Series: Shaped by Environment 
Message: Personal
Preacher: Jessyka Albert
Daily Walk: Jessyka Albert

Refresh: Open with prayer. Read or listen to Psalm 73:1-3.

Read: Esther 8-10 (ESV). Re-read in the English Standard Version for new insights/questions.  

Reflect: When we get to chapter nine, we’re put into a space of violence and vengeance. The Jews begin to defend themselves at the cost of others' lives, Haman’s family becomes a spectacle of this justice:

“Thus the Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying; and they did what they pleased to those who hated them. And in Susa the capital the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men . . .” (Esther 9:5-6).

Remember the story of Saul and the Amalekites? Through Samuel, God told King Saul, “Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey” (1 Samuel 15:3). “But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly . . .” (1 Samuel 15:9).

Do you see the difference? Saul caved in and let the people keep the plunder from this war. They kept what they thought was still good, against God's command. In contrast, the Jews in the story of Esther do not lay hands on the plunder. The Smyth and Helwys Bible Commentary also points to the connection with the story of Saul:

The intertextual links between 1 Samuel 15 and Esther 9 are subtle, yet integral to the story. Saul left the eradication of the Amalekites unfinished on the first day of his victory over Agag. On the second day, Samuel executed Agag with a death sentence that reverberates in Esther. . . . The emphasis on the end of Amalek’s posterity and the victory festival established in Esther 9:21 symbolically finish what Saul left undone (p. 460).

The story always comes full circle, and God’s will always prevails; maybe not in the exact way we think it will or in the time frame we understand, but God does win. 

Recalibrate: ​ 

1. Is it difficult for you to process the violence of the Jews in Esther chapter 9?
2. In what ways does your story need to come full circle?

Respond: Pray for meaningful time to connect with God.

Research: Read 1 Samuel 15 again, noting more of the “full circle” moments that take place in Esther.