Esther - Hero of the Bible ( The Girl who Became Queen )

Last Sunday at my home church the message was about the story of Esther. You can find the sermon  notes at the bottom of this post.

Esther 4:14  For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Esther the Ordinary girl who became Queen

The Biblical account of the story of Esther is a favorite to people of all ages. An ordinary girl who becomes a royal queen and heroically saves her people ( that is the Jews.)  King Ahasuerus has a royal feast for his male friends which lasts many days. One day Ahasuerus in his drunken condition decides that his royal Queen Vashti should be brought out so all his male friends can see how beautiful she is. Vashti refuses to be put on display like this and that is why she gets dismissed and King Ahasuerus begins to look for a new queen to replace her. This is where Esther comes in. We will continue by reading a condensed account of this story from the Veggie Tales website. I am a Veggie Tales fan and always enjoy their Dvds. You can link to the Veggie Tales page  HERE

( You will notice that King Ahauserus is referred to as King Xerxes here. Ahasuerus is the Hebrew name while Xerxes is the Greek name of the same King.)

So we continue the story now from Veggie Tales -

King Aheruerus and Esther  ( veggietalesitsforthekids.wikia.com )

King Xerxes of Persia was searching the entire kingdom for a beautiful
woman to become his new queen. Esther was a very beautiful Jewish girl
and was one of the women brought to the palace as a possible queen successor. Esther did
not tell anyone about her Jewish family. Mordecai, Esther’s cousin who took care of her
because she had no parents, worked for the king and was able to check on her daily. When
it was time for Esther to go before King Xerxes, he was very pleased and crowned her as his
new queen.
Two of the king’s officers became angry at King Xerxes and were planning to kill him.
Mordecai overheard their plans and told them to Queen Esther. Esther reported the plot
to the king and gave Mordecai the credit for saving the king’s life. After all of these things
happened, King Xerxes promoted another of his officers, Haman, to a higher rank, and all of
the other officers had to bow down and kneel to him. Mordecai was a Jew and refused to
bow down or kneel to anyone but God, so Haman became very angry and convinced the king
to sign an order that all of the Jews in the land were to be killed. Mordecai told Esther that
she must tell the king of Haman’s plot, but Esther knew it was against the law to approach
the king unless she was invited. But Esther was courageous… her people were depending
on her. When she approached the king, he was pleased and held out his scepter for her to
come forward. Esther told King Xerxes of Haman’s plan to destroy her people. The king was
so angry with Haman that he had him killed, and Mordecai was promoted to his position.
Because of Esther’s courage, all of the Jewish people in the kingdom were saved.

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Sermon Notes
My home church is doing a summer series on Heroes of the Bible. So this past Sunday we covered the story of Esther. So what can we learn from Esther?
Here are a few points from the sermon from Pastor Ben:

The Name of God is never mentioned in the book of Esther. So why is it in the Bible?
The Bible is not primarily written to record history, nor to tell amazing stories.
The primary purpose is to reveal the character of God. To give us an understanding of the God of Israel and the Lord Jesus Christ.

How can the book of Esther teach us about God?
* Just because God is not mentioned does not mean He is not there.
* We see God's hand throughout the story.
* God is in every situation.
* God works in the background in behind the scenes in the circumstances making things happen.
Most of our lives are that way - God working in the background, working though our circumstances.
We see God working in our world, we have to pay attention to figure out what God is doing.

Ephesians 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

God is working in your life. He is forming you - making you the person He wants you to become. He is working on your character.

God wants you to do good works.
Just as Esther stood up and risked her life so must we.

God is working in you not just so you can sit there.

God has prepared good works in advance for you to do.

He is getting things ready for you to do.

See God's work around you.

A Veggie Tales Fan!!

Philippians 4:8 - Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
 We are Veggie Tales fans! What is Veggie Tales you ask? Veggie Tales products are geared for children to teach them valuable lessons while having fun at the same time. Books, toys, DVDs and videos. Many of the DVDs  tell Bible stories and others just teach valuable lessons. Over the years as our boys were growing up, they have enjoyed many of the Veggie Tales videos and DVDs. I have even heard many parents say that they themselves find these movies quite entertaining. As I have written before, our daughter has down syndrome and therefore learning comes harder for her. But Veggie Tales helps her to better understand the Bible stories and life lessons. She just loves every single one of the movies Veggie Tales puts out. I am always on the lookout for the next DVD to come out. Soon to be released is one titled -  The Penniless Princess which I hope to get for my daughter shortly.
So just to give you an idea of what I am talking about I took a picture of some of my daughter's Veggie Tales treasures.

The stories are played out by many veggie characters - Larry the Cucumber, Bob the Tomato, Junior Asparagus, Laura the Carrot, Mr Nezzar etc. If you have never seen any of the movies I would highly recommend it especially for children under 14.
Some of the Bible stories are Esther - the girl who became Queen, Josh and the Big wall which is the story of Joshua defeating Jericho, the story of the fiery furnace in Rack, Shack and Benny, the stories of Gideon, Moses,  also a couple tell the stories of King David and the stories of Christmas and Easter. These movies can in no way replace the direct Bible teaching that we as parents are called to do with our children. And of course it is also advisable to discuss the content of a movie with your children before and after having viewed it.
So what is my personal favorite? It has got to be Princess and the Popstar. It is not one of the Bible story ones ( though I like them a lot also).  I like this one because it teaches little girls that the famous life is not really a fun life at all. So many children want to grow up to be like Hannah Montana etc and they idolize these celebrities. This Veggie Tales DVD teaches children the truth about the awful celebrity life and the joys of the simple life and  having a family who loves you. In the story a girl named Princess Poppyseed lives on the farm with her parents and many siblings. She wishes she could be famous like Vanna Banana - her favorite child pop singer. She has all Vanna Banana's posters and music and one day by chance, Princess meets Vanna Banana on the playground. Vanna is in town to give a concert. Vanna Banana longs for the simple life of family having seen  Little House on the Prairie on TV. Vanna dreams of having brothers and sisters and a pony etc. but all her life consists of is practicing for her next music show and performing in front of millions of people (people who do not know her and she does not know them). So when Vanna and Princess begin to talk on the playground, they discover they look almost exactly alike and they each have what the other wishes they had and they decide to switch places. So Vanna Banana experiences the ordinary farm life with a loving family and Princess experiences life as a famous person - dressing in rich clothes and singing in front of a huge crowd. Each girl realizes that the life she was longing for does not fulfill her dreams, and the story of course ends in a happy way.
So if you've never watched one of these DVDs with the children in your life, may I suggest  you do - you would have fun and it would make their day if you did!