purpose in tough scenarios increases the trust required for a turnaround.

Turn Around Scenario #5

It’s tough being a woman in the tight ﬁst of fear.

• The Jews weren’t just	delivered	, they were	empowered	.
(See Deut. 33:29; compare Neh. 4:10-14.)

• See Esther 9:2: “The Jews assembled in their cities.” The power wasn’t

just	Mordecai’s		. It was all of		theirs	.
• Every time you’re in a			tight	ﬁst of fear, remember you’re
in something much			tighter	. Isaiah 49:16 says, “See, I have
	engraved	you	on the	palms	of	my	hands .”

Turn Around Scenario #4

It’s tough being a woman thrown a giant-size weight.

198

	• God always has the		upper			hand	. Exchange the
	burden	for a	weapon		(1 Pet. 5:7; see Deut. 23:3-5).
	“However, the LORD your God … turned the					curse	into a blessing
	for you, because the LORD your God				loves	you	” (Deut. 23:5).
Ahab—“Implies an ardent and			vehement		inclination of the mind and
a	tenderness	of	affection	at the same time.”17

Consider the unique metaphor in Hosea 7:8

“Ephraim is a ﬂat

cake not turned

over .”

Turn Around Scenario #3

It’s tough being a woman in a mean world.

• In a	mean	world, New Testament believers are called
to a	good	ﬁght	.

“I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about

you, so that by following them you may		ﬁght	the	good __ﬁght____,
holding on to faith	and a good	conscience		. Some have

rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith” (1 Tim. 1:18-19).

Consider the following excerpt from The Queen and I:

“When, because of your faith , your life too becomes perceptibly

different; when your reactions are quite

opposite

to what the

situation seems to call for and your activities can no longer be explained in


terms of your	personality	; that is when your neighborhood will sit
up and take notice. In the eyes of the world, it is not our				relationship
with Jesus Christ that counts; it is our			resemblance	to	him !”18

esther 9:1-4 W e e k 8 • T h e R i g h t t o B e R e a d y

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esther 9:29–10:3

viewer guide y session nine

As the inspired writer puts the ﬁnishing touches on the book, we will put the ﬁnishing touches on our approach to its overarching theme—reversals of destiny.

Interestingly, a book called by Esther’s name and showcasing her beauty and courage begins and ends without her. So, who is the Book’s real hero? Who is the truest protagonist?

Consider the following thoughts:

Neither Esther nor Mordecai had the power or position alone to deliver


their people. It was only as they acted in				concerted		power
and	authority	that they were able to lead God’s people through
the crisis of death and into deliverance. Neither of them						aspired
to the role; perhaps neither of them			deserved		it. It was thrust on

them by a series of improbable circumstances largely beyond their control.

Nevertheless, their unlikely partnership accomplished

God’s ancient promise, and the Jewish race was preserved until in the fullness of time, God entered history through this people as the

Messiah . How marvelous are God’s inscrutable ways!19

Recall Scenario #2

It’s tough being a woman in a world where				beauty
is	a	treatment	.

222

Before we locate and record our “turn around” Scripture, consider some of the possible implications of Genesis 3:16. Two different Hebrew words are translated “man.” They are adam and ish.

When a distinction exists between the two, ish denotes “man as the

counterpart

of woman and/or

distinguished

in his

maleness .”20 The word is ﬁrst used in Genesis 2:24. In the KJV,

ish is translated “husband” 69 times and “man” or “men” 1212 times.

Turn Around Scenario #2

It’s tough being a woman in a world where beauty is a

treatment.

“He has made	everything	beautiful	in	its
time ” (Eccl. 3:11).
In man’s realm,	time	diminishes	beauty .
In God’s realm where we will spend forever,			time perfects
beauty .

Turn Around Scenario #1

It’s tough being a woman in another woman’s shadow.


“He who dwells in the		shelter		of the	Most	High
will rest in the	shadow		of	the	Almighty	” (Ps. 91:1).

On the “Turn It Around!” page, write concise descriptions of each scenario over the top of each corresponding box.

esther 9:29–10:3 W e e k 9 • T h e Ta b l e s Tu r n e d

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