This is one book of the Bible that reads like an action thriller movie.  Even knowing the story, I couldn’t hardly put it down.  It’s filled with tension and God’s intervention and a miraculous turn of events.  It’s powerful.

Powerful quotes from the book of Esther:

“Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).  Spoken by Mordecai, Esther’s uncle, urging her to speak to the king to save the Jewish people, even though it could cost her life to do so.

“If I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16).  When referring to the need to risk her life for her people.

“Since Mordecai is Jewish, and you have begun to fall before him, you won’t over come him, because your downfall is certain” (Esther 6:13).  Spoken by Haman’s wife and recognizes God’s hand is on the Jewish people.

“…their sorrow was turned into rejoicing and their mourning into a holiday.  They were to be days of feasting, rejoicing, and of sending gifts to one another and the poor” (Esther 9:22).  When Mordecai instituted the holiday of Purim to remember their deliverance.

“He continued to seek good for his people and to speak for their welfare of all his descendants” (Esther 10:3).  The attribution given to Mordecai which is a great statement that every politician should aspire to in serving their people.

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What we Learn:

1 The Script can be flipped and it happens often through prayer and fasting.  The Jews were set for destruction, but God turned it around in miraculous ways.  I have to believe part of that came through their intense prayer and fasting for the intensity of the situation.

2.  The Jews will always be preserved by God according to his covenant promises.  They will never be completely destroyed.

3. Change takes great risk.  Great risk.

4. God puts the people in place that he needs to in order to fulfill his purposes.  It’s that God’s people need to say yes and Esther did just htat.

5. Celebration can help us remember his purposes throughout the generations.