Themes in the book of Esther

This is part of the Esther study series we are doing an in depth study of the book of Esther using the study book from The Daily Grace Co titled Esther Seeing God when He is Silent.

For our first bible study meeting we went over the themes that would be found throughout the book of Esther. The themes were divine providence, human bravery, the perishing empires of men and the imperishable kingdom of God, Gods response to human evil, and foreshadowing of the Gospel.

Each theme was broken down and connected with a scripture. Divine Providence was connected with Psalm 145:14-21. Human bravery was connected with Esther 4:13-14. The perishing empires of men and the imperishable kingdom of God was connected with 1 Peter 1:3-5. Gods response to human evil was connected with Romans 12:19. Finally, foreshadowing of the gospel was connected with Colossians 1:13-14.

After reading all the scripture and the explanations of each theme outlined in the study we had some discussions and then answered the questions pertaining to the study. I don’t feel like it would be very productive to give a full breakdown of the entire meeting and what was covered so I will just pick one or two main points or thoughts that really stuck out from each meeting.

For this first meeting the scripture I think that stuck with us all the most was Romans 12:19 which says:

“Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.”

We all had thoughts on this. How sometimes it’s hard to let go of grudges. How sometimes it’s hard to turn the other cheek when someone says or does something hurtful to us. But we have the assurance that God sees it all and He is keeping an account and He is going to repay what has been done to His children. We don’t need to worry, we don’t need to “dirty our hands” getting even. As children of God, revenge is not something that should even be on our mind. This was a powerful scripture to remind us of that.

Next meeting we will be discussing the fall of Queen Vashti.